First-person Weapon Sprites

Talk about the mods you'd like to see in Daggerfall Unity. Give mod creators some ideas!
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Baibe
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First-person Weapon Sprites

Post by Baibe »

Is there any work being done on making custom sprites for the weapons in first-person?

It bugs me that all sword-types share the same sprite in first-person, and it is the same with knives, as well as axes. I also dislike the discrepancy between the mace inventory sprite and the first-person sprite.
I assume it's possible, but correct me if I'm wrong, for each type of sword to have its own set of sprites, for each knife to, and for the sprite of the mace on the inventory screen to be altered to match the first-person sprite. I'd like to know before I start trying to learn spritework and getting to work on it myself in the case that no one else wants to.

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King of Worms
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Re: First-person Weapon Sprites

Post by King of Worms »

Other than dream handheld - no.

There are plans on shorting the shortswords appearance using ambidexterity mod+dream combo.

l3lessed
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Re: First-person Weapon Sprites

Post by l3lessed »

I tested this concept in the editor one day, and resizing the base sprites is pretty easy.

The larger issue is it's harder to integrate into base animation system and also my mods smoothing feature. If my memory serves me correct, it changes the values needed to place the sprite without cutoff showing in the base game and when using my smoothing feature of my mod it throws off the animation. I have some ideas about maybe how to get around this use the magic of math, but it it doesn't pan out, it would require a decent amount of code work to update the values to whatever the new sizes require.

This stuff may become obsolete soon, as I think a modeler may be working on weapon models. If I get an animated model to work with, I will start trying to put in 3d weapons and animations.
My Daggerfall Mod Github: l3lessed DFU Mod Github

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Baibe
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Re: First-person Weapon Sprites

Post by Baibe »

As long as making new spritesheets and implementing them into the game is feasible, it's worth it. Even if a lot of coding is required, I'd still be willing to give this kind of thing a shot. And if it turns out to be too much for me, I would hope that someone else would give it a shot.

As for obsolescence, sprites will never really be obsolete in this game's case. There'll always be people, including me, who prefer using the sprites. Both would accomplish the same thing, so people will use what they prefer with the same effect. There's nothing wrong with having access to both. :)

l3lessed
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Re: First-person Weapon Sprites

Post by l3lessed »

This has been discussed before. The amount of time and work to create the number of unique frames needed for a completely new sprite for all weapons or even the overlapping blades is very high. Each weapon has 5 individual frames per attack animation; with 6 attack animations possible, that is 30 frames a weapon. that's hundreds of hand drawn frames. Probably not going to happen, unless there is an extremely bored, dedicated artist out there with tons of time and patience on his hand. I'm not an artist, so don't even look at me. Everything I achieve visually is all done through the magic of code and math. What art I do is simple 2d art, and usually I just take free work and modify it in gimp or paint.net to suite my needs.

If you want to see how many frames we are talking about, just download the daggerfall imaging tool that allows you to look up every flat, sprite, texture, and piece of artwork in daggerfall.

This is a direct result of how the combat render system is constructed too. Even without this issue, high quality 2d animated sprites that run at 60fps smoothly is no easy task for any artist. Also, you can't merely create and replace the system because it uses the individual frame timings to control animation speed. Faster attack, less time between the 5 frames. This means, you can't just create a animated attack sprite, like a gif or png sequence.I would have to completely rebuild the system, yet again, from the base up using the unity png mecanim animator, get the 60 png sequences for each single weapon, and then reimplement it all and hope it works. No thank you, especially without already having all the png sequences ready. And it would have to be png sequences, as that is the only way the animation time could be dynamically altered in game to match the traditional speed and system.

The best I may be able to do at some point is resize the sprites through code and update their offsets and animation smoothing values to work. This can all be done with code easily; it requires a good amount of time though in boring code crunching, and I am short on time these days.

There is one gimick around this I can think of, but it won't look the best. With my smoothing system, I could take a single sprite and move it across the screen. This would look very different than the original, but it would only require one sprite per weapon.
My Daggerfall Mod Github: l3lessed DFU Mod Github

My Beth Mods: l3lessed Nexus Page

Daggerfall Unity mods: Combat Overhaul Mod

Enjoy the free work I'm doing? Consider lending your support.

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Baibe
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Re: First-person Weapon Sprites

Post by Baibe »

I don't really mind the amount of work required. And after already having a rough idea of how much work it would be just counting frames in the game and looking through the imaging tool, I still don't mind. Looks to be a bit less work than I thought it would be, even.
It's possible, though, and that's what matters. Now I can take the time to learn some coding and spritework, maybe save up a bit of money to get a tablet or something for easier art, and I can get to work. Eventually.
I hope this thread opens up further discussion, too.

l3lessed
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Re: First-person Weapon Sprites

Post by l3lessed »

If you're down for the work, just ensure you stick to the original sizes and weapon placement position on the canvas down to the pixel if you want it to work without cutoff issues and be compatible with my ambidexterity mod.

If you want to do HD modern textures/art I recommend downloading DREAM and again ensuring yours match the ratios and pixel placement exactly. If you do, again, it shouldn't have any cutoff issues, and it should be compatibly with my mods.

If you don't, I'm not guaranteeing it will work and come out looking good. And I for sure can guarantee it won't work with my mod, and I'm not spending months again recreating a whole new logic ladder for new sprites. Just too grueling anymore.

Also, don't forget, there is an alternate version of every sprite in classic for enchanted weapon attacks. In DREAM he simplifies them by just using a glowing outline and not having electricity arcs that change.
My Daggerfall Mod Github: l3lessed DFU Mod Github

My Beth Mods: l3lessed Nexus Page

Daggerfall Unity mods: Combat Overhaul Mod

Enjoy the free work I'm doing? Consider lending your support.

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Baibe
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Re: First-person Weapon Sprites

Post by Baibe »

Thanks for the advice, I definitely want to stick to the original values so that I do as little coding work as possible. Not exactly my forte. Not to mention that I want it to be compatible with as many things as possible, once I do start work on this.
Which may take awhile, as I'll need to be learning things from scratch and then saving to comfortably buy a tablet for better art. I just kind of got tired of waiting for someone else to do it, so I may as well try my own hand.
I also may just do the glowing outline thing; as much of a stickler I am for purity, I never liked the electricity arcs, and they'd make a lot more work that can be done away with by simplifying.

andromacus
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Re: First-person Weapon Sprites

Post by andromacus »

Great idea. To be 100% complete, it would be amazing if this would include also the sprites used in hand-to-hand combat (fists and kicks), adapting them on the basis of the gauntlets and boots/shoes currently worn by the player. Thus I believe this would really mean a HUGE job. One step at time, however, is always the best approach :)

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realakp
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Re: First-person Weapon Sprites

Post by realakp »

Hey guys. I would like to help with the graphic side of the project. I have prepared two weapons with sample animations for test purposes. I'm trying to keep the atmosphere of early 90's renders and do it exactly the way it was done in Daggerfall (or at least the way I think it was done). I'm trying very hard to keep the original style from the game.

Final sprite should look something like this:
Image

Animations are in 640x480 now, the target size will be 320x240. Sprites are RGB, not indexed, since the game has built-in palletization system. This is an example of space usage by sprites.

Image

Claymore stab animation
Image

Claymore horizontal slash animation
Image

One handed axe vertical slash
Image

Animation setup and models:
Image

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