Author
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Topic: basic .dcc /.dc6 editing questions
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stargazer79 Honorary Warlord
   
Posts: 883 From: Sweden Registered: Jun 2001 |
posted 20 November 2001 13:19
Hmm great work dude, so you actually can see it in game?.. thats really great news.... are you editing frame by frame?, im very imnpressed, I realise the ammount of time and effort this would take..so pyrAXE, do you KNOW the angles needed for the graphics, ? and the amount of frames for each type, Weapon etc, bascially, i believe it would be very beneficial to the modding community, if we could all pull in to list all the information we know about angles settings frame numbers, etc, taht way we could make Rules for the aid of newbies wanting to edit.. and lets face it, if we want new ingame models/armor, to look pretty for us, and want them in some quantity, we are going to have to work together, right? i believe it WOULD be possible to create a script for 3dstudio max, that would automatically set the angles and render a small animation.... if there then was someone out ther ewho knew enough about coding, to be able to create a AVI -> DCC converter,, that would be even more cool.. this converter would have selcections for each character type and automtically stick in the offsets requirteed for weapon type, and character class. more question, in regards to attack animations, do you know if all weapons has its hit animation triggered at the same frame of the animation?... also is it at all possible to have MORE or less animations per weapons than the others, or is that specifically set too... lastly, when you are editing.. you have just replaced an exhsiting weapon havnt you?.. does anyone know if it woul db e possible to add a NEW animation? i think that would be worth looking into. currently ive noted that there are MANY colors of different armors on players.. more than there are animations for.. is this a somethign that is manipulated elsewhere?.. for instance.. i have seen black armor on the player model. and i have not seen this in the actuall dcc files... also armor in particular (is what im most interested in). has 6 parts.. torso, head, left shoulder right shoulder, legs and something else, so funationally these are the things we can modify on the player it self. it does not have specific graphics for gloves or boots.. what I was going to suggest was a strange idea.. just to see if it would theoretically work... create a new dcc, that is slightly larger than the player.. as large as we can get it without overlapping or sawlloing mosnters. when the armor is equeipped it would call on the new dcc, the new dcc would call on all parts of armor at once.. these armor parts would be designed to fit toghter to from the graphic of say a tank.. or a mecha, (as i believe needing the body visually viaewable is not necessary its only asthetic). in effect you could make it look like this new armor is actually a vehicle, or suit.. or other such thing... ideas are a mini power suit.. or bio mechanic body replacement (termintor style). additional armor parts could then for the idea, be used to add functions or damage or properties to the mecha suit parts... for isntance.. you add a power generator to get more speed via boots slot..you add a pnumatic thingy via the arms to add to attack speed, etc etc etc. the weapons for this particular idea would then simply add somthing like barrles to a turret, or s forcefield graphic around the useer, or a missile missile turret... i believe that fintcionally this idea is possible though hard to implement. anyway.. this coudl be tested by doing only the animations graphics need for a standing player... .. heh for instance that lego monster could be cool to try it out on (remeber the graphic on the keep?.) anyway... im gone for now.. email me if anyone wants to discuss ideas.. im more than willing o help on any dcc graphics imagine projects, i dont have enough time to do it on my own,. (besides i love thinking up new ideas new ways to expand what we can do.. or widen our scope.. .. anyway gone..
------------------ Love is the irresistable desire to be irresistably desired.

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Dr Slue Honorary Warlord
   
Posts: 418 From: Australia Registered: Oct 2001 |
posted 20 November 2001 16:29
Hmm, that sounds really interesting Stargazer. That would change the game immensely yet it would take a lot of effort. that rules me out hehe. I also want to know where the colours are controlled, for monsters and armor/weapons. I think it would be cool to get certain types of armor always spawning white and others green etc. I think it would really enhance the game.------------------ Don't yell at me so much!! Pobodys Nerfect!

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pyrAXE WarLord
  
Posts: 168 From: Registered: Nov 2001 |
posted 21 November 2001 03:15
Thanks for your post Stargazer79.Ok.... Where to begin? I know all the angles of everything and the number of frames everything has (with the help of CV5 of course). Let me just say that, no, I haven't been replacing anything. I've been making completely new graphics. If I was replacing stuff I wouldn't be "adding" to the game. It is possible to create a script for 3D studio which sets all the angles. But I don't think that would be needed so much now, maybe later when someone actually manages to get a COMPLETE weapon into the game. The problem with writing a program to set offsets is that each new weapon or helmet you may have, may be a different size, therefore offsets need to be inputed manually. It's a good idea though, maybe we can get telamon to add it to CV5. Don't worry about a AVI -> Dcc converter. It's already Gif -> Dcc. And this is fine for us because it just is. Every weapon has a dcc file for every action. Therefore the beginning of an attack animation is always frame 1. I think every weapon has the same amount of frames, hang on... ...oh yes, they do. This is because the characters animations have to correspond with the weapons, and the characters animations are set. I may have found the option which changes the colour of weapons. But I haven't tried it yet. Yes, there are six parts for the body armor. They are: Torso, Left Arm, Right Arm, Left Shoulder, Right Shoulder and legs. There is also the helmet which isn't part of body armor. Currently I'm working on a new helm (a Halo) and it looks cool on my character. Did you know that you can have armor that only has shoulder pads, or only leggings, etc... Your idea about making vehicles with large Dccs actually works!!! I've tried it so far with a piece of armor that looks like a plane. (needs some work though, and a plane isn't such a good idea (I'm not shouting at you, the plane was my idea.)) That mecha idea you have there is VERY VERY promising. And very interesting. I think that would be really cool. And the only hard thing about it is making the graphics (it's not that hard, just time consuming). The rest is easy. If you want to discuss how I actually get all the angles etc...and how I make the DCCs then e-mail me at pyraxe@hotmail.com C ya later

