TF2 Weapon Animations

X82

I'm starting to fully get into modelling tf2 weapons, but alas, I've hit a roadblock.
I was trying to replace the soldier rocket launcher so I made a new weapon, skinned it, added bones etc. I made some animation sequences for fire, reload_start, reload_loop, and reload_finish. In Half life weapon viewer it looks ok with all animations. But soon as I fire up TF2, although I can see the weapon, there is no animations, at all. It's just static.
Any advice? If you need any info, let me know and I shall provide it.

Surfa

Make sure in the qc file you set the sequences name to the same as the default rocket launchers animation as it is the sequence that is called inside of the code.

X82

here is my qc file:

$modelname    "weapons/v_models//v_rocketlauncher_soldier.mdl"
$body v_rocketlauncher_soldier "v_rocketlauncher_soldier.smd"
$cdmaterials "models/weapons/c_items"
$sequence idle "v_rocketlauncher_soldier" loop fps 30
$sequence fire "fire" fps 30
$sequence reload_start "reload_start" fps 30
$sequence reload_loop "reload_loop" loop fps 30
$sequence reload_finish "reload_finish" fps 30

Surfa

Sorry I meant you need to set the name of the activity not sequence my bad.

So you will have

$sequence fire "fire" fps 30 ACT_VM_PRIMARYATTACK

etc

Mark Dygert

Also I'm not sure if they switched all of the old weapons over to the new C model system but all new weapons have their animations handled differently. You might want to grab some more modern replacements for the rocket launcher and take a look at those. I seem to remember that fire, reload ect where all contained in some of the character animation files not the weapons.

At least that was my experience when I made a new mini-gun for the heavy. I started out trying to create View and World models based on the original mini gun, but then had to switch to the "iron curtain" C model as a base of reference because it used the new system.

If you're looking to submit I'm pretty sure they would prefer that you use the new C model system instead of the outdated World and View models.

X82

Thanks for replies.
Does anyone have a list of these commands like
ACT_VM_PRIMARYATTACK etc? so I can be accurate.

I did look around for rocket launcher models but most if not all I found were skins, I only looked on Gamebanana to be fair though.

Mark Dygert

There might not be any player generated content but I think they added a few primary weapon replacements officially? Isn't the Tank Buster one of them? But I'm not sure how they did that, might of been old school W/V models...

X82

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. Found what I needed.
In case anyone else is curious, when you decompile the mdl using mdldecompiler, the qc file it creates contains the information required.
Using the old QC file and copying and pasting parts I managed to get the rocket launcher to now fully animated. Thanks all!
One thing I can't fix yet however is my terrible animation skills.

Mark Dygert

What app are you animating with? I might be able to spice up the animations a bit.
A while ago I animated this lil guy and had fun doing it.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2336353/CossackChipper01.jpg
Animations on a rough early model: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2336353/ChipperTest03.gif

X82

Wow. I'm not even in the same league as that animation. Im using 3DS max 2011.
It's a pain to animate, everything ends up looking stiff. But man, if I ever create something in the same catagory as your weapon, I'm nearly there. Just a few years me thinks. Any pointers are helpful!