Aura MDL 1.3 --> 1.2

Misanthropist
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I was getting bored of Darksuns 1.2 aura, and thought about transplanting the aura from the open beta into 1.2. I simply copied the aura.mdl and aurabend.mdl from one /models to the other.

After testing, i notice that the aura doesnt flip upside down when swooping. So after examining the mdl, i notice that the team went about some changes in achieving this. Im assuming they have done it this way because of the very same problem im encountering (which ill get to)

Normally in 1.2, there are 2 submodels for the aura. One up, the other down. When you swoop, the game flips from one submodel to the other. It has one sequence, idle.

The 1.3 aura goes about it differently.

The 1.3 aura has 2 submodels, but both are the same - facing up. To flip the aura the right way when swooping, the game now flips to another animation sequence of the aura upside down. It has 2 sequences, idle and swoop.

Now since the 1.2 engine doesnt tell the aura to go from idle to swooping animations, i have a problem. I need the 1.3 auras 2nd submodel to be upside down, and yet have the right idle animation.

What I dont understand is how i can change the second submodel, and still make both submodels work from a single animation sequence (idle). Im thinking its impossible but i could be wrong.

If make an upsidedown submodel, i must redo the animation by hand, but even once i do that, i must save the animation, which would have to be a different sequence and thus would be redundant.

Am i stuck having an aura facing the wrong way when i swoop, or is there some ingenious method ive overlooked?

Also. something else that really weirds me out, is how does the default 1.2 aura.mdl manage to have 2 distinct animations from a single animation sequence?

I would of thought that the second submodel would have glitchy animation when attempting to playback the idle animation.

EDIT ive sussed out how the default aura managed this, dont think its possible with the new aura though.
 
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Misanthropist
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I explained why rotating the reference model in milkshape will not work. It must still function through a single idle animation. If i turn the reference upside down, the animation goes funky, and by making an animation work for it would be useless since the game wont ask for it. That is why they remade the aura and engine to have 2 animation sequences instead.

The default aura managed to pull off the effect of 2 separate animations by having a smart skeleton, and rigging the mesh differently per submodel. This way they could acheive the spinning effect and have 2 particle effects. To milk this technique with the 1.3 aura would mean modifying the skeleton and reanimating, something i wanted to avoid. I cant recompile the 1.3 aura anyway because theyve done the illegal char-renaming trick, which can be overcome however im not sure how to make sub-skins, so it wouldnt work properly once compiled. (if anyone can tell me how subskinning works in ms3d id much appreciate it)

The substitute youve shown looks pretty neat though, so ill give that a try and examine how it works. Cheers ^_^


EDIT : I see how Solents aura works - using the same trick the default aura does. Basically doubling up the skeleton. Half of the bones flow up, the other half flow down. One submodel rigs to the first half, the second submodel rigs to the other half, that way both work from one animation. Thank you so much for providing me this ^_^ This was exactly what i wanted but couldnt figure out how to compile the multiple skins. Again thanks man! Lifesaver!
 
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