Support Animation Layers for Skinned Meshes by Gopmyc · Pull Request #834 · Overload-Technologies/Overload

Gopmyc · 2026-08-30T23:50:32Z

Description

CSkinnedMeshRenderer played a single clip. It now drives up to 4 layers, each owning its
animation source model, animation, time, speed, loop mode and weight. Layer-scoped methods take a
trailing layer index defaulting to the base layer, which always exists

Pose evaluation iterates skeleton nodes instead of animation tracks, resolving each layer's track
per node. Only layers holding a track for a node contribute to it, their weights normalized against
each other, lerp for position and scale, slerp for rotation. Nodes no layer animates keep their
bind pose

Related Issue(s)

Fixes #833

Review Guidance

A single layer at any weight above zero reproduces the previous output; zero active layers gives
the bind pose.
Weights normalize per node, so a layer that alone drives a bone stays at full strength until its
weight reaches zero, where the bone falls back to bind pose. Documented on SetLayerWeight.
Going node-major also makes duplicate tracks pointing at the same node harmless, where
accumulating weights would have counted them twice. AssimpParser can emit those.
Scene format break: per-layer settings moved under a <layers> element. Existing scenes lose
playing, looping, playback_speed, time_ticks, animation and animation_source, and
reset to one default layer. No migration path.
Columns only drew Separator full width, through a hardcoded dynamic_cast. That is now an
opt-in AWidget::fullWidth flag, required for the collapsible layer groups. Default false, no
existing widget affected.
No bone masks: a layer only affects nodes its clip has tracks for. A rotation-only track still
contributes bind translation, matching the previous single-clip behaviour.

Screenshots/GIFs

N/A

AI Usage Disclosure

Documentation + Refactored code

Checklist

My code follows the project's code style guidelines
When applicable, I have commented my code, particularly in hard-to-understand areas
When applicable, I have updated the documentation accordingly
My changes don't generate new warnings or errors
I have reviewed and take responsibility for all code in this PR (including any AI-assisted contributions)

Columns only drew Separator across the full width, through a hardcoded dynamic_cast. Generalize it into an opt-in AWidget::fullWidth flag so any widget can opt out of being placed in a single cell.

Playback state moves from a single set of scalars to up to 4 layers, each owning its animation source model, animation, time, speed, loop mode and weight. Layer-scoped methods take a trailing layer index defaulting to the base layer, which always exists. Pose evaluation now iterates skeleton nodes instead of animation tracks and looks each layer's track up by node. Only layers holding a track for a node contribute to it, their weights normalized against each other, blending with lerp for position and scale and slerp for rotation. Nodes no layer animates keep their bind pose, so a single layer at any weight above zero reproduces the previous output. Going node-major also makes duplicate tracks pointing at the same node harmless, where accumulating weights would have counted them twice. Layers are added and removed at runtime and drawn as collapsible groups in the inspector, so only the layers actually in use are shown. Per-layer settings are serialized as repeated <layer> elements.

Add the layer management functions and the optional trailing layer argument carried by every layer-scoped function.

Gopmyc · 2026-08-30T23:59:11Z

+function SkinnedMeshRenderer:RemoveLayer(layer) end
+
+--- Starts/resumes animation playback on a layer
+---@param layer? integer


'?' marks the param as optional in LuaLS. First time it shows up in the repo, can switch to 'integer|nil' if you'd rather ?

I'm fine to start using type? instead of type|nil, good catch!
We'll update other type|nil to type? as we go

I think using AI to do that could be a huge time saver

Yeah AI is great for refactoring code like that :)
Could be done in another PR

Gopmyc · 2026-08-31T00:11:00Z

 			for (auto it = m_widgets.begin(); it != m_widgets.end(); ++it)
 			{
-				if (dynamic_cast<Visual::Separator*>(it->first))
+				if (it->first->fullWidth || dynamic_cast<Visual::Separator*>(it->first))


Needed for the collapsible layer groups : The inspector pins column 0 at 200px, so a
GroupCollapsable dropped in a cell gets crushed. Only 'Separator' could break out of the table
before, via this hardcoded cast, the flag just generalizes it. Defaults to false, nothing else
changes

