XCOM 2
Light Armors
 This topic has been pinned, so it's probably important
o_siyeza  [developer] 16 Jul, 2017 @ 4:33am
How to fix the Position of the Guns
I think I am the first one to figure out this.

To fix the guns position in the back from any armor you like, you can do the following:

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
OPTION1: USE AN ALTERNATIVE ANIMATION SET FOR THE TORSO
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Open the corresponding .upk file in the editor, and open the corresponding SkeletalMesh. The problem is related with the bones SwordSheath, GrenadeLauncherSheath and PsiAmpSheat.

You cannot edit the position of the bones inside the editor, and if you try to change it in a modeler like Blender for example, you will not solve the problem (I tried). The solution in this case is much simpler. If you go to the animation tab you will see there is a set of related animations in the game that affect the SwordSheath bone. Every animation uses a slightly different position. To apply one of this positions, open in the browser of the editor the corresponding content file and add the animation in "Unit Pawn Anim Sets".

From more to less distance to the body, the animations are:

Animations:
**************
AnimSet'SldCnvMed_Std.Anims.AS_SldCnv_Med_Std_Torso_A_M'
AnimSet'SldPwrLgt_Std.Anims.AS_SldPwr_Lgt_Std_Torso_A_M'
AnimSet'SldCnvMed_Std.Anims.AS_SldCnv_Med_Std_Torso_A_F'
AnimSet'SldPwrLgt_Std.Anims.AS_SldPwr_Lgt_Std_Torso_A_F'

However, these animations included in the Vanilla game only change the position of the sword.

With the DLC Anarchy's Children, Firaxis introduced lighter armors, and they added new animations modifying the positions of all the Guns at once. These animations cannot be accessed by default, but they can be located in the PATH ‘XComGame\CookedPCConsole’ in the file ‘DLC_30_SldCnv_Std.upk’ if you own the DLC Anarchy's Children.

You need to copy them into your mod, and reference your copies, to avoid broken links. If you don’t own the DLC, You can find the animations in this mod .upk file. In any case you should look for the assets called:

Animations:
**************
AS_Torso_A
AS_Torso_A_F
AS_Torso_B
AS_Torso_B_F

Put only one of these animations in the "Unit Pawn Anim Sets", as they are alternative versions with different modifications to the guns positions.



////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
OPTION2: SHORT TUTORIAL TO MODIFY ANIMATIONS WITH 3DMAX
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////


To fine tune the positions of the Guns, the corresponding animsets can be exported to 3DMax, then, the corresponding bones of the mesh can be modified, and the assets imported back. There is some tricks here that should be taken into account, but is nothing that cannot be solved with a pair of trials. Then main steps are:


1.- Export from XCOM2 Editor
-----------------------------------------
- Open animation file in XCOM2 Editor, select an adecuate torso
- Select SocketOffset (Not ADD)
- File->Export FBX animation (Export SkeletalMesh with animation)


2.- Import to 3DMax
---------------------------
- File Import -> Select FBX
- Import options, Advanced Options-> Units. Convert scale to cm


3.- Modify Asset
----------------------
Move The appropiated Bone

Bones:
********
PsiAmpHolster
SwordSheath
GrenadeLauncherSling


4.- Export from 3DMax
------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Select (Double Click) Every Bone in Root
- Select Control+Click Base Node (Now Skeletal Mesh is not selected)
- Export Selected
- Vertical Axis = Z


5.- Import to XCOM2 Editor
------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Create a copy of the current anim set, and open it
- File->Import FBX Animation
- Should replace the animation with the same name, some warnings can pop up, and should be ignored




I am kind of surprised that no one has commented the solution to this issue before.

I hope this information gets out to the modders and we can fix all the cool armors of the community
Last edited by o_siyeza; 26 Dec, 2017 @ 4:52pm
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Showing 1-11 of 11 comments
ah thank you this will prove useful for my mod, will credit you
o_siyeza  [developer] 19 Jul, 2017 @ 3:12am 
:)
GnaReffotsirk 24 Dec, 2017 @ 10:50pm 
You can post this on reddit.
o_siyeza  [developer] 25 Dec, 2017 @ 3:36am 
Yea, that is maybe something i should do, with a small tutorial to tune the positions in 3DMax, Unfortunately, i dont have a lot of time for doing that now.
Last edited by o_siyeza; 25 Dec, 2017 @ 3:41am
Musashi 7 Feb, 2018 @ 10:39am 
You can also add those animation set and add the sockets to the skeletal mesh. Then move the sockets to the desired position in the socket editor. This way you don't need edit the bones in 3DMax but still can adjust them accurately.
o_siyeza  [developer] 7 Feb, 2018 @ 11:00am 
@Musashi, as far as i know there is no actual socket editor in ModBuddy tools, correct me if im wrong
I would cry if there was no socket tool, I use it to accomplish a lot with Particles
o_siyeza  [developer] 7 Feb, 2018 @ 12:27pm 
oh, of course. I did not mess that much with those tools.

If anything you try works too, is nice to know and maybe you can write it in detail to add to the howto. Have you tested that it works in game?


The way the game is structured is quite weird. Since the bones of the skeleton are overrided with the bones of the pawn animations in game. And those are overrided with even another system for the cinematic cameras which i think are based on a single prototype skeleton which does not match the DLC armors.

In the end, without knowing in detail how the game is implemented is hard to know what works and what does not.

For example:

Changing the skeletal meshes bones does not appear to do anything.
Changing the base animation, instead the offset also appears to lead to strange effects.

I was not able to correct the position of the guns, the sword in special, in the intro cinematics or the sword attack cinematics. If you have any idea of how to do this, that would be awesome.
DustDevil 16 May, 2019 @ 7:42am 
This is wonderful, I wish the customization modders knew of this. There are a lot of beautiful mods that simply screw the gun/sword position
Muggy 11 Oct, 2022 @ 4:59am 
Is there a video I can follow? I don't understand most of what is said.
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