Fallout 2 mod FO2 Engine Tweaks (Sfall)

Timeslip said:
Can't replicate. I can equip/throw/drop plant spikes fine here...

Have you changed anything in the default ini that fixes it if you change back?
Click to expand...

Hmm, yet in 1.29d, the Plant Sprike works fine being put into the weapon slot. I didn't change anything to the INI besides the city limit fix and the World Map cities amount (so that it would work with Killap's Restoration Patch).

Maybe it's my save game or my character's stats or the point in time that I'm equiping it..

I'll try a different installation without Killap's Restoration Patch 1.2. Maybe, it is interfering.
 
Josan12 said:
Ok, i'm gonna show myself up for the noob that i am and ask: how do i make use of Timeslips new animation codes? They don't appear in the Mapper .... do i have to hex edit the weapon proto or something?
Click to expand...
Timeslip said:
sfall doesn't effect the mapper, so obviously a bit of hex editing is going to be involved. :)

Edit the byte at 0x3c. Use 12/13/14 for o/p/q animation codes, and I'll make a 1.35c release that lets you use 16-23 too if needed.
Click to expand...

Ok, i need some help as i can't get it to work. Admittedly i'm probably missing something really basic:

I Hex edited the weapon proto (offset 3c to 12) and saved it. I then renamed the new animation files with the new letter (o) and put them in data>art>critters and deleted the patch0000 file. Is this correct?

The mapper shows <error> under the item animation code (which at least means i'm editing the right hex offset) but i guess this is probably normal as, like Timeslip said, the mapper doesn't have sfall.
In-game the edited map comes up completely black (the game can't load the map due to errors)

Somebody, help! please!
 
Josan12 said:
Ok, i need some help as i can't get it to work. Admittedly i'm probably missing something really basic:
Click to expand...
Sounds like you got everything right...

Could be the mapper noticing that the .pro is invalid and screwing up when it tries to save the map... I didn't try editing maps, I just edited the .pros of some items I was already carrying in my inventory. I'll play around with placing them on maps tomorrow and see what happens, but as far as I can tell from the code the altered byte isn't read at map load.

Does just restoring the old .pro fix the problem, or do you need to go back to the old map too? You might want to try not editing the pro until you're playing the game, and leaving the unaltered version there when working in the mapper. (Also, just to rule out patch000.dat problems, if you resave the map with it removed but without altering the .pro, does it work?)
 
The mapper will always show an error because it cant reconscile the code. It does the same thing with new ammo calibres. You're best doing it this way

1) Make the new proto in the mapper
2) Edit the proto using a hex editor
3) Dont ever touch it again in the mapper (If you do you will need to repeat steap 2)

Though I think the next step is to contact Cubic and ask him to update Fallout 2 Weapon Editor (F2wedit) to support the new codes. It's easier than using a hex editor :)
 
Hey timeslip,

The game still crashes with the same message in a vanilla (1.02d NA patch) version with ddraw.dll and no changes to the default values of ddraw.ini.

This is the save game for a 1.02d vanilla version of Fallout 2. Not with killap's patch or restoration patch.

Edit: removed now since it has be fixed.

Note: The savegame was after running and screaming through the temple and barely winning against the guy (I forgot to tag speech to get by easy)

I don't have any web hosting so I dropped it onto rapidshare.
 
Timeslip said:
Josan12 said:
Ok, i need some help as i can't get it to work. Admittedly i'm probably missing something really basic:
Click to expand...
Sounds like you got everything right...

Could be the mapper noticing that the .pro is invalid and screwing up when it tries to save the map... I didn't try editing maps, I just edited the .pros of some items I was already carrying in my inventory. I'll play around with placing them on maps tomorrow and see what happens, but as far as I can tell from the code the altered byte isn't read at map load.

Does just restoring the old .pro fix the problem, or do you need to go back to the old map too?

You might want to try not editing the pro until you're playing the game, and leaving the unaltered version there when working in the mapper. (Also, just to rule out patch000.dat problems, if you resave the map with it removed but without altering the .pro, does it work?)
Click to expand...

