Animations and Casting Time

[Uncle]

So i'm using a "special" method to get around having to use Cast Backswing/Cast Point for Cast Animations. Instead, I set cast backswing/point to 0 and use Casting Time to mimic their effects. This will make a Unit play it's full Spell animation (or any animation you set) over the Casting Time when using an Ability. This works great for some units but doesn't work at all for others and that's the problem.

Example:
I set the Paladin's Cast Backswing and Cast Point to 0.00. This makes him cast his abilities instantly (The unit still Stops).
Then I add a Casting Time of 0.40 seconds to all of his abilities. This has a few interesting effects:

1) This makes the Paladin play his entire Spell animation over the 0.40 second Casting Time.
2) This allows me to give every Ability it's own unique Casting Time. Much better than having to rely on the static Cast Backswing/Point fields.
3) This gets rid of the need for Animation-cancelling after you cast a spell since the animation will have already finished.

Unfortunately, this method doesn't work for every Hero/Unit. After testing the Human heroes I found that the Paladin and Archmage can use this method but the Mountain King and Blood Mage cannot. For whatever reason (I assume it's a Model issue) MK/BM refuse to play an Animation no matter what I set it to.

Notes:
1) I tried using different Animation Names but it didn't make a difference.
2) I made sure that I tested this using the same exact unit so it shouldn't have anything to do with the Object Editor.

Any ideas? I'm almost certain it has to do with the Models themselves.

EDIT: Read my latest comment.

 

[deepstrasz]

@SonsOfSami @Hermit any ideas?

@Uncle if it's some sort of bug report it or at least on the World Editor feedback thread.

Also, is there a way to make spells not stop the caster when casting without recreating them as Channel or Berserk?

 

[Uncle]

I was unaware that you could make an Instant ability using Channel. I always relied on Berserk, Windwalk, etc...

 

[wc3neverdies]

For now the only thing that i see is that both paladin and archamge spell animation last more than 2 seconds (2.7 sec), and the MK and BM spell animations less than 2 seconds.
I edited a bloodmage model to make the spell animation 2.5 seconds long. Try it with this model and see.

 

[Wrda]

Wait, what? Channel can be instant, but it makes you stop moving or any other stuff in general. Divine shield, wind walk, mana shield, berserk and some more, including item abilities are also instant but don't stop orders.
Not sure if that's what you meant to say or not.

 

[Uncle]

For now the only thing that i see is that both paladin and archamge spell animation last more than 2 seconds (2.7 sec), and the MK and BM spell animations less than 2 seconds.
I edited a bloodmage model to make the spell animation 2.5 seconds long. Try it with this model and see.

Thanks for the help but unfortunately it didn't work.

What about the Animation Names? I noticed that in the Object Editor I am forced to set the Animation Names of the ability to all undercase letters. Could it be a Animation String issue?

 

[Wrda]

Wtf? Stand Channel doesn't even exist in blood mage. When you have 2 words for the animation you must make a comma. so "Spell,Channel" will work, irrelevant if you do start letters uppercase or not.

 

[Uncle]

So what I figured out so far:

1) This "issue" only exists when using the Channel ability. Non-Channel abilities won't play an Animation until AFTER the ability is cast regardless of Casting Time/Backswing.

2) There seems to be a conflict with having 2+ Animations that have "Spell" in their name. Like Spell and Spell Slam. Edit: OR maybe the conflict is when you don't have any animations with Channel in their name.

A solution to #2 is to change the Animation names for the Model in something like Magos' Model Editor. Here's what I did with the Rexxar model to make him play an Animation:
I changed the name of his default "Spell" animation to "Stand Channel".
I changed the name of his "Spell Slam" animation to "Spell".

This made Rexxar play his default "Spell" animation (The one where he thrusts one axe forward) when I cast my Channel ability. I guess this worked because Channel is looking for any animation with Channel in it's name. It's a bit confusing... I can't say anything for sure.

3) I can't seem to get Channel to play more than one animation.The ability ignores what I set the Animation Name to in the Object Editor and defaults to whichever animation has "Channel" in it's name. At least I think that's what it's doing. So in this case since I changed Rexxar's default "Spell" animation to "Stand Channel" it chooses that animation to play.

I realize this sounds confusing but don't worry I'm pretty confused myself. Basically, there is some kind of issue with the Channel ability (at least in the way that I'm using it) when it comes to certain Model's Animation Names that is preventing it from playing an Animation. I found a solution to this problem by changing the Animation Names for these Models. However, I can only get 1 and only 1 Animation to play. It doesn't matter what I change the Art - Animation Names to in the Object Editor, the Channel ability will only ever play that 1 animation.

Anyway, I give up on trying to make this work properly. It's too much of a hassle to have to edit the models and even then I can only get 1 Animation to work.

Maybe someone else who understands this better can figure out a solution.

 

[wc3neverdies]

Channel ability is supposed to be looped, it's used in the campaign for Illidan when he closes the portal in the Outlands. You can set "Follow Throught Time" to any value more than 0.00 and choose any amination you want, and the unit should play that animation repeatetly for the duration you set.
Try to set the animation to attack or death or any other. You can set "Follow Throught Time" to 0.01 and choose any animation you want the unit to play. You can also try to set "Follow Throught Time" to the duration of the animation you want. Set "Follow Throught Time" to 2.5 second for the archmage and it shoudl play it only once.

 

[Uncle]

Channel ability is supposed to be looped, it's used in the campaign for Illidan when he closes the portal in the Outlands. You can set "Follow Throught Time" to any value more than 0.00 and choose any amination you want, and the unit should play that animation repeatetly for the duration you set.
Try to set the animation to attack or death or any other. You can set "Follow Throught Time" to 0.01 and choose any animation you want the unit to play. You can also try to set "Follow Throught Time" to the duration of the animation you want. Set "Follow Throught Time" to 2.5 second for the archmage and it shoudl play it only once.

The reason I wanted to use Casting Time instead of Follow Through Time is because when using Follow Through Time the ability Starts it's Effects immediately where as with Casting Time it Starts it's Effects AFTER the Casting Time finishes.

In other words, the ability will spend mana/go on cooldown immediately when using Follow Through Time. However, with Casting Time it will only go on cooldown/spend mana after the casting time is finished. This is nice because I want the option to be able to cancel the ability before it goes off.

 

[wc3neverdies]

Well you you want to change animation with triggers my suggestion is to use the CustomScript with the function call SetUnitAnimationByIndex( unit, index). I found out that this function is better than any command that uses the string values.

 

[Uncle]

Yeah, I already have it working. It's just that it's 100x better to use Casting Time seeing as how all you have to do is punch in the Animation Name in the Ability and set the Casting Time and the game does the rest for you. If the bugs get sorted out I'll go back to using it but for now triggers are the way to go.

 

[maxodors]

Yeah, I already have it working. It's just that it's 100x better to use Casting Time seeing as how all you have to do is punch in the Animation Name in the Ability and set the Casting Time and the game does the rest for you. If the bugs get sorted out I'll go back to using it but for now triggers are the way to go.

What if you want to use the same method, but you don't want it to make it possible to interrupt abilities? To clarify, you set units cast point and backswing to zero and set cast time to X time, so it plays the event after the animation is finished. However, stuns or orders do not interrupt the cast.

 

[Ugabunda]

Not really directed at your question Uncle, but I’m pretty sure cast time is not ideal to use anyhow when it comes to triggers. I remember having lots of issues recognizing the spell in some instances (I believe it was when “reflecting a spell”), so I gave up using cast time completely.

Not sure if this even applies to your case, but just a thing to keep in mind...