[WIP] Animations For SH4

[Madox58]

Project:
To finally crack the animations format in SH4.

Reward:
Not a danged thing except knowing you worked on it.

Goal:
Create a way to place new animations into SH4.

For an idea of what level of work I'm talking about:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=176928

[Madox58]

No takers so I'll use this thread to babble on as a record for the future.
Plus I forget alot of things and always never keep notes!
:haha:

I been doing some 'animation' type work for other reasons and learned alot about how Bipeds work and alot of other boreing file structure stuff.

This all klicked in my head a few days ago so I started looking at the SH4 animation areas again.
This is not about props rotation but the animated people stuff.
So don't ask!
:D

A Biped is defined in the SH4 file Secondary.dat
It's listed as Body Parts in S3D. You'll only know what those body parts are if you look at that chunk in Hex.
There's a bunch of them. All with a bip name.

To be continued.....................................

[Rockin Robbins]

Babble on! I haven't used a hex editor since my Apple II days so I wouldn't be a lot of help. But if you keep babbling, I might learn something and be of some help in the future.

I do volunteer to serve in my traditional function of crash test dummy though. If you have something that needs trying out let me know and I'll give you a report on how it works.

[Madox58]

Hey Mate!

Saw you was out and about again.
:up:

Still have an old e-mail address for you. That bad now?
:hmmm:

I did PM a new Member that want's to learn and that I have exchanged with lately. We'll see how things go.

One thing I do very well is to figure out file structures.
A lot of it is pattern recognition. I've seen the pattern outside of SH4.

I only need to figure out the details now.

[iambecomelife]

FYI I am sorely tempted, having done some hex editing in the days before pack3d. Unfortunately, I don't think I'll have the time! If things change I'll let you know, and thanks for your continuing work on this dinosaur of a game. :cool:

[Rockin Robbins]

And thanks for YOURS IABL! I sure hope to see your Wolves of the Kaiser working soon!

[Rockin Robbins]

Hey Mate!

Saw you was out and about again.
:up:

Still have an old e-mail address for you. That bad now?
:hmmm:

I did PM a new Member that want's to learn and that I have exchanged with lately. We'll see how things go.

One thing I do very well is to figure out file structures.
A lot of it is pattern recognition. I've seen the pattern outside of SH4.

I only need to figure out the details now.

Same old e-mail address! What hex editor do you like?

[Madox58]

I use SweetScape 010 Editor mostly now.
http://www.sweetscape.com/010editor/

It's not free but well worth the few bucks if you use it as much as I do.
:D

[Madox58]

Biped stuff listed in the Secondary.dat

Bip01
Bip01 Footsteps
Bip01 Pelvis
Bip01 Spine
Bip01 L Thigh
Bip01 R Thigh
Bip01 Spine1
Bip01 L Calf
Bip01 L Foot
Bip01 L Toe0
Bip01 L Toe0Nub
Bip01 R Calf
Bip01 R Foot
Bip01 R Toe0
Bip01 R Toe0Nub
Bip01 Spine2
Bip01 Neck
Bip01 Head
Bip01 L Clavicle
Bip01 R Clavicle
Bip01 HeadNub
Bip01 L UpperArm
Bip01 L Forearm
Bip01 L Hand
Bip01 L Finger0
Bip01 L Finger0Nub
Bip01 R UpperArm
Bip01 R Forearm
Bip01 R Hand
Bip01 R Finger0
Bip01 R Finger0Nub

A Biped I created with Maxscript showing Parent/Child relationships.

http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n12/privateer_2006/SH4/Biped-image.jpg

http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n12/privateer_2006/SH4/Coincidence.jpg

[Madox58]

4 x 7 x 31

I've nearly got the extracted data ready to import to 3ds Max.
If this does work out the animations will be opened to extract/replace and add new animations.
:rock:

[iambecomelife]

4 x 7 x 31

I've nearly got the extracted data ready to import to 3ds Max.
If this does work out the animations will be opened to extract/replace and add new animations.
:rock:

No Idea what you're doing or how you're doing it...but I'm glad to hear!

