Animation Compression Dialog

Document Summary: This doc explains the options available in the AnimSet^? Editor's animation compression dialog.

Document Changelog: Created by Daniel Wright and updated by Dave Burke^?.

Overview

This document describes how to preview and modify animation compression settings in the editor. For details about the various compression algorithms and a more technical overview of animation compression please see AnimationCompression.

Viewing Compressed Animation

In UnrealEd, animation compression is previewed and manipulated in the AnimSetEditor^?, which is the viewer that is launched when an animation or skeletal mesh is double clicked in the generic browser. The skeletal mesh appearing in the AnimSet Editor's viewport is always animated with compressed animation data; this is possible because since animation is always compressed on import (as described in AnimationCompression).

To compare the compressed animation against the uncompressed data, use the "Show Uncompressed Animation" toolbar button (pictured above) to cause a yellow skeleton to appear that is animated with the source animation data.

Along the bottom of the AnimSet Editor are memory stats comparing the size of the compressed data vs the raw data for the select animset and animsequence.

Each time an animation is compressed, the compression settings are stored with the sequence so that animation can easily be recompressed. The compression settings currently applied to a sequence can be inspected in the AnimSet Editor by selecting the sequence and opening the AnimSequence property window tab, pictured below:

Applying Animation Compression

Animation compression settings are stored per sequence and are manipulated with the animation compression dialog. This dialog is launched from the AnimSet Editor either through the "Animation Compression" menu or on the toolbar via the "Animation Compression..." toolbar button, pictured below:

The animation compression dialog is pictured below. Along the left is a list of available compression algorithms and a pair of buttons for applying compression settings to the entire set or to a single sequence. When a compression algorithm is selected, the right side of the dialog is populated with properties for the selected algorithm.

Animation compression is applied to the currently selected animset or animsequence in the AnimSet Editor. To apply animation compression to a specific set or sequence, first select the set/sequence in the Animset Editor. Open the animation compression dialog and select a compression technique from the "Compression Algorithms" list. Hit the "Apply To Set" button to apply the technique to the entire animset, or hit the "Apply To Sequence" button to apply the technique to the selected animsequence. You can then preview the mesh in the AnimSet Editor viewport, tweak settings and recompress as necessary.