Changng zombie model's skins & spawning new zombie

[gique13]

[zombiebox]

I'm working on a mod where I increase the variation of zombies by duplicating existing zombie models, reskinning,renaming the models, ie, zombie_fat_5, and then adding them to the zombie spawn code. !Big Problem! no one seems to know where the zombie spawn code is. I don't mean placing zombies, I mean altering the code that randomizes the spawn models. So far I can only reskin existing zombie models. I'm postin a screen shot of my first new zombie. It would be so cool to have a crowd of unique zombies. If anyone finds out how to do this please reply..

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[gique13]

pic2

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[gique13]

pic 3

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[anno1404]

Just to update those who were not in the chat when gique13 and I talked, everything the community knows about zombies can be found here.

Unfortunately only certain zombies can be spawned in certain areas. So not only would gique13 have to find out what controls how these zombies are spawned, but to add a new class of zombies, why certain zombies will not spawn in certain areas.

For example, you can't spawn food court zombie Bertha in the south plaza for example. We are not sure why this is and where this limitation is found.

There are three types of files which control each area:

• In data/datafile.big .txt files, like safehouse.txt. this controls the placement of items, the location of lighting, and the Store HUD when Chuck walks into a new area.
  
• In data/datafile.big .cvc excel files, these files control the lighting.
  
• In data/model/environment, these files hold the textures/images of the background. Any non-moving item such as the walls, floors, non-movable furniture, ceilings, etc.
  

In all of these files, I have never found anything controlling which zombie appears in which area.

I suggested gique13 simply reskin the existing zombies, but he wants to add new additional zombies.

gique13, I notice your pictures are taken from Chuck's perspective, you maybe interested in debug mode which lets you zoom in and zoom out on everything in the game.

BTW in debug mode there is the following options you can add to your created user.ini file:

force_load_fat_zombies
force_load_female_zombies
force_load_skinny_zombies

Although the game does not crash when you activate these, I have no idea what they do.

ForceRenderZombiesByInstance (below) sounds especially promising. Some of these zombie debug option sound incredibly promising, even beyond your question.

SPOILER: Click to show

ForceRenderZombiesByInstance
lock_local_remote_zombie_control
online_display_zombie_ownership
online_display_zombie_pool_info
online_display_zombie_sync_info
render_zombies_as_debug_lines
disable_mission_override_for_num_updating_zombie
RenderZombieHeapStats
RenderZombieStats (see picture below)
CustomZombieFaceDecalAlpha
CustomZombieFaceDecalBlue
CustomZombieFaceDecalGreen
CustomZombieFaceDecalRed
CustomZombieFaceDecalType
audio_disable_local_zombies
audio_enable_zombie_vocal_rendering
audio_enable_zombie_voice_override
audio_zombiance_search_grid_size
audio_zombiance_update_per_frame
audio_zombie_voice_action_filter_Threshold
audio_zombie_voice_max_reference_swap
audio_zombie_voice_override
show_zombie_los
DisableZombieBlending
DisableZombieHeadTracking
DisableZombieSlicing
DisableZombieSprites
DontTintZombiefiedSurvivorSkin
enable_no_zombie_video_capture_mode
ForceCustomZombieFaceDecal
zombie_attack_disabled
zombie_attack_even_in_manual_cam
zombie_camera_debug_line
zombie_dead_go_ragdoll_disabled
zombie_disable_camera_transparency
zombie_disable_fall_from_ledging
zombie_disable_terrain_scan
zombie_dont_do_grapple_position_hack
zombie_enable_caps
zombie_enable_preemptive_ragdoll
zombie_grapple_camera_disabled
zombie_grapples_disabled
zombie_immortal
zombie_logic_disabled
zombie_plot_damage
zombie_plot_reachability_test
zombie_plot_tripping_test
zombie_plot_zombie_in_grapple_window
zombie_population_max_num_limit
zombie_reactivate_dead_ragdoll
zombie_render_grapple_interface
zombie_render_grapple_windows
zombie_render_skeleton
zombie_show_debug_info
zombie_show_heading
zombie_tripping_chance_always
zombie_update_target_at_state_switch
zombies_ignore_all_humans

RenderZombieStats:

SPOILER: Click to show

[gique13]

I expect that I need to find code that looks like this:

Load_Fat_Zombie {
randomize random{ 1-5)
case random = 1
zombie_look = variation_1
etc..

