Loading and Animating the Panda Model

Update the Code

The Actor class which is available to Python users is not available to C++ users. you should create your own Actor class which at least should do the following:

  • load the Actor Model

  • load the animations

  • bind the model and the animations using AnimControl or AnimControlCollection

The next sample will load the panda model and the walk animation. the call: window->loop_animations(0); does the magic of binding all the loaded models and their animations under the node path: render . it’s very important to note that any animations loaded after the above call will not show until the same method is called again. also any animations loaded under a node path which doesn’t belong to render (for example: render_2d) will not show even if the call: window->loop_animations(0); is made. For such animations to show, other steps must be applied (more on this later).

 1#include "pandaFramework.h"
 2#include "pandaSystem.h"
 3
 4int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
 5  // Open a new window framework and set the title
 6  PandaFramework framework;
 7  framework.open_framework(argc, argv);
 8  framework.set_window_title("My Panda3D Window");
 9
10  // Open the window
11  WindowFramework *window = framework.open_window();
12  NodePath camera = window->get_camera_group(); // Get the camera and store it
13
14  // Load the environment model
15  NodePath scene = window->load_model(framework.get_models(), "models/environment");
16  scene.reparent_to(window->get_render());
17  scene.set_scale(0.25, 0.25, 0.25);
18  scene.set_pos(-8, 42, 0);
19
20  // Load our panda
21  NodePath panda = window->load_model(framework.get_models(), "models/panda-model");
22  panda.set_scale(0.005);
23  panda.reparent_to(window->get_render());
24
25  // Load the walk animation
26  window->load_model(panda, "models/panda-walk4");
27  window->loop_animations(0); // bind models and animations
28                              //set animations to loop
29
30  // Add our task, which can be any function or lambda that returns DoneStatus.
31  framework.get_task_mgr().add("SpinCameraTask", [=](AsyncTask *task) mutable {
32    // Calculate the new position and orientation (inefficient - change me!)
33    double angledegrees = task->get_elapsed_time() * 6.0;
34    double angleradians = angledegrees * (3.14 / 180.0);
35    camera.set_pos(20 * sin(angleradians), -20.0 * cos(angleradians), 3);
36    camera.set_hpr(angledegrees, 0, 0);
37
38    // Tell the task manager to continue this task the next frame.
39    return AsyncTask::DS_cont;
40  });
41
42  // Run Panda's main loop until the user closes the window.
43  framework.main_loop();
44  return 0;
45}

We are first loading the model file and the animation file like ordinary models. Then, we are simply calling loop_animations(0) to loop all animations.

Run the Program

The result is a panda walking in place as if on a treadmill:

../../../_images/tutorial3.jpg