NPC glow

[Nakate]

I honestly don't know why it worked, or how it worked, but it worked.

Since I've been messing with a hex editor and tampering with a few animations, I realized how much space some of them took up. I remembered my Garuda costume and Selh'Teus wings were both taken from the original NPC, with that file as a base. That's why both mods still had that glow. It also bothered my that the files were as large as they were (not that it should matter) so I figured the animations for the NPCs were still probably in the files.

I opened up my wings with a hex editor and sure enough, run, wlk, mou, and eye were all in the file. They were all lined up nicely at the bottom of the file. I selected and cut everything from "run" to the "end" at the end of the file. I had ment to just go to the "end" 9 lines up from the bottom, leaving the "info" section at the bottom, but I deleted that by accident as well. I loaded this into FFXI to test and see if it would error out. Lo and behold, ingame I found that the red glow around my character is gone, appearantly for no reason, and the model still worked flawlessly.

I've gone back and checked a few things, even adding that "info" section back doesn't seem to bring the glow back, which tells me what makes it glow has to be somewhere in the animation parts. This doesn't make sense though, since FFXI shouldn't even be looking in that part unless it's trying to use those particular animations.

I assume adding the entire section back will bring the glow back. I'll post again once I've experimented some more.

[Gulkeeva]

Re: NPC glow

This doesn't make sense though, since FFXI shouldn't even be looking in that part unless it's trying to use those particular animations.

ffxi loads all animations everytime you zone, used or not. Gear seems to change instanly unless someone in the area has the similar gear in which case would require zoning or your .DAT changes won't take effect.

Changing Spells, monster WS's, skillchain graphics and emotes requires zone changing also, so I would presume ffxi will load all animations at once when loading an area used or not. Thats probably why FFXI running uses up always about 400-500MB ram

[Nakate]

Re: NPC glow

I've checked something, and found something out. This would also make sense because as Gulkeeva said, it loads all animations in a zone, so it loads the glow asap, it probably just needs the animation there to trigger it.

Not all of the animations here are important, only idl. Just after idl there's a two-line section labeled "base" that's just blank, two lines of 00s. Both idl and base have to be there for the glow to be there, one or the other and there's no glow, and you only need those two there for it to glow.

After a little bit more searching, I found that it doesn't even need to be idl. I copied base over below eye, and deleted all the animations except eye and base, and it still glowed.

Unfortunately, I've hit a dead-end. I can't get another model to glow. I copied over eye and base to the bottom of another file, and FFXI just crashed. I figured it may need the large section of code just above the animations, but after the large white space after the early code, so I copied it all over to the bottom. FFXI didn't crash this time, but it didn't glow. I ended up copying the entire animation section in the wings file, white-space to the bottom, all over to the other model, and still no luck. At least it doesn't crash, but still no glow. :/

[Gulkeeva]

Re: NPC glow

I think the best would be able to get ahold of how the GM sheild (or hands or weapon etc) glows and not the entire body... of course that would be a difficult task since I don't think the GM armour .dat's are even on the comp... ? or are they I only seen .DAT people made to look like a GM.

Anyway only simple solution I could think up of is getting something that glows, alpha it out and make it a head gear like piece,.. so you'd have the glow on anyone wearing anything I'd imagine (or nothing)

Also I kinda like how it changes the color of your normal hits, and the soudns of the hits XD

[Nakate]

Re: NPC glow

The GM files are on our comps, they're just hume only, us mithra only get placehodlers -.-

I imagine it would be easy enough to alpha out a piece of a GM's armor, then in VRS bring over another piece of equipment you want to have the glow using the GM's base file thing.

Assuming it doesn't error out or completely screw up the texture like Garuda's feet (I got an error when doing something similar, but that was with the mithra child npc, so that's another matter entirely) it would be fairly easy to do it that way, I was just looking for a way to control the glow itself, instead of a workaround. Guess that's just my obsessive compulsive side coming out, wanting everything to be nice and tidy

[Gulkeeva]

Re: NPC glow

GM's glow is a bit different, its only on 1 part usualy the hand. Its like a large blue glow/flame and it soorta... drips fire... soorta hard to explain, maybe whenever I see one i'll make a video of it. I've only seen GM with this effect about 3 times in nearing 3 years playing so don't except the video soon XD

[Rhujaa]

Re: NPC glow

Cruia's "Lament of Torment" videos have this effect on the GM outfits.

http://www.killingifrit.com/forums.php?m=posts&q=70600

[Crescens]

Re: NPC glow

Hey Nakate how exactly do you remove the glow from the NPC wings? I have them equipped now but I don't like the glow. What programs do I need?

