74 réponses à ce sujet

[4760]

OK, that's confirmed, I can now use the Balor whip model and animations! 

And since I started working on my own model to understand how animated weapons worked in NWN2, I'll probably continue and add another one  (this one being a one-handed weapon).

[rjshae]

Q. Is it possible to attach a visual effect particle emitter to just the tip of the whip?

[-Semper-]

And since I started working on my own model to understand how animated weapons worked in NWN2, I'll probably continue and add another one  (this one being a one-handed weapon).

 

this looks way too cool to be true

also, please document your findings and post what you did to get it working in this thread. it's nice to have technical stuff in here which helps to understand those foggy areas of the engine.

 

ps: were any custom animations involved or did you only use the "unsorted pieces" that were already there?

[4760]

Q. Is it possible to attach a visual effect particle emitter to just the tip of the whip?

I think so, but I haven't looked at it.

[4760]

please document your findings and post what you did to get it working in this thread. it's nice to have technical stuff in here which helps to understand those foggy areas of the engine.

Already started!
Two or three pages of notes, I now have to reorganize things to make my rambling understandable and reusable.

were any custom animations involved or did you only use the "unsorted pieces" that were already there?

Actually, both: I had to start from a brand new mesh, skeleton and animations to really figure out how it should work, and why the Balor whip was still (although it had its own animations file hidden in the "unprocessed" folder, like the flail by the way).
Then, I fixed the Balor whip mdb and renamed the corresponding gr2 files. I'll summarize everything in the "report".

[4760]

Phew! Remembering why the Balor whip model doesn't work, although I succeeded in creating my own whip model, and in the end had the Balor whip working as well, that was a nightmare. Luckily I had some notes and several max files!

So I do confirm that animated weapons can be added to NWN2 (I restarted from scratch just to make sure of all the steps).

 

I'm preparing the tutorial (if the notes can be named thus  ) and the hakpak, but real life (and work actually) will take most of my time for the next two to three weeks (a new project has come to life), so I'll have less time to dedicate to NWN2. Hopefully I'll be able to have it ready as a Xmas present  but I make no promises!

[4760]

Q. Is it possible to attach a visual effect particle emitter to just the tip of the whip?

A. Yes, although that means creating visual effects using "creature attachment points", like 'ap_forehead' or 'ap_mouth'.

After several tests, including comparison with stock items, I conclude that I don't really know how hp_0 and hp_1 work   (they're supposed to define the starting and ending point of the visual effects right? Well, with or without them, the visual effects apply to the whole mesh... It works for the torch as it is a three-part model, but it doesn't for the flail or the whip since the animation requires a single mesh).

 

Something I should try right now is to create a w_flail_cl_ExtraA01 part and see if that is a reliable workaround.

Nope, doesn't work.

[4760]

this looks way too cool to be true

also, please document your findings and post what you did to get it working in this thread. it's nice to have technical stuff in here which helps to understand those foggy areas of the engine.

 

Uploaded on the vault here.

Of course any comments are welcome (and screenshots of an English toolset would be nice too).

[4760]

I'll enjoy seeing it in action.

 

this looks way too cool to be true 

 

Enjoy! It's available on the vault and Nexus.

 

I wanted to include my own whip too, but I definitely won't have enough time to finish the animations in time, so it will be another upload.

[4760]

Has anybody tried the whip? I'm asking because I got a comment on Nexus that it doesn't work (the message is about a "texture problem"), but as I only fixed the mdb and the gr2, I don't think it's really a missing texture (unless the Balor whip doesn't come with the OC? I know its tag says "N2_Balorwhip", but I found it in the "NWN2_models", not the X1 or X2 zip files).

 

I replied for more details, but if someone confirms (and describes) the problem, that could help find where it comes from.

[Nagual_NWN]

Don t you have forgot texture file or are you using the balor one?

One blueprint could help.

Personnaly i have nothing showing in hand when i make the blueprint using whip as base object.(but i do the right damage,got the right sound ect.)

usually no texture should bring the little box with ?it does for placeable.Here it s just invisible for me.

 

(i have both extension so it s not a matter from there)

[4760]

Yes, as I fixed the Balor whip I reused the same texture and blueprint.

After removing all the files in the override, I discovered that I modified baseitems.2da too! I thought I didn't, and didn't include it in the package.

 

I'm currently uploading the updated files.

[Nagual_NWN]

It works now.

Waiting to see your own animation.

[4760]

rjshae, on 28 Nov 2014 - 7:40 PM, said:

Q. Is it possible to attach a visual effect particle emitter to just the tip of the whip?

A. Yes, although that means creating visual effects using "creature attachment points", like 'ap_forehead' or 'ap_mouth'.

