The CTagDefinition class represents a set of of keywords (tags). The class is used to represent a couple of different sets-of-keywords in the mannequin system. This includes the Mannequin Tags & Tag Definitions and FragmentID Definition File.
Tags can have priorities associated to them. Tag priorities are used mainly for ranking Mannequin Tagstates.
Tags can be assigned to a group. Tags that are grouped together will be mutually exclusive, so we will not be able to have a TagState indicating that both of them are active at the same time.
Tags in a CTagDefinition are assigned a sequential and unique TagId (starting from 0 and unique within its TagDefinition) that can be used to more efficiently perform operations instead of always using the name of the Tag.
Tags can be referred to by lowercase-crc32 for efficiency if using the order-dependent TagId is too restrictive.
Tags can be assigned bit sequences so they can become part of a tagstates (combination of tags) for looking up fragments or transitions.
Each tag can optionally have a Sub TagDefinition. This is mainly used by FragmentID Definition Files to specify what the Tag Definition is for their fragmentID-specific tags (aka Fragment Tags).
It is possible to store TagDefinitions in xml files and load them through the Animation Database Manager:
// Example of how to load a tag definition stored in an xml file.
IMannequin& mannequinInterface = pGameFramework->GetMannequinInterface();
IAnimationDatabaseManager& animationDatabaseManager = pMannequinInterface->GetAnimationDatabaseManager();
const CTagDefinition* pTagDefinition = animationDatabaseManager.LoadTagDefs( "Animations/Mannequin/ADB/ExampleTagDefinition.xml" );TagDefinitions can also be created directly through code, although this is a lot less common.
// Example of how to create a tag definition from code
CTagDefinition example;
example.AddTag("Aiming");
example.AddTag("Crouch", "StanceGroup");
example.AddTag("Stand", "StanceGroup");
example.AssignBits();