[Macht]

Re: NPC glow

Hey Nakate how exactly do you remove the glow from the NPC wings? I have them equipped now but I don't like the glow. What programs do I need?

They are using a Hex Editor to edit the string of data. You should be able to google for "Hex Editor" and get one that works for this purpose, since Hexidecimal is Hexidecimal not really any alterations to it.

Hexidecimal is always a set of 2 codes by 2 groups (groups known as Left Nibble and Right Nibble) and always goes from 0-F which is a set standard for Hexidecimal code. That's all so set that any Hexdecimal Editor program should get the results you need.

[Macht]

Re: NPC glow

I've checked something, and found something out. This would also make sense because as Gulkeeva said, it loads all animations in a zone, so it loads the glow asap, it probably just needs the animation there to trigger it.

Not all of the animations here are important, only idl. Just after idl there's a two-line section labeled "base" that's just blank, two lines of 00s. Both idl and base have to be there for the glow to be there, one or the other and there's no glow, and you only need those two there for it to glow.

After a little bit more searching, I found that it doesn't even need to be idl. I copied base over below eye, and deleted all the animations except eye and base, and it still glowed.

Unfortunately, I've hit a dead-end. I can't get another model to glow. I copied over eye and base to the bottom of another file, and FFXI just crashed. I figured it may need the large section of code just above the animations, but after the large white space after the early code, so I copied it all over to the bottom. FFXI didn't crash this time, but it didn't glow. I ended up copying the entire animation section in the wings file, white-space to the bottom, all over to the other model, and still no luck. At least it doesn't crash, but still no glow. :/

That seems like a intresting quandry to me to figure out. Sounds like when base is present that the object needs something else with it in order to get the glow. Probably that code before it references whatever object is missing.

[Nakate]

Re: NPC glow

That's roughly my guess. As far as I can tell, the actual code for the glow is somewhere else, maybe, maybe not in the same file. Whenever the animation that base comes after is loaded, it sees base below it and searches for the glow.

Unfortunately, I don't really know. I searched through my garuda costume, and didn't find "base" anywhere in there, but there was one in the child mithra file, who as we all know, doesn't glow.

I have a file handy that has the entire code for the wings tacked onto the Ohat code. I've already tried adding just about everything else, so if the entire code doesn't do it, nothing will.

And just so you all know, I've crashed FFXI a dozen times now to bring you what information I know

[Crescens]

Re: NPC glow

Hey Nakate, I deleted everything from run to the end, and my FFXI crashed when I got to the character selection screen. Help ; ;

[Nakate]

Re: NPC glow

Though I'm not entierly positive what the problem is, I believe you still need an "end" at the bottom line, kind of like an end of file marker. If that isn't the problem, I'm not sure what is. I'll pry put the glow-less wings up eventually if it comes to that.

[Macht]

Re: NPC glow

That's roughly my guess. As far as I can tell, the actual code for the glow is somewhere else, maybe, maybe not in the same file. Whenever the animation that base comes after is loaded, it sees base below it and searches for the glow.

Unfortunately, I don't really know. I searched through my garuda costume, and didn't find "base" anywhere in there, but there was one in the child mithra file, who as we all know, doesn't glow.

I have a file handy that has the entire code for the wings tacked onto the Ohat code. I've already tried adding just about everything else, so if the entire code doesn't do it, nothing will.

And just so you all know, I've crashed FFXI a dozen times now to bring you what information I know

If that is the case then I have doubts that base would do it. Otherwise it's kind of a waste in coding to put glow in there if they are going to basically recreate the effect from scratch every time and not just have like a module or dll to reference for how the effect is to work.

Seems maybe some comparisons between each avatar model to see if you can find something else that is in common between them. Then compare against one that doesn't have a glow see if that same thing exists in that model.

[Crescens]

Re: NPC glow

Though I'm not entierly positive what the problem is, I believe you still need an "end" at the bottom line, kind of like an end of file marker. If that isn't the problem, I'm not sure what is. I'll pry put the glow-less wings up eventually if it comes to that.

ok I'll give that a shot, thanks