Up for a challenge?

[Michaera]

This might not even be terribly feasable, but I was just sitting here in my mog house staring at my moogle (gogo Semih!) and I wondered "why can't I have my bow on my back also?"

So here's the challenge I present to you guys. With the awesome skill I've recognized while sharking through these forums and some of the custom dats and renders, would it be possible for you to toy with the .dats for some of the most common bows (Shigeto, War, Selene's/Power, Eurytos, maybe Master Caster's) such that they would be displayed on the character's back, just like my Semih here?

It sounds like a totally impossible challenge, but the one thing that makes me wonder if this would be possible or not is that, for one, NPCs seem to have no problem with having their bows visible, and two, every time your change your bow to another of a different model, it does that character-flicker thing, which makes me think of a visibly different model being changed. For example (I'm sorry, I'm a noob at this, so...) say you were changing from your Onion Knife to your Beestinger, it would do that flicker thing... But what if your Beestinger model was empty? It would still flicker, right? What if bows are currently such that the model for the bow on the back is empty, blank, hidden, etc... Could we replace it with a visible version? From the way the model viewer shows bows equipped while idle (see at the very bottom of this post) it makes me think they're there, just hidden and laying there between our feet, drawn, pointing down. o.O

I know this will cause all kinds of problems with the motion of the bow while you're shooting it, how it comes off your back, etc, but for now I just want to see myself wearing it. :3 If possible~ Posted below (hopefully) is a shot of my moogle in the model viewer, in case anyone has missed what I've been rambling about. (I have no idea what the book she's standing on is about)



And here's one of my Mithra model in generic RNG AF2 with a Shigeto bow out, standing in the Common > idl position, if that helps at all...



I assume it wouldn't be as simple as just moving (somehow) the model for the bow itself up onto the back-region of the Mithra model, but... Any thoughts/ideas/brave souls wishing to undertake this task?

[Stromgarde]

Re: Up for a challenge?

Short answer: Yes.

Long answer: To my knowledge it would be impossible to make it the same bow that you draw. You would have one bow on your back all the time, and then pull another one out of thin air while you still have it on your back. So, while it is possible, it's not really aesthetically viable. However, if you wish, I'll see what I can do over the next few days within the aforementioned limits.

[Spazz]

Re: Up for a challenge?

It is possible... but just like Stromgarde said, it would pretty much be only for looks. However, that is what most people want anyways. All you would need to do is cut the vertex's off the models back and then implement them onto the character .dat. You could even rip the texture off of it too.

Possible Yes.

HOWEVER, what I would say is - if you look on the model with the bow on the back. She also has a quiver for the arrows. My suggestion for any modeller going to attempt this is to simply put the quiver on your back... That way you dont have to worry about the bow on your back not matching the bow in your equipment. Dont even put the bow there.

Just a suggestion.

[Kilandor]

Re: Up for a challenge?

I agree, I think the quiver alone, on the same side that the motion to grab an arrow is on would be awsome. I think....Maybe it could be created on the weapon, and have it static on the back. But it would require it to be moded for every single bow if you wanted it on everyone. The static bow on the back woudl look goofy.

[Michaera]

Re: Up for a challenge?

Thanks guys for your responses. :3 I have a few things I'd like to clarify, see if I can get my ideas across any better than I did earlier.

It sounds like, from what you responded, you would make the bow on the back as part of a given set of armor's file? Such that, say, whenever I wear my Hunter's Jerkin, I have the bow on my back? Initially I had been thinking that it could actually be associated with the weapon itself, somehow. This would solve the problem of the bow matching the one in your inventory, but actually going about it might be a little difficult.

