Well you never know till you try ... and with that I threw up a post asking.DragonForce would definitely provide one of the tracks for this, I was hoping - that way the gun is well...not a robot - it's power metal.. Awesome to know I'm not the only one who would enjoy a mod that could do this.
Depending on what the audio SDK might allow, I'm not sure what the devs might say in the 'Ask Volition' thread - they might answer the question with specifics, or direct you to the SDK for more info. Then again, they could say it's not possible to do - which wouldn't be good
From a dubstep gun to a metal gun?
- Thread starter Hacksaw123
- Start date
Its technically possible; in the packfile for the dubsteb gun; when you unpack it you get the textures; the audio clips with a .bin extension; and a txt file that points to those bin files with hex vales for play time, looping etc.
I havent tried changing the file pointing to the music and repacking it yet, But I will at some point in the next few days when I can get back home to my computer.
I havent tried changing the file pointing to the music and repacking it yet, But I will at some point in the next few days when I can get back home to my computer.
Reizo Ryuu
Banned
As far as I can tell the dubstep gun pulses are tied to the audio it plays, I don't think it's an animation, instead I think it just intelligently reads the audio.
Reasoning for this is when you use the fast forward cheat, everything else speeds up except the dubstep gun.
Reasoning for this is when you use the fast forward cheat, everything else speeds up except the dubstep gun.
That could also be because it's told 'don't affect this gun' internally in the files. Remember, a lot of stuff is hardcoded in for speed/ease since the game is released on consoles.
It's a good question though, my personal doubts about parsing the audio is it seems too close a match (and moreso *consistent*) to the song to just be up to an algorithm.. and moreso it's a game that has to run on consoles and that sort of overhead for a single weapon would have been dropped early to go with a custom-tuned animation. Better than the alternative I guess. "Hey, you know that work you did timing the pulses and beats of the song-loops for the dubstep gun?" "Yeah, that took me countless hours, and that song is permanently stuck in my head now." "Well, uhm, one of the coders managed to get a beat-detection in so it's all automated now. Good job doing it, shame all that work went to waste. Hey, are you crying?"
It's a good question though, my personal doubts about parsing the audio is it seems too close a match (and moreso *consistent*) to the song to just be up to an algorithm.. and moreso it's a game that has to run on consoles and that sort of overhead for a single weapon would have been dropped early to go with a custom-tuned animation. Better than the alternative I guess. "Hey, you know that work you did timing the pulses and beats of the song-loops for the dubstep gun?" "Yeah, that took me countless hours, and that song is permanently stuck in my head now." "Well, uhm, one of the coders managed to get a beat-detection in so it's all automated now. Good job doing it, shame all that work went to waste. Hey, are you crying?"
Reizo Ryuu
Banned
Another argument against it being an animation is that if you get interrupted while firing it, but you are still holding down the fire button the music keeps playing and the pulses will still be 100% in sync.
Yet another argument is that animations are framebased, but the pulses will fire at the exact same intervals regardless of your framerate; they are always in sync with the song.
Yet another argument is that animations are framebased, but the pulses will fire at the exact same intervals regardless of your framerate; they are always in sync with the song.
Well,in all honesty,all you'd need is an audio level reader and have the gun "fire" when certain levels are reached. Remember,sometimes,the best tricks are the simplest. So when one level spikes,one part of the gun "fires" and when the bass hits,another part of the gun "fires" and it all creates a pretty neat light show. The actual damage is probably a constant "beam" or "cone" effect with only the animations changing,otherwise,one version of the gun,like say the vanilla Dubstep,would do different damage than say "industrial".
Yeah I was thinking this as one possiblity as I mentioned earlier on. A series of "if" statements that are based around a certain range of audio
I was looking at some of the files of the finite state machines; one file I came across in my browsing is the weapons.xtbl file in misc_tables.vpp_pc
The table on the dubstep gun, in particular. Here is a snippet of the code concering how it handles its ammo/projectiles.
Based on what I have seen, the graphic effects for dubstep beats are in the preload effects packfile.
they are vfx_dubstep_X
X being _beats, _hits, _muzzle_b _muzzle_t, _tweats
I haven't looked at all the files yet but i'm guessing there is some kind of graphic effect file that controls all the animations for the light show.
Now whether or not this effects how the gun does damage is yet to be determined, the only thing I have noticed for sure is that the explosive wubs upgrade seems to hit in a 90-180 degree field from the muzzle.
The table on the dubstep gun, in particular. Here is a snippet of the code concering how it handles its ammo/projectiles.
Code:
<Model>Special-CyberProjectile</Model><Speed>70</Speed>
<Attached_Effect>VFX_DubStep_beats</Attached_Effect>
<Gravity>0</Gravity><Mass>200</Mass>
<Projectile_Flags><Flag>dont detonate from explosion</Flag>
<Flag>use bullet collision quality</Flag></Projectile_Flags>
<Fade_Out_Time>0.0</Fade_Out_Time></Projectile_Info>
<PlayerWeaponSpread><SpreadMinMax><Player_Spread_Max>0.0</Player_Spread_Max>
<Player_Spread_Min>0.0</Player_Spread_Min></SpreadMinMax></PlayerWeaponSpread>
<Warmup_Delay>1500</Warmup_Delay>
<Alt_Ammo>Laser-Rifle</Alt_Ammo><Explosion>Dubstep</Explosion>Based on what I have seen, the graphic effects for dubstep beats are in the preload effects packfile.
they are vfx_dubstep_X
X being _beats, _hits, _muzzle_b _muzzle_t, _tweats
I haven't looked at all the files yet but i'm guessing there is some kind of graphic effect file that controls all the animations for the light show.
Now whether or not this effects how the gun does damage is yet to be determined, the only thing I have noticed for sure is that the explosive wubs upgrade seems to hit in a 90-180 degree field from the muzzle.
We got a response from Volition in the thread Ange1 posted.. turns out all tracking and such is actually done as markers in the music file. The catch is it may be hardcoded in, or it may be doable when we do our own music files.. so we'll have to see that.
If it IS easily moddable, it means any music you use you'll have to do all the music triggers (wubs, beats, etc) by hand for it. So, Dragonforce is doable, but it'll be a pain to do. On the other hand, it does mean you can throw tracking to the wind and just cram it full of beats to make it rapid-fire...
If it IS easily moddable, it means any music you use you'll have to do all the music triggers (wubs, beats, etc) by hand for it. So, Dragonforce is doable, but it'll be a pain to do. On the other hand, it does mean you can throw tracking to the wind and just cram it full of beats to make it rapid-fire...