Dual Wielding animations and mechanical support:-)
Can dual wielding support be added for the animations and mechanical support of this feature?
Most all current generation large scale R.P.G.s support dual wielding and it builds an integral element to player's choice of play styles in a medieval fantasy setting. What main challenges are there with the new animations and mechanical implementation to bring this request into fruition and offer this powerful feature the Flare game engine?
I can offer support in a few ways yet I want to better understand the scope of difficulty in this request from advice offered by skilled developers within the community:-).
There are two ways to do it:
1st. Replace a shield and render a sword in the left hand, easiest but will feel ugly, only for show.
2nd. you need to do the same as before but also create a new animation (easy to this point) and it´s new state that uses it. But then, you need to render all other pieces 1 by 1 with the new animated skeleton and replace older ones, that means 67 pieces in vanilla Flare for male + other 67 for female. So you need to redo at least 134 models.
Thats because unlike 3d games that swap equipment pieces on the fly in a base model, Flare composes a character with many separated pieces overlapping each other by a fixed order. So if you dont remake all other to include your new animation, you will see your new 2nd sword going whack and flying around the body in a weird fashion.
I would consider this out-of-scope for Flare. I don't think the difficulty of implementing it is worth the payoff. Challenges I see are:
Dorkster, say, if i wanted to add pauldrons, would that be difficult or could they work as another chest piece "item_type=chest". Can a new item category be created and drawing order be changed?
If you wanted them to be separate from ordinary chest pieces, you would need to create new item type in items/types.txt. You would then need to update the inventory menu so that there's a place to equip them. Finally, if you wanted player animations for the new item slot, you would need to update engine/hero_layers.txt to define where in the draw order the new layer sits for each of the 8 directions.
I wonder how to add in more visual armour slots / types and to what the challenges of such a request would be? There are main armour slots / types that I am currently using (list below) yet only some have separate visuals that show up on the player character though. The current main armour slots / types that I use that do not have visuals are as such: Shoulders, Waist, Shins, Arms and Wrists. Although the 3D graphics for these separate armour pieces are rendered and are included / combined into armour slots / types such as:
Torso having included Shoulders and Arms
Hands having included Wrists
Legs having included Waist
Feet having included Shins.
Is it possible to make more visual armour layers / separate the armour slots / types further to support independent Shoulders, Arms, Wrists, Waist and Shins visible armour slots / types?
These are the main armour slots / types that I am currently using (list below)
"# Main Armour
[type]
id=head
name=Head
[type]
id=chest
name=Torso
[type]
id=waist
name=Waist
[type]
id=legs
name=Legs
[type]
id=shins
name=Shins
[type]
id=feet
name=Feet
[type]
id=shoulders
name=Shoulders
[type]
id=arms
name=Arms
[type]
id=wrists
name=Wrists
[type]
id=hands
name=Hands"
Also special mention to Back and Tabard slot / type for these are supposed to be visual armour / clothes that goes with any armour type. Same with Shirt, Pants, Hat and other clothing that can be found under realistic armour. Yet these are extra details and are fine being non-visual in nature. It is the main armour types that already have art work but made into separate independent art layers / slots / types that I am mainly wondering about. Independent visual representation for the main armour slots / types of Shoulders, Waist, Shins, Arms and Wrists.
Who has the skills and ability to implement Dual Wielding into Flare?
Is there anyone or a group pf people of whom I could commission to do this that so everyone could benefit after it is done? I would like this feature for my R.P.G. although if I can also help the community / Flare game engine in general I would love to do so. I just blew like 2K on a game mechanics demo a few months back and now that project is on ice for the team has full time work now.
Also I don't want to butcher the art when there is a better person for the job. If it is a matter of motivation I would rather spend some money helping people make cool things for lots of people rather than just on my own projects alone. I would rather spend money with this kind of community project where everyone can benefit after it is done. Rather than to just spend money where it is only for my game projects and they may or may not even see the light of day after all is said and done for the project.
I can pay in PayPal if there is someone or some people are willing, able and talented enough to do this kind of work. I would love it, everyone else would probably too if we could pull off Dual Wielding support for Flare. Even if it is just the 2.5D animation set for the base Flare male and female character models with all the base weapons and armour sets that would be a success.
Even if the engine has limitations like it has to be considered a two handed weapon but it is called a 'paired weapon set' / Axe + Sword, Hammer + Hammer, Dagger + Axe etc. even if these must be preset built combinations made via crafting two one-handed weapons into a preset technically single item that has both one-handed items made into technically one item (or something) that would work too. That will work, it would be very clunky and inefficient to develop but having that option for support is better than nothing too. Sure it is clunky as all hell but it will still offer that kind of play style to the players and make Flare a more grand / bigger scale game.
