|
| Thread: Modding animations and other stuff | |
|
ZombieLord
Promising
Famous Hero
that wants your brainz...
|
posted March 27, 2007 02:36 PM |
bonus applied. |
|
Modding animations and other stuff
Well, I've finally decided to share my experience about creature animation modding. And hopefully someone will be able to convert the animations from H5 format to something that can work with a 3D Modeler program like 3DS Max.
The creature visuals are located in Characters/Creatures/faction_name/creature_name.(Character).xdb
(the heroes' visuals are located in Characters/Heroes/hero_name.(Character).xdb
Here's how such a file looks:
The <Model> section refers to the model of the creature (its appearance and materials and textures)
The <ArenaAnimSet> section refers to a file that contains the animation set of this creature on the battlefield. <AdvMapAnimSet> is the same, only that it is used for the adventure animations.
The <ColourModels> section is used only for heroes. They are different models for each flag color. The order of the colors is the one used in the game (with an additional white color first). Here's how this section looks full:
Quote:
<Item href="Hero-White.(Model).xdb#xpointer(/Model)"/>
<Item href="Hero-Red.(Model).xdb#xpointer(/Model)"/>
<Item href="Hero-Blue.(Model).xdb#xpointer(/Model)"/>
<Item href="Hero-Green.(Model).xdb#xpointer(/Model)"/>
<Item href="Hero-Yellow.(Model).xdb#xpointer(/Model)"/>
<Item href="Hero-Orange.(Model).xdb#xpointer(/Model)"/>
<Item href="Hero-Teal.(Model).xdb#xpointer(/Model)"/>
<Item href="Hero-Purple.(Model).xdb#xpointer(/Model)"/>
<Item href="Hero-Tan.(Model).xdb#xpointer(/Model)"/>
Now let's look at the model .xdb file.
The <Materials> section contains the materials of the creature. The materials hold information about Specular, Lighting and Texture to use. The order of the materials is important and should not be changed. If you want to change a texture, just copy the old material .xdb file (renaming it), modify some parameters there (including the texture .xdb name) and then change the model file to point to the newly renamed material, but where it was the old one!
Also, it's important to note that the material points to the .xdb of the texture which has some parameters for it. This texture .xdb points to the actual .dds file!
The <Skeleton> and <Geometry> are too hard-coded to change them, and I don't know what the <Animations> and the <WindPower> sections do
Now that we're done with the model, let's take a look at the animation set file (be it arena or adventure, doesn't matter)
The <animations> section is the most important (the others should not be changed anyway). Here you can see all the kind of animations this creature uses and their respective .xdb file. The <Kind> sub-section is a name of the animation type: for example, if you want to give the Titan a casting animation, add another <Item> with the cast kind (to find out how a certain animation is named, find a creature that has it and see there...). Also, the <Anim> sub-section should point to a .xdb file describing the animation. i.e., if you want to give the Titan the call lightning animation to the newly created casting animation, just copy the specability <Anim> section in the casting one (specability means special ability)
Now let's take a closer look at the BasicSkelAnim type of files (the ones pointed out by the <Anim> section explained above)
The <SrcName> points to the model of the creature.
The <uid> is a tricky one. I'll explain it a little later.
The <ExpSrcClip>, <ExpRootTransform>, <ExpFrameFirst>, <ExpFrameLast>, <ExpSettingsFile> are unknown to me. Just leave them for now.
The <MovementSpeed> is the speed with which the creature moves on the battlefield or on the adventure map if it's a hero. Set this to 0 when it's a non-moving animation.
The <SpeedFactor> represents how fast this animation is being shown. If it has the value of 2, for example, the animation will be performed twice as fast as with a value of 1.
The <Sound> section points to a sound .xdb file that will play when this animation occurs.
The <Effect> is a special effect shown when this animation is playing. Check the .xdb file it points out if you're curious how this effect is done (I haven't checked yet)
The <SpeedLineFallTime> and <SpeedLineMaterial> are unknown to me.
Now let's get back to the <uid> section. This refers to a file (yes, a file) in the bin/animations folder. Find there the file the animation you want to modify points out with the <uid> section and copy it somewhere. Then, you need a special converter from HoMM V animation data to something that can be modified. I don't know if something like this exists, btw If you know of something like this, please tell me
One more thing with Hero modding:
The Characters/Heroes/hero_name.(Character).xdb file is read from the MapObjects/faction_name/hero_name.(AdvMapHeroShared).xdb file. Notice that the heroname from the mapobjects folder is the internal hero name and may differ from the original name of the hero in-game. For example, Irina is named Ving.
This file has many properties about the hero, including <HeroCharacterArena> and <HeroCharacterAdventure> which point out to those files in the Characters folder I explained above. The <HeroCharacterArenaMelee> file is used for heroes that attack the enemy by melee, like the Knight, the Demon Lord and the Rune Mage.
That's all for now, I'd like to hear your opinions on this before I'll add it to the wiki
|
|
mlai
Adventuring Hero
|
|
posted December 11, 2007 05:56 AM |
|
Edited by mlai at 06:23, 11 Dec 2007.
|
Quote:
The <MovementSpeed> is the speed with which the creature moves on the battlefield or on the adventure map if it's a hero. Set this to 0 when it's a non-moving animation.
The <SpeedFactor> represents how fast this animation is being shown. If it has the value of 2, for example, the animation will be performed twice as fast as with a value of 1.
I feel that certain orc units suffer from the treant problem, in that they seem to move at hyper speed. So I tried adjusting these 2 values to slow them down.
For example, for Executioner, I divide both values by 2. This should have slowed his speed and animation speed down by 50% without animation mismatch.
However, he animates slower, and the time to get from A to B is longer, but he seems to slide across the field pretty fast still, and keeps clipping back and forth as if the image is still too fast for the actual entity crossing the board.
Edit: I found the solution... Don't mess with <MovementSpeed> at all. Just lower the <SpeedFactor>.
|
|
fiur
Promising
Supreme Hero
Map Creator
|
|
posted December 11, 2007 09:36 AM |
|
|
wow ZombieLord 
this is something....!!!
now the hero mod's can start maybe...?
(I've started with the Irina hero (Ving), but I can't manage to give her a griffin to ride on...  )
I really wanna give all heroes an unique look....
ty alot for this post
____________
|
|
Mesciurius
Tavern Dweller
Arcane Apprentice
|
|
posted December 11, 2007 12:41 PM |
|
|
|
A solution o give it a griffin : play an effect on the hero that uses the griffin as a model.(every hero/creature/building has an effect property)
|
|
Cepheus
Honorable
Legendary Hero
Far-flung Keeper
|
|
posted December 11, 2007 05:15 PM |
|
|
|
The problem here is that we don't have access to the converter Nival uses to insert their files into the game. Unless someone can decode the .ma files or Nival releases the converter, we'll have to make do with what we have.
|
| |
|
|
