Animation Strings are the code inside the .AF files (HAR/Bots), that defines how moves and various other things works. They're a string of various tags and values, that instructs the game/engine on what actions to pull at what stage of each move etc. This page is a list of all the tags and with what the OpenOMF team have figured out about them so far.
Animation strings are of the form:
<frame descriptor 1>-<frame descriptor 2>-...-<frame descriptor n>
Frame descriptors are a sequence of lowercase tags followed by an uppercase frame letter and an integer frame duration:
zzA1
For instance:
x-5A3-x-3B2-x-2C1-x-1D1
divides up as:
| Tags | Frame | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| x-5 | A | 3 |
| x-3 | B | 2 |
| x-2 | C | 1 |
| x-1 | D | 1 |
There are a lot of available tags. Not all of them are understood. Some of them take numeric parameters, which are indicated in angle brackets below. Such parameters must match the regular expression:
-?+\?[0-9]*
An omitted parameter is treated as 0.
Here's a complete list of all tags. Descriptions in italics may be unreliable.
| Tag | Notes |
|---|---|
| aa | |
| ab | |
| ac | Turn HAR towards the center of the arena |
| ad | |
| ae | Never used? |
| af | Freeze opponent HAR for some time |
| ag | |
| ai | |
| am | with the enemy modifier, 'ame' is related to the bm tag and tells OMF when to stop walking |
| ao | Nova death related, something to do with loose robot parts ? |
| as | Makes the fire orb 'wander' in the fire pit |
| at | Set the object's position be be 'behind' the HAR only used by chronos' teleport |
| aw | Can pass through walls during this frame? |
| ax | |
| ar | Reverse player direction? |
| al | Never used? |
| Tag | Notes |
|---|---|
| b<…> | The b codes control the rendering method used for the sprite. A variable b is set to a visibility level, and is linearly interpolated throughout the frame from the bs value to the bf value, if the bs value has been specified and is not zero. Otherwise the b value is set to the bf value. |
| b = bs ? (bs + (bf - bs) * tick / ticksThisFrame) : bf | |
| The bf value is set by the tags bb, bf, bj, bl, bm. These tags all also set some bflags which control the rendering effect. | |
| b1 | |
| b2 | |
| bb<n> | Vertical screen shake with magnitude n |
| be | Block the end of the round, used in scrap/destruct |
| bf<n> | Blend finish with opacity n < 256 |
| bh | |
| bl<n> | Horizontal screen shake with magnitude n |
| bm<n> | Animation to play while doing something (walking to har for scrap is bm10) |
| bj<n> | Jump to animation <n> |
| bs<n> | Blend start with opacity n < 256 (the sprite is drawn at this opacity at the start of the frame and gradually transitioned to whatever is set as the blend finish value) |
| bu | Jump to the middle of arena, used by Jaguar |
| bw | |
| bx | |
| bp<…> | The bp codes control scene and entity lighting and colouring. A variable bp is set to a colour level, and is linearly interpolated throughout the frame from the bpb value to the bpp value. The bpd tag specifies a reference colour (r,g,b) by palette index. |
bp = bpb + (bpp - bpb) * tick / ticksThisFrame for i = bps to bps + bpn: if bz: m = max(r_i, g_i, b_i) r_i' = r_i + m/64 * bp/64 * (r - r_i*) g_i' = g_i + m/64 * bp/64 * (g - g_i*) b_i' = b_i + m/64 * bp/64 * (b - b_i*) else: r_i' = r * bp/64 g_i' = g_i * (1 - bp/64) + g * bp/64 b_i' = b_i * (1 - bp/64) + b * bp/64 r_i = max(0, min(63, r_i')) g_i = max(0, min(63, g_i')) b_i = max(0, min(63, b_i')) |
|
| In the above, r_i* is the original (unmodified) value. | |
| bpd<n> | bpd := n Specifies a colour (reference palette index) |
| bps<n> | bps := n Starting palette index |
| bpn<n> | bpn := n Palette entry count |
| bpf | Blend Palette Fighter: If this is the HAR for player 2 then bps48 bpn48 (second robot's colours) else bps1 bpn47 (first robot's colours) |
