Animations In Conversations (Via the editor) - Not Always Working

Neverwinter Nights 2
#1

Hi All,

Is there a sure fast way of having animations work in conversations set on " OWNER " under the Animation TAB?

I find that some animations may work, while others do not - and then some on some NPCs and then not on others. I am only trying to set standard races animations (like elves), but even trying to run the “Scratch Head” does not appear to work.

Is it because some animations that do initially work, thereafter prevent others from working?

And do “Facial Animations” ever work? Or are they just too subtle for me to notice anything?

Any “expert knowledge” in this field of “conversation animations” via the conversation editor is appreciated.

Thanks, Lance.

#2

Not an expert, but all of them seem to work for me. If the facial ones are not working . . . could you be using an override face? Not sure if they work with animations as well as the “stock” ones. Just a thought.

#3

I’ve never seen the “Facial Animations” work, but ok, I use mostly override faces so it could be because of that. In my experience NWN2 doesn’t seem to like animations that much.

#4

I don’t have an answer (yet), but I’ve been looking for a reason why this happens for the last three days. Even worse : some animations worked as expected, then I changed the starting point in the module, and now they don’t. And they are not started with a trigger.

#5

@4760

Thanks for checking into this …

I also note that my NWN2 Animation Viewer no longer supplies me with the ability to “check” animations. I may be using it wrong I suppose, but I thought I used to be able to load a creature and run an animation on it to check what it did. Now, after “loading” a creature, there is nothing present.

As I say, I’m not sure how to use it fully, but I am sure I used to get a bit further than it does now. I wonder if that has any connection to “missing/failed” animations in the conversations too?

EDIT: OK, I just shut down the toolset and re-opened it and the animation viewer plugin appears to “work” again now - I will check the conversation again and report back. NB: There is no obvious reason why it was not working the first time as I had only just turned on the computer! EDIT 3: The animation plugin seems to stop working if I run a module at the same time as the toolset is loaded (to check it). After returning to the animation plugin, it fails to work for me again until I reload the toolset afresh.

EDIT 2: The conversation “animations” (Scratch Head in this case) still not working for me though.

EDIT 4: OK, I added the Scratch Head animation earlier in the same conversation and it worked. So, for some reason it stops working later in the conversation, possibly after another animation has played? - testing.

EDIT 5: No, currently I can find no reason why these animations are so temperamental. Therefore, I await your findings @4760 and hope you have more success than I do. :grinning: Of course, if I do discover anything, I will let you know.

Thanks all.
Lance.

#6

@Sawdust37

No override faces - just stock models.

In testing, I could have the animation work on one line, but not another! :astonished:

I do not think I have ever had facial animations work.

Do you have a conversation with lots of animations I can test on my own setup? That include facial ones as well as body ones?

Thanks, Lance.

@andgalf

I tend to agree.

#7

I don’t know if this makes a difference but you can do it two ways either with the ga play custom animation or putting in tags and clicking animations in the animations tab. But I tend to use them not as often as I’d like because they don’t work a lot of the time. Some seem to be gender specific like the dance ones, I think men only have one disco move !

#8

You’re right about that. For example, I wanted the male salute for a female character in my third module. Not that easy to do. Luckily, 4760 was able to fix that for me.

#9

Yet there remains something a bit strange as the same animation can work on one node but not another. :astonished:

i.e. In my own testing, the “Scratch Head” animation works towards the beginning of the conversation, but fails in the same conversation at a later node. I even removed all my scripts, renamed the conversation and tested on another PC. Same thing - the earlier animation works and fails at the latter point.

I am beginning to wonder if the node “depth” makes any difference?

Still, I patiently await any other feedback … :slight_smile:

EDIT: And now after testing again the earlier animation fails to work at all again - and yet tests fine from the PLAYER. Driving me crazy. :crazy_face:

EDIT: I just made a very simple two node animation test and the first animation (scratch head) worked once and the second (use item) not at all. They all failed when trying to speak to exact same NPC again.

EDIT: I think there is something flawed with SCRATCH HEAD that breaks (a) - and possibly breaks other animations. I also have suspicions about ACTIVATE (b) and USEITEM (b) animations. (a) Appears to work once ever only. (b) Never seen work.

BODY ANIMATIONS TESTED ON MALE ELF:

NB: By “WORKS”, I mean it provided an animation of some sort, but may not be of much use. Some marked “FAILED” occasionally worked, but maybe only once and then not again. Most did nothing at all, BUT may work with other creature models.