Gopmyc

Just a few small changes to clarify things that I didn't find particularly explicit in the code itself

tccountus · 2026-08-31T18:57:23Z

                    <component>
                        <type>class OvCore::ECS::Components::CSkinnedMeshRenderer</type>
                        <data>
                            <mesh_bounds_scale>1.5</mesh_bounds_scale>
                            <pose_eval_rate>60</pose_eval_rate>
                            <layers>
                                <layer>
                                    <animation_source>?</animation_source>
                                    <playing>true</playing>
                                    <looping>true</looping>
                                    <playback_speed>1</playback_speed>
                                    <time_ticks>0</time_ticks>
                                    <weight>1</weight>
                                    <animation>root|idle</animation>
                                </layer>
                            </layers>
                        </data>
                    </component>

We have to modify Animation.ovscene in the Showroom project - maybe we could add something to convert the legacy format to the new

Gopmyc · 2026-08-31T19:25:50Z

                    <component>

                        <type>class OvCore::ECS::Components::CSkinnedMeshRenderer</type>

                        <data>

                            <mesh_bounds_scale>1.5</mesh_bounds_scale>

                            <pose_eval_rate>60</pose_eval_rate>

                            <layers>

                                <layer>

                                    <animation_source>?</animation_source>

                                    <playing>true</playing>

                                    <looping>true</looping>

                                    <playback_speed>1</playback_speed>

                                    <time_ticks>0</time_ticks>

                                    <weight>1</weight>

                                    <animation>root|idle</animation>

                                </layer>

                            </layers>

                        </data>

                    </component>

We have to modify Animation.ovscene in the Showroom project - maybe we could add something to convert the legacy format to the new

I don’t think adding backward compatibility for this case is really worth it, as the implementation and maintenance cost would be quite high for a fairly small migration issue. I’d say the same for a separate conversion tool.

Existing Scenes/Prefabs using a SkinnedMeshRenderer can simply be opened in Overload, updated to use the desired animation on Layer 0, and saved again.

The Lua API should remain backward compatible since the layer parameter defaults to 0.

I’ll also make a follow-up PR soon to fix this in Showroom.

adriengivry

I like the feature, I think it's a great addition.
The UI is a little confusing, "Layer 0", "Layer 1", etc... look like other components.

We probably want to keep collapsible groups for components, and find another way to present array elements.

Gopmyc · 2026-09-03T17:22:54Z

I like the feature, I think it's a great addition. The UI is a little confusing, "Layer 0", "Layer 1", etc... look like other components.
We probably want to keep collapsible groups for components, and find another way to present array elements.

I decided to switch to a simpler visual style where the boundary between layers is less pronounced than the components themselves, what do you think ?

adriengivry · 2026-09-03T19:18:17Z

 	{
-		animationChoice.choices.clear();
-		animationChoice.choices.emplace(-1, "<None>");
+		return HasCompatibleModel() ? std::string{} : std::string{ "No skinned model assigned" };


I like the idea of having a diagnostic message here, but when no issue is found, it leaves a blank spot.

Either we could add a message like for scripts, or disable the text dynamically.

Added a Ready at the component level like Behaviour does, and colored the layer messages. Left
the layers quiet when they're fine though, repeating "Ready" on each one gets noisy fast

Tried disabling the field first, but ExecutePlugins runs inside the if (enabled) block in
AWidget::Draw, so a widget that hides itself from its own gatherer never comes back. Probably
worth fixing on its own

Gopmyc added 3 commits August 31, 2026 01:43

Allow widgets to span every column of a Columns layout

6556834

Columns only drew Separator across the full width, through a hardcoded dynamic_cast. Generalize it into an opt-in AWidget::fullWidth flag so any widget can opt out of being placed in a single cell.

Document the animation layer API in the Lua reference

49c4518

Add the layer management functions and the optional trailing layer argument carried by every layer-scoped function.

Gopmyc commented Aug 30, 2026

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Gopmyc commented Aug 31, 2026

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Comment thread Sources/OvCore/include/OvCore/ECS/Components/CSkinnedMeshRenderer.h Outdated

Gopmyc commented Aug 31, 2026

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Gopmyc mentioned this pull request Sep 1, 2026

Updated animation scene for animation layers Overload-Technologies/Showroom#10

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5 tasks

adriengivry reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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Gopmyc added 3 commits September 3, 2026 19:10

Bind animation source via setter

fbd9e80

Remove animation layer limit

5105655

Draw animation layers as tree nodes

fc94ce9

adriengivry reviewed Sep 3, 2026

View reviewed changes

Show ready state in diagnostics

5987428

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Support Animation Layers for Skinned Meshes - #834

Support Animation Layers for Skinned Meshes#834
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Gopmyc commented Aug 30, 2026

Description

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