Well, to start with i can't even figure out how to make the new codes work on an existing item. But then i find it hard to figure out which item proto to hexedit. Can someone tell me an easy way to figure out which item proto number correllates to which item?

Also, i figured out what was stopping the edited maps load properly: it's that damn thing where the game deletes new item protos if you don't set the proto folder to read only.

So, thus far i managed to:

1) create and place the new item in the mapper.
2) save map successfully
3) check mapper has created new item proto
4) hex edit proto at 3c to 12 (O)
5) save proto
5) start game. Map loads fine.
6) pick up item
7) game seems to default to animation code set in the mapper and refuses to use O animation

I'm probably doing something simple wrong. Can anybody help?
 
I just heard back from Cubik, and it looks like he will be updating his tool to use these :)

Cubik2k said:
Hi

I just looked at the new options to sfall written in this thread and I will update the tool.

Greetings!
Click to expand...
 
1.35c is up. Hit chances were being effected by the same wrap around bug that raised negative skills to 300, so eye shots with low skills tended to end up with 95% hit rates. I fixed a hang on startup when trying to use a custom xp table on win9x too.

phoenixclaws said:
This is the save game for a 1.02d vanilla version of Fallout 2. Not with killap's patch or restoration patch.
Click to expand...
That save game worked perfectly with every version of sfall I tested with... I could equip and throw the spike fine.

And dropping the 1.29 sfall dll over the top of the 1.35 one fixes it for you? Then the next obvious step would be to disable everything in the ini that's changed since then and see if it makes any difference. (The obvious one being the extra animation's patch.)
 
This is a long shot but here it goes...

Could we do something concerning the graphics - switch from 256 color palette to hi or true colors?
Or replace the ACM sound system with an OGG / MP3 one?
Maybe get additional transparency colors.
 
Timeslip said:
And dropping the 1.29 sfall dll over the top of the 1.35 one fixes it for you? Then the next obvious step would be to disable everything in the ini that's changed since then and see if it makes any difference. (The obvious one being the extra animation's patch.)
Click to expand...
I have disabled various things until it stopped crashing.
Code: 
;Set to 1 to enable additional scripting functions
ScriptExtender=1
Set it to 0 and it no longer crashes in 1.35c with a default INI when I equip a Plant Spike.

This is the problem for my Windows XP SP3 system.

~Phoenix Claws~
 
taag said:
This is a long shot but here it goes...

Could we do something concerning the graphics - switch from 256 color palette to hi or true colors?
Or replace the ACM sound system with an OGG / MP3 one?
Maybe get additional transparency colors.
Click to expand...
I already tried getting 32 bit graphics in, but with no luck. What's bad about acm's that they need replacing?

phoenixclaws said:
I have disabled various things until it stopped crashing.
Code: 
;Set to 1 to enable additional scripting functions
ScriptExtender=1
Set it to 0 and it no longer crashes with a default INI when I equip a Plant Spike.
Click to expand...
Woo, I think I've found the problem. Will get a 1.35d ready asap for you. Thanks for the debugging help. :)

Edit: 1.35d is up. Please let me know if it fixes it.
 
Timeslip said:
Woo, I think I've found the problem. Will get a 1.35d ready asap for you. Thanks for the debugging help. :)

Edit: 1.35d is up. Please let me know if it fixes it.
Click to expand...

Sweet, I was watching your webpage and downloaded it.
No crashing! :D :clap:

Glad that I can be of help. I loved playing the Fallout series and all of Black Isle's games. Interplay made a bad move so long ago.

~Phoenix Claws~

Edit: I'll keep watching for anymore silly bugs. Oh and I did notice the hit bug but you fixed it before I was able to say anything. I was wondering when I did that speed through why I was able to hit the guard in the eyes for 95%.

EDIT #2: Timeslip, I don't know if you are aware of this thread.
They mention having some problems character editing saves with the newer sfall versions.
 
