M2
Effects
UV-Animations
- This block contains definitions for texture animations, for example, flowing water or lava in some models. The keyframe values are used in the texture transform matrix.
nTexAnims records of 0x3C bytes starting at ofsTexAnims, followed by data referenced in these records.
| Offset | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 0x00 | ABlock (float[3]) | Translation |
| 0x14 | ABlock (short[4]) | Rotation |
| 0x28 | ABlock (float[3]) | Scaling |
The three subrecords specify uv-transforms. Translation seems to work, producing nice flowing lava and waterfalls.
UV-Animation lookup table
- nTexAnimLookup items starting at ofsTexAnimLookup.
| Offset | Type | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0x00 | uint16 | AnimatedTextureId | Array indices (0 to n-1). -1 for a static texture. |
Ribbon emitters
- nRibbonEmitters records of 0xB0 bytes starting at ofsRibbonEmitters, followed by data referenced in these records.
The records have the following structure:
| Offset | Type | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0x00 | uint32 | Unknown | Always (as I have seen): -1. |
| 0x04 | uint32 | BoneID | A bone to attach to. |
| 0x08 | float | Position[3] | And a position, relative to that bone. |
| 0x14 | int32 | nTextures | Number of referenced textures. |
| 0x18 | int32 | ofsTextures | Offset to the referenced textures. |
| 0x1C | int32 | nBlendRef | Number of some referenced integers,which look like the blending for the texture |
| 0x20 | int32 | ofsBlendRef | Offset to the blending-integers. |
| 0x24 | ABlock | Color | A color in three floats. |
| 0x38 | ABlock | Opacity | And an alpha value in a short, where: 0 - transparent, 0x7FFF - opaque. |
| 0x4C | ABlock | Above | The height above. |
| 0x60 | ABlock | Below | The height below. Do not set these to the same! |
| 0x74 | float | Resolution | This defines how smooth the ribbon is. A low value may produce a lot of edges. |
| 0x78 | float | Length | The length aka Lifespan. |
| 0x7C | float | Emissionangle | use arcsin(val) to get the angle in degree |
| 0x80 | short | Renderflags[2] | Perhaps the same as in renderflags |
| 0x84 | ABlock | UnknownABlock1 | (short) |
| 0x98 | ABlock | UnknownABlock2 | (boolean) |
| 0xAC | int32 | unknown | This looks much like just some Padding to the fill up the 0x10 Bytes, always 0 |
Some models that contain ribbon emitters and are viewable in the game world are: Wisps in BFD, Al'ar the Phoenix in Tempest Keep and any other phoenix models and the energy trails in the COT (not the actual instance, but the entrance cave in Tanaris Desert). Other models with ribbon emitters are spells and effects.
Parameters from the MDL format that are probably in here somewhere: emission rate, rows, cols ...?
Particle emitters
This is partly wrong as hell!
- nParticleEmitters records starting at ofsParticleEmitters, followed by data referenced in these records.
| Offset | Type | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0x000 | uint32 | Unknown | Always (as I have seen): -1. |
| 0x004 | uint32 | Flags | See Below |
| 0x008 | float | Position[3] | The position. Relative to the following bone. |
| 0x014 | uint16 | Bone | The bone its attached to. |
| 0x016 | uint16 | Texture | And the texture that is used. |
| 0x018 | uint32 | lenModelFilename | The lenght of the ModelFilename. Zeroterminated String! |
| 0x01C | uint32 | ofsModelFilename | And the matching offset. This is used for spawning Models. *.mdx |
| 0x020 | uint32 | lenParticleFileName | The lenght of the ParticleFilename. Zeroterminated String! |
| 0x024 | uint32 | ofsParticleFileName | And the matching offset again.This is used for spawning particles of a model. *.mdx! |
| 0x028 | uint8 | BlendingType | A blending type for the particle. See Below |
| 0x029 | uint8 | EmitterType | 1 - Plane (rectangle), 2 - Sphere, 3 - Spline? (can't be bothered to find one) |
| 0x02A | uint16 | ParticleColorSomething | This one is used for ParticleColor.dbc. See below. |
| 0x02C | uint8 | ParticleType? | Found below. |
| 0x02D | uint8 | HeadorTail | 0 - Head, 1 - Tail, 2 - Both |
| 0x02E | uint16 | TextureTileRotation | Rotation for the texture tile. (Values: -1,0,1) |
| 0x030 | uint16 | TextureRows | How many different frames are on that texture? People should learn what rows and cols are. |
| 0x032 | uint16 | TextureCols | Its different everywhere. I just took it random. |
| 0x034 | ABlock | EmissionSpeed | All of the following blocks should be floats. |
| 0x048 | ABlock | SpeedVariation | Variation in the flying-speed. (range: 0 to 1) |
| 0x05C | ABlock | VerticalRange | Drifting away vertically. (range: 0 to pi) |
