Animation hacking Documentation

[Itaru]

Falcon's UpTilt with Ganon

I explain with Ganon's UpTilt and Falcon's UpTilt.

First.
Ganon's UpTilt command starting offset is 0x4870. (With CrazyHand)
So, search 00004850 (0x4870 - 0x20).
You will find this.

Spoiler

PlGn.dat

Red line is UpTilt's "mother command" (We need to define this command's name. I suggest "mother command")
Green is search result.
Orange is Animation file size of "AttackHi3" in PlGnAJ.dat .
Blue is starting offset of Animation file "AttackHi3" in PlGnAJ.dat .

And, open PlGnAJ.dat and go to 0x54340.

Spoiler

First 32 bites is header(?)

Falcon's UpTilt Animation file size(AttackHi3) is 0x26C5 (Starting offset is 0x55E20.)
You can write Falcon's UpTilt in Ganon because 0x43AF > 0x26C5

So, select falcon's Uptilt
Paste in a new window and change "PlyCaptain5K..." to "PlyGanon5K..."

Spoiler

Now, size is 26C3. So, you need to change header, 26C5 -> 26C3.
And, copy all and Overwrite in offset 0x54340 in PlGnAJ.dat(Do not change file size!)

Last, change 43AF to 26C3 in "mother command" in PlGn.dat.

 

[zankyou]

Didnt realize that the pl**.dat files contained pointers for the pl**aj.dat files. Thats going to make animation hacking a bit more tedious.

 

[omegagmaster]

So does this mean you could code a sword version of Ganondorf using his sword model and Marth's anims?

 

[GamingMaster]

i guess if u can code it

 

[tatatat0]

Pretty neat for swapping animations but still need to figure out the format.

 

[GamingMaster]

dream sandbag
a-marios jab
a dtilt-falcon
a uptilt-sheik u tilt
a side tilt-ganon a side tilt
usmash-roy usmash
dsmash-pikachu d smash
side smash-mario side smash
b-ganons jab with hydro pump subaction
b side-luigi missile
b up-mario up b
b down-pikachu down b
nair-falcon nair
uair-zelda uair
dair-ganon dair
bair-dr mario bair
fair-sheik fair
grab-falcon
pummel-falcon
d throw-falcon
up throw-falcon
f throw-falcon
b throw-falcon
taunt-ness

 

[omegagmaster]

dream sandbag
a-marios jab
a dtilt-falcon
a uptilt-sheik u tilt
a side tilt-ganon a side tilt
usmash-roy usmash
dsmash-pikachu d smash
side smash-mario side smash
b-ganons jab with hydro pump subaction
b side-luigi missile
b up-mario up b
b down-pikachu down b
nair-falcon nair
uair-zelda uair
dair-ganon dair
bair-dr mario bair
fair-sheik fair
grab-falcon
pummel-falcon
d throw-falcon
up throw-falcon
f throw-falcon
b throw-falcon
taunt-ness

It would be hard, since Sandbag has no arms or legs. Just a torsohead.

 

[SinsOfApathy]

It would be hard, since Sandbag has no arms or legs. Just a torsohead.

Itaru did command modding with sandbag before. It's probably realistically plausible, if someone sat down to do it.

 

[Silent J]

It would be hard, since Sandbag has no arms or legs. Just a torsohead.

Tcll had discovered the contrary, actually

 

[GamingMaster]

i mean its sandbag my dream moveset is more like elemental and smacking the opponents rather than fighting with arms

 

[GamingMaster]

not to mention he cant be ko'ed and cannot have sound just hit sound to be more "realistic"

 

[omegagmaster]

not to mention he cant be ko'ed and cannot have sound just hit sound to be more "realistic"

I should really find the time to learn ASM and write a code that allows Sandbag to be KO'ed from the blastlines. I just can't find the time to look at the tutorials, let alone test basic codes. Besides, even if Sandbag did get knocked off stage, he would literally attempt to recover, potentially fail, and if he does, he will just fall for the entire match.

 

[SinsOfApathy]

I should really find the time to learn ASM and write a code that allows Sandbag to be KO'ed from the blastlines. I just can't find the time to look at the tutorials, let alone test basic codes. Besides, even if Sandbag did get knocked off stage, he would literally attempt to recover, potentially fail, and if he does, he will just fall for the entire match.

