Author Topic: Editing Battle.lgp (FF7)  (Read 8985 times)

GuyverIV

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Editing Battle.lgp (FF7)
« on: 2015-01-01 09:49:18 »
Hi guys! I'm editing the file "battle.lgp" of final fantasy 7, and now have appeared many files with names like: yyyy, aaab, baaa etc.  Could you tell me what are the files related to the battle characters, to discard the other contents of the file? to be able to replace them?
« Last Edit: 2015-01-01 13:59:58 by GuyverIV »

GuyverIV

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Re: Editing Battle.lgp (FF7)
« Reply #1 on: 2015-01-01 10:05:18 »
sorry for the triple post but the network has made a strange error. not my fault.

Sega Chief

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Re: Editing Battle.lgp (FF7)
« Reply #2 on: 2015-01-01 14:59:55 »
Just going to be thorough so you can avoid potential issues down the road. First off, each battle model's set of files are grouped/identified by the first two letters. For instance, all the files that start with 'AQ' are for the battle model 'Shinra MP'.

The file type is identified by the last two letters. So AQ[AA], the first file to appear in the AQ group, is the 'master file', or the .HRC that loads the entire battle model. If you open this file in Kimera, it'll load the entire battle model with it's animations, etc. You can set Kimera to filter for only Battle Skeleton files, making it easier to go through them all.

After AQ[AA], there's usually an AB file. I've got it in my notes as 'unknown' (but the actual purpose of this file might have been found by now) Don't worry about that for now, it doesn't tend to be edited except under special circumstances as far as I know.

The AQ group doesn't use any texture files, but after AQ[AB] there can be some more files that store texture files used by an enemy. Any file between AB and AM will be a texture file. For instance, at MT (this is Safer's battle model) there's one texture file for his eyes which uses the designation of MT[AC]. You can open and edit Texture files using IMG2TEX, an old program that should be kicking around here somewhere.

You'll notice that after AQ[AA] and AQ[AB] it jumps straight to AQ[AM]. This is where the battle model's 'parts' start, and AQ[AM] is the Shinra MP's pelvis. AQ[AN] is likely the torso, and I think AQ[AO] is the MP's head and so on. Kimera can open these files individually.

Every file from then on will be a body part of some kind, until you reach AQ[DA]. This is the last file in a battle model group and stores all the animation data. You can edit animations through Kimera by loading the [AA] master file, so you'd only be tampering with this DA file if you were making hex edits or something.


Now a list of what the Battle Model designations actually are. There's a tonne of duplicates, most unused, but watch out for deleting a duplicate model that's actually used in-game. This database should have all of them: https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AniNoDVsrYhVdG0zZERUT0tsOF91eHE2WHo4ZWRseWc&gid=3

You can also use the Proud Clod tool (PrC) to check which models are used by which enemies from the scene.bin. This can be handy for identifying monsters quickly rather than trawling through the database, or if you're looking through modded files.

Character battle models start at RS (the frog battle model) with Cloud and co. turning up at RT and onwards. One thing to note is that Barret and Vincent have multiple battle models to handle their different attack animations when using different weaponry.

darkalex

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Re: Editing Battle.lgp (FF7)
« Reply #3 on: 2015-01-05 15:35:54 »
I dont mean to thread jack but my question is in relation to the op's question. how would you go about swapping character models do you just rename each file? as some battle models have more parts to them then others.

darkalex

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Re: Editing Battle.lgp (FF7)
« Reply #4 on: 2015-01-05 15:37:10 »
actually sega chief I believe I asked you the same question on one of your youtube channel videos lol.

Sega Chief

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Re: Editing Battle.lgp (FF7)
« Reply #5 on: 2015-01-05 16:53:57 »
The way I usually do it is copy the desired character's files and put them in a new folder, rename the designation only (RT to RZ for instance), and then paste it back into the decompiled battle.lgp to overwrite the old model. It seems to work fine even with a different number of files between models, and is apparently different to the way field models work; I tried renaming only the .hrc once but this doesn't seem to work (I haven't experimented a lot with it to find out exactly what's required).


darkalex

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Re: Editing Battle.lgp (FF7)
« Reply #6 on: 2015-01-06 18:54:14 »
Alright I will try this tonight and see. I have an awesome Zack model that I wish to replace cait with and sephiroth with vincent eventually if I can find a good model. I'll probably post a video on youtube to help other lost noobs like me get a hang of the basics.

genesis063

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Re: Editing Battle.lgp (FF7)
« Reply #7 on: 2015-01-06 19:34:01 »
The way I usually do it is copy the desired character's files and put them in a new folder, rename the designation only (RT to RZ for instance), and then paste it back into the decompiled battle.lgp to overwrite the old model. It seems to work fine even with a different number of files between models, and is apparently different to the way field models work; I tried renaming only the .hrc once but this doesn't seem to work (I haven't experimented a lot with it to find out exactly what's required).



For field models I use makou reactor and the like to find each one and rename the desired pc to with it.  This works wonders and Cloud has a hand full of animations to use for the Shinra Soldiers and vice versa.

darkalex

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Re: Editing Battle.lgp (FF7)
« Reply #8 on: 2015-01-07 04:16:10 »
I got it to work thanks everyone for the information.