Maclimes

I'm working on the Playable Advent mod, and as any of you who played it know, the animations are absolutely hosed when the aliens are on the Skyranger. I've actually set specific animations to play when the alien is on the Skyranger, but they don't play. Everywhere else works great, but for some reason, the Skyranger doesn't seem to be calling animations correctly (or at least, not in the same way as everywhere else in the game). Is there a way to tell, maybe in the console or via a log file, which animation is being pulled (and maybe which bit of code told it to do so)? I know how to assign animations, but this one is just acting really weird. I'd appreciate any help in this.

You should give evil Bradford a goatee.

For re-coloring to work, you need to edit two channels of the MSK texture. The "Blue" channel is for the primary armor color, and the "Alpha" channel is for the secondary armor color. Any area that is white will fully show the selected color, and black will show only the texture from the DIF. Shades of grey will show percentages between. (Although very rarely will you want to use grey on a mask channel. Trust me, even the slighest grey tends to wash the colors out really fast).

It's not accident, it's more like a limitation. A single mesh (as near as I can tell) can only alter two colors. Skin, Primary, or Secondary: You must choose two (any mesh that shows skin, for example, does not have both Primary AND Secondary armor colors). In order to maximize usage, I had to pick-and-choose the re-colorable areas for each recruitable alien. In the current release, Primary affects overall armor color for the MEC, and skin color for the Viper. In a future release, Secondary will affect minor trim on the MEC and the actual armor of the Viper.

Good news: That's already on my plate. Probably won't be in the next update, but soon.

Swinka, I know the animations are far less organic, but you might also want to look at the MEC. Mainly because the MEC has digitigrade legs, like the Xenomorph (and not plantigrade, like Humans and Sectoids).

I'm working on the Playable Advent mod, and am currently attempting to allow customization of your MECs (specifically Main Armor Color at this moment). Here was our previous set-up: The MEC was defined as a new CharacterTemplate (basically a copy-paste of the enemy MEC). The archetype it pointed to was a package that was a copy of the enemy MEC's archetype (including Skeletal Mesh, Material, and Textures). The equipped armor was a new armor called "MEC Armor". There were no options defined for the armor (no Torso or Arms or anything). AppearanceDefinesPawn was set to False. The MEC would display correctly, and play the correct MEC idle animation. But because Armor Color is tied to theArmor pieces appearance, no customization is available: There are no armor pieces, just a base definition. In fact, selecting an armor color would just revert back to the default upon closing the color selection screen. So I devised a new set-up. The archetype it pointed to was still a package that was a copy of the enemy MEC's Archetype. The Skeletal Mesh was a copy of the MEC's, but with almost all the pieces removed (in Blender), so it's just a small ball. (Basically, it's the "head" of a normal soldier, hidden inside the torso). The Bones and Sockets were untouched. The AnimSet for both is set to the MEC. 1 Torso style was added to the MEC Armor. It uses the basic "human torso" archetype, with the AnimSet set to the MEC. The Skeletal Mesh, Material, and Textures are from the MEC. AppearanceDefinesPawn was set to True. Now, the MEC appears and has full, normal color customization, which works fine. But instead of playing the animations for the MEC (both in the Armory and in Tactical), it plays the animations for whatever his "Personality" is set to. Which looks ridiculous, of course, since he doesn't have the same bones. So his legs hover in the air behind him, his head is tucked into his chest, etc. The Archetypes and Meshes for both the base character and the armor are all set to use the MEC animations, but obviously the Personality takes precedence even over those in this instance. If I switch AppearanceDefinesPawn back to False, the animation is technically correct, but it's just the floating ball and weapons (held in the correct MEC pose). The armor is invisible. I considered creating a "MEC Personality", but that gives a whole host of other problems. Can you imagine if your soldier was stuck on that animation set (arms and legs all broken and hovering) until they became Sergeants? It just gives us the same set of problems on new people. So, my actual question: HOW do I force a unit to use a specific AnimSet (preferably pulled from the mesh or archetype), instead of his Personality animations? What I really need is "AppearanceDefinesPawn(ExceptForPersonality)". Is there any way I can achieve this? Thanks so much!

Neither. It gets loaded in at game launch. The files are never copied to the user's directory. It's modified within memory when the mod loads, and then dumped when XCOM 2 exits. It never actually modifies the INI files themselves. Otherwise, how would you uninstall a mod? Line by line?

I've managed to get it to work, actually. I should have updated this post! There was something weird in my import settings.

Great work! I know this stuff can be head-bangingly frustrating sometimes, but keep it up!

Also, the weird bug that prevents the names from showing up in the UI. Like, a hat can be "Fedora" or "Top Hat". But Torsos are always "Torso 0", "Torso 1", etc.

