Author Topic: Adding Animations to PChat through Emotes  (Read 6001 times)

Alcatraz349

  • Underling
  • *
  • Posts: 3
Adding Animations to PChat through Emotes
« on: March 29, 2018, 01:49:44 AM »
Hey, all!
I'm sorta new 'round here, but after mucking about with some config files to add emotes into Paragon Chat and not really coming across a guide here for that very thing, I've decided to make my own!

After grabbing this mod by Lexicon, I ended up trying to figure out how to add a few emotes of my own.

To start with, a bit of terminology for those maybe unfamiliar:
-A MOV is a command that makes a given character perform an animation, or series of animations. You don't have access to the /MOV command in PChat, but you do in Icon.
An example of a MOV would be:
Code: [Select]
/mov DUALPISTOLS_EMPTYCLIPS
-A seqbit is a similar command that also has a character perform an animation, but from what I understand, they check for a given set of conditions first. IE, flying, standing, in combat, or initial combat.
An example of a seqbit would be:
Code: [Select]
/seqbits COMBAT WEAPON DUAL PISTOLS SHOOT CONE
Note that a MOV is one command spaced out by underscores, where as a seqbit is a series of separate conditions.



The two files we're concerned with are emotes.config and quickchat.mnu

-emote.config is the list that the game references whenever you type in a /e command.
You'll find it under %APPDATA%\ParagonChat\Config

-quickchat.mnu is essentially the bare-bones version of the handy little emote menu inside the Chat window in-game. It's not mandatory to mess with it at all, but it's nice to have your custom emotes under the quickchat menu for easy access.
It's under %APPDATA%\ParagonChat\Client\Data\texts\English\menus



So let's get crackin'!

First off, you'll want to boot up Icon so that you can find the animations you want via MOV commands.
A vital tool to all of this will be this list that shows all the MOV commands and their corresponding seqbits, compiled by Wyldhunt. I recommend you keep it open on a tab somewhere while you work. There's a lot of things there, and ctrl+F is your friend.

Note that a good chunk of the MOVs listed begin with "A," such as "A_DUALPISTOLS_EMPTYCLIPS." These are MOVs that are meant to be triggered while flying! The normal versions won't have the "A" suffix.

For our purposes here, let's use the animation for Empty Clips out of the Dual Pistols power set. It's listed as DUALPISTOLS_EMPTYCLIPS, and we can trigger it in Icon by typing:
Code: [Select]
/MOV DUALPISTOLS_EMPTYCLIPS
Once we know that the animation works correctly, we can look at its seqbit, which in this case is COMBAT WEAPON DUAL PISTOLS SHOOT CONE

We'll come back to that. Just note that the seqbit is what's important here, not the MOV


So then, we have our seqbit. Now, we'll need to crack open emote.cfg

Go down to the bottom of the doccument and add a few more lines:
Code: [Select]
emote emptyclips
bits COMBAT WEAPON DUAL PISTOLS SHOOT CONE SPAWNBACK
end

In my example here:
-emote emptyclips is the name of our new emote. Anything works in place of "emptyclips" so long as there aren't any spaces.

-bits COMBAT WEAPON DUAL PISTOLS SHOOT CONE SPAWNBACK is the seqbit that our emote is executing. Just type "bits" followed by whatever seqbit you found earlier.

-end simply marks the end of this particular emote.

Save the document, and that's all! Boot up Paragon Chat and type/e [your emote] and it should play!



Now, if you want to add the emote to your quickchat menu, open up quickchat.mnu

Go to the bottom and add a chunk of text like this:
Code: [Select]
menu "Pistols"
{
option "Empty Clips" "e emptyclips"
option "Bullet Rain" "e bulletrain"
option "Suppressive Fire" "e suppressive"
option "Piercing Rounds" "e piercing"
option "Executioner Shot" "e execution"
option "Hail of Bullets" "e bullethail"
}
Note that this text must be within the last curly bracket, not outside of it

This chunk will add a new submenu to the quickchat menu titled "Pistols." I have several more emotes here than the one we've just added, but don't worry about that for now. The structure here is:
Code: [Select]
menu "[name of menu]"
{
option "[name that will appear in the menu]" "e [your emote]"
}

Save that, and you should have a working addition to your quickchat menu!



