Editing Animation folder

**Tanauser** · 01-11-2008, 17:51

Could you tell me if I need to repack ? ...and in which DATA folder (MTTW2 or AMERICA)

**Tanauser** · 01-11-2008, 19:10

I got CTD upon CTD , I don't know in which DATA/Animation/ folder I have to put the new one MTW2_Winchester ;
also what do I do with the pack.dat inside of each

This is how I have put it in the skeleton.txt

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; ;;;

[B]type ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; ;;;

type MTW2_Winchester
reference_points siege_engines/UnitModelsRefPoints/HR_Arquebus_Ref_Point.modelReferencePoints
parent MTW2_HR_Crossbow
no_deltas
in_awareness 135.0
in_zone 135.0
in_centre 45.0

;;; HR_Arquebus attacks

anim attack_missile_ready data/animations/MTW2_Winchester/HR_Arquebus_attack_missile_ready.cas
anim attack_missile_hold data/animations/MTW2_Winchester/HR_Arquebus_attack_missile_hold.cas
anim attack_missile_release data/animations/MTW2_Winchester/HR_Arquebus_attack_missile_release.cas -evt:/data/animations/MTW2_Winchester/HR_Arquebus_attack_missile_release.evt

;;; Weapon

type MTW2_HR_Arquebus_Primary
suppress_refpoints_warning
in_awareness 135.0
in_zone 135.0
in_centre 45.0

anim default data/animations/MTW2_Winchester/weapon/w_HR_Arquebus_default.cas
anim stand_a_idle data/animations/MTW2_Winchester/weapon/w_HR_Arquebus_default.cas

anim attack_missile_ready data/animations/MTW2_Winchester/weapon/w_HR_Arquebus_default.cas
anim attack_missile_hold data/animations/MTW2_Winchester/weapon/w_HR_Arquebus_default.cas
anim attack_missile_release data/animations/MTW2_Winchester/weapon/w_HR_Arquebus_default.cas

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; ;;;

I have removed the anim reloading line (this one concerne the old reloading sequence animation maybe it's here the mistake )....in the new folder and in the text file

indicate 15 MTW2_Winchester in the modeldb instead of 16 MTW2_HR_Arquebus, I have put the New folder in each Animation folder beside the 2 pack.dat

What else ?

Time is on my side

**KnightErrant** · 01-12-2008, 04:39

Hi Tanauser,

Sorry, was busy all day. I replied to your e-mail but didn't check this
thread. I was assuming you were running unpacked but I should have
checked. Do you have Caliban's unpacked animations directory as
your vanilla \data\animations directory, or are the only items in there
pack.dat, pack.idx, skeleton.dat, and skeleton.idx?

The way I run unpacked is:
I renamed my original \data\animations in the vanilla install to
\data\animations_orig so I have a safe copy of those four files.
I then put Caliban's directory as my vanilla \data\animations
directory.

Then I went to my mod folder, let's call it America to follow your notation.
If you have those four files in \America\data\animations you need
to save them somewhere else and remove them from that directory.
Note that we haven't yet put anything new in the game. Now start
your mod game and see if they get rebuilt. This process takes longer
than the normal load, like 60 or more seconds, so don't worry. If the game
loads everything is working as it should. All of this assumes you are
using io_filefirst and all that.
I can't remember if this makes a difference but my cfg file has this:

Code:

[util]
no_animdb = true

Caliban told us to do this but I think it didn't make a difference.

Now to test your animation in a simple way, simply back up the original
.cas file that you used for your modification. Then rename your
modded file to that name and put it in the right folder under the vanilla
\data\animations. (This assumes that the unit you are going to test
in-game uses this animation in its animation family.)

Now go to \America\data\animations and again move those four files
that got recreated out of that folder to a safe place. If you now start
your mod game it should rebuild using Caliban's unpacked .cas files only
now including your modified animation.

Later, when you want to create a whole new family of animations for your
bluecoats is when you get into copying and renaming folders in
\data\animations and editing descr_skeleton.txt and creating new family
entries there. It isn't that bad, it just takes a fair amount of editing and
there is always the possibility of making errors and getting CTDs that take
a long while to track down. This is why I'm outlining the simpler approach
above for testing a single animation in-game.

**Tanauser** · 01-12-2008, 10:41

Hi
thanks for your advice and patience It's working more or less

so the animation reloading IS CHANGED ! but I don't know why those guys are standing on there horse while doing the Clutch

So I have extracted the Whole Animation pack inside my /DATA/vanilla MTTW2 directory .......Rename My MTTW2_Winchester to HR_Arquebus (save HR_Arquebuse)

inside the HR_Arquebuse folder i Have the file I have moddified under the name of the reloading one that is: HR_Arquebus_attack_missile_reload.cas = This one is actually the HR_Arquebus_attack_missile_release.cas that I have taken for base to mod and rename after

I have to make tries , and tries to figure out what went wrong in the file
But it's a first result, I 'm happy

descr_skeleton not changed yet

**Tanauser** · 01-12-2008, 13:12

I think the problem has something to do with the Extract animation of my m3sd file but I have no error report from the extraction:
Because If I rename the original RELEASE file into RELOAD it works well; these are 2 original files ; (I just replace the "reloading" file by "release" which from far looks OK ) If I use the one I have modded the soldier get up on his saddle when reloading