What I'd been thinking, in my inexperienced layman's terms, is that for a .dat there are several states that are associated with it. For example, your standard Mithra has a state for standing still, walking, running, swinging her weapon, drawing her bow, etc. As far as the weapons go, it looked to me that there were two different states--resting, and in use--with which one being displayed determined by what the character was doing. Going then by the model viewer and those rare glitches in game where you start running just before firing your bow and it drops to the ground beneath your feet, is that the "rest" position for a bow lies on the ground there. So my reasoning had just been that if somehow that resting position could be moved to the character's back instead of the floor, and somehow made visible.... =)

In this way, the change would have to be made for every weapon, but it would make it such that no one weapon was displayed on your back permanently. As for the animation, I would imagine it would wind up such that whenever you went to shoot your bow, the one on your back just magically teleported into your character's hands, was fired, and then returned to their back, but I guess that makes just as much sense as it coming out of nowhere/your pocket as it currently does.

If what I'm asking is totally impossible or just impractical given our current tools for .dat playing, just give me a /slap and I shall return to lurking until I get my next random idea. I honestly don't know of the limitations of the system, since I've seen some pretty crazy things done so far. But if this can't be done (and maybe also if it can), I agree that it would be mighty cool to have the quiver on our backs, if nothing else, especially for the races that actually draw an arrow from it in their animation, like Elvaan males (and Anticans!). In that case it might be something better attached to a piece of gear like the RNG AF bodies, JSE, and maybe even the Kirin's Osode.

Thanks for the consideration~

[Kilandor]

Re: Up for a challenge?

Well somone made a request on FFXIonline and so I started work on it kinda. This is just with a brown Texture and very basic but can see its possible.

And yes! you only see the quiver if the bow is on equiped, if your not shooting it should still be there. (didnt' test ingame) I don't have a mithra ^^

This Is what it looks like when shooting, and it works well running to

I added a short little strap to see how it would do. With no Movment its ok.

But... When walking or Shooting, clipping occurs. The only way that this might be fixed is attaching to different parts of the skeleton. But I think it will still clip. But it may be possible to do a short Strap, and make it look like its hooked to the body. I could just move it out, but then there w oudl be a big gap between the body and strap

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Woot! Yes you can attach something like that to another part of a skeleton and it move. With some tweaking and finding the right part to put it on and what not it would work as you can see below. I attached it to like the shoulder skeleton (which is like .8 on one and .2 on another part. It moves kinda weird right now but it gives you the idea. So yes you can add soemthign and it not be static It can move with the motion of the character!

[Michaera]

Re: Up for a challenge?

Ooo Kilandor, I'm actually liking how that looks. :D If the bow can't be done, then that quiver is definitely worth adding in, especially once it's got a nice skin and everything. Hell it'd be cool to have even with a bow. Could even have a few arrow fletchings sticking out the one end, it would look absolutely perfect on the Elvaan Male model, the way they draw their bows.

If you'd like a Mithra to test it out on, though, let me know and I'll take it for a spin. ^^

[Kilandor]

Re: Up for a challenge?

Yea I already thought about the arrows, and they are already in there 5 to be exact. It maybe possible to have the bow on the back. But I think moving it would off center it off the hand, when its pulled to shoot. Not to mention it would warp off to the hand to. I'll post new screenshot soon maybe with the arrows.

It looks cool with the arrows ^^

I problem I noticed though....Every bow uses different arrows some use similar though, but some of them shaft is different color, and it would be to much trouble to move arrows back into the quiver, for every bow. but...Maybe I have an Idea, after I finish this one up i'll try it out.

[Michaera]

Re: Up for a challenge?

You beat me to it eh? XD Well that's cool! Glad it looks good. And yah, I had figured you'd have that bow warping to the hand thing if it was on the back, and that thought was kind of ehhhh.. I'll save that for me next thought: crossbows! *gringrin*

Sounds like your results are turning out really well though, can't wait to see more screenshots. :D

[Kilandor]

Re: Up for a challenge?

*Removed the old images*

Ok, I kinda finished this. I think it looks alright Currently this is only for Composite bow for mithra. It will have to be copied over in VRS for each bow, Individually. I think it that can be done pretty easy. Since that would require so many. I'll do a bow, for a race as requested. Please Request over on my forum.

I didn't go with the strap because its a pain to try to do, and it looks fine without it. there shoudln't be any clipping, but if you see any let me know.

As usual the download can be found on my site.