A start on the .MESH file format

[GrumpyOldMan]

Hi Zxiang

Ya, I already did that. However, draging them precisely to the correct locations one by one is not an easy job, lol ~:P

If you have a look at Milkshape 1.8.1 Beta, Mete has put a lock x and lock y in the TCE which makes it easier to move coords across

Cheers

GrumpyOldMan

[Caliban]

Oh man how I would love to slaughter those Ronalds!

I have been given the go-ahead to release the unpacked animations and .evt files for the modding community.

I have put them up on mediafire http://www.mediafire.com/?7ydzbziijmy
Feel free to host these files officially. The download is around 60mb and unzips to twice that.

Simply download and unzip to your data\ folder. It will extract everything to the animations folder with sub-directories. You should be able to delete your data\animations\*.dat *.idx files and then run the game with this in your config:

[util]
no_animdb = true

This should run the game directly from the animation files, bypassing the need to re-build the pack files. Deleting the pack files without using the no_animdb command should rebuild the animation files from your animation source folder.

I haven't tested this myself in a retail build and would love to know how it goes.

Caliban

[Casuir]

Thank you Caliban

Tried it out and the game definitely recompiles the database, the command switch doesnt seem to work though, the files are recompiled whether its there or not.

[GrumpyOldMan]

Hi Caliban and Casuir

Thank you Caliban

Tried it out and the game definitely recompiles the database, the command switch doesnt seem to work though, the files are recompiled whether its there or not.

Agree with Casuir, dat and idx files are recompiled AND the cfg is autogenerated without the [util] addition.

But apart from that, this is a great step forward for modding with the TW engine . We now know what's required to get new SKELETONS and animations into the engine.

With skeletons, we'll have to remember a few rules - a fighting figure (ie not mount) will require a bone_abs, a bone_torso, a bone_head, a bone_Rhand and a bone_Lhand. This is what the engine recognises for fighting, weapons, etc. Mounts will require a nominal renaming as horse ie mount_kangaroo_horse and have a bone_saddle for figure attachment, etc, etc.

Let's give a cheer for Caliban -

Cheers

GrumpyOldMan

[Casuir]

How does this affect your mesh converter GOM, will it be able to handle different skeletons?

[GrumpyOldMan]

Hi Casuir

How does this affect your mesh converter GOM, will it be able to handle different skeletons?

It will have to be rewritten to work with any skeletons that don't match the bone hierarchy, configuration and names. But if I'm right and we can control the appearance of a figure through the cas anim files then if people use the same basic skeleton configuration (ie not adding or deducting bones or changing the hirearchy) the mesh converter will still work. Probably the first step is to get a converter to extract animations into the cas anim format. Next I can look at rewriting the mesh converter to work with non-standard skeletons.

Cheers

GrumpyOldMan

[Caliban]

...Probably the first step is to get a converter to extract animations into the cas anim format. Next I can look at rewriting the mesh converter to work with non-standard skeletons.

You should be able to import your mesh into 3dsmax from Milkshape via .smd and then use Verc's script (or our official CAS exporter) to export .CAS anim files.

This is why we released the official CAS exporter but I have only heard of people having version problems with it. It seems to work fine on all of our machines here running 3dsmax7 and 8.