Multiple .kin files when animating a bogie?

[mr-woodapple]

Hi folks,

very sorry if this isn't the correct place to post, feel free to move this thread if needed.

I'm facing an error with creating a freight wagon. The wagon is all set-up and works, but the bogie has me struggeling: I've got it animated and imported into Trainz, but after submitting the asset, I have 4 .kin files for the wheels.
My understanding is that there should be only one, which I then have to rename to "anim.kin". If I choose to do that with one of the four, one axle on each bogie is turning, the other one not.

I'll attach images from the setup in Blender & the Trainz content folder (including the 4 anim files).

Thanks for any help in advance!

 

[afe_uy]

A typical bogie has two wheels, each axle has a b.r.wheel (0 and 1) as parent and these are parented to b.r.main , fixed at 0,0,0.
That should work.
A picture of the mesh and hierarchies in Blender would be very helpful... It should be something like this :

In this case it is 3 axes bogie.
Note that the bogie itself (LOD 0) and the animation are in different Collections and both must be active.
The exporter will produce a single *.kin based on the file name. In this case it will be "stabogfront_10.kin" , which will be reduced to "anim.kin".
If you feel confused, ask here...
Greetings

 

[afe_uy]

Looking at your hierarchy, I think that everything is in the same Collection, the key may be there.
The names are also important... I see wheel1 associated with b.r.0 and vice versa. Keep them simple to avoid confusion.

 

[mr-woodapple]

Sorry for the late reply & massive thanks for your tips! The issue was in my export settings to the .fbx file from Blender, my file setup was correct (and as suggested by you two).

The fix:
In the Blender Export window (after selecting File -> Export -> FBX), on the right hand side are various settings. At the very bottom is a setting "Bake Animation" - make sure that one is checked, but all sub-checkboxes need to be unticked!
This should give you one anim file, after renaming that one everything worked fine.

 

[Cayden]

Hi folks,

very sorry if this isn't the correct place to post, feel free to move this thread if needed.

I'm facing an error with creating a freight wagon. The wagon is all set-up and works, but the bogie has me struggeling: I've got it animated and imported into Trainz, but after submitting the asset, I have 4 .kin files for the wheels.
My understanding is that there should be only one, which I then have to rename to "anim.kin". If I choose to do that with one of the four, one axle on each bogie is turning, the other one not.

I'll attach images from the setup in Blender & the Trainz content folder (including the 4 anim files).

Thanks for any help in advance!

 

[revan69]

If you're referring to animation or rigging in a 3D modeling or game development context, here's some general information that might help:

.kin Files:KIN files are typically associated with animation or rigging data in various 3D software or game engines. They can contain information about skeletal animations, bone positions, rotations, and other data necessary to animate characters, objects, or vehicles like bogies.

Animating a Bogie:A bogie is a type of chassis or undercarriage commonly used for supporting and steering in vehicles, often trains. If you're animating a bogie in a 3D environment, you would typically create animations for its movement, rotation, suspension, and any other relevant actions.

Using Multiple .kin Files:In some cases, especially for complex animations or scenarios where different animations need to be blended or swapped, you might work with multiple .kin files. Here are a few scenarios where you might use multiple .kin files for animating a bogie:

1. Complex Animations: If the bogie has multiple moving parts or complex interactions, you might create separate .kin files for different parts of the animation, such as the suspension, wheel rotations, and steering mechanism.
2. Variety of Actions: If the bogie needs to perform various actions based on different situations (e.g., normal movement, turning, accelerating), you could use different .kin files for each action and blend them together in the game engine.
3. Modularity: Sometimes, it's easier to manage animations by breaking them into modular components. For example, you might have a base .kin file for the bogie's default movement and separate .kin files for different attachments or customizations.
4. Transitions: When transitioning between different states or animations, such as going from idle to moving, it's common to have separate .kin files that smoothly blend together to create a seamless animation transition.

Remember that the specifics might vary based on the software or game engine you're using. Always consult the documentation for your chosen tool to understand how to import, manage, and blend animations, including the use of multiple .kin files.

If you're working with a specific software or game engine, providing more details could help provide more tailored advice.

 

[mr-woodapple]

Appreciate the help, but as I mentioned earlier, I managed to fix it (and provided how I did it in case someone else is wondering).

 

[pcas1986]

Appreciate the help, but as I mentioned earlier, I managed to fix it (and provided how I did it in case someone else is wondering).

I must have missed this the first time through. It's great you found the solution but I thought I'd add a few comments for background.

Back when FBX first came in I spent some time working on FBX animation which wasn't working very well at all at the start. The issue with multiple kin files certainly got my attention and I wondered if that could provide extra animation features such as an animation changing its behaviour due to some influence from a third party. In a Trainz perspective I hoped it would allow action by a steam loco reverser to alter movement such as that in Walschaerts valve gear.

When I realised that Trainz bogie/driver animation still wanted a single kin file called anim.kin that kind of blew that idea. BTW, you should be able to do that sort of animation in Blender except that Trainz isn't interested.

So I turned my attention to the multiple kin files and it seemed to me that they are derived from the animation channels used by the animation. These must be exported in the FBX file and Trainz just creates a kin file for each of them.

Trainz likes a "baked" solution which is literally a known position (location/rotation/scale) for each bone for each frame exported. i.e. everything is fixed on export. I ran out of time to figure what all the other export options did but I did find what worked and what broke things. Those I tried to document in the WiKi but those pages I wrote are out of date.

I think I understand about 5% of Blender's animation capabilities. The other 95% might be useful for making movies in Blender but perhaps not much use for Trainz.

 

[ek.skirl]

I think I understand about 5% of Blender's animation capabilities. The other 95% might be useful for making movies in Blender but perhaps not much use for Trainz.

I'm with you, Paul.
As I tried to update the shed house tutorial I found, that it is possible to bake multiple animation files one after the other. The most important prediction is to not change the mesh.