I hope that it is just a matter of if we can find the talent and motivation to pull it off. I have a guess that Danimal and maybe Dorkster could team up to do Dual Wielding support for Flare. Although I am not 100% sure on how you guys would be motivated to do so. If you guys can think of how to do this and find a way to make it work well enough within the engine I can pay something reasonable for your guys' time, talent and effort. Please just tell me how long it will take and how hard the it is and I can pay a fair honest price for your work. Even if it is super clunky to start with having even 'combined weapon sets' for a version 1 of Dual Wielding. If we get the animations working and they play fair enough with the game engine to start a working version 1 of Dual Wielding that is still a success.
@WithinAmnesia Let me give an example using the Waist slot you defined:
Note that the documentation for gfx is a bit misleading when it says it's a filename. It's a partial filename which, in this example, will translate into "animations/avatar/$GFX_BASE/belt.txt". $GFX_BASE would either be "male" or "female" in the case of flare-game.
Then in engine/hero_layers.txt, you would add "waist" somewhere in each line. I think between the "legs" and "hands" slots would work in this case.
I might be able to fix some of the engine issue I mentioned to get dual wielding to work, but that would be the most I could do. It wouldn't be a priority for me, mainly because, like Danimal pointed out, the required artist work needed to take advantage of it is pretty massive. It would also increase exponentially if we wanted to add new visible armor and weapons.
And if even we did find an artist that wanted to flex their talents, I think they'd be better utilized making new pieces that fit into the existing inventory slots and animation rigs.
Hmm, I suppose if all else fails I might have to figure out how to make new animations for Flare in blender with the source model files. A bit of a learning curve but doable. Bit by bit, still I would have to prioritize to make other things work in my R.P.G. first and probably add in dual wielding later. I'd prefer if the animations work could come from some one more talented with 3D animation / art than I but if all else fails I have the potential to succeed. It will mostly likely be a drawn out grind of trial and error; but it is possible.
WithinAmnesia You can get away with much less effort in your extra equipment, you don´t need to be so perfectionist and show everything, the game resolution is so low you won´t get to see most of what you want to add, you will barely see a few pixels changing colors.
Look at the old games like Baldur´s gate, you can have all of your new equipment and not show them on-screen at all; just having it display into equipment screen is enough, with plenty icon variety it looks good.
As for the extra weapon, it´s an ugly solution but you can create an off-hand sword (inherit from shield), render it into left hand using one of the shields blend file to easily attach it to left hand existant animations, then give it damage attributes that will add to the main one. I plan to add sword breakers and other similars in the future, there won´t be dual strikes animations but it gets the job done easily.
Yeah that sounds good Danimal; Also thank you Dorkster for your help and advice :-).
I view my game development as a kind of a working first version commercially viable prototype for setting up a larger scale R.P.G.; I hope XD. If I can get more visuals for the main armour slots that would be great to add more quality and depth to the main driving gameplay element of explore, fight, upgrade and repeat. Even if it is just few a pixels it is like having a working template for a bigger scale game; if I get more resources to make a bigger scale game. It is true that Baldur's Gate and Diablo I and II only had a limited amount of armour visuals per armour slot. Yet still if there are more independent layers or armour customization it adds more quality to Flare. Yet even if I don't manage to get more visual layers, what Flare currently offers still works; it is just limited in that extra layer of high quality.
How hard would it be to add all the one-handed weapon types / models into the off hand to support 'off hand' weapons? Even if off hand weapons just buffing the main hand damage would work even if technically they are a 'shield' / off hand frill. Implementing the visuals of the character dual wielding (even it is just technically attacking with the one weapon in the main hand) is still a success. If a person really wanted to split hairs crafting could be used to translate one-handed weapons into off-hand weapons with enough crafting recipes; and vise versa. At any rate your idea Danimal for 'off hand dual wielding weapons' would be waayyyy easier than paired weapons with a million combinations XD.
It is great to work with people to even just share thoughts and make things better. Especially with the more brain power and more iterations of ideas that brings; it can offer more perspective and ability to further develop ideas into good ideas :-D. I hope some form of dual wielding can get supported (I can pay for extra motivation if need be) to support the spirit of dual wielding game play. Also I hope more independent visual armour slot / types and be developed and supported in Flare.
Also it would be an added bonus of gameplay quality if we had more independent visual armour slots layers to have them help drive a deeper item / equip-able item slot system that is at the heart of the core of gameplay and character progression. In such ways as with having the new item slot types being visually independent interchangeable just like the preexisting main armour slots / types. Even if say visually independent Shoulders armour type / slot were added / supported it would be quite impactful and the player can see a lot of shoulder armour visuals / art.
Although I wonder if in Blender if all the armour layers were hidden minus the independent layer for the new slot type / old armour assets subdivided into new types:
- one animation render run being just shoulder armour,
- one animation render run being just the torso armour without arms and shoulders,
- one animation render run being just shin armour,
- one animation render run being just wrist armour,
- one animation render run being just the leg armour without shins and waist armour,
- one animation render run being just arm (bicep area) armour,
- one animation render run being just the feet without shins,
- one animation render run being just waist armour (belt / 'plate skirt' area),
etc.)