[Madox58]

I've got quite a bit of the animations format figured out so far.
Not as much as I'd like, but it's moveing along each day.
Alot of it I figure out by NOT working on it.
:haha:

It's kind of 2 steps forwards and one back right now.

[Madox58]

Took a break today to go listen to some friends in a bunch of bands play.
While talking about some equipment the old "Dang! I should of thought of that!" hit me.

I came home and did a little experiment and SAW the biped from SH4 for the first time!!
:o
http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n12/privateer_2006/SH4/SH4-Biped.jpg
:rock:

It don't look like much but it's proof positive!

I can now start converting it to a common format that most programs will handle.

The format, as it is in SH4, is 7 floats.
X Y Z RX RY RZ W
The base biped is NOT transitional!! That's where I wasted alot of time and banged my head against a wall.
I'm guessing the animation frames will be the transitional stuff.

There are 31 parts so now you get my math.
4 x 7 x 31

The base biped is 868 bytes and each animation frame is 868 bytes.
:)


The format I find closest to universal is the Collada dae.
It allows X Y Z RX RY RZ W to be exported.
It can also be parsed and converted to a format that can be placed into SH4.

[Madox58]

I'll explain about transitional stuff a bit now.

If you use say even the dae format? each position adds to it's parents positional data to find it's actual position.

This is not true for the base biped in SH4.
Each position is actual position so we need to do the math and subtract from the parent chain to move the data to a useable format such as dae, bvh, etc.

We need to know what is that parent-child chain.
I'm not totally convinced it's as the biped is listed in SH4 Secondary.dat.
I also did not render it that way. Once an animation is exported and added to the base biped I have I'll know for sure.

Once this is all understood as We did for SH3? SH5 will be the next target.
:D

[Madox58]

I sent a message to Skwasjer about the animations last night.
I know he did an update to S3D that he never released concerning SH5.
Not that I expect him to do anything to S3D but I figured he'd like to know things have progressed somewhat.
:)

I've got a script started for 010 that rips the animations into a readable vertex7 format.

Another script I'm working on rips the base Biped and does all the math needed to plant the results in a dae file so it can be imported to different 3D programs.

[Bubblehead1980]

I am clueless on this but good luck, it could unlock a lot of things for this sim of ours.Let me know if can be of any help:salute:

[Madox58]

Just renewed my license for 010 Editor and upgraded to version 5.
It rocks!
:rock:
They added a whole bunch of new stuff that makes things so much easier now.

Also contacted another of the original Devs for SH4 with a question.
He's told me he'll see if he can get the answer to that question.
:)

Those Guys are just to Cool! I may have to move to Romania!
:salute:

[Madox58]

The responce I received this morning confirms I'm working in the right direction.

The scripts I've got for 010 do the crudest of conversions at this point so it may be awhile before I release them to the public. I take the info and still do a lot by hand rather then wast time scripting what I'm not sure of.
So they are pretty useless to most people.
If you really want to play with them and have fun laughing at my crude scripting skills just PM me and I'll send them.
:haha:

[Madox58]

Back when skwasjer was working on S3D many of the Hex Editor Guys helped him with info in many areas. One big one being animations in SH3.
None of us had much of a clue about the skeletal animations in SH4 at the time sadly.

I'm going to start getting 'Hex technical' now as to the SH4 Biped and animations as used by Secondary characters.
Those are the itty bitty people you see on Ships and such.
:D

Open the SECONDARY.dat with S3D and find the BodyParts.
Under that is 2 Unknowns. Export the BodyParts and the 2 unknowns as chunks. We will be talking about those. Make sure the header box is checked when you export.
There's info there We need to understand that does not follow standard SH structures as We 'knew' them.

One thing I did do?
I contacted my Friend Anvart and made him aware of this WIP.
He is the only one I can think of still active that WILL double check me.
And correct me as needed.
He is also one of my Mentors for all things Hex in SH Games.
:D

[Madox58]

When I exported the rawchunks I named them as below.
BodyParts
Body
BodyEnd
I'll be useing those names so re-name or remember how you named them.
It's easier to work with those chunks rather then the whole Secondary.dat by the way.

