MaterialAnimation

Basic Material Animation can be applied to designer objects in world. These animations consist of material textures instructed to move along the face of the object. Programming for these instructions can be done inside TsFiles.

Material Animation constants

Drawmode	Drawing mode of texture (not detailed)
drawmode=	value		description
	0	Default	default
	1	Opaque	overrides opacitymap
	2	Blended	alpha overlay (requires an opacity map)
	3	Filter	filter the light (like glass)
	4	Chromakey	cut-out (requires a cut-out map)
	5	Additive	adds light (like fire and lights)

Note: When using drawmode, for the best effect,
you must draw different colors than what you intend to end up with in the end.
For filter, you usually want to make sure all the colors are bright and pastel.
For additive, you want to make sure all the colors are dark and earthy.

Animtype	Animation type of texture
animtype=	value		description
	0	None	None
	1	Scrolling	texture scrolls in direction of Animloop [ arg1="direction in degrees (0-360)" ]
	2	OneStrip	use a single Framestrip
	3	AllStrips	use a multi Framestrip
	4	RandomStrips	use a random Framestrip
	5	BrownianMotion	stochastic process* [ arg1="speed multiplier",animspeed="limiter"]
	6	RandomFrame	random frame order from Framestrip
	7	Swaying	Sways forward and back
	8	FrameLoop	loop between two frames [ arg1="start frame",arg2="end frame" ]
	9	SingleFrame	undocumented, Manually scale texture (extract frame or tile) [ arg1="scale height integer",arg2="scale width integer",animspeed=inset (useage unknown)]

brownian motion =
stochastic process
[ steps (in both x and y directions) are independent normal random variables ]

Animloop	Direction of animation and frame counting
animloop=	value		description
	0	Forward	textures/frames loop forward
	1	Reverse	textures/frames loop backward
	2	Alternating	textures/frames see saw back and forth

numframes	number of frames per Framestrip
numframes=	int

numstrips	number of Framestrip’s in texture
numstrips=	int

animspeed	animation speed , frames/scrolls per second
animspeed=	int

animarg	argument1 to pass to animtype
animarg=	int

animarg2	argument2 to pass to animtype
animarg2=	int

Some values are clamped (limited) if you enter invalid values, or they aren’t yet configured.

For example, angles of scrolling/swaying are clamped between -180 degrees and 180 degrees.

The minimum resolution/increment for values is usually 0.01.

image format

Example of an image using framestrips.

	frames
framestrip-01	01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	10	11	12	13	14	15	16
framestrip-02	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32

Framestrip example: http://rumental.com:8000/therewiki/numtest.jpg (dead link)

• Frame width = image width / numframes
• Frame height = image height / numstrips

Syntax:

I beleive all Constants are Global, therefore you can use the name or the number in TsFiles. Numeric values are preferred

modelSettings = {
        materialname = {
          colormap = "dir/colormap.jpg",
          opacitymap = "dir/colormap.jpg",
          cutoutmap = "dir/colormap.jpg",
          filtermode = "int",
          lit = "bool",
          twosided = "bool",
          drawmode = "int",
          animtype = "int",
          animloop = "int",
          numframes = "int",
          numstrips = "int",
          animspeed = "float",
          animarg = "float",
          animarg2 = "float",
        },
      },

---

Sample TS file structure ( for in-world rendering )

Frame Animation

PIECE
{
  name = "objectname",
  id = "devxxxxxxxxx",
  model = "test/animation/tester.model",

  modelSettings = {
  [ "test" ] = {
    colormap = "test/animation/numtest.jpg",
    opacitymap = "test/animation/numtestopacity.jpg",
    lit = 0,
    twosided = 0,
    animtype = 3,
    numstrips = 2,
    numframes = 16,
    animspeed = 1,
    animloop = 0,
  },
},
  sinkToGround = dropOnTop,
  layoutClass = "Structures",
}