So that's it! I tried to be as clear as I could here, and while this might seem a little complicated at first, getting the hang of it is pretty easy.






PS: It seems like not all MOVs have seqbits that will work in PChat. I'm not sure why this is, but I'd love an answer from someone that knows better than me! An example of such is
Code: [Select]
/mov MACE_MENACE_B
It plays fine in Icon, causing your character to draw an Arachnos mace and be all menacing-like, but it doesn't seem to do anything at all when I insert the seqbit into PCchat's emote.cfg. The seqbit is
Code: [Select]
ENCOUNTER COMBAT WEAPON BLUNT MENACE HIGH


« Last Edit: March 29, 2018, 02:27:53 AM by Alcatraz349 »

crashpositron

  • Elite Boss
  • *****
  • Posts: 342
Re: Adding Animations to PChat through Emotes
« Reply #1 on: March 29, 2018, 02:43:57 AM »
Cool, we finally have all the pistol emotes available!  I've added them to my toon! I particulary appreciate the MOV-to-seqbit list.  We should be able to add a LOT more movement emotes now!

 

MyriVerse

  • Prom King 2017
  • Elite Boss
  • *****
  • Posts: 515
Re: Adding Animations to PChat through Emotes
« Reply #2 on: March 29, 2018, 02:18:23 PM »
Yay! Thanks!

 :-* MAH GUNS!

Edit: Hmm... for some reason, my right-hand gun is missing. For example, for Executioner Shot, she's just pointing her finger and going "pew pew." This sorta fits the character, but...

Edit 2: I guess there are issues with certain guns in the right hand. Rad-X and Match Compensator w/ Laser no worky. Altered the db and all is well.
« Last Edit: April 02, 2018, 02:06:26 PM by MyriVerse »
aka Majadi | Sugar Cane | Absinthe | Killer Antz | Bogatyra | ...
Best Video Game of 2016 -- Paragon Chat!!!
Codewalker for Mayor of Paragon!

Nyghtshade

  • HERC Advisor
  • Elite Boss
  • *****
  • Posts: 881
Re: Adding Animations to PChat through Emotes
« Reply #3 on: April 02, 2018, 09:30:40 PM »
This is pretty amazing.  Are there plans for animation coding for Swords or archery?

MyriVerse

  • Prom King 2017
  • Elite Boss
  • *****
  • Posts: 515
Re: Adding Animations to PChat through Emotes
« Reply #4 on: April 03, 2018, 05:40:52 PM »
Trouble is, we're limited by what's already hard-coded in the client. Some of those animations are easy to call forth, but they lack the weapons. We're sort of lucky the gun animations have the guns (well some of the guns). The archery animations, for instance, only have the bowstrings (not the bows).

But who knows... with more experimentation...
aka Majadi | Sugar Cane | Absinthe | Killer Antz | Bogatyra | ...
Best Video Game of 2016 -- Paragon Chat!!!
Codewalker for Mayor of Paragon!

Alcatraz349

  • Underling
  • *
  • Posts: 3
Re: Adding Animations to PChat through Emotes
« Reply #5 on: April 03, 2018, 08:40:04 PM »
Some of those animations are easy to call forth, but they lack the weapons. We're sort of lucky the gun animations have the guns (well some of the guns). The archery animations, for instance, only have the bowstrings (not the bows).

Through my testing, Titan Weapons, Staff Fighting, and Dual Pistols are the only weapon-based seqbits that will properly draw your weapons. What do those sets all have in common? They're all newer powersets! So, I'm guessing there's something different about the way they're coded.

Beats me, though.