Using Existing Unit Effects to Create Custom Units

Nomad or What · Mar 6, 2016

Deliverator said:
Repeating this here as it's the more relevant place:

You'll be pleased to hear that I've got a workaround for decoupling the scaling of units from scaling of effects! I've added a new feature to Nexus Buddy 2 that will insert an additional scaling bone into the skeleton of a GR2 model. This allows you to scale the model independently of the effects. So you can, for example, increase the size of the unit effects using the <Scale> in the Art Define xml, and offset that increase adding a scaling bone that reduces the model size by a proportionate amount.

The only thing that is different between these two fiery T-Rexs is the scale of the scaling bone in the model .gr2 and the <Scale> value in the Art Define xml. The one the left has model scaled to 0.14 and <Scale>1.05</Scale> in the Art Defines; the one on the right has the model scaled to 0.7 and <Scale>0.21428</Scale> in the Art Defines. The result is that the visual effects for the unit are rescaled without affecting anything else.

This should save us time in getting effects matching the units scale!

Will release the nexus version of NB2 shortly.

Whoa, this is a tremendous breakthrough! What about other effects transforms such as rotation, tangent, offset, etc. - is it possible to create bone modifiers for these aspects of effects as well? If so, this would be the Holy Grail of effects customization. Anything (at least within the realm of the existing effects) would be possible. Right now, all we can do is overwrite the source code like Skajaquada did to transform existing effects - a solution like this would make effect transforms virtually limitless.

But even if the other modifiers are not possible, this is AWESOME! :bowdown:

Deliverator · Mar 7, 2016

Nomad or What said:
Whoa, this is a tremendous breakthrough! What about other effects transforms such as rotation, tangent, offset, etc. - is it possible to create bone modifiers for these aspects of effects as well? If so, this would be the Holy Grail of effects customization. Anything (at least within the realm of the existing effects) would be possible. Right now, all we can do is overwrite the source code like Skajaquada did to transform existing effects - a solution like this would make effect transforms virtually limitless.

But even if the other modifiers are not possible, this is AWESOME!

This workaround isn't doing anything other than rescaling bones. Bones in the Granny Format can have position, orientation and scale. The scale component is not active on any model I've seen previously so what I've done is activated the scaling for a new bone, set the scale matrix based on the required resize, then parented all other bones to it. Because of the rigging this means the skeleton and meshes are completely rescaled by the same amount. Generally speaking I think it is going to work best to use this global resize bone - it does mean that you can scale each unit effect individually though. I've added an experimental feature in NB 2.2.4 for adding a scaled child bone to any bone which does seem to alter any effects that are attached. However the result doesn't seem to be a clean straightforward resize like you get with using Art Defines so I think the global resize bone solution is probably going to be more useful. I might have to dig into to some matrix calculations to work out the inverse world transform matrix of the new bone to get the child bone solution to work better, but for now being able to scale effects independently of the model was what I wanted.

On rotation and position of effects I think a lot can probably be done by adjusting addition FX bones in Blender. When I have created FX bones in the past I have created two bones, first the effect bone then another child bone of the FX bone. The direction from the FX bone to the child bone will then determine the orientation of the effect bone allowing you to orient the effect. I haven't tried this in Civ V yet but it used to work like that in Civ IV.

Also on the effects modding NB 2.2.4 I've automated the reordering and labelling of the triggers for FTSXML files to make it easier to see what is going on with sounds and visual effects.

Another small point on this tutorial. I'm pretty sure that the <Texture> tags in the fxsxml are redundant and can be removed. I remove them from all my Unit fxsxml files. The only time I've seen these break anything is for static Leader backgrounds where they do seem need to be there. Otherwise the texture references from the .gr2 file seem to be enough.

Nutty · Mar 7, 2016

Deliverator said:
I'm pretty sure that the tags in the fxsxml are redundant and can be removed.

I'm not sure why sometimes you have to open another unit first to get textures to show up in Nexus viewer, but I seem to have that issue occur less often when the textures are referenced in the .fxsxml.

And good job as always on this invaluable tool. :goodjob:

Nomad or What · Mar 7, 2016

Deliverator said:
This workaround isn't doing anything other than rescaling bones. Bones in the Granny Format can have position, orientation and scale. The scale component is not active on any model I've seen previously so what I've done is activated the scaling for a new bone, set the scale matrix based on the required resize, then parented all other bones to it. Because of the rigging this means the skeleton and meshes are completely rescaled by the same amount. Generally speaking I think it is going to work best to use this global resize bone - it does mean that you can scale each unit effect individually though. I've added an experimental feature in NB 2.2.4 for adding a scaled child bone to any bone which does seem to alter any effects that are attached. However the result doesn't seem to be a clean straightforward resize like you get with using Art Defines so I think the global resize bone solution is probably going to be more useful. I might have to dig into to some matrix calculations to work out the inverse world transform matrix of the new bone to get the child bone solution to work better, but for now being able to scale effects independently of the model was what I wanted.