| bpp<n> | bpb := n, bpp := n Set both initial and final colour level. |
| bpb<n> | bpb := n Initial colour level for blending. Specify bpp first. |
| bpo | bpo := 1 Disables palette effects. Only used in CREDITS.BK. |
| bz | If specified, a colour tint effect will be used, otherwise a green-blue lightning effect will be used. |
| ba<n> | Only CREDITS.BK - How many palette copies to make, starting from index bc + bi. |
| bc<n> | Only CREDITS.BK - How many palette entries to copy, starting from index indicated by bi. |
| bd | Only CREDITS.BK - Assumes that the last frame of current animation is a palette, and copies it to temporary buffer to be used by palette effects. |
| bg | Only CREDITS.BK - Changes sprite indexes. For each sprite index, do: new_index = bi + old_index * bc + background_color_index |
| bi<n> | Only CREDITS.BK - Starting offset for the palette copying. Copied range is bi + ba. |
| bk<n> | Check if animation number <n> is playing. If it is, set the BK flag (that does something ?). crashes if not in arena? |
| bn | Unblockable. Used in Flail's Spinning Throw, Shadow's Shadow Grab, and Nova's Earthquake Smash |
| bo<n> | |
| br | Draw additively |
| bt | Dark tint effect for eg. Shadow HAR |
| by |
| Tag | Notes |
|---|---|
| cf | Used by Shadow's scrap (AF1:61) Makes shadow walk to the far corner of arena - used with bm tag |
| cg | Used by Katana's rising blade (normal and extended) (AF5:22,23) |
| cl | Used by Pyros' scrap (both parts) (AF3:35,38) |
| cp | resources/tags.csv:“cp”,0,“If hit collision succeeds, perform hit pause” Basic testing: enables hit pause on hit, doesn't stack. |
| cw | Used by Flail's scrap moves (AF7:33,35,36), possibly interacts with `d` and `jn` tags when a wall collision occurs |
| cx<n> | The player has horizontal control by holding left/right. Larger numbers mean faster movement. Used by: |
Jaguar's Concussion Cannon (AF0:38) Thorn's off-wall attack (AF2:39) Electra's Ball Lightning (AF4:33) Katana's razor spins (AF5:25,26,27,28) Flail's chain spins (AF7:31,39) Gargoyle standing pose and diving claw grab (AF8:1,35) Chronos' Stasis Activator (AF9:38,39) |
|
| cy<n> | The player has vertical control by holding up/down. Larger numbers mean faster movement. |
| Tag | Notes |
|---|---|
| d<n> | Jump back into the animation as if N 'ticks' have already occured, for example, d1 will jump back to the start of the animation, but d200 will jump into the animation at whatever point the animation would be 200 ticks after it had started. |
| e | Set X and Y coordinates to same as enemy coords. Applied every tick. |
| f | Toggle flag Flip sprite vertically |
| g | Set object Y coordinate to ground and zero out vertical velocity. Applied every tick. |
| h | Zeroes out velocity for the frame. Applied every tick. |
| i |
| Tag | Notes |
|---|---|
| j<…> | J tags define which moves can 'chain' to which other moves. jf moves appear to chain to your scrap move (f=finisher here). It is unknown whether jn<n> is part of this block of tags or a separate tag. |
| jf2 | Frame can chain to destruction |
| jf | Frame can chain to scrap |
| jg | Every HAR uses this in the 'getup' animation, purpose unknown, might be 'grab' (like standing throw) |
| jh | Frame can chain to a 'high' move, eg. roundhouse kick |
| jj | Frame can chain into an 'airborne' move (only used by katana's razor spin) |
| jl | Frame can chain to a 'low' move eg. crouching kick |
| jm | Frame can chain to a 'medium' move eg. crouching punch |
| jp | |
| jz | Combination of all other j flags except jn. Only used by (AF5:35). |
| jn<n> | Frame can chain to animation <n> |
| Tag | Notes |
|---|---|
| k<n> | Related to knockback on hit, at least in footer strings |
| l<n> | The volume of the sound. The range of n is 0 to 100 (0 effectively mutes the sound, no differences above 100) |