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Myokai Honorary Warlord
   
Posts: 298 From: Entsteig, Sanctuary Registered: Oct 2001 |
posted 21 November 2001 04:44
To save some time make the items class specific. Necros and sorcs will never need greatswords anyway, and few barbs will run around with a jester's staff.Good luck! (I think I'll stick with plain txt, dc6 and dll editing... has already taken up all of my free time for over 2 months ) > plot3d(sin(x*y),x=-Pi..Pi,y=-x..x); > p:= proc(x,y) if x^2 < y then cos(x*y) else x*sin(x*y) end if end proc: > h:= proc(x) x^2 end proc: > plot3d(p,-2..2,-1..h); > plot3d([x*sin(x)*cos(y),x*cos(x)*cos(y),x*sin(y)],x=0..2*Pi,y=0..Pi); > plot3d(x*exp(-x^2-y^2),x=-2..2,y=-2..2,grid=[49,49]);

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pyrAXE WarLord
  
Posts: 168 From: Registered: Nov 2001 |
posted 21 November 2001 05:19
I'm making class specific items. It helps, but only to a certain degree. If I want people to see my new stuff, they have to be able to use whichever character they want. Thanx anyway.  What the heck is all that Plot3D stuff???? 

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stargazer79 Honorary Warlord
   
Posts: 883 From: Sweden Registered: Jun 2001 |
posted 21 November 2001 08:44
Well that certainlky answers some questions, and gets me a lil more excited about doing new model animations, still, i believe for weapons we will need to know at which frame for each weapon type that the HIT animation is triggered. Ok, I Will sacrifce some Hardrive space and install 3dsmax, inly on a 450 pc, but it iwll have to do for some small time animation. untxtured to begin with.... if i can get you the animated gif files, of models etc, would you be willing to convert them?, i Will try to create a simple mech, using 3d animations, what i need is a list of all the frames required for each animation type. now... gameplay wise.. heres an idea.. make a new item drop animation., which is basically a small cube or box, which transforms in its flippy file animation to land on the ground as a fully developed mech body, now this armor should have a VERY large size, so large it CANT fit in inventory, which.. the idea being.. you rempty your armor from your character in inventory, and as you pick up the item,it will auto place itself in the correct spot of the player, this will take some trickery to accomplish withthe invetory files.. but im confident it can be done... also to add to story gameplay specfics, we could create a certain new chest.. or replace an exhisting chest type.. for instance, as you open the chest, the flippy files is triggered, the flippy file corresponds with the chest opening animation.. the chest animation dissapears leaving only the fluippy file item.... anyway.. ficntionally, a plyer click on this new lil thing.. and sees the new mech model on teh ground. player unequips his armor, and runs up to click on the mech.. the mech autoeqipes to the empty corresponding spot.... .. i forsee a problem.. when the armor is unequipped it will do the flippy file animation again.. hmm.. i will think on it. anyway i gotta get ready to go out. pyrAxe, if you have something like MSN, or ICW, (preferably msn), i will add you when i get back. i will also send you a mail.. ok cya folks. i had more questions and ideas but they will have to wait.. (they escaped me as i was typing this) ------------------ Love is the irresistable desire to be irresistably desired.