Then ran the preexisting armour animations and and armour models to generate new armour visual layers how hard that process would be? It would require no new animations and art assets (most likely) for one has to just hide armour models in strategic areas minus the new ones / new armour slot areas and run the animations and render-er script(s). This should make the new 2.5D animations with the preexisting armour models for both male and female? Or is there something I am missing that adds extra difficulty? I could pay for this as well if it is matter of motivation / required skill / professionalism.
I am hoping I can help add more item customization / opportunities / depth and play style options. Such as new visually independent armor layers and mechanical and visual implementation / support for dual wielding. I wish to help add to the Flare engine to make the gameplay and character progression deeper. I hope to work towards added features with projects such as this in hopes to add more high quality content opportunities.
I wish to have the Flare R.P.G. engine be rich in gameplay features and be home to amazing wonderous elements of R.P.G.s. Even if they are in a simpler form to work within our scope of game engine with Flare; as like with Danimal's dual wielding idea. Even with simple implementation the main gameplay driving features would still be there to enjoy; yet simplicity is the ultimate form of sophistication ;-P. I hope for players to explore a deep and richly enjoyable form of high quality gameplay while they play the games built in the Flare game engine :-).
Danimal - "Replace a shield and render a sword in the left hand, easiest but will feel ugly, only for show."
What is the minimum viable product for this Dual-wielding solution of weapons rendered in the Off-hand?
Render one of each One-handed weapon type to start such as: 1 Sword, 1 Axe, 1 Mace, 1 Dagger, 1 Staff / Rod and 1 Fist Weapon?
How can these animations be created?
I am trying to build out item types and the dual wielding / weapon type solutions to get the gameplay + itemization prototype rolling. Currently this is my best iteration on how to incorporate weapon types and play-styles with itemization:
One/Main-Handed Weapon +100% Damage
Two-Handed Weapon +150% Damage
Off-Hand Weapon +50% Damage (Shield animations but with One-handed weapon rendered in the Off-hand but increase +Physical Damage like a weapon; even though visually only the Main-hand is attacking).
I would not do the "Fist" weapon unless it´s very eye catching, but yes, that´s is the bare minimum.
The off-hand weapons need the "item_type=off" line in it´s file.
As for balance i went a different direction, for starters all weapons get their attack speeds nerfed, 60% for bows, 90% for daggers, 80% for rest of one handed, 70% for two handed (but they get multiple enemies hit). I never liked the machinegun attack speed of Flare, i also buffed all enemies "Poise"(interruption resistance) to 50% minimun. This guarantes that you can´t speed beat an enemy without retaliation.
As for damage % i think your take is good. I tested and can confirm that the damage gets added properly no matter the sources (even from armor) to the total.
Give me a couple of days and i will upload a blend file with the left hand weapon for you to use as base.
Danimal Okay that sounds amazing :-D.
I was wondering how to handling weapon speed so attack speed can vary I take it to have 'fast' and 'slow' weapon speeds that can make different say sword types like a Bastard Sword has ~50% Attack Speed verses a Short Sword that has ~75% Attack Speed but the damage can be averaged to make the same Damage Per Second and make both weapon types roughly equal but lend to different play styles? Or does the fact that weapons just give a straight +damage buff kind of ruin that and that could lead to highest weapon speed = best in slot but just buffing damage in potentially other means outside of weapons or would this be prevented by locking in all damage sources and carefully calculating all possible damage calculations and making sure they all average out in the same 'tier' / item level? Or maybe all melee weapons attack at the same speed and damage is all the same; that would work regardless, less depth but it works.
Also I agree on slowing down the attack speeds in Flare. The melee weapons I hope can have attributes like Diablo where some weapons are fast but weak and some are slow but powerful and yet if the all have the same item level (roughly) the have the same Damage per Second. Although if that cannot be properly replicated I can just have all One-Handed and Two-Handed Melee Weapons attack at the same speeds and use the 150/100/50 damage system.
In general it seems that melee should have more damage potential than ranged weapons for there is more risk to the player and a serious risk of being encircled and exposed to serious damage. Whereas ranged attacks are more safe and can be hit and run and this kind of combat should be lessened. The melee poise of enemies should be in the spirit as you suggested to prevent 'machine gun' melee happening. Also ranged attacks in real life do not have to be very fast and most war bows do not draw quickly and the speed in Flare is a bit crazy; also the infinite ammunition is 'okay' but not perfect. Slower attack speed = less damage over time than melee of equal level / 'tier' would force the player to make a choice to kill faster with greater risk or kill slower but with greater safety. This could even be 50% the attack rate of melee one-handed weapons with 50% the damage as well. Also it is unrealistic to shoot so fast without fatigue and fatigue will slow the average rate of attack lower than a quick burst. This quick burst could be trained ranged ability like ~'Rapid Shots' that is a temporary ranged attack speed increase yet I am unsure how to make it only work for ranged attacks and not melee and magic. Also a damage much lower to melee for ranged attacks makes sense in that if you imagine taking a sword and striking a bare body. A properly placed strike from a sword will rend a huge gash in the body whereas a ranged strike leaves a point of damage. The difference is more so over long range where ranged attacks lose energy over distance; whereas melee does not.
