4 - Competent Using existing hand animations on custom weapons

[moonsense715]

Author: Oblivion165

Skill level: 4

 

 

In this tutorial I will show you how to use the original Westwood weapon animations on your custom weapon. It works for any weapon in any W3D game though, not just the Renegade ones. For example, some of the TS: Reborn weapons were animated this way.

 

 

Step 1:

Load Renegade (or any other W3D game) and find a weapon that fits your guns style. The Nod laser rifle from Ren is a safe bet because it uses the most generic reload animation.

 

 

Step 2:

Using RenegadeEx (or XCC Mixer), extract all the animations associated with this weapon. IE: f_gm_lsrr, f_ha_lsrr_(enter/exit/fire/idle/reload), w_lsrr, w_lsrr_b

 

 

Step 3:

Rename all the ANIMATION filenames (f_ha = hand animation) to your weapon's 4 letter abbreviation, in my case with the thompson from Roleplay 2, to f_ha_thom_enter and so on. Leave the gun model parts alone.

 

 

Step 4:

Open these files in your favorite hex editor, if you don't have one then I would suggest UltraEdit.

 

In each file, find and replace all ascii (text) that says LSRR to THOM. (replace THOM with your weapon's 4 character abbreviation)

 

Save all files with these changes.

 

Alternatively, you can download and use Chunky, which was designed for w3d. Open the files with it one by one, expand ANIMATION and select ANIMATION_HEADER. You can rewrite the 4 letter abbreviations on the right side panel, highlighted on the picture.

(If your keyboard switches to Insert mode, you can switch it back to normal by hitting the Insert key on the keyboard)

Once done, save the file with a new name that fits your weapon's abbreviation and continue with the next animation file.

 

 

Step 5:

Import the original weapon model into RenX using the W3D Importer. (Start with f_gm_lsrr)

 

-Select all the bones around the model and uncheck export geometry.

 

-Merge your new model into Renx (with the imported weapon still intact) and line up your model to fit over the original renegade model as best as it will go. Hide or delete the original model (NOT the bones).

 

-You may wish to change the box named "mz_lsrr1" to something more related to this Thompson, you can find all the muzzle flashes using RenegadeEx by simply searching for mz_. For this model I will use "mz_chain3", this chain gun muzzle flash matches this Thompson much better.

 

-Export as f_gm_thom and repeat for the w_thom and w_thom_b versions of the model. (W_thom_b will not need any of the bones.)

 

 

Step 6:

Create the weapon presets in LE and test in game, you may need to move the weapon model around to get it to fit in the players hands just right. Enjoy.