Professional Quality Animation Overhaul for GMDX

A refuge for those migrating from the fallen DXEditing.com and a place for general discussion relating to Deus Ex editing (coding, mapping, etc).
Cybernetic pig
Illuminati
Posts: 2284
Joined: Thu Mar 08, 2012 3:21 am

Professional Quality Animation Overhaul for GMDX

Post by Cybernetic pig »

Test animations not necessarily representative of the final work:

No more retarded running animation: https://vid.me/lnxt

Swagger walk and death: https://vid.me/TVmU

These are professional quality mo-capped animations converted to vertex using a variety of software and are ready to be exported to the correct format (.3ds to .dx). They will be added to the vanilla models. We've hit a snag in the import/export process & seek help from those that know their DX/unreal animation & import. If you haven't the knowledge but know someone that does, please contact them and draw their attention to this request. What immediately needs to be known is the whereabouts of DX format exporters.
Hanfling
MJ12
Posts: 406
Joined: Sun Oct 04, 2009 6:54 pm

Re: Professional Quality Animation Overhaul for GMDX

Post by Hanfling »

So why not export to *.3ds and run 3ds2de?
I demand my DXE User ID back. Launcher for DeusEx, Rune, Nerf, Unreal & Botpack. HX on Mod DB. Revision on Steam.
User avatar
Jonas
Off Topic Productions
Off Topic Productions
Posts: 14224
Joined: Sat Apr 24, 2004 9:21 pm
Location: Hafnia

Re: Professional Quality Animation Overhaul for GMDX

Post by Jonas »

Love the run. The walk is a little on the gangsta side though, might look kinda weird on the MJ12 and UNATCO soldiers in particular. Moreover, that death looks a pretty weird - it looks like he's slipping on a banana peel? His head remains in place but his body comes out under him, which is kind of the opposite of what I'd expect if he got shot in the face.
Jonas Wæver
Chief Poking Manager of TNM

I've made some videogames:
Expeditions: Rome
Expeditions: Viking
Expeditions: Conquistador
Clandestine
mstk
Mole Person
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Jan 06, 2016 2:26 pm

Re: Professional Quality Animation Overhaul for GMDX

Post by mstk »

@HA
Hanfling wrote:So why not export to *.3ds and run 3ds2de?
but is it possible to use 3ds2de if we want to import (merge) those new animations into the old animset? In this case GM_Jumpsuit.
For instance 3ds2de requires first frame of animation to be named XXX01 while WOTGreal exports T-Pose as XXX00.
Correct me if I'm wrong but I think 3ds2de is usable only as an importer of NEW animations/models into the game - not for modifying of the ones from original DX.
Jonas wrote:Love the run. The walk is a little on the gangsta side though, might look kinda weird on the MJ12 and UNATCO soldiers in particular. Moreover, that death looks a pretty weird - it looks like he's slipping on a banana peel? His head remains in place but his body comes out under him, which is kind of the opposite of what I'd expect if he got shot in the face.
Thanks! The swag walk over banana peel was just a dirty mocap and first try of 3ds->maya->motionbuilder->maya->3ds pipeline. Not intended for game use :)
Hanfling
MJ12
Posts: 406
Joined: Sun Oct 04, 2009 6:54 pm

Re: Professional Quality Animation Overhaul for GMDX

Post by Hanfling »

So the basic problem is more like having the old animation as input to 3ds2de, rather then the actual import itsself? For the starting conflict of animation sequence number, you guys could change the behaviour in 3ds2de, as it's source if public available if the wotgreal exported files are otherwise correct.
I demand my DXE User ID back. Launcher for DeusEx, Rune, Nerf, Unreal & Botpack. HX on Mod DB. Revision on Steam.
User avatar
Jonas
Off Topic Productions
Off Topic Productions
Posts: 14224
Joined: Sat Apr 24, 2004 9:21 pm
Location: Hafnia

Re: Professional Quality Animation Overhaul for GMDX

Post by Jonas »

mstk wrote:The swag walk over banana peel was just a dirty mocap and first try of 3ds->maya->motionbuilder->maya->3ds pipeline. Not intended for game use :)
Cool.

