Megaman X (And more) Character Pack

[nanostrike]

I got tired of there being no male Industrial Revolution characters...

I so gathered up some old Megaman X sprites and jury-rigged something up with GIMP.  It's a TAD bit awkward because Megaman X only had 16 walking frames instead of 22 like the AVWW chars do, but I think I made it work pretty well.

There are 2 normal ones and 2 pallet swaps.



http://dl.dropbox.com/u/71356504/MegamanXAVWW.rar





Like I said, it's not perfect (Far from it, actually!  If you look close, the images change size slightly during some animations!), but I made it in about an hour and it DOES work in-game without looking as awkward as I thought.

To install it, just overwrite the character folders in the Runtime/Images/Characters directory.  I suggest backing up the existing portraits.  I'll try to get some screenshots later.


EDIT: Uploaded a few screenshots to Steam Cloud

http://steamcommunity.com/id/Nanostrike/screenshot/559814960746385801?tab=public
http://steamcommunity.com/id/Nanostrike/screenshot/559814960746381949/?tab=public
http://steamcommunity.com/id/Nanostrike/screenshot/559814960746377883/?tab=public

[zebramatt]

You know you can install this as a texture pack, right?

Texture Pack Support

There is now a dropdown in the Graphics tab that allows you to select from any installed Texture Packs, if any are installed.

Here are the instructions for how to create texture packs if you have an interest in doing that:
To add a texture pack, simply add a folder here in the AVWW/RuntimeData/TexturePacks folder.
The name of the texture pack in the game will be the name of the folder. So if you make a folder called BobsTextures, that's what it will show up as in the game.

HOW TO REPLACE A TEXTURE USING THE TEXTURE PACK:
Inside your texture pack folder, simply duplicate the contents of the Images folder that you want to replace. Don't bother moving over images that you aren't doing custom versions of -- the game will first look into the active texture pack folder and then will look into the base images folder if nothing was found.
So, for instance, if you want to replace the keyboard cursor (normally located at AVWW/RuntimeData/Images/Misc/KeyboardCursor.png) you would add AVWW/RuntimeData/TexturePacks/BobsTextures/Images/Misc/KeyboardCursor.png.
That would alter the keyboard cursor, but no other parts of the game. You can do that for as many or as few images as you like.

HOW TO REPLACE A PARTICLE EFFECT USING THE TEXTURE PACK:
Inside your texture pack folder, make a Configuration folder. Then make a Particles.xml file that is a copy of the main Particles.xml file in AVWW/RuntimeData/Configuration/Particles.xml.
Simply make <g pattern="Fireball"></g> entries for particle effects that you wish to change. Don't worry about trying to do them all -- just do the ones you're actually making changes to. The others will load from the main Particles.xml file just fine, but your custom particle definitions will selectively override whatever you wish.
Did you know? When you have the game open, you can hit Ctrl+F4 to reload the Particles.xml files at will. That way you can make a small tweak, hit that key combo, and then test your change immediately without having to restart the application.

TIPS:
Generally speaking, you need to keep the images to the same size and dimensions as the original. Any wildly different image sizes won't look at all correct in-game, especially when it comes to sprite dictionaries (animations).
That said, when it comes to things in the Backdrops and Ground folders, those can be set to pretty much whatever size since they are repeating tiled graphics.

[nanostrike]

You know you can install this as a texture pack, right?

Texture Pack Support

There is now a dropdown in the Graphics tab that allows you to select from any installed Texture Packs, if any are installed.

Here are the instructions for how to create texture packs if you have an interest in doing that:
To add a texture pack, simply add a folder here in the AVWW/RuntimeData/TexturePacks folder.
The name of the texture pack in the game will be the name of the folder. So if you make a folder called BobsTextures, that's what it will show up as in the game.

HOW TO REPLACE A TEXTURE USING THE TEXTURE PACK:
Inside your texture pack folder, simply duplicate the contents of the Images folder that you want to replace. Don't bother moving over images that you aren't doing custom versions of -- the game will first look into the active texture pack folder and then will look into the base images folder if nothing was found.
So, for instance, if you want to replace the keyboard cursor (normally located at AVWW/RuntimeData/Images/Misc/KeyboardCursor.png) you would add AVWW/RuntimeData/TexturePacks/BobsTextures/Images/Misc/KeyboardCursor.png.
That would alter the keyboard cursor, but no other parts of the game. You can do that for as many or as few images as you like.

