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Torchlight II >  Workshop > roberto tomás's Workshop > warchief class (v.273) > Discussions
warchief class (v.273)
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roberto tomás  [developer] 19 Mar, 2014 @ 5:14am
Animation discussion with Minesweeper
Originally posted by Minesweeper:
Minesweeper 15 Mar às 4:39 Eliminar
Okay, so I'm Minesweeper, the creator of the Warchief class originally posted in RGF. I've stopped modding last December but I'm still lurking around the mods and suddenly, I've just stumbled upon this one. Now, I don't know if gulyfmg (a user from Runic Games Forums) has contacted you to continue the class. Anyways, I appreciate that you made custom icons since I have no experience in making those but you SHOULD have informed me, nothing more.

It's the first class that I made so it was sort of a learning ground for me so bugs and other issues are apparent. Things are working fine in my GUTS but when published, it creates problems to other users so I don't know what's causing it. Even Tribal Justice and Debilitating Fervor are working fine in my system. I couldn't blame you because publishing this on Steam would give Steam players access to it.

Originally posted by Minesweeper:
Minesweeper 15 Mar às 4:39 Eliminar
For the male animation on the character selection, it's a bug that I don't know the cause (been debugging it for weeks back then). It's probably in the system since I did the same for both male and female versions. A workaround is to select the male version, switch to the female version and upon going back to the male version, it should be fine but it's not a real fix.

If you're going to pursue in working with the class, it's fine by me. I made it for the community so knowing that someone wishes to continue it is an honor in my part. If possible, just maintain the "core" of the class (barbaric, fiery, wild) and we're good :)

Originally posted by roberto_tomas:
roberto tomás [autor] 15 Mar às 9:22 Eliminar
hi Minesweeper, glad to hear from you! I did try to inform you. I posted on the official forum, in your thread (titled version 1.5), about three weeks ago I think. Since then I have had people contact me asking me to make it public — I kept it private until just recently. I appreciate that I should have contacted you, but like i said, I did try.

Thank you about the details on the animation, and for your blessing to continue working on the class. :)

Originally posted by Minesweeper:
Minesweeper Há 10 horas Eliminar
@roberto tomas:

Ok, so I would like to point out some things on the character selection animation. When I'm dealing with animations of classes, I usually do them manually (opening the .dat in notepad and editing it from there) rather than going through them in GUTS. I have made a separate .skeleton file for that animation which is just a clone of one of the idle animations that uses dual wielding. Of course, I edited it using an xml converter to change it's file name, which is different from simply renaming the file.

Originally posted by Minesweeper:
Minesweeper Há 10 horas Eliminar
So the male animation is a clone of the idle dual-wielding animation of the male version while the female corresponds to the female one. I know that .skeleton files can be interchanged between genders since animations are usable to both genders (which is the case in what I did to Tempest) but I just did this to be sure. So while the animations are virtually identical to their idle counterparts, the only thing I added is attach a particle effect (the orange aura) so hypothetically, there should be no problem that will arise.

Originally posted by roberto_tomas:
roberto tomás [autor] Há 10 horas Eliminar
Minesweeper, that sounds like the animations are in the class' hum_m and hum_f dat files. But where does the flame particle effect come in? I tried looking for that in the code and didnt see it

Originally posted by Minesweeper:
Minesweeper Há 3 horas Eliminar
If you are looking for the particle itself (the .layout file), it's inside the PARTICLES/WARCHIEF folder. If you are looking on how the particle is connected with the animation, look for the corresponding animation inside the hum_f.dat and hum_m.dat files. It's name sounds like "Character Selection Menu" something.

The reason that the particle is connected with the animation is because I put in an ATTACHPARTICLE string in the animation string.

Also, since you are essentially working on with the class, you can improve Ensnare or replace it with something else. It works a bit clunky because a negative knockback effect only works small mobs and the pull effect, well, it doesn't actually pull enemies toward the detonation point but rather towards you. So if you can successfully make the skill pull enemies toward the target location or create a replacement that still fits the Tribal tree, that would be awesome :)
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Showing 1-7 of 7 comments
roberto tomás  [developer] 19 Mar, 2014 @ 5:26am 
Sure, I'll add your comment on ensnare to the suggestions list and .. think about how to do that.

Today I tried to see what you were pointing me to. I went into the MODELS/PCS and looked for the Warchief_Menu_Stance (found it in the base file under UNITS) and...

Eureka!

they are different sized files in the HUM_M and HUM_F folders. On second thought though, this might not matter, they work with different meshes.

The animation files are SKELETON files. I don't really know blender, but I have it here... I tried opening the mesh file so I can inspect the skeleton, and it doesn't open using the TL2 import script. It gives me a "Key Error: Bone IDs". (I get the same error with the female model.)

