Wolf Form - Slow Animation (running forward)

[Mizard]

The Wolf Form animation for running forward is extremely slow and looks odd. It's so bad I don't enjoy playing in Wolf Form anymore.

I am a 3D artist and game designer. I would love to fix this issue. If you provide me with the 3D model and/or animation file(s) for the Wolf, I can slow it's run speed down.

Please let me know. Thanks!

Riverhead - Druid - <Paradox>
Mizard - Wizard - <Paradox>

[Tupakk]

All those files you already have. You just have to find them in your folder.

[Mizard]

I've already looked. I can't find any such file.

[Tupakk]

should google more. I would expect more from a designer

https://www.project1999.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-1033.html

[Mizard]

This doesn't provide access to the actual source files of the 3D models and their respective animations.

[Zaela]

EQ model data is not in any nice format, or any well-documented or standardized format at all. Extracting the data and transforming it into a nice format is doable, but getting it back in to the EQ format is harder (it's not a trivial format to understand, and it can't just be plunked back in if any of the data changes size).

But that's all moot anyway: it looks like all of the classic wolf animations are hardcoded. I can make the model fail to load by corrupting its id in the external model data, but editing the keyframe data (e.g. by making them all identical, should appear not to animate at all) produces no change in-game.

They did things like that with some of the really old models.

[Zaela]

I stand corrected! I was looking at the spirit wolf model which appears to not use the animation data that comes with it (they did stuff like that a lot, too). It inherits animations from regular wolf, which is sensible enough, except that spirit wolf is in a "global" file while regular wolf isn't, and spirit wolf is loaded first ...

Anyway, looks like an easy fix. Extracting the model data and editing it in a fancy-pants 3D modelling program definitely not necessary. You can just edit the transition time between keyframes in-place. Default is 100 milliseconds, 33 milliseconds looks nicer.

I can make a quick patching utility, once I figure out exactly which animation to change ("O01" or "P01", seem like the best bet... I just changed every animation to 33 milliseconds to test).

[Zaela]

It was animation "L02".

Made a utility for editing the speed of this one animation: download link (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/70648819/downloads/P99%20Wolf%20Animspeeder.zip).

http://i.imgur.com/bpnoTPh.png

Steps:
1) Unzip P99 Wolf Animspeeder.zip (it contains a folder).
2) In the unzipped folder, launch P99 Wolf Animspeeder.exe
3) Point it to your EQ folder when prompted
4) Input a value of your choosing
5) Hit the button

You'll need to fully restart EQ to see changes.

The meat of the code is all in lua scripts provided under /gui/ and /lib/; the executable just starts up the GUI library and the lua interpreter and hands things off.

Notes:
* If your EQ folder is in /Program Files/ or /Program Files (x86)/, you'll need to either run the tool as admin (right click -> Run as administrator) or move your EQ folder somewhere else. The tool makes a backup file in your EQ folder to make it possible to revert the data file it edits; newer Windows versions don't let programs create files in folders under Program Files by default for security reasons.

* If you can't run the tool and it complains about a missing dll, you may need to download and run vcredist_x86.exe from Microsoft here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/down....aspx?id=30679

[khanable]

You're always doing some next level shit zaela

Find a way to fix the iksar 2hs animation and I'll father your children

[Zaela]

Find a way to fix the iksar 2hs animation and I'll father your children

Do they do the "sink into the floor while flicking my wrist" anim? If so, they could either change which anim packet is sent from the server, or I could hack together something to write over that anim with another anim's data (maybe the 2hb poke anim?).

[khanable]

Do they do the "sink into the floor while flicking my wrist" anim? If so, they could either change which anim packet is sent from the server, or I could hack together something to write over that anim with another anim's data (maybe the 2hb poke anim?).

Yeah, they tip their toes into the world and swing the sword likes its too heavy :(

[Swish]

It's how I remember it from the live servers. My shaman pet particularly always looked "slow" moving around.

[Zaela]

Yeah, they tip their toes into the world and swing the sword likes its too heavy :(

I noticed this quote from a thread from a couple years ago...

iksars never had a 2hs slash animation of which I'm aware.

If that is the case, and they should classically be doing some other animation instead, that should be really easy to change on the serverside.