Any reason why you're going through Maya twice?
Jonas Wæver
Chief Poking Manager of TNM

I've made some videogames:
Expeditions: Rome
Expeditions: Viking
Expeditions: Conquistador
Clandestine
mstk
Mole Person
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Jan 06, 2016 2:26 pm

Re: Professional Quality Animation Overhaul for GMDX

Post by mstk »

Jonas wrote:
mstk wrote:The swag walk over banana peel was just a dirty mocap and first try of 3ds->maya->motionbuilder->maya->3ds pipeline. Not intended for game use :)
Cool.

Any reason why you're going through Maya twice?
Mainly because Motionbuilder doesn't have a Snapshot feature that is required to transfer the animation from skeleton driven to baked vertex animation.
After setting up the run cycle in Motionbuilder I like to go back to tweak the animation in Maya to give it a more fleshy feeling. Since I rigged and skinned it in Maya with HumanIK the connection between Motionbuilder and Maya works very well together (i think since 2013 versions). With this pipeline Motionbuilder gives me realtime and possibility to try out different mocaps stored in separate takes. And since I'm not a rigger I had to go back and forth between Mobu and Maya few times because I noticed some mistakes in skinning. :)
Cybernetic pig
Illuminati
Posts: 2284
Joined: Thu Mar 08, 2012 3:21 am

Re: Professional Quality Animation Overhaul for GMDX

Post by Cybernetic pig »

Another thing: how does the footsteps play in accordance to the animation in Unreal? I came across the relevant documentation on this some time ago on Unreal Wiki I believe it was but I cannot find it anymore even with the search function.

And yeah, that's the info that is needed: how to import these new animations into the existing animset. My mistake.

Some concept anims that I believe the game could benefit from:

Player POV:

-Currently when anything that isn't a weapon or lockpick/multitool/nanokey device is held in hand it just floats in front of the player. A JC hand holding them plus the associated animations would be very beneficial.*
-Some new animations for the HDTP weapons would be great. Assault gun, flamethrower and Stealth pistol reload look pretty weird (as they did vanilla).
-Third person corpse carrying animations.
-Mantling perhaps could use some new animations, although I took the Invisible War approach and just had JC holster his weapon which provides some form of illusion.

I can think of nothing else for the player (for the time being) that would be adequate for gameplay reasons, such as world object interaction (involves freezing the player in place while the anim plays out) or swimming (player would no longer be able to point weapon while swimming).

NPCs:

-NPCs have no reload animation whilst crouched. Currently they point their gun at you doing nothing while the reload sound plays, it is quite jarring.*
-Of course fixing the horrid running animations could do a lot for the game.*
-Perhaps talking animations could be done a little better.
-NPCs have only two death/K.O anims, three if you include the rarely seen water death: death front and death back. What about death from the side, or just some general extra variation? It does look odd when you take them out from the side and they fall back hard.*
-With the ability to add new animations, new behavior can potentially be coded such as dynamically taking cover or how NPCs interact with doors, which is currently barely functioning when they are in the combat state. Perhaps even the occasional realistic death could be added where they don't immediately die from a non-headshot, but writhe in pain and shock, or attempt to shoot you while down as they bleed out. As for stealth, another AI state could be added named 'alert', where they search the area cautiously before returning to normal patrols, but this one will probably have to forever remain on paper as ideally they would have new barks exclusive to this state, which we don't have the original voice actors for.

*Priority animations.
Last edited by Cybernetic pig on Thu Jan 07, 2016 7:47 pm, edited 3 times in total.
Cybernetic pig
Illuminati
Posts: 2284
Joined: Thu Mar 08, 2012 3:21 am

Re: Professional Quality Animation Overhaul for GMDX

Post by Cybernetic pig »

Somebody suggested better talking (mouth) animations as in the PS2 version, but the PS2 version also had better models so I'm not sure if it would be worth it with the vanilla models.
Hanfling
MJ12
Posts: 406
Joined: Sun Oct 04, 2009 6:54 pm

Re: Professional Quality Animation Overhaul for GMDX

Post by Hanfling »

Cybernetic pig wrote:Another thing: how does the footsteps play in accordance to the animation in Unreal? I came across the relevant documentation on this some time ago on Unreal Wiki I believe it was but I cannot find it anymore even with the search function.
Animation notifies are used for it.

