[goin-god]

Creating Custom IFP's

IFP is the animation format of the Grand Theft Auto series since GTA III. With GTA San Andreas there came a new version of the file format, but it still supports animations with the old version. IFP files can contain several single animations which are split up to objects and linked to the animated object or actor in that way. Each object contains a certain number of frames including a time key. Two frames are interpolated by the game.

Why create a new IFP?
Well, if you dont do it ,you will need to replace existing animations. And that sometimes is annoying for Modders, specially when creating Total Conversions. So with this tutorial you will learn how to Create your own IFP or Add new Animation slots in an existent IFP.

Wait a minute! I can add new anims to SA original IFP's?
Sure!, if you know how to create an IFP, you will know how to add new anims to an existent IFP file.


1. Reqerimients

In order to do this you will need a copy of 3D Studio MAX, in this tutorial i will use version 9. And in order to import/export Skeleton Data and Aniamtions you will need the KAM Max Scripts. To convert a Dumped IFP back to IFP you will need the TSB from GMAX scripts by KAM.

You can get a useless free 30-Trial version of 3D Studio Max from here:
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index...3112&id=5659302

And you may download the KAM scripts from here:
http://www.gtaforums.com/index.php?showtopic=218318
Or here:
http://www.geocities.com/kam_b_lai/GTA/scriptslist.htm

You will need this tools too, from KAM's GMAX scripts:
http://tjbp.net/upload/TSB.zip

Note: If this is your first attempt with 3D Studio Max, i recommend you to read some tutorials in the Net to cover the basics of the program. Or read the Help and mini tutos that came with the program Itself.


2. Loading an IFP

To make your own IFP, you need another one as a Base. So, open up 3D Studio Max. Once done run the IFP IO Kam script and load a DFF model.
Select the whole model + bones and hit the "M" button in the IFP dialog box.


Now click on Load IFP and open any IFP from gta3.img
We wont work with the "ped.ifp" as it is very big, and it will take much time in the Dumping part.


Ok, so you loaded an IFP file. I loaded the Colt 45 animations.

Description:
Anim. File: The IFP file name.
Total Animation: Total Number of Anims inside the IFP.
Internal Name: The name the game uses to call the IFP.

And in the list you see each anim by name. You can double clcik one and it will apply the anim on your Model. You can see it by messing aournd with the Time Line buttons.


Now you see how the anims are shown in the IFP.


3. Dumping the IFP

Now we have to "decompile" the IFP, to do so we can close the IFP IO dialog box. And we run the IFP Dump script from the Kam's Animation Panel.


Now the Dump IFP dialog box is open, click on "Dump GTA IFP" and select the IFP we saw before. In my case the colt45.ifp.

While the Dump prossess is active you will see alot of numbers and letters flash in the bottom left of the screen, when the flashing is over and the text is static again the Dump i over.

So now press "F11" and you will see the MAX SCRIPT Listener. Select all the text there and copy it.


Open up the Notepad and paste everything there. Now save that as you want, in my case colt45.txt


4. Editing the TXT

Now, lets see what we have done. We converted an IFP file to a TXT. So it can be read by a human beeing.
Lets try to understand it.

First off, delete the Path Line.
In my case this one:

CODE

<!-- path="C:\Documents and Settings\sonia\Escritorio\colt45.txt" -->

Now let me explain some values:
The Header section is this part:

CODE

// // //This is Header Section c 4 ANP3 i 1 25058 c 24 COLT45 i 1 7 // //

Important Stuff:
ANP3: Animation Package 3, Version identifier. However there is no pack with ANP2.
COLT45: This is the Name the Game uses to call this IFP file. (As seen in the IFP IO as "Internal Name")
7: Total Number of Animations (As seen in the IFP IO as "Total Animmation")

You must change the name of the IFP, there cant be more than 1 with the same name. So you may call it with the name that reprsent what kind of anims you will add in there. So, in my example i will use "PARKOUR".

If you know how many anims you will add, then change the "7" with number of anims you need inside this IFP. In my case 5.

So this is it:

CODE

// // //This is Header Section c 4 ANP3 i 1 25058 c 24 PARKOUR i 1 5 // //

Now lets move down, to the start of the first anim:

CODE

// //Animation 2guns_crouchfire Start Here c 24 2guns_crouchfire i 3 26 4316 1 c 24

Thats the header of the first animation, below that you see each bone coordinates (Nothing important now).

Important Stuff:
2guns_crouchfire: Thats the name of the animation, you have to change it in the "Start here" text and below "c 24" too, must be the same name.

So, if you know what anim will go there, then just put the name of the anim. In my case it will be "BckHndSpingBTuck"

So this is the result:

CODE

// //Animation BckHndSpingBTuck Start Here c 24 BckHndSpingBTuck i 3 26 4316 1 c 24

Each new anim beggings with the "Animation [Anim Name] Start Here", so its easy to see each of them. This IFP has 7 anims, and I only need 5. So i will go to the bottom of the text file and delete 2 anims.