Against current eqemu code, maybe something like this in Mob::AttackAnimation in attack.cpp (additions in bold):

case ItemType2HSlash: // 2H Slashing
{
skillinuse = Skill2HSlashing;
//should this apply to female iksars? has anyone ever seen a female iksar swing a 2hs?
type = (GetRace() == IKSAR && GetGender() == 0) ? <desired animation number goes here> : anim2HSlashing;
break;
}


If you want to try an equivalent clientside change I could probably put something together pretty quick. Replacing the 2hs anim with the 2hb poke anim should be easy, 2hb anim is 1 frame shorter and I think I can fudge the difference. Replacing it with an anim with more frames would take a little more effort. Just need to know which anim. Or I could make something to replace it with an arbitrary iksar anim, but that would take more effort.

[khanable]

I played an iksar warrior on live from kunark release onward - I honestly can't remember what the 2hs animation looked like then. I do feel like if it was this terrible it would have left an impression with me.

Client side fix would be awesome :)

[Mizard]

Your Wolf Form animation speed changer utility worked like a charm! I found that 20 milliseconds looks best. I am amazed at how quick and easy it was for me to install. You did all the hard work! I have a feeling this was quite easy for you. You are very talented.

If you ever need a port in game, I play on blue. Mizard the Wizard and Riverhead.

Again, THANK YOU SO MUCH! I love playing in Wolf Form now =)))

[Zaela]

Client side fix would be awesome :)

Made a tool to write over iksar 2hs anim with an arbitrary iksar anim: download link (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/70648819/downloads/P99%20Iksar%202HS%20Anim%20Swapper.zip).

Same setup instructions and notes as the wolf tool.

You get to grapple with the raw names for animations since figuring out exactly what everything is isn't worth my time. Some hints:

* C01 is kick
* C02 is 1h pierce
* C03 isn't listed because it's what we're replacing
* C04 is 2hb poke
* C05 is main hand swing
* C06 is offhand swing
* Other C## are the remaining Combat animations (punch, archery, etc)
* D## are Damage animations (D05 is death)
* S## are Social animations
* T## are T...spell animations
* L## are apparently movement related, assuming wolves are representative
* O## and P##, who knows

Could be some bugs in this tool, kept giving me trouble after successful tests. The edited file is backed up, though (as global4_chr.zae).


I have a feeling this was quite easy for you.

Just an unemployed programmer who has been looking at EQ's data formats and networking for way too long... Happy to help you out, though!

[khanable]

Oh man..

Trying this tonight

I'm stoked

[gildor]

hmm ....so I could tiger strike instead of 2hb poke....yeah..trying this too!

[Zaela]

hmm ....so I could tiger strike instead of 2hb poke....yeah..trying this too!

The above tool strictly replaces the 2hslash anim. Since you seem interested... I made a more generalized "replace iksar anim x with anim y" tool: download link (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/70648819/downloads/P99%20Iksar%20Anim%20Swapper.zip).

Seems some of the monk anims were lumped in with spellcasting animations; flying kick is T07, and two non-kicking ones (I can never remember which is which animation-wise) are T08 and T09.


Also found and fixed the bug I was having with the 2hs-specific tool.

And for reference, the O## anims are idle animations.

edit:
Also interesting to note that there are extra pieces for the model's animation skeleton that are apparently only moved during spellcasting animations, presumably to guide particle emitters. Probably already known by Telin, though.

[khanable]

worked amazingly

oh god I can use 2hs now without hating my life

Zaela, as promised, I owe you 1 fathering of children

I'm somewhat curious too - if Iksar did in fact never have a 2hs animation, if we used whatever files you were looking at from a kunark install would that give us more info, Zaela? I honestly can't remember it but I didn't really use 2hs all that often back then :3

[Sorn]

I tried the wolf form tool but my system objected, saying it wasn't a valid Win32 application.

Currently running XP.

[Zaela]

I tried the wolf form tool but my system objected, saying it wasn't a valid Win32 application.

Currently running XP.

Should work now. May need to download and run vcredist_x86.exe from Microsoft here (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29).

Microsoft's compilers haven't supported XP by default (if at all) in years... Had to go back to 2008 to get the GUI library I use to play nice.

[gildor]

Zaela your a beast...thank you

[Sorn]

Hooray, it works!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lq06W0GjD8M

[Mizard]

Just an FYI - YOU will see your wolf animating at the proper animation speed. However, other players will still see you animating at the slow animation speed.

