Emote 3.0.0

Emote 3.0.0 introduces a new animation format (Schema v5), skin overrides, two-player interactive emotes, optional Polymer integration, and major improvements to the web converter.

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Highlights

• Overhauled the animation format with Schema v5, separating nodes from attachments and introducing advanced interpolation curves and per-track Molang expression controls.
• Added skin overrides, allowing specific parts of a player's skin to be replaced or outer layers to be removed using mask textures.
• Added Hug, a two-player interactive emote triggered through sign interaction, along with new Juggling and Exercise samples and improvements to existing animations.
• Made Polymer an optional dependency, allowing the mod to run without Polymer on servers that do not require custom resource delivery.
• Optimized pose calculations and display updates, increasing the default active display limit from 512 to 768.
• Improved the web converter to preserve original animation curves and Molang expressions while enhancing compatibility with external animation formats.

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Breaking Changes

Schema v5 Migration Required

Existing v4 Animation and Sequence files must be converted to v5 using the web converter before they can be used.

If you use the client mod, both the server and client must be updated to 3.0.0.

• Updated the schema_version of Animation and Sequence files from 4 to 5. The previous timeline structure has been integrated into animation, and the display_interpolation setting has been removed.
• Changed Polymer from a bundled dependency to a separately installed optional dependency. Servers requiring automatic resource pack delivery must install Polymer separately.
• The server_sync environment does not support dynamic clocks, Molang tick programs, Molang delays, or dynamic NBT.
• Updated the public API for Schema v5, including renamed exception classes, entity access methods, and other major API signature changes.
• The legacy v4 converter is now available at https://hanhy06.github.io/emote/legacy/converter/.

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Animation Format (Schema v5)

Structure and Transformations

• Separated transformation nodes from visible attachments. A single node can contain multiple attachments or serve as an invisible pivot without any rendered elements.
• Added support for composing translation, rotation, scale, and matrix transformations in a defined order, including configurable Euler rotation orders and Quaternion rotations.
• Added individual controls for inheriting rotation, scale, and visibility from parent nodes.
• Redesigned the timeline structure to better organize track properties and update behaviors, including partial NBT updates through patch operations.

Curves and Molang

• Added support for Step, Linear, Catmull-Rom, Hermite, and Bézier interpolation for vector curves, as well as SLERP interpolation for Quaternions.
• Added separate incoming (pre) and outgoing (post) keyframe values, with support for Molang expressions in curve control points and easing.
• Expanded Molang functionality with reusable curves shared across tracks (animation.values) and accumulated playback time (q.life_time).
• Added Molang-based control over playback speed and direction.

Delays, Events, and Sequences

• Added animation start delays, with Molang expression support for both start and loop delays.
• Added event execution direction controls (forward, reverse, or both), along with configurable command execution context and position.
• Added the emote:empty Sequence step, which hides display elements while waiting for external input. This step does not advance automatically and can be controlled through the external API.

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Mod Runtime

Playback and Display Processing

• Improved transitions between Sequence steps using linear interpolation for position and scale, and Quaternion interpolation for rotation. Also improved pose continuity around waiting steps.
• Animations following an emote:empty step now skip transition interpolation.
• Reduced unnecessary updates for hidden displays and prevented redundant updates caused by insignificant changes.
• Increased the default active display limit from 512 to 768.

Skins

• Added per-emote default skins and mask-based skin overrides. White areas of a mask are replaced, while black or transparent areas preserve the original skin. Transparent textures can also be used to remove outer skin layers.
• When a player's skin is unavailable, the emote's default skin is used instead. Skin overrides apply to both player skins and default skins.
• Fixed an issue where the outer head layer of legacy 64×32 skins was incorrectly rendered as transparent.

New Emotes and Sample Improvements

• Added Hug, a two-player interactive emote that allows another player to join by clicking a sign. The emote aligns both players' positions and orientations, transitioning from placing the sign into a hugging animation.
• Added Juggling and Exercise samples.
• Improved the animations of Cheer, Backflip, Drum, Cry, and Handstand for more natural movement.
• Updated all existing sample Animations and Sequences to Schema v5.

Server Management and Commands

• Made Polymer optional, allowing servers without custom resources to run Emote independently.
• Refactored the resource pack delivery pipeline and improved state cleanup when players disconnect.
• Improved emote wheel scroll sensitivity, tag searching, and synchronization.
• Updated the stress testing command to /emote stress-test <time> [load].

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Web Converter

Conversion Engine and Skin Assignment

• Redesigned the conversion engine to preserve original animation curves and Molang expressions.
• Preserved non-rendered bones as reference pivots while removing unnecessary static models and redundant keyframes.
• Added automatic detection of override and override_mask textures from Blockbench and Animated Java. When no mask is provided, one is generated from the painted areas of the texture.
• Preserved user-defined skin assignment order, allowing assignments with the same order value to share the same skin region. Also improved automatic body-part allocation.
• Updated the timeline event editor to support Schema v5.

External Format Importers

• Blockbench: Improved animation-to-part associations and preservation of pivot and locator coordinates.
• Animated Java: Improved preservation of per-display settings, sky light, and block light values. Fixed restoration of default settings after variant transitions. Locator functions now execute relative to their node's position and orientation.
• Bedrock: Improved coordinate system conversion, preservation of keyframe pre and post values, and Catmull-Rom boundary handling. Different animation channels referencing the same bone through aliases are now merged.
• Emotecraft: Improved loop transitions, start and end fades, and per-channel easing. Enhanced handling of NBS music instruments and pitches.
• Legacy Converter: Added support for converting v4 files to v5 and provided a dedicated legacy converter at /emote/legacy/converter/. Features that cannot be converted directly are reported as warnings.

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Developer API Changes

• Updated the public animation model to match Schema v5.
• Renamed EmoteAnimationLoadException to EmoteLoadException, which now also applies to Sequence loading.
• Added EmoteCallback, a shared callback interface for Animations and Sequences.
• Replaced getNodeEntity(nodeId) with getAttachmentEntity(nodeId, attachmentId).
• Renamed PlaybackInfo.timelineTick() to tick() and LoopMode to PlaybackMode.
• Changed EmoteInfo.getName() and getDescription() to the record-style accessors name() and description().
• Added PENDING for the state before the first frame is applied, along with START_DELAY and EMPTY for timeline waiting states.
• Added setStep(...) to control entry into and exit from emote:empty steps.

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Migration Guide

• Update both server and client: Due to changes in packet formats and runtime architecture, servers and clients using the client mod must both be updated to Emote 3.0.0.
• Check Polymer installation: Servers that require automatic resource pack delivery for emotes containing custom models or textures must install Polymer separately.
• Convert existing v4 emotes: Previously created v4 emote files must be converted to Schema v5 using the web converter before being deployed to the server.