First off let me say that I have no idea how to model, let alone animate.

I have however been studying how to use Nifskope and I believe I understand a little about how the frames work.
First, a question. Are the number of idles in a file limited? If not, you may be able to avoid using the curve to accelerate and decelerate by running very short idles (maybe 3 or 4 frames) that rotate at ascending and descending speeds. What I mean is idle 1 rotates at 1 rpm, idle 2 rotates at 2 rpm, idle 3 rotates at 3 rpm, etc., up to say 15 rpm, Then repeat the process at the end , in reverse, to decelerate. The script would get considerably longer (having to play the idles individually, one at a time) but they would be easy to write. The script would go something like "on start, play idles 1-15, set to stay at idle 15 [at full speed], on shutoff, play idles 15-1, set to start state [off].


If there's a limit, but it's large enough to hold 16 idles (1-15+static) it should still work.


If that's not how the frame system works, I just got carpal tunnel (from such a long, senseless post) for nothing! :shrug: :laugh:




KF

I really don't know how many idles you can have. I know the first idle is, generally, reserved. (whether this is necessary or not, I don't know - but this is the initial state of a model) Also, for some reason, no one uses idle1 (that I've seen) I may have to try it just to see what happens.

As for the rest of your post, I would need to assign those idles to key frames. The key frames are mapped to a curve that you setup. It does not have to be a bezier curve, it can be linear, or step-wise linear (constant). This means that you could, in fact, create several different linear regions, and then move back and forth between them. I am using a bezier curve for a smoother take-off, and then using a roughly linear region to do the constant motion - but there is nothing preventing me from creating more than one of these linear regions, with different slopes, and assigning keyframes (and idles) to those as well.

In fact, I just did that. I created an IDLE4 that starts at the same place as IDLE3, but goes out to the end of the curve and stops. Unfortunately, the end of the curve stops too abruptly - I need to tweak it a bit. That said, your idea has the further merit of being able to "kick" the wheel to keep it spinning. I like that.

I'll poke around, and see what I can do. Unfortunately, for some reason nifkskope just lost the ability to render again - so I'll probably have to reboot the rig at some point.

Ok, I didn't completely script it, but I did manage to create a wheel with 3 basic speeds. It animates properly for acceleration, final deceleration, but jumps just a bit when going between speed 3 and speed2.

It works like this:
IDLE -> Stopped (init state)
IDLE2 -> Slowly ramp up to 1st speed (relatively slow)
IDLE3 -> Slowly ramp up to 2nd speed (moderate speed)
IDLE4 -> Moderately ramp up to 3rd speed (final, fast speed)
IDLE5 -> Return to 2nd speed, but skip ramp
IDLE6 -> Decelerate from 2nd speed to full stop

This allows you to "activate" the wheel to get it up to speed, and then a timer can start to decelerate it. I suppose you could "deactivate" the sharpening function in IDLE5, and require the player to spin it up to IDLE4 to continue using the stone. Note that there is no return to IDLE2 - it's assumed that you will use IDLE6 when walking away from the stone. Also, I may need to add an IDLE7 to immediately stop the stone. It won't be hard, I'll just reuse the last two key frames from IDLE6.

It's not quite done yet, because the deceleration from IDLE5 is a bit too fast. I need to slow it down some more.

Jeez, you guys had me pulling out the pencil and paper on this one. I'm just glad Windows lets you run as many calculators as you like!

http://www.4shared.com/file/fMbHe876/Grinding_Wheel_PW.html

Meshes only - get the textures from the last archive. Note, this will NOT work with the ESP (or at least, not properly)

Checked it out in nifskope. Looks pretty good. The slow down animations look 100% better now.
Can't wait to see this in action in a mod.

Great job Morovir! :tops: :clap: :woot:




KF

When this is finished, and scripted, and possibly placed in the CS with sounds and all, not necessarily placed in the game world, it will be a fantastic resource, I already can think of over a dozen mods that could use this!

I'm working on the sound effects, and I can even do a simple script that simulates starting, stopping, and re-upping the stone. However, to be truly useful, it will have to be scripted to allow you to use it in smithy work. I'm afraid I may need some help with that one.

So the animation is working perfectly in-game and all you need to do is apply the sounds to it?

Yes. However, I will mention that for some reason MW isn't respecting the acceleration curves properly, or at least not behaving like Blender. I suspect it may be due to the fact that my frame rate is a lot higher, though. For Seyda Neen, my rig can generally hit the high 70's, which would definitely explain the startup being a LOT faster. I think blender is using 25fps for the test animations.

Other than that, the model is fully functional. I'll try to upload the final tonight after work.

Happy Thanksgiving, Morovir and aSaPp!5@! Thank you both for what you have been doing with these grinding wheel models.

Morovir, did you ever get around to uploading it to PES?

Yep - it's awaiting approval. As soon as it shows up, I'll post the link.

I can't post the link from my phone, but the wheel is now up at PES. Look for my handle, or "stone grinding wheel resource" under models and textures.

As a favor to Morovir...


http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=8908


The wheel looks great, Morovir. Thanks for all the work you put into this, and for the release.




KF