Whilst trying to track down an issue with another user from LL, (don't ask me what the mods are, you really don't want to know.) we noticed an odd behaviour regarding animations and how they are saved in MO after you run the FNIS tool.
Normally when you run ANY tool in MO the files that exist already in the VFS are updated and any NEW files that are created are sent to 'Overwrite', where you can decide if they need to made into a mod or discarded. This is how everyday FNIS use is when we add mods that have animations that affect the actor or the player's character or NPCs.
Now when you add a mod that has creature animations, such as the ones in the initial situation, (considering the site they came from you can imagine what they contain :O_o: ) FNIS somehow handles these differently and the resultant *.hkx files are actually saved into the MAIN FNIS mod and are now active in EVERY profile that you have FNIS active.
This is completely different to PC & NPC animations where you can have the FNIS output from 'Overwrite' made into a profile specific mod that can be de/activated at will.
What this means is the MAIN FNIS mod is now changed to contain animations specific to those mods and if those plugins necessary for those animations are not active, such as in another profile or if you remove those mods, you will have frozen or T-posed creatures in your game.
How to fix this situation?
The first thing you might consider is to run the "De-install creatures" function from inside the FNIS tool. This will in fact remove these newly created animations from inside the MAIN FNIS mod but it also removes the *_TEMPLATES specific to each creature from inside the FNIS -- Creature Pack, necessary for the functionality of these mods.
This means if you want to install another mod that also has creature animations FNIS will complain that Creature Pack is missing, despite the fact the mod is still installed. MO is unaware that the TEMPLATES inside it have been removed.
So, after running the "De-install creatures" function you MUST re-install the FNIS -- Creature Pack.
(Now after bringing this to @fore's attention he has agreed to change the functionality of that button to leave behnd the TEMPLATES, but this won't be in place until the new version of FNIS is released.)
Here is my MO log from running FNIS with a creature animation mod installed.
Here is the Bug Genie report that is now closed because @tannin can't see how it is related to how MO's code works.
What we need to do is see if it is in fact an error caused by the code in FNIS or MO and then bring it to the attention of either author.
We also should consider re-evaluating the install instructions of FNIS inside MO to avoid this issue. There are possibly a few ways this can be avoided.
The biggest problem is the MAIN FNIS mod contains the tools needed to update the animations. The original soultion posed by this user was to have multiple installs of FNIS, specific to each profile. Whilst I originally criticised this idea it does now look to be a good option, except for the need to update multiple copies of the mod with each new FNIS version and then ensure the shortcuts to those tools are correct each time. Very problematic.
Splitting the FNIS install into two: tools and scripts in one mod and the basic meshes in another unfortunately doesn't work since running the tool still places the new *.hkx files into the mod that contains the FNIS tool, not the one with the meshes, thus defeating the purpose of splitting them.
What anyone that uses FNIS, to provide creature animations needs to do, is re-install the Creature Pack each time after choosing "De-install creatures", at least until the new FNIS version is released.
If anyone can think of a clean and easy way to maintain profile specific versions of the FNIS mod, please post here as I am currently devising a "simple" method for all MO users to run this tool.
Or if you can pinpoint the error as from either FNIS or MO let me know and we can get either author to change it.
EDIT: 1)
I just now tried to make an already existing mod that contains the various creature animations and have that active alongside the FNIS -- Creature Pack. No change, although the established MO behaviour would dictate these already existing files would be UPDATED, new files are again place inside the MAIN FNIS mod. Very weird.
I've PMd @fore to get some input into how he has his code working, ie. does NPC & PC animations have to be treated differently to creature ones, and whether his code specifically treats them as different and if so why.
Further both @Greg and myself are examining the VB code for it, to see if there is some trick to this odd behaviour.
EDIT: 2)
Looking at the MO logs seems to show that the FNIS code uses variables for the paths used by actor animations but it uses commandline functions to go back through the directory tree twice before saving the files in the meshes folder when dealing with creature animations.
I still can't see why MO would follow that and place them in that folder and not the 'Overwrite' since none of these files exist beforehand in the VFS.