[khanable]

Just an FYI - YOU will see your wolf animating at the proper animation speed. However, other players will still see you animating at the slow animation speed.

I think everyone is aware of this; it's along the same lines as luclin models - folks just like looking at those more than something else

I know it brings me great comfort being able to see my lizard swing a 2hs like a normal person, I don't give a shit what everyone else sees~

[Mizard]

It was not obvious to me that other players would not be able to see the animation speed working properly after the fix.

You are right though, I could care less what the other players see - as long as my Wolf Form animates properly =)

I just wanted people to know the pros and cons.

[Manticmuse]

this thread or a new thread should be stickied

[Zaela]

I'm somewhat curious too - if Iksar did in fact never have a 2hs animation, if we used whatever files you were looking at from a kunark install would that give us more info, Zaela? I honestly can't remember it but I didn't really use 2hs all that often back then :3

All the iksar model/animation data from the kunark CD is identical to what you get from Titanium (and the super-up-to-date free-to-play download, for that matter). I'm not surprised -- they pretty much never changed their data files once they were out there, except to upgrade textures. (And when they upgraded from BMP to DDS textures, they kept the .bmp file extension on replaced textures so they wouldn't have to change the model data to look for different filenames. Never changed their data.)

If they didn't use the 2hs anim that they had in the original kunark data, they would have probably just "redirected" which anim to use in the animation packets, like I was suggesting could be done on the serverside. Would have been odd of them to put something like this in and not use it, though. Been way too long for me to remember what iksars swinging a 2hs looked like (I think I had an Iksar SK alt, but I mostly played casters...).

[Zaela]

Small iksar 2hs update in this increasingly non-technical-discussion thread...

It kind of bugged me: I played and dev'd on a server that used an earlier client for several years, and we used the iksar 2hs animation for both 2hs and 2hb. It's been a few years since I logged in there, but I couldn't remember the animation being that bad. Figured I would remember something like that.

I had a little project on the backburner, making an API/framework for using EQ's graphics in programs. This thread got me working on it a bit again, and I just got to the point of supporting classic model animations. I figured I might as well use Iksar to test it out.

Turns out my memory isn't failing me. The 2hs animation -- the same one that comes with Titanium, and that hasn't changed since the Kunark CD -- looks a lot less wonky than what gets loaded by the Titanium client.

First ever screengrabbing and youtubing from me...
What it looks like in Titanium: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atVitN1wG0I
What the animation data looks like when treated like any other animation data: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlF0pwuNuAc

Note the lack of sinking into the ground, and the involvement of both hands. That's what it's supposed to look like. Somehow, the Titanium client is corrupting the animation, or loading it incorrectly. The way it goes makes me think that it might be mis-aligning the "bones" from the skeleton with the animation, e.g. applying the motion that is meant for the left arm to the pelvis instead or something. Would explain why the left arm doesn't move, and the weird sinking into the ground.

Pretty weird that just this one animation would be affected, though.

[doacleric]

Looks like the entire bottom half of the model doesn't animate.

Makes you wonder what else we've been looking at incorrectly all these years...

[khanable]

Small iksar 2hs update in this increasingly non-technical-discussion thread...

It kind of bugged me: I played and dev'd on a server that used an earlier client for several years, and we used the iksar 2hs animation for both 2hs and 2hb. It's been a few years since I logged in there, but I couldn't remember the animation being that bad. Figured I would remember something like that.

I had a little project on the backburner, making an API/framework for using EQ's graphics in programs. This thread got me working on it a bit again, and I just got to the point of supporting classic model animations. I figured I might as well use Iksar to test it out.

Turns out my memory isn't failing me. The 2hs animation -- the same one that comes with Titanium, and that hasn't changed since the Kunark CD -- looks a lot less wonky than what gets loaded by the Titanium client.

First ever screengrabbing and youtubing from me...
What it looks like in Titanium: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atVitN1wG0I
What the animation data looks like when treated like any other animation data: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlF0pwuNuAc

Note the lack of sinking into the ground, and the involvement of both hands. That's what it's supposed to look like. Somehow, the Titanium client is corrupting the animation, or loading it incorrectly. The way it goes makes me think that it might be mis-aligning the "bones" from the skeleton with the animation, e.g. applying the motion that is meant for the left arm to the pelvis instead or something. Would explain why the left arm doesn't move, and the weird sinking into the ground.