Magic should be powerful but potentially the most clunky to use. It cannot be too weak or else it feels kind of pointless like flashy weak attacks and loses the respect as found in most medieval fantasy settings. If it is too powerful and easy to use it ruins the ranged and melee balance. If it is powerful and offering lots of utility / options of employment of its powers to aid the caster that fits with the usual expectations of medieval fantasy settings. If it is a bit clunky to use like long cast times and or some versions using lots of resources / mana and making only a few select costly casts per minute realistic without digging deep into potions and other outside resources this will force the player to use strategy and cunning and planning to win with magic. Powerful, impactful and rarely un-useful a magic spell could be clunky to use over and over in combat yet quite useful if the caster can make the limited casts per minute count; skill verses spam. Yet wands and the such could be used to be the back bone of a magic user to fill a role between melee and ranged. Where wands and such could act almost as a hybrid ranged / melee role. In that they are longer in area of threat / attack range than melee, yet shorter than ranged, less damage than melee, equal and or even greater in damage to ranged, and perhaps equal or potentially slower in attack speed than ranged for potientially less, equal or even greater damage per minute compare to ranged. Yet less than melee in most all areas except area of threat / attack range. To have a cycle develope of using spells to blast a start / buff up then wand the enemies to keep them at bay while the spells recharge and blast more magic at the foes and keep the cycle going.
This is my current set of views regarding with combat and the weapon type / play style rolls moving forward for my R.P.G. prototype at least :-).
I changed their speeds in \items\base\weapons base text files, so you can make weapons that inherit all the base attributes, and then modify the item description to make them different to base (like icon, extra power...) "bonus=attack_speed,70" is what you need to add.
As for weapons speed versus damage, thats another playstyle discussion, fast weapons with lower damage have better results agaisnt low armored enemies, but struggle versus heavy armor. While the opposite happens with heavy weapons, less attacks that will easily bypass heavy armor but you get risk getting mobbed by light enemies. Think of it like deciding between using a machinegun or a rocket launcher when faced by tanks and infantry. It´s all to the player to exchange them for flexibility or stick to one.
As for ranged, thats why I nerfed speed to 60%, I tested, less than that and it doesn´t feel good to the player, remember this is a game meant to have fun, you have to make things fair. I tried expending ammo and mana as well, but it destroys the fun with unnecesary add-ons. Also, for real life wounds, flesh wounds are far less lethal than piercing ones, depends on many things like strike places, but the chances of piercing something vital are higher than a slash. But there are so many variables in real life that it´s stupid to translate that to a simple game as Flare.
I agree with you at magic, mages should need to play it strategically or splurge on mana potions, making it more expensive than other classes. That´s the price of extreme power, anyways I´m making the "Magic bolt" power attack have no mana cost, and gain lesser mana leech at max level. That way the player can keep a distance and recover mana at the cost of low dps and short range.
True, very true; iterate, iterate, iterate. Ideas are great but everything should be challenged and tested until it breaks to see its strengths and weakens and so that ~'version 2' can be built better via more insight on the errors of the past. Bit by bit, piece by piece :-).
How can ammunition be added in flare is it possible or is it quite clunky? If so is it just one item for say 'arrows'? If ammunition was added I would like it to have the option to have different types (bronze arrows, iron arrows, steel arrows etc.) Also the possibility of magical ammunition such as http://mikesrpgcenter.com/bgate/ranged.html with say Ice arrows deal extra ~'cold' damage but are limited / more expensive so a player can chose to 'load up' / buff up before a challenging fight to increase their fighting odds. Could this be done with a common ammunition type but it is equip-able like weapons / armour and gives +stats when equipped yet how would you prevent melee / magic / other non-ranged from getting +cold damage when it is only meant for ranged?
Also if expendable ammunition could be made to work the system could lend it self to other weapon types like melee with say flaming oil where every melee attack get extra ~'fire' damage but with limited amounts of attacks / charges. How could this be done? Would each item that adds weapon damage have to be a clone of the base attack ability but with extra related features but with limited stacking uses / 'charges' like kind of like potions and scrolls? Or is there a way to passively add to a select base attack ability (strike, shoot, channel etc.) in a limited use way once an item is equipped? Whereas a player equips say 'Acid Arrows' but there are x87 of them so every shot had added ~'acid' damage but the stack of x87 Acid Arrows is drained by 1 every time / shot? Could there be ~3 quiver slots that are drain in a predictable order such as slot 1, 2 then 3? Could multiple types of 'ammunition' be carried for say Arrows or Bolts and only bows would drain arrows equipped and not the Bolts; even when the bolts are equipped? Could the base ranged shoot ability have infinite arrows (as it currently does)but enhanced arrows are limited?
