Introduction

AnimationChainListSaves are the "save" object type for AnimationChainLists. AnimatiohChainListSaves can be used to create and load .achx files. For general information on common FlatRedBall types, see the FlatRedBall File Types wiki entry.

The AnimationChainListSave class is a standardized way to save an AnimationChainList. Using the AnimationChainListSave class has the following benefits:

1. Requires very little code to use

2. Resulting files are 100% compatible with the FRBDK or any other application that can load .achx files.

Loading a .achx file

You can load load a AnimationChainListSave as follows:

AnimationChainListSave saveInstance = AnimationChainListSave.FromFile("fileName.achx");

Saving a .achx file

The following code saves a .achx file named MyAnimationChainList.achx. It assumes that animationChainList is a valid AnimationChainList.

Add the following using statements:

using FlatRedBall.Content.AnimationChain;
using FlatRedBall.Graphics.Animation;

Assumes animationChainList is a valid AnimationChainList:

 AnimationChainListSave save =
    AnimationChainListSave.FromAnimationChainList(animationChainList);
 string fileName = "MyAnimationChainList.achx";
 save.Save(fileName);

Saving a loaded AnimationChainListSave

Of course, you can save a loaded AnimationChainListSave:

string fileName = "fileName.achx";
// load it
AnimationChainListSave saveInstance = AnimationChainListSave.FromFile(fileName);
// and save it
saveInstance.Save(fileName);

Of course, the code above does nothing; however, you can do things to the saveInstance between the load and save calls:

 string fileName = "fileName.achx";
// load it
AnimationChainListSave saveInstance = AnimationChainListSave.FromFile(fileName);
foreach(AnimationChainSave chainSave in saveInstance.AnimationChains)
{
   // Do whatever to the chainSave
   // You can even loop through the frames:
   foreach(AnimationFrameSave frameSave in chainSave.Frames)
   {
       // do whatever you want to frames
   }
}
// and save it
saveInstance.Save(fileName);

In fact, you can do pretty much anything to an AnimationChainListSave instance and it will result in a valid .achx file when saving it out. This enables you to easily create tools to create and modify .achx files.

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