Golfer Utility

[BigSeksyJC]

I wanted to create a separate topic about the Golfer Utility so it wouldn't get lost in the ani discussion. As most know, the golfer utility was created way back in the day (I assume by MS) as a way to swap out apparel on your golfer/animation. It's a very easy to use, super basic utility that allowed the original animasters to design a boat load of additional pants, shirts, hats and shoes that they hosted on their site. You could download those textures and then basically give your golfer a new look.

When I first started learning about all the ani stuff I opened one of the .L3 files in a hex editor and realized it was basically a compressed archive file (similar to a zip) that contained a bunch of different file types. I won't bore you with all gory details, but if you want all those details you can click the link below where I go into more detail.

Anatomy of an Ani
https://linkscorner.org/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=2353

Once I learned that, I realized that the golfer utility had been written to only allow "us" to see the TGA textures so we could swap them out. I then opened it in a hex editor and modified it to allow us to see all the files instead of just the ones they wanted us to see. That led me to creating multiple versions of the golfer utility to allow "us" to extract all the files from the .L3 archive. This allowed me to see the locked animations that the animasters created and all the other important files within the ani that I could possibly use to make new animations from.

All the new versions of the golfer utility are available from the below link on my website. Now for the reason I'm even posting this to begin with. If you download an ani from my site it contains way more than just an .L3 animation file. It also contains all the textures (hats, pants, face, arms, shoes, shirts, etc), the .SKL files that make up the mesh body type, the script.txt config file for the ani, pin files that you can play against as AI golfers and a pic to represent the golfer in the game.

https://www.jclinks2003.com/golfer-utility-and-tutorials

I provided all that "stuff" because I want people to take the stuff I've created and feel comfortable using the golfer utilities to mix and match stuff. For example, I've now created the below animation types with interchangeable textures and .SKL files. The original animasters didn't do this for a multitude of reasons, but it was one of my highest priorities and I've now completed it.

These are the models I've created using the S01 Sergio animation model.
- Animations with a hat - This is the most common animation that we are all used to seeing in the game.

- Animations without a hat - This is a no hat version of that S01 Sergio model. You no longer need to use Eric or Russell model if you want an ani without a hat. The cool thing is that all the textures are now compatible and they weren't before.

- Animations with a visor - Same as above. This uses the S01 Sergio model.

- Animations with knickers

- Animations with a bucket hat

- Animations with a flat hat (Payne Stewart, Harry Hall)

- Animations with Shorts instead of pants

- Animations with Joggers

- I'm currently working on animations with long sleeves instead of short sleeves

- All of those above are now interchangeable. That was never the case until now. So, if you want an animation with a bucket hat and shorts you can do that. What about knickers and no hat? Also now possible.

With the golfer utility you don't have to have Maya or Maya knowledge to mix and match different body types. Since I created them all from the same model, it's almost like Mr. Potato Head swappable.

I know this is a lot of rambling, but like I said in my other post, I'll soon be moving on from my involvement in the Links community (at least to the extent I've been involved the last two years) and I want to make sure I leave behind the knowledge and info in case someone wants to run with this stuff.

[BigSeksyJC]

Below is my ancestry of an ani post that I posted at LC originally. I think it goes well with this topic and maybe adds some value to my original post about the golfer utility.

The ancestry of an ani
When Links first came out, Microsoft gave us a few models of [censored] to work with. I'm only going to discuss the male versions just to minimize typing and confusion. The models were based on the naming convention of the textures they used and then the obvious "characteristics" of those models. Not all of the animation models were originally available and some came out with patches, but I am not positive on the sequence so I won't go into that.

The models are below with naming convention:

Russell - L_M01_TextureName_%%.TGA - This is a male animation without a hat and almost all the original animaster [censored] used this model. (ex: original Jack Nicklaus, Fred Couples, Tiger Woods, Sean Connery, etc, etc).

Eric - L_M03_TextureName_%%.TGA - This was the 2nd iteration of a male animation without a hat and the animasters created very few additional animations using this model. (ex: Bengt, Andrew, John, New Eric)

Matt - L_M02_TextureName_%%.TGA - This was the only male animation that wore shorts and a hat. The animasters also didn't create many new models using this model (Matt Senior, Payne Stewart, Anipro2 are examples)

David - L_D01_TextureName_%%.TGA - This was the male animation model that had a visor and the animasters made several [censored] using this model (new David Toms, Bubba Watson, Monty 2007, Lee Westwood, etc.)

Sergio - L_S01_TextureName_%%.TGA - This was the latest male animation to come out and the first to wear a hat with long pants. The animasters created a bunch of new [censored] from this model (Adam Scott, Anipro1, Ernie Els, Nick Price, etc, etc.) This was the "best" model because either Microsoft or the animasters or some combo of the two figured out how to get the textures oriented properly so you didn't have to mirror the logos. This model essentially put the M01, M02 and M03 models out of business with the animasters because it was by far the easiest to work with. That's why almost all of the "newest" animaster [censored] used this model. It's also the reason I have almost exclusively used this model.

Now, with all that being said, if you wanted a shorts wearing ani or a no hat wearing ani or a visor wearing ani you had no choice but to use the M01-M03, M02 or D01 models to create those. Working with those is a royal pain in the ass so I set out to replace them using the Sergio S01 model that could accommodate any of the above model types using only the S01 model. So, when I say that a model that I create replaces one of those above, I mean there is no reason for anyone to ever have to use those harder to work with models anymore if they want an ani without a hat or with shorts, etc.

I also did all of this under the assumption that someone else would eventually want to create their own [censored]. By doing what I did to make the ones above (M01, M03, M02 and D01) obsolete, I saved whoever that is a TON (can I use shitload?) of work. The last thing I'll say related to this topic that I did was convert all the textures to .bmp from tga. The animasters always created their "locked" animations using BMP instead of TGA because the golfer utility couldn't see the textures (it only read TGA). Once I hacked/modified the golfer utility to see different file types, I was able to extract those textures and just moved forward only working with BMPs. So, if you want to see all the textures in any of my [censored] you will need to use the GolferUtilityBMP.exe version. If you want to extract the maya SKL files so you can swap out body types, etc. you will need to use the GolferUtilitySKL.exe version.

Basically all my work is available to everyone in the community without needing to "figure" anything out. Nothing is locked and it's all interchangeable and compatible with all my [censored] because I created everything using the S01 model.