Could all of this be simplified into abilities and talents and or limited use items (like scrolls and potions) that just grant a buff that is drained with every ranged only or melee only or ranged and melee but not magic etc attacks? Could ~'flaming weapon oil' be made like a potion / scroll but it grants a passive buff to all attacks in dealing extra ~'fire' damage to all attacks but over a limited amount of time across all attacks but on a limited time basis to have it work roughly the same gameplay wise yet to vastly simplify everything mechanically and use existing systems? What kind of mechanic options are there for ammunition / ~'limited expendable weapon power boosters'? - Formal thread for tangent / off-topic question here: https://opengameart.org/forumtopic/expendable-ammunition-limited-use-wea...
Also quick melee because of: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5w2Mh6CyXo
Also two-handed melee is not that much slower at all really: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xruM1DylSZE Some of these attacks are less than a second apart.
Notice the speed https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1w8yHeF4KRk that is a warbow (and a crossbow), the warbow is not a practice bow or a light bow but a bow designed specially to kill and win / not lose too badly battles and hopefully wars. Sure light bows can be fast but they lack the power to really do serious damage like a war bow.
Depends on armor the enemy wears and country/discipline. Heavy knights carried 30-40 kgs of armor, when they fell from their horses they became clunky slabs of iron with little movement but unholy protection and long reach from their weapons, on the other hands scottish highlanders carried little to no armor, two-handers and could pull what is shown on the videos.
As for ranged is the same, crossbows were used to pierce heavy armor plates, while bows had many types of arrow heads to take care of different kinds of armor, and bow sizes depended on shooting distance and power; likewise, as the highlanders, mongols trained into speed shootings (even firing 3 arrows while falling from a horse and hitting the target) since their enemies carried little armor and each landed shot meant serious damage.
The line to use ammo is:
requires_item=24,1
24 would be item ID that would be used, and 1 the quantity per shot.
As for the other i can´t answer, one way would be to have an inventory slot (quiver) that is disabled by all weapons except for bows, giving it extra effects aside from damage or stats requires to exchange normal arrow power for a new one with desired extra effects.
replace_power=605,1205
https://www.youtube.com/user/larsandersen23/videos Lars Andersen is a great embodiment of what light bows can do. Also in the Crusades / middle east-ish there was use of light bows, lots of shots, shorter range but against armour they were not very effective but in the heat it is hard to wear armour in some places so its all connected together.
I am going to have to tinker with bows and arrows and ranged weapons although for now I gave a cool down of 2.0 seconds to the ranged Shoot ability to still enable quick snap shooting, prevent immobilization and weird slow attack animation and red debuff text on all ranged weapons while still simulating reload and the general delay of reloading / getting ready to shoot. Also it is possible to run around and reload kinda so it works like that as well. High mobility possible yet still if you want high slaughter than melee is preferred.
Also I had to go a bit drastic on my armour since I had so many types and so little % places to use (only 100; but really ~70-60 effectively). I increased the base movement speed to 7.5 (up from 6) to still be believable but to mainly compensate how I had to resort to forcing my on paper armour system to work in the confines of whole integer % numbers with regards to speed penalties; as extrapolated below (also I wanted this to be mana regeneration but such an itemization attribute did not exist at the time):
"Armour Classification Ratio: (100 / 15 + None Classification)
0.00000 +/-0% Mana Pool +/-0% Movement Speed - None
0.06667 +/-0% Mana Pool +/-0% Movement Speed - Clothing
0.13333 +/-0% Mana Pool -10% Movement Speed - Light Cloth Armour
0.20000 +/-0% Mana Pool -20% Movement Speed - Medium Cloth Armour
0.26667 +/-0% Mana Pool -30% Movement Speed - Heavy Cloth Armour
0.33333 -1% Mana Pool -40% Movement Speed - Light Leather Armour
0.40000 -2% Mana Pool -40% Movement Speed - Medium Leather Armour
0.46667 -3% Mana Pool -40% Movement Speed - Heavy Leather Armour
0.53333 -4% Mana Pool -50% Movement Speed - Light Mail Armour
0.60000 -5% Mana Pool -50% Movement Speed - Medium Mail Armour
0.66667 -6% Mana Pool -50% Movement Speed - Heavy Mail Armour
0.73333 -7% Mana Pool -60% Movement Speed - Light Plate Armour
0.80000 -8% Mana Pool -60% Movement Speed - Medium Plate Armour
0.86667 -9% Mana Pool -60% Movement Speed - Heavy Plate Armour
0.93333 -10% Mana Pool -70% Movement Speed - Massive Plate Armour
1.00000 -11% Mana Pool -70% Movement Speed - Gargantuan Plate Armour
-Matthew Gordon Roulston 12:51 AM 22st / 08 (August) / 2021"
A subsystem of my armour itemization system.
