Copyright: Copyright © 1998, Eclipse Entertainment


Introduction

The Genesis3D Actor Viewer allows you to load Genesis3D Actor (.act) files and preview the actor's animations as they will appear when played in the Genesis3D engine.  Actor Viewer includes the full range of playback controls including Play, Pause, frame-by-frame, and variable speed playback, and also allows you to view the actor from any angle.


Loading an Actor

To load an actor for viewing, select File|Open (or press Ctrl+O), and select the desired actor file (.act extension) from the file open dialog box.  Actor Viewer remembers the last directory from which you loaded an actor, so the next time you select File|Open, you will already be in your Actors directory.

The last directory setting is stored in the program's initialization file so that the program remembers it between sessions.

Actor Viewer will also accept a dropped file.  If you drag a file from Windows Explorer and drop it onto the Actor Viewer window, Actor Viewer will attempt to load that file.  If you drop multiple files, Actor Viewer will open only one of the files.

In order to successfully load an actor, Actor Viewer needs not only the .act file, but also the actor's texture maps, whose location is specified in the .act file.  If the program reports that it's unable to load an actor file, the probable cause is that it was unable to find the actor's texture maps.  See Setting Texture Maps Location for more information.


Setting the Actor's Front Position

When it loads an actor, Actor Viewer displays the actor's default pose in what it thinks is the actor's front position.  Because there's no standard of "which way is up" among model builders, it's quite likely that Actor Viewer will actually be displaying a top, bottom, back, or side view instead of the actual front view.

If your actor is displayed incorrectly, select the pose button that displays the actual front view, and then select Options|Save as Front.  This will set the current pose as the actor's front position, and all of the preset pose buttons will display the proper poses.

The Options|Save as Front command saves the current orientation in the program's initialization file so that all actors' orientations are adjusted when they're loaded.


Selecting a Motion

When you load an actor, Actor Viewer displays the actor in its default pose−normally a Da Vinci pose−that was assigned the actor by its creator.

To view an motion, click on the Motion drop-down combo box and select the named motion that you want to view.  If the actor has an motion that was not named, it will be listed as "(Unnamed 1)", where '1' will be replaced by the motion's index.

When you select an motion, the actor's pose will change to the starting pose for that motion.  You're now ready to play the motion.


Controlling Playback

Motion playback is controlled by the VCR-style controls located at the bottom right portion of the window.

To play a selected motion, just click on the Play button (or press P).  The motion will play one time from start to finish.

If you want the motion to repeat, click on the Loop check box and press Play.  The motion will play from start to finish, and then repeat indefinately.

You can stop playback by pressing the Stop button (or S).

To pause playback, press Pause (or U).

To restart the animation at the beginning, press the Rewind button (or 0).

To go to the end of the animation, press the Fast Forward button (or 9).

To move frame-by-frame in the animation, use the Forward Frame (>) and Back Frame (<) buttons.


Adjusting Playback Speed

You can adjust the speed at which the motion is played by changing the Speed value.  This value is expressed as a percentage of the motion's normal speed, with the value 100 representing normal speed (i.e. 100 percent).  Valid values here are from 1 to 10,000 (100 times normal speed).


Adjusting Frame Step Time

The frame step time used when displaying a motion frame-by-frame is controlled by changing the value in the Frame Time edit box.  This value is expressed in 100ths of a second.  The default value of 5 will step the animation by 5/100 second every time the Forward Frame or Back Frame button is pressed.

The minimum frame step value is 1/100 second.  The maximum is 1 second (100).


Moving the Actor

You can move the actor around in the world (Pan) and change its orientation (Rotate).  You can also move the camera to get closer to or further from the actor (Zoom).

There are also six built-in orientation buttons that will display the actor's Front, Back, Left, Right, Top, and Bottom views, and a Center button that will snap the actor back to the origin (which is very useful if you Pan the actor out of view).


Adjusting Actor Size

You can control the size at which an actor is displayed by changing the Size value.  The displayed value is expressed as a percentage of the actor's normal size.  The valid values for this field are from 1 to 10,000 percent (100 times normal size).


Displaying Frame Rate

In many cases, it's useful to see how many animation frames are being played by the engine every second.  If you wish to view this information, select Options|Show Frame Rate.  The frame rate is displayed in the upper left corner of the screen along with some other information about the number of polygons displayed, etc.

You can toggle the frame rate display on and off quickly by pressing the E key.


Setting Texture Maps Location

To load an actor, the program requires not only the actor definition in the .act file, but also the actor's texture maps, which are stored in a directory that's specified in the actor file.  Normally, this directory is a Maps subdirectory of the current working directory, but the actor creation tools allow it to be set to any arbitrary directory.

In an attempt to accommodate most setups, Actor Viewer will try to load an actor using three different "current directory" settings.  The settings used, in order, are:

The value set by Options|Set Working Directory
The program's Current Working Directory
The directory that contains the actor being loaded

If Actor Viewer can't load the actor after trying all three "current directory" settings, it will report an error.


Shortcut Keys

Almost all of Actor Viewer's commands can be accessed by pressing hot keys.  The commands and their associated hot keys are:

Command	Hot Key
Help	F1
Open file	Ctrl+O
Toggle frame rate display	E
Pan (move) actor	A
Rotate actor	R
Zoom camera	Z
Play motion	P
Pause motion	U
Stop motion	S
Rewind motion	0
Fast forward motion	9
Back frame	<
Forward frame	>
Front view	N
Back view	B
Left side view	L
Right side view	I
Top view	T
Bottom view	M
Center actor	C


Creating a Custom Actor Viewer Level

If you want to customize the level in which Actor Viewer displays the actors, you can modify the supplied ActView.3dt file using the Genesis World Editor, compile the new level, and copy the resulting ActView.bsp and ActView.mot files to Actor Viewer's program directory.  If you then restart Actor Viewer, actors will be displayed in the new level.

You can display actors in any level, providing you name the level ActView.bsp and copy it to the program directory.

Note that actors are always displayed at the world origin (position 0,0,0 as displayed in the World Editor).  To maintain an acceptable frame rate, you should make your custom Actor Viewer level as simple as possible−preferably a hollow box or cylinder.