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Can also be  

Revision as of 18:40, 2 June 2008

Pulling together some Demo Editing notes here.

Overview

Stuff.

Demo Code

Time Index (Advancing Demo Play)

First column number. Time in milliseconds (thousandths of a second). Advances demo time. Note does NOT advance time in the sense of time of day (which is currently fixed by the Time command in demo playback; but rather just advances time in the sense of advancing the play of the demo.

Required for every line in a demo.

ID Number

Second column number (with a few exceptions). Unique ID number assigned to every "entity" in a demo (Model, NPC, FX, object, etc.). All entities must have a unique ID. Second column number. Required by ALMOST every line in a demo. Few exceptions include SKYFILE and the CAM codes.

Version

Does this even do anything?

Map

Map file name. Straightforward.

Time

Time of day. Decmilized military convention. 0.0 = Midnight. 12.0 = High Noon.

Note that, unlike in-game, the time of day does NOT advance in demo playback (unless that's changed recently and I missed it), so whatever the time is in the demo code is what the time of day will be for the entire demo playback.

SKYFILE

Controls invasion sky color. Binary control for first two fields. Third field unknown, but lets you do some wonky color/depth-of-field stuff if you crank up the value. Haven't tried negative values. Should do that.

Also frequently used as a generic time (demo play) advancer (advancing time index of first column number).

DYNARRAY

Controls war walls up down. Also controls other "dynamic" effects, like the Recluse's Victory "war boards" in Atlas and Grandville, the appearance of Recluse's Victory itself (I think, verify), etc.

Only appears for maps/demo recordings that need it, so may not appear in all demo file code.

Bases have some dynamic library code too, but I think that's different (check that).

POS

Position. Map coordinates. Where the object/model/whatever in question appears. Keys to the required unique ID that all entities have (second column). In X,Z,Y code (NOT X,Y,Z). (No commas.)

PYR

Pitch-Yaw-Roll. Most of POS comments apply. Spacial orientation of object/entity. Expressed in terms of -pi to +pi. This is what determines if Ms. Liberty is standing on her feet or standing on her head. Make graphics for this one showing various orientations and to give scale of -pi/+pi.

CAM POS

POS of the camera. Same as POS, but the camera gets it's own unique command to identify the POS for your camera's POV.

CAM PYR

Ditto as for CAM POS, except for PYR. All PYR stuff applies.

SEQ

Non-desctructible objects. Stands for "Sequence"? These are all the non-destructible (ones you can't smash) mission objectives (and a few other mission-objective-type-thingies, like the ore convertor in Bloody Bay or the key stations and missile launch terminal in Warburg). They are classed as "SEQ" instead of "NPC". Don't know why. Maybe something to do with them being clickies and needing to specify them as clickable.

They do not appear in demo playback. Don't show up. Invisible.

They are also distinct code entities from regular models with their own code (so you can't just replace SEQ with NPC to make them show up).

Any mission objectives that you can smash are regular old NPC-classified models.

Model/Object Code

New

Tells you that you are adding a new entity. The second number column (ID) attached to this command is when and where the unique ID for the entity is first specified. This is the line where you also give it a name (after the New). Names need quotations if they are more than one word. If it's just one word, then the names don't need quotes.

NPC

Tells you that it is an NPC and then you specify the model code for the NPC. Don't forget the ID (required).

POS

Talked about above. You need to give this command for every NPC, with it's appropriate ID.

PYR

Talked about above. You need to give this command for every NPC, with it's appropriate ID.

MOV

The animation the NPC entity is performing. Thousands to choose from. ID required. Specify the name of the animation after MOV.

HP

The CURRENT Health (Hit Points) of the NPC entity. Not always required. If it's a destructible object (object here meaning like a truck, or cardboard box, or whatever; not a person-type thingie), then you will need this to make things show up right (along with the next line). ID required. Will change throughout the demo if the entity is getting beat on.

Harmless to add this (always paired with HPMAX) if you aren't sure if it's needed or not.

HPMAX

The Maximum Health of the NPC entity. Not always required (see notes for HP above and the destructible object comments below). ID required (like always). The relative proportion of the two determines the appearance of destructible objects.

FX Code

Here we talk about "Effect" (FX) -- powers and explosions and laser beams and all that zappy zowwy freem stuff.

FX

Tells you what the FX is. Here's a sample:

0 3 FX Maintained 4 POWERS/KINETICS/KINSPEEDCONTINUING.FX 0

  • First number = time index
  • Second number = unique ID of the entity that "owns" this FX
  • FX code = "Hi, I'm an FX."
  • After FX' ("Maintained," here) = Duration Type of FX, either Maintained (ongoing) or OneShot (goes "bam" and it's gone). Usually FXs are one or the other, but some Maintained/OneShot FX are the same (and just loop the OneShot or whatever if they're Maintained.
  • Next number is the unique ID of the FX. Not the unique ID of the entity shooting the FX off or afflicted by it, but a new/different unique ID just for the FX itself.
  • Then the code for the particular FX.
  • Then a zero, that I think is just an end-of-line type thingie (need to check).

FXSCALE

Just put in "FXSCALE 10.000000 10". I forget what messing with this does, if anything.

ORIGIN

Who is shooting this FX off. Where the FX is coming from. When you've got an FX in play, you need to specify who's catching and who's pitching. Need to do both even if it's a self-only power and you're doing both the pitching and the catching.

0 3 ORIGIN ENT 0 0

If it's a self-only power, both numbers after ENT ("Entity" I figure) are 0. If it's a beam thing and needs at origin point, then the number after ENT is the unique ID of the shooter (pitcher).

