IndependentTW Terminology - Ezekial711/MonsterHunterWorldModding GitHub Wiki

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Timeline Parameter

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TIMLs are not animations proper. They are transformation timelines. MHW TIMLs act as "modifiers" for other objects such as EFX, models, materials, flags, etc. TIML animate properties as an animation does, but because of this layer of "transferability" TIMLs need some way to "connect" with the target of their edits.

Timeline properties declare what family of objects the properties will modify. Each Timeline Property has a subset of properties which can be animated (this list is collected from ingame relations, it's still possible to animate properties not found normally under a timeline property but odds are the game will ignore them).

TIML Remapping

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Because one of the most common uses for TIMLs is to modify the position of objects (efx, colliders, etc). The IndependentTW engine allows mapping commonly used geometry transformations to blender properties. This is done both on import and export. Because of how this relationship hold in terms of usability and how blender animation system operates the UI might be confusing.

The TIML Remapping list visible on the tools menu indicates what the Blender properties will be mapped to when exporting. If one wants to "switch the properties around visually", the remap properties button (plus F6 to access the operator's options) will allow swapping the properties around within blender. The remapping on the panel only determines where Blender native properties are mapped to, it does not affect the tracks themselves.

IndependentTW Parameters

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TIML keyframes have additional information on every keyframe of the animation. This parameters or control values are used to perform easement and interpolation modifications, it's not fully understood how this operate and they are different for every interpolation type and property type. Some properties don't have value for the second parameter. The exporter will inform you if you are trying to set a value that isn't valid for the property type.

Additionally not all interpolation types are valid TIML Keyframes only support:

  • Constant
  • Linear
  • Quadratic
  • Cubic
  • Quartic
  • Exponential
  • Sinusoidal

And some property types don't accept all of the interpolation types.

IndependentTW TIML Controller

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To work in animating TIML properties a special object called the TIML Controller is created whenever you import a file with TIML Data on it, or you first set an action's asterisk type to TIML Action. The TIML Controller displays all of the properties tied to the Timeline Parameter of the current action, allowing one to animate them as one would any other blender property.

Visual Overview

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