IWTE - World editing - (General Discussion)

[makanyane]

There's some explanatory stuff about the file structures that I've been trying to add to the wiki
https://wiki.twcenter.net/index.php?...mations_-_M2TW - is work in progress for the new functions
https://wiki.twcenter.net/index.php?...ld_file_-_M2TW - and the pages linked to it give info on some of the other files

[makanyane]

Thanks z3n, that would be useful for a lot of people - unfortunately, for me and wd a version that needed your pensioners' bus-pass details would be more useful

[Jojo00182]

Thanks for the info, what do you use to get python into an exe? I switched to C# because that was so annoying ^^

PS: If you need an older version of max, ask in the rtw modding discord

[wilddog]

Thanks for the info, what do you use to get python into an exe?

I've used pyinstaller. Its the only one that seems to work as a single exe. It does tend to create a large file though which several of the anti virus software's object to. (Part of the reason for stopping on this was tied to that). I only started to learn python tied to work (not directly but just wanting to learn a bit). Too late for max for me and not really worth the trip. Probably would of gone for Blender but not had the time to learn enough to create interfaces/use it.

Hoping to release IWTE in next couple of days. We nailed down a couple of other issues today and just want to check if latest test version is causing issues between Eulers and quaternions. We aren't having any file format problems as we understand all the ones we deal with its just the finer points of milkshape's Eulers and avoiding incorrect flips and changes in rotations.

Think Mak will also sort out a corrected version of the Aztec gate animation as the vanilla undamaged/damaged close animations is incorrect and expands the size of the gate before closing it.

[makanyane]

Hoping to release IWTE in next couple of days. We nailed down a couple of other issues today and just want to check if latest test version is causing issues between Eulers and quaternions. We aren't having any file format problems as we understand all the ones we deal with its just the finer points of milkshape's Eulers and avoiding incorrect flips and changes in rotations.

So that obviously didn't happen - we realised that the fix that WD had made which sorted out an issue with a few bits of wall (and new ms3d) animations suddenly flipping around, broke some of the gates...

Since then WD has rewritten a lot of the code to make sure all the changes go through the same process, making it simpler to adjust, and fixed a few other issues - we're currently back at trying to sort out the things that flip when derived from ms3d eulers to .anim quaternions (without breaking the gates!)

Happy New Year everyone, hope to get this to you soon!

[wilddog]

..and finally

current version is IWTE_v20_01_A from January 5th 2020.

with version 20_01_A
1) Conversion of most of the code to newer levels of software. Still need to resolve 3d viewing as that hasn't been upgraded.
2) Major new content is you can now fully create/amend world animations. Please refer to the TWCwiki at https://wiki.twcenter.net/index.php?...mations_-_M2TW for details on how to do this. It is complex and the processes have been linked as much as possible. The processes gives a default setting for effect lighting and shading. I may look to automate this to generate the correct values later.
3) The release includes the standard Nvidia programs to convert DDS to TGA and vice versa.
4) The release includes a program wdanimpack_amd64.exe which is essentially a minor tweaked and compiled version of one of the pack versions (v0.53?) that was released by Tellos Athenaios and the The Europa Barbarorum Team see https://www.twcenter.net/forums/show...TW-PACK-files). The process uses compiled LZO compression code (as described in their downloads).

[xHolyCrusader]

Still cant quite believe custom animations are actually possible now, thanks a lot for keeping at it after all these years!

Also thanks a lot for the guide on the wiki, gave it a quick try and the process is really straight forward. I've tested two simple animations so far one worked without any issues the other seems to have a slight rotation misalignment issue eventhough the world object and anim face the same direction (and I left the orientation at 0° when assigning the animation).
Here's a video showing the two animations, you can see the cylindrical model at the end rotate a little when the animation kicks in/stops: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZM2G6WatFSk

Generally the new version seems to be working fine so far, eventhough I havent really used a lot of functions yet, one thing that was a bit borked in previous versions already and still is are the plazas for large/huge cities, when changing them they scale down to the max value of 35 eventhough they were quite a lot bigger before. Lastly do you think theres any way to allow for custom lighter/darker shading values on animated models? I think having the bits that get revealed on the inside of the model during animation be a bit darker like in vanilla really adds a lot of depth however with the current setup I dont really see how its possible.
Perhaps have some sort of function that puts animation mesh and world object on top of each other in an ms3d that way it would be easier to make sure both have the same values assigned for vertices that are in the same place, however such a method would still require mutliple ms3ds for the various damage groups and ideally the shading remains consistent between these aswell..