| Tag | Notes |
|---|---|
| ma<n> | Sets angle of new object in degrees. Velocity is then x=cos(ma), y=sin(ma). if n == 1000 then n := random(360) |
| mc | |
| md<n> | Destroy animation n |
| mg<n> | Gravity for the spawned animation, default is apparently 0. |
| mi<n> | |
| mm<n> | Selects an animation ID for use with mo, mu tags. Animation must exist, otherwise undefined behaviour. MM must be set before using mo, mu. It is possible to chain these, eg. mm15momm22mu5 etc. |
| mo | Enables some flag on animation selected with MM. Possibly used on other HAR ? |
| mu<n> | Sets animation MM unavailable for use for the next <n> ticks. N < 1024. |
| mn<n> | Sets z-index for the current and following animation sprites and created animations (by m tag). 0 disables, 1-n enables. Empty value means 0. |
| mp<n> | Bitmask (1 byte). Affects at least how mn tag is handled. 0x1 Run sprite pixel colors through the palette remapping multiple times (how many?) 0x2 Unknown 0x4 Unknown, HAR 1 related ? 0x8 Unknown 0x10 Unknown, HAR 2 related ? 0x20 Unknown 0x40 Unknown 0x80 Unknown |
| mrx<n> | mx := random(320 - 2*mm) + n – Randomizes X coordinate of the new animation. |
| mry<n> | my := random(200 - 2*mm) + n – Randomizes Y coordinate of the new animation. |
| ms | my := -4 * (y - 188), Used to fix bullet hit animation coordinates for desert arena. |
| mx<n> | Set X coordinate of new animation |
| my<n> | Set Y coordinate of new animation |
| m<n> | Create instance of animation n |
| n | Disabled hit coordinates for the current frame. This is used in recovery frames of attacks. |
| ox<n> | X coordinate correction; is only applied while ox tag is enabled. |
| oy<n> | Y coordinate correction; is only applied while ox tag is enabled. |
| Tag | Notes |
|---|---|
| pa | Enable color effect for HAR palette effects |
| pb<n> | n < 512 |
| pc<n> | n < 512 |
| pd<n> | n < 256. Reference color index. |
| pe | Switch HAR palette effect handling to the other HAR. |
| ph | Disable HAR palette effects if HAR is not in damage animation (9) |
| pp<n> | Duration of HAR palette effect in ticks. |
| ps | Update the color palette |
| ptd<n> | n < 128 Effect intensity. |
| ptp<n> | n < 128 |
| ptr<n> | n < 128 |
| q<n> | Enable nth hit. A move can only hit once without this tag. In order to add additional hits, q tags must be present in ascending order. Duplicate q tags or descending q tags have no effect. |
| r | toggle a global Flip sprite horizontally |
| s<n> | Play sound n. Also resets the sf and sb values to default. |
| sa | |
| sb<n> | Sound panning. The range of n is -100 (far left) to 100 (Far right). Value above 126 causes overflow to -128, value lower than -128 is capped to -128. |
| sc<n> | sc0 is different from other sc tags – This is possibly sound channel selection |
| sd | |
| se<n> | similar to sl<n+1>, overrides sl if both sl and se are present in this frame. |
| sf<n> | Sound frequency n. n has a range of -16 to 239, anything above 239 seems to overflow the frequency. |
| sl<n> | Pan the sound from sb<n> to sl<n>. |
| smf<n> | |
| smo <n> | Play music track <n>. The track to play is one of the following: |
* 0 - No music * 1 - End.psm * 2 - Menu.psm * 3 - Arena0.psm * 4 - Arena1.psm * 5 - Arena2.psm * 6 - Arena3.psm * 7 - Arena4.psm |
|
| sp<n> | Doesn't seem to have any effects on the intro lightnings. |
| sw<n> | sw<n> sets an internal counter to max(current value, n). This counter is decreased at a rate of either 2 or 4 units per game tick, down to 0. If the counter gets to 100 or above, the game pauses for a little while. |
| Tag | Notes |
|---|---|
| t | Prevent sound from playing, if other HAR is blocking. |
| ua | Sets enemy HAR to damage animation, if not already set. Used to keep opponent immobilized during shadow grab, until the grab fades. |
