Optional but cool

[devSin]

Before I forget, here's some stuff that may be considered for an "optional but cool" component.

 

PROs: a few of the projectiles don't have shadows due to bad flags and BAM references.

COPY_EXISTING ~ICEGLYP.PRO~ ~OVERRIDE~
 READ_BYTE 0x0100 ~projectileFlags~ ELSE 0x00
 WRITE_BYTE 0x0100 ~%projectileFlags%~ BAND 0x7f
BUT_ONLY_IF_IT_CHANGES

This one had the normal glyph shadow, but it wasn't drawn because of bad flags.

 

COPY_EXISTING ~SPATTCK2.PRO~ ~OVERRIDE~
 READ_BYTE 0x0100 ~projectileFlags~ ELSE 0x00
 WRITE_ASCII 0x010c ~SPSHADOW~ #8
 WRITE_BYTE 0x0100 ~%projectileFlags%~ BOR 0x20
 WRITE_BYTE 0x0115 0x00
BUT_ONLY_IF_IT_CHANGES

The shadow BAM was wrong here, as were the flags. I can't tell what was intended.

 

COPY_EXISTING ~SPGREORB.PRO~ ~OVERRIDE~
 READ_BYTE 0x0100 ~projectileFlags~ ELSE 0x00
 WRITE_ASCII 0x010c ~SPCHRORB~ #8
 WRITE_BYTE 0x0100 ~%projectileFlags%~ BOR 0x20
BUT_ONLY_IF_IT_CHANGES

Same as above. Since this is basically the chromatic orb, I use that for the shadow (it has a special shadow animation).

 

All three of these had references to shadow BAMs, but they weren't functional in-game. All other shadow-casting projectiles are fine.

 

VVC files: this just enables some unused sequences so that the animations look better.

COPY_EXISTING ~SPATTCK1.VVC~ ~OVERRIDE~
 WRITE_LONG 0x68 0x02
 WRITE_LONG 0x6c 0x01
BUT_ONLY_IF_IT_CHANGES

Play intro first, then normal sequence (the ball "zooms" in).

 

COPY_EXISTING_REGEXP ~^SPBLD\(BTM\|TOP\)\.VVC$~ ~OVERRIDE~
 WRITE_LONG 0x68 0x02
 WRITE_LONG 0x6c 0x01
 WRITE_LONG 0x90 0x03
BUT_ONLY_IF_IT_CHANGES

Play intro first, then normal sequence. Sadly, I wasn't able to get the outro to work (it's a weird field; in most cases, it doesn't play sequentially, instead playing simultaneously with the second, "duration" sequence; for sequences that actually have a lasting duration (other than the animation length), it doesn't play at all).

 

COPY_EXISTING ~SPCLOUD1.VVC~ ~OVERRIDE~
 WRITE_LONG 0x68 0x03
 WRITE_LONG 0x6c 0x04
BUT_ONLY_IF_IT_CHANGES

This animation actually had three variations, but only the normal sequence was ever played (despite there being an outro for each variation). This uses a sexier, shimmering cloud over the normal fugly one.

 

COPY_EXISTING ~SPMAZE2.VVC~ ~OVERRIDE/SPSPMAZE.VVC~
 WRITE_ASCII 0x78 ~EFF_M74~ #8
 WRITE_BYTE 0x4c 0x08
 WRITE_BYTE 0x68 0x00
 WRITE_EVALUATED_ASCII 0x08 ~%DEST_RES%~ #8

For those that are curious, this is the Maze VVC (the animation sucks). There was some discussion as to whether this was actually a bug (I say no, definitely not).

 

COPY_EXISTING ~SPWOOD.VVC~ ~OVERRIDE~
 WRITE_LONG 0x68 0x01
 WRITE_LONG 0x6c 0x03
BUT_ONLY_IF_IT_CHANGES

This enables an outro for this summoning animation (which is already obscenely lengthy). Because each animation has so many frames, I wasn't able to use the duration here (it actually has an intro, a duration, and an outro); if you do 1 -> 2 -> 3, only the final n frames of the outro will be played (where n is the number of frames of the outro animation - the number of frames of the duration animation). I opted to play the intro and outro, as the animation then fades out nicely (instead of just disappearing).

 

Small stuff.

[icelus]

If not included somehow in the Fixpack, it'd be great as a component for the Multimedia Enhancements mod.

[devSin]

Aura of Flaming Death is using the wrong sounds. So much for copy/paste.

COPY_EXISTING ~SPAURAFF.VVC~ ~OVERRIDE~
 WRITE_ASCII 0x78 ~EFF_P114~ #8
 WRITE_ASCII 0x80 ~AFT_P28~ #8
BUT_ONLY_IF_IT_CHANGES

[devSin]

If not included somehow in the Fixpack, it'd be great as a component for the Multimedia Enhancements mod.

Multimedia Enhancements mod? I can't tell if this is serious or tongue-in-cheek. It must be some super-secret project.

 

If you're serious, I'll share a secret: WFX files determine variation for playback of WAVE sounds (so that things like pitch and tone will differ each time the sound is played). This is the reason why you'll sometimes hear differences in the sounds for imps, quasits, and mephits, despite there being only a single soundset for all of them. I'm sure some multimedia enhancements can be made with that knowledge.

 

Anyway...

Aura of Flaming Death is using the wrong sounds. So much for copy/paste.

This is probably a bug. The single-file VVC (SPAURAFD) has the right sounds, but it looks like they copy/pasted from the Blade Barrier when creating the back/front versions of the VVC and didn't update the sounds (that was what the copy/paste remark in the original post meant). SPAURAFD is unused in the game, as are the referenced sounds (if you listen to them, they definitely belong to the Aura of Flaming Death).

[icelus]

No, no, it is something that has been mentioned a couple of times. Everyone's just so tied up with other projects that it's been moved to the backburner.

[CamDawg]

Yeah, multimedia enhancement is a generic term for some big theoretical package of soundsets, graphics and whatnot we'd like to do but for which we never actually have time.

[igi]

If you're serious, I'll share a secret: WFX files determine variation for playback of WAVE sounds (so that things like pitch and tone will differ each time the sound is played).

 

Sod making things look pretty, and start posting stuff in the IESDP Update forum.

[SimDing0]

Multimedia Enhancement is kinda started in that I imported a few cool animations from other games and gave them to zombies and stuff. It's hardly the pinnacle of modding achievements, though.

[CamDawg]

Outside of Maze, I consider these bugfixes (bad flags, unused sequences, etc). Included in alpha 3; spsmaze change added to optional but cool.