Ok, I'll try and go through this step by step. This is for creating a simple animated entity that will loop through a single animation. I used a ball that just moves up and down.
1. Create and texture a mesh in 3ds max. I made a simple sphere. I didn't bother to texture it since this is about animation.
2. Open max's time configuration menu and set it to "custom" and change the FPS to 25 frames per second. 3ds max defaults to 30 frames per second but FPSC uses 25.
3. Turn on autokey (or setkey) and create your animation. I made a simple "bouncing up and down" animation that was 83 frames long. I assume you know how to create keyframes.
4. Export your model using the panda exporter and the settings provided by TGC here:
http://www.fpscreator.com/42.html . But since we're not using bones, you can uncheck the "bones" box.
5. Put your model.x file in your entitybank folder. Now you need an FPE and a script for it. You can use the this FPE as a template:
;header
desc = ball
;ai
aiinit = appear1.fpi
aimain = ballmove.fpi
aidestroy = disappear1.fpi
;spawn
spawnmax = 0
spawndelay = 0
spawnqty = 0
;orientation
model = ball.x
offx = 0
offy = 0
offz = 0
rotx = 0
roty = 0
rotz = 0
scale = 80
fixnewy = 180
;visualinfo
textured = ai_3_D2.tga
effect = effectbankbumpbonebumpbone.fx
castshadow = 0
;bodypartslimbinfo (1=head/2=body/3+4=armslr/5+6=legslr)
limbmax = 0
;animationinfo
animmax = 100
anim0 =0,0
anim1 = 0,83
Put this FPE in the same folder as your model. Now you will have to change a few things. The model and texture fields of course. And the animation info. "Anim0" should be left alone since this refers to the "spawn" animation. But you should change anim1 to fit your animation length. Mine is 83 frames long, therefore it is set to 0,83. Change this to suit your animation.
Here is the script I used for the animation. Use it as it is, although you'll probably want to rename it to suit your model:
;Artificial Intelligence Script
;Header
desc = ballmove
;Triggers
:state=0:animate=1
;End of Script
That's it. Put this in your scriptbank folder and set this script as the "AI Main" in the FPE file. And you'll probably want to turn physics off for your entity if its just going to be decoration. I've tested this and confirmed this all to work. Hope this helps.
