Creating a new token from existing DCC animations

By reiyo_oki

 

Files needed:

AnimData.D2 (This is in D2Data.mpq which comes with D2)

animdata_edit (Available from here)

Baldur's Gate II Gibberling DCC files (Available from here)

COFEDIT (Available from here)

CV v5.2 (Available from here)

CvDcc AddOn Version v3.00 (Available from here)

Patience (not a file, I really mean patience)

 

Preparation:

 

Before we do any messing around with files, we need to decide on a few things:

 

- What token code will we use for our new animation?

- How many directions will this animation have?

- How many parts will our monster have?

- How many weapons/armors/shields will our monster have?

 

The first question is the most important.  We need to find a token code that is NOT already used by Diablo II or Lord of Destruction.  To do this, we will open up our web browsers and head over to the Phrozen Keep.  In the Resources section there is a list of tokens used by Diablo II and Lord of Destruction.  An easy way to make sure your token is unique is to use a special symbol ( ! @ # $ % ^ & * + = - and various other symbols which can be made with alt-codes)

 

The other questions are easy to answer, but are not relevant to this tutorial, so I won’t go into them here.

 

Step One: Extracting the .COF files

 

You will need an MPQ extractor program (winmpq, mpq2k, mpqview), and either D2Data.mpq or D2Exp.mpq.

 

First, start up your mpq program and open the mpq file I mentioned above.  Now, find the folder “data\global\monsters\bk\cof”.  In here are all the .COF files for the “Foul Crow” enemies.  Extract all of these files into a folder on your computer.

 

 

Step Two: Preparing the .COF files for editing

 

Ok, this is where the actual editing comes in.  Open up the folder where you installed COFEDIT.  Copy all of the .COF files from the included package into this folder.  Now, right-click on “Generate.bat” and select “Edit…”.  Notepad should pop up, once it does, look at the line of text there.  It should be something like:

 

            cofedit.exe -extract bka1hth.cof

 

Now right-click on “Extract.bat” and select “Edit…”.  Notepad should pop up, once it does, look at the line of text there.  It should be something like:

 

            @echo off

            cofedit.exe -extract bktrlita1hth.cof

 

Copy this line for each of the .COF files that you extracted (or got from the included package.)  You should end up with these lines:

 

            @echo off

            cofedit.exe -extract bka1hth.cof

            cofedit.exe -extract bkddhth.cof

 

Ok, now if you have these lines you’re good to go.  Put the word “pause” at the end of the file, in it’s own line and save.  Close the window and run the batch file.  You should see:

 

Extracting COF …

Press any key to continue …

 

This means that it worked.  If you see:

 

Extracting COF …

Cannot find COF file.

Press any key to continue …

 

You either put the wrong names in the batch file, or didn’t copy the .COF files into the same folder as COFEDIT.

 

 

Step Three: Editing the .COF files

 

Open up the file bka1hth.cof.ini by double-clicking it.  There are several lines in this file, some of them are unimportant to us (actually most of them).  The lines we need to be concerned with are:

 

dcc_file            (yep, you guessed it, set this to the full .dcc filename of the animation you are using)

cof_token         (This is the animation token you are using, it doesn’t really matter what it is, you can just rename the file)

cof_mode         (This is the mode code for the animation, you can find a list of all the modes at the end of the document.)

cof_class          (This is the hit class of the animation, a full list of these is also at the end of the document.)

nb_layers          (we just need to make sure this is set to 1)

trigger_frame    (This is VERY important, as it causes lots of glitches if you don’t use it right.  I’ll explain later)

trigger_value     (This is just as important as the previous one, I will explain them together)

 

All you need to do is change the lines to match your animation.  The first four are cheese, and self explanatory.  The nb_layers one should just be set to 1. 

 

(If editing the .ini of a non-attacking/non-casting animation, put a zero in both lines)

 

The last two lines, trigger_frame and trigger_value are where we need Cv5 (with the CvDCC addon).  Start up Cv5 and find your .dcc in the browser.  Double-click it and scroll over to where the first direction for that animation ends.  There will be a number below that frame, put that number plus one into this line.  So, if the first direction ended on frame 008, you would put 9 in the trigger_frame line.  Now scroll down to trigger_value and put a 1 in here (I know there are other values, but I haven’t ever had any problems with just using 1).