 

Proof in image (ap_mouth attached to the serpent wand skel with winterwolf breath visual effect):

[Dann-J]

Here's my quick-and-nasty whip retexture, for anyone interested:

 

https://dl.dropboxus...44/W_whip01.dds

 

I'm using the Imaskari device lever icon from MotB for my whip blueprint, so I made the whip handle dark to match it.

[rjshae]

 

rjshae, on 28 Nov 2014 - 7:40 PM, said:

A. Yes, although that means creating visual effects using "creature attachment points", like 'ap_forehead' or 'ap_mouth'.

 

Proof in image (ap_mouth attached to the serpent wand skel with winterwolf breath visual effect):

 

 

OoooOOOooo...!

 

Okay, so possibly you have the name of the attachment point for the whip tip?

[4760]

I added ap_forehead to the Balor whip skeleton, and included ap_forehead, ap_mouth and ap_torso to the model I'm working on.

  

 

I didn't release the updated Balor whip skeleton though, as I'm still trying to figure out why the visual effect appears at the middle of the mesh and not at the tip:

 

 

 

(as you can see, it's the same on the Bioware made skel or on one made from scratch).

 

 

Edit:

Also tried with ap_mouth instead of ap_forehead: same result. I'm wondering if the serpent wand is actually having the same issue, and I didn't notice it because it's much smaller than the whip.

[4760]

Here's my quick-and-nasty whip retexture, for anyone interested:

 

https://dl.dropboxus...44/W_whip01.dds

 

I'm using the Imaskari device lever icon from MotB for my whip blueprint, so I made the whip handle dark to match it.

 

Thanks, we've got now two different versions (remember: only w_devilwhip01 will be used, so you'll need to create a visual effect swapping the diffuse and normal textures for the two versions to be available at the same time).

 

 

[4760]

I'm wondering if the serpent wand is actually having the same issue, and I didn't notice it because it's much smaller than the whip.

Yep, same problem if you look closely: the effect doesn't appear where it's supposed to. Could it be because the root bone of the skeleton is not at (0,0,0) but at the hand of the wielder? Let's check this.

 

 

Edit:

Yes, that's the reason. However if moving the Z position of the effect for the serpent wand fixes it visually, it's not the case for the whip, since it's curled (so X, Y and Z have to be modified for the effect to show at the right place, but even doing that will only work for the idle animation and be out of place during the attacks).

[rjshae]

Mmm, perhaps the effect attaches itself to a face based on the mean of the weights for that bone, rather than to the bone position itself? I suspect they'd want the effect to start at the mesh surface rather than the interior so that it looks smoother.

[4760]

I doubt it... After all, there are hp_0, hp_1 etc for placeables/weapons and ap_forehead, ap_mouth, etc... for creatures: why place these attachment points and not use their position as the real position of the visual effect? Besides, when I made the weapons creatures, the effects were located exactly when they should, and in the right direction.

 

See the difference in game between the model used as a creature and as a weapon:

 

 

As can be seen above, not only has the offset between the hand of the wielder and the ground to be taken into account (which is not as easy as it appears, as dwarves and aasimars will obviously need different values!), but this offset has also to be dynamically updated during the animations.

I'm afraid the choice is either "the whole mesh is affected" or "nothing at all".

[4760]

After the Balor whip and the dire flail (not released, I know), the next animated weapon in the armoury is another whip (but with more than four times the number of bones the Balor whip has!):

 

  

                 Idle                                                                     IdleM

 

  

 

   Beginning of attack                                                                             Some time during the attack animation

[Psionic-Entity]

That new one looks amazing, really looking forward to the release.

[4760]

I'm nearing completion of this project! 

 

• idle, run, walk and fidget animations are done;
• idleM (idle during combat) is done but need some adjustment, since characters are not standing straight (what I mean is that I based the volume in which the whip would move on the character mdb, forgetting that they'll have their legs slightly bent: in some phases of the animation the whip goes beneath the ground).
• one handed attacks are done;
• two handed attacks are done;
• dual weapon wielding attacks work, but need some adjustments (the two attacks do not happen simultaneously, but one after the other - which makes sense anyway - so I'll need to make the R_C2h_ attack quicker and delay the L_C2h_ attack).
• at this time, I'm not sure I'll make specific animations for dodge, damage, death, knockdown, prone, taunt, sneak, etc... I'll probably re-use a part of the fidget animation (that will save time!).

[4760]

I believe there are enough animations for the whip to be used in game, so here it is...(Vault / Nexus).