Framegroups in DP

[JasonX]

There used to be a website with an article explaining how framegroups work in Darkplaces and how to make use of them. Does anyone still have this salvaged somewhere in the HDD?

[Baker]

What is web site address of this dead site? Often caches can be found.

[leileilol]

http://dpwiki.slipgateconstruct.com/ind ... ing_for_DP

Nothing dead here. No panic.

[JasonX]

Not exactly that page, but thanks. How does one "play" a framegroup in QuakeC, while programming the character?

[frag.machine]

Not exactly that page, but thanks. How does one "play" a framegroup in QuakeC, while programming the character?

It doesn't work this way. From the QuakeC point of view, a framegroup is treated like a single frame. The engine cycles through the contained subframes, usually at 10Hz (the .mdl format allows one to set individual frame periods, but this is not always taken in account depending of the engine).

[JasonX]

Not exactly that page, but thanks. How does one "play" a framegroup in QuakeC, while programming the character?

It doesn't work this way. From the QuakeC point of view, a framegroup is treated like a single frame. The engine cycles through the contained subframes, usually at 10Hz (the .mdl format allows one to set individual frame periods, but this is not always taken in account depending of the engine).

I see... so i should completely forget about the frames in the monstername.qc? How do i control which framegroup plays?

[Spike]

the only real problem with framegroups is with trying to sync them properly. this generally means that you need to use a format with a proper 'loop' flag so that sudden latency/packetloss doesn't result in the animation resetting when not intended. you generally also need to keep animations somewhat short to avoid sudden jumps when the ent first becomes visible halfway through its animation due to pvs (including teleporters).

with csqc, the gamecode has full control over the exact pose used. framegroups can be quite nice to work with in such a situation.

[leileilol]

Quake3 and Half-Life work around the 'pvs death sequence bug' by having a separate 'dead' animation

[toneddu2000]

Not exactly that page, but thanks

This is another page talking a little about framegroups, but unfortunately I've never seen a thorough explanation of modeling and animating an .iqm or .dpm model file in DP.
I'd like to contribute to DPWIKI for the modeling side (and one day I'll do it) but I need (as anyone else)badly the knowledge for setting up things in csqc, animating the skeleton, etc.

I use framegroups with iqm files but I wouldn't reccomend my method: I create the .iqm model with blender and I use the framegroup file with each line for each animation strip with loop flag like this:

Code: Select all

1 25 12 1 // run

It starts at #1 frame, ends at 25th frame with a "fps count" of 12 frames and it loops
or

Code: Select all

26 48 12 0 // die1

for an animation which doesn't loop, like die animation

the problem with this method (at least what I experimented) is that is impossible to predict which one is the first animation strip, which the second and so
infact if you call it with

Code: Select all

self.frame = 1

the #1 couldn't be the #1 on your framegroup file. This happens to my game and I'm still not be able to find a solution

with csqc, the gamecode has full control over the exact pose used. framegroups can be quite nice to work with in such a situation.

with the only problem that never ever anyone wrote a single csqc player code line with source code release!
Xonotic forums started with the 0.6 release and we'll see what this leads to