Updated BG2 animations, Ooh. Sexy. Options

[devSin]

I posted this over at Forgotten Wars, but it's probably better here:

Nice, but this begs the question: why don't you simply make up your own? I guess there's not much wrong with using existing weapon animation slots, but I can feel the trouble brewing.

Adds casting animations for mummies, mindflayers, cornugons, glabrezu, tattered skeleton warriors, and yuan-ti spellcasters

Mummies: Nice.
Mind Flayers: I may be mistaken, but these look identical to the animations already included (the mind flayers have G25 and G26, and they appear valid to me).
Cornugon: This may be a problem with ToB on Mac OS X, or a problem with 3D, but the animation is too wide (whenever the wings are full-span, the cornugon starts floating around on the screen and parts of the interface get drawn around it).
Glabrezu: Nice.
Tattered Skeleton: Nice.
Yuan-Ti: Nice.

EDIT: I should mention that I tested each sequence for all of these, using CTRL+S and CTRL+A. I also checked weapon animations for various weapon styles (these shouldn't make a difference, since there are no weapon animations for these creatures). Everything (minus the cornugon) worked properly.

You also include the whole IC_LIZARD_CASTER1 animation set, but quite a few of these are unnecessary (they're identical to the animations already included in BG2).

I would have liked to see a refined wailing virgin (if such a thing exists; the one in BG2 doesn't have a death animation and has the shortened casting animation). Oh well.

This post has been edited by devSin: Mar 22 2005, 08:15 PM

[Galactygon]

Nice, but this begs the question: why don't you simply make up your own? I guess there's not much wrong with using existing weapon animation slots, but I can feel the trouble brewing.

There are 2 main reasons for this:
1.) You cannot add extra slots beyond a certain limit. Hardcoded.
2.) There will be PS:T animations coming in as well. There are lots of them.

I would have liked to see a refined wailing virgin (if such a thing exists; the one in BG2 doesn't have a death animation and has the shortened casting animation). Oh well.

That could make it when I release V2.

-Galactygon

[SimDing0]

There are 2 main reasons for this:
1.) You cannot add extra slots beyond a certain limit. Hardcoded.

Weapon animation slots? I'm fairly sure you can.

This post has been edited by SimDing0: Mar 22 2005, 06:13 PM

[devSin]

The 4 character animation ID is hardcoded and cannot be changed. The sequence IDs are required (while you can use different sequence IDs, the game will simply ignore them). As far as I know, the game doesn't care one way or the other what the weapon ID is. So, instead of ANIMIDwSEQID.BAM (where "w" is an existing weapon animation ID), you use some previously unassigned letter for "w."

This has two benefits: you get a lot more possibilities, and there is no chance of conflict. You can create special items with the animation ID name (or some easy-to-identify name), and then you can just set the weapon animation ID to the new value. So you could have something like MSALZA1.BAM, and then a weapon with the animation ID (inventory icon in NI, I think) set to Zx (where "x" is some other alphanumeric character that is ignored for IwD-style animations).

All that said: I don't think I ever actually tried this for Icewind Dale animations. I know for a fact that it works for new BG2-style animations, however, and I can't see why the older style would be any different.

That could make it when I release V2. :)

Perhaps. But I can't wait that long (I hope to actually be playing the game fairly soon). Oh well.

[Chevar]

As far as I know, the game doesn't care one way or the other what the weapon ID is. So, instead of ANIMIDwSEQID.BAM (where "w" is an existing weapon animation ID), you use some previously unassigned letter for "w."

Have you tested this, or are you talking theory?

[devSin]

As I said, I know as a fact that this works with new-style animations (so something like MSOLG1ZZ.BAM will work, as long as you equip an item with a weapon ID of 'ZZ'). I don't know about Baldur's Gate- or Icewind Dale-style animations (I have to believe that something like MLIZZA1.BAM would work fine, but I'm not really inclined to test it).

It's a shame that the Baldur's Gate II-style animations can't be used, as the number of available slots would increase exponentially. Oh well.

It should also be noted somewhere that all the animations will inherit the sequence sounds of the parent animation (as determined by the <4 char animation ID>.2DA). So the sounds will all need to be manually assigned (corresponding to the various animation sequences) if the animations are used.

EDIT: Now that I think about it, the sequence sounds likely only populate the base creature animations, so the new animations (filling out the weapon slots) wouldn't have any sounds at all.

This post has been edited by devSin: Mar 22 2005, 11:56 PM

[Galactygon]

For a moment, I thought you meant the animation slots themselves.

I haven't heard of the theory you mentioned until now, so I didn't try anything with it yet. Depending on the circumstances, I might in the future.

-Galactygon

[Nerik]

Well as an experiment, I added WoRM/Simplistic's NWN Pit Fiend to the Bestial Animations Rhinocerous Beetle animation (B)ow slot, and changed the pit fiend's weapon animation to Bow, and, so far, it works.

I'm not sure how we would assign weapon animation for unused weapon codes though.

Charles

[Galactygon]

I would include the animation, if there would be a shadow present. Since my patience is limited, I will not put in any effort to make one. If someone else does it for me, I will be more than happy to include it in the mod and give credit for the work done.

-Galactygon

This post has been edited by Galactygon: May 1 2005, 10:41 PM

[T.G.Maestro]

If I recall correctly, the newest version of Wrom's Pit Fiend animation has shadows as well, so you might just as well contact him - he'll gladly add it to Bestial Animations I guess.