Has anyone used VEF files in their mods?

[argent77]

I've seen a description of this file format in the IESDP documentation, but I've never seen it used in the vanilla game or in any mods. It also doesn't seem to be supported by DLTCEP (and possibly NearInfinity). From the description it sounds like a good way to realize more complex visual effects in cutscenes or otherwise scripted events.

 

I'd like to know more about it, but without a sample or two to study I don't really know where to begin. Is it even fully supported by the game engine at all?

[Ascension64]

It is fully supported. I uncovered this while looking at the executable, and then played around with it with some interesting effects. See http://forums.gibberlings3.net/index.php?showtopic=20116 for a little bit more information.

There is no sample, but you can create your own VEF with a hex editor and play around.

[argent77]

Thanks, the description in your topic helped me to understand some of the more ambiguous entries (the IESDP info of the 'Continuous Cycles' field is somewhat confusing). I still don't know why there are two different component structures, as I've seen no difference between them while testing.

 

After some trial and error I've managed to create a couple of simple VEF files. As there is no editor (I know of) which supports this format, I had to use a hex editor. Thankfully the basic structure is very simple.

 

There is one thing in the IESDP description which isn't clearly defined. The VEF uses 'ticks' to measure how long to wait before starting an effect. I had assumed that ticks are the same as AI updates, but that doesn't appear so. A tick is 1/30th second (at least in my BG2 installation), that means 2 ticks are equal to 1 AI update.

 

I've only scratched the surface yet, but it looks like a very underrated format to me which can replace lots of repetitive code.