Great Job Emjer! This is a great tool for the community, people have been waiting a long time for this.

I can't wait to see what new things everyone will come up with!

[This message has been edited by tasev (edited 03-12-2011 @ 10:09 PM).]

2% won't work? Pff! Nearly useless.
Let me guess.. Stuff like waterfall, moveto arrows, and waves?

Indeed a sad day for aomh community.
-invent00r
ps: Good work .

^ seconded. haha

Nah really: Congratulations EmjeR. One of the greatest secrets in AoM history has been unravelled. To celebrate the day I've dug out the oldest thread asking for attachpoint help I could find: It's from 2003. Haha

I will probably make a thread later explaining the new possibilities coming with this side tool. This is a breakthrough and hopefully one step closer to the full version of BCTool.

(Only that it doesn't work for me personally yet... I tried to place it in the same folder as BCTool, but it "fails to initialize"... Do I need NET Framework or something?)

ah tanks or telling. You'll need .NET framework 3.5

Ok! By the way, I think it would not be necessary to further improve the tool, as its basic functionality serves its purposes well. We don't need an Add/Remove function for instance. It would be wiser to spend your efforts on BCTool instead

Hehe. I feel the need to party awesome work man!!!!!

EmjeR

ALL HAIL EmjeR

real happy to see this done , now I can finaly finish my Titans.

ive played with this a bit and it seems to work ok but I couldent get the all option to work I had to do each frame one at a time , not that i care about that as long as it works and it does so Im thrilled.

[This message has been edited by crazydragon (edited 03-14-2011 @ 10:05 PM).]

thanks Android for submitting the news

No problem man . I think that if you finish BCTool and if AoMH advertises your work, the modding community will grow and flourish!

[This message has been edited by Android GRRR (edited 03-20-2011 @ 06:52 PM).]

This sounds like a big step forward for the modding community, so congratulations to EmjeR, But for a stupid person like me with no modding experience, It might be nice if you posted a screenshot of a modded unit that utilized the possibilities of this tool, and show us what's possible.

Because the description is pretty technical, and I'm getting nothing from it

^I second that. I've never really worked with new models.

hmm i'm trying to work out an idea of a shooting tower with multiple laser cannons ^^ very futuristic

Nooogaabeey/Aom expert:

Nowadays modders still have to use a very old converter (AoMED) that is not able to fully read/write AoM's model format. This is why many parameters of a new model must be taken from an existing one and cannot be changed - materials, frame numbers, attachpoints amongst others.

This is why making new models is a restricted and tedious process. EmjeR is trying to change that with his BCTool - a tool that will be able to fully read/write AoM's model format upon its release. Theoretically, model makers will then have the same possibilities that ES had when creating AoM, and will be able to work a lot faster. This is why BCTool will bring a revolutionary change in modding.

The newly released BCTool Attachpoint Editor is only a milestone on the way to the full BCTool. Although model makers must still rely on the old AoMED tool, EmjeR's side tool can now modify their creations' attachpoints, which are crucial in a number of ways:

For example, most of ES' human units have individual models for shields, weapons, helmets and whatnot, that are attached to those units' arms, heads etc. at clearly defined attachpoints. This enabled ES to use different shield variations for the same units for example. Another use of attachpoints is some special mechanics in the game - for example, if a cyclops picks up a unit it will be attached to the cyclopses hand before the throw. When ranged units shoot, their arrows must come out of their bows and not somewhere out of their bodies - here attachpoints are used as well. Finally, attachpoints can be used for a variety of visual gimmicks - for example the frost breath of the frost giant is emitted from his mouth attachpoint, fires on damaged buildings appear at defined attachpoints, etc. etc. The use of attachpoints opens up many more possibilities to modders and makes modding more efficient.

So theoretically you could move the cyclops throw attach-point to its spleen?

MAKE THIS HAPPEN NOW.

sorry what do you mean by that?

Really nice something like this finally came out, too bad I don't have AOM on my pc anymore. Also, how would I do to get the coordinates out of an anymation?, I guess I could attach a dummy to the model, but I have no idea how to extract the coordinates, or what format should they have, a little guide or introduction would be vey useful.

OMG! Unfortunately my first thought is now much rework this is going to involve. All those compromises made in the past can now be addressed.

One question though. Is it your tool that only selects alternate frames or is this how AoMED converts them? Either way, is the first frame GMAX frame 1 or 2?

The models end up with some blank frames when you import them to max. The base model will still have key frames to show you which frames will be kept when the model is exported. The remaining frames are discarded on export.

Its usually every second frame that is keyed. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
for example becomes 1 3 5 7. In the attachpoint editor the frames are still refered to as 0 1 2 3 4 5 6, so if you want your attachpoint to be in the right place at frame 4 in max it will end up being frame 3 in the attachpoint editor.

Emjer will hopefully explain it better than I have since I've only pieced this together from my own experience.

Thanks Scorpion, how's life up north under a non-basket-case government???

Gonna dodge that one and keep it on topic :P .

I really want to figure out how the position works in the attachpoint editor. It uses a matrix for advanced position, rotation and scale. I'm horrible at mathematics so I haven't figured it out.

I'm trying to write a matrix that rotates an object 90 degree clockwise but I can't tell which axis is which. I'm always rotating the wrong axis.

Also which way is it multiplied, horizontal or vertical?

[1, 2] * | 1, 2 |   =  [7, 10]
         | 3, 4 |

OR

| 1 | * | 1, 2 |   =  |  5 |
| 2 |   | 3, 4 |      | 11 |

I've seen both ways :S

[This message has been edited by tasev (edited 04-09-2011 @ 03:59 AM).]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotation_matrix#Basic_rotations

Only your first mulitplication is valid.

If you have a matrix A with m rows and n cols,
and a matrix B with p rows and q cols.
You can only multiply A*B if n == p.

[This message has been edited by Mythic_Freak (edited 04-09-2011 @ 09:08 AM).]

I have made a little Transform Matrix calculator which I will put up for download soon. Here's how it looks:


I've got attachpoints completely figured out now.

[This message has been edited by tasev (edited 04-10-2011 @ 01:40 PM).]

Looks great but if you do this will it also make it work for online play?

Edit===
meaning will this also show up in a game etc if both have the same file etc...

[This message has been edited by Twi5t3dM3rcy (edited 04-19-2011 @ 10:38 PM).]