Question
GrantSP
Whilst trying to track down an issue with another user from LL, (don't ask me what the mods are, you really don't want to know.) we noticed an odd behaviour regarding animations and how they are saved in MO after you run the FNIS tool.
Normally when you run ANY tool in MO the files that exist already in the VFS are updated and any NEW files that are created are sent to 'Overwrite', where you can decide if they need to made into a mod or discarded. This is how everyday FNIS use is when we add mods that have animations that affect the actor or the player's character or NPCs.
Now when you add a mod that has creature animations, such as the ones in the initial situation, (considering the site they came from you can imagine what they contain :O_o: ) FNIS somehow handles these differently and the resultant *.hkx files are actually saved into the MAIN FNIS mod and are now active in EVERY profile that you have FNIS active.
This is completely different to PC & NPC animations where you can have the FNIS output from 'Overwrite' made into a profile specific mod that can be de/activated at will.
What this means is the MAIN FNIS mod is now changed to contain animations specific to those mods and if those plugins necessary for those animations are not active, such as in another profile or if you remove those mods, you will have frozen or T-posed creatures in your game.
How to fix this situation?
The first thing you might consider is to run the "De-install creatures" function from inside the FNIS tool. This will in fact remove these newly created animations from inside the MAIN FNIS mod but it also removes the *_TEMPLATES specific to each creature from inside the FNIS -- Creature Pack, necessary for the functionality of these mods.
This means if you want to install another mod that also has creature animations FNIS will complain that Creature Pack is missing, despite the fact the mod is still installed. MO is unaware that the TEMPLATES inside it have been removed.
So, after running the "De-install creatures" function you MUST re-install the FNIS -- Creature Pack.
(Now after bringing this to @fore's attention he has agreed to change the functionality of that button to leave behnd the TEMPLATES, but this won't be in place until the new version of FNIS is released.)
Here is my MO log from running FNIS with a creature animation mod installed.
Here is the Bug Genie report that is now closed because @tannin can't see how it is related to how MO's code works.
What we need to do is see if it is in fact an error caused by the code in FNIS or MO and then bring it to the attention of either author.
We also should consider re-evaluating the install instructions of FNIS inside MO to avoid this issue. There are possibly a few ways this can be avoided.
The biggest problem is the MAIN FNIS mod contains the tools needed to update the animations. The original soultion posed by this user was to have multiple installs of FNIS, specific to each profile. Whilst I originally criticised this idea it does now look to be a good option, except for the need to update multiple copies of the mod with each new FNIS version and then ensure the shortcuts to those tools are correct each time. Very problematic.
Splitting the FNIS install into two: tools and scripts in one mod and the basic meshes in another unfortunately doesn't work since running the tool still places the new *.hkx files into the mod that contains the FNIS tool, not the one with the meshes, thus defeating the purpose of splitting them.
What anyone that uses FNIS, to provide creature animations needs to do, is re-install the Creature Pack each time after choosing "De-install creatures", at least until the new FNIS version is released.
If anyone can think of a clean and easy way to maintain profile specific versions of the FNIS mod, please post here as I am currently devising a "simple" method for all MO users to run this tool.
Or if you can pinpoint the error as from either FNIS or MO let me know and we can get either author to change it.
EDIT: 1)
I just now tried to make an already existing mod that contains the various creature animations and have that active alongside the FNIS -- Creature Pack. No change, although the established MO behaviour would dictate these already existing files would be UPDATED, new files are again place inside the MAIN FNIS mod. Very weird.
I've PMd @fore to get some input into how he has his code working, ie. does NPC & PC animations have to be treated differently to creature ones, and whether his code specifically treats them as different and if so why.
Further both @Greg and myself are examining the VB code for it, to see if there is some trick to this odd behaviour.
EDIT: 2)
Looking at the MO logs seems to show that the FNIS code uses variables for the paths used by actor animations but it uses commandline functions to go back through the directory tree twice before saving the files in the meshes folder when dealing with creature animations.
It is shown thus:
compared to this:
I still can't see why MO would follow that and place them in that folder and not the 'Overwrite' since none of these files exist beforehand in the VFS.
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