| 0x070 | ABlock | HorizontalRange | They can do it horizontally too! (range: 0 to 2*pi) |
| 0x084 | ABlock | Gravity | Fall down, apple! |
| 0x098 | ABlock | Lifespan | Everyone has to die. |
| 0x0AC | uint32 | unknownPadding | I don't know what these two values should do.. |
| 0x0B0 | ABlock | EmissionRate | Stread your particles, emitter. |
| 0x0C4 | uint32 | unknownPadding2 | It could have been an array without them.. |
| 0x0C8 | ABlock | EmissionAreaLength | Well, you can do that in this area. |
| 0x0DC | ABlock | EmissionAreaWidth | |
| 0x0F0 | ABlock | Gravity2 | A second gravity? Its strong. |
| 0x104 | FBlock | ParticleColor | (short, vec3f) This one points to 3 floats defining red, green and blue. |
| 0x114 | FBlock | ParticleOpacity? | (short, short) Looks like opacity (short) --Igor; Most likely they all have 3 timestamps for {start, middle, end}. |
| 0x124 | FBlock | ParticleSizes | (short, vec2f) It carries two floats per key. (x and y scale) |
| 0x134 | int32 | UnknownFields[2] | No references. Padding? |
| 0x13C | FBlock | Intensity | Some kind of intensity values seen: 0,16,17,32(if set to different it will have high intensity) (short, short) |
| 0x14C | FBlock | UnknownReferences1 | (short, short) |
| 0x15C | float | UnknownFloats1[3] | They have something to do with the spread. |
| 0x168 | float | Scale[3] | Wheey, its the scale! |
| 0x174 | float | Drag | Air resistance, see below. |
| 0x178 | float | UnknownFloats2[2] | More unknown fields. |
| 0x180 | float | Rotation | As a single value? Most likely only one axis then.. |
| 0x184 | float | UnknownFloats3[2] | More unknown fields. |
| 0x18C | float | Rot1[3] | Model Rotation 1 |
| 0x198 | float | Rot2[3] | Model Rotation 2 |
| 0x1A4 | float | Trans[3] | Model Translation |
| 0x1B0 | float | UnknownFloats4[4] | Unknown, unknown, unknown, unknown, unknown... |
| 0x1C0 | uint32 | nUnknownReference | |
| 0x1C4 | uint32 | ofsUnknownReference | Vec3D array |
| 0x1C8 | ABlock | EnabledIn | (boolean) Has been in the earlier documentations. Enabled Anim Block. Appears to be used sparely now, probably there's a flag that links particles to animation sets where they are enabled. |
About Drag: For a non-zero values, instead of travelling linearly the particles seem to slow down sooner. I can't work out the exact function but for a value of, say, 10, the particles pretty much stay in place. Not the same effect as gravity, though. Speed is multiplied by exp( -drag * t ). This value is also present in M3 format.
About particle rotation: 0 for none, 1 to rotate the particle 360 degrees throughout its lifetime.
Rotation can be a float value greater or less one. Results look better if use it as a "phase shift": particle_rotate = randfloat(-sys->rotation * pi, sys->rotation * pi); --Igor
Particle Flags
| Value | Description |
|---|---|
| 0x1 | |
| 0x2 | |
| 0x4 | |
| 0x8 | |
| 0x10 | Do not Trail |
| 0x20 | |
| 0x40 | |
| 0x80 | Particles in Model Space |
| 0x100 | |
| 0x200 | |
| 0x400 | Pinned Particles, their quad enlarges from their creation position to where they expand. |
| 0x800 | |
| 0x1000 | XYQuad Particles. They align to XY axis facing Z axis direction. |
| 0x2000 | |
| 0x4000 | |
| 0x8000 | |
| 0x10000 | |
| 0x20000 | |
| 0x40000 |
ParticleColorSomething
This one is used so you can assign a color to specific particles. They loop over all particles and compare +0x2A to 11, 12 and 13. If that matches, the colors from the dbc get applied.
Particle types
| Value | Description |
|---|---|
| 0 | "normal" particle |
| 1 | large quad from the particle's origin to its position (used in Moonwell water effects) |
| 2 | seems to be the same as 0 (found some in the Deeprun Tram blinky-lights-sign thing) |
ParticleType is always 0 and, maybe, now (Flags & 0x40000) != 0 means "particles from origin to position". --Igor Checked and verified --BlinkHawk
Particle Blendings
| Value | Description |
|---|---|
| 0 | glDisable(GL_BLEND); glDisable(GL_ALPHA_TEST); |
| 1 | glBlendFunc(GL_SRC_COLOR, GL_ONE); |
| 2 | glBlendFunc(GL_SRC_ALPHA, GL_ONE_MINUS_SRC_ALPHA); |
| 3 | glDisable(GL_BLEND); glEnable(GL_ALPHA_TEST); |
| 4 | glBlendFunc(GL_SRC_ALPHA, GL_ONE); |
from Modelviewer source
The Fake-AnimationBlock
- Its pretty much like the real one but without the "header".
| Offset | Type | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0x000 | uint32 | nTimestamps | The number of timestamps. |
| 0x004 | uint32 | ofsTimestamps | And the offset to them. The timestamps are shorts! (?) |
| 0x008 | uint32 | nKeys | The same number again. This time its the number of Keys / Values. |
| 0x00C | uint32 | ofsKeys | And their offset. |
But they're unable to change between different animations, so they directly point to the data.