CONTENTS
{
  { "devxxxxxxxx", 1 },
}

Scrolling Animation

PIECE
{
  name = "objectname",
  id = "devxxxxxxxxx",
  model = "test/animation/tester.model",

  modelSettings = {
  [ "test" ] = {
    colormap = "test/animation/numtest.jpg",
    opacitymap = "test/animation/numtestopacity.jpg",
    lit = 0,
    twosided = 0,
    animtype = 1,
    animspeed = 1,
    animloop = 0,
  },
},
  sinkToGround = dropOnTop,
  layoutClass = "Structures",
}

CONTENTS
{
  { "devxxxxxxxx", 1 },
}

• names and dev# have been obscured.

Sample Preview file ( for testing in There Previewer )

Thanks to TheChaz for his intuition, and discovery of this method

If you test a model in the There Previewer and then click file save, you can save a preview file that stores all the settings of your test instance.

These files are named with the file extension .preview and are basic text files composed of basic xml structured data.

If you edit these preview files with a text editor ( such as notepad ) and add the necessary parameters then you can test animation in the previewer by opening the preview file.

The zoetrope application by There_developer now automates this process.

xml uses nested tags to designate heirarchy and dependancy. A typical “tag” looks like this <tagname>value</tagname>

The format for the animation paramaters is as follows.

<drawmode>int</drawmode>
<animtype>int</animtype>
<animloop>int</animloop>
<numframes>int</numframes>
<numstrips>int</numstrips>
<animspeed>float</animspeed>
<animarg>float</animarg>
<animarg2>float</animarg2>

and should be located inside the <material> tag for the material you are animating.

Sample preview file

<Preview>
  <Model>C:\Program Files\There\ThereClient\Resources\drink\m004dr_mugclear01.model</Model>
  <Material>
    <Name>liquid</Name>
    <colormap>Program Files\There\ThereClient\Resources\drink\t002dr1b_hotblues.jpg.dds</colormap>
    <lit>1</lit>
    <twosided>0</twosided>
        <drawmode></drawmode>
        <animtype>1</animtype>
        <animloop>1</animloop>
    	<animspeed>10</animspeed>
    	<animarg>90</animarg>
    	<animarg2></animarg2>
	<numframes></numframes>
	<numstrips></numstrips>
  </Material>
  <Material>
    <Name>glass</Name>
    <colormap>Program Files\There\ThereClient\Resources/drink/t002dr_glassmug.jpg</colormap>
    <opacitymap>Program Files\There\ThereClient\Resources/drink/t002drxx_glassmugalpha.jpg</opacitymap>
    <lit>1</lit>
    <twosided>0</twosided>
  </Material>
</Preview>

Downloadable version of this file
you may have to right-click save as if your browser shows it as text

Files

Test files for frame animation ( unzip to c:\ for preview file to work )

WORKING EXAMPLES

This is a working example of Georgieanna’s Outdoor Swimming Pool
It makes the water move slowly.
All parameters are included for you to play with.

Replace the file C:\Program Files\There\ThereClient\Resources\fu\80268641.ts with this text.
Restarting the There client is necessary for your changes to take affect.

PIECE
{
  name = "Outdoor Swimming Pool",
  id = "dev80268641",
  model = "fu/80268641.model",
  modelSettings = {
  [ "Mtl #1" ] = {
    colormap = "fu/80268641_1.jpg",
  },
  [ "Mtl #2" ] = {
    colormap = "fu/80268641_2.jpg",
  },
  [ "Mtl #4" ] = {
    colormap = "fu/80268641_3.jpg",
    opacitymap = "fu/80268641_4.jpg",
    drawmode = 0,
    animtype = 1,
    animloop = 0,
    numframes = 0,
    numstrips = 0,
    animspeed = .3,
    animarg = 0,
    animarg2 = 0,
  },
},
  sinkToGround = dropOnTop,
  layoutClass = "Structures",
}

CONTENTS
{
  { "dev80268641", 1 },
}