I'll be useing 010 with scripts to do alot of the 'heavy lifting' but I'll do my best to answer questions if you use a 'lesser' Hex Editor.
:D

BodyParts contain the names, in order, of the biped I'm after. (Who would of thunk that! :haha:)

Body contains the positional elements to build the biped.
The X Y Z RX RY RZ W data that SH4 uses as the base position/stance of the biped.

BodyEnd I suspect is how the parts are connected as to Parent-Child?
:hmmm: (Corrections welcome)

We have the basic structure of SH files as to it's 'Node' ID, info size etc in each.
What We do have is a different Parent-Child ID structure. It's no longer 8 bytes but 4 bytes.
Look at the BodyParts in Secondary.dat and you'll see the ID listed but no Parent ID. That's right and wrong for this reason.
BodyParts has no Parent but it's ID is NOT 8 bytes long. It also has no place for a Parent ID as it IS the Top most Parent.
S3D will not show those Parent-Child ID's in the Unknowns so lets look at them in Hex.

BodyParts
02 D1 66 5A 00 00 00 00 = Node type 1516687618/0
C3 01 00 00 = 451 (how much data we need to read AFTER this float)
41 FF 53 59 = ID of this whole chunk.
1F 00 00 00 = 31. Number of parts! NOT the Parent as there is no Parent!
All data after that is just the names of the 31 parts to a standard Biped.
(I posted those earlier so you might want to copy and paste from that post)

Body
72 15 7B 30 00 00 00 00 = Node type 813372786/0
6C 03 00 00 = 876 (how much data we need to read AFTER this float)
D5 F4 B6 D0 = ID of this whole chunk.
41 FF 53 59 = Parent Chunk! See the change here? Check the ID above!!
(SH Games have used an 8 byte ID structure since SH3 at lest to my knowledge. Now it's different which may have contributed to earlier fails at breaking the animations. Not the only one though!)

BodyEnd
You should be able to see the info with a clear understanding at this point.
:D

[Madox58]

Working with Body.rawchunk in this post..........

Now that We are past the basic stuff let's look at the actual data and how to read it.

4 x 7 x 31!! Remember that and it starts comeing together.
A float is 4 bytes long.
Multiply by 7 and then by how many parts the Biped has (31) we get a number.
It all fits to the size We found as to data included.
:D
Here's where it does get a bit tricky for export/import purposes and I'm pretty sure We missed this fact when S3D was being created!

I'll define a few things first.
Transitional = add the results to Parent positional information.
Non-Transitional = Absolute position of the BodyPart with no regard to Parent position.

The Biped base stance/position as coded is Non-transitional!
To export to a useable format We need to subtract Child positional information from Parent positional information.
(If you know of a format different from Dae that will handle this information? TELL ME!)

Body.rawchunks translated looks like this. Note there are 31 lines to end of data.