HOW TO REPLACE A PARTICLE EFFECT USING THE TEXTURE PACK:
Inside your texture pack folder, make a Configuration folder. Then make a Particles.xml file that is a copy of the main Particles.xml file in AVWW/RuntimeData/Configuration/Particles.xml.
Simply make <g pattern="Fireball"></g> entries for particle effects that you wish to change. Don't worry about trying to do them all -- just do the ones you're actually making changes to. The others will load from the main Particles.xml file just fine, but your custom particle definitions will selectively override whatever you wish.
Did you know? When you have the game open, you can hit Ctrl+F4 to reload the Particles.xml files at will. That way you can make a small tweak, hit that key combo, and then test your change immediately without having to restart the application.

TIPS:
Generally speaking, you need to keep the images to the same size and dimensions as the original. Any wildly different image sizes won't look at all correct in-game, especially when it comes to sprite dictionaries (animations).
That said, when it comes to things in the Backdrops and Ground folders, those can be set to pretty much whatever size since they are repeating tiled graphics.

Nope.  Had no idea.  I'll try to do something with that later.

[mrhanman]

That's actually pretty impressive! 

I really hope these sort of things take off.  Some mods are pretty incredible.

[nanostrike]

I was gonna do Zero (Probably still will at some point, actually!), but since most of the combat is shooting, I figured Megaman and his Blaster would be the logical choice.

The crazy thing is that I did it using nothing but a Megaman X 4 sprite sheet, and GIMP.  The Attack/Jump/Duck/Stand sprites aren't too bad.  But having to convert a 12-frame running animation into a 22-frame running animation manually is a royal pain!

I'm just damn glad I didn't have to mess with the Wall Jumping animations and such!

[nanostrike]

Okay, I stopped being lazy and put some more work into this.  And it's complete now.  Or at least as complete as I'm getting it.  Now in Texture Pack format.


TO INSTALL:
Download - http://dl.dropbox.com/u/71356504/MegamanFinal.rar

Extract the folder and place in steamapps\common\a valley without wind\RuntimeData\Texture Packs

Run the game.  Under Options-> Graphics, there will be a Texture Packs Option.  Select Megaman Final and click the Save button.


It replaces four different characters from the Industrial Revoltion (Mostly because I liked their stats best!)

Raya - Megaman X (From Megaman X 3)
Raya2 - Megaman Zero (From Megaman X 3)
Samantha - Megaman X in Upgrade Armor (From Megaman X 1)
Samantha2 - Sage Harpitula (From Megaman Zero 3 on GBA)
Samantha and Raya Ghosts - Cyber Elf (From Megaman Zero on GBA)

The animations aren't 100% perfect, but they're about the best I'm going to manage without pulling my hair out.  The hitboxes will be slightly off as the Megaman sprites are a decent bit bigger than the Raya and Samantha sprites are, but it doesn't affect gameplay all that much.  And yes, Harpitula flies instead of walking, like he does in the game.

I'll try to post some screenshots later.



PS: Thanks to Arturia for showing me a decent format to post this release in!



EDIT: I'll have to do some touching up later on Harpitula.  I missed a few stray pixels.  And when he's flying up a slope, it looks like he's going face-first into the dirt!  Whoops!

[Tallgeese]

Hey, this is pretty cute. My compliments.

I wonder how using the Playstation-era X4 to X6 sprites would look?

[nanostrike]

Hey, this is pretty cute. My compliments.

I wonder how using the Playstation-era X4 to X6 sprites would look?

I was actually trying it with them a bit.  I have full X4, X5, and X6 sprite sheets.  They look great, but the trick is that they have a LOT more animation frames, so it's a bit harder to work them in.

The SNES-era Sprites typically have about 9 or 10 walking frames, max.  You can have 22 walking frames per character in AVWW.  So I just double up a couple of frames, loop the ends, and it's good to go.

But with the Playstation ones, they tend to have between 16 and 18 frames of animation for a walk.  You have to double up just a few frames instead of all of them.  And if you double up the wrong ones, it makes things look really awkward.  They're also more detailed and a lot harder to align.

Not sayin' they're impossible...and hell, I intend to do a few down the road.  But they're a good bit harder.  I've got plenty of other character models to replace, though, so down the road I'll definitely be doing that!



Any advice on a good graphics-editing program that might help align animations?  I've been using GIMP (Basically open-source Photoshop), but it's kinda tricky.

[Tallgeese]

Mmm... there's GIF Movie Gear, but that's about it. I tthink that's pay too though.

It seems most animation tools are strictly pay-to-use.

Did you ever get an answer to the question of whether "you have to use 22 frames" from the developers?

Also, about the X4-X6 sprites... have you considered using the Tween command on some frames? Does GIMP have it?

Make an animated GIF, tween between frames you think would look good, there's your extra frames.

