Exporting biped animations, need to know what they are suppose to be saved as because XFire did not save my chat history when I was told. C:

If you don't know, i'm asking what I should export them as (.JMA, .JMO, etc. etc.).

i have been using .jma , and those work fine for me.

I'm exporting a full set of Biped animations, I know that you have to compile some animations in a different JM_ format then others.

JMO is for overlays, like single frame overlays.

Just out of curiosity, what do all the other ones do?

.JMR are replacement animations, from what ive seen in bipeds are things like melee animations mostly

.JMO are overlay animations like somebody else mentioned, they are kinda like animations that play along or with other animations. kinda like the fire animations for 3p in bipeds.

the others i cant really figure out just yet what makes them special from the standard jmr,jma,jmo formats. (then again i just started messing with animation.)

.jma = base animation. most things are this for a biped.

.jmo = overlay animation. these are things like firing, aiming etc that are overlaid onto existing animations

.jmr = replacement animation. kind of like .jmo except instead of overlaying onto another animation, bones that have keyframes set replace whatever animation would otherwise be playing, while bones with no keyframes get played normally. this if for things like reloads.

.jmm = keeps movement information. this can be for things that physically translate the biped around; are mainly used for vehicle entery/exits and cinematic animations but maybe you could find a use with something else

.jmw = like .jmm except translation happens in absolute world-relative space (with conversions to halo world-units where 100 max units = 1wu iirc), so position (0, 0, 0) in the animation is (0 ,0, 0) in the game; (1000, 100, 100) is (10, 1, 1) in the game, etc. this is only for cinematics or maybe some weird super-hack.

.jmt = saves information about how much the biped turns. use these for animations that need to turn the biped, like the stationary turn-left/turn-right animations (obviously) or anything else that needs to have the biped turn.

.jmz = like a combination of .jmt and .jmm. i don't know what they're used for exactly, but they're there.

note 1: for AI units you need to make melee animations .jma/m with names of "[unit] [weapon] melee", while for player units you need .jmr of type "[unit] [weapon] [weapon label] melee".

note 2: for AI units' move-front/back/etc animations you need to physically move the biped's root node around to represent the path it will take or else the biped will not be able to move in-game!

note 3: when in doubt about the formatting/usage of an animation, load up an existing biped's animation tag in the animation importer and see what extension it uses.
Edited by teh lag on Feb 17, 2012 at 12:48 PM

question for ya lag while your on. player grenade throws dont seem to like being anything but a .jma i can compile as a .jmo and .jmr but ingame they dont play? does that specific animation only allow for .jma playback? i was messing with the cyborg "stand rifle throw-grenade" animation to see if i could get an overlay going (throwing grenade while moving). and jma seems to be the only format that would take.

Thank you guys alot. Ok, since this seems fairly viewed right now, can anyone tell me how to make Alert and Crouch animation variants?

im no expert, but looking at stock animations helps alot. both the alert idle and crouch idle animations are fairly straightfoward, pose your model before setting key frames. then just add some breathing frames by moving either the spine or spine1 bones (or both)... thats the simplest way i can put it. of course you could be really detailed about it, ive been using ik restraints and the like to get some nice breathing animations out. but that another subject.

tons of good tutorials out there, look up lag's channel, and broke's channel thats where i learned alot from. fp animation doesnt have to only apply to fp, it can be applied to 3p animation as well (i mean its all bones right?)

I'm talking about in the model_animations file. Anyway, Alert and Crouch are solved. Need help though, when I attempt to place the biped in Sapien, I get this error:

02.17.12 15:55:12  Biped halflife\characters\ambient\antlion\antlion's animation node 1 isn't set up for limp body physics
02.17.12 15:55:27  EAX: 0x0B07382C
02.17.12 15:55:27  EBX: 0x00000001
02.17.12 15:55:27  ECX: 0x00000000
02.17.12 15:55:27  EDX: 0x00000001
02.17.12 15:55:27  EDI: 0x0012F1F8
02.17.12 15:55:27  ESI: 0x00000000
02.17.12 15:55:27  EBP: 0x0012F0D0
02.17.12 15:55:27  ESP: 0x0012F0C0
02.17.12 15:55:28  EIP: 0x77975CD4, C3 8D A4 24 ?????
02.17.12 15:55:28  EXCEPTION halt in \halopc\haloce\source\tag_files\tag_groups.c,#3157: #-1 is not a valid animation_graph_unit_seat_block index in [#0,#4)

I have nothing to do with Vehicles in the animation tags or in the biped tags. I have no clue why I get this error other then its probably vehicle related.

Your biped is refrencing something Nulled out in the animation graph.


For example if you compile a new animation tag,if you don
t have a label like stand,when you place the animation in game the game crash's.
Edited by DarkLord0912 on Feb 17, 2012 at 06:05 PM

^ check yo shiz :p make sure yo stuff got referenced correctly. naming the animation right is important. look at stock tags and name occordingly, if you have the correct units most of the tag will set itself up correctly. ex: stand(unit) rifle(weapon) idle(animation)

you also have to make sure you set the pitch and and yaw frame counts so your character can look from each direction. im telling ya stock tags are your best friend when animating!
Edited by waffles on Feb 17, 2012 at 06:09 PM

Thanks, I'm just starting with 3p animations. Anyone want to look over my .model_animations and tweak them for me please?

send em my way if you want and i can make corrections.

Such a bump...

But I would like a 3rd person video as well.

its no different in technical terms as fp is. your just using more bones/nodes lol. same keyframe animation process.

Google videos on 3ds max animation tutorials,apply concepts to halo's specific things and done.
Edited by DarkLord0912 on Aug 7, 2012 at 01:57 PM

I can say that IK rigs work fantastically.

Can someone link to setting up IK rigs on a biped? I already know how to do it for fp arms.

Dunno if there is a video of it for bipeds in halo, but basically apply what you know on fp arms, for a biped's arms just create a chain from wriste to upperarm, and for the legs just chain the foot to thigh. and ofc add orientation constraints to a spline/helper object. Allows you to move the pelvis independent of the other bones, as opposed to it being the root node and moving everything.

Theres ofc using a biped skeleton for better control/flexibility, and even a CAT rig works pretty well from what ive tested. I've always wanted to try ik/fk with the spines, but ive yet to find a tutorial for 3ds max...
Edited by waffles on Aug 8, 2012 at 09:34 PM