0.0000000 0.09770422 -4.270787e-09 0.0000000 0.7071063 0.0000000 0.7071072
0.0000000 -0.0001444198 -4.270787e-09 0.0000000 0.0000000 0.0000000 1.0000000
0.0000000 0.09770422 -4.270787e-09 0.7071063 0.7071072 9.539226e-07 9.539226e-07
-1.32366e-11 0.1078124 1.008526e-05 0.7071067 0.7071067 -0.0002820579 0.000281024
0.00878975 0.09770422 2.984445e-09 0.7337838 -0.6723919 0.04614115 -0.08556522
-0.00878975 0.09770422 -2.006759e-08 -0.6723919 0.733784 0.08556433 -0.04614018
-1.308529e-11 0.1204893 9.969311e-06 0.7071067 0.7071067 -0.0002820579 0.000281024
0.01330656 0.04861388 -0.002336935 0.7255116 -0.677575 0.1191668 -0.01801055
0.01539599 0.009963792 0.003475701 0.6984613 -0.6984613 0.1102352 -0.1102352
0.01940245 -0.0001444203 -0.008900804 -0.5718348 0.4159387 0.4159387 0.5718348
0.01980851 -0.0001444204 -0.01015518 -0.3025436 0.4159387 -0.4159387 0.5718348
-0.01330656 0.04861388 -0.00233697 -0.6775749 0.7255118 0.01800967 -0.1191659
-0.01539602 0.009963794 0.00347566 0.6984615 -0.6984615 -0.1102343 0.1102343
-0.01940244 -0.0001444188 -0.008900856 -0.4159394 0.5718343 0.5718342 0.4159394
-0.0198085 -0.0001444189 -0.01015523 -0.4159394 0.5718343 0.5718342 0.4159394
-2.216505e-11 0.1330212 1.689299e-05 0.7071067 0.7071067 -0.0002820579 0.000281024
-6.570578e-12 0.1585746 4.999525e-06 0.7071067 0.7071067 -0.0002820579 0.000281024
0.0000000 0.1648673 -1.147737e-08 0.7071068 0.7071068 -4.214689e-08 -9.918541e-07
0.01105861 0.1542489 -6.979116e-09 0.0000000 -6.556511e-07 0.0000000 1.0000000
-0.01105861 0.1542489 -3.598148e-08 -6.556511e-07 0.0000000 1.0000000 0.0000000
4.188843e-14 0.1855232 1.626536e-08 0.7071068 0.7071068 -4.214689e-08 -9.918541e-07
0.01934231 0.1542489 3.883316e-09 -0.04582797 -0.01994291 -0.3985133 0.9157997
0.03731502 0.1350498 0.001926369 0.1173631 0.347953 -0.383587 0.847358
0.04816611 0.1217452 -0.01398395 0.8035617 -0.1635095 -0.4349111 0.372029
0.0544094 0.1153025 -0.0203268 0.692152 -0.4045 -0.3953384 0.4483445
0.05732315 0.1079048 -0.02181984 0.692152 -0.4045 -0.3953384 0.4483445
-0.01934231 0.1542489 -4.684392e-08 0.0199417 0.04582849 0.9157998 -0.3985133
-0.03731502 0.1350498 0.001926271 -0.3479541 -0.1173626 0.8473576 -0.3835872
-0.04816607 0.1217452 -0.01398408 -0.163509 0.8035612 -0.3720292 0.4349121
-0.05440934 0.1153025 -0.02032694 -0.4044994 0.6921515 -0.4483451 0.3953393
-0.0573231 0.1079048 -0.02181999 -0.3023349 0.5862651 0.2727683 0.4667423

If you grabbed the Biped names like I told you to? You can paste this info and see the structure.
:yep:
31 Biped names.
31 lines of positional data.
All Non-Transitional.
:hmmm:

[Madox58]

How do We convert this mess?
He know the Parent-Child from the Names list is how I go about it.
(Look at the image capture of a basic biped I did in posts above!)
I subtract each line from it's Parent down through the chain till chain end.
That's pasted to a standard .dae file and I get the base Biped in SH4.
If I can do it by hand? It can be programmed.
:yep:

[Madox58]

By no posts with questions I can only assume you..............
A.) Understand every thing I said above.
B.) Don't care but it all looks logical.
C.) Wonder if it will work with (Insert mod name here).
D.) I can't answer because I put you on Ignore.


I will accept
E.) You're brilliance has me stunned.
:haha:

[virtualpender]

Definitely E!

I have no idea what this is all about but your enthusiasm is bloody contagious!

Onward and upward!

[TorpX]

Speaking for myself alone, I know nothing about hex editing. I was hoping I might learn a little from your posts, but I'm afraid it's a bit too much for me.

I'm glad somebody understands it, though.

[Madox58]

Got tied up with some computer work for a client and I'm now out in New York state for a few days work.
:/\\!!