Haven't written proper C in a while, but this is what it would look like.

uint32_t* (*charPointer)(int) = 0x80034110;
bool (*checkBlastzone)(int*) = 0x800d3158;
void (*deathFromKill)(int*) = 0x802f6af8;

for (int i = 0; i < 4; ++i){
    uint32_t *player_t = charPointer(i);
    if(player_t != 0){
       uint32_t *charID = *player_t + 0x04; //Grab the player's Internal ID
       if (*charID == 0x20){ //Check if Sandbag
             if(checkBlastzone(player_t) == true){
                  deathFromKill(player_t); //Sandbag can never get falls
             }
       }
    }
}

 

[tatatat0]

Haven't written proper C in a while, but this is what it would look like.

uint32_t* (*charPointer)(int) = 0x80034110;
bool (*checkBlastzone)(int) = 0x800d3158;
void (*deathFromKill)(int) = 0x802f6af8;

for (int i = 0; i < 4; ++i){
    uint32_t *player_t = charPointer(i);
    if(player_t != 0){
       uint32_t *charID = *player_t + 0x04; //Grab the player's Internal ID
       if (*charID == 0x20){ //Check if Sandbag
             if(checkBlastzone(player_t) == true){
                  deathFromKill(player_t); //Sandbag can never get falls
             }
       }
    }
}

bool isn't a native type, unless you import stdbool.h. _Bool is native, but _Bool is just 0 or 1, so true would be undefined.

 

[SinsOfApathy]

bool isn't a native type, unless you import stdbool.h. _Bool is native, but _Bool is just 0 or 1, so true would be undefined.

I mean, it's not even a function, so of course I wasn't declaring imports lol. Was mostly just writing the prototype out.

Edit: Plus, couldn't even declare int i = 0; in the for loop unless -C99 is set anyways.

 

[zankyou]

Has anyone been looking into the animation file and how animations are formatted.

 

[SinsOfApathy]

Has anyone been looking into the animation file and how animations are formatted.

Outside of tcll, I don't think so.

 

[zankyou]

Outside of tcll, I don't think so.

TCLL didnt really do much. I havent really seen anyone look into the aj files further than I have but I got stuck because theres 1 word that explains how the information is stored for the key frames and stuff like that. The general file structure I understand but I dont know enough about animations to figure out what that word means.

 

[zankyou]

Heres where I left off in the dat file research thread.

@Tcll return to us.

Notes of animation files (pl**aj.dat)

Every animation in the file is formatted as its own dat file in a way and the next animation dat header is on the next line directly after the end of the previous animation.
There seems to be only 1 root node and its entry in the string table is the name of the animation.
The root node - General animation info
0x00 - unknown (possible int for number of animations (always 0x00000001)
0x04 - unknown (always 0x00000000)
0x08- frame count (float: the character will go on to the next animation as soon as this is over. If it is greater the character will just freeze until then)
0x0C- pointer to bone index table (no idea what to call this)
0x10- animation info

bone index table (0x1*number of bones- length)
The number of bones can be gotten by just counting up the bones in the pl**.dat or looking at the joint matanim section and counting those up.
0x1- number of sections (possibly animations). Bone index is given by the position from the start of the table.
Terminated by 0xFF

animation info (0x0C*(total number of sections in the bone index table)-length)
0x00- length of animation data (0x02 bytes)
0x04- unknown (my speculation is that it works like the animation format word in the chr0 file for the brawl format)
0x0C- pointer to animation data

This is as far as my ability to pattern recognize goes. Anything more would require I actually know what Im talking about and have any idea how animations work to confirm.
As far as my assumption about the animation data format. I believe the format is encoded in the bits like in the chr0 files. However the bits would be reversed, and melee bone transformations are ordered by rotation, scale, translation whereas brawls is ordered by scale, rotation, translation.

Considering writing a code to basically record the transformations of a particular animation every frame and just export the ram. But I wouldn't even know what to do with that.

 

[ChimeraReyat]

So, something I noticed that almost no one seems to talk about, or have ever talked about...

Barring some triangulation differences, Brawl and Melee Jigglypuff have nearly the exact same base model, and many animations are 1:1 the same.

http://i.imgur.com/8QyyjoB.png (in case the embed breaks)



As you can see, her 5th jab frame is nearly, if not exactly, the same across games. It animates pretty much the same, with the exact amount of frames--bear in mind Brawl treats the last frame of animation as something to be interpolated to, to make transitioning between animations look smoother. I don't doubt Melee does this as well. Thus, Jiggs' jab animation effectively has 17 active frames, just like in Melee.

This isn't actually surprising since Jigglypuff was added in late into Brawl's development as a last-minute "hey we can still put her in" bit, which if I recall is also why Wolf and Toon Link made it in.

So what does this mean?

It means that cracking Melee's animation format might be a hell of a lot easier.


