.dml and explosion FPS

[666fb7b453f8bvurt]

As i understand it i should be able to change the frame rate of, for example, the explosions in a gamesys.dml. Some questions:

Anyone have any idea where to find the ObjProp number for the explosion animation (there's a few different explosion types)?

Would this be correct

DML1

ObjProp -xxxx FrameAniConfig 0
{
    "frames per second" 60
}

to change the FPS?

And also, do i need to restart the game completely to see the .dml take effect, or would just loading a new level work?

Thanks

[666fb7b454293blaydes99]

You'll probably need to do explosions (-382) as well as explosion parts (-1236). From there, maybe the attached screenshot will help.

Under SFX -> "FrameAnimationConfig" you can se the "frames per second". What you have above looks mostly correct but you may need to have exactly "FrameAnimationConfig"

EDIT: Looks like the explosions parts -1236 are all just particles, so don't bother setting the FPS on those.

[666fb7b45446dblaydes99]

Hmm, maybe what you already had is correct:

ObjProp "FrameAniConfig"     // type FrameAnimationConfig      , flags 0x0000 , editor name: "SFX: FrameAnimationConfig"
{
   "frames per second" : float
   "one-shot" : bool
   "bounce" : bool
   "frame-limit" : bool
   "kill when finished" : bool
}

So maybe try this DML (heck, maybe I'll try it too):


DML1

+ObjProp -382 "FrameAniConfig"
{
    "frames per second" 60
}

[666fb7b454579vurt]

Nothing changed.. but again, i don't know if i need to restart the game for the .dml to take effect (i believe this is the case)... if i do it would be very tiresome to test and tweak this..

[666fb7b4546c4voodoo47]

yes, you need to restart to load dmls.

[666fb7b454a85blaydes99]

Nothing changed.. but again, i don't know if i need to restart the game for the .dml to take effect (i believe this is the case)... if i do it would be very tiresome to test and tweak this..

Since the editor doesn't load .dmls, it would probably be best to create a test mission. All you need to do is create a huge room (don't forget the room brush), create a player start (start the player with full stats), enable the hud, and put a bunch of weapons and ammo around. Once you've done this, do the build/lighting pass, and rename the mission to earth.mis. Back up your original earth.mis and put this in it's place. That way you can start a new game at any time and this drops you into the test level with .dmls loaded.

[666fb7b454b8cvoodoo47]

editor can be forced to load dmls as well, see the documentation.

[666fb7b454c78blaydes99]

I tried a new game with these settings added to the gamesys.dml and all the animations still animate slowly. I'm not sure what we're doing wrong...

[666fb7b454d94voodoo47]

add dbmod_log 10 to your cam_ext.cfg, the game will create a log where you can read the dml info - if they are not loaded properly, you should see an error message there..

[666fb7b454e99vurt]

Ah right, i think i actually added that a while back, but that file has probably been overwritten since then, thanks.

[666fb7b455098blaydes99]

I got this working! It didn't work before because the explosions don't inherit this property from the main explosion branch, -382. You actually don't want to do this anyway because these explosions animate at 10 fps. When you speed them up to 60, they flash so quickly that you hardly catch them at all. I imagine that you are working on more explosion animations, but you'll need to specify the object ID of each one. I don't imagine that you'll need to hunt down more than 4 or 5.

More good news, you don't have to load a new game! I loaded an existing game and fired a few incendiery grenades. Your animation replaces part of this and it animates quickly... almost too quickly. 30 fps is too slow  but 45 or 50 feels better than 60 fps.

From what I can tell, you animation replaces the "HE_Harmless" explosion animation, so you'll see this all over, when you explode cameras, the protocol droids in the training areas on earth, etc.

HE_harmless is -2912
Incendiary is -1425

Here's what I did to test out your new animations:

-created \mods\explosions subfolder
-extracted your animations here
-put attached gamesys.dml here (see later post below for latest gamesys.dml)
-added +mods\explosions to mod_path line in cam_mod.ini

[666fb7b4551b3vurt]

Very cool I think i can hopefully create a longer animation. Will test it when i get the time. Thanks!

[666fb7b455326blaydes99]

I missed "HE explosion" -383 which is now also added to the gamesys.dml. I also tweaked the animation times; they seem to fit the SS2 universe a bit better now.

One place to see this is when blowing up a assault/security/maintenance bot.

Updated gamesys.dml:

DML1
//explosion animation test

//HE_harmless explosion
+ObjProp -2912 "FrameAniConfig"
{
    "frames per second" 40
}

//Incendiary explosion
+ObjProp -1425 "FrameAniConfig"
{
    "frames per second" 40
}


//HE explosion
+ObjProp -383 "FrameAniConfig"
{
    "frames per second" 35
}

[666fb7b45543avurt]

Thanks a ton, looks really great! I'll add the info to the mod.

[666fb7b45554eblaydes99]

Thanks vurt!

I realized while testing some PSI powers that "pyrospang" (when using pyrokinesis) also uses the re301 model, so I've added this to the gamesys.dml (updated attached file).

Here's what I added:
//PSI pyrokinesis shot - pyrospang
+ObjProp -4343 "FrameAniConfig"
{
    "frames per second" 40
}