I wish I had fractions of % to use so I can avoid this issue with 10 main armour pieces and only whole number / integers to use per piece of armour of a combined set of 10:
"Light/Medium/Heavy Plate Armour
-60% Movement Speed
10 - 12 Torso -6% Movement Speed
9 - 11 Head -6% Movement Speed
8 - 10 Legs -6% Movement Speed
7 - 9 Hands -6% Movement Speed
6 - 8 Shoulders -6% Movement Speed
5 - 6 Waist -6% Movement Speed
4 - 5 Shins -6% Movement Speed
3 - 4 Feet -6% Movement Speed
2 - 3 Wrists -6% Movement Speed
1 - 2 Arms -6% Movement Speed"
I wish that each armour piece can be more close to my original prototype of having the wrist be less slowing than the torso armour but I am limited by whole numbers / integers regards to itemization. I hope in 1.13 I can use fractions of % such a -2.5% Speed or -0.3% Speed or etc. I did a basic rough implementation of my paper armour system into flare but it feels very crude and kinda making due under limitations of whole numbers. When you have many armour types, many armour pieces, whole numbers of 0-100% run out pretty quick XD.
Hello, I skimmed through the discussion regarding the amount of work needed to implement dual wielding in FLARE. I was wondering whether it would help to consider dual-weapons (eg Dual daggers) to be a 2h item class like the bow. This is the solution I had in my own Action RPG which began as a FLARE mod. That way, the only thing that needs to done is to come up with a single set of dual attack animations for all the avatar parts. Still a bit of work, but I believe it's neater that way.
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Flare Project thread
Well met, the new animations are a good idea and I'd prefer that solution. Yet I am currently unskillful in the needed animation skills to do this properly myself. Also I am not sure who has the talent and the desire to create new animations for both the male and female Flare player character avatar sprites. Even if the animations were made I am sure that itemization optimizations could be found; yet collectively we as a community currently lack the animation set(s) for dual wielding.
I am currently hoping in the near future (with aid from Danimal) to have a stop-gap 'version 1' of dual wielding with ~'sword and board' / one-handed weapon + shield preexisting animations to get the dual wielding system off the ground. Yet I feel that this could be improved if there were dedicated dual wielding animations for Flare. I wish for dual wielding play-style to exist in Flare. Yet what I wonder what options we have to make this desire work and manifest into reality?
I suppose that leaves us with the natural question that arises from that we both agree on new dual wielding animations being valuable for Flare; but now the focus shifts to how to make new animations for Flare? Danimal knows how to make new animations (as evidenced in his work) and I hope that I can learn in the future to help out myself as well. Additionally I feel that the more creative expertise that is shared with the community the better the community becomes and more can be improved upon with Flare :-).
Hey Danimal how goes the battle? Happy Halloween / Canadian Thanks Giving. Best of luck:-).
I haven´t forgotten about you but I´m kinda busy these days. I´ll pass you the models as soon as i can.
Thank you, no rush; sounds great:-).
Here, I´m attaching the bare chest and the chitin armor that´s directly derivated of it by extruding. That should give you some ideas of how to create new equipment. Extruding has the benefit of keeping the same weigth bones effect so you don´t need to add them yourself.
I included the dagger on left hand file as well, just put a weapon on the chosen hand and parent to the hand bone. You will need some practise, but it´s quite easy.
Lastly on github repository you can find all bases for the different armor pieces; download an use them for each specific part and your life will be easier.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/d78ud4bgyf6to9z/3d-samples.7z?dl=0
Thank you I will have to tinker around and get better with blender and figure out how to properly export the frames and with the proper camera render settings.
Those are already included, just run the script that´s in a nearly closed window to the right
captura_de_pantalla_2021-10-24_13.26.49.png 360.5 Kb [2 download(s)]
captura_de_pantalla_2021-10-24_13.27.05.png 382.3 Kb [2 download(s)]
How do I render where the background is transparent, the body is hidden / the weapon animation frames are the same as what the Flare engine uses (invisible body but the hand cuts out an invisible section in the weapon grip in the weapon animation frame)? What blender settings are used to make better renders that the engine uses. It seems like the answer should be right in my face by I am still very fresh to blender's animations. I think with a few more tips and tricks I can start producing working Flare engine animation assets. What am I missing in blender to turn the below image made to firing up blender directly from the .blend file into a working animation frame? Also does current Blender / 2.80+ / 2.83 work for this properly or should I use 2.79?
0001.png 2.6 Kb [1 download(s)]
How do I make something that works / looks like this? (example from the flare engine asset, I did not make this)?:
buckler.png 123.8 Kb [2 download(s)]
Ah ha! Success! I ran it in my 2.79 Blender used for wow dungeon 3d modeling and bingo!
