Observation of Interest

[BentonGrey]

Howdy guys, Unkoman and I were just talking about how the Irrational 70's meshes don't have keyframes within the mesh folder.  Instead, they have a text folder that points to the kf's location.  I figure that this may be a way to help people who are constantly short on space.  It may turn out that this doesn't have any extra applications, but I just thought that I'd point it out.

[UnfluffyBunny]

I remember the FAQ that came out before vsttr was released said you'd be able to link to kf's via txt files, tho it also aid we'd have txt file controlled animated textures and bump mapping.... ¬_¬

[Lunarman]

Yeah, I can't honestly see much use for it unless you have hundreds and hundreds of meshes. I think all ym meshes use different keyframes and so there'd be no point of use a kf link. Although, with nifskope we could combine all male_basic keys into one huge kf file which could be linked to all male based meshes. I don't want to think about the size of that file though.

[JKCarrier]

Yup, this works for any mesh. Let's say you have a bunch of different meshes that use the same male_basic keyframes. You'd have the keyframes.kf file in the "male_basic" folder as normal. Then, for every other mesh that uses those keyframes, all you need is a plain text file called "keyframes.txt" that has the filepath:

library/characters/male_basic/keyframes.kf

and you're all set. It's really useful if you have a lot of hexed meshes... for instance, all those Tom_versatile hexes can share one set of keyframes.

[Carravaggio]

i'd heard about this a while ago but never seen it explained. that is so easy and so useful, thanks JKC i think you just freed up a gig of space for me :)

[Podmark]

very cool and useful, have to remember to put that to use.

[m101969]

Thanks a bunch guys.  I had been wondering if there was a way to "shortcut" the kf.  Having hundreds of meshes, this could cut my disk usage by many gigs.

Love this group, and everyones uber-willingness to help.  And should any one need meshes or whatever, feel free to contact me.  I will check for permission :D , but am otherwise willing to send whatever any one needs (if I have it, and I probably do). ;)

[GogglesPizanno]

I've started doing this not so much for space issues, but just for organization. I created a directory called "keyframes", and have started dropping them in and naming them with descriptive titles, and then adding the keyframe text files into the mesh folders.

This also makes it really easy if you want to try a different set of keyframes on meshes to see how they work, no copying or pasting, just change the kf file name in the text file.

One of things on my list of "wouldn't it be cool, but I'll never have the energy or time to do" Was to go through and use Nifskope to create a set of master keyframe files for all the male___ and female ____ that removed those animations that I never really used, and added some of the cooler moves from the various KF files out there. It would save space, and also unify the animations across some of the basic meshes.

It makes sense in my little brain anyway :D

[m101969]

your little world must be adjacent to my little corner of the universe, because it makes sense to me too :)

[Podmark]

Does the character tool accept this function? How about the original one?

[GogglesPizanno]

Yeah, character tool has no problem at all.
It displays the animations as normal.

I haven't tried it with the original game, but I'm pretty sure this is an addition to  :ffvstr:

[UnkoMan]

Geez louize. I had just about forgot about this. I really ought to do this, since I find myself redownloading a lot of keyframes just to try them on different meshes.

Yeah, this is totally the way to go.

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

No, it won't work with the original game.