So I'm not sure what to do. I'm looking into it now.

edit: figured out that it wanted a skeleton file with the name "hum_f.skeleton" so I found that in the main source, then copied it over. but it didnt have a way to select the new skeleton.

then I renamed the idle animation skeleton to "hum_f.skeleton" and reopened it, and that seemed like it worked (there was some weird import log to read thrugh, there were errors maybe). But I don't see any animation play when I hit play. Kinda feel like I'm half way to being able to see this
Last edited by roberto tomás; 19 Mar, 2014 @ 6:12am
#1
Minesweeper 19 Mar, 2014 @ 10:54pm 
I didn't edit the skeleton file per se since I don't have knowledge about Blender (like editing numbers and such). I just cloned them and gave them a new name. Essentially, this is what I did (and for all the "new" animations that I did to avoid conflicts and they don't seem to cause any problems):

1. Copy the original idle animation (.skeleton)
2. Convert the .skeleton file using Ogre tools into .xml
3. Rename the name that will be used by GUTS/TL2 system using Notepad and save as a new file (this is not the usual renaming of files. I have to open the file first and change something within the file)
4. Convert the .xml file back to .skeleton file
5. Put it into respective folder and add it inside the hum_m.dat and hum_f.dat files

I've been doing this for various classes and an error hasn't occurred. I can even play it in GUTS without crashes. This is why I concluded that the problem is within the system and not the animation, and also because I don't know any other reason that may cause it. During my testings, switching genders in the character selection seemed to correct the male animation; it just won't display the animation correctly for the first time.
#2
roberto tomás  [developer] 21 Mar, 2014 @ 5:54am 
Well myself I am also more comfortable with XML, even though I have blender here ...

I used ogre tools to give me xml to look at with the menu stance skeleton and ... I don't see anywhere in here anything about the particle animation that plays while the character is being selected .. I mean the effect on the ground with the whisps of flame you have going on.

I just see bones, and tracks of motion for each bone.

How did you get the particle effects in there? Honestly I don't even see any external references to go by.

— edit: actually, I think with that method you outlined I can just replace it .. hopefully that will work. I will work from IDLE_MELEEDW and see how it goes :)

Minesweeper you're a pro, thanks!

— second edit: turns out that dagger_dw and melee_dw from hum_m in the base MEDIA directory have the same problem. At least they don't have the particle effect though so I can remove that much.
Last edited by roberto tomás; 22 Mar, 2014 @ 5:31am
#3
gytfunke 21 Mar, 2014 @ 2:17pm 
Hey RT, hope you don't mind if I pop into the convo.


To see the particle affects associated with an animation, you can either open up the file with a text editor, or, in GUTS you can open the animations from the Data Editor>Players window. Alternatively (my favorite), open a new layout, add a Generic Model with the model of your Warchief, select it, and click the Tool icon in the upper left.

With the animation editor open you can see the green dots on the timeline. If there's a particle associated with your animation, it should show up there.

Also, if the flame particle effect is part of a passive skill that the character currently has, it will show up in the character select screen. Same thing happens with the Wildling's Gaea's Favor (old Hand of Gaea).




As for Ensnare, if you wish to have an effect that pulls to a location other than the player, you can do the following:

Have the active skill summon an invisible unit that immediately casts a skill that pulls units to itself. The secondary function of the Wildling's 'Guardian' skill works like this, just making the Guardian cast the skill instead of an invisible unit... though I might switch to an invisible unit since it's more reliable.
#4
Minesweeper 22 Mar, 2014 @ 1:20am 
Okay, when dealing with animations, I prefer to do it in Notepad rather than in GUTS. As i said before, the particle effect is assigned to that animation because of the ATTACHPARTICLE string. Just look for the animation in both hum_m.dat and hum_f.dat in whatever folder the animation files for the Warchief are stored.

As for Ensnare, it was something that I was considering but it was the time when I'm too tired to mod and is taking too much of my time so I wasn't able to change it. I, however, implemented it upon making the Mongol Archer. Anyways, it's up to you roberto if you want to improve it or change it entirely.
#5
roberto tomás  [developer] 22 Mar, 2014 @ 5:23am 
I can't do what gytfunke suggests at all (hi gyt, thanks for the input it just didnt work). The animation isn't an alt-animation it is a MAINMENUIDLE animation. It doesn't show up in the units editor for me to click on.

When I use this command:
C:\OGRE \OgreXMLConverter.exe .\WARCHIEF_MENU_STANCE.SKELETON ./WARCHIEF_MENU_STANCE.XML

The resulting file has no ATTACHPARTICLE string in it. If instead I open it in blender:

rename the file to HUM_M.SKELETON, then import the WARCHIEF_M.MESH

It does not import it very cleanly. There are no keyframes in the dopesheet. There is no attachparticle, either.

So I don't know what you mean by attachparticle being in there, I can't find it. Not in blender, not in ogre tools.

About Ensnare, if you guys want to talk about that please open a new discussion thread and talk about it there. I'm still just in the consideration stage for that one: I don't really mind the inverse knockback effect, I was just listening to the guy who made it. :)
Last edited by roberto tomás; 22 Mar, 2014 @ 5:32am
#6
Minesweeper 22 Mar, 2014 @ 6:12am 
Okay, just to be clear, the ATTACHPARTICLE string that I'm referring to is not within the .skeleton file but rather in the corresponding .dat files (hum_f.dat and hum_m.dat). That file contains all of the animations used and the time frames and such. Locate the string there in the said animation and you'll see what I'm talking about. I'm opening them using Notepad but you can use any text editor.

Now, I don't know if perhaps, you may be doing something out of place since when I was still modding, I can seamlessly view the said animation in the units editor in GUTS. If you're doing something Blender-related or anything besides GUTS, then it's something that I don't know :)
#7
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