Facial Expressions Update

[Cerez]

You know what I've always missed from Jedi Knight? To see Kyle, Jaden, or Luke smile just even once throughout the SP campaigns! Is that really so hard? We smile with our friends nearly every day…

 

I've always felt that the characters' facial animations were lacking in the game, and that took away from the life-likeness of the story. Now that I've started working with SP cinematics in JKA, I felt that gaping void even more, so I decided to dig into the game and see what I could do about it.

 

It turns out that the Raven team had included more animations for the face than what appear in the story, but somehow no-one ever thought of making these animations scriptable for the cutscenes. With some generous help from the community (thanks @@Asgarath83), I ended up adding my own simple bit of code to the engine, and without compromising the original, "vanilla" engine and its code/setup, I've found a way to expand on the scriptable facial animations to include the following expressions:

 

 

 

 

Surprised, Angry, Smiling, Happy, Glad

 

I've put together a simple demo mod here that cycles through four characters and their facial expressions:

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/evv91nfgcmafksr/expressions.pk3

 

You will need to bring up the console and type "devmap test" to run the demo, and type "quit" to exit it -- but you won't be able to see the new expressions unless you download and run the updated binary/DLL for your platform.

 

Mac:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/nyctk3vqpxz3i66/expressions_bin_mac.zip

 

Windows: --> Thanks so much @@eezstreet!

For Windows what you need to do is actually place the following DLL into your SP mod's folder:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/yjs5zzo1budwam3/jagamex86.dll

 

The new facial expressions are accessible with the following commands in Icarus:

 

SET_FACESMILE

SET_FACEGLAD

SET_FACEHAPPY

SET_FACESHOCKED

 

...and of course there's SET_FACEFROWN and the rest.

 

I sincerely hope that official releases of open source JK will adopt this code to provide the possibility for a slightly more lifelike cinematic experience. In the meantime, anyone working on an SP mod can use these expressions by including the custom binary file with their mod as a launcher (Mac), or including the updated DLL in their SP mod folder (Windows). The binary (launcher) needs to be placed in the GameData folder (above "base").

[MagSul]

You've done a superb job here, Kenoi! I agree that the facial animations were lacking in the original game. I'm eager to see put this to use.

[Asgarath83]

Great Work Kenoi! Now JKA is more expressive

[Cerez]

Thanks guys, I hope you will put it to good use.

 

I would love to see more JKA stories with emotional content and humour.

[Lancelot]

Facial animations are indeed a huge enhancement. It give the game more life.

I mean, everyone in the game has just two expressions, and that's not enought.

[Futuza]

Yay.  Kyle can be glad now.

[Cerez]

Windows build up! ^ ♥

 

On a side note: you can also "simulate" sadness by having the character look solemn and tilt their head towards the floor.

 

And don't forget SET_ANIM_BOTH BOTH_HEADNOD, BOTH_HEADSHAKE, BOTH_HEADTILTRSTART/STOP and BOTH_HEADTILTLSTART/STOP. You can combine these with the new/old SET_FACE animations for more variety.

[Cerez]

I'd like to submit this code/patch/update to OpenJK. Can anyone explain me what to do? I'm not really familiar with Git… Do I just create a DIFF file and upload it somewhere, or is the procedure more difficult than that?

[Asgarath83]

I think you need to ask to @@eezstreet about that.

[mrwonko]

I'd like to submit this code/patch/update to OpenJK. Can anyone explain me what to do? I'm not really familiar with Git… Do I just create a DIFF file and upload it somewhere, or is the procedure more difficult than that?

Click the fork button on github to create a copy (a so-called fork) on your own profile, upload the changes to that fork and github will display a "create pull request" button.

[Cerez]

Click the fork button on github to create a copy (a so-called fork) on your own profile, upload the changes to that fork and github will display a "create pull request" button.

Thanks Mrwonko. That means I need to create a Github account first, right?   What are the "changes" that I upload? This "pull request", does that generate the difference between the two sources?

 

I'm sorry, I'm totally clueless about Git(hub). >.<'

[Futuza]

Thanks Mrwonko. That means I need to create a Github account first, right?   What are the "changes" that I upload? This "pull request", does that generate the difference between the two sources?

 

I'm sorry, I'm totally clueless about Git(hub). >.<'

EDIT: Huh that's wierd...it erased my post.

 

What I was trying to say was that you should get on the JACoders irc and you should be able to get some help there.  Also google has a lot of tutorials for how to use Github, that will probably explain it better then any of us can.

[Cerez]

Update: we've finally merged this simple code enhancement with OpenJK. If you are using a build past March 2015, you can use the extra facial expressions without the need for this mod.

 

I've updated the official SDK Icarus documentation to reflect the additional options. @@Circa, @@Xycaleth, @@ensiform, @@eezstreet, I'm not sure what the best way to distribute this would be...

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/roqi86hqz6vsnq8/ICARUS%20Manual.doc?dl=0

[eezstreet]

Er, just edit the OpenJK wiki to mention it.

[Cerez]

There's an OpenJK wiki?!

 

Why am I always last to find out about these things?

 

 

Thanks @@eezstreet.

 

Edit: I've created a first draft, and I'll clean it up, shortly.

 

https://github.com/JACoders/OpenJK/wiki/ICARUS-Scripting

 

Are we going to use this Wiki as an official and valued resource for OpenJK? Because I don't want to waste time with it if it's not going to be the real thing...

[mrwonko]

Instead of

`multiple lines`
`of code`

you should write

```
multiple lines
of code
```

in the wiki. That way you don't get a separate code box for each line.

[Cerez]

Oh, thanks @@mrwonko!

[eezstreet]

It is a legitimate resource. I see no reason why we wouldn't keep the most up-to-date information there. (though a few pages need updating..)

[Cerez]

Okay, done with the first draft. The doco's up and ready for reference.

 

https://github.com/JACoders/OpenJK/wiki/ICARUS-Scripting