DMB multiple skeleton sets

[CaesarVincens]

It's well known among unit coders that generals and captains have multiple skeleton sets so that they can be infantry or mounted on any type of mount.

However, this post by Florin got me thinking.

You may also be able to use the same DMB entry for both the mounted and dismounted officer if you don`t care that besides the mount, the officer looks identical. If you don`t, you just give skeletons to the officer in DMB for all types of situations, like it is set for the generals. And you don`t add any sprites. For the mounted standard bearer you`d have to use the eb animation because afaik it`s the only one that doesn`t require the model to be edited too.

I thought why couldn't any unit do that, have a skeleton for when mounted?

I asked Zarax, our unit coder, to try it out, and he found it did work.

One must add all mount types, but the skeleton for unused types doesn't matter. Now mounted and dismounted versions of the same unit can use the same DMB entry.

Example:

type                        barb_peltast_gaul
skeleton                   fs_fast_javelinman, fs_fast_spearman
skeleton_horse          fs_hc_javelinman, fs_hc_spearman
skeleton_elephant      fs_forest_elephant_rider
skeleton_chariot        fs_chariot_sword
skeleton_camel          fs_hc_swordsman

The order probably matters, but may not. I haven't tested that yet or asked Zarax.

[florin80]

Thea reason why it`s not done with regular units is that you can`t have proper sprites for all those instances. There is only one texture/sprites line for each faction per entry so you can only have them made for one of the skeletons. For the officers this isn`t a problem because, in my experience, the officers do not use their own sprites anyway. They seem to take the sprites of the unit they are attached to. Plus, they`re only one guy. Having entire units with no sprites might be an issue for many PCs especially if the models are quite heavy.

[CaesarVincens]

I see. But most of the time that wouldn't be much of an issue would it? Unless mounted units use only one sprite instead of a separate one for the horse.

[florin80]

My guess is that from a distance you`ll see a foot soldier overlapping the horse`s sprites and no rider of course. Or the other way around depending for which of them you do the sprites.

[CaesarVincens]

Well, let the testing commence then.

[Subrosa Florens]

Horses do have sprites. I had to make new ones when I started using Pinarius' Horses.

If you create new sprites after you change the dmb to include all of the skeletons, the game might create the needed sprites for each skeleton, and use whichever ones are appropriate if the unit is mounted or not. Give that a try.

[Kylan271]

The effect of this working is that you save my God more slots in DMB,yihee. So hopefully barring sprite issues it works???? I understand what Florin was saying about generals,hmm but not sure about horse sprites I hadn't noticed..oppsie.

[CaesarVincens]

From testing, if one uses infantry sprites for mounted units, the units seem to appear to be standing on the horses. I'm not sure what happens if one tries to use mounted sprites for infantry. In fact, I'm just about to do some testing myself.

[Squid]

The problem is that the sprite are different for infantry and mounted units. If you look at the sprite tga files, the sprites look like they're mounted for mounted units, and look like their walking for non-mounted ones.

@caesarvincens - My guess would be that infantry would look like there were squatting on the ground

[CaesarVincens]

Yeah, they do. We're doing more testing, but this may turn out to be a bogus find in the end, at least if you want proper mounted units.

[Kylan271]

Regardless without testing we wont know or may miss something...so it is worth the effort.

[CaesarVincens]

It is, and we haven't tested elephant or chariot units. Those may work better.

[Kylan271]

Chariots suck sorry,in that CA only allows 2 weapons use per model. Using archers or javelineers on chariots means when no ammo they can't do anything,as 1 slot for missile 2nd for chariot,so no sword or dagger on your man can be used,grrrr. I compensate by extra ammo,about 50%. Anyway hope something works?