[nanostrike]

Mmm... there's GIF Movie Gear, but that's about it. I tthink that's pay too though.

It seems most animation tools are strictly pay-to-use.

Did you ever get an answer to the question of whether "you have to use 22 frames" from the developers?

Also, about the X4-X6 sprites... have you considered using the Tween command on some frames? Does GIMP have it?

Make an animated GIF, tween between frames you think would look good, there's your extra frames.

I didn't get an answer from the devs about the frames, but I'm assuming that it is indeed hard-coded in.  Unfortunate.  But workable, I guess.


I'll see if GIMP has Tweens.  I believe it might.  The pain-in-the-ass part is getting it to put every frame in the proper spot on 128x128 spaces.  I'm not 100% sure how to get it to do that automatically.  I'm positive there's a way.  I just need to do some digging.



Also, I've really gone crazy on the sprite modding stuff.  I'm making all sorts of video game characters into playable characters on here.

So far, I've added Samus Aran from Metroid, a modded megaman sprite turned into Iron Man (Just saw the Avengers and was inspired!), and Sparkster from Rocket Knight Adventures.

I also turned those atrocious (No offense, devs!  I just personally hate their looks and animations!) Skelebot models into Gundams (For the big ones) and Front Mission Wanzers (For the little ones).  I'll probably keep adding more as I get bored.  It's more of an "I'm sick of seeing the default models" than anything else at this point.

I also gave each model a customized Ghost of a more intimidating look than the standard ones.  The standard ones are just grey and floating.  Mine use a frame from the death animation of the model, tinted black and dark red, with glowing crimson eyes.  They actually look out to get you!



EDIT: GIMP doesn't have that by default, but it has a downloadable animation package.  I'm gonna see what I can do with it.

[Tallgeese]

Wait, are you editing these dictionaries by hand? The devs provided a tool for arranging PNGs into dictionaries here: http://www.arcengames.com/forums/index.php?topic=8548.0

[nanostrike]

Wait, are you editing these dictionaries by hand? The devs provided a tool for arranging PNGs into dictionaries here: http://www.arcengames.com/forums/index.php?topic=8548.0

Yeah, I've been doing it by hand.

I saw the tool and it's nice...but the problem is that I'm not using multiple individual images.  I'm usually cutting everything from Sprite Sheets and such.  And at that point, it's easier to just paste it into a template than save them to individual frames, then convert them.  At least so far.

I'm curious as to how their program would handle odd numbers of frames, though!  If I only had 7 frame images, how would it try to put that into the 22 frames of walking animation?

[Tallgeese]

Well, it obviously wouldn't be perfect, but you could do something like...

123456712345671234567

21 frames.  If ambitious, tween between 1 and 7 and stick it on the end! Or just dupe 1 there.

[nanostrike]

Well, it obviously wouldn't be perfect, but you could do something like...

123456712345671234567

21 frames.  If ambitious, tween between 1 and 7 and stick it on the end! Or just dupe 1 there.

I'm working in a similar way.  It's not too bad when you have only a few frames.  It starts to get messy when you have around 8 or so, though.

2 loops of 8 is only 16 frames, and a third loop would bring it to 24.  So you have to try and drop some frames without it looking strange.  It gets even worse with more detailed animations.

I generally have the best luck with animations that have 4 frames or 10 frames.

For 4, I use the pattern of

1112223334441112223334.  It makes it loop only twice, because having several loops of 4 animation frames gets some crazy Sonic The Hedgehog-looking running effects.

And 10 frames is easy because you literally just run the animation twice, then dupe the starting and ending frames.



Of course the most fun I've had are ones where I can "Cheat", by only using a single frame or two of animation by having characters hover or glide along the ground.  It usually looks pretty decent if I do it right.

[nanostrike]

I've actually gotten some of the Megaman 4-6 sprites in the game and working properly now.  I've got quite a few new characters in now.

Bronze Age: Sprites from Tales of Fantasia.  Male Swordsman and Thief, Female Cleric and Archer.
Pre-Industrial: Ironman, Sparkster (From Rocket Knight), and Samus Aran
Industrial Revolution: Zero, X, and Armored X (All from Megaman X 1-3), and Harpula (From Megaman Zero 2)
Contemporary: Generic Soldiers from Metal Slug (Wanted to give it a somewhat realistic-time period feel)
Ice Age: X, Zero, X in Falcon Armor, and X in Blade Armor.
Time After Humans: A Wanzer from Front Mission (Forgot which one), and Wing Gundam (Needed something bulky and tall)


I'm in the process of turning the Heat, Advanced Heat, and Frost suits into the Ride Armors from Megaman X.