How are monsters created for a mod?
shevy123456
Member Posts: 179
in BGII:EE Mods
So there are some unique monsters in mods, such as the huge beetle in that mod where you go to some king's castle.
How are these monsters made? That is, a) the code/stats, and b) the graphics?
I believe that I can probably autogenerate tons of monsters for a), based on having already assembled a LOT of data/content related to roleplaying games and computer games in the last some 20 years, and I maintain a separate project that handles all of that. But I don't know how monsters are really created; ideally I'd like to know what is required as a MINIMUM to e. g. add some monster such as, say, a human-sized fire ant with a special pincer grib attack dealing extra damage per round and immobilising the target for 3 rounds. Is there some kind of template one can look at to understand the target format?
And then, separately, for the graphics: do we need several different sprites? I noticed a small glitch with the Paina mod where the big arachnoid spider keeps on glitching and teleporting to nearby places, rather than remain "in place" with the sprite. At first I thought that spider was climbing on the dungeon walls and thought "cool, they animate that spiders climb on walls and ceilings", but then I realised this is more likely a glitch.
How are these monsters made? That is, a) the code/stats, and b) the graphics?
I believe that I can probably autogenerate tons of monsters for a), based on having already assembled a LOT of data/content related to roleplaying games and computer games in the last some 20 years, and I maintain a separate project that handles all of that. But I don't know how monsters are really created; ideally I'd like to know what is required as a MINIMUM to e. g. add some monster such as, say, a human-sized fire ant with a special pincer grib attack dealing extra damage per round and immobilising the target for 3 rounds. Is there some kind of template one can look at to understand the target format?
And then, separately, for the graphics: do we need several different sprites? I noticed a small glitch with the Paina mod where the big arachnoid spider keeps on glitching and teleporting to nearby places, rather than remain "in place" with the sprite. At first I thought that spider was climbing on the dungeon walls and thought "cool, they animate that spiders climb on walls and ceilings", but then I realised this is more likely a glitch.
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https://gibberlings3.github.io/iesdp/file_formats/ie_formats/bam_v1.htm
https://gibberlings3.github.io/iesdp/appendices/avatarnaming.htm
To incorporate animations into the Infinity Engine, you would need to render every single frame in every single direction (15 different views in total) in orthogonal (=orthographic) view and assign them in NearInfinity. The tool of the trade for creating new creatures is 3dsmax. The 3-year subscription (at $5.625) has the best cost/benefit ratio.
EDIT: one more important information: Beamdog created a guide for new animations using their superb Neothelid animation as a template. They used Unity for rendering, the model was done in Maya ($5.625 as well). You can find it here:
https://files.beamdog.com/
Nonsense, you can mirror the sprites, in which case you only need eight.
Acifer's ever-so-slightly sarcastic post is correct: the major hurdle is the awful animation format used by the engine. Creating new creatures and abilities is trivial next to the horrors of getting new creature sprites into the game, and that's even after the EE removed a lot of the hardcoded issues.
When mods add "new" creature types to BG2, they tend to use either:
a) existing creature animations from the BG2 game files, or
b) existing creature animations from other Infinity Engine games, or
c) resized/recolored versions thereof.
For example, Icewind Dale has a Giant Beetle animation, so a mod could add that to BG2.
Creating a new creature animation from scratch is difficult, due to the sheer number of sprites needed (every frame of every possible movement from every possible direction), and the way all these sprites need to be integrated into the game files.
Recoloring/resizing existing creature animations is more doable, and Near Infinity provides some support for this, but you'll still need to learn how the game files are structured.
For the EEs, Artisan already ported over some NWN models, like the Werewolf model within the Kitpack and some of the golems are planned to be used for Aura (or they maybe already part of the mod, I'm not sure).
Acifer plans to do his own models from scratch. Infinity Animations also has a bunch of NWN animations (which is why I grabbed the art for the MiH dracolisk) for classic obviously. Argent77 has a few Diablo anim ports in Golem Construction (which is IMO fair because Diablo 2 mods also tend to reuse PST art) and the old Pack Mule mod I keep hearing about is a WoW model port.
TBH, there are many animation formats in the EEs and it really depends opn what kind of animation slot the creator renders/converts the animation for.
http://forums.blackwyrmlair.net/index.php?showtopic=5053
There are a few guides on how to make animation, albeit in French, but I think this is not a hindrance.
https://www.baldursgateworld.fr/viewforum.php?f=718
And I’ll add a little on my own, if you get around to creating models, then it’s better to use several 3D editors.
https://www.gibberlings3.net/forums/topic/33561-porting-nwn-animations-a-work-in-progress/ is a much better start, because Artisan even shared his Blender rendering pipeline. That, combined with the knowledge accumulated at https://gibberlings3.github.io/iesdp/file_formats/ie_formats/ini_anim.htm and https://gibberlings3.github.io/iesdp/appendices/avatarnaming.htm covers everything for EEs and almost everything for ToBEx Afterlife.