Pretty weird that just this one animation would be affected, though.

!!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDxoj-tDDIU

[renordw]

This needs to be fixed, and put in the proper patch files. I remember when EQ first launched, the wolf form was not broken. Then somewhere before Kunark, it started looking slowmo and I quit my druid

[renordw]

I also changed all the combat and damage animations of the wolf to 50. 20 seemed too fast, 50 is perfect. I'm the happiest ranger ever!

[renordw]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5p3duzdRNsk&feature=youtu.be

[Zheta]

Any fix for the super slow Gnome sitting animation?

Also, the Wolf/Iksar fixes are amazing, thanks!

[Muggens]

Very nice work! I hate the slow running wolf animation so this was great to find.
I've been thinking of small stuff that could be introduced as custom content but I guess most of it can be done like this.

One: Is it possible to make characters with Safefall training Not to go into the flopping dive animation when jumping off high places? Maybe instead just keep the encrouched jump animation for a longer time? It would be really cool.

Two: Is it possible to make miniturized and slicker feet for halfling hobbits, making em even hotter?

[Zaela]

Any fix for the super slow Gnome sitting animation?

Maybe I'll find some time and put together a tool to muck with and/or swap out animations for arbitrary models... bit busy lately though.

Although, do gnomes have a unique sitting animation? Worth noting that classic player race models share a lot of their animations. There's really only four complete sets of animations -- Wood Elf male, Wood Elf female, Ogre female, and Iksar male. Other races might have one or two unique animations of their own, but they all fall back to one of the four main sets. I do see that gnomes have one unique animation, L03... I think that might in fact be for sit/stand (standing is just sitting in reverse), now that I think of it.

Is it possible to make characters with Safefall training Not to go into the flopping dive animation when jumping off high places? Maybe instead just keep the encrouched jump animation for a longer time?

Would need to inject custom code into whatever client routine triggers that animation during falling; it could theoretically be done, but it's outside of my purview and probably not worth the effort for the devs... Swapping out the falling animation for another animation entirely, for everyone in all situations would be doable with simple datafile edits, but making it hold the crouching position rather than playing the crouch animation over and over probably wouldn't be doable since some extra state-changing stuff would be needed there, which again would need injected code.

Is it possible to make miniturized and slicker feet for halfling hobbits, making em even hotter?

Could be done. Probably would need to export the model data from EQ's custom format into something a 3D modelling tool like Blender understands, tweak it, and then import it back into EQ's custom format. EQ's model format is pretty well understood now, so it would be reasonable easy to make a tool to do that. I'm no 3D modeling person, though...

Alternatively it might be easier to find the vertices at the end of the feet in the EQ model data and tweak some numbers to make them closer to the body and whatnot. Would take little coding, but lot of tedious trial-and-error to find the vertices and good numbers for them, though.

[Muggens]

Could be done. Probably would need to export the model data from EQ's custom format into something a 3D modelling tool like Blender understands, tweak it, and then import it back into EQ's custom format. EQ's model format is pretty well understood now, so it would be reasonable easy to make a tool to do that. I'm no 3D modeling person, though...

Alternatively it might be easier to find the vertices at the end of the feet in the EQ model data and tweak some numbers to make them closer to the body and whatnot. Would take little coding, but lot of tedious trial-and-error to find the vertices and good numbers for them, though.

Thanks! Who's into 3d modelling? Free muffins for life if you can do it.

[Muggens]

Heres something I am curious about: Are you able to make the female character models "relax their arms" ?
as Ive noticed Human, Dark elf, Erudite, High Elf and perhaps more female character models always have their arms in a ready position, not "dropping" them by their side, relaxed like the male char models. Id be cool to see them relaxed yeah

[Zaela]

/rezz

In Iksar-2HS-animation-related news... Someone asked me about my "fix" earlier today, and I decided to set up a test server on my new machine and poke around a bit. And I stumbled onto a real fix.

And it is dumb.

