Fixing FF1 Area FX

[BentonGrey]

Howdy guys, is there any way to fix the effect delay for FF1 area of effect FX?  In other words, when you use, say, an FF1 plasma rocket in FF2, the FX will strike, and ther will be a second or two delay before the game will actually display the explosion.  Obviously, if you can replace the end.nif with an FF2 one, that fixes the issue, but I've got some FF1 nifs that I want to use, if possible.  Any ideas?

[Cyber Burn]

While not exactly what you want, you could replace the textures of the FF2 FX with those of the FF1 FX.

[windblown]

A couple of years ago I knew how to fix that, but I don't remember how... if you send the fx to me I can take a look and maybe refresh what I knew about it.

[BentonGrey]

CB, yeah, I probably should experiment with that more.  I'm sure there are nifs I could use, but it will take me sitting down and digging around in stuff.

Howdy WB, that would be really cool!  I'll send an example FX your way.

[Jimaras8]

WB would it be possible to look at the darkforce_bird fx for me as well? I can send it to you tomorrow.

[windblown]

Hi Jim,
I've sent to BG a tutorial of how to fix this problem, he's going to check it and then I'll post it here, so everyone can fix their fx

[Jimaras8]

That us gonna be super helpful, i have at least 20 fx i want to use and cant because of this. So you, managed to figure it out?

[Cyber Burn]

That is fantastic!

[windblown]

So, here's the tutorial I've sent to BG:

[BentonGrey]

This is fantastic, WB!  Thanks for sharing this with us, man!

[Jimaras8]

Alright, noob question regarding step 1  : How do we convert Fxs? I tried to use the EZNifConvert and it crashed. I have been converting meshes for years but i have never done it for FX.

Noob question 2: I see the NiTextExtraData in the core.nif but i dont see Root_NoteTrack in the core.nif. I only see a NiNode group. Btw , i'm trying to fix the Shazam_area FX if it helps.

[Jimaras8]

Ok, i managed to figure it out but the Root_NoteTrack doesnt paste very well. I get this message:

Nif Versions Different!
Current File Version: 4.0.0.2
Clipboard Data Version: 10.0.1.0
The results will be unpredictable!

If i press continue then i get this:
""array Children much too large. 603979776 bytes requested""

If i try to save i get this message:
failed to sanitize blocks order, corrupt nif tree?
link points to wrong block type
""block 152 Children array size mismatch""

[BentonGrey]

Yeah, that message you get is what happens when you haven't managed to convert the mesh.  I've had the same issue.  I'm not sure what to do when the mesh won't convert, though.

[Jimaras8]

Benton, did you manage to make it work? If yes, which fxs did you use?

[BentonGrey]

WB did it for the XS_smoke_cloud.  I haven't tried it myself.  Getting the FX converted might be the chokepoint.

[Jimaras8]

How can i do that? Eznifconvert crashes.

[WyldFyre]

IIRC, isn't it possible to load a FF .nif into blender and save it as a FFvtTR .nif?  I think that works with characters so should work with FX as well?

[BentonGrey]

Hmm, that might be possible. That might be the method WB used, since he does fancier things with meshes than I do.

[windblown]

oops, I didn't think that converting the fx to ffvstr was a problem, sorry.

I did it with the NPI_conversion_pack (if you have a character ready to convert you only need to delete the character.nif at the character folder, then you need to change the name of the core.nif of your Fx to character.nif and put it at the character folder), when you run the NPI_conversion_pack, the Fx will be converted and you only will need to change the name back to core.nif.


btw, I'd never thought of loading the fx with Blender, I need to try that.

[BentonGrey]

Nice, thanks WB!

[Jimaras8]

oops, I didn't think that converting the fx to ffvstr was a problem, sorry.

I did it with the NPI_conversion_pack (if you have a character ready to convert you only need to delete the character.nif at the character folder, then you need to change the name of the core.nif of your Fx to character.nif and put it at the character folder), when you run the NPI_conversion_pack, the Fx will be converted and you only will need to change the name back to core.nif.


btw, I'd never thought of loading the fx with Blender, I need to try that.

Just so to be clear if i need to convert let's say darkforce_bird do i need to rename the core.nif or the end.nif since it's a ranged explosive projectile? Also why do i need to put in the characters folder? If i keep it in the generic folder with the rest of the Fx, wont it work? Sorry for the many questions but i have enver used that program or converted an fx before.

Edit: Upon research, i cant find the NPI_Conversion_Pack, the link in the only thread i found is down. Can the process be done with EzNifConvert instead?

[Cyber Burn]

A couple of things.

1.) I'm pretty sure I have the NPI _Conversion_pack.

2.) Usually, when a Nif File doesn't convert correctly, it's because the Nif File is broken. (See Tomato's tutorial on that)

3) You can use a Hex editor to find out what game a Mesh is for:

Open the Nif File with the Hex editor, and look in the top right corner. If it says:

4.0.0.2 - Then it is for 
10.0.1.0  - Then it is for 

This is a good way to see if a Mesh converted or not, because there are times that a Mesh will convert without leaving a (.bak) File.

[Jimaras8]

Cb,  I would be grateful if you could e-mail it to me.

I'm still not sure I understood the process though.  Let's say I have a ranged explosive projectile fx.  Do I take the end.nif, rename it to character.nif and let it in a mesh folder in the characters section?

[BentonGrey]

Jim, the end.nif is the only one that has the delay problem in  , so that's the one you need to fix.  So yeah, you would take it and rename it character.nif, put it in a mesh folder, and run it through the converter.  Then, you could rename it back and put it where it belongs.

[Jimaras8]

But it absolutely needs to be placed in the characters folder, right? Can the same been done with EzNifConvert or will it crash?

Anyway, i will try to figure it out. Again, if anyone has the npi pack my e-mail is jmjimvas08@gmail.com

[abenavides]

not familiar with NPI convert tool. Does it use the same command-line nifconvert.exe provided by Irrational ?
If it does - should be no difference using eznif

I've personally converted a lot of old FF FX to FFv3r using the command-line nifconvert that EZNifconvert (and now EZHero 4) uses

[Jimaras8]

Alex,  when you say command-line what exactly do you mean?  I tried to convert an end.nif for a ranged fx in eznifcobvert and it crashed. Do you mean executing the lrogram as it is?

[abenavides]

I mean typing at a command window (see pic below)


This program nifconvert.exe came with FFv3r editor I think. All EZNIF does is run it for you with files you pick (to save you typing )
I actually converted most of what I needed to for EZFX 6.1 just using the command line since I didn't have eznif installed.

I was asking if NPI_conversion does the same thing , because then it won't make a difference which one you use.

BTW EZ Hero also uses nifconvert to convert meshes now .

[Cyber Burn]

Here's the NPI version if you want to check it out: http://www.mediafire.com/file/r1aibp1k0y4kndo/NPI_Conversion_Pack.zip/file

[abenavides]

Thanks Cyber. I had never heard of this thing until this thread.
I just took a look, yeah it's using nifconvert also, which makes sense.

So using this, eznifconvert, or ezhero should all work the same.