How to merge animations from 2 different mods

[Lifthrasir]

They appear with a correct size in the album. But if you try to post them directly from your album to the thread, then they appear much smaller in the thread

[leo.civil.uefs]

In STEP 5, the tricky part, sometimes when you are taking one animation from a mod to another, you will get a CTD if you dont pay attention when editing the skeleton file in notepad. Thats because the this file may be doing reference to another animations than the one you're trying to port to your mod.

It happened to me because it was an elephant with soldiers on it, and besides the elephant animaiton, there was also the soldier's ones.

So check the lines in the skeleton file when you're editing it in notepad, there could be paths to another animations and you will need to port those too.

[Australis]

Hey, I have been trying to move the Mountain and Snow trolls to my mod, I think I did everything correctly but the game crashes as soon as I open it. I think the problem is on the skeleton file, but I think I copied everything correctly. I copied all the Troll anims from the TATW descr_skeleton. (I must say I did the the tricky part from step 5 the fast way, just replaced all the paths to the anims folder with my own folder path, I checked twice and it uses different anims from the mod that I also copied, so I don't think that's the problem). I even tried renaming the pack and skeleton .dat and .idx as "pack1" and "skeleton1". And then the game runs but when I try the custom battle it crashes. Any idea what might be the problem?

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

17:24:15.959 [system.io] [trace] file open,,data/descr_campaign_db.xml,8924
17:24:15.959 [system.io] [info] open: found data/descr_campaign_db.xml (from: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Medieval II Total War)
17:24:15.962 [system.io] [info] exists: missing mods/Europe/data/descr_diplomacy.xml
17:24:15.962 [system.io] [trace] file open,,data/descr_diplomacy.xml,18453
17:24:15.962 [system.io] [info] open: found data/descr_diplomacy.xml (from: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Medieval II Total War)
17:24:15.967 [system.io] [info] exists: missing mods/Europe/data/descr_settlement_mechanics.xml
17:24:15.967 [system.io] [trace] file open,,data/descr_settlement_mechanics.xml,6553
17:24:15.967 [system.io] [info] open: found data/descr_settlement_mechanics.xml (from: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Medieval II Total War)
17:24:15.969 [system.io] [info] exists: missing mods/Europe/data/descr_ik_controller_db.txt
17:24:15.969 [system.io] [trace] file open,,12984E98,5351
17:24:15.969 [system.io] [info] open: found data/descr_ik_controller_db.txt (from: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Medieval II Total War)
17:24:15.970 [system.io] [info] exists: found mods/Europe/data/descr_skeleton.txt (from: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Medieval II Total War)
17:24:15.970 [system.io] [trace] file open,,1270D408,617568

[Jojo00182]

Hey, I have been trying to move the Mountain and Snow trolls to my mod, I think I did everything correctly but the game crashes as soon as I open it. I think the problem is on the skeleton file, but I think I copied everything correctly. I copied all the Troll anims from the TATW descr_skeleton. (I must say I did the the tricky part from step 5 the fast way, just replaced all the paths to the anims folder with my own folder path, I checked twice and it uses different anims from the mod that I also copied, so I don't think that's the problem). I even tried renaming the pack and skeleton .dat and .idx as "pack1" and "skeleton1". And then the game runs but when I try the custom battle it crashes. Any idea what might be the problem?

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

17:24:15.959 [system.io] [trace] file open,,data/descr_campaign_db.xml,8924
17:24:15.959 [system.io] [info] open: found data/descr_campaign_db.xml (from: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Medieval II Total War)
17:24:15.962 [system.io] [info] exists: missing mods/Europe/data/descr_diplomacy.xml
17:24:15.962 [system.io] [trace] file open,,data/descr_diplomacy.xml,18453
17:24:15.962 [system.io] [info] open: found data/descr_diplomacy.xml (from: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Medieval II Total War)
17:24:15.967 [system.io] [info] exists: missing mods/Europe/data/descr_settlement_mechanics.xml
17:24:15.967 [system.io] [trace] file open,,data/descr_settlement_mechanics.xml,6553
17:24:15.967 [system.io] [info] open: found data/descr_settlement_mechanics.xml (from: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Medieval II Total War)
17:24:15.969 [system.io] [info] exists: missing mods/Europe/data/descr_ik_controller_db.txt
17:24:15.969 [system.io] [trace] file open,,12984E98,5351
17:24:15.969 [system.io] [info] open: found data/descr_ik_controller_db.txt (from: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Medieval II Total War)
17:24:15.970 [system.io] [info] exists: found mods/Europe/data/descr_skeleton.txt (from: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Medieval II Total War)
17:24:15.970 [system.io] [trace] file open,,1270D408,617568

