creating graphic weapons

**Lord Liendecker** · 11-09-2005, 03:53

Hello, I am having a problem with making new coordinates for weapons in the BIF files. What do i log in to the final two coordinates of the weapons data, Duke John failed to explain that there were six, not four coordinates in the weapons.txt.

I was going off of Duke John's unit Graphics instructions:

5.1.2 Textures\Men\NameBIF\shields.txt
In this file you write the coordinates of the different shields. If there are multiple shields then there will be multiple lines of coordinates:x1 y1 x2 y2
x1 y1 x2 y2
x1 y1 x2 y2[/list]Where: the red line stands for shield1, the blue line for shield2 and the green line for shield3. Or said otherwise the order of entry specifies the shield number; first entry corresponds with shield1. (x1,y1) is the topleft corner and (x2,y2) is the bottomright corner.
Note that crossbows (and if you want bows) are treated like shields to create perspective. Technically there is no difference between crossbows and shields, visually you will just see a crossbow instead of a shield.

5.1.3 Textures\Men\NameBIF\weapons.txt
In this file you write the coordinates of the different weapons. Entry of the coordinates are similar to the entry of shield coordinates (5.1.2). To avoid making things harder use the same orientation of weapons as in original MTW BIFs; spears and swords point to the right.

The shield coordinates make sense to me, but the weapons always have 6 coordinates, 1x,1y,2x,2y, and two single digit numbers, like 3, 1. At first i thought that these numbers corresponded with the weapon type that the coordinates listed, but this seems not to be the case, since when i was experimenting with Mongol Cav. weapons 1 and 3 both directed to the spear, and weapon 2 directed to the sword. In the txt weapons listed 1st and 3rd had the same spear coordinates and the 2nd had different sword coordinates. When none of these following numbers were the same order as that.

examples:

my new weapons list:
43,234,93,254,1,3
43,226,196,229[?,?]
45,215,120,223[?,?]
39,203,125,212[?,?]
128,204,219,224[?,?]

new shield list
1,205,32,254
227,206,252,253

the mongol cav weapon list:
102,209,254,211,3,1
1,240,96,254,1,3
102,209,254,211,2,1

in game
weapon 1 => spear
weapon 2 => scemitar
weapon 3 => same spear

**Aenarion** · 11-09-2005, 15:15

That topic always gave me troubles!

I could never figure out how to do them...anyways I think that the best option (if u don't find any help) is to contact Duke John personally by sending him a PM and asking your query.

Hope it helps!

Thanks,

Aenarion

**Lord Liendecker** · 11-10-2005, 03:17

Thanks Aenarion for those two answers. Thats a good idea ill just contact Duke John and if i get an answer ill post it here.
Silmirilion TW is a great idea! didn't know it was very far underway.

**Lord Liendecker** · 11-11-2005, 20:35

Here's what i got from Duke John

Hi Lord Liendecker,

This is old stuff for me, but I believe that those 2 numbers are used for scaling the weapon in length. Look at original pike weapons and compare it to spears and you will see the difference. If I remember well 5, 1 means 5 times as long and 3, 2 means 3/2=1.5 times as long.

Good luck!

apparently these will only effect the size of the weapon. so to make a weapon to the correct scale try this. Use an already made weapon as a template for the size you want, and then to fill in these two digits, coppy the numbers from the template weapon.
last two digits of the row that corresponds with the weapon number as shown in [unittype_w.txt] of weapons.txt in the template graphics folder, and paste them in the weapons.txt of your new graphic's folder, after the 4 coordinates.

If that makes any sense.
Ill try it and see how it works.

This is what i ended up with

43,234,93,254,1,3
43,226,196,229,3,1
45,215,120,223,2,1
39,203,125,212,2,2
128,204,219,224,1,3

the first was the axe that was in the Gahzi infantry bif, that i started with.
2) the Gothic Sergeant's pike. I coppied these numbers from the /PlateS/weapons.txt (weapon 2, coresponding to the Gothic Sergeants)
and so on