Question about ARMA2 animation system

[alleycat 28]

I have some questions about animation in ARMA2.

What is needed to compile new animations onto human models?

More specific:

1. Do all human models share the same animations contained in the same file?

2. What amount of work is needed to get new animations which are not gameplay relevant (ambient animations I plan to call on triggers) to work? I am not asking about how to animate, I am asking about the ARMA2 specific workflow, beginning with the exported animation from the modeling program.

3. What file formats are used? Is there support for XSI?

[PuFu 4600]

1. Each animation is saved in its OWN file (.rtm). All male human characters use the same ones.

2. Creating animation (linear only) - (the only supported program for such import in O2 is maya), configing them in the .cfg files. Making new animations (not poses) in O2 is a pain in the butt. But still possible if you really have the time and nerves

3. .RTM is the native file. There is no XSI support afaik.

[alleycat 28]

So I basically export my animation and attach that to a file which all humanoid models reference?

[PuFu 4600]

In theory yes. In practice you are limited by the lack of tools/exporters/importer available (o2 doesn't play too well with other software)

Exporting your animation to a file format that would be read by O2 is the hardest part. As said, by default O2 only imports maya anim file. And from my experience, that is about it.