 

 

Step Four: Recompiling the .COF files

 

Copy this line, and change it for each of the .COF files you extracted.  In the end, you should have:

 

            cofedit.exe -generate TTMMCCC.cof.ini

 

TT = Your token code

MM = Token mode

CCC = token hit class

 

This should be added for each of the token’s modes.  Now, put “pause” (without the quotes) on its own line at the end of the .bat file and save.  Run this batch file and you’re almost done!

 

Step Five: Extracting, editing, and recompiling AnimData.d2

 

Now take the file AnimData.d2 (whether it is already edited or not) and copy it into the same folder as animdata_edit.  Run the extract.bat program.

 

Open up the .txt file created by the program in your spreadsheet program of choice and go down to the very last line.  Insert a new line at this point.  I would recommend just copying one of the other lines with the same mode to the new line.  Put your .COF name into the first column, and the number of frames per direction in the second.  The rest of the columns should be blank except for one, the trigger frame.  Move the value from the existing trigger frame to the one you found earlier and put a zero where the original was.

 

Repeat this process for each .COF file you created.  If you are putting a non-attack/non-cast animation in here (which you still have to do), just zero out any frameXX columns with anything else in them.

 

Once you have finished adding the new lines to this file, save and exit.  Now run the compile.bat program.  This will replace the AnimData.d2 that is already in this folder, so if you want to keep it, either rename or move it.

 

Step Six: Incorporating the plugin

 

This is actually the easiest part of the process.  Simply copy all of the .COF files into the data\global\monters\xx\cof folder (where xx is your token code), and copy all of the .dcc files into the data\global\monsters\xx\yy folder (where xx is your token code, and yy is your monster body part).  Make sure you have renamed the files to the correct format:

 

AABBCCCDDEEE.dcc (ex. bktrlita1hth.dcc)

 

AA=Token Code

BB=Body part (See below)

CCC=Armor-Class (See below)

DD=Animation mode (See below)

EEE=Hit-Class (See below)

 

Now, copy your edited animdata.d2 into the data\global folder and you’re done!  All that’s left now is using the token in monstats.txt

 

If you have any questions, post a message on the Phrozen Forums and someone will help you out (if I don’t get to the post first, that is)

 

Animation Modes:

A1 – Attack 1

A2 – Attack 2

TH – Throw (Most monsters don’t have this)

KK – Kick (Most monsters don’t have this)

SQ – Special sequence (like the amazon’s dodge sequence, or the paladin’s smite)

SC – Cast

S1 – Special 1

S2 – Special 2

S3 – Special 3

S4 – Special 4

GH – Get Hit

KB – Knockback (Most monsters don’t have this)

BL – Block (Most monsters don’t have this)

DD – Corpse

DT – Death

NU – Neutral

WL – Walk

RN – Run (Most monsters don’t have this)

TN – (not sure) (Only for player animations)

TW – (not sure) (Only for player animations)

 

Hit-Class Codes

These are for organizing different weapons used by the same creature, most monsters only have HTH mode, but some have others.

HTH

1HS

2HS

1HT

2HT

STF

1JS

1JT

1SS

1ST

BOW

XBW

 

Armor-Class Codes:

You will only need the first three codes (LIT,MED,HVY) for monsters, the rest are player codes, or used for complex monsters.

All armors:

HVY

LIT

MED

Head:

BHM

CAP

CRN

FHL

GHM

HLM

MSK

SKP

Left hand:

HXB

LBB

LBW

LXB

SBB

SBW

Right hand:

AXE

BRN

BSD

BST

BTX

BWN

CLB

CLM

CRS

CST

DGR

DIR

FLA

FLC

GIX

GLV

GPL

GPS

GSD

HAL

HAX

HXB

JAV

LAX

LSD

LST

LXB

MAC

MAU

OPL

OPS

PAX

PIK

PIL

SCM

SCY

SPR

SSD

SST

TRI

WHM

WND

YWN