I have a cursory understanding of animation so please forgive any misunderstandings. I've been struggling with vertex animation for a flag in the wind.
So far I've baked my wind-simulated cloth modifier (No bones/skins used) into a bunch of shapekeys(?) as an Editable Mesh: https://gfycat.com/AstonishingOfficialAmazontreeboa (https://gfycat.com/AstonishingOfficialAmazontreeboa)
Could someone guide me in the right direction? I got lost in all different pages I've read that all seem to use different methods and formats and types of animations. My best guess so far is to attach my flag to a bone, create a VTA, then let WW compile the VTA?
Some of the pages I've read up on:
http://dev.wallworm.com/document/161/advanced_bone_settings.html (http://dev.wallworm.com/document/161/advanced_bone_settings.html)
http://dev.wallworm.com/topic/57/dmx_smd_and_vta_exporter.html (http://dev.wallworm.com/topic/57/dmx_smd_and_vta_exporter.html)
https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Vertex_animation (https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Vertex_animation)
https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Flex_animation (https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Flex_animation)
https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Creating_Flex_VTA_files_with_3D_Studio_Max (https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Creating_Flex_VTA_files_with_3D_Studio_Max)
In my opinion, you'll get more mileage by using $treesway.
I'd not try doing vertex animations for a flag, honestly.
But of course if someone does it and it looks good and is efficient, i'd be happy to see it.
To support Shawn's opinion, yes, the amount of stress a flex animation would add to the simulation is not worth it. Either an animation with bones (which would be considered really cheap) or using $treesway would be better options.
Doing with bones is good because the effect can be mimicked very closely, and it's by far the cheapest. The advantage with $treesway is that it can look very realistic since it'll be affected by the env_wind entity, though it is probably more 'expensive' than just an animation. However, I think that the $treesway option takes advantage of the GPU, which is also good.