6 replies to this topic

[Gwendolyne]

I am porting a brand new huge animation (750x750 px) - sorry, I will release its name only when it will be finished - using the XDR animation type (dragons).

The frames are almost finished and I made several tests overwriting the MDR1nnnn.bam files :


1. Series MDR11nnn : WALK. Works fine.


2. Series MDR12nnn : SC and SD. --> little glitch.

After analyzing the dragon format, the 9 first cycles are SC, the 9 next ones (9-17) SD and the 9 last (18-26) are copies of the 9 first.

Problem : the engine always displays the 9 first and makes no difference for SC and SD. I tryed all the possible combinations (SC-SD-SC, SC-SC, SD, SD-SC-SD, SD-SD-SC...) and beleave me, it was just like hell to create many files with 27 cycles and split them into 81 sub-files.

Looking at the red dragon files, my definition is good and it seems that only the 9 first ones are displayed even when you create a dragon.


3. Series MDR13nnn : A1-A2-A3. --> same glitch.

Looking at the MDR3 vanilla files, there are 3 blocks of 9 cycles, the last two blocks repeating the first block (a wing attack).

As all the BG2 formats use 3 attacks, I thought that I could change the last two blocks with different attack animations in order to display 3 attacks (A1, A2, A3). It doesn't work. Only the first one is displayed even when you use the backslash one.

Is it a bug, or is it special for dragon animations ?


4. Furthermore, I use the MDR1_BL1_5, MDR1_GR1_5, MDR1_PU1_5 bmp files with new palettes to easily create coloured versions of this new monster.

It works fine in-game using the dragon slots but I wanted to know it was possible to use this way of coding with I.A. : I didn't see anything about that in the whole documentation.

It it is not, would it be possible to implement it into the incoming version ?


I don't know if someone will be able to give me answers as nobody has ever ported an animation of this type, well... as far as I know,..

But let's be optimistic a few day before Xmas.
 

Edited by Gwendolyne, 23 December 2013 - 10:48 PM.

[Miloch]

Unfortunately, you seem to have uncovered more than I knew about it, so I'm not sure how much I can help. If you think you've uncovered a bug in vanilla animation code (e.g. MDR1) I can try to get someone to look into it. If it's a bug with Erephine's patch, there's not a whole lot I can do about it. So what exactly are you asking for? If you describe it better, it might help for Erephine to address if/when she gets back.

[Gwendolyne]

Hello Miloch !

 

Nice to see you again !

 

In fact, the more I work with animations, the more I find weird things...

 

In this case, I only want to know two things :

 

 

1. Are the dragon animations coded differently than the other ones ? Or is it a bug ?

Ex : no difference between SC and SD, only one attack type...

 

If the engine makes no difference between SC and SD (even if the two actions are different in the vanilla bam files) and if it is the way the engine works, no problem for me : I will redo my bam files without differencing them !

If it is a bug, it would be fine that somebody tells me what is wrong and how to correct it.

 

 

2. Infinity Animations : Is it possible to use the same trick as IE, using palettes bmp files to use the same original animations with different colorizations (Spiders, Dogs, Dragons...).

If not, no problem, I will just have to change the palettes by hand and create different bam files. It is a long work, but not very difficult.

If yes, what is the process to do it : as I said in the first post, I didn't read anything about that.

 

 

Before creating the MDR14 (GH, DE, SL and GU) and MDR15 (Cast and Shoot : the same ones), I need to know if the engine makes any difference between SL and DE, or if it doesn't. If not, I won't waste my time creating frames and bam files for the SL and GU actions and will use the DE ones.

 

 

To be clear, I always test brand new animations on a vanilla installation (BG2+ToB + official patch).

When I am pleased with them, I install them on a clone with I.A. (ToBEx+BG2Fixpack + I.A.).

If the new test is OK, I make a last test with Widescreen.

 

For the moment, I am stuck on the vanilla installation. So the "bug" (if it is a bug) has nothing to do with I.A.

As I overwrite the MDR1 files, I think the glitch is connected with them...

Edited by Gwendolyne, 20 February 2019 - 03:56 AM.

[Gwendolyne]

A small post in case you had already read the one above.

 

If you wish I can PM you the bam files to test them and "see" the pb in-game.

 

[Cuv]

Heya Gwendolyne     Have you tried your animation in the Demogorgon slot?   That is in quarters looks like and might be an easier way to go.   You never said if you animation is actually a dragon    Or is just something big.

 

As for the sequences,  I would suggest you make the SL and DE and GU ones... even if they are blank and unused.  The engine might choke if you are missing one.  Just generate the appropriate number of blank frames should be okay.

[Miloch]

Also, if you want to attach or PM the BAMs to Cuv and me, maybe we can look at it, if you can describe how to reproduce the glitch.

 

As for paletting dragon animations, I think that's hardcoded in the engine, so I'm not sure if Erephine provided that functionality in IA. But it is relatively straightforward to repalette animations with BAM Batcher and other tools.

[Gwendolyne]

Hello Cuv and Miloch !

 

Heya Gwendolyne     Have you tried your animation in the Demogorgon slot?   That is in quarters looks like and might be an easier way to go.   You never said if you animation is actually a dragon    Or is just something big.

 

As for the sequences,  I would suggest you make the SL and DE and GU ones... even if they are blank and unused.  The engine might choke if you are missing one.  Just generate the appropriate number of blank frames should be okay.

 

I  can't : Demogorgon slot is a 4 parts splitted animation, mine is a 9 parts splitted one ! I can only use the dragon slot to display it.

And no, it is not a dragon as you will see in the attached file I have PM.

 

As for the sequences, that's what I always do since I noticed a few randomed glitches when porting my Oblivion Unicorns.

 

 

@Miloch : I feared that paletting animations was hardoded and hoped that Erephine had scheduled to do it with her patch.

 

Anyway, as I already said, creating other series of repaletted files is not very difficult, just time consuming, even with Bam Batcher, DLTCEP or BamWorkshop II.

 

Edit : the MDR files have been sent to you by PM.

Edited by Gwendolyne, 28 December 2013 - 06:45 PM.