Skin And Bones Function

[Katahu]

Some of you have already seen this video before but there was one thing that came up as I was listening closely to the video.

mms://70.85.182.98/airsidetv/fs10feature.wmv

About 10 minutes into the video [when they talk about the glider] the speaker in the video mention that the skin-and-bones function is involved with the flex wings.

I have modeled human figures in Gmax before and have animated them using the skin-and-bones function using inverse kinetics just for the heck of it. For those of you who have created addons with wingflexing, you should know by now that FS9 doesn't support this feature especially for wingflexing and that the only way to achieve wingflexing in FS9 is to simply animate the wings in the same manner as any other object in Gmax or FSDS. But now that the speaker in the video mentions it in regards to the wingflex, I am beginning to wonder if the tow feature is involved with this as well. How this feature can be further exploited for future addons is also on my mind.

[Ashton Lawson]

Well well well...

I will give this short explanation.  There are two basic types of skinning I know of.  The first is within software, so the application does all the vertex maipulation.  The second is in the graphics card.

In FSX, the wings don't use a graphics card to do the flexing through skinning.  I know this, because my graphics card doesn't support the skinning, yet the 747 seen in the demo still flexes, but jerkily.

However, I think the people use the skinning feature, because when I fly the ultralight, and bank left and right, my pilot's arms move left and right with the bar, but the arms remain stationary (this is quite hilarious ).

Hope that answers your question.  Though the chances are, some 'experienced' people/know-it-alls are gonna correct me on something, but thats what forums are for right?

Speaking of which, people say that they get no pilot in the demo Baron 58.  I get the pilot, but he's grey.  No textures.  Maybe new graphics cards elimate geometry with no textures.  Anyone got a theory on this?

[Katahu]

Speaking of which, people say that they get no pilot in the demo Baron 58.  I get the pilot, but he's grey.  No textures.  Maybe new graphics cards elimate geometry with no textures.  Anyone got a theory on this?

Now that's strange. If the pilot was built into the aircraft model like we normally do with FS9-based addons, then the pilot should appear already. But with the notion of the skin-and-bones feature, I'm guessing the ACES team have programmed the pilot figures differently.

[Fr. Bill]

A picture is worth a thousand words. Here is an example of I-K Animation of 'skin' as used in FSX for both scenery and aircraft models. Note that for this to function as intended, Shader 2.0 or above is necessary, otherwise the animations will fail and the object(s) will fallback to static positions.

When in the sim, the flag will not only 'wave' but will rotate according to the wind direction. It is not however programmed to respond to wind speed...

[Katahu]

This may explain why the pilot figure's arms in the ultralite were stationary while its hand were moving with the wings. It's most likely that the bones were not properly linked to the arms. If bones and I-K are really implimented in FSX then this could mean a lot of things such as allowing me to link my driver's arms in the car model's steering wheel without having to create seperate, animated objects for the fore arms and upperarms [which can be very complex for the heirarchy export method].

Please note that my drivers' main bodies [if you notice the drivers in the Ferrari and Chevy] are single-piece objects that were modeled using box-modeling mixed in with meshsmooth modifiers. With IK, I can link the arms of the single-piece bodies without having to detach and seperately animate the arms. All I would do is simply link the arms to the steering wheel which is already animated.

However, this is just my opinion and I have only heard of this function only once in the video that I posted. On top of that, IK was not listed in the list of FSX features. So, for all I know, I could be wrong.

[Fr. Bill]

However, this is just my opinion and I have only heard of this function only once in the video that I posted. On top of that, IK was not listed in the list of FSX features. So, for all I know, I could be wrong.

Er, just above here I showed a picture of an I-K animated flag that works in FSX...

Among other things, the 'wing flex' in the glider and heavies is done using I-K animated "bones" and "skin," as are the pilots...

[Katahu]

Er, just above here I showed a picture of an I-K animated flag that works in FSX...

All I have seen is a IK-animated flag. Since the FSX SDKs are not even out, I have to remain somewhat skeptical of my own observation.

[cleobis]

err......I think what n4gix is trying to say is that he "knows" that it will work in FSX

[Katahu]

err......I think what n4gix is trying to say is that he "knows" that it will work in FSX

oh well.

[Fr. Bill]

All I have seen is a IK-animated flag. Since the FSX SDKs are not even out, I have to remain somewhat skeptical of my own observation.

Along with 300+ other freeware and payware developers, I've been working with ACES since October of last year...

I've had the FSX SDK's for several months now.  In addition, anyone who has the "Fileplanet Beta" version also has the FSX SDK's available in the folder cleverly named: \SDK...  ;D

[Katahu]

I didn't know the SDKs came with the beta.

[Ashton Lawson]

What, they should post the SDKs on the website!!!

Then we can prepare!!!!!!!

[Ashton Lawson]

So u can model in 3ds max now?  Thats great for me!  I use 3ds max more than gmax nowadays, and u can export to 3ds format with 3dsmax, gmax only to p3d and stuff (unless u pay for export modules (which i dont))

[Fr. Bill]

What, they should post the SDKs on the website!!!

Then we can prepare!!!!!!!

As with FSX itself, the SDKs are still incomplete and subject to revision, so what would be the point?  Those with the FP beta have access to what has been released thus far, but they remain in fact 'beta SDKs'...

[Ashton Lawson]

Oh.

But still, can u use 3dsmax instead of gmax now?