Docs / Panel reference / Settings
Settings
The Settings window — connection, rig handling, experiment levers and interface toggles, in seven groups.
Opened from Animatica ▸ Settings…. It is a window rather than a card, and it shares the tool window's state, so a change here applies immediately.
Each group carries its own Reset, scoped to the fields that group owns.
#Connection
| Control | Description |
|---|---|
| Backend | Local or Cloud (api.animatica.ai). The panel below swaps to match. |
| Server URL (Local) | Where your MMCP server listens; the default is http://localhost:8000. Test re-checks it. |
| Email / Password / Log In / Log Out / Test Connection (Cloud) | Your Animatica account. |
The backend and the server URL are shared across every Animatica host on the machine: it is one account against one server, so signing in or changing the URL in one application covers the others. Everything else in this window is per-host.
The header pill reports the last verdict. Availability is re-probed on first show, on Test, when you switch backend, and — debounced — while you type a URL. Typing only updates the pill; a backend switch may also offer recovery actions.
A busy local server looks like a dead one — the liveness probe waits five seconds. A single-worker local server in the middle of answering a generation cannot answer the probe within that window, so it is reported as unreachable even though it is running and working normally. Wait for the run to finish, then press Test.
#Naming
Empty in 3ds Max. The controls this group holds in other hosts describe named animation containers, which Max does not have — the scene holds one animation, and there is nothing here to name.
#Non-canonical rigs
| Control | Description |
|---|---|
| Skip top joint when sending hierarchy | On by default. Most rigs carry a synthetic reference node above the hips that the server does not expect; this uses the next joint, usually Hips, as the character root. |
| Retarget route | How a rig that differs from the model's skeleton is reconciled. Leave it on Auto: in 3ds Max retargeting happens on the server, so Auto asks the server for its retarget state and lets it decide. Server forces the rig onto the wire; None asks for no retarget anywhere. |
| Compensate group scale + Group scale | For a rig sitting under a scaled parent. Offsets are divided by the value on send and multiplied back on apply. Uniform scale only. |
A route from another host is not honoured silently — a saved route that names a local retarget resolves back to Auto, and the Console says so. Retargeting is server-side here; there is no local route to fall back to.
#Debug
A Debug folder and a switch that writes one folder per generation run underneath it — useful for diffing a misbehaving session against a known-good one.
The rest of the group holds clearly-labelled experiment levers. Each says in its own sublabel that it is an experiment and what the server does with it. Leave them alone unless you are chasing a specific problem with support.
#Extra options
| Option | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Match scene FPS | On: generated motion is keyed frame-for-frame at the scene frame rate, so authored frames and constraints stay 1:1. Off: keys land at the model's native 30 fps — real-time pace, but frames may shift. A no-op in a 30 fps scene. |
| Send path heading (face along path) | An A/B experiment; it may over-constrain turning. Compare with it off. |
| Send real body context with hand/foot pins | An A/B experiment. Off (the default) lets the server approximate the body from a T-pose. |
| Path waypoint wins over same-frame hand/foot pins | Off (default): pins snap onto their target, and the body may jump to reach them. On: your waypoint is steered — smoother motion, pins land near but not on their target. |
| Duplicate path waypoints at block seams | On by default: a waypoint on a shared block boundary is also sent one frame earlier, so both blocks are steered. Off sends it to the later block only, which can leave the earlier one unsteered and sliding at the seam. |
| Correct ground offset | Subtracts the measured server float so feet land on the ground. Canonical rigs only; it shifts pinned poses down by the same amount. |
#Interface
| Control | Description |
|---|---|
| Show Motion Import panel | Reveals card 02, Motion Import. This one applies immediately — the card appears without reopening the window. |
| Show Live Drive panel | Has no effect in 3ds Max. The panel is shown only where the host declares a live-drive capability, and this host does not declare one, so the preference alone cannot reveal it. It is the capability, not the toggle, that decides. |
| Open Animatica on 3ds Max startup | Has no effect in 3ds Max. The preference is stored, but this plugin never reads it back, so the window does not open by itself. |
Two of the three switches above do nothing here, and for different reasons. Live Drive is gated on a capability this host does not declare. Auto-open is simply not implemented in the 3ds Max plugin: the setting is shared with the other hosts, and only they act on it. Open the window from the Animatica menu.
#Keyboard Shortcuts
A collapsed, read-only reference to the timeline's full interaction vocabulary — the same keys and gestures that work with the mouse over the Prompt Timeline.