This guide doesnt use the descr_skeleton.txt (and the game only uses it if you try to repack the animationdb from original animation files, this happens when there is no pack.dat/skeleton.dat in your mod and(!) vanilla).
When you rename your pack/skeleton then the game uses vanilla and these are missing the animationsets from your mod probably.

[Australis]

This guide doesnt use the descr_skeleton.txt (and the game only uses it if you try to repack the animationdb from original animation files, this happens when there is no pack.dat/skeleton.dat in your mod and(!) vanilla).
When you rename your pack/skeleton then the game uses vanilla and these are missing the animationsets from your mod probably.

I assumed that aside from what this guide said, I only had to copy the descr_skeleton section of the unit/animations I'm moving and just paste it on my own descr_skeleton. Now I tried deleting everything from the descr_skeleton and just leaving the animations I added, but I still getting the same crashlog as when I just used the previous descr_skeleton

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

14:36:18.059 [system.io] [info] exists: missing mods/Europe/data/models/stakes.texture
14:36:18.082 [system.io] [trace] file open,,data/models/stakes.texture,11128
14:36:18.082 [system.io] [info] open: found data/models/stakes.texture (from: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Medieval II Total War)
14:36:18.083 [system.io] [info] exists: missing mods/Europe/data/models/stakes_bump.texture
14:36:18.097 [system.io] [trace] file open,,data/models/stakes_bump.texture,22080
14:36:18.097 [system.io] [info] open: found data/models/stakes_bump.texture (from: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Medieval II Total War)
14:36:18.376 [system.rpt] [error] Uh oh. This isn't good. No idea why, but exiting now. Sorry pal.

What do you think I should do?

[Jojo00182]

I assumed that aside from what this guide said, I only had to copy the descr_skeleton section of the unit/animations I'm moving and just paste it on my own descr_skeleton. Now I tried deleting everything from the descr_skeleton and just leaving the animations I added, but I still getting the same crashlog as when I just used the previous descr_skeleton

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

14:36:18.059 [system.io] [info] exists: missing mods/Europe/data/models/stakes.texture
14:36:18.082 [system.io] [trace] file open,,data/models/stakes.texture,11128
14:36:18.082 [system.io] [info] open: found data/models/stakes.texture (from: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Medieval II Total War)
14:36:18.083 [system.io] [info] exists: missing mods/Europe/data/models/stakes_bump.texture
14:36:18.097 [system.io] [trace] file open,,data/models/stakes_bump.texture,22080
14:36:18.097 [system.io] [info] open: found data/models/stakes_bump.texture (from: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Medieval II Total War)
14:36:18.376 [system.rpt] [error] Uh oh. This isn't good. No idea why, but exiting now. Sorry pal.

What do you think I should do?

You should use the Toolbox to move animationsets from one skeleton.dat to another and move animationfiles from one pack.dat to another, dont touch the descr_skeleton.txt
Ping me on the TWC discord if you want an easier conversation.

[Lord Vinciullo]

My good sire, you have given me hope; I spent over half a day bashing my head against the programming wall wondering why things were not working. I was completely unaware of editing the skeleton files DIRECTLY. I plan on trying again once I have some more free time, so I might be back later losing my mind because I'm still doing something wrong, but now I can at least go to bed with hope in my heart! Thank you!

[Lifthrasir]

You're welcome