| ub | Motion blur effect for the current object |
| uc | |
| ud | |
| ue | Damage opponent if on the ground. Used in earthquake smash. |
| uf | |
| ug | |
| uh | |
| uj | |
| ul | |
| un | |
| ur | |
| us | |
| uz | Used in shadow grab. Causes the shadow to disappear when the opponent takes damage |
| v | 'velocity' modifier for x/y tags |
| vsx | also does v. Never used? |
| vsy | actually vsK where K is anything other than x. also does v. Never used? |
| w | Seems to handle sprite caching in engine. |
| x<…> | /x-?\+?=?-?\+?[0-9]*/ is accepted. Code will always be one of the following: |
| x-<n> | Set -x coordinate by n each tick in this frame |
| x+<n> | Set +x coordinate by n each tick in this frame |
| x=<n> | Set x position relative to start position and interpolate to the next x= position |
| x<n> | If unspecified, a value of 100 is assumed. Scales image horizontally between 0 and 100%. (exception: Does not do anything eg. in You win! etc. sprites on arenas). |
| y<…> | /y-?\+?=?-?\+?[0-9]*/ is accepted. Code will always be one of the following: |
| y-<n> | Set -y coordinate by n each tick in this frame |
| y+<n> | Set +y coordinate by n each tick in this frame |
| y=<n> | Set y position relative to start position and interpolate to the next y= position |
| y<n> | If unspecified, a value of 100 is assumed. Scales image vertically between 0 and 100%. |
| z<…> | The z tags specify which attacks the player is invulnerable to, for the duration of the frame. |
The Z Tags zz: total invincibility? all frames of Rising Blade frames 1-2 of Jag Leaps zp: on early frames of Shadow Headbutt, f1-3 of Flip Kick - inv. projectiles? zj: invincible to jumps? all frames of Rising Talon frames 1-2 of Flip Kick |
|
| zg | 0x0004 Never used? |
| zh | 0x0040 Never used? Player is invincible to 'high' attacks |
| zj | 0x0080 Player is invincible to jumping attacks |
| zl | 0x0010 Never used? Player is invincible to 'low' attacks |
| zm | 0x0020 Never used? Player is invincible to 'medium' attacks |
| zp | 0x0100 Player is invincible to projectiles |
| zz | 0xFFFF Combination of all other z flags. Player is invincible for this frame |
//chaos -- notes 25/11/09 -- flags' effects on various anim data fields// f4: ar 0001 at 0002 af 0004 aa 0008 ai 0010 ac 0020 aw 0040 ad 0080 ab 0400 ao 0800 as 1000 ae 2000 am 4000 ax 8000 al f4 = f4E | 0002 // bug? should this be f4 |= 0x0002? f4E: us 0001 bn 0004 ag 0008 ur 0010 ue 0020 ud 0040 uh 0080 uz 0100 uf 0200 uc 0400 ua 0800 ug 1000 ul 2000 by 4000 bo0 4000 // plus some other stuff bk 8000 // plus some other stuff f1A: zg 0004 zl 0010 zm 0020 zh 0040 zj 0080 zp 0100 zz FFFF f14: bg 0200 br 0100 bt 0400 f ^ 0004 v = 0001 vsK = 0001 // plus f52 f52: cf 08 cg 20 cl 40 cp 10 cw 04 uj 80 vsx 01 // plus f14 vsy 02 // plus f14 f22: jg 0004 fl 0010 jm 0020 jh 0040 jj 0080 jp 0100 jf 1000 jf2 2000 jz FFFF From [[http://www.omf2097.com/~forum/viewthread.php?tid=193&page=8|:fixme]] : [More incorporated below] cp: doesn't strictly mean "hits here" look at Nova's basic punch: it starts hitting on frame 2-3 but doesn't have CP till 4 ub: this frame causes trails n: during recovery; or during entirety of Concussion Cannon
A handful of animation strings used by the AF and BK files provided with OMF2097 are ill-formed. The behaviour in the case of ill-formed strings in the OMF engine is inconsistent, but at least the following non-tags must be accepted and ignored by any correct parser:
| Tag | Used by | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| zc | Pyros' Shadow Super Thrust x+4zcubs21l50zp | Probably a typo for zp. It looks like someone added 'zp's at the end of all the tags later when it was found to be not working properly (probably because of this zc). The tags for the frames before and after both contain zp. |