A bit of research on BG2 weapon animations by Sim and I

[Ghreyfain]

Right, we were thinking about making an actual cool flame-tongue sword, since BG2 made it suck, and it'd be nice to have it for Tutu.  Anyways, this is what we learned.

The first two letters for weapon animations seem to be WQ.

The third letter is either L, M, N, or S.  These seem to dictate which avatar uses them.  L is for human males, at least.  It isn't for human females.  My guess would be that one is for human males, the other for human females, another for elves (both are the same size), and the last for gnomes, halflings, and dwarves all together.  Haven't verified it, though.

The fourth and fifth letters are what goes in the .itm file to say what it should use as an animation.  SS is short sword, FS is flame sword, S1 is long sword/bastard sword.
The sixth, seventh and eighth letters are indicative of the action the animation is for.  Various swings and idle-standing around and suchlike.

Anyways, Sim counted 133 frames in one bam he took a look at, and with numlock and windows calculator at my disposal, I estimated that the total number of frames to be made for a new weapon animation are 5852.  Just thought I'd post this now, so it doesn't get forgotten in the mists of time.

As an example, WQLS1A1.bam is the Human Male (L) long sword (S1) attack #1 (A1) animation.

[SimDing0™]

I'd also like to note that addiing new weapon animations is really, really easy.

[Ghreyfain]

Ah, yeah, just make your brand spanking custom new weapons have any two characters in the fourth and fifth slots, and have any weapons you add use that two-character code at offset... uh, I forget.  The one that scimitars have SC for, and flame-tongue has FS.

[igi]

IESDP:
http://iesdp.gibberlings3.net/appendices/avatarnaming.htm

If theres anything to be added, let me know.

[MO]

I have no clue if you guys already know this, or if the notion of a proper flaming sword in the BG2 engine has been given up for dead, or even if there are compatability issues between IWD and BG2, but there's a flaming sword animation in IWD: HOW (after the graphical/engine upgrade.  It's the Flame Blade spell... or at least, the version of it that the Acolytes use in the Temple of the Forgotten God.  My cleric's flame blade spell uses the same cruddy animation that BG2 uses, but those Acolytes got the flaming one.  If the IWD animations are more compatible with BG2 than the BG1 ones...

Here's hoping you guys can get something going there; with Tutu coming together so nicely, that Flame Tongue animation is the one remaining "issue" I've got with the BG2 engine.  I miss my burning swords.... *sniff*

And if you're already aware of all this (I suspect you are ) sorry for exhuming a long-buried thread.

[Ghreyfain]

I'm not sure which animation the Acolytes use, but if it's the hooded monkish type one (like the tutorial dudes in Candlekeep from BG1 use), then yes, that's a known thing.  Animations with 5 directions (Drizzt, Elminster, Skeletons, Hooded Monks, and some others) get the nifty flame sword, while the actual PC-class avatars get the shaft.

[icelus]

Heheh.

[Borsook]

This might a good place to ask this - I'm longing for a proper great axe animation, is there any way to either:
- steal it from IWD:HOW minotaurs
- generate the sprite using some 3d application?