I made a tool back in April on page 2 of this thread (http://www.project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?t=235597&page=2#20) to allow replacing any iksar animation with any other iksar animation. The 2HS animation -- which we've established has perfectly fine animation data, the client just fucks up while loading it -- is C03. As it turns out, if you replace C03 with itself (that is, replace C03 with C03)... it gets fixed. What really happens is that the animation data gets moved from the middle of the datafile to the end of the datafile. The position of animation data is not supposed to matter. But, there you go!

The iksar archery animation also has a similar but smaller problem (the feet displace oddly instead of animating as they should) which can also be fixed by replacing C09 with C09.

It's possible that the way the client was corrupting these animations is somehow related to their position in the file, and that different animations will be corrupted now. But I looked over all the non-social iksar male animations, and they seem to be fine with the fixes to C03 and C09 applied. A few other models are defined in the same datafile -- looks like iksar female, barbarians, and a few NPC models -- but I'm too lazy to look at all of those right now.

In any case, hoping a few interested people will try it out and report any problems. If you've used any of my tools to replace your iksar 2HS animation already you should have a "global4_chr.zae" file in your eq folder; make a copy of that and rename it to "global4_chr.s3d", replacing the existing s3d to restore the original animation data before applying the new fix.

I'll probably whip up a one-click fix tool sometime this week if no other animations get obviously fucked up by fixing the iksar ones.

[NateGod]

/rezz

In Iksar-2HS-animation-related news... Someone asked me about my "fix" earlier today, and I decided to set up a test server on my new machine and poke around a bit. And I stumbled onto a real fix.

And it is dumb.

I made a tool back in April on page 2 of this thread (http://www.project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?t=235597&page=2#20) to allow replacing any iksar animation with any other iksar animation. The 2HS animation -- which we've established has perfectly fine animation data, the client just fucks up while loading it -- is C03. As it turns out, if you replace C03 with itself (that is, replace C03 with C03)... it gets fixed. What really happens is that the animation data gets moved from the middle of the datafile to the end of the datafile. The position of animation data is not supposed to matter. But, there you go!

The iksar archery animation also has a similar but smaller problem (the feet displace oddly instead of animating as they should) which can also be fixed by replacing C09 with C09.

It's possible that the way the client was corrupting these animations is somehow related to their position in the file, and that different animations will be corrupted now. But I looked over all the non-social iksar male animations, and they seem to be fine with the fixes to C03 and C09 applied. A few other models are defined in the same datafile -- looks like iksar female, barbarians, and a few NPC models -- but I'm too lazy to look at all of those right now.

In any case, hoping a few interested people will try it out and report any problems. If you've used any of my tools to replace your iksar 2HS animation already you should have a "global4_chr.zae" file in your eq folder; make a copy of that and rename it to "global4_chr.s3d", replacing the existing s3d to restore the original animation data before applying the new fix.

I'll probably whip up a one-click fix tool sometime this week if no other animations get obviously fucked up by fixing the iksar ones.
How exactly would I go about replacing c03 with c03? The original replacer tool does not allow you to select c03. I want to try this out but I'm not exactly sure about the logistics of doing it.

[Zaela]

How exactly would I go about replacing c03 with c03? The original replacer tool does not allow you to select c03. I want to try this out but I'm not exactly sure about the logistics of doing it.

There's two different tools linked on page 2 of this thread; you would have needed to use the second one.

But there's a one-click tool (http://www.project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?t=262117) to do all the work for you now, so you should just use that instead if you want to give it a try.

[Furinex]

Does this Wolf Form Animation fixer still live somewhere on the internet? Links are dead here, and googles commin up with nothin'.

[dnatabar]

Does this Wolf Form Animation fixer still live somewhere on the internet? Links are dead here, and googles commin up with nothin'.

I hope it does, cause i'm very interested in it as well =)

[Furinex]

I hope it does, cause i'm very interested in it as well =)

A couple posts up has a DL for the global file itself, but the actual application - I cant find. Which kinda sucks because I feel like the timing set in the global file is a bit too fast. I'd slow it down slightly.

[Eshaton]

Any valid current downloads for this? It’s 2022

[mcoy]

The EQClassicHD patch may include this? Zaela's work is mentioned - maybe Sorn can tell us?

https://wiki.project1999.com/EQ_Classic_HD

-Mcoy

[Sorn]

yes it is included in the EQHD package as far as I know

[Eshaton]

Thanks. Appreciate the responses.

[Jibartik]

god damn just saw this wow!!!