Library of the Ancients => Final Fantasy IV Research & Development => Topic started by: Dragonsbrethren on June 05, 2008, 02:12:31 PM
Title: Bow & Arrow Animations
Post by: Dragonsbrethren on June 05, 2008, 02:12:31 PM
If you've read my weapon animation hacking document you probably noticed that bows and arrows have their own palette assignments, but only the arrow's palette is usually seen in the SNES version. It turns out this is only half true, if you equip the arrows in a character's right hand the arrow palette is used, but if you equip the bow in the right hand the bow's palette is used instead. Only noticed this because a save I downloaded had Rosa's bow and arrow reversed.
This does not apply to the GBA version where the bow's palette is always used, regardless of which arrows are equipped.
Edit: Did some further testing. As I figured it's not just the palette that changes but the entire animation. A functional bow and arrow combination animation requires one weapon's fourth byte set to 04 and the other weapon's set to 05, it doesn't matter which one as long as both are used, otherwise you'll just get a normal attack animation. If the weapon in a character's right hand has its fourth byte set to 04 or 05 and the other weapon doesn't have the correct byte the character will use the punching animation instead, the combination still functions perfectly and the damage done is correct.
Title: Re: Bow & Arrow Animations
Post by: Dragonsbrethren on June 05, 2008, 03:40:03 PM
Another thing you may have noticed in my document are the four unused animations that follow the normal weapons - two bows and two arrows. The bows and arrows each share the same animation, meaning they were most likely intended to be used as a set and not equipped with a different bow and arrow as that would cause the wrong animation to be used if they were equipped in the left hand instead of the right.
Unused Animation 1 - 24170D05 (http://dragonsbrethren.slickproductions.org/images/ff4/unusedarrow1.png) It's kind of hard to see in this shot, but this animation is identical to the one used by the magic arrow spell.
Unused Animation 2 - 21171505 (http://dragonsbrethren.slickproductions.org/images/ff4/unusedarrow2.png) This one fires a sword at the enemy, similar to the dancing dagger spell but with swords instead of knives. Note that this is a unique hit animation, making an arrow use the normal sword graphic won't work like this does.
:edit:
I mentioned this in the Fuma Shuriken topic but the first "dancing sword" animation's palette assignment is used by the dancing dagger spell.
Title: Re: Bow & Arrow Animations
Post by: Deathlike2 on June 05, 2008, 03:46:51 PM
Hmm, I wonder how the Shurikens work if they are equippable...
I wonder if other stuff can be substituted in the animation... like Axes.
Then there's also the Boomerang/Dwarf Axe animation...
The "Dancing Sword" looks pretty awesome though.
Title: Re: Bow & Arrow Animations
Post by: Dragonsbrethren on June 05, 2008, 03:55:45 PM
Shurikens, IIRC, look identical to how they do when you throw them. As for the other weapons, yeah, you can make them use any graphics and I've got quite a few unique ones in my hack already. Some animations only work well with certain weapons though, for example the Dwarf Axe uses two axe graphics to make its boomerang effect look right, if you replace it with say a rod it'll use the rod for one frame and the staff for the other because that's what follows the rod graphic.
It seems that using values past $15 for the third byte lets you use the other weapons' graphics in a way that's semi-compatible with the bow and arrow animation.
Title: Re: Bow & Arrow Animations
Post by: Deathlike2 on June 05, 2008, 04:20:40 PM
It looks to me that the Dancing Knife's graphic is very similar to the Dancing Sword, except with a tad more extension to the hilt (if that's the correct name/spelling).
Looks awesome, now all we need now is to incorporate it into a spell... :laugh:
Title: Re: Bow & Arrow Animations
Post by: Phoenix on June 05, 2008, 05:37:57 PM
When you first posted your weapon animations I tested some values outside the ones you gave and came to the same conclusions about the animations. These are the ones that worked for me for the third byte:
I'm using this to made a "Blade Staff" that hits with blades instead of the normal sparkles.
Also, I'm testing the weapon animations in my hack right now, and I noticed that the palettes used are the same as the Spell Effect palettes at 74D00-750FF. You can use others outside the normal range of 18-25/2C, they just don't usually look at nice as the ones intended for weapons.
Title: Re: Bow & Arrow Animations
Post by: Dragonsbrethren on June 05, 2008, 05:54:56 PM
Yeah, I knew about the other palettes being available, I only documented the ones used by the existing weapons for the document.