ACTIVATE - FAILED
ANNOYED - FAILED
ATTENTION - Appeared to keep raising shoulders. (WORKS)
BARDSONG - FAILED
BORED - FAILED
BOW - WORKS
CHUCKLE - WORKS
CLAPPING - WORKS
CONVERSATION_ANIMTYPE_TALK_FORCE03 - WORKS
COOK01 - WORKS
COOK02 - WORKS
CRAFT01 - WORKS
CURTSEY - FAILED (May work on a female NPC.)
DANCE01 - WORKS
DANCE02 - WORKS
DANCE03 - WORKS
DEJECTED - WORKS
DRINK - WORKS
DRUNK - WORKS
EQUIP_WEAPON01 - WORKS
FLIRT - WORKS
FORGE01 - WORKS
IDLE_MELEE - FAILED
IDLE_MELEE_RAGE - FAILED
IDLECOWER - WORKS
IDLEFIDGETDRUM - WORKS
IDLEFIDGETFLUTE - WORKS
IDLEFIDGETGUITAR - WORKS
IDLEFLUTE - WORKS
IDLEGUITAR - WORKS
IDLEINJURED - FAILED
INTIMIDATE - Appeared to put back shoulders. (WORKS)
KNEELDAMAGE - FAILED
KNEELDEATH - FAILED
KNEELDOWN - FAILED
KNEELFIDGET - FAILED
KNEELIDLE - FAILED
KNEELTALK - FAILED
KNEELUP - FAILED
LISTEN - WORKS
LISTEN_INJURED - WORKS
MEDITATE - WORKS
NOD_NO - WORKS
NOD_YES - WORKS
PLAYDRUM - WORKS
PLAYFLUTE - WORKS
PLAYGUITAR - WORKS
POINT - WORKS
READ - WORKS
SALUTE - WORKS
SCRATCH_HEAD - FAILED (INITIAL SOMETIMES)
SEARCH - FAILED
SHRUG - WORKS
SIGH - FAILED
SIT_DOWN - FAILED (SOMETIMES WORKED)
SIT_DRINK - WORKS
SIT_EAT - WORKS
SIT_FIDGET - FAILED
SIT_IDLE - FAILED
SIT_READ - WORKS
SIT_TALK - WORKS (Looks good for seated talkers.)
SLEIGHT - WORKS
STEALTH_IDLE - FAILED
TALK_CHEER - WORKS
TALK_FORCE - WORKS
TALK_FORCE02 - WORKS
TALK_INJURED - WORKS
TALK_LAUGH - WORKS
TALK_NERVOUS - FAILED
TALK_NORMAL - FAILED (Nothing to show anyway?)
TALK_PLEAD - WORKS
TALK_SAD - WORKS
TALK_SHOUT - WORKS
TAUNT - WORKS
TIRED - WORKS
TOUCH_HEART - WORKS
UNEQUIP_WEAPON01 - WORKS
USEITEM - FAILED
VICTORY - WORKS
WAVE - WORKS
WAVE_SHORT - WORKS
WILDSHAPE - WORKS
WORSHIP - WORKS
YAWN - WORKS

So, it just so happened I was trying to use a few that simply failed altogether or would fail randomly. :roll_eyes:

#10

Not sure. I’ll have to go into my archives to find some old examples . . . which I unfortunately don’t have time right now (Buried under making digital content for the classroom). I’m sure brighter minds than I will jump n and give a hand. Wish I could be more help.

#11

In my case, I know for sure that “yawn” fails whereas “kneeldown” works. What this means is it’s not the animation itself that is failing.
I suspected there could be a timing issue, and replaced all the ga_play_custom_animation with a script using a lot of DelayCommand(object, PlayCustomAnimationVoid ()).
With SendMessageToPC, I got the information that the animations were played after the expected delay, but also that they worked for NPC but not for the PC.
Next step: check if clicking (or not) on the node could “send the message” to clear all pending actions (as in: the PC resumes talking, play the idle animation).

#12

@4760

I also believe timing may be the issue … as I have also had some of these other animations work via the script rather than direct from the conversation. However, my main goal was to avoid as much reliance on “scripting” them as possible.

Interesting that you had “yawn” fail and “kneeldown” work though … Were these via direct conversation calls? If so, what was the model being used (human?), and did you allow a large enough conversation line from the responding NPC - too short and the animation will not start if I recall correctly.

#13

Yes

Human-based (human, elf, half-elf : all failed for yawn, but worked for kneeldown).

Yes, but it didn’t matter how long the conversation is: two nodes or forty, same result…

#14

@4760,

That’s strange - I was using a male elf and had issues where you did not and vice-versa.

I mean the actual amount of text in the line as opposed to the node depth. i.e Make sure you have “xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxx” to say and not just “xx”. It affects the time in which the node changes, which, in turn, may affect the timing of any animations attached.

#15

That’s why I also tried with various “delays” (third parameter in the node tab), but again to no avail.

1 Like
#16

@4760

Out of interest, how do you get along with the SCRATCH HEAD animation … ?

I find that it is rather intermittent … That is, I can sometimes get it to work on an initial firing, but if it appears twice for the same NPC within the same conversation it will fail.

So, maybe, some animations have something about them that causes them to fail after an initial usage?

E.g. I have a test conversation where I run through it twice. To be a “PASS”, any animations attached to a node had to work on every time I played the conversation.