[wilddog]

Still cant quite believe custom animations are actually possible now, thanks a lot for keeping at it after all these years!

Had most of it written a while back but never got around to quite linking things up. Last issue was tied to avoiding a flip when converting back from Milkshape Eulers.

the other seems to have a slight rotation misalignment issue even though the world object and anim face the same direction (and I left the orientation at 0° when assigning the animation).

We found the cause. I amended the collision process some years back as the wooden palisade never aligned right when changed to a non 90 degree angle. It is still an awkward shape and the object is different to the anim model so people will have to watch out. The process is being amended to accept a milkshape model comment which contains an x,y,z and angle (in degrees value) and a first load will advise of the likely correction to be added. The milkshape load will use the supplied values to adjust the model and that will allow a simple resolution to the issue. Any ms3d objects created from the .anim will then reflect the changed values.

one thing that was a bit borked in previous versions already and still is are the plazas for large/huge cities,

Hadn't realized that or forgot about it. However, the process is now being changed to allow a size up to 150 and separate resize of x and y sides. Additionally it will now show the full size of the plaza (or at least our approximation to it) that you see as the flag base so it should be easier to see the full area that the plaza covers.

Lastly do you think theres any way to allow for custom lighter/darker shading values on animated models?

I was planning on looking at that to see what can be done. The shading is different to the other shadings in that it looks like it has a start and end value and is dependent on the position of that particular object. It will likely take a while for it to process which is why I left it to last.

For those who have had issues with the 3d viewing I think I have that working now provided you are using opengl version 4 or above.

The above corrections should be in the next version which should be launched in the next couple of days.

[wilddog]

new/latest version is IWTE_v20_01_B from January 10th 2020.

with version 20_01_B
1) Animated milkshape now allows X,Y,Z and Angle (in degrees) amendments to correctly center the animation (the angle part is new). It also advises of the values needed to centre the animation. This is a guide only as some vanilla models aren't fully centred due to differences between the animation and the .world objects.
2) Plaza placement and resizing now allows a much larger maximum size and separate X and Y dimensions. It also shows the approx position of the outer flag boundary as this is larger than the dimensions of the plaza.
3) The 3D viewer has been amended and should now handle the newer releases of OpenGL that previously caused it to crash. If there is a problem more meaningful data should now be displayed to help in understanding the issue.

I still need to address the shading issues mentioned in the earlier post.

[makanyane]

2) Plaza placement and resizing now allows a much larger maximum size and separate X and Y dimensions. It also shows the approx position of the outer flag boundary as this is larger than the dimensions of the plaza.

I've stuck a couple of pics on the wiki to illustrate this;
https://wiki.twcenter.net/index.php?title=IWTE#Plaza

[AriovistusSuebus]

hi guys.
Firstly, makanyane and wilddog, thank you very much for the IWTE and for the continual improvement and updating of it. With the building collision animations a dream comes true.
Nevertheless I have a problem. If I try to generate the .anim files from my .ms3d the programm crashes to the desktop and only 3 files were generated (.anim, .mesh and .unpacked). The .packed file is not generated. The .ms3d file is OK, because a friend of mine obtains the .packed file on his computer.

[makanyane]

@ AriovistusSuebus
have you got the
"wdanimpack_amd64.exe" in the same folder as your IWTE.exe? It needs to be with it to make the packed file.

If you have got them together are you getting an error message? To make the command window stay up you need to run the IWTE .exe from a .bat file
- that's just a .txt file saved as .bat with the following contents:

IWTE_v20_01_B.exe
cmd /k

double click the .bat file to run the .exe named in it...

please let me know the result

[AriovistusSuebus]

have you got the
"wdanimpack_amd64.exe" in the same folder as your IWTE.exe? It needs to be with it to make the packed file.

yes, I have everything in the same folder

If you have got them together are you getting an error message?