On rotation and position of effects I think a lot can probably be done by adjusting addition FX bones in Blender. When I have created FX bones in the past I have created two bones, first the effect bone then another child bone of the FX bone. The direction from the FX bone to the child bone will then determine the orientation of the effect bone allowing you to orient the effect. I haven't tried this in Civ V yet but it used to work like that in Civ IV.

Also on the effects modding NB 2.2.4 I've automated the reordering and labelling of the triggers for FTSXML files to make it easier to see what is going on with sounds and visual effects.

Another small point on this tutorial. I'm pretty sure that the <Texture> tags in the fxsxml are redundant and can be removed. I remove them from all my Unit fxsxml files. The only time I've seen these break anything is for static Leader backgrounds where they do seem need to be there. Otherwise the texture references from the .gr2 file seem to be enough.

I never considered adding new bones for unique transforms of effects; I should definitely pursue that as an option. Thanks for the suggestion!

Not being a programmer per se, another thing I cannot quite figure out is why effects work on some custom models of mine and not on others. For example, I have made a troll custom unit that will not display a catapult boulder throwing effect from its hands while referencing that bone, but Civitar has a humanoid rig of a troll that can. The Bloodthirster/Fire Lizard/Dragon custom units, on the other hand, have no issues with their custom breath effects. Any ideas as to why this might be the case?

Deliverator · Mar 9, 2016

Nomad or What said:
Not being a programmer per se, another thing I cannot quite figure out is why effects work on some custom models of mine and not on others. For example, I have made a troll custom unit that will not display a catapult boulder throwing effect from its hands while referencing that bone, but Civitar has a humanoid rig of a troll that can. The Bloodthirster/Fire Lizard/Dragon custom units, on the other hand, have no issues with their custom breath effects. Any ideas as to why this might be the case?

I would have to look at the specific mod to check out what might be the problem. Assuming that the bone name is correct in .fxsxml Bone Usage and .ftsxml they the effect should show. To be honest you probably have more experience of playing with this stuff than I do!

Nomad or What · Mar 15, 2016

Deliverator said:
I would have to look at the specific mod to check out what might be the problem. Assuming that the bone name is correct in .fxsxml Bone Usage and .ftsxml they the effect should show. To be honest you probably have more experience of playing with this stuff than I do!

Well, before I ask you to have a look at them I will take a closer look at them to see if there is a common denominator. I think it has something to do with the bones somehow, but you have solved so many issues with modeling I figured you might have an idea what might be wrong with them just from experience. To be honest I haven't really taken a good hard look at the problem customs, so I will troubleshoot them to my wits end first before I ask for help. Thanks!

Deliverator · Mar 19, 2016

For reference this is the list of all the available Visual Effects that can uses in FTSXML files:

Spoiler :

Nomad or What · Mar 19, 2016

Deliverator said:
For reference this is the list of all the available Visual Effects that can uses in FTSXML files:

Very useful - thanks! One of these days I'm going to have to try them all, as I seem to always use the same ones.... :lol:

Nomad or What · Apr 7, 2016

Now that Deliverator has made dramatic improvements with NexusBuddy and the Blender import/export scripts, this thread is getting ever-nearer to an advanced effects tutorial! For now, however, please visit my thread Animation Tweaks of Existing CiV Units for ideas on how to dramatically improve custom effects techniques now that we can study the extracted CiV animation files.

bouncymischa · May 25, 2016

It may have been asked before, but I'm posting this quickly before heading to work, so I'll just give it a shot:

How difficult is it add attacks to a unit rigged to a model that doesn't normally have attack animations? I've got a model rigged to the Missionary, and would like to use its job ability as an attack animation, but I'm not sure if I can just add in the usual attack sequence event codes and link them to that particular animation, or if it's more complex than that.

(I have a feeling I might've asked this before... but I'm not sure if it's just deja vu. XD)

hangman · May 25, 2016

You can mix and match animations with event codes AFAIK. As long as you have animations for all your event codes, there shouldn't be a problem.

bouncymischa · Jun 2, 2016

Well, I've run into a solid wall. I'm trying to get my missionary-rigged Miko from my Hakurei Shrine mod to attack using the missionary's build action and railgun projectiles, but it just isn't working -- whenever I make an attack, she just crouches where she's standing for a few seconds, and then combat is resolved. As near as I can tell, I've assigned the appropriate event codes for the attack to the build animation, and assigned the effects to the event codes in the .ftsxml file... but it's not working. I must be missing something, but I'm not sure what.

Can anyone help me out? I've got a copy of the mod here.

