Tutorial - How to do a Machine Gun belt animation

The other day I was playing with tpM'91 with an M60 we got from CS and we managed to do the belt animation like the original M240,M249 and PK. I don't know if this as been explained before, but it's better two tutorials than none, so here it goes.

1 - Open your model in O2 and make a selection called "belt_rotation",redefine the entire belt of bullets you want move on your MG and save it.

2 - Inside your cpp file open this class:

class CfgSkeletons

{

class nameofyourweapon {isDiscrete=0;skeletonInherit="";skeletonBones[]={"magazine", "","belt_rotation","", "","trigger", ""};};

};

*Note- I also opened a magazine and trigger selection but it ain't important here since SLX already explained how to do it.

3 - Again in the cpp file, inside your CfgModels describe the new selection and animation as you see below.

class CfgModels

{

class Default { sections[] = {}; sectionsInherit=""; };

class Weapon: default {};

class nameofyourweapon {

skeletonName="nameofyourweapon";

class Animations{

class reload_magazine { type="hide"; source="reloadMagazine"; selection="magazine"; hidevalue=0.10; };

class trigger{type="rotationZ";source="reload";selection="trigger";axis="trigger_axis";minValue=0;

maxValue="3";angle0="0";angle1="-3";};

class belt_rotation {type="rotationx";source="reload";selection="belt_rotation";axis="belt_rotation_axis";minValue=0;

maxValue="5";angle0="0";angle1="1";};};

sections[]={"zasleh"};sectionsInherit="";};

};

*Note- Again the magazine and trigger classes are just eye candy and they ain't relevant for this tutorial, I didn't delete them because some of you may find it useful if you already have some animations on your current MG.

To play around with the sliding belt you just need to take two values in consideration.

The first is the type="", "rotationx" will move you belt from the left to the right or right to the left, the second is the definition of the starting side the angle1="".

"0" is a static value which means it won't move at all, negative values like "-1","-2"... will make the belt move from the right to the left, positive values like the "1","2"... will make it move from the left to the right as I did on the M60 you will see in the movie (example) below.

One thing to take into consideration is the "rotationz" not presented here. Let's say you have the belt not attached to a box but instead falling from the ground like Rambo (insert a laugh here please). If that is the case you want the belt to move from below to above, for that you will use the "rotationz" and again you play with the angle called angle1="" to set direction of the belt's movement.

Now something worth noticing, let's say that you want the belt to move not straight but unbalanced, for that you will play with the angle0="". I think most of us won't be using this angle but now you know what it does.

Below you can see an example movie of the correct animation for the M60's belt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJTOsF17ilY

A Request to BIS.

I don't know if you guys noticed but the M249 and PK have the belt moving from the wrong direction, the weapon is feeding the box, fixing this is a 2 seconds job,please BIS in the next patch do it for us.

Again, sorry for my English and thank you.

good work will it be released ?

thanks alot, haven had time to check it on vehicles but should work right?

The m60 btw looks incredibily nice to use, wish we could have it in VTE or find/make something with the same feeling..

Yes it will work in vehicles as well as a static weapon

The M60 wasn't made by me I'm not a modeler, I pick up the best CS weapons I find and I put them in my game, to release this weapon I would need permission which I think I can easily have if the demand for the weapon is high enough, if not I won't release it.

This weapons need a lot of work to be imported to ARMA, you need to at least decrease the number of polys by half as well as the faces which isn't easy.

So far I was able to do it in 5 weapons, I made some LODs with the 4 polys/2faces to make this weapons playable in ARMA and from my tests I think that they are very playable, you can see some pictures below of some of them, but please remenber I dind't do this models.

My work on this weapons is just importing, some textures, normal mapping, animations, cpp file, sounds and proper LODs.

I just wanted to take a moment to thank you for your time and effort for this tutorial. I hope to see more!

Abs

Holy cow - that M60 blew me away! Please release that, kind Sir!

Would love to use it for old school ambushes!

my vote for the M60

Nice tut. Yeah, that M60 looks really nice!

Mas a G3 ainda está melhor

Thanks all, i will ask permission for releasing the M60 to you guys than

Obrigado amigo, se quiseres a G3 manda uma pm

Just a note Skaven, but the trigger animation you have defined causes the trigger to jump about 5 feet in the air, as if its rotating on an axis that is 50 feet behind the weapon (even though its defined roughly where the trigger would rotate in real-life). Its not noticable in your video, but I have been using the same values you have, combined with the SLX XMS Memory point for the trigger axis and the trigger still disappears and warps to ~5 or 6 feet above the weapon itself. Try firing it in 3rd person zoomed out with a clear blue sky and should just about be able to pick it out when you do fire.

I haven't yet been able to find a fix. This may be an issue with the 1.07 BETA, as I can't remember this happening prior to that, but then again its not an easy thing to spot so it may be I simply missed it.

I'm not using SLX's memory points and I didn't noticed that happenning  

I'm gonna check it is as soon as I arrive home, if the trigger is working correctely I send it to you so you can see how it's done, thank you Jackal326  

Thanks very much Skaven, I do appreciate your asking to get the "Pig" released - I hope it's successful!

I still keep drooling at that YouTube clip!

On a side note - the G3, M14 and M60 seem like perfect RACS weaps - would you ever release them in a pack?

Also, that cam is very cool on the RACS boys - perhaps would that be available one day?

Too many requests, I know - the main thing is that M60 Wow!

I will try to release all the weapons (with permission) in one pack, this soldiers will be part of it, thank you for your nice words

Can't wait to use that pack

@Skaven

Quanto a G3, eu espero.

Nao sou lá grande beta-tester de addons. Mas obrigado na mesma. Bom trabalho nesse pack

Nice, looking forward to playing with them, those screens are usi with wood stock thats Sweet

Yeah man, crank out that pig, it looks awesome! I always thought the ole pig was a better choice for the RACS HMG of choice.

M60 is very nice.

I hope that you will have permission to release it.

Hey all,

Some of the weapons that will be inside the pack

Very nice weapons , i like m-60 like rambo  

If you want , theres my pack of sounds to your weapons

Link

I hope to release this pack of weapons soon

Thanks for the sounds Robert, I don't know if we will use any, tpM_91 is the sound engineer so he's in charge of that part, he's making his tests so don't be surprised to see different sounds in every movie he makes.

Thank you

Thanks Skaven and tpM_91, looking great! The G3 and M60 are especially cool!

with m60 we could have some great "authentic" navy seals missions..

Good news, you guys asked for the weapons, I sent a couple of emails requesting to release them and I got the permissions from the authors.

I will open a new topic soon, expect to see this weapons ready in the next couple of days

Great news Skaven - please pass on the community's thanks to your people!

i second STEWY'S comment

big thanks