.animinstances file - M2TW

The .animinstances files are so far the least understood of all the M2TW battlemap building world files.

The function of the file is to provide the animated transitions that occur when some objects switch from undamaged to damaged group. Not all paired group objects have an animation. The objects that have the most obvious animation are the wall breach areas, where the wall passes through five animations as it switches between the undamaged and five progressively more damages states.

Relationship to collision volume

Experimentation shows that the animinstances file does not contain the co-ordinate data for the animation in relation to the settlement plan. Moving the objects collision volume in the.worldcollision file results in the animated version moving to the new position of the collision volume.

In this example the normally visible structural groups have been moved backwards in the ms3d file the pathfinding and docking information has been left as it was, and the collision volume has been moved forward and right:

Interestingly the unit that deployed the ladders to the old docking position then abandoned them - they wouldn't climb ladders with the collision volume in different location....

When the wall gets to the damage level where the animated transition comes in the wall appears in the collision volume location.

Textures

The texture for the animated section seems to be set in the animation mesh, not in .world or .animinstances.

The above is a quick test changing the texture used for the wall in the .world file to the litter texture. While the animation is in progress that same bit of wall switches texture back to the normal one

which isn't now specified for it in the .world file...

data\blockset\north_european\animations\wall_animations\castle_large_stone_wall\wall_large_castle_straight_animation_a.mesh

and other similar meshes for the various stages include the reference to

Blockset\textures\walls_castle_large_stone.texture

and the equivalent normal.texture, and is presumably changeable with a hex editor.