Please explain to me unit sprite / spectres

Hi,

I'm at loss here, I have updated Xenonauts to latest patch, then I overwrote everything in assets\units onto my own modded copy of Xenonauts, and still, all the Buzzards animations are broken and don't rotate properly the soldier.

So I would like a quick explanation on how to fix the situation myself. What should I check and modify to have say a proper animation, with flames from reactors of a soldier with pistol + shield, shield only, rifle + shield ?

Once I understand the system, I'll fix it, thanks!

Something is really wrong there, I believe the bugs are in the code. If you replace the buzzard armour directory with a duplicate of the wolf armour (which is working without issue, facing wise), then the new armour appearance (wolf but flying) is now buggy without facing update. I won't even speak of the absence of weapons...

case in point, code is buggy?

I guess you mean for the assault shields?

The reason the sprites don't work for them when flying is the same as why the wolf armour won't work for you when flying - there is no code for the flying part in the spectres.

It's easy to see when one opens up a working buzzard shield spectre - for example, combat shield & pistol:

  	<anim src="units/xenonaut/armour.buzzard/none/hover_w" anim="hover_NY"/> 	<anim src="units/xenonaut/armour.buzzard/none/hover_e" anim="hover_K"/> 	<anim src="units/xenonaut/armour.buzzard/none/hover_n" anim="hover_E"/>   <anim src="units/xenonaut/armour.buzzard/none/hover_s" anim="hover_D"/> 	<anim src="units/xenonaut/armour.buzzard/none/hover_nw" anim="hover_ENY"/> 	<anim src="units/xenonaut/armour.buzzard/none/hover_ne" anim="hover_EK"/> 	<anim src="units/xenonaut/armour.buzzard/none/hover_sw" anim="hover_DNY"/> 	<anim src="units/xenonaut/armour.buzzard/none/hover_se" anim="hover_DK"/> 	<anim src="units/xenonaut/armour.buzzard/none/prehover_w" anim="prehover_NY"/> 	<anim src="units/xenonaut/armour.buzzard/none/prehover_e" anim="prehover_K"/> 	<anim src="units/xenonaut/armour.buzzard/none/prehover_n" anim="prehover_E"/>   <anim src="units/xenonaut/armour.buzzard/none/prehover_s" anim="prehover_D"/> 	<anim src="units/xenonaut/armour.buzzard/none/prehover_nw" anim="prehover_ENY"/> 	<anim src="units/xenonaut/armour.buzzard/none/prehover_ne" anim="prehover_EK"/> 	<anim src="units/xenonaut/armour.buzzard/none/prehover_sw" anim="prehover_DNY"/> 	<anim src="units/xenonaut/armour.buzzard/none/prehover_se" anim="prehover_DK"/> 	<anim src="units/xenonaut/armour.buzzard/none/posthover_w" anim="posthover_NY"/> 	<anim src="units/xenonaut/armour.buzzard/none/posthover_e" anim="posthover_K"/> 	<anim src="units/xenonaut/armour.buzzard/none/posthover_n" anim="posthover_E"/>   <anim src="units/xenonaut/armour.buzzard/none/posthover_s" anim="posthover_D"/> 	<anim src="units/xenonaut/armour.buzzard/none/posthover_nw" anim="posthover_ENY"/> 	<anim src="units/xenonaut/armour.buzzard/none/posthover_ne" anim="posthover_EK"/> 	<anim src="units/xenonaut/armour.buzzard/none/posthover_sw" anim="posthover_DNY"/> 	<anim src="units/xenonaut/armour.buzzard/none/posthover_se" anim="posthover_DK"/> 	<anim src="units/xenonaut/armour.buzzard/none/hoverglow_w" anim="hoverglow_NY"/> 	<anim src="units/xenonaut/armour.buzzard/none/hoverglow_e" anim="hoverglow_K"/> 	<anim src="units/xenonaut/armour.buzzard/none/hoverglow_n" anim="hoverglow_E"/>   <anim src="units/xenonaut/armour.buzzard/none/hoverglow_s" anim="hoverglow_D"/> 	<anim src="units/xenonaut/armour.buzzard/none/hoverglow_nw" anim="hoverglow_ENY"/> 	<anim src="units/xenonaut/armour.buzzard/none/hoverglow_ne" anim="hoverglow_EK"/> 	<anim src="units/xenonaut/armour.buzzard/none/hoverglow_sw" anim="hoverglow_DNY"/> 	<anim src="units/xenonaut/armour.buzzard/none/hoverglow_se" anim="hoverglow_DK"/>

These are at the end of the file. Open up one for the assault shield, and it doesn't have these (and neither do any does wolf armour, hence no rotation when flying when you tried that). Easiest way to remedy is to copy the spectre file, replace all "combat" with "assault", and put the spectre in the assaultshield.pistol folder. Rinse and repeat for other shield.item variations.

Thanks Mikhail, I see these extra entries indeed.

I forgot to mention, it's the same for sentinel armour too.

yes, this is all the same problem.

Now, if I search for hover_w.png in Buzzard folder, there is only one for None, meaning nothing in hands. It means there is no art at all showing a soldier in hover mode, except bare handed?

And same for Sentinel. The arts are not there.

The png's are all in the "none" folders because the soldier can't use a weapon when flying, so the weapon is holstered/put away. So there are no animations for flying soldiers with weapons in hand.

I should imagine it's possible to just change what the animation source is pointing at if you want airborne troops with weapons in hand, but one might lose the glow effects.

no that's ok, I'm very happy to understand how to have the soldiers rotate correctly.

Are shields protecting while in mid air though? You now intrigue me, I hope they do!