How to create animated hats with Hats++ mod [EN]

Hats++ is a client-side mod which greatly expands hats mechanic. It lets you create more complex animated hats and other cosmetics, while also being completely vanilla supportive. So other players don't need to have this mod installed and enabled to see the hats.

Here's the mod.

• *(Update: now hats do work in offline)
  
• You can reload hats without restarting the game. Press F6 (by default) to reload current hat. To reconfigure this keybind use "srkb" console command (E.g: "srkb F")

There are a bunch of elements that you can use to create a hat. Each element must be a separated .png file. All of them should be located in one folder, which name will be the hat's name as well. Folders are checked in all hat folders + hatpack ones.
Here are all the elements: (we will talk about them in detail later):

• ExtraHat
• Hat
• Wings
• FlyingPet
• WalkingPet
• Preview

If a folder doesn't contain preview or Hat element, a hat won't be formed.

To add an element put its .png inside your folder and name it according to this template:
{element_name}_{Width}_{Heght}.png.
Width and height are required if you are using custom metapixels. It points out a part of your .png that contains the hat (sprite or sprite sheet) itself. Anything beyond that size will be considered as metapixels.

Example:
This is Hat element. There's 2 animations defined. The size of a region containing all frames is 128x64 pixels. So, the name of this element would be:

To understand this part you should be familiar with metapixels concept. If you don't, read about them firstly [duckgame.fandom.com]
So, Hats++ has its own metapixels system, allowing to manipulate animations and other related stuff. Here's all of them:


Keep in mind that if a metapixel is appliable only to some hat element, it will work only if placed inside corresponding element.

Before adding animations you should define the size of one frame with metapixel 2. If the frame size if larger than 32x32 (max size: 64x64), also add metapixel 1. Animations can be created with a special metapixel structure (to read details about these metapixels check the table):

1. Animation Type (3)
2. Delay (4)
3. Loop / not loop (5)
4. Frames (6/7)
5. Change animation on level change (20) (optional)

Metapixels are read from the top to bottom. They have to be placed one after another without any blanks.
Let's go through each of them. Animation type determines when an animation will be played. Some of them will only work with certain hat types.
All of them are listed here:

Delay determines the amount of in-game frames between an animation frame changes. So delay n means that the animation frame will change every n in-game frames.

Loop value determines if an animation will be restarted and played again after it is finished.

Frames are defined using their indexes, so the first frame hat index 0. To define frames you can use either frame metapixel (6), or frame period metapixel (7). However, you can't use both of them in one animation (mb I'll add this feature later).
Frame metapixel just defines 1 frame. You can put any amount of them. Frame period metapixel defines, well, a period of frames. It can be used only 1 time. (For example, if this metapixel if equal to (7,0,5), the following frames will be added to an animation: 0,1,2,3,4,5. It's also possible to start with the index with greater value (e.g: (7,5,0): 5,4,3,2,1,0).

Hat, that will be added to the extra hats' list in HatSelector. By putting it on you will also put on modded hat.
Example:
It's putted on you. Hat's size can not be bigger than 32x32. Animations, that can be linked: {on press quack, on release quack}.
Example:

There are two animations defined in this hat, and it's also strapped on.

Flying pets follow you around by air. You can specify it's speed and distance, to which the pet will fly. You can specify their speed, and the closest distane to which they can chase you.
Example:

In this pet OnRssurect and OnDuckDeath animations are defined. OnRessurect animation is also set as OnSpawn animation. Animations, that can be linked: {on press quack