Author Topic: [FF7] What determines if an attack's name is displayed?  (Read 4030 times)

Ragna

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It's a question I've always made myself but could never find an answer for, since first of all I see there's no flag for that in the attack data.
But then if you look at (for example) a Guard Hound's AI it's clear that it chooses between two attack IDs (one displays the name, the other not) and then performs the same AI command: dispatch the attack by ID.

So... do you think that could be hardcoded in the attack's animation script?

My bet is that (according to the PS1 data) it's there somewhere in the attack files inside the MAGIC folder. These seem to contain some code, geometry, and textures, all mixed up.

Do you have any info on this little mystery? Did I overlook something?

I summon you, NFITC1!!! (but help from anyone else is apreciated too  :-P)

JBedford128

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Re: [FF7] What determines if an attack's name is displayed?
« Reply #1 on: 2015-05-28 06:46:42 »
It's in the model animation script files The opcode 0xEA.

http://wiki.qhimm.com/view/FF7/Battle/Battle_Animation/Animation_Script

DLPB_

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Re: [FF7] What determines if an attack's name is displayed?
« Reply #2 on: 2015-05-28 07:05:56 »
Ah, I was right :)  The AB files.  Stupid place to put it though... I would have assumed script AI could and should have done that.

nfitc1

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Re: [FF7] What determines if an attack's name is displayed?
« Reply #3 on: 2015-05-28 14:03:29 »
Well, yeah. JBedford beat me to it. So you wasted MP summoning me. :P
However, I'll leave this here. http://wiki.qhimm.com/view/FF7/Battle/Battle_Animation/Animation_Script

Ah, I was right :)  The AB files.  Stupid place to put it though... I would have assumed script AI could and should have done that.

It's in the AB script to control the timing of display. There are lots of actions where the action name is displayed several seconds into a "wind-up" animation. Consider Joker and his stronger cousin Death Dealer (I'm also convinced that the Y positioning coordinate was used solely for them). For most of their actions they throw cards in the air and it gets revealed later what action they're about to do despite the action already being initiated. You don't want the name to display until the card is revealed so you cause them to do their card animation and pause a set number of frames before the name pops up.
If it were in the AI script it would always display at the beginning of the action which would eliminate this delay, or create another layer of difficulty in production if any of the animations were to change at all.
I used to believe it was a property of the action itself like it is in FFVI.

DLPB_

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Re: [FF7] What determines if an attack's name is displayed?
« Reply #4 on: 2015-05-28 14:44:09 »

Quote
Well, yeah. JBedford beat me to it. So you wasted MP summoning me. :P

hahaha, and you're one of the most expensive ones too.  What a bummer.

Ragna

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Re: [FF7] What determines if an attack's name is displayed?
« Reply #5 on: 2015-05-28 23:27:52 »
Thanks for the replies!

Can someone better describe which files are involved in containing these animation scripts?
Am I right in assuming (as I said earlier) they're the files inside the MAGIC folder (at least according to the PS1 version)?
What are the differences between PS1 and PC versions?

nfitc1

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Re: [FF7] What determines if an attack's name is displayed?
« Reply #6 on: 2015-05-29 11:56:56 »
The animation scripts are in the actor models' **AB file group. I don't think that's what it is in the PSX version, however. I have a topic on the AB files that contains most of what I have discovered about them.

I can't attest to the file structure of the PSX version, but those won't be in the MAGIC folder.