I did download some Collada stuff for programming that I need to go through.
I'm also thinking Noesis would be a good platform to code the needed stuff.
It imports and exports the dae format as it is now and you can view things with it.
So a bit of work in Python would be all it takes.

[Madox58]

Here's the link to the latest version of Noesis.
http://oasis.xentax.com/index.php?content=downloads

Knowing what it can do I'm going to work with it for all the heavy lifting of the animations stuff.
It's also an all around good viewer/converter and I used it to break the SWTOR meshes and did some work on PT Boats meshes.
(SHHH!!!)

I'll add a download to several test files soon. Those will allow you to see all the nonsense stuff I talk about.
:haha:

I'm currently working on a python script for Noesis to read the Secondary.dat directly as it is.

[Rosomaha]

I will watch with interest for this work. topic is actually necessary and very useful.
I hope someday we will see something like this in SH4:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QJnhU18hw4
(I mean 1:57-3:61 time movie) ;)

[Madox58]

Oh yes it's possible!
I've had little time to work on it all due to real life job demands but I know the format and how to export/import.
I just need time to work on it all.
I can also see exporting the animations from SH5 to SH4 to save time.
(Yes I do have some basic code to export the animations from SH5 in the works)

[JoeCorrado]

By no posts with questions I can only assume you..............
A.) Understand every thing I said above.
B.) Don't care but it all looks logical.
C.) Wonder if it will work with (Insert mod name here).
D.) I can't answer because I put you on Ignore.


I will accept
E.) You're brilliance has me stunned.
:haha:

Definately "E" - although if it were available, I could have as easily selected "F" - or even WTF are you even talking about? I haven't a clue about this stuff. :/\\!!

Wouldn't it have been easier for the Devs to have simply used sprites like they did way back in the days of the original Doom?

Keep up the good work- it sounds quite promising and the possibilities are exciting. :yeah:

[Madox58]

While talking to one of the Dev's I asked for a simple piece of paper with any of the Dev's autographs. I kind of thought maybe a page from a note book or a napkin.

This is what I got.
:rock:

http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n12/privateer_2006/SH4/100_0833.jpg

Thanks Guys!! This is killer and will look good in the Man Cave once framed!
:salute:

[Sailor Steve]

WOWSER!!! :rock:

Purty dang cool! :sunny:

[Madox58]

Closer looks.
:D
http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n12/privateer_2006/SH4/SH4-Devs-1.jpg
http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n12/privateer_2006/SH4/SH4-Devs-2.jpg
http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n12/privateer_2006/SH4/SH4-Devs-3.jpg

I offered to cover any cost for the shipping and such but Ioan never asked for that.
I'm keeping the shipping label also.
:)

[Jimbuna]

Very nice....now forward it on :cool:

[Madox58]

Very nice....now forward it on :cool:
I think you and Kpt. may be fighting over this.
:haha:

:hmmm:
It's also a poster I've never seen before. Did I miss this somewhere?

[TorpX]

Nice! :yep:

[Jimbuna]

I think you and Kpt. may be fighting over this.


Only if it were a U-boat :)

[AVGWarhawk]

That was super nice they sent you a signed poster! :yeah:

[Rosomaha]

Oh yes it's possible!.. but I know the format and how to export/import.
I can also see exporting the animations from SH5 to SH4 to save time.
(Yes I do have some basic code to export the animations from SH5 in the works)This is excellent news! :up:


I did download some Collada stuff for programming that I need to go through.
I'm also thinking Noesis would be a good platform to code the needed stuff.
It imports and exports the dae format as it is now and you can view things with it.
So a bit of work in Python would be all it takes.;Yep. Noesis a good tool.

Once, a bit faced with the COLLADA models (.DAE)... and been useful to me one software (Assimp):
http://assimp.sourceforge.net/index.html

the product is notable for the fact that is written in C++, its structure is open for reading and flexible... In General, in documentations all detail written.
just look, maybe as a "addition in a box of tools"...
:salute:

[Madox58]

Yes. Assimp is a great platform to work with.
:up:

I prefer Noesis as a prototype Tool though.
It doesn't require doing a build to see if you've got your ducks in the proper row.
:D

Being it's python scripting, once a basic plug-in is created anyone can edit it to improve it.

