PlayIdle

A function included in the GECK for Fallout 3.

Description

PlayIdle causes the calling actor to play a specified idle animation. It is recommended to use ForcePlayIdle or PlayIdleEx instead of this function.

[Actor].PlayIdle IdleName:EditorID

Calling PlayIdle on the player directly is bugged (but works in ForcePlayIdle), but you can use it on the player if the player's the implied reference of an actor effect's script.

begin ScriptEffectUpdate
    playidle someIdle
End

Playidle takes the actual EditorID string of the idle as parameter, not the converted formID, so will take a string literal as parameter, not a ref variable.
When called on the player directly, PlayIdle will only work under very specific circumstances:
- When the game is in "Flying Camera" mode, as triggered by ToggleFlyCam
- During the frame in which the player activated the scripted reference, and only if the scripted reference's default activation is not triggered. For example, the following code will cause the player to play the appropriate Brahmin Push when they activate the scripted reference:
```
Begin OnActivate player
	if IsPC1stPerson
		player.PlayIdle Loose1stPBrahminPush
	else
		player.Playidle Loose3rdPBrahminPush
	endif
End
```
The above limitations can be overcome by placing the animation outside of the characters folder. This requires usage of 3rd party tools, such as FO3Edit, and is demonstrated here. When using vanilla animations in this manner, their file names must be changed, even if they are placed in a new folder. Note that adding a prefix to the file name works, but adding a suffix does not.