EDIT: Rereading through the thread, I identified a couple of problems -- I hadn't defined the unit's ArtDefine_UnitMemberCombats properly in the ArtDefines, so I added in the code from the Scout. Now the model floats towards the enemy but isn't animated at all, while the defenders just stand in place until combat is resolved. I wondered if the issue was the AnimGraphs, so I tried using the ones from the Scout, which caused the defenders to actually counterattack, but the Miko model didn't move at all.

Nomad or What · Mar 7, 2018

Another awesome example of custom unit effects from sman1975!

New Unit: Fireship

I'm definitely going to find a use for this in my Bloodmoon TCM :goodjob:

sman1975 · Mar 19, 2018

@Nomad or What - not sure if you've seen this or not:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1278471661

The mod is primarily a unit pack that introduces 14 "medieval" units into the game. These units use the custom animations that you tutored us with earlier in this thread. The mod isn't really fleshed out - it's basically a "shell" that creates a razor-thin context that allows players to play the new models as a normal mod. My primary intent was to simply build a unit pack of models/animations for other modders to use.

The mod contains updated trigger (.ftsxml) files for Roman Legion-based models for all 7 attacks: melee, "city attack/fireball", dromon, guided missile, rocket artillery, XCom (green), and GDR (white/blue)

FWIW....

Nomad or What · Mar 19, 2018

sman1975 said:
@Nomad or What - not sure if you've seen this or not:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1278471661

The mod is primarily a unit pack that introduces 14 "medieval" units into the game. These units use the custom animations that you tutored us with earlier in this thread. The mod isn't really fleshed out - it's basically a "shell" that creates a razor-thin context that allows players to play the new models as a normal mod. My primary intent was to simply build a unit pack of models/animations for other modders to use.

The mod contains updated trigger (.ftsxml) files for Roman Legion-based models for all 7 attacks: melee, "city attack/fireball", dromon, guided missile, rocket artillery, XCom (green), and GDR (white/blue)

FWIW....

Very cool!

Nomad or What · Mar 19, 2018

In case you missed it, an example of modifying the Dromon Fire effect to erupt out of a cannon (I did this a while back but forgot to post it here):

Spoiler :

sman1975 · Mar 21, 2018

@Nomad or What - greetings. I'm working on your Dwarf Cannon unit - trying to add some custom animations. So far, things are looking OK, but I have a question.

If you look at this picture:

You'll notice the "gunner" on the left uses the old "ART_DEF_VEFFECT_FIRE_QTIP" event - tied to the "Qtip_Bone" bone. Looks good - like it's supposed to.

The gunner on the right uses the "ART_DEF_VEFFECT_TRAIL_RAILGUN_PROJ" event - tied to the same bone, but the "effect" is on the lower end of the staff, instead of the top - even though it's the same bone...

I've looked for ways to "offset" this effect, but have had no luck. Have also experimented with using other "bones" on the gunner and cannon models, but also with no luck. About the best I can do is this:

By tying the event to the hand nearest to the end of the staff of the gunner. Close up doesn't look so good, but at normal zoom, I suppose it will work.

Since I've had no luck actually manipulating models, I don't think I'd be able to add a new bone to tied the railgun effect to the end of the staff. Do you have any suggestions on how to offset the event?

Thanks!

Ps. It looks pretty cool when firing! Hard to capture the overall effect with screengrab, though:

Nomad or What · Mar 21, 2018

sman1975 said:
@Nomad or What - greetings. I'm working on your Dwarf Cannon unit - trying to add some custom animations. So far, things are looking OK, but I have a question.

If you look at this picture:

Spoiler :

View attachment 491589

You'll notice the "gunner" on the left uses the old "ART_DEF_VEFFECT_FIRE_QTIP" event - tied to the "Qtip_Bone" bone. Looks good - like it's supposed to.

The gunner on the right uses the "ART_DEF_VEFFECT_TRAIL_RAILGUN_PROJ" event - tied to the same bone, but the "effect" is on the lower end of the staff, instead of the top - even though it's the same bone...

I've looked for ways to "offset" this effect, but have had no luck. Have also experimented with using other "bones" on the gunner and cannon models, but also with no luck. About the best I can do is this:

Spoiler :

View attachment 491593

By tying the event to the hand nearest to the end of the staff of the gunner. Close up doesn't look so good, but at normal zoom, I suppose it will work.

Since I've had no luck actually manipulating models, I don't think I'd be able to add a new bone to tied the railgun effect to the end of the staff. Do you have any suggestions on how to offset the event?

Thanks!

