How to properly adjust your sword (not lightsaber) length

[Lord Of Hate]

This is mainly a tutorial for adjusting PHYSICAL WEAPONS like swords, staves, pretty much anything that isn't a lightsaber, things like this:

 

Or this:

 

Not really for this:

 

Or this:

For those wanting to find out how to change your LIGHTSABER length, go here: https://jkhub.org/wiki/index.php?title=.sab

With that said, let's get into the tutorial!

This is a tutorial to show you how to stop the blade at JUUUUUST the right length (the tip, or end of the weapon, obviously), so you don't end up hitting your opponents with the air if it's too long...

...or hitting them with the hilt if it's too short. ?

So, everyone knows you can change your saber's length using a .sab file, this is obvious, but how about a sword?

Kind of unpredictable, because the length doesn't show since it's a physical blade, right? Unless!

When editing your .sab file for your sword or bladed weapon, add this to it:

(noBlade        "0") no parenthesis.

So it should look something like this (this is my own .sab file for a sword that just got ported):

Quote

 

DragonToothSword
{
    name        "Dragon's Tooth Sword"
    saberType    "SABER_SINGLE"
    saberModel    "models/weapons2/sword_dragonfang/sword_drgnfang.glm"
    saberLength    "25"
    noBlade        "0"
    noDlight    "1"
    noWallMarks    "1"
    onInWater    "1"
    trailStyle    "2"
    noWallMarks    "1"
    throwable       "0"
    disarmable    "0"
    lockBonus    "30"
    parryBonus    "30"
    breakParryBonus      "30"
    disarmBonus     "30"
    bounceOnWalls    "1"
    animSpeedScale  "1.5"
    moveSpeedScale  "1.5"
    maxChain    "-1"
    numBlades       "1"
    damagescale     "4"
        
    soundOn        "sound/weapons/dragontoothsword/dragontoothdraw.mp3"
    soundLoop       none
    soundOff    none

    swingSound1    "sound/weapons/dragontoothsword/dragontoothswing.mp3"
    swingSound2    "sound/weapons/dragontoothsword/dragontoothswing.mp3"
    swingSound3    "sound/weapons/dragontoothsword/dragontoothswing.mp3"

    fallSound1    "sound/weapons/dragontoothsword/dragontoothsofthit.mp3"
    fallSound2    "sound/weapons/dragontoothsword/dragontoothsofthit.mp3"
    fallSound3    "sound/weapons/dragontoothsword/dragontoothsofthit.mp3"

    hitSound1    "sound/weapons/dragontoothsword/dragontoothstab.mp3"
    hitSound2    "sound/weapons/dragontoothsword/dragontoothstab.mp3"
    hitSound3    "sound/weapons/dragontoothsword/dragontoothstab.mp3"
    
    blockSound1    "sound/weapons/dragontoothsword/dragontoothhardhit.mp3"
    blockSound2    "sound/weapons/dragontoothsword/dragontoothhardhit.mp3"
    blockSound3    "sound/weapons/dragontoothsword/dragontoothhardhit.mp3"
}

 

Adding that simple command adds a saber blade that you can see even if there's a physical blade there, this blade can be increased and decreased according.

This is it at saberLength    "90":

This is it at saberLength      "50":

As you can see, the SABER blade changes length, while the physical sword length stays the same, so all you need to do is keep changing the length till you get right down to the tip of the sword.

This will also work with weapons that have multiple sides/ends, like a staff, double-bladed sword, and even a shield or hammer.

If you're using a SHIELD or HAMMER, you may want to make use of the "saberRadius" command, which will widen the SABER blade until it's at the same wideness as the physical weapon.

If you're using a weapon with more then one side/end, you'll need to make use of "saberLength2", "saberLength3", as well as "saberRadius2" and "saberRadius3".

When you need to remove the saber blade for good in favor of your physical weapon, change it from:

noBlade        "0"

to

noBlade        "1"

Hope this helps, ya'll!

Edited December 8, 2020 by Lord Of Hate

[Lancelot]

Moved your topic to the tutorial section and changed the title a bit for better understanding.

[Lord Of Hate]

49 minutes ago, Lancelot said:

Moved your topic to the tutorial section and changed the title a bit for better understanding.

It's meant to be for swords. Changed the title to something that better conveys what this tutorial is about, thank you for the help though, mate.

[Tayst]

Let’s say I have a sword that I want to be the same length as saberlength 40, how would I achieve this? Would I have to recreate the model to be longer?

[Circa]

21 hours ago, Tayst said:

Let’s say I have a sword that I want to be the same length as saberlength 40, how would I achieve this? Would I have to recreate the model to be longer?

This won’t change the model itself, only the effective damage radius it has. If you want a sword to be physically longer, the model will need to be edited in a modeling program like Blender.

[Lord Of Hate]

On 12/16/2020 at 12:45 AM, Tayst said:

Let’s say I have a sword that I want to be the same length as saberlength 40, how would I achieve this? Would I have to recreate the model to be longer?

This wouldn't change the model, you would however, see a longer sword trail. But as far as the physical sword itself, it wouldn't hit anyone, you'd just be hitting them with air, depending on how long the sword actually is.

[Tayst]

3 hours ago, Lord Of Hate said:

This wouldn't change the model, you would however, see a longer sword trail. But as far as the physical sword itself, it wouldn't hit anyone, you'd just be hitting them with air, depending on how long the sword actually is.

All good, thanks. I managed to extend the blade in blender, and then used trial and error to match its length to the default saber length. I use the command /cg_forceownsaber Murasama to visually give me the sword, and then /saber single_8 to show single_8 to everyone else, and to use single_8’s length. This way I can use any hilt/sword in hilt I like, without it defaulting time the kyle saber on everyone else’s end. unfortunately adding the hilts to the server isn’t an option for me. 
 

Hope that helps explain what I’m trying to achieve and why. Basically I just want the sword to draw to the same length as the saber that I am actually wielding. 

[Lord Of Hate]

1 hour ago, Tayst said:

All good, thanks. I managed to extend the blade in blender, and then used trial and error to match its length to the default saber length. I use the command /cg_forceownsaber Murasama to visually give me the sword, and then /saber single_8 to show single_8 to everyone else, and to use single_8’s length. This way I can use any hilt/sword in hilt I like, without it defaulting time the kyle saber on everyone else’s end. unfortunately adding the hilts to the server isn’t an option for me. 
 

Hope that helps explain what I’m trying to achieve and why. Basically I just want the sword to draw to the same length as the saber that I am actually wielding. 

Gotcha, this is mainly a single-player or bot tutorial, haha.