fenir

[fenir]

I complied Wellington's work on editing MTW, and made it downloadable from .org's download area.

I thought it was sufficient enough to warrant a complete grouping of his work to allow everyone the ability to download, and enjoy it as much as Wellington enjoyed writing it.
Besides it has helped me greatly, and I hope it can help more people enjoy modding their own games and by default increase the interest in MTW for all.

Anyway I hope this helps someone, and many thanks to Wellington for taking time out to write it.

fenir


It's called "A guide to Editing Medieval Total War".

[Wellington]

Fenir,

Brilliant

Many thanks for this. I was really dreading the point in time whereby I had to convert this "guide" to Word (basically because I still use Lotus Word Pro and am NOT an MS Word expert at all). I was going to request some brave individual take on the task of converting the text to a Word Document - but you'll do nicely thank you

Four points -

1) two more PARTS will arrive by the end of this weekend - I'm busy finalising the text/examples

2) this "Guide" WILL be finished - albeit eventually

3) I have a folder on my PC containing the text files for each of the PART's currently written. Much of the text in these files has changed a bit (correcting things, expanding some issues, making some topics a bit clearer, grammer/spelling etc). In other words the text in the thread may be a bit different to the constantly updated versions I hold on my PC. If you wish to take on the task of organising this guide into a Word document I'm more than happy to E-mail you the corrected folder/files - these files are what I consider the "final" text versions. Obviously, you can this organise the info in these files as you wish.

4) A minor point, but please ensure the document title makes clear this guide is ONLY pertaining to -
- "Animations" modding (as opposed to campaigns etc)
- "Unit" modding (as opposed to maps/buildings/models/terrain etc)

Let me know and I'll send you the "definitive versions" on my PC.

Thanks for this Fenir. I really do appreciate the help you've offered in providing a Unit/Animation document that is readable for our community.

regards,
Welly



.a

[fenir]

Hello Wellington,

It really should be us thanking you. I myself am a numbers person, I find it hard to work the graphics, but your guide was very helpful in explaining the interaction between the two.

I originally read it off the .org site, but after a while it became annoying to track it down and follow all the time, hence the write up.

But yes, I will quite happy compile it for you.
Send me the information and I will be happy to organize it and edit it for you. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

Document title,
Will do, I will change the title and add a description page of what the guide will show, and what it pertains to.

When you send me the other pages, send me a list of how you would like it to read, i.e.: the order, and any notes you think are prudent
It should take me a few hours and I will upload to. Org.

Again, thank you.
fenir

PS: One clarification if I may? The resizing of shields, this is done in the object folders, Shield1, Shield2; etc… took me a while to figure that out. J
So the stand.txt, walk.txt, etc.. Is actually pertaining to the position of the shield, in an already predefined unit model.
That is correct?

[Wellington]

"So the stand.txt, walk.txt, etc.. Is actually pertaining to the position of the shield, in an already predefined unit model. That is correct? "

Yes. The stand.txt, walk.txt etc: files within the overall 'Items' folder define the positions of the weapon/shield for all 4 camera-angles and all 12 frames (per camera-angle) - hence 48 lines - for THAT action.

Hence, considering just one of the files for spearmen -

"Items\Shield3\Spearmen\Fight.txt"

really means 'display shield number 3, as defined in the Spearman_S.txt file in the generic BIF folder for spearmen, whenever the Spearmen perform a fight action'.

Note that the 48 lines in this (and other such) files contain 4 pairs of x/y-coords, one for each corner of the shield. Therefore they 2 purposes -

1) to position the shield on the figure image
2) to resize the shield on the figure if necessary

From 1) this is to ensure the shield follows the movement of the hand for all images.

From 2) this is to ensure the shield looks correct for different images and camera-angles (ie: mainly in terms of the shields width)