I built a caution light like the one in this vid So I made 3 frames. Frame 1 no lights, frame 2 left yellow light, frame 3 right yellow light. I assumed I could set the animation 0,1,2 and then skip the 0 frame but it doesn't seem to make any difference if the skip 0 is checked or not. Can anyone confirm or deny this bug?
Maybe someone from ISI can say for sure, but I don't 'think' that more than on/off will work for the yellow light. Since its state is being controlled by the engine (either 0 or 1), I believe you can really only use the off (ylolta00.dds) and on (ylolta01.dds).
But I've got an idea how you could make it. Make an animation (0,1-left light,right light) and put another texture in front of it which gets invisible when yellow is out. It's possible like this.
I'm not familiar with rf2 engine. But it is possible that it always make use of whole animation sequence enabling it when needed (YF). It is how some anims does work in rf1.
I have no problem adding as many frames as I want. My problem is skip 0 seems to have no effect. It cycles thru all 3 of my frames at the moment. I just want it to skip the 0 (off) frame when it cycles. Devin I understand your method I would just hope we don't have to jump thru such hoops for a simple animation. My guess is this is what skip 0 is used for, but it seems to have no effect if its on or not.
Again, question is why do you need 0-frame you have to skip. It is probably useless, as off state must not be represented by any frame (my quess)
So try as I wrote it. For example in rf1, emergency lights objects on safety car are invissible at all when disabled. Then when enabled, they appear playing whole animation. As I wrote it is my guess based on my experience with rf1.
Which radio button are you using underneath 'Animation Data'? (i.e. Cycle, One Shot, Random, Pendulum, Transient, Manual)
I think that's the problem right there. It needs to be set to 'manual' because the engine is supposed to tell the texture when it's off (0) or on (1). I'm guessing, though, that once that is set you're going to get either off (frame 0) and whatever frame 1 is. And it will just repeat that combination. I would be surprised if frame 2 gets used at all. Although, all this is valid for the 'yellow' in pit lights, not as a substitute for a yellow flag.
If its set to manual it doesn't cycle the animation. No flashing light, just a solid on or off. ISI RF1 track Jacksonville has a caution light that is basically the same animation that I want to do. It uses 3 frames, and according to 3dsimed is set to cycle. Cycle is activated and deactivated by the caution just fine so I don't see why you can't use cycle. Maybe ISI can confirm?
I don't know about 3dsimed but the 3ds max plugins default to the "cycle" setting after saving the scene, closing 3ds max and loading both up again. So while it may show the texture stage to be set to "cycle", that may not be the correct setting for what you're trying to do.
I just dug out some info I got from Monsum on cautionlights and he told me the following: Instances should be named CAUTIONLIGHT01 and CAUTIONLIGHT01GLOW (etc). Materials should be named CAUTIONLIGHTA / CAUTIONLIGHTGLOWA and CAUTIONLIGHTB / CAUTIONLIGHTGLOWB. Then you have two separate materials for two separate blinking lights. Set them to "Cycle" (turns out it would be correct ), "2" Frames, a rate you're happy with (he suggested 2.0) and for sequence use "(1,0)" for one and "(0,1)" for the other. I haven't tried this personally as I only needed an always on light on my track but perhaps this works for you.
Thanks, this is exactly how I have my objects and materials named. I will give it a try later today. However from my testing i'm pretty sure what will happen is the light that starts with sequence (1,0) will end on 1 and that light will look like its stayed on with no blinking after the caution. See the attached. This is how ISI did it in RF1. Basically what I'm trying to do.
Try importing the rF1 ones in 3ds max or 3dsimed or something like that, reexport it, test it and if it works, try to convert it to rF2. If that works, too, you can try to use the same settings
That was one of the first things I tried when it didn't work like I expected After playing with it a bit more I think there is another problem going on here. I unchecked skip 0. Using (0,1) or (1,0) I see no animation. If I add another frame say (0,1,2) It will then play 0 and 1. If I add one more frame, say (0,1,2,3) It will play 0, 1 and 2 but not 3. It never plays the last frame. So to get a 0,1 animation I have to set it up as (0,1,2). I'm guessing this is why some people couldn't get the animations to work at all?