@Josan12 and Timeslip:
where can I find new weapon animations? I'd like to improve F2wedit to support the new codes but after reading all thread I do not understand how this work (my English is not so good). I know the structure of proto file and I know what where is in hexes, but I need to know what means letters n, p q or other Timeslip wrote about them in some last posts.
Please help.
 
Josan12 said:
So is anyone else able to make use of the new animation codes or is it just me?
Click to expand...
I could ask exactly the same question. So far we've only got a testing group of two, so I'm presumably the only one who has got it to work. :P

In any case, I did a bit of playing around in the mapper this afternoon, and I could place the modified weapons around the map easily enough. (As long as you don't edit the proto in the mapper, it doesn't complain or change the modification either, so I didn't need to remove the modified proto to edit the map.) Picking up the weapon and equipping it used the new animations, just like it should have done. So no problems at all here...

Cubik2k said:
@Josan12 and Timeslip:
where can I find new weapon animations? I'd like to improve F2wedit to support the new codes but after reading all thread I do not understand how this work (my English is not so good). I know the structure of proto file and I know what where is in hexes, but I need to know what means letters n, p q or other Timeslip wrote about them in some last posts.
Please help.
Click to expand...
The letters are referring to the filename of the animations.

All critter animations have a specific format. 2 letters for species and gender, 4 that is specific to the critter, 1 for the weapon animation code, and 1 for the action. For example, the file 'HFJMPSMA.FRM' is the animation of a human, (H) female (F) wearing a jumpsuit (JMPS) carrying a weapon with an animation code of 10 (M) doing nothing (A). It's the animation code part that we're modifying.

Fallout normally allows a range between 0 and 10, which is internally added to 0x63 (i.e. the ascii code for 'c', to give an ascii code in the range 'c' to 'm') and then used directly as a part of the filename. All that sfall does is remove the check that the animation code is 10 or less, without altering the code. (i.e. if you give a weapon an animation code of 12, it's added to 0x63 to give 0x6f, the ascii code for 'o', and so equipping a weapon with that animation code would cause fallout to look for the file 'HFJMPSOA.FRM')
 
Timeslip said:
I already tried getting 32 bit graphics in, but with no luck. What's bad about acm's that they need replacing?
Click to expand...

Too bad about the graphics. Can you at least make it possible to have a 256 color animated GIF support instead of FRM? I personally hate FRM and anything it represents.

As for ACM, some of the sounds are lost during conversion and the file size is greater than MP3's.
And gameplay sounds are stored in worse format than music, which makes no sense. I also recall seeing somewhere that a maximum of only a few sounds can be played at the same time in the game.

I mentioned MP3 since it's the most popular, otherwise if there's a better format I'm all for it.

I tested the elevators and they're working fine. However, the animated arrow graphic in the upper right corner of the dialog seems to become jumbled if you go from upper floor to lower. It's fine if you go the other way (down->up)
 
taag said:
Can you at least make it possible to have a 256 color animated GIF support instead of FRM? I personally hate FRM and anything it represents.
Click to expand...
Why do you think that support of GIF instead of FRM will be better solution?
 
taag said:
Too bad about the graphics. Can you at least make it possible to have a 256 color animated GIF support instead of FRM? I personally hate FRM and anything it represents.
Click to expand...
Not really. A gif lacks some of the information fallout requires. (Orientations, action images, hotspots etc.) And top of that, I'd have to throw out the gif palette information, so aside from saving one conversion step there would be no advantage.

I've done very little with sound so far. The eax stuff doesn't hook into fallout code at all, so I don't have much knowledge of how fallout handles things internally. (And also, no-one uses it, which is kind of offputting to other sound related features. :P) Looking at my ida database I do have a function labelled play_sfx_internal, so I'll have to take a look at it and see if there's anything that can be tweaked.

Edit: I found where the limit of 4 active sound effects is kept, and it seems to be just another arbitrary limit, so I'll add an option to increase it next version.
 
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