Animated Marshalls

[PawelP]

Hello Guys,

Could someone be so kind and learn me in steps how to creates animated Marshalls with flags for GTR 2 track? Any tutorial will be great to see.

Thanks in advance.

 

[sunalp2]

I think I got this from motorfx or Kahn1670


_______________________Animated Marshalls :_______________________________________________
I been asked a lot about adding marshals... ..often found it was easier to add them, than to write about it regarding the anims added to the tracks, if you have ever had ago at putting nightlights into any tracks , then putting anims into any GTR2 track will appear even easier ,

there are some things to be cautious with , because like gdb and trk files etc , ani files are again a coded file , so I only edit existing ani files, and then rename them to my trackname , sometimes adding lines to them will cause CTD , its seems stable when deleting marshall lines etc , so I always choose an ani file that has the most marshalls ,and just remove them if needed, if it works out I've used less..
if you use " brno.ani," which has a good choice, just rename it to your track name ,thats in the GDB file , (I often use the same track naming throughout all files in folder, it also helps eliminates other potential problems )..

if you have a look in an existing ani file , it will show how they need to be written , and what you are going to do is edit the positions of the animations .... when editing them keep the same format , Pos=(592.521484, -0.183000, 537.361816) although you may not have as many digits for the positions of your marshal placement ... (Note: positions are X Z Y)

you will need to add "MASFile=TEAMMAPS.gtr" in the search paths to any track you are going to add them if it has'nt already been added, now this is my method , not saying it has to be done in any order , ...

So when you have your track in 3dsimed, you can choose Edit and "center objects", if there are static marshals already placed on the track , Apart from noting to remove the appropriate static marshal instances from the trk file , where you would like to place an animated marshal, ... go to "Tools/Reports/Report objects used" , answer YES to "xyz positions ?" and this will create a txt file of all objects used with positions, it does write more info than we need ,
eg ... marshl022.gmt",1,357.605804,187.142090,-16.150026,0.000000,0.000000,0.000000

only interested in the marshals positions from this line , so I copy and paste the 357.605804,187.142090,-16.150026 to another notepad, because before you can place it into an ani file you need to transpose XYZ swapping the Y and Z positions, to XZY for the ani file to work correctly. so it now looks like this 357.605804,-16.150026, 187.142090

if the track is bare of any marshals , then the same way you place any object, by finding the position required for placement , wherever you place the cursor over the position you would like to place a anim , spectator or marshal .. noting if its "pit out" or "pit in", ( this will become clearer when you look at the anims available ... ) sometimes where a marshall is to be place I may find it necessary to edit the fence or barrier section..so it dosent look as though your marshal is waving through a fence ....so " right click" with your mouse and choose "memorise xyz" from next menu and then paste into notepad , if so desired, it can make it easier to note where all the positions are for altering afterwards , but I usually just do the spectator section, it uses CAM EXIT and CAM ENTRY anims ... do this for all positions and build up a list of positions that can be edited further , because you will still have to alter XYZ again before pasting them as a replacement into the ani file ,
sometimes this method may be easier to just find your own positions , rather than use the track object info as you probably already know , they only wave yellow for incidents after their position , and of course use the blue if if you are approaching them being followed by someone lapping you ...
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[Caribstu]

Some tips.

You need two empty lines at the end of the text. Easiest way to ensure this is to take an existing ANI file and edit the Marshal data for your track, insuring you maintain the two empty lines at the end.

As mentioned in Sunalps' post, the Z value is the middle value. X Z Y

You need at least one marshal in each sector.

Sounds obvious, but your marshals must be listed in the same order in the ANI as they are on track. ONE, TWO, THREE, must be the order the right side marshals are on track, LEFT 1, LEFT 2, LEFT 3 likewise for the left side marshals on track.

I find it easiest to open the track in 3DsimED, import as object a marshal. Copy all, and paste into the track. It will appear at the X0, Y0, Z0 center point. I then move it to the Start finish line and position it where I want my first LEFT side marshal, entering the X Z Y data for LEFT 1 into the ani file. I then methodically move it round the track, adding in all my LEFT side X Z Y data for where I want my LEFT side marshals, until I'm back to the Start. Then i do my RIGHT side, entering the ONE data, and going round again doing all my RIGHT side marshals. Ii find this methodical process avoids getting the XZY data wrong, the on track order confused, or mixing left and right,

Each sector must be of equal value 33% of lap distance ( found that one out recently after weeks of head scratching)

Don't position marshals close to other portions of track, such as at a tight street circuit loop, to avoid a LEFT side marshal being too close to the RIGHT side of a different section of the track.

 

[PawelP]

@sunalp2 @Caribstu

Guys thank You very much for the tutorial, I will try to learn from it and apply into my future conversions.