I think if whoever's still interested in documenting Melee's animation format (I'm hex illiterate so I probably can't) wants to take a crack at it, what could potentially be done is try to first convert Jiggs' melee animations to Brawl format, comparing the files and seeing what's the same and what's different. Being that the animations are nearly identical in how they're keyed, I THINK this would make things much easier.

IMPORTANT TO NOTE: NOT ALL OF JIGGLYPUFF'S ANIMATIONS ARE THE SAME ACROSS GAMES. They gave her a few tweaks to make her a bit more lively in Brawl (emphasis on a bit), and the obvious buff/nerf. Because of this, only some of her animations that were probably seen as "fine as is" have the same data across games. Notably, while her idle animation is ALMOST the exact same, being a single long take, they added subtle mouth movements, meaning that animation wouldn't be a reliable reference.


As of now, the animations I know are the same are:

• Jab1 (Attack11)
• Jab2 (Attack12)
• Squat
• SquatWait
• SquatRv
• Guardoff
• Escapeair
• AttackS3Hi/Lw/S
• AttackHi3
• SpecialLw(L/R)

Animations that are most likely the same EXCEPT:

• Fallspecial - frame playback seems weird/offset by 1
• AttackDash - Brawl moves TopN via bone IIRC and I don't think Melee does this, so that's the one discrepancy
• AttackLw3 - Frame 40 for Brawl seems kinda busted; it doesn't match up with squat, squatwait, or squatrv. Since we never see Frame 40 in Melee, this might always be the case, but regardless...

There's probably a ton more that allign and almost allign save for one frame of difference, but this is all I bothered to check right now. STILL a lot.


Hope this helps anyone whos still interested in trying to tackle this format!

 

[Achilles1515]

So, something I noticed that almost no one seems to talk about, or have ever talked about...

Barring some triangulation differences, Brawl and Melee Jigglypuff have nearly the exact same base model, and many animations are 1:1 the same.

http://i.imgur.com/8QyyjoB.png (in case the embed breaks)



As you can see, her 5th jab frame is nearly, if not exactly, the same across games. It animates pretty much the same, with the exact amount of frames--bear in mind Brawl treats the last frame of animation as something to be interpolated to, to make transitioning between animations look smoother. I don't doubt Melee does this as well. Thus, Jiggs' jab animation effectively has 17 active frames, just like in Melee.

This isn't actually surprising since Jigglypuff was added in late into Brawl's development as a last-minute "hey we can still put her in" bit, which if I recall is also why Wolf and Toon Link made it in.

So what does this mean?

It means that cracking Melee's animation format might be a hell of a lot easier.


I think if whoever's still interested in documenting Melee's animation format (I'm hex illiterate so I probably can't) wants to take a crack at it, what could potentially be done is try to first convert Jiggs' melee animations to Brawl format, comparing the files and seeing what's the same and what's different. Being that the animations are nearly identical in how they're keyed, I THINK this would make things much easier.

IMPORTANT TO NOTE: NOT ALL OF JIGGLYPUFF'S ANIMATIONS ARE THE SAME ACROSS GAMES. They gave her a few tweaks to make her a bit more lively in Brawl (emphasis on a bit), and the obvious buff/nerf. Because of this, only some of her animations that were probably seen as "fine as is" have the same data across games. Notably, while her idle animation is ALMOST the exact same, being a single long take, they added subtle mouth movements, meaning that animation wouldn't be a reliable reference.


As of now, the animations I know are the same are:

• Jab1 (Attack11)
• Jab2 (Attack12)
• Squat
• SquatWait
• SquatRv
• Guardoff
• Escapeair
• AttackS3Hi/Lw/S
• AttackHi3
• SpecialLw(L/R)

Animations that are most likely the same EXCEPT:

• Fallspecial - frame playback seems weird/offset by 1
• AttackDash - Brawl moves TopN via bone IIRC and I don't think Melee does this, so that's the one discrepancy
• AttackLw3 - Frame 40 for Brawl seems kinda busted; it doesn't match up with squat, squatwait, or squatrv. Since we never see Frame 40 in Melee, this might always be the case, but regardless...

There's probably a ton more that allign and almost allign save for one frame of difference, but this is all I bothered to check right now. STILL a lot.


Hope this helps anyone whos still interested in trying to tackle this format!

Interesting info.

This reminds me of Alan Turing breaking the encryption method of the Nazi Enigma machine, at least how it was depicted in the movie "The Imitation Game" - which I highly recommend to everyone on this forum (I believe it is on Netflix right now).

 

[Itaru]

I found important value in animation file.

Spoiler

This is AirF animation file in PlClAj.dat(Young link).
Float value 42600000, which is surrounded by a red line, means "End frame of the animation."
This value doesn't influence animation speed. And you can set this value bigger than default value.