I'm getting the feeling this code is in the exe, or a file with no extension that we are not aware of yet

I have done a search for words like spawn, zombie, and random in most .txt files
and have found no code like this.
The biggest clue for zombie looks, as Anno1404 pointed out, is in "data.big/models/zombies/zombie_pdv_variations.txt", but the trick is finding the code that points to this file

[Wizard]

Very cool project!

[anno1404]

Wizard just found this:

There is a file named "0024_zombiesets.txt" in data/datafile/persistent_filecache.big

NOT datafile.big, in the actual datafile folder.

This is another folder which is created by midden.

// AUTOGENERATED BY MIDDEN , DO NOT EDIT BY HAND

All these "AUTOGENERATED BY MIDDEN , DO NOT EDIT BY HAND" pages, they include only the zombies allowable in each area.

Update: This complete folder data/datafile can be completely deleted without changing game, see this post. So this will not change the zombies.

---

---

Gique states:

I skinned a fat zombie, and skinny variations also appeared in the game

The first pic in the this thread shows the fat and skinny, Gique just skinned the fat, also I skinned black arms for the fat zombie, and they show up on the cop.

[gique13]

So far I have found that items.txt defines the zombies
eg. cZombieClassItem zombie_fat
with each zombie there is a "ZombieBodyTypeName" value
This value must decide what model is chosen
the body type names do not match the models stored in zombie.big, but wherever the bodytypename class is defined, should be where the models are chosen.
Since I also see zombie code that uses "variation=3", "variation=0" I see that there may be an array somewhere that defines what textures are loaded for each kind of zombie - such as variation 3:headhas,purple shirt, etc
Each model.big has a file called "matTextureInfoArray", I don't know what format this file is, but it must be an array, it lists all the textures associated for it's folder.
If anyone finds any more code that deals with ZombieBodyTypeName, please let me know

[gique13]

here's another new zombie, I have tons of new clothes and stuff, but I', holding off until I feel this is possible

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[anno1404]

why not just release what you have? some modders would like to change the zombies.

[gique13]

I have tons of skins, but it's work applying them to dr2, and right now there doesn't seem to be a reason to do this, unless I tackle the "ZombieBodyTypeName" code issue or someone else stumbles upon a solution

[gique13]

here's the head skin for zombie_fat/zombie_fat_2.tex

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[gique13]

here's the head skin for zombie_skinny/zombie_skinny_2.tex

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[gique13]

I understand now why changing the "fat" head created a "skinny" version.
The "fat" head is zheadhasscm, which is also in the skinny model folder, when the game loads headhas it can only load one, so the headhas I changed gets applied to all instances of headhas.
Creating more variation zombies would probably be about adding more skin entries to whatever array dr2 uses to list the skins, and adding entries for those skins in the ZombieBodyTypeName code, wherever that is. Im sure this aslo has to do with the matTextureInfoArray files, unless they are just logs

[anno1404]

thank you for posting what you have found thus far, along with the files. Hopefully you can get some assistance on this further.

I thought this was an important enough topic, I added your post to the zombie box of 8 articles

[gique13]

I tried to paste -with hex editor- new entries to matTextureInfoArray file inside models/zombies.big/fat_zombie/fat_zombie_2.big
This caused DR2 to fail to pants and shirt textures for fat zombies.
This should prove that matTextureInfoArray files are arrays used to load textures for zombies. Don't know how to paste more entries, and whether DR2 would load the extra textures..

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[gique13]

ps see attached pic to see zombie texture fail

[gique13]

yikes another fail on the array edit, weird looking zombie though..

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[anno1404]

May 10, 2011 2:13:59 GMT -5 gique13 said:

yikes another fail on the array edit, weird looking zombie though..

Ha thats cool.

[tommah]

ha ha, that's awesome!