[Jeff-Groves]

http://www.tacomaworld.com/gallery/data/500/Zombie_thread_alert.JPG

Yes. I dug it up again. For good reasons and some good news.
A 3Ds Max script that builds the exact biped SH4 uses will soon be released.
Animations for Secondary characters can be changed or new ones created.
Following close behind that? An export of new animations to an S3D importable MaxScript.
It's taken me, working alone, nearly 1 1/2 years to figure it all out.
:yep:

[CapnScurvy]

Interesting stuff, hex editing isn't very "user friendly" but it does a lot more than S3D. Wish I could learn more.

Thanks Jeff for continuing this work!

[Rosomaha]

Is there any results?

[Jeff-Groves]

Windows 10 decided to whack my early work for some odd reason.
I went back to Windows 7 and installed software to avoid the Windows 10's malware.

So mostly I'm starting from scratch.
It did give me time to learn some new software that can be used to adjust SH4 animations.

Watch for a simple example release soon.

[Rosomaha]

The third year we watch closely... But there is still no clarity: exists or not to exists in our Universe the software that can be used to adjust the SH4 animation. :06:

[Jeff-Groves]

Nothing to edit the skeletal animations yet. Real life is just to busy.
I did get a question about facial animations and took a few moments to look at that.

Seems they are nothing more then meshanimationdata files.
I told how to export and re-import those for SH3 a LONG time ago!
Only difference with SH4 is the way they are stored in a dat.

S3D will not give you any help until I finalize the format and create the needed steps to do it.
:har:

[Jeff-Groves]

You can read the old thread here.
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=176928&highlight=utimate+animations

[propbeanie]

"Cool beans, Maynard!" Thank you Jeff-Groves. However, we now know that yes, indeed, you are getting old... you link to the same thread in the first post of this thread... |;^) you are now officially an "old fahrt" - but one who does nice work, of course... :salute:

[Anvart]

:woot:

The Russians have the saying «Repetition is mother of learning»...
therefore, baby, let read and learn!
:O:

[propbeanie]

:woot:

The Russians have the saying «Repetition is mother of learning»...
therefore, baby, let read and learn!
:O:
We have a similar one here (probably from a Russian immigrant), though for me, it might be easier to drill a hole in my skull, and pour the information in. Hopefully, not too much would leak out through my ears...

In the meantime Anvart, I am thoroughly enjoying reading through all of this, and the links in here, which I have also followed, finding a goldmine's worth of treasure with each click of my mouse - most of which I cannot hope to digest and comprehend until much repetition and practice, and more reading, has been accomplished!... :arrgh!: - not saying that I'm a dummy, just that I'm not too bright... :roll:

Your insight is highly valued here, and your skill-level is truly amazing. A person asked you a question, and you replied a short time after, with not just one answer, but four, with examples, for a person to experiment with. I only wish that some of the links to images were still active. I'm definitely an audio-visual junkie. I like picture books... :har:

Thank you Anvart, sir. - @ Jeff-Groves, thanks also! :salute:

[Niume]

From all the post I read I think you are trying to create huge black hole which will suck entire earth. :D

[Anvart]

We have a similar one ...
1) Your comment about Jeff sounds as minimum rudely... judging by your chatter, you are a vulgar exhibitionist.
2) It's not my thread.
3) I'm not a teacher... I have another profession.
...
Yeah... A-S humor has always been distinguished by primitivism as the language itself...

:salute:

[propbeanie]

Please excuse my vulgarity then. My comments are not intended as such. I only mean to express my gratitude for such a good "thread" on this site... I mean nothing other than respect for all who share their thoughts and knowledge of the workings of the Silent Hunter series of games. :salute:

[Jeff-Groves]

Alex,

propbeanie meant nothing bad.