Once done you will have 5 anims declared and 5 anims writed, so everything is ok. Remember to rename the other anims, in my case the other 4 anims are:
BckHndSping
CartWheel
FrntHndSpring
HandPlant

Note: Remember to delete all the Bones keys when deleting the unused anims!
If you want more anims than there are in the IFP, select the whole text from one anim. From the Header (The Start part) down until you reach the next animation Start (Dont include it). Copy it and paste it at the bottom until you counted the number of anism you want.
Remember to update the "Total Animations Number" in the IFP Header at the top of the TXT.

If everything is OK, you can save the changes and prepare for next step.


5. Compiling

Now its time to compile the TXT, convert it to IFP again.
You will need the TSB file.
Inside you will see an exe called "T2B.EXE", its a command prompt aplication. If you are not familiar with this kind of aplication dont worry i made a Batch file to exeucte it, you will only need to change the name of the TXT to "package.txt".

Here its the batch file:

CODE

@echo off echo IFP Compiler by Delfi echo Batch file created by Coin-goD echo -------------------------------------------------- echo Compiling Package.txt in current folder. echo Please wait... T2B.EXE "package.txt" "package.ifp" echo IFP File created. echo Done. echo -------------------------------------------------- echo. pause

Open a Notepad paste that code and save as "Compiler.bat".

Put the compiler, the T2B.EXE and your package.txt in the same folder. Run compiler.bat and it will compile the txt.


Now you created your own IFP file!, but wait! It still has the anims from the Colt 45 IFP.
Its time to go to the last Step to finish everything!


6. Replacing

Ok, now open up your new IFP file with IFP IO in 3D MAX. I changed the name of the IFP to Parkour.ifp


Awesome! The Internal Name of the ifp is Parkour and the anims are listed with the new names!

But the anims are still Colt 45 ones.

So now you have to make your anims and replace them in their correct place.
What i mean is that I will make a Front Hand Spring anim, when its done i will replace the "FrntHndSrping" slot with it!

Do the same with the rest of the anims and the IFP will be ready!


Congratulations, you created you first IFP with custome anims inside!


Archives:
Download the IFP i created during this tutorial:
http://tjbp.net/upload/parkour.zip


Further Reading:
IFP FileType Description
Custom Player Animations

Thanks to:
Wesser, with out him this tuto wouldnt Exist.
Kam, Great Scripts.

[Jost_Vice]

Pretty interesting tutorial goin, always a thing I wanted to look at but never knew where to start exactly.

[goin-god]

Thanks Jost

Indeed i think this is the first thing you should know to start envolving into Animating.

Usefull information:

CODE

================================================================= IFP file format for Grand Theft Auto San Andreas animation  Written by Aschratt (support@aschratt.com) ================================================================= (updated Jan 2008) This file is based on the decodings of hollower from 2004. For more information search GTA Forums. Binary Structure: ====    Header    ============ 4b     - CHAR[4]   - 'ANP3' (Version Identifier String) 4b     - INT32     - Offset to end of file (Relative to stream position pointer, so usually you have to add 8 to get the file's content size) 24b    - CHAR[24]  - File's Internal Name 4b     - INT32     - Number of Animations ====    Animation Info    ==== 24b    - CHAR[24]  - Animation Name (!!! String stops with first null-char ('\0'). Everything after this is ignored... R* Put some debug stuff there sometimes (Like 3dsm directorys)) 4b     - INT32     - Number of Objects 4b     - INT32     - ? 4b     - INT32     - ? ====    Object Info    ======== 24b    - CHAR[24]  - Object Name 4b     - INT32     - ? 4b     - INT32     - Number of Frames 4b     - INT32     - ? (Frame DATA TYPE: KRT0 = 0, KR00 = 1, KRTS = 2) ====    Frame Info    ========= 2b     - INT16     - ? (RX) 2b     - INT16     - ? (RY) 2b     - INT16     - ? (RZ) 2b     - INT16     - ? (RW) 2b     - INT16     - ? (TX) 2b     - INT16     - ? (TY) 2b     - INT16     - ? (TZ) 2b     - INT16     - ? (TIME) Like nearly all new coordinate formats in SA the Animation Packages are compressed. To get the real-world floating coordinates simply divide the short values with 128! ================================ Notes: I think that there is a constant value in the object-info section which defines the frame's data type. This means that there are still those data-types like in ANPK. But I am not sure about this and still have to search some examples and try a little bit around. Mostly the frame info data type is like the root structure. These decodings are done by scratch in an hour. I had not much time, but I hope it will help you for further decodings. Greetings... Aschratt! Homepage: [URL=http://www.aschratt.com]http://www.aschratt.com[/URL] E-Mail:   support@aschratt.com

This post has been edited by goin-god on Monday, May 3 2010, 02:54

[Futurama_Freak1]

3ds crashes when dumping any VC .ifp's although you already knew that, coin.

