Slitherine

I brought up the issue of jerking animation in 1.5.24 beta and it seems that every model is going to be official(or already official) and I wish I could bring this issue again.
I took close look at the Lydian irregular and new Spanish warband, comparing them with plain irregular and universal warband models. To be honest, both former two's jerkiness is more serious than the latter. The problem probably comes from the new shield and its orientation. Lydian irregualr's shield is quite large. So it constantly changes facing when animation cycles. And the new Spanish warband's shield orientation is different comparing with plainh Warband. The Spanish one holding the shield more horizontally while the plain warband holds it more vertically. When both using the same animation library, the effect is quite differet. I had hoped the new models could be tuned before the officially release, giving shield proper orientation and position. Frankly, if nothing can be done, I prefer the original models if they could be brought back, which gives me better feel.

The other issue is that when I was in game, in deployment phase(hot-seat mode), two soundtracks are playing at the same time. Only after I start the battle, there's only one playing. Maybe it's worth checking.

melm wrote: Thu Mar 26, 2020 3:35 am I brought up the issue of jerking animation in 1.5.24 beta and it seems that every model is going to be official(or already official) and I wish I could bring this issue again.
I took close look at the Lydian irregular and new Spanish warband, comparing them with plain irregular and universal warband models. To be honest, both former two's jerkiness is more serious than the latter. The problem probably comes from the new shield and its orientation. Lydian irregualr's shield is quite large. So it constantly changes facing when animation cycles. And the new Spanish warband's shield orientation is different comparing with plainh Warband. The Spanish one holding the shield more horizontally while the plain warband holds it more vertically. When both using the same animation library, the effect is quite differet. I had hoped the new models could be tuned before the officially release, giving shield proper orientation and position. Frankly, if nothing can be done, I prefer the original models if they could be brought back, which gives me better feel.

I will look into it and see if the animation file can be tweaked. What we can't do is change the model's built-in animations, only select which ones it uses. I think the Celtiberian unit probably uses the Hastati model.

The other issue is that when I was in game, in deployment phase(hot-seat mode), two soundtracks are playing at the same time. Only after I start the battle, there's only one playing. Maybe it's worth checking.

There was a bug that could sometimes play 2 soundtracks if you reloaded a game that was saved during force selection (or maybe deployment). Is that what happened here? We have not been able to track down the cause.

It obviously does not happen all the time (unless it does for you). It might be a driver issue as (as far as the engine is concerned) there is only 1 soundtrack channel, or it might be an engine issue. Can you give any more details regarding the exact situation in which it occurred, included anything you did before it happened.

I have heard it very rarely on my own system, but have been unable to reproduce it to order.

For the Celtiberians I can get rid of what you describe as jerkiness (but could be interpreted as a sudden fidget) by switching to Hastati animations and removing the cheer animation. But that just makes them look highly disciplined and non-warbandy, so I am not inclined to do so.

The Lydians use the Bruttian Veterans model, and have exactly the same animations - and the same "jerkiness". One of the "active" animations is more jerky than the other, but the other still jerks at the end, so the only way to eliminate the issue completely would be to only use the "passive" wait animation which would make them look very wooden.

I know this is one of those annoying things that is hard to ignore once you have noticed it, but the truth is that many other units have the same issue, and if you stop thinking about it (and zooming in close on them) eventually you won't notice any more. Of course there is always the option to turn off Wait animations in Settings, but that would be a shame.

rbodleyscott wrote: Thu Mar 26, 2020 8:03 am There was a bug that could sometimes play 2 soundtracks if you reloaded a game that was saved during force selection (or maybe deployment). Is that what happened here? We have not been able to track down the cause.

It obviously does not happen all the time (unless it does for you). It might be a driver issue as (as far as the engine is concerned) there is only 1 soundtrack channel, or it might be an engine issue. Can you give any more details regarding the exact situation in which it occurred, included anything you did before it happened.

I have heard it very rarely on my own system, but have been unable to reproduce it to order.

It happend today when I play my beta game from steam. And I turned my regular use site version's music off, so I don't know it happens often or not.

To desribe the condition, I created a custom game, selected hot-seat mode, started the game, and started to deploy, two soundtracks were playing.

melm wrote: Thu Mar 26, 2020 10:41 am

rbodleyscott wrote: Thu Mar 26, 2020 8:03 am There was a bug that could sometimes play 2 soundtracks if you reloaded a game that was saved during force selection (or maybe deployment). Is that what happened here? We have not been able to track down the cause.

It obviously does not happen all the time (unless it does for you). It might be a driver issue as (as far as the engine is concerned) there is only 1 soundtrack channel, or it might be an engine issue. Can you give any more details regarding the exact situation in which it occurred, included anything you did before it happened.

I have heard it very rarely on my own system, but have been unable to reproduce it to order.

It happend today when I play my beta game from steam. And I turned my regular use site version's music off, so I don't know it happens often or not.

To desribe the condition, I created a custom game, selected hot-seat mode, started the game, and started to deploy, two soundtracks were playing.

It tried this with the STEAM version and the non-STEAM version and it occurred with neither. Perhaps it is a driver issue.

I will notify Pip.

Could you post your DXDiag report please.

It's a shame that I can't reproduce either. I'll keep it in mind.

Here is the DXDiag report. Hopefully it's useful.

Thanks. I will pass it on to Pip