Spells: Spell Animations

[Telin]

Any progress in this issue?



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[nilbog]

Originally Posted by nilbog [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

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What needs to happen is the spell, when particles are ejected, aligns to the skeletal structure of the arm. Kanras made the ice nuke particles shoot directly horizontal, instead of vertical. This is modifiable with hex using the spellsnew.edd file. Being that that file is purely client-side, this is a project that the community could work on.

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green: purely horizontal
red: desired, aligned with direction of hands

This could be its own thread. People good with hex edits, this is for you. Due to the complexity of changing even 1 spell effect, the structure of the file itself needs to be understood and some type of blanket change applied.

Once again, the true fix would be for the animations to align with the model's skeleton. Something that gives hope to this issue is that once the character model moves at all, the animations align to skeleton and everything works. It's the initial cast that has a problem.

[Nirgon]

Your hands are incredibly steady with the mspaint pencil in some places

[Telin]

I've been looking into various spell particles issues. I don't know anything about programming or hex editing. I have been teaching myself along the way. Among the various things I was learning more about was the stat buff effect in the spellsnew.edd and spellnew.eff file. It uses the NPCAegolism effect as it is named in the .edd file. The level required for these particles to be added are not added in the correct order on the server as of right now, but I labeled them at the correct level for the sake of organization. I have identified which particle effects they control based on the way its broken down in the file:

NPCAegolism S1-1 (Level 1 Hands) Effect file code = 3C
Spelb2.tga (Green)

NPCAegolismV2 S1-2 (Level 24 Hands) Effect file code = 3D
Spelc2.tga (Orange)

NPCAegolismV2 S3-1 (Level 24 Target) Effect file code = 3E
Spelc2.tga (Orange)

NPCAegolismV2 S3-2 (Level 39 Target Inward) Effect file code = 3F
Spela2.tga (Blue)

NPCAegolismV2 S3-3 (Level 1 Target) Effect file code = 40
Spelb2.tga (Green)

NPCAegolismV2 S3-4 (Level 39 Target Outward) Effect file code = 41
Spela2.tga (Blue)

Now the .eff file doesn't just use two digit codes as I identified above, it sometimes requires 4 digits. So the code 3C 01 might have a different effect than 3C 02. I originally started looking at this spell because I wanted to add the blue particles to the hands. Well I figured out that for some reason that isn't coded in like every other particle in this spell effect. If you notice there are 2 of each color represented, one for the hands and one for the target. However, the two codes using blue particles under this effect are both for the target because there are blue spell particles that go inward toward the target and others that go outward at the end of the effect. The outward particle effect is a separate code. So I don't know where the blue particles are supposed to come from for the hands.

NPCAegolismV2 - 6A 00 00 00 3C 01(left hand green) 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 04 00 00 00 3C 01(right hand green) 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 05 00 00 00 3D 01(left hand orange) 00 00 27 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 04 00 00 00 3D 01(right hand orange) 00 00 27 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 05 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 6D 00 00 00 3E 01(orange around target) 00 00 27 00 00 00 03 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 3F 01(blue around target) 00 00 18 00 00 00 03 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 40 01(green around target) 00 00 00 00 00 00 03 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 41 01(blue out of target) 00 00 27 00 00 00 03 00 00 00 02 00 00 00

So I can change these codes and change the effect, but I cannot add another 3rd line of code for the left and right hands necessary for the blue particle effect desired or it breaks everything after that point because everything has to align.

[Telin]

So a few discoveries puzzle me when trying to figure out how these effects are broken. I have looked into the EQMac on PC to see how the Titanium Client reads the spell files. When Titanium reads the spellsnew.eff and spellsnew.edd files.. the results are not correct in game. Many animations are missing. Which leads me to believe that the codes have either changed or they have been removed from the client entirely.

One thing that does work is the spell animation direction out of the hands. They do come out of the hands properly. So I also tested deleting the spellsnew.eff and spellsnew.edd files to see if that would restore the older effects. It actually worked 100%. Everything was restored like it was during the classic era. I know on this server, deleting the spellsnew files doesn't restore the effects out of the hands, but all other classic particles seem correct.

This leads me to believe that the direction issue with the new particles and the missing classic particles out of the hands is linked somehow. I know that when I start to go LD, spell particles from the hands stop working. There has to be some kind of communication required for the game to know where to put those particle effects on you and especially other people in your view.

Here are screenshots of the classic particles working:
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[nilbog]

There is a missing relationship between the origin location of the cast versus where the client resides when a spell is initiated.

For example, if you go to location 0,0 and take a few steps back, cast a spell, you'll see particles originating from the 0,0 loc.

So, the options are to find the missing link (origin->caster/good luck), or somehow work from the caster and set the origin there.

I hope this is one day resolved, but I am clueless how to proceed past what we've already done.

As currently implemented, particles should be working as per your screenshots. As soon as the caster's arms move to perform a spell casting animation, the particles align with them and all is well.

[Furinex]

Progress being made on this btw. I figured anyone tracking this thread should see it.


http://www.project1999.org/forums/sh...=105509&page=2