Forum :: Client Editing :: Any specifics for creating custom NPC sprites/animations?

I haven't found a guide on the specifics for creating custom NPC sprites, but I get the gist.

Every NPC has 14 frames for the animations, and also the size of the sprites seems flexible.

But what I have noticed that's problematic:

- There seems to be a "second frame" for the idle animation, that might only work on specific resource IDs, such as the Witch. Or maybe the requirement is that the other 12 frames remain black/empty for the second idle frame to be used. I haven't been able to get the second idle frame to work with a new NPC sprite, but I haven't look in detail as to why. Maybe the client hard-coded which NPC/resource IDs have idle animations?

- Even though the sprites seem to allow any size, the offset in relation to the tile position seems to vary with each NPC (resource ID). When creating a new NPC sprite, I had to offset the Y position by -8 pixels to get it to look centered with the tile it was standing on. Looking at other NPC sprites, it seems like the offset might not always be con sistent. I also think this might be hard-coded into the client.

- My main problem and the only real problem I noticed, is that I can't change the position of the NPC title/name. Changing the sprite size doesn't actually change the title position. I tried creating a large sprite and noticed the the name of the NPC was below the NPCs head. It seems like this is also handled internally by the client, because I believe changing the sprites of large NPCs to a small sprite, doesn't actually change the position of the NPC title. I could be wrong.

- I haven't tried the last two animation frames (spell animation?). Does that work with a custom/new npc, and is it possible to get an npc to use a spell or the spell animation?

I could be wrong about some of this, because there's far too much testing and edge testing to be done to get a better idea of what is going on. Is there any guide or specifics on how to do certain tasks like the idle animations and changing the NPC name position?

---
Just your friendly neighborhood Programmer-Man!

Interesting. Whats the difference between the rat and apozen then for title position? I've seen bosses on other servers that have the title at the bottom of the sprite

---
I not hacker

“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its
whole life believing that it is stupid.” - Albert Einstein : Really Great Quote Ramy!

Hacker_Alex posted: (15th Mar 2017, 04:09 pm)

Interesting. Whats the difference between the rat and apozen then for title position? I've seen bosses on other servers that have the title at the bottom of the sprite

If you add in a new NPC or replace a small NPC with something large it will show your text in the positioning of either Azuorph, or Rat. I've replaced rat with a custom sprite that was near Apozen size and the text appeared in the stomach are. 

Apozen's text is above his head by default, whilst Rats is also above his head, but it's all hard-coded into the system. 

@Shilo -- Spells very much are possible with NPCs, and Cactusaur is a prime example of an NPC that has the ability to cast a spell as its animations are finished for it; however there is no spell. In EOSource (You'd have to code it into your own EOServ of course) there's the ability to use unknown values to cast spells. Also, I believe years ago when something here called "EORama" was released there were NPCs that casted spells.

@Destiny

Thanks for the helpful info!

---
Just your friendly neighborhood Programmer-Man!

Pixelsource.org

Aye. Pixelsource should have the majority of what you seek.

---
"Nurd, you're like a fucking swiss army knife" - Necrosis

yeah man pixelsource has pretty much everything

A touch of clarification, all of the NPCs with idle animations have their GFX IDs hardcoded into the client. So if it had an idle animation before, any NPC patched into that GFX slot in the EGF files will perform the idle animation by combining frames 1+2 for the front and frames 3+4 for the back.

In regards to changing the placement of the NPC names, it appears that this is largely hardcoded as well, as the others said. Not much to be done about that one, unfortunately.

... also since everyone else is doing it, Pixelsource.

---
Want to learn to pixel?
Pixelsource.org

Pixelsource.org is great. Seen it, love it.

It seems all my concerns remain valid though, all of it is hard-coded.

---
Just your friendly neighborhood Programmer-Man!