--Planet AvP | Articles | Character Butes Quickie

Character Butes Quickie Character butes are used to finish up a model for insertion into the engine. Of course, if you miss this step, you won't be able to fully use your model, add new models, or custom some of the aspects of your new model. The really interesting I do is that I match a character or monster into one of three categories (Marines, Aliens or Predator). Each of the races has an animation list as well as core behaviors that are particular for the race. But now, you may ask, why is this important? Well, what if you have a dog-like monster you wish to add to the game... you might as well copy the Alien drone's character and swap the model/animation. If you have a bad-ass, hunter-type character you want to add in, you can copy over the predator _drone character. But mostly, a human character can use the harris_ai or some other human/corporate character listing. To start, make sure you have reviewed the beginning section of character butes, the first thing you need is a model (exported into ABC format) DTX Skins, (converted within DEdit). 1) Copy and Rename Bute Listing Take a base human_AI (alien_AI or predator_AI) character and copy it. Now, note that if you want to make a multi-player model, you have to put the _MP after the entry's name. If you keep the _AI ending, you can add the model into the engine as a NPC character (AI is already setup due to the copy and pasting. :) Example Code ** # 18 - DUDE */ [DUDE] Parent = "BaseHuman" DefaultModel = "DUDE.abc" DefaultSkin0 = "marine\DUDE_torso.dtx" DefaultSkin1 = "marine\DUDE_legs.dtx" DefaultSkin2 = "marine\DUDE_head.dtx" DefaultSkin3 = "" Advertisement DefaultDims = <16.0, 50.0, 16.0> DisplayName = 6012 GeneralSoundDir = "harris" ** # 19 - DUDE_AI */ [DUDE_AI] Parent = "DUDE" Class = "Marine" WalkSpeed = 135 RunSpeed = 250 CrouchSpeed = 35 LadderSpeed = 100 ** # 90324 - DUDE_MP */ [DUDE_MP] Parent = "DUDE" Class = "Marine" WalkSpeed = 135 RunSpeed = 250 CrouchSpeed = 35 LadderSpeed = 100 Multi-PlayerModel = "DUDE.abc" DisplayName = 6013 ScoringClass = 4857 SelectAnim = "Knee_Idl" SelectPos = <0.0, 0.0, 0.0> SelectRot = 0.0 SelectScale = 0.5 2) Link the Model to the Bute Listing Replace the model name with your model. If you put the model in a new directory, make sure you link that properly. For multi-player, put into this directory: DefaultModelDir = "models\characters\mp\" And you would need this underneath: Multi-PlayerModel = "mymodel.abc" 3) Texture Setup DefaultSkinDir = "skins\characters\" DefaultSkin0 = "marine\harris_torso.dtx" DefaultSkin1 = "marine\harris_legs.dtx" DefaultSkin2 = "marine\harris_head.dtx" DefaultSkin3 = "marine\harris_arms.dtx" This is where you can setup different textures for different parts of the character. Within Modelbutes, if you looked at piece info, and then set the texture index to 1, 2, or 3. 4. Match the Skeleton to the Model SkeletonName = "Human_Default" This is important if you setup a skeleton for hit-detection. If you did not have a skeleton, or do not want any type of decent hit-detection, I think you can skip this step. Well, that's it for the quicky. There is lots more to do with this file, but really this is all you need to edit in order to get your model into the game. (Other parameters are listed at the top of the character butes file). By TimmyG Comments? Flames? Praise? Mail feedback!