AnimationGraphData

Class Documentation

Edit documentation

The animation graph of a character skin: every clip the character can play, and the tracks, masks, sync groups and blend rules that the clips use. A skin links its graph from SkinAnimationProperties.animationGraphData.

Playing a clip. The game plays an animation by name, for example Idle1, Run, Attack1 or Spell1. The name is hashed (FNV-1a 32 of the lowercased name) and looked up in mClipDataMap. A unit can carry run-time overrides that replace one name with another before the lookup. A name that is not in the map plays nothing: the graph has no fallback to another clip. The name none is always accepted and plays nothing.

What the game asks for. A unit asks for Run while it moves and Idle1 while it stands, on every update, not only when a clip ends. A clip that already plays is not started again. While an attack or spell animation plays on the track of Run or Idle1, the unit does not ask, so that clip plays to its end and then cross-fades into Run or Idle1. The game plays Turn by itself only for graphs that use a turn updater, see TurnAngleParametricUpdater.

Playing a clip again. A logic clip that is played while it already plays is not restarted in place. The client starts a new run of it next to the old one. The old run ends when the new run's clips replace its clips on their tracks.

Clips. A clip is one of several kinds. Two kinds produce a pose and play on a track: AtomicClipData, which plays one .anm file, and ParametricClipData, which blends several of them. The other kinds produce no pose. They decide which clips to start: in sequence, at the same time, at random, or from a condition.

Tracks. A clip that produces a pose plays on the track it names. Each track holds one clip at a time and cross-fades from the old clip to the new one (mBlendDataTable). The client then combines the active tracks into the final pose, in priority order and limited by each clip's mask.

Events. A clip can carry events that fire at given frames: particle effects, sounds, submesh visibility, joint overrides and more.

State graphs. A graph with entries in AnimStateGraphEntryClips works differently: it runs as a state machine, and a request to play a name becomes a signal to that machine.

Notes

• All references between objects of a graph are name hashes into the maps of the same graph. Shipped graphs have no dangling clip, track, mask or sync group names.

Properties

AnimStateGraphEntryClips

List<Hash> = []

Documentation Edit documentation

The entry clips of a state graph. When the list is not empty, the graph runs as a state machine built from StateAnimClipData and EventControlledSelectorClipData clips:

• A request to play an animation by name plays nothing. It raises a state event whose id is the hash of the requested name, and the clips that run react to it.
• Whenever no logic clip of the graph runs, the client plays every clip of this list, in list order. This starts the state machine, and starts it again if it stops.

An entry that is not a key of mClipDataMap is skipped. When the list is empty, the graph is a normal graph and a request plays the clip with that name.

Notes

• No shipped graph sets it.

mBlendDataTable

Map<U64, BaseBlendData> = {}

Documentation Edit documentation

The blend table: what the client does when one clip takes over from another on a track. The key is two clip name hashes in one 64-bit number. The high 32 bits are the clip that is left, and the low 32 bits are the clip that starts. The value is a TimeBlendData (a cross-fade time) or a TransitionClipBlendData (a clip to play in between).

The lookup is an exact match of the pair. There is no wildcard and no entry for "any clip". A pair with no entry cross-fades over 0.2 seconds.

Situation	Blend time
Clip A plays and clip B starts	The entry for (A, B)
A clip ends or is stopped and no clip replaces it	The entry for (A, 0): a key whose low half is 0
A clip starts on a track that was empty	None. The clip has its full weight at once
A clip is queued behind the clip that plays	The entry for (playing clip, queued clip). The queued clip starts that long before the playing clip ends, so the fade is complete when it ends

A clip that starts during a cross-fade fades in from the blended pose, not from one of the two clips.

Notes

• The entry for (A, 0) must be a TimeBlendData. With any other entry the fade-out takes 0.2 seconds.
• A clip that is queued behind a looping clip never starts, because the looping clip does not reach its end.
• The fade-out of a clip with nothing to replace it is skipped on a normal track when no other normal track is active.

mCascadeBlendValue

F32 = -1

Documentation Edit documentation

The length of each joint's own cross-fade under mUseCascadeBlend, as a fraction of the whole blend. A joint at distance d from the root (0 to 1) changes from the old clip to the new one while the blend progress goes from d - mCascadeBlendValue to d.

A small value gives a sharp wave that moves out along the limbs. A larger value overlaps the joints more. 0 makes each joint change in one step when the progress reaches its distance.

The client reads it only when mUseCascadeBlend is true.

Notes

• The default -1 is not a usable value with cascade blending on: nearly every joint shows the new clip from the first frame. Shipped graphs that turn cascade blending on use 0.15 or 0.4.

mClipDataMap

Map<Hash, ClipBaseData> = {}

Documentation Edit documentation

The clips of the graph. The key is the hash of the clip's name, and that hash is how everything refers to the clip: the game when it plays an animation, the other clips that use it as a child, and the keys of mBlendDataTable.

A name that the game asks for and that is not a key plays nothing.

Examples:

• Names the game asks for in shipped graphs include Idle1, Run, Death, Attack1, Attack2, Crit, Spell1 to Spell4, Channel, Channel_Wndup, Recall, Dance, Taunt, Laugh and Joke.

mMaskDataMap

Map<Hash, MaskData> = {}

Documentation Edit documentation

The joint masks of the graph, by name hash. A clip names its mask with BlendableClipData.mMaskDataName, and a ConformToPathEventData names one with its own mMaskDataName.

mSyncGroupDataMap

Map<Hash, SyncGroupData> = {}

Documentation Edit documentation

The sync groups of the graph, by name hash. A clip names its group with BlendableClipData.mSyncGroupDataName.

mTrackDataMap

Map<Hash, TrackData> = {}

Documentation Edit documentation

The blend tracks of the graph, by name hash. The client makes one track for each entry, sorted by TrackData.mPriority. A clip names its track with BlendableClipData.mTrackDataName.

Notes

• Every shipped graph has at least one track. A graph with one track calls it Default.

mUseCascadeBlend

Bool = false

Documentation Edit documentation

Turns on cascade blending for every cross-fade of the graph. A normal cross-fade uses one blend factor for the whole skeleton. A cascade cross-fade gives each joint its own factor, from how far the joint is from the root along the bone chain (the sum of the bone lengths in the bind pose, scaled so the farthest joint is 1). Joints near the root change to the new clip first, and the ends of the limbs change last.

mCascadeBlendValue sets how long each joint takes.

Notes

• The root joint and its direct children always use the normal blend factor.
• Few shipped graphs use it: the Aurelion Sol and Vel'Koz skins and two Summoner's Rift props.

objectPath

Hash = "0x0"

16.16

Documentation Edit documentation

The path hash of the graph object itself. In shipped data it always equals the object's own entry key. No reader of this value was found in the client's animation code.

Referenced by 5 classes · 5 properties

• BannerFlagData animationGraphData Link<AnimationGraphData>
• BannerFrameData animationGraphData Link<AnimationGraphData>
• SkinAnimationProperties animationGraphData Link<AnimationGraphData>
• TrophyData animationGraphData Link<AnimationGraphData>
• TrophyPedestalData animationGraphData Link<AnimationGraphData>

AnimStateGraphEntryClips

mBlendDataTable

mCascadeBlendValue

mClipDataMap

mMaskDataMap

mSyncGroupDataMap

mTrackDataMap

mUseCascadeBlend

objectPath