I THINK. Need to double-check. Haven't played with FX in a while. Need to review ORIGIN/TARGET. Probably got something wrong in here since I'm going just by memory. Last number always zero for both of these?

TARGET

Who's on the receiving end of the FX.

0 3 TARGET ENT 3 0

First number after ENT is the unique ID of the entity getting hit by the FX.

Can also be

TARGET POS X Z Y

For Targeted AoE powers ("shoot at the ground" powers).

Player Character Code

Blah blah blah. May leave this section for someone else.

COSTUME

PARTSNAME

XLU

Transparency (Stealth)

Most stealth/invisibility/transparency effects don't play back in demos. The few exceptions (like trainer War Witch and Numina) are built into the model and not something you can apply.

However, although the standard stealth powers don't work, this FX does:

OBJECTIVEOBJECTFX/GHOSTED.FX

This is the placeable mission objective effect (like for planting bombs) that make the objects transparent until you place them. I did a quick demo test as follows (splicing States onto the City Rep):

0 6 NEW "City Representative"

0 6 NPC Model_Statesman

0 6 POS 128.5 -768 -639.5

0 6 PYR 0 0 0

0 6 MOV ALTREADY_TRANS_XARMS

0 6 FX Maintained 7 OBJECTIVEOBJECTFX/GHOSTED.FX 0


The FX line is the only one I added (make sure it doesn't conflict with any other FX) and voila! Transparent Statesman.

Qualifiers:

  • The transparency effect pulsates, so it's not a consistent steady level of transparency.
  • The FX also includes the mission objective noise, so you might have to work with the audio.


Invasion Sky & War Walls

Normal sky: SKYFILE SKY 1 0 1.000000 Invasion sky: SKYFILE SKY 0 1 1.000000

That's using the first two fields (which is how it records during an actual invasion), which appear to be binary.

You can also play with the final number to tweak things, though I don't know how that functions. My best guess being that it's a saturation value of some sort -- the more you increase it, the more color starts washing out all detail, although interestingly it seems to predominate in the foreground, rather than the sky or distance. Possibly a depth of field value. Dunno.


Walking

Destructible Objects

Object-based NPCs that are classed as "destructible" have a variable appearance based on their hit points, sometimes as simple as destroyed/not-destroyed, sometimes with multiple different appearances including partly-damaged states.

To make these work in demos, you have to assign hit points to the models. If you don't do that, then the game assumes the hit points are zero and treats the model as "destroyed", which usually, but not always, means that it's just gone.

So when you're splicing these into the demo code, include hit points for them like so:

0 23 NPC v_destcldrn_cauldron
0 23 MOV READY
0 23 HP 150.00
0 23 HPMAX 150.00

Setting the HP equal to HPMAX will give you the default, undestroyed appearance, and hopefully that should make them appear for you. If you want to see if there are transitional appearances, you can try setting HP to half of HPMAX, and so forth. Not all have transitional appearances, but some do. The Clockwork Paladin construction comes to mind as an object with multiple different transitional appearances depending on HP. This is also how the Rikti A Bomb warning lights color is controlled.

Not all object models are destructible, but seeing "dest" anywhere in the object name is generally a guarantee that it is one of these. But there are also destructible models that don't have "dest" in the name. If in doubt, add HP & HPMAX (at 100% HP) to the model code.


Fixing "Player" FX

What it looks like is happening is that many FXs are not working if they are attached to the Player (meaning the character flagged as the Player in the demo). I pasted in some other NPCs and players (not as the "Player") and they appeared to work fine.

I suspect that this may have been something that crept in with I11, because some of the Maintained FXs that I was able to get to work are the Willpower FX, but older power set FXs didn't work for me (just based on 1 or 2 that I tried quickly). I also tried inserting the moneybag FX into some of my own demos and had the same problem with it not appearing on my "Player".

So, although you're doing everything right, it appears to be an issue with demos that isn't working. As I said, it appears to only be the one character flagged as the "Player" that is the problem. Other players and NPCs look like they work OK, so here's a quick fix. What you can do to get by this issue is create an invisible model attached to the "Player" flag and turn your character into just a regular player. You can do this by making the following code into the beginning of your demo:

1 0 Version 2
0 0 Map maps/City_Zones/Trial_06_01/Trial_06_01.txt
0 0 Time 21.028650
0 CAM POS 1818.146851 -318.060516 9450.268555
0 CAM PYR -0.346 1.370835 0
0 50 Player
0 50 NEW "Invisible Placeholder"
0 50 NPC Puddle
0 50 POS 1803.004883 -319.173309 9443.212891
0 50 PYR 0 3.11 0
0 50 MOV READY
0 1 NEW " "
0 1 COSTUME 1 ffffff -3.297710 -1.000000 -0.015873 -1.000000 -0.523810 -0.777778 -0.682540 -0.047619 -0.015873 -0.428571 0.714286 -0.015873 -0.492063 0.015873 -0.650794 -0.460317 -0.523810 0.428571 -1.000000 0.396825 -0.142857 -0.301587 0.682540 0.015873 -0.746032 -1.000000 1.000000 -0.492063 0.460317 0.365079
0 1 PARTSNAME shorts skin_tights bikini_3 000000 000055

...the end there being the rest of your character's costume as normal. Puddle is an invisible model, so by inserting that as the "Player" it gets you past this bug (I also changed your character's name field to <0 1 NEW " ">, otherwise, as you are no longer the "Player", the character's name would appear above your head).


Internal Links

Demo Recording


External Links

Guides

Tools & Applications

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