Author Topic: MerricksDad's Weapon-A-Day  (Read 5076 times)

Legacy_MerricksDad

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MerricksDad's Weapon-A-Day
« Reply #255 on: June 05, 2014, 03:12:52 pm »


               

Still working on foliage and tree scripts. Actually not much work done on the tree scripts. Instead I have been collecting angular, growth, and rotational data for that one. But foliage, yeah, lots of foliage coming.


 


This next, and probably second to last package, will contain about as many species as the last one. I also have some full branch textures to add to the 2048 size category, as well as some more bark pictures.


 


I found some really ancient live trees at the local hill cemetery, so I need to go back a time or two and get some more textures. I might even do some grave stone shots while I am there. It also has a few underground mausoleums. While I can't go inside, the stonework outside, and the wrought iron bars on some of the parts, are great potential textures.


 


It is definitely a summer of texture craziness. But I have been thinking about joining the current CCC project. I just need to pick some artifacts to create as holdable items. Artifacts and relics are just the kind of thing that benefits from doing item models the way I have shown in my tutorials. I just don't know if I should be doing standard content relics, or hopping away and doing something custom. I also don't have a full run down of what has already been done, and don't want to partially waste my time doing something somebody already made years ago. Custom or cross-game seems like the way to go for me.



               
               

               
            

Legacy_MerricksDad

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MerricksDad's Weapon-A-Day
« Reply #256 on: June 05, 2014, 03:28:38 pm »


               

Anybody know of a good mod that gives the player a hand-held or floating crystal weapon that also looks good when used during attack?



               
               

               
            

Legacy_Rolo Kipp

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« Reply #257 on: June 05, 2014, 04:45:38 pm »


               

<peering into...>


 


Hmmm... not sure what you're looking for.


But Cestus' Red Mercy (and several of the other crystal weapons in the CCC) use crystal to good effect, I think...


RedMercy_001.jpg


 


Edit: Why didn't anyone tell me my bottom icon is broken for Red Mercy :-(


Oh, well, I need to rebuild things anyway :-P


 


<...the crystal>



               
               

               
            

Legacy_MerricksDad

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« Reply #258 on: June 05, 2014, 06:10:12 pm »


               

What I want to do is take this and similar crystals:


 


zMhJzim.png


 


And make them float like this:


 


33173.jpg


 


 


Edit: and yes, that is the Tesseract



               
               

               
            

Legacy_Rolo Kipp

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« Reply #259 on: June 05, 2014, 06:19:57 pm »


               

<shading his eyes...>


 


Ahhh... so you are talking about the anim offset. Sfaik, the offset is fixed, as is the rotation, by the r/lhand node. 


So, you can set it up originally to float above the "blob" hand of the OC PCs (which will look awkward in combat) or you can make your own combat pheno ala' Ragnarok's Alternate Combat Animations.


 


(edit: and his Arcane pheno does feature floating weapons, just not sure of the rotation on them)


 


In fact, rigging up that animation pheno for the floaty weapon/left-handed staff thingy would be very cool :-)


 


(edit2: In fact, that torso, with a dangly vest on Ragnarok's hi-poly torso would be pretty awesome, too, though definitely off topic :-P :-)


HiPoly_M.jpg


 


<...from temptation>



               
               

               
            

Legacy_MerricksDad

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« Reply #260 on: June 05, 2014, 06:29:01 pm »


               

I really did plan to get an orb caster pheno made, but I run into the problem while casting that the hand-held items disappear. I'd like to be able to have the item present when casting at least.


I wonder if it could be added as a wings object and then I could just create the animations I really needed. The only drawback there would be that nobody with wings could use it.


Can you fully animate body/head-aligned vfx? It seems like one of those would be the easiest, aligned vfx being the best fit for what I want to do. I know I can do start/dur/end type effects on those because I did them with some of my infinity engine spell clones (some unreleased), but I had never tried character animations on them.


 


Edit: What I was doing when coding my massive 4E mod was assuming I was going to have that pheno complete, and with that in mind, I was relying on being able to cast stuff from monster nodes. One of which I would animate to follow the location of where I knew a floating crystal or orb would be.



               
               

               
            

Legacy_Rolo Kipp

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« Reply #261 on: June 05, 2014, 06:49:52 pm »


               

<digging into...>


 


TA-/HA-VFX do *not* have full character anims, sorry.