If anyone can figure out a way to do it for VC i'll give you a zillion hypothetical dollars and your name in the credits in PedRising

[Wesser]

Nice tutorial man! You added something that I didn't explained to you.

You can create a shortcut of t2b.exe instead of making a batch file.

[goin-god]

QUOTE (Wesser @ Mar 4 2009, 10:17)

Nice tutorial man! You added something that I didn't explained to you. You can create a shortcut of t2b.exe instead of making a batch file.

I used to use a shourtcut, but i like Batch instead.

[Francis115]

help please,,it always say header data not correct,,whats the problem? can u give me an example code for the package.txt?

[goin-god]

QUOTE (Francis115 @ Mar 14 2009, 08:26)

help please,,it always say header data not correct,,whats the problem? can u give me an example code for the package.txt?

IFP Dump only works with SA i tihnk.

[Francis115]

tnx,,i figured it out,,i got typed some wrong information,,btw i'm using sa and tnx for the tutorial! its great!

Offtopic:i request to ur thread, "my rigged stuff"

[mint19079]

my 3dmax is crash when i dump ped.ifp

its take verylong time more than15minutes and after i minimize the program it crash


help me!

[drift4ever]

so this is like a tutorial that teaches u how to make ur own animation package? but it doesnt tell u how to re-animate the character? i cant find a tutorial like that for san andreas. does any1 no where else i can find a tutorial that teaches u how to make ur own custom animations?

[Wesser]

QUOTE (mint19079 @ Jul 7 2009, 14:17)

My 3dmax crash when I dump ped.ifp. It takes very long time, more than 15 minutes, and after I minimized the program it crashed.

It depends from the size of the file which you want to dump. If you are trying to dump a file with 200kb, that script will take a lot of time.

QUOTE (drift4ever @ Aug 23 2009, 17:23)

Anyone know where I can find a tutorial that teaches you how to make your own custom animations?

Follow the Custom Player Animations tutorial, made by jacob.

[drift4ever]

QUOTE (Wesser @ Aug 23 2009, 18:40)

QUOTE (mint19079 @ Jul 7 2009, 14:17) My 3dmax crash when I dump ped.ifp. It takes very long time, more than 15 minutes, and after I minimized the program it crashed. It depends from the size of the file which you want to dump. If you are trying to dump a file with 200kb, that script will take a lot of time. QUOTE (drift4ever @ Aug 23 2009, 17:23) Anyone know where I can find a tutorial that teaches you how to make your own custom animations? Follow the Custom Player Animations tutorial, made by jacob.

i appreciate u trying to help, but his tutorial only works for vice city and gta III, i dont understand how to do it for san andreas cuz it completely different

[goin-god]

Its the same in SA. Just dont use the anim viewer,

[hristobg]

Sorry for bump, but is there have a tutorial for creating your own animation for custom MODELS, not for PEDS or PLAYER...
Example: In GTA: Alien City have a lot of animations to objects.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRAnZa4nWiM...player_embedded
This is animations, right ?
Sorry for my bad EN... and please ! Help me !

[goin-god]

No, i dont think theres one.

[hristobg]

But why they keep "this sort of modding" in secret ?
I mean if they create a tutorial or something for applying animation to object, will be great.

And, of course, sorry for my English.

[soldierman]

can you do a video tutorial ? its alot easier to learn by seeing it

[meegbone]

can someone help me I have problems using the application T2B. I start the compiler and an error occurs because the application T2B saying :




T2B "source file" "dest file"



Please help me. Thanks

[goin-god]

QUOTE (goin-god @ Mar 2 2009, 01:59)

5. Compiling Now its time to compile the TXT, convert it to IFP again. You will need the TSB file. Inside you will see an exe called "T2B.EXE", its a command prompt aplication. If you are not familiar with this kind of aplication dont worry i made a Batch file to exeucte it, you will only need to change the name of the TXT to "package.txt". Here its the batch file: CODE @echo off echo IFP Compiler by Delfi echo Batch file created by Coin-goD echo -------------------------------------------------- echo Compiling Package.txt in current folder. echo Please wait... T2B.EXE "package.txt" "package.ifp" echo IFP File created. echo Done. echo -------------------------------------------------- echo. pause Open a Notepad paste that code and save as "Compiler.bat". Put the compiler, the T2B.EXE and your package.txt in the same folder. Run compiler.bat and it will compile the txt. Now you created your own IFP file!, but wait! It still has the anims from the Colt 45 IFP. Its time to go to the last Step to finish everything!

This. Is what you have to do.