fun with .pso

Hi Jasper,

While decoding various .pso files, I stumbled across a few that cannot be decoded. They give the following error: Chunk type DELT not known.

The file in question was 'Cal_Anchor.pso' It is a model of Cal himself. Other character anchors gave the same error. Just thougth I would point it out. There is a little mystery left to these pso files yet. Or else I am just doing something wrong.

Originally posted by cambragol

Hi Jasper,

While decoding various .pso files, I stumbled across a few that cannot be decoded. They give the following error: Chunk type DELT not known.

The file in question was 'Cal_Anchor.pso' It is a model of Cal himself. Other character anchors gave the same error. Just thougth I would point it out. There is a little mystery left to these pso files yet. Or else I am just doing something wrong.

The files with DELT chunks also have a FRAM chunk, i guess DELT is delta, and FRAM is frames (it contain many similar blocks), and that together they do the character 'talking' animations, not sure how you'd get converter.exe to make a .pso like that tho, i can't find any info about animation in a .lwo file - maybe PS had another way of making the animated characters?

looks like the DELT blocks are grouped together, and each DELT block is linked to a surface, so the group of DELT blocks number 4 might be the changes to surface 2, 3, 4, 7 and 9 to make a character open there mouth and tilt there head back or something.

the FRAM chunk looks like it has a list of frames that reference a group of DELT chunks along with a name (which always seems to be "Default"), and a floating point number (time to stay in this position?).

I don't know if there are any real-time in-game character animations (the ones during communication are prerendered movies). But if it helps, here's how animation works in EoC:

In EoC, animation only comes in one flavor: A linear step. There are 2 keyframes set up in the Lightwave scene, frame 1 and frame 2. EoC uses a Pog script function to interpolate between these two frames. A number read from the animation null name in the .lws file and fed into the function call determines the speed with which the animation happens. It can be run forwards or backwards, depending on need. For example; the rotating engines on the cutters. They are keyframed at one maximum point of rotation and then keyframed at the other maximum point of rotation. The game calls a Pog function tied to the ship's throttle level to interpolate the engine position based on the speed value fed into it by the name of the rotating animation null in the .lws file.

This is how all animation in the game works as far as I'm aware. There is no animation of any kind in the .lwo objects. Lightwave is simply not capable of it anyway. Modeler meshes by themselves are static. All animation in Lightwave is done in Layout and results in an .lws (Lightwave scene) file.

Hope that helps.

*edit*
btw - did you happen to read my tutorial about getting models into the game at the top of this forum? It could possibly have info that would be useful to you for this project.

mailto:second_chance@cox.net
The Ultimate Guide To Modding: I-War 2 - Edge Of Chaos
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Originally posted by Jasper
The files with DELT chunks also have a FRAM chunk, i guess DELT is delta, and FRAM is frames (it contain many similar blocks), and that together they do the character 'talking' animations, not sure how you'd get converter.exe to make a .pso like that tho, i can't find any info about animation in a .lwo file - maybe PS had another way of making the animated characters?

The name itself (Cal_Anchor) indicates this model is the base for a Morph Gizmo setup. Gizmo takes two or more models and replaces them at strategic points during a scene to create an animation. The Anchor object is the default model which is used as a 'Return To Zero'. So, for instance, the Cal_Anchor model probably features Cal looking straight forward with his mouth shut. A target object probably exists which features Cal with his mouth open. Morph Gizmo 'morphs' between these two models to create the impression that Cal is opening and closing his mouth while talking.

Originally posted by Second Chance
Modeler meshes by themselves are static. All animation in Lightwave is done in Layout and results in an .lws (Lightwave scene) file.

A small nit-pick: While animation is done via Layout, Lightwave Objects have to capability of storing specialized information which is later used in Layout to animate the model. Skelegons and point weighting are good examples of this.

But I'd bet this specialized information would exist only in the organic models... it would not be needed for ships and stations.

Originally posted by Second Chance

I don't know if there are any real-time in-game character animations (the ones during communication are prerendered movies). But if it helps, here's how animation works in EoC:

In EoC, animation only comes in one flavor: A linear step. There are 2 keyframes set up in the Lightwave scene, frame 1 and frame 2. EoC uses a Pog script function to interpolate between these two frames. A number read from the animation null name in the .lws file and fed into the function call determines the speed with which the animation happens. It can be run forwards or backwards, depending on need. For example; the rotating engines on the cutters. They are keyframed at one maximum point of rotation and then keyframed at the other maximum point of rotation. The game calls a Pog function tied to the ship's throttle level to interpolate the engine position based on the speed value fed into it by the name of the rotating animation null in the .lws file.

This is how all animation in the game works as far as I'm aware. There is no animation of any kind in the .lwo objects. Lightwave is simply not capable of it anyway. Modeler meshes by themselves are static. All animation in Lightwave is done in Layout and results in an .lws (Lightwave scene) file.

Yup, I've been digging around in the .lws files - the ones under avatars/base have loads of animation stuff in them.

But, the DELT and FRAM stuff definatly looks like animation, and as Shane says, morph gizmo can do that.

And fiddling with the converter.exe file selection dialoge box shows that it can read MorphGizmo files.

Hope that helps.

*edit*
btw - did you happen to read my tutorial about getting models into the game at the top of this forum? It could possibly have info that would be useful to you for this project.

mailto:second_chance@cox.net
The Ultimate Guide To Modding: I-War 2 - Edge Of Chaos

.

Yes I did, and yes it has been helpful.

BTW, the "Tutorial On Managing Odd-Shaped Open Polys" looks like it's a workaround for converter.exe not converting concave polys to triangles properly - the "Triple function" in lw converts everything to triangles and so converter.exe dosn't have to.

(.pso's only contain triangles)

Also - You (and other people) have mentioned that .lwo's saved in newer version's of lightwave lose glow and spec map info (or it gets ignored by converter.exe), if the position of the glowmaps and spec maps relative to the normal textures is the same, and they glow/spec maps have the same dimensions, then i can very probably make a script to patch the .pso's to add back the glow and spec maps - which would remove the requirement for lightwave 5.6.

I'm looking at pso to lwo2 format atm.