[hannaH]

Automatic Variants

Past threads http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1355628-relwip-automatic-variants/ http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1360923-relwip-automatic-variants-2/ http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1364221-relwip-automatic-variants/ http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1366265-relwip-automatic-variants-thread-4/ http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1369691-relwip-automatic-variants-thread-5/ http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1375783-relwip-automatic-variants-thread-6/ http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1387039-relwip-automatic-variants-thread-7/ http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1397391-relwip-automatic-variants-thread-8/ http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1401322-relwip-automatic-variants-thread-9/

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/21377

http://afterimagemetal.com/AutoVar/Automatic%20Variants%20Readme.html

http://www.afterimagemetal.com/AutoVar/Automatic%20Variants%20Readme.html#knownpackages

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Hj0-pQTxBQ0bERM6oEY3tJydYZxp7uVFbF814MV1fl0/edit

(If you want in, shoot me a PM)

Other AV links

https://code.google.com/p/automatic-variants/source/browse/#git%2Fsrc%2Fautomaticvariants

http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1366638-relwip-wolverines-collection-of-av-packages-ports-examples-skeletons-and-tools/

What Does AV do?

AV Provides an easy place to drag-and-drop alternate textures/models and have them automatically integrated into the game.


Modders:

What this means is you (a texturer/modeler) can make 20 skins for Trolls, drop them into AV, and have every troll in the game suddenly pick a random skin from the 20 you made. The same (will go) for models as well.

You could make 20 iron dagger variants with differing textures/models, some hooked slightly, some curved up a bit, some chipped, some gemmed; Drag them all into AV, and suddenly every time an iron dagger spawns, theres one of your dagger variants chosen randomly from the bunch.

No hassle, no work in the CK, just drag and drop into an http://afterimagemetal.com/AutoVar/Automatic%20Variants%20Readme.html#avpackage, and run the patcher. All the hard work of shuffling records around is done for you.

Note: Models not yet implemented, but will be soon. Just textures for now.


Users:

Never again will you have to choose only one texture or model from an entire selection.

Modders will offer AV Packages that you can drag and drop into your AV setup, and have them automatically integrated into your game. Think of it as a new way to install textures/models, where you don't have to pick just one.

If a texture/model pack you love doesn't offer AV Packages yet, don't fear! Just ask the modder to make an AV Package for their setup, or even do it yourself in the meantime with the http://afterimagemetal.com/AutoVar/Automatic%20Variants%20Readme.html#avpackage.


What should you expect from AV?

AV aims to make Skyrim a place full of diversity and variance; To never see the same thing twice.

It also strives to be extremely easy to use, while still offering an immense amount of power to users.

You should expect AV to make your world much more colorful, varied, and interesting... especially with the help of texturers/modelers to feed the algorithms with multitudes of choices to pick from.


What's in store for the future?

Down the road it will expand to allow for variants in many other areas. You can expect things such as variance in stat changes, allowing for random bell curve differences to be applied to stats, so no two things have exactly the same setup.

Also, expect the ability to specify rules for certain variants to be generally more expensive, do more/less damage, be more/less aggressive, have more/less health etc; So you can make a gemmed dagger or mangy troll and have it reflect stats that make sense for it.

And most likely much more! Be sure to check the http://afterimagemetal.com/AutoVar/Automatic%20Variants%20Readme.html#todo section for a full list of ideas for implementation.


Credits

Big thanks to Bellyache for allowing her mod to be used as the "flagship" example for AV,

And to StarX for picking up the torch and creating his fantastic package!

Libraries Used:

• Gson
  
• JFreeChart
  
• DDSUtils

Please refer to the http://afterimagemetal.com/AutoVar/Automatic%20Variants%20Readme.html for more information