These things already exist: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=624482522 http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=634821482

For anyone curious, this is solved. The weapon (and other effects) is attached to the base mesh via "sockets". Here's a great article explaining them: https://udn.epicgames.com/Three/SkeletalMeshSockets.html What happens is, sometimes when re-importing a mesh the sockets will become broken or missing. This applies to multiple mesh types, but for this example we'll use the Viper. Here are the steps to fix the problem: * Assumption: You have created a copy of the skeletal mesh (we'll call it "SM_Viper_Copy"), exported the mesh, made some edits, and then re-imported. * First, locate the original skeletal mesh ("SM_Viper"). Right-click, and choose the "Edit" option. It should read something like "Edit with AnimViewer" or similar (I don't have it in front of me to verify). * Click the Socket Manager button (looks like an arrow pointing down to a half circle, should be the 7th icon). * Click the "Copy Sockets" button. (looks like a pair of scissors) * Close the Socket Manager and the AnimViewer. * Locate your edited skeletal mesh ("SM_Viper_Copy"). Choose Edit and open the Socket Manager. * Delete any existing entries (if there are any). * Click the "Paste Sockets" button. (looks like a clipboard) * Close and save. That's it! You won't immediately see the Rifle re-appear on the mesh, but it will function normally in-game.

Very cool. Will you be creating custom animations, or basing it on an existing alien (I'm thinking Sectoid).

Thanks for all the feedback, everyone. I think hunterkiller33 pretty much summed up my plans after I get out of work today. ;)

Awesome! Thanks, Zyx! And I believe he's referring to the icons for the armors (shown on the loadout screen), not the textures on the armors themselves.

With the Viper, it's mostly a lighting problem. On the battlefield, she looks great. There's actually some nice detailed patterns on the hood that really pop out in Tactical's omni lighting, but are almost completely invisible in the weird point lighting on the Soldier screen. No idea why they went with that angle. Although the eyes could brighten up a bit. I'll play around with it. It's always a work in progress. As for the MEC ... it's interesting how you interpreted that. It's intended to look the opposite: The dark charcoal-colored area is the actual paint job, and the silver/white areas are where it's rubbed off due to wear and tear. I see, though, that I may have gone a bit overboard with the wear in some spots (especially on the shoulders) now that you say it that way. It DOES make it looks like the dark color is just rubbed on strangely. I may just tone down the distressing on some of those areas.

Thanks! For those who haven't seen them, here's the new MEC and Viper textures, released just a few hours ago: http://i.imgur.com/QvvqwPE.jpg

Although I agree (and the next update will be toned down quite a bit)... This ain't a tree frog, either. Snakes come in so many different colors (including some that are significantly MORE vibrant than the one I used). However, it is QUITE jarring in game, and definitely agree it needs to be adjusted quite a bit.

My ultimate goal, of course, is to include ALL of the above as customizable options. But we are limited to one at a time, sadly, until we can untangle that intricately tricky knot. In the meantime... I'm worried that using such a vibrantly-colored snake as the "primary" would be divisive. Although I LOVE that blue/yellow combo. Snakes have such wonderful variety of colors, I feel like I could spend months just making new Viper sub-species. So many vibrant, rich colors and patterns. Anyway. I'll keep watching this thread (and communicating with the authors) to figure out the best route. Thanks everyone for being helpful and patient!

No offense taken! I'm always looking to improve, and welcome the feedback. Now that I'm staring at it, I also feel the solid green lacks "personality". I created a new poll in this forum. Check it out, and maybe suggest your favorite breed of snake. ;)

Hey. I'm the guy who is making the textures for the Playable Advent mod. I've gotten a lot of great feedback regarding your opinions on the visual appearance of the recruitable aliens. But I'm trying to get a better picture of the community's thoughts on the matter. I'm not saying I will 100% follow the winning result of the poll, as I am not the mod author/decision maker: I'm just the texture guy. But it will weigh heavily into my recommendations to the authors. This first poll is just for the two "completed" enemies: The MEC and the Viper. Here are their current in-mod appearances: * MEC (75% scale, Gold-color) * Viper (Green with XCOM armor) If you choose "Other" for the Viper question, try to include a specific species of snake or a picture. Snake patterns are bit more complex than the MEC armor colors, so I'd like to get an idea of what you're describing. BONUS NOTE: At some point, the ultimate goal is to have the units be truly customizable, so this whole poll is really just a temporary affair. But that may be a ways off yet, so let's try to get as good as we can for now.

The main logic behind this move was to make the Viper more distinct on the battlefield (So it's not as confusing when there are enemy and allied Vipers on the field at the same time). Would you rather see a different customization option (maybe brown or a more subdued green or something), or just revert to the "vanilla" Viper textures?

So, I'm attempting to make a minor mesh edit to the Viper. In the UDK, the Viper Skeletal Mesh (SM_Viper) shows the Viper in a T-pose, and the Rifle floating in front of her. But when I export the FBX, the Rifle is gone. If I re-import, the Rifle remains missing. It otherwise works fine, but her weapon is invisible/nonexistant. THEORY: I suspect that the mesh doesn't actually include the weapon, and the UDK is simply displaying it as a combined mesh. (When previewing in the UDK, it is pulling two meshes: the Viper and the Rifle). But after re-importing, the Rifle mesh no longer shows up/becomes disconnected. (This is supported by the fact that the only Material applied to SM_Viper does not include textures for the weapon, so they're obviously not part of the model). Anyone know what's going on here?

Yes, the MEC was shrunk to fit better, visibly, in the Avenger (the Soldier screen and the Squad Selection screen). Unfortunately, as far as I'm aware, there's no way to scale it down in the Avenger without also scaling it down in the Tactical battles. That was my call (I'm the current art assets guy for this mod). But I'm more than willing to alter that, if everyone thinks it was better being intrusively large on the Soldier screen, but normal-sized on the battlefield. Just let me know what you think would be best.