Spell animation puzzle

[DavidW]

I have a VVC file which is programmed to play the animation "cloudba.bam" (from IWD - this is part of IWD-in-BG2). The VVC file and I have a disagreement as to what should happen when it's called from a spell. My view is that cloudba.bam should be displayed. The VVC file's view is that the game should crash. So far, its view is prevailing.

 

When I replace "cloudba.bam" with another animation, the file plays perfectly well. At this point, my limited understanding of animations and VVC files gives out. Can anyone help?

 

I'm attaching a zip file containing the offending vvc, the cloudba.bam file, another bam file (cloudka.bam) that works fine, and a spell that does nothing but run the vvc (basically the spell I'm trying to use). Any suggestions would be very welcome, as this really isn't my specialist subject.

davidpuzzle.zip

[Galactygon]

I copied it and played it via CLUAConsole, and the game didn't crash. I have ToBEX installed, though.

 

I've looked at your .bam and .vvc and have a few suggestions (off the top of my head) :

- the first few frames of cloudka.bam should not be larger than 255x255 (This is my suspicion)

- Set all your .bam sequence indexes to 0 (I don't think this will help)

 

I'd ask you some questions if you are worrying about custom explosions: How are you implementing it? Would you be willing to use ToBEX if it introduces the option of customizing explosions (among many other things)?

 

-Galactygon

[DavidW]

Thanks for looking. I was running ToBEx too, though (v20). How odd. Is there a more up-to-date version I've missed?

[Galactygon]

Thanks for looking. I was running ToBEx too, though (v20). How odd. Is there a more up-to-date version I've missed?

It's actually v0.20.3.14 (not beta 0020). I doubt ToBEX has anything to do with it. I think it has to do with the system and graphics settings.

 

But the .bam is supposed to crash on most systems if frames are larger than 255x255 (IIRC it did on some of my earlier installs with older graphics cards).

 

[nudge]

I'd ask you some questions if you are worrying about custom explosions: How are you implementing it? Would you be willing to use ToBEX if it introduces the option of customizing explosions (among many other things)?

[/nudge]

 

-Galactygon

[Miloch]

There was some talk in the TobEx forum of allowing BAMs larger than 255x255 for BG2 since other engines allow it. I don't know if Ascension64 actually implemented it though (wouldn't really surprise me).

[Avenger]

Bah, you didn't leave anything for me to find out. Large bams would definitely not work in the original.

So, if it works in a higher version ToBEx but doesn't work in a lower version ToBEx, then it is really the bam size.

[DavidW]

Replying belatedly to Galactygon: in truth, I think the IWD-in-BG2 spell system works okay now and the thought of rewriting it fills me with horror. So probably I ought to be considering use of ToBEx to handle it better, but I doubt I actually will.

[Galactygon]

Replying belatedly to Galactygon: in truth, I think the IWD-in-BG2 spell system works okay now and the thought of rewriting it fills me with horror. So probably I ought to be considering use of ToBEx to handle it better, but I doubt I actually will.

 

Thanks for the answer. I was about to ask you whether you'd use ToBEX in any shape or form, but your list answers this.

 

-Galactygon