00001.png 368 b [2 download(s)]
Do I stitch all the image frames into one big block by hand later or is there an easier way to do that to make a tileset / make the engine happy with the animation frames?
How are the women animations made? Is there any thing I should know? How does that work?
The woman animations are exactly done the same way, go to the Flare github repo (art-rsc) and download all the bases for each body piece, that will save you lots of time since they are already set to only render the needed body part. For this particular one, look for female shields files. Copy paste dagger (it works!) with the blends open and replace the script for the one i passed you , pretty sure it has an older one that won´t work.
For stitching the file you need to use imagemagick.
Re-read this threads for how to:
https://opengameart.org/forumtopic/new-enemy-versions-for-flare
https://opengameart.org/forumtopic/about-flare-rpg-assets
I got the Heroine to hold the dagger in the left hand and use the shield animations!
Now I have to figure out how to use imagemagick XD.
After many failures I got the imagemagick montage to work (I still have to run it in Flare to find out)
I discovered this command line works to Image Magic Montage:
magick montage *.png -background none FILENAMEHERE.png
I combined these main resources together in how to figure out command line usage with Image Magic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsxG4tDvCqo this + https://legacy.imagemagick.org/Usage/montage/#settings (Shadow Decoration i.e. use this for a transparency background)
-background none
testdaggerheroinemontage.png 225.3 Kb [2 download(s)]
Looks good, now you only need to try it out in Flare. I explained quite a bit of the process in those threads i passed you.
Danimal how do you make your Image Magick montage where they fit a 4096 x 1024 .png where as mine just turn out 2048 x 2016? Which makes a miss match where 2048 times 2 = 4096 (match) but 2016 divided by 2 = 1008 (miss match)? What command line works for you with Image Magic Montage?
I have this so far: magick montage *.png -background none FILENAMEHERE.png
My blender output frame images are 128 x 128 or they should be. I wonder if I have undersized images? Nope I checked and they are all 128 x 128. Then am I using a buggy Image Magic command line? What Image Magick montage command line works then? What one am I supposed to use?
Hmm "PS C:\Desarrollo flare\Terminados\Flying terror> magick montage -background "transparent" -geometry 128x128 -tile 32x8 *.png sprites.png"
Edit: Bingo! 4096 x 1024 sprite tileset for the off hand dagger heroine animations. All that is left to do is test it but it is 7 AM now and I need to go to bed XD. Thank you tremendously
Hopefully I can test this animation successfully later :-P.
00001.png 416 b [4 download(s)]
testdaggerheroinemontagesprites.png 56.4 Kb [2 download(s)]
Duel Wielding Works!
dual_wielding_works.png
I am so happy! After so much work I feel like I am standing on top of a mountain top; but now I see an even greater mountain to climb upon! Extra information: https://www.deviantart.com/withinamnesia/art/Dual-Wielding-Works-896015058
dual_wielding_works.png 2.9 Mb [9 download(s)]
Congrats :)
Off-Hand Clubs Working! (for both Hero and Heroine avatars). Master Link: https://www.deviantart.com/withinamnesia/art/Off-Hand-Clubs-Working-8967...
off-hand_clubs_working.png 3.9 Mb [2 download(s)]
Nice, it would be good that once you made a few more of these off-hand weapons you Zip them and upload to OGA for sharing and keeping.
Yeah I have a handful more weapons to go and then I should get a .zip together asnd share it; only after it works properly XD. It would be cool to see this in 1.13 if I can beat the time of release.
Off-Hand Hand-Axes Working!(Heroine+Hero+Inventory)
I have the Off-Hand Hand-Axe working for both the Heroine and the Hero avatar animations. I hope to do all of the Flare RPG base one-handed weapons in the off-hand (if not more). I am very happy to get more crucial work done on the Flare engine and I hope to get more of the weapon animations out before the 1.13 Flare release or very close after post release. That is if the Flare engine release is faster than my completed Off-hand weapon animations to support dual wielding in the Flare RPG engine. I wish to share my completed Off-hand weapon animations for the Flare engine to give back to the community as well that has helped myself very much so and my growth and much of my current ability would not be possible in the current state without them; so with that said I am grateful. Onwards and upwards!
Master Link: https://www.deviantart.com/withinamnesia/art/Off-Hand-Hand-Axes-Working-...
off-hand_hand-axes_workingheroine.png 4.2 Mb [0 download(s)]
off-hand_hand-axes_workinghero.png 3 Mb [0 download(s)]
off-hand_hand-axes_workinghero-inventory.png 4 Mb [0 download(s)]
I now have Off-Hand Infantry Axes working! Master Links: https://www.deviantart.com/withinamnesia/art/Off-Hand-Infantry-Axes-Work... + https://www.deviantart.com/withinamnesia/art/Off-Hand-Infantry-Axes-Work... + https://www.deviantart.com/withinamnesia/art/Off-Hand-Infantry-Axes-Work...