They have start, loop, end anims (called "Impact", "Duration", "Cessation"), but can't be used to augment the full range of character anims. Really wish they could.


 


Reference: My Mounted Familiar's thread.


 


Edit: NM MDA... found them :-P


EffectAnims.png


 


<...arcane lore>



               
               

               
            

Legacy_MerricksDad

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« Reply #262 on: June 05, 2014, 08:18:28 pm »


               

So MDA added them to his script because they do work?



               
               

               
            

Legacy_Rolo Kipp

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« Reply #263 on: June 05, 2014, 08:43:55 pm »


               

<scribbling...>


 


*Those* anims work for effects. 


Character anims don't (cslashr, cdodge, etc.)


 


So you can have it as animated as you want, but it will run it's animations independent of character actions.


 


Edit: though I don't know how cast01 differs from conjure or hit01 differs from impact...


 


Edit2: My mounted familiars use the impact anim to fly/crawl to the PCs shoulder, the duration is a long loop that continues until the vfx is removed. The cessation anim has the familiar fly/crawl away before the engine fades the vfx out.


 


Those three certainly work. Ymmv on the rest...


 


<...in an effort to be clear>



               
               

               
            

Legacy_MerricksDad

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« Reply #264 on: June 05, 2014, 09:02:43 pm »


               

I'll have to play with those and see what I can come up with. Thanks for that info!



               
               

               
            

Legacy_MerricksDad

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« Reply #265 on: June 05, 2014, 09:42:23 pm »


               

So the way I understand it, and have used before, the vfx entry for hit01 I believe is the same as impact, except that it is for casting graphics, not applied visual effects. I believe the order of use is casting vfx file: conjure, cast, travel, and hit. Then switch to impact vfx file: impact, duration, and cessation. I have never used fade.


From what I am seeing, to get what I want I would have to:


  1. make a new pheno and modify as set of attack animations to fit with psi crystal casting, or orb casting, however the item will still self-hide when casting

  2.    
  3. make a new set of wings, which allow me to fully or near-fully animate the crystal to match all character attack movement, with the drawback being I cannot also apply wings. (does tail have the same variety of animations as wings? The drawback would be I can't scale my characters.)

  4.    
  5. use the ioun stone animations

  6.    
  7. make it carry in the left hand, with the drawback of moving awkwardly without a pheno upgrade, and again, it will self-hide on casting.

I'm starting to think I should just go with the ioun stone idea. This is a lot easier in my 4E mod since I am overriding the entire pc parts setup with npc variety appearances via the robe. That would allow me to install the crystals via a part on top of the robe, such as in the hand, and it would remain when casting.


 


So, I'll just do that for public release stuff; make them ioun stone style VFX. Individuals can alter them however they feel like.



               
               

               
            

Legacy_Rolo Kipp

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« Reply #266 on: June 05, 2014, 09:48:17 pm »


               

<laying out...>


 


Or bait and switch :-)


 


If it self-hides on casting, make a casting VFX that is applied to replace the held item during the casting. Make it fire and forget and it fades when the casting is finished and the item returns to view.


 


<...the bait>



               
               

               
            

Legacy_Ssythilac

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« Reply #267 on: June 18, 2014, 03:14:02 pm »


               

Hi MerricksDad!


 


Have you continued forging terrific weapons for NWN? I have an idea, if you are in the mood and not very busy: to create the famous Luun`s deathblades of Dungeon Siege 2!


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 



               
               

               
            

Legacy_MerricksDad

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« Reply #268 on: June 23, 2014, 12:25:11 pm »


               

Give me a hand finding some better screen shots, or fan art that details them in a larger form, and I'll do them gladly. Otherwise, my eyeballs want to pop out of my head trying to see the item icons.



               
               

               
            

Legacy_Ssythilac

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« Reply #269 on: June 23, 2014, 01:25:47 pm »


               

Thanks MerricksDad! And please sorry, before I not post screens because I doesn`t found them anywhere! Arrghh! As you, I only found ítems icons in GameBanshee and other sites like that!


 


Maybe I could reinstall the game and take a few screens myself featuring the weapons... However, I will search again in the depths of the internet and come back to you then! '<img'>


 


Thank you very much!!