Animation loading code stops working (code snippet inside)

Scripting Issues
1

Is this maybe a bug in the engine, or have I mistyped something? My code:

import direct.directbase.DirectStart
from direct.showbase.DirectObject import DirectObject 
from direct.gui.OnscreenText import OnscreenText
from direct.task import Task 
from direct.actor import Actor 
import math 
import sys

class Asset:
    def __init__(self):
        self.mUID="316.10-1"
    
    #this function does load the mesh, but the animation doesn't work.
    #the code is identical to the code in the main class, other than
    #replacing the strings with variables.
    def Load(self, path, parentNode):
        self.mesh = Actor.Actor(path,{"Rotation":path})
        self.mesh.setScale(1.0,1.0,1.0)
        self.mesh.reparentTo(parentNode)
        self.mesh.loop("Rotation")
        
class Core(DirectObject):
    # Temporary task to move the camera 
    def SpinCameraTask(self, task): 
        angledegrees = task.time * 6.0 
        angleradians = angledegrees * (math.pi / 180.0) 
        base.camera.setPos(20*math.sin(angleradians),-20.0*math.cos(angleradians),6) 
        base.camera.setHpr(angledegrees, 0, 0) 
        return Task.cont 
    
    def __init__(self):
        self.title = OnscreenText(text="Panda3D: Tutorial - Actors",
                              style=1, fg=(1,1,1,0.5),
                              pos=(0.8,-0.95), scale = .07)

[color=red]
This code that’s been commented out works perfectly, the mesh animates as it’s supposed to.


        #Load the panda actor, and loop its animation 
        #self.pandaActor = Actor.Actor("content/test/earth",{"Rotation":"content/test/earth"}) 
        #self.pandaActor.setScale(1.0,1.0,1.0) 
        #self.pandaActor.reparentTo(render) 
        #self.pandaActor.loop("Rotation")

[color=red]This code calls the class listed up top.


        n=Asset()
        n.Load("content/test/earth.x",render)        
        
        # keyboard assignments
        self.accept('escape', sys.exit)

        taskMgr.add(self.SpinCameraTask, "SpinCameraTask")
        
        #Set the camera in a fixed position
        base.disableMouse()
        camera.setPosHpr(14.5, -15.4, 14, 45, -14, 0)
        base.setBackgroundColor( 0, 0, 0 )
        
# the bottom, root, everything starts here.
#------------------------------------------
theCore = Core()
run()

I’ve only been playing with the Panda3D engine for a little while now, but it seems to be a good fit for the project I’m working on. However, this bug’s got me stumped. Anyone have any suggestions?

2

One difference I see is that the working code is loading “content/test/earth” while the non-working code is loading “content/test/earth.x”. Maybe you meant to load the bam file version instead of the x file version?

David

3

No, that doesn’t make a difference. Whether it be .X or .egg, it still doesn’t work when loaded through the class. The model loads, but doesn’t animate.

4

Ah, I bet the problem is that you are not saving a reference to your “n” variable. Instead, you create a local “n” variable, call n.Load(), and then let n go out of scope. This means that n.mesh also goes out of scope, so the Actor stops animating, as soon as it was started.

Try using something like self.n instead.

David

5

Thanx, that was indeed the problem. It works like a charm now. I’m still learning to speak Python :blush: … I can see many more snafus like that one cropping up.