Hopefully I can do the rest of the Off-Hand animations for the rest of the ~one-handed ~weapons.
Bit by bit, onwards and upwards:-)!
off-hand_infantry-axes_workingheroine-inventory.png 3.7 Mb [0 download(s)]
off-hand_infantry-axes_workinghero-inventory.png 3.3 Mb [0 download(s)]
off-hand_infantry-axes_workinghero.png 3.7 Mb [0 download(s)]
Successful Dual-Wielding Casting! Spell Sword Playstyle! Proper Dual-Wielding Works! I have the Off-Hand 'Longswords' (Arming Sword / Bastard / Hand-And-A-Half Swords) working for both the Heroine and the Hero avatar animations. I have a little over a few more base / Flare engine default One-Handed Weapons to animate for the Off-Hand. So far this is my favourite and I think it looks the coolest .
off-hand_longswords_workingheroine-inventory.png 4.6 Mb [2 download(s)]
off-hand_longswords_workinghero.png 1.8 Mb [0 download(s)]
off-hand_longswords_workinginventory-hero.png 2.9 Mb [0 download(s)]
successfully_dual-wielding_longswords.png 3.6 Mb [0 download(s)]
dualwielding_casting_works.png 3.8 Mb [0 download(s)]
dual-wielding_works_great.png 3 Mb [0 download(s)]
spell_sword_works.png 4.3 Mb [0 download(s)]
They actually look nicer than i thougth, pity is so much extra work.
Now with Off-Hand Maces for Dual Wielding! I have the Off-Hand Maces working for both the Heroine and the Hero avatar animations. I have currently 4 (out of 10) more base / Flare engine default One-Handed Weapons to animate for the Off-Hand. Master Links: https://www.deviantart.com/withinamnesia/art/Off-Hand-Mace-Works-Heroine... + https://www.deviantart.com/withinamnesia/art/Off-Hand-Mace-Works-Hero-In... + https://www.deviantart.com/withinamnesia/art/Off-Hand-Mace-Works-Hero-Ca...
off-hand_mace_worksheroine.png 4.6 Mb [2 download(s)]
off-hand_mace_workshero-inventory.png 2.6 Mb [0 download(s)]
off-hand_mace_workshero-casting.png 2.5 Mb [0 download(s)]
I did it! I have finished the main grind for Dual Wielding in the Flare Engine! Dual Wielding is here! I have all 10 base One-Handed melee weapons with Off-Hand Versions to support Dual Wielding! I hope to have this content added to the 1.13 Flare Engine and possibly the Flare Game? 10 Off-Hand Weapon Animations for both the Heroine and Hero for the Flare R.P.G. Engine; download links below (all are the same .zip file, they are mirrors in hope of longevity). More work is needed to use these animations in Flare but after hours of animating and developer work and testing ~today I am pretty happy with this current build-it-yourself version 1.0 :-). Download Master Links: Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fsmkW1kCGVkZ6Du5XJc3Mu9wwUG-BSfe/view?u... + Mega.nz Cloud: https://mega.nz/file/fVgTyaQR#SDscA6liCs929Ui8Yv5jnHFGfT-37ZsYpxXLsxbkl0o + OpenGameArt: https://opengameart.org/content/10-off-hand-weapon-animations-for-both-t... + Archive Master Link: https://www.deviantart.com/withinamnesia/art/Downloads-Off-Hand-Warhamme...
off-hand_reinforced-club_worksheroine.png 3.9 Mb [0 download(s)]
off-hand_reinforced-club_workshero-inventory.png 2.8 Mb [0 download(s)]
off-hand_reinforced-club_workshero-combat.png 3.1 Mb [0 download(s)]
off-hand_shortsword_worksheroine.png 3.3 Mb [1 download(s)]
off-hand_shortsword_workshero-inventory.png 2.7 Mb [0 download(s)]
off-hand_shortsword_workshero-combat.png 3.4 Mb [0 download(s)]
off-hand_smith-hammer_worksheroine.png 2.8 Mb [0 download(s)]
off-hand_smith-hammer_workshero-inventory.png 2.6 Mb [0 download(s)]
off-hand_smith-hammer_workshero-combat.png 3.6 Mb [0 download(s)]
off-hand_warhammer_worksheroine.png 3.7 Mb [0 download(s)]
off-hand_warhammer_workshero-inventory.png 2.9 Mb [1 download(s)]
off-hand_warhammer_workshero-combat.png 3.4 Mb [0 download(s)]
Geez, WithinAmnesia! Check your monitor privilege! We don't all have screens the size of Texas for viewing your screenshots. :P Hahaha!
Seriously, though, nice work! This is a BA feature.
--Medicine Storm
Ah yeah sorry about that, I had a whole bunch of screen shots and figured they might be the last for the thread so up they went. I hope the Dual Wielding works better than my post formating on these forums XD.
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