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I have found that fpsc will only allow two objects in a model file to be animated, every other object which animation will be static. This is a real pain when it comes to weapons, as I cant do what I want. I need more than two animated objects in my model file for the weapon to look good.

Any ideas on this? might it be the way I export, or is it really fpsc's fault?

??

yes it can, im doing it right now with corepak vol. 2

you may find grouping object together much easier for weapon animations, then open up the group for seperate movement.

show us your export settings and the way you are animating your models, i may be able to help

No it's not FPSC's fault. Like any 3d engine I've used, animations must be in a linked heirachy in order to work. Otherwise the animation will "collapse". The secret is in 3ds max's schematic view.

Set up a linked heirarchy in the schematic view. For example, the main weapon will be the "parent", everything will else will move along with it. Then link the other parts to it as the "children".

FPSC, by the way, is very forgiving in this respect. For Shockwave 3d, each animated element must be in its own unique 3ds max group AND ALSO be in a linked hierarchy in order to avoid collapsing, its a huge pain in the ass. And the root object pivot point must be at 0,0,0 as well for Shockwave.

So this is one example where FPSC is really makes things easy.

I basically use keyframes and nothing else. I move the parts around and have autokey on, so it sets a key. Ive never used any other animation system in max, so what you both have explained, is like chinese to me.

I only need a little example to get my mind around it. But if its not fpsc and just the way ive animated my stuff, then thats godd, but I still need to find out how to get my animation to stay.

well i recently found out that the skin modifer with bones comes out like poo in FPSC, ive tried a variety of export settings, and searched around in max for the problem, but came out useless. your method should work fine, however i think i may know your problem...

are you trying to animate seperate elements/vertices etc. or one model? ive found that FPSC wont allow this (unless with something like a character and physique) for some strange reason, so i seperated those that need to be moved as their own object, and give a seperate animation set, which works fine

I have seperate models for my weapons, all with animation sets. But when I add them to fpsc, only two of the models will be animated, its kind of bugging me, because I need more than two models animated.

Yes you can keyframe separate elements. I'm not talking about a separate animation system.

For rigid animations where you don't need mesh deformation (like a gun), there is absolutely no reason at all to use either the skin or physique modifier. (And no you can't keyframe individual verts in game engines, for this you WOULD need to use skin or physique).

But you MUST have a linked heirarchy BEFORE you start animating with keyframes. Open the schematic view in max, and decide which object will be the parent. For a gun, this will be the main part of the weapon, all moving parts will need linked to this and will be the "children", the children will inherit the transforms of the parent. Another example would be a animated door. The door is the parent, and the dooknob would be linked to it as a child object.

Linking can be done in the schematic view. It is important to set up your heirarchy BEFORE you start keyframing, or else it WILL get screwed up on export. And if you don't set up a heirarchy, then the animation will collapse to the root node and you will lose parts of it.

Now, you CAN link objects together from the main view in 3ds max (the buttons are right beside the undo/redo buttons), but it's far more intuitive to do it from the schematic view, which shows a nice visual representation of a "family tree" showing how the objects are linked.

I'm going to bed now, but if you still have problems I can upload one of my max files from Model Pack 2, a door or the animated safe would be a good example.

EDIT: And one thing I should add, for these rigid model animations such a gun, it is VITAL to reset X-forms BEFORE setting up you heirarchy.

So...the workflow would be something like this:

1. Model the parts of your gun (each moving part will be a separate model).
2. Set the pivot points on each model where you want them for easier keyframing.
3. Reset X-forms
4. Set up your linked heirarchy
5. Animate with keyframes
6. Export

I will try that out later today Bond, ill post back how I got on.