Things must have been lost in translation again.
:03:

I PM him quite often and he is a Good Guy and a friend.
:up:

[Jeff-Groves]

I did a quick scan of SH4 files and found no MeshAnimationData2 files.
That's probably because the movement of the body parts are Skeletal in SH4.

So the facial stuff can be changed just as I did it in SH3.

Will be doing an example today with needed images for a select few people.
:03:

S3D should be all we need to do this.

[Rockin Robbins]

Isn't translation just (not so) great sometimes! Good to see you Anvart. You are one of a handful who understand the Silent Hunter series in true depth.

[Jeff-Groves]

Just as was done in the SH3 thread? Create a safe folder to work in!
To follow along copy 2 files into this folder.

I've got Marine.dat from the Library/Characters folder and cap_m13.dat from the animations/headmorphing folder that I will be working with.

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/picture.php?albumid=1069&pictureid=9736

[Jeff-Groves]

open the cap_m13.dat with S3D.

Lets look at it just a bit.
Open Node 1 and then node 2. We are going to export the Normal Speech animations.
Open node 11 and go to node 12, MeshanimationData.

That is the animations we want! There are 8 frames.
Now S3D says "Full support? Yes"
I always had a problem with that until I figured out HOW to make S3D do this stuff. So I can live with that.
:haha:

(To this day I don't think Swasjer even knew We could do this!)

[Jeff-Groves]

Keeping the cap_m13.dat file open, Go to the menu in S3D.
File/open

Open the Marine.dat in the SAFE FOLDER!!

YES! S3D will open multiple files as long as you use the File/open.
(Took me awhile to figure that out at first :doh:)

Open Node 3 in the Marine.dat file.
Scroll WAY down to Node 1684
Hmmm cap_m13
:D

[Jeff-Groves]

If you do a model preview with show only selected objects?
We have a head!!!
Woo hooo!!!
We must be on the right track.
:hmmm:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/picture.php?albumid=1069&pictureid=9737

[propbeanie]

OK, my classroom display looks like yours... :salute:

[Jeff-Groves]

Good!

:up:

[Anvart]

Please excuse my vulgarity then. My comments are not intended as such. I only mean to express my gratitude for such a good "thread" on this site... I mean nothing other than respect for all who share their thoughts and knowledge of the workings of the Silent Hunter series of games. :salute:
Sorry, dear, for my stupid "runglish".
:03:

[propbeanie]

Anvart, do not worry again about that. I would say it is more the fault of my stupid "Englian" mangles... :salute:

:D

[Jeff-Groves]

Several years down the road I know.
Kind of hoped someone would pick up off of all I have posted and run with it.
Seems that is not the case here.
So I'll update a bit.

In the last few years I've learned more and have better Scripts for 010 to rip the stock animations from SH4.
That script produces a Script for 3DMax to allow import to 3DMax as a biped.

Once imported I can change the animations as I wish.
The last part is to export the needed info to a standard I can change to SH4 needed info.

Now I know the dae format has the info I want so I don't need the original animations.
I just need to finish ripping that info from a dae format then write a script to convert to the SH4 standards.

Will there ever be a stand alone program to do that? Time will tell.

[Jeff-Groves]

Up till now I've givin information on the Secondary characters in SH4.
Never about the Crew in and on Subs.

That is a whole different Skeleton with many more bones.
I've got a program that can rip the information from SH5 animations so I can convert those to the SH4 format. So SH5 animations can be converted once I do a few Scripts for 010.

Amazing thing is not a single person has taken the information I have provided and done Jack squat with it!

I'm more then sure that once I release new animations? The Vultures will swoop in and gain a "stolen glory" by taking My work and renaming it.

Happened with MY and Thunders animated Survivors for SH3 so I'm sure it will happen again.

Let it be known right now! I can encode a hidden message in dat files!
S3D CAN NOT READ IT!
One can also NOT READ IT IN HEX!

I've also decide that "Wolves of the Kaiser" will be the 1st major benefactor of my knowledge and years of work.

The Fort Drum project will be the 1st to actually show my work. But on a very limited scale.