==XIDX Project(RTW)==

[Vercingetorix]

The program 'xidx' was rewritten and the ability to create your own idx pack files (repacking) has been added. Please read the readme, if you have any other questions I will be happy to answer them in this thread.

Download

[Simetrical]

Originally posted by Vercingetorix
Currently only the sound idx files are supported, I hope to add extracting/packing of the animation files aswell.

How would this latter functionality differ from that offered by your AnimPacker?

-Simetrical

[King_Azzole]

I am wondering if certain sound effects like the death sound for the battlemaps need to be repacked to use custom ones. I noticed that when I add the tracks to the proper sfx folder, even if I code the descr with the new SFX it still plays the old one. Im assuming I need to repack the new ones with your packer?

[Vercingetorix]

I think it's more likely that it's not working because you still have events.dat. If you delete/move that file it will parse the txt files instead of using events.dat

[SigniferOne]

Awesome job Verci! I'm glad the first step of your project to rewrite the programs is complete

[bouis]

It seems to have lost its functionality to unpack animation files... plus the old version is no longer available. Can you please post it as an attachment?

[Spartan]

Thanks Verc - your on the ball as always!!

-Spartan

[King_Azzole]

Originally posted by Vercingetorix@Apr 18 2005, 10:14 AM
I think it's more likely that it's not working because you still have events.dat. If you delete/move that file it will parse the txt files instead of using events.dat

Sadly this is not the case. I am guessing its another issue then. Thanks anyway! Your packer will make the music mod load alot faster!

[Vercingetorix]

You can now extract/pack pack.idx (file that contains all the animations). Have at it guys

[SigniferOne]

Wooohooo!! One small question, does this support new skeletons?

[Vercingetorix]

Not sure what you mean. If you mean adding new skeletons it doesn't do that. If mean can you pack new animations that your new skeleton uses then yes it can pack any .cas animation file. Read the quick note about how to do that in the readme, sorry if it seems a little confusing; ask any questions if you have problems. There is one thing that I'm not 100% sure on as regards to pack.idx. For each file it contains a "scale" value, however, this doesn't really make any sense because the skeletons are scaled not the animations... so I had it default to a scale value of one. They game seems to run fine so I guessing that it's simply deprecated/ignored but if anyone runs into scaling problems please tell me.

[SigniferOne]

Okay, but let's say if I want to create a new skeleton, can I do that with the program? Or can I only update the animation files that already exist?

[Vercingetorix]

Nope you can't, skeletons are defined in skeletons.idx/dat which this program does not touch. You are not limited to packing existing animations you can pack any animation you want.

[SigniferOne]

But then the question becomes, how do I access that animation?... I am really excited about this prog, but do you see what I'm saying?

[Vercingetorix]

You can import the animation with the maxscript into 3DS Max, edit them as you want, export, then repack. Is this what you are asking?

[SigniferOne]

No what I'm asking is, at this stage in the program, you cannot add any new animations, you can only open old ones, change them, and insert them into the game right? This will work because the game already knows how to reference them from skeleton.idx. But you cannot use absolutely new animations, right? I cannot create a file "hoplitedance.cas" and assign the hoplites to dance whenever they cheer, right? I can only open "LIS_cheer1.cas" and change whatever's there, right?

The reason I am asking all this is because I want to have different swordsmen have different animations. But if I change the files within fs_swordsman skeleton, then all units will have that behavior, and I cannot make some of them have it, and others not.

[Vercingetorix]

Right.
I thought you were asking if you could add new animations into pack.idx, which of course you can. The limitation as you state is getting the game to use the new animation. You can check out this thread: http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.p...84&page=3&pp=30
For more info but no one has got it to work.

[SigniferOne]

Any chance you could have the XIDX prog do something similar to AnimPacker and insert new skeletons into skeleton.idx?

[driddle]

I tried your XIDX program I have found a bug that effects the Indian elephant model. Here is my setup:

1. vanilla RTW install with 1.2 patch.
2. I changed the Seleucid war elephant to "mount elephant indian" in "export_descr_unit.txt"
3. I ran "extract_animations.bat"
4. I did not change any animation files.
5. xidx -ta pack.idx > temp.txt
6. xidx -caf pack.idx < temp.txt

Then I tested the setup and the Seleucid elephant runs at a faster speed than the calvary or any unit in the game. Note that before I used the XIDX program the Seleucid Indian elephant ran at a normal speed. Is this a bug or am I using the wrong commands to pack the animations?

[Vercingetorix]

Thank you for posting, I was afraid of this. It has to do with the scaling I mentioned. I&#39;ll see if there is any practical way to get around this, most likely what will happen is I&#39;ll have the scale of each animation specified after the filename... A hassle for sure, but that&#39;s probably what it will come to.