Code: Select all

#exec MESH NOTIFY MESH=Gray SEQ=Walk	TIME=0.6	FUNCTION=PlayFootStep
Which basically just call the PlayFootStep() event in time. The TIME parameter is likely the alpha value for the animation ([0,1] ~ [Animation start, Animation end].

In the video the PS2 animations and characters look pretty weired, and this is not just caused by the wrong aspect ratio in the video, also they look a bit more like they use a bone animation system ingame instead of a vertex based one. However, did anyone ever attempted to rip resources out of the PS2 version?

As for mouth animations, there is a lot of stuff one could do including adding animations for more phenoms, etc.
But the animations I miss the most are for third person corpse carrying.

As for updating the animations, I started working on some 3ds exporter based upon Smirftschs James mesh format exporter and my rebuildimports commandlet. However I really do need some reference 3ds file which includes an animation which 3ds2unr/de accepts, to get an a better idea how they actually store the different animation frames inside.
I demand my DXE User ID back. Launcher for DeusEx, Rune, Nerf, Unreal & Botpack. HX on Mod DB. Revision on Steam.
Cybernetic pig
Illuminati
Posts: 2284
Joined: Thu Mar 08, 2012 3:21 am

Re: Professional Quality Animation Overhaul for GMDX

Post by Cybernetic pig »

Hanfling wrote: As for updating the animations, I started working on some 3ds exporter based upon Smirftschs James mesh format exporter and my rebuildimports commandlet. However I really do need some reference 3ds file which includes an animation which 3ds2unr/de accepts, to get an a better idea how they actually store the different animation frames inside.
Thank you very much. Hopefully mstk will send you a ref. file shortly.

Edit: oh, you mean any .3ds file intended for DX conversion. I'll send you the helmet model my other artist made, although it has no animations. I hope that is OK. You'll all have to bear with me as my knowledge in animation is lacking. Although GMDX adds new animations none are done via the usual pipeline, for example the weapon scope-in animations was done via engine location/rotation interpolation and the MJ12Commando melee anim was in the files unused, others were sparingly recycled where it was not jarring to do so.
Cybernetic pig
Illuminati
Posts: 2284
Joined: Thu Mar 08, 2012 3:21 am

Re: Professional Quality Animation Overhaul for GMDX

Post by Cybernetic pig »

By the way, to relevant readers: I'm looking for other animators, modellers and such fields of digital artistry to broaden GMDX's scope further. PM here or on moddb, or email me genericname112@gmail.com if you are willing to help (with the parameter of staying true to the original style).

Also added third person corpse carrying animations to the list, although third person anims for the player are of lower priority for me than first person as they are only relevant for mirrors, although this one would be for conversations too I guess.
User avatar
FastGamerr
MJ12
Posts: 312
Joined: Sat Jul 10, 2010 10:06 am
Location: Finland
Contact:

Re: Professional Quality Animation Overhaul for GMDX

Post by FastGamerr »

Sweet animations, man!
ecs
Thug
Posts: 29
Joined: Fri Oct 13, 2023 6:24 am

Re: Professional Quality Animation Overhaul for GMDX

Post by ecs »

ECS has launched its latest collection of trousers that are perfect for any occasion. Explore the best collection of women's trousers online at the best prices. Shop now.
houseofflowers
Thug
Posts: 27
Joined: Fri Oct 13, 2023 7:54 am

Re: Professional Quality Animation Overhaul for GMDX

Post by houseofflowers »

Get perfect anniversary gifts that represent your love. Our creative gifts enhance the memory of your special day. With these unique anniversary presents you can express your love and admiration for your partner right away.
Post Reply