No, I get a crash to the desktop

To make the command window stay up you need to run the IWTE .exe from a .bat file
please let me know the result

With the .bat file I get again a crash, but now I can read the dos window. Here the screenshot:

[makanyane]

ahh, apparently that process doesn't work if you run the IWTE.exe from a folder on your desktop - I just tried and get the same crash, I'm not sure why - it might be the 'finding the file path for the other .exe/file' thing in IWTE doesn't work if /desktop is involved, or it's triggering some odd bit of windows protection...


anyway if you move your IWTE folder into the main file structure so it's something like
C:/my_modding_folder/IWTE
or whatever, but not in desktop it should work.


Also for future reference everyone should please try to avoid putting the .exes or the files you're trying to read in folders with a space in the name - we did try to fix the instances we found where that caused a crash but it's safer if you don't have spaces...

[AriovistusSuebus]

ahh, apparently that process doesn't work if you run the IWTE.exe from a folder on your desktop - I just tried and get the same crash, I'm not sure why - it might be the 'finding the file path for the other .exe/file' thing in IWTE doesn't work if /desktop is involved, or it's triggering some odd bit of windows protection...


anyway if you move your IWTE folder into the main file structure so it's something like
C:/my_modding_folder/IWTE
or whatever, but not in desktop it should work.

Thank you, it works! But only if I start the IWTE as administrator

[makanyane]

Thank you, it works! But only if I start the IWTE as administrator

Glad it works, not sure we're likely to be able to fix the desktop issue - searching for anything involving 'desktop' and 'file path problem' is bringing up too much stuff about problems with the desktop itself...

Re; the Administrator issue, no idea why, sorry, I don't have that problem on my computer, but I have UAC settings at low level (not recommended), and also use partitioned discs so modding stuff tends to be on E:/ etc, which tends to upset it less...

[scwosh]

Good afternoon! Tell me, please, if I have a folder with a new animation located on the path: M2TW \ mods \ my_mod \ data \ blockset \ custom_animations \ building_animations, then how to correctly register this path in the "update animation path" (there by default Blockset / Mod / Animations / newanimationfolder)? I have already tried different ways to prescribe the path of the animation, but the game does not see it and does not lose on the object.

[makanyane]

For what you said above for a single .anim it should look like this

(if you've actually got another folder within building_animations, you need to include that as well)

you just want the path from your data folder - whether that is a mod-folder or not so:

BlockSet/folder_name/folder_name/name_of_anim_file.anim

the 'Mod' in the default path was just a suggestion that people might want to use the mod-name there to avoid a name clash if they share settlement files with custom_anims - you're not meant to be trying to include the mod-folder in the path...


Let me know if you understand, and if that works. If it doesn't please screenshot that view of the path in your .world and also your folder.

[scwosh]

Thanks, it worked! But there are two questions: 1) Does the game automatically determine in which folder of the block sets the animation is located - in the vanilla block set or in the mods / block set? 2) what determines the ability to directly shoot at an animated object? I can’t shoot at the object that I added to the game, and it collapses only from an accidental hit.

[makanyane]

Thanks, it worked! But there are two questions: 1) Does the game automatically determine in which folder of the block sets the animation is located - in the vanilla block set or in the mods / block set?

Assuming you're running the mod;- If the anim (same name and same path) is in both vanilla and the mod-folder it will use the mod-folder one. If it's only in the mod-folder it will use that one. If it's only in vanilla it will use that. (If it can't find it in either it will look in the game .packs)
It's the same system as for almost all other modded stuff...

2) what determines the ability to directly shoot at an animated object? I can’t shoot at the object that I added to the game, and it collapses only from an accidental hit.

The only things you (or the ai) can target are; Gates, Gatehouses, Arrow Towers, Walls and... the whole of 'Techtree Buildings', that's the things like Barracks or Churches that appear in slots in the settlement when you've built them in campaign (they also appear randomly to suit city level in custom battles)