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pyrAXE WarLord
  
Posts: 168 From: Registered: Nov 2001 |
posted 21 November 2001 11:45
thanks for the other post stargazer79. I never thought I'd get this much response.stargazer79: "still, i believe for weapons we will need to know at which frame for each weapon type that the HIT animation is triggered." What exactly do you mean by this? Didn't I say it was frame 1? (I don't mean to sound rude)  Yes, sacrifice hard drive space!!! 3DS Max rules! Don't worry about your 450 pc. That is still a great speed. Even though I feel my 1000mhz PC is outdated. If you give me the gifs I'll be more than happy to convert them for you, so feel free to send them to me. Just make a simple mech, no textures, just simple (just for testing, of course). Ok...... list of all the animations. Ummmmm.... no, not yet. Let's first get a really basic version in before we make all the anims. I'll give you a basic description of what is needed: Size: width 64 pixles height 128 pixels Make only 1 frame (for testing). You know that view when you select your character (front view, sort of) make one of those. Don't worry about the palette. I'll do that. But render the image at 24 bit, in bitmap format. Just do that for now, then if all goes well I'll teach you how to make all the anims (what angles and what frames are needed). You are just full of great ideas!!! Unfortunately, you can't make an item so big it can't fit in the inventory. But you can make it take up every block (doubt any player would keep that in his inventory). NO matter what the size, it will always fit into the armor spot, so that's good news for us. Here's your idea about the mech, but it's fullproof and will work: First you find a little box thingy on the ground (like a chest). When you open it, it will display the animation of an unpacking mech. Because the last frame of the animation for the chest is completely transparent, it won't show after the mech is unpacked. The unpacked mech will be an object with no flip animation. Just 1 frame. This lets the player pick it up and drop it without it packing and unpacking. And it will be so big that it'll take up the entire inventory, so you have to put it in the armor slot, or sacrifice your inventory space. It's just your idea, but you don't have to wory about that problem of the flippy showing the mech unpacking (the chest will do that). Maybe I can get a working version and send it to you. What's MSN. Hundreds of things have been made by them. Even Hotmail. Just curios, because I think spilling our ideas here isn't too private. Anyway.... c ya later 

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stargazer79 Honorary Warlord
   
Posts: 883 From: Sweden Registered: Jun 2001 |
posted 21 November 2001 15:33
well personally i dont care who sees my ideas.. thats the idea of this forum i believe.. as they say two heads are betterthan one... and 100 heads working ona project like this would be a HUGE boon to our cause. i would like to see the day where we have templates for each weapon type, and a website where people upload there models too ..like the unreal sites taht you have downladoedable player models. taht kinda thing. well i was referring to MSN MESSANGER. i have that and its pretty good. (yeah i know microsoft, but its easy to come buy and lots of people i know use it.. hence why i use it.) you will have to give me a few days for that mecha graphics, i have to install it still. and i curently cant find my lil student adapter for the student copy of the software.. damn.. also i have a lot of scanned images my mum did on the HDD that need to be burnt.. whcih wont be too much of a problem . anwyay it later than i thoguth it would be and im surpsingly tired today i will continue in the morning
------------------ Love is the irresistable desire to be irresistably desired.

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Dr Slue Honorary Warlord
   
Posts: 418 From: Australia Registered: Oct 2001 |
posted 21 November 2001 15:49
quote: Every weapon has a dcc file for every action. Therefore the beginning of an attack animation is always frame 1.
The first frame in an animation is frame zero. quote: Just curios, because I think spilling our ideas here isn't too private.
This is a forum...the aim is to help everyone else by sharing ideas. Dont be so self-centered. No-one is going to 'steal' your ideas.------------------ Don't yell at me so much!! Pobodys Nerfect!

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pyrAXE WarLord
  
Posts: 168 From: Registered: Nov 2001 |
posted 21 November 2001 22:11
pyrAXE: "Just curios, because I think spilling our ideas here isn't too private."Sorry about saying that, what was I thinking?! 

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Dr Slue Honorary Warlord
   
Posts: 418 From: Australia Registered: Oct 2001 |
posted 22 November 2001 00:40
Hehe. All is forgiven.------------------ Don't yell at me so much!! Pobodys Nerfect!

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pyrAXE WarLord
  
Posts: 168 From: Registered: Nov 2001 |
posted 22 November 2001 05:05
Your too kind.

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stargazer79 Honorary Warlord
   
Posts: 883 From: Sweden Registered: Jun 2001 |
posted 22 November 2001 14:53
ok sent you a mail mr pyraxe.. nto much but mrope will come.. right now im just dpoing some.. "study" via game demos etc.. i wanna get some more ideas to play around with..  even though drool.. NWN and DUNGEON Siege may be better for modding i have 4 months till then.. maybe i cna contribute something to this modding communit before it dies out.
------------------ Love is the irresistable desire to be irresistably desired.

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Clannad WarLord
  
Posts: 166 From: Sweden Registered: Feb 2001 |
posted 23 November 2001 04:46
From your tutorial pyrAXE quote: Open Dc6 Maker 2.0 (Note : This is an unstable program, full of bugs, so do exactly as I say) [/B]
Bugs ? Never heard of them  Why do you use 2.0 ? 2.1 is slightly better i think. 3.0 is alot better but i have to release it first 

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pyrAXE WarLord
  
Posts: 168 From: Registered: Nov 2001 |
posted 23 November 2001 07:57
Yes, I do use 2.1. Sorry about that. Yes, I find bugs everywhere. Sometimes when I change the save filter it exists for no reason. The offset boxes are badly coded. I presume you are using VB? I also have that problem wiht offset boxes. But it can be fixed with some code.Anyway, thanks for creating DC6maker. Without it, my mod wouldn't have any flippy files. Could you by any chance send me the code? 

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Clannad WarLord
  
Posts: 166 From: Sweden Registered: Feb 2001 |
posted 23 November 2001 14:20
Dont hesitate to mail bugs to me with a little explanation on how you did to find them. If you do i will try to fix them for sure.

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