Ps. It looks pretty cool when firing! Hard to capture the overall effect with screengrab, though:

Spoiler :

View attachment 491594

I'm afraid at this level you only have two options:

1. Modify your civ5artdefines_viseffects.xml file (like Skajaquada did) or create a "fake" DLC that does so (which has been discussed but never formally done), or
2. Create a "dummy" bone in the model to offset the existing effects transforms (more practical if this will be a published mod)

That is what I did with the Dwarf Flame Cannon unit. The ART_DEF_VEFFECT_FIRE_QTIP visual effect is displayed twice: once for the Qtip staff (per the original Cannon unit) and the second one at the tip of the cannon nozzle. This is the code in the triggers file for it (the second line is my addition):

Code:

<trigger type="FTimedTriggerEffect" id="0" time="0" duration="6" repeat="0" ec="1000" track="2" event="ART_DEF_VEFFECT_FIRE_QTIP" bone="Qtip_Bone" tier="0" />
<trigger type="FTimedTriggerEffect" id="111" time="0" duration="6" repeat="0" ec="1000" track="2" event="ART_DEF_VEFFECT_FIRE_QTIP" bone="Cannon_Tip_FX" tier="0" />

Unfortunately, I encountered the same problem you did, with the flame appearing in the wrong location. So, I created a dummy bone called Cannon_Tip_FX to offset the effect so that it would appear correctly. The Blender file of the unit shows what is happening more clearly:

Spoiler :

Since the ART_DEF_VEFFECT_TRAIL_RAILGUN_PROJ effect has a different transform than ART_DEF_VEFFECT_FIRE_QTIP, you would need to create a child bone of Qtip_Bone with the proper offset in order for the railgun effect to display properly. In this case, it is likely at the end of the staff, since for some reason the bone for the Qtip effect is located about 2/3 of the way down the staff (as you can see above).

Alternately, you could create a unique effect name in the civ5artdefines_viseffects.xml file, copying the original effect and applying a transform to it in the x, y, and/or z planes. Unfortunately you can't do this with a mod because that file is hard coded into the game and can only be modified by creating a DLC for it (the Korea DLC actually does this for its Hwach'a unit effects). The technique would probably alter the <Transform> field from the original VEFFECT code:

Code:

  <!--  _______ Cannon QTip Fire  _______   -->
  <VisEffectArtInfo>
    <Name>ART_DEF_VEFFECT_FIRE_QTIP</Name>
    <Transform>
      <Translation x="9.0" y="0.0" z="0.0"/>
      <Rotation x="90.0" y="90.0" z="0.0"/>
      <Scale>1.1</Scale>
    </Transform>
    <fBaseDuration>0.1</fBaseDuration>
    <fBaseDurationScale>1.0</fBaseDurationScale>
    <ParticleEffects>
      <ParticleEffect>
        <Name>ART_DEF_PEFFECT_FIRE_TORCH_SM</Name>
      </ParticleEffect>
    </ParticleEffects>
  </VisEffectArtInfo>

My instinct (i.e., guess) tells me that changing the x="0.0" variable to x="9.0" (in the <Translation> row) of the RAILGUN effect would probably do it (as it is above for the Qtip flame). Don't modify the original effect unless you want to screw up the original Mech unit! Create a copy, give it a unique name, and use that name in the Triggers file.

sman1975 · Mar 21, 2018

I saw some discussion on the "dummy bone" approach, but didn't understand it enough at first glance. Will take another look now that you've pointed me in that direction. Thanks for the tips! Will let you know how it works.

Am hoping to have V0.0 of the "Dwarven Cannon Unit Pack" mod done in the next couple of days. It currently has the original "dromon effect" unit, plus I've added the "lightning" (GDR), "acid" (XCom), and "grenade launcher" (guided missile) units. I'm currently working on the "rocket launcher" (rocket arty) unit. If I have some time later, I'll experiment with the "fireball" cannon, using a rapid-fire version of the original city attack.

Would appreciate any feedback. And thanks again.

Nomad or What · Mar 21, 2018

sman1975 said:
I saw some discussion on the "dummy bone" approach, but didn't understand it enough at first glance. Will take another look now that you've pointed me in that direction. Thanks for the tips! Will let you know how it works.

Am hoping to have V0.0 of the "Dwarven Cannon Unit Pack" mod done in the next couple of days. It currently has the original "dromon effect" unit, plus I've added the "lightning" (GDR), "acid" (XCom), and "grenade launcher" (guided missile) units. I'm currently working on the "rocket launcher" (rocket arty) unit. If I have some time later, I'll experiment with the "fireball" cannon, using a rapid-fire version of the original city attack.

Would appreciate any feedback. And thanks again.

Since I had the drawing open anyway, I added the bone and created a new .gr2 file for you (you will probably want to rename it). The new bone name is Qtip_Bone_FX. Add it as a bone in the .fxsxml file and replace "Qtip_Bone" with "Qtip_Bone_FX" wherever it appears in the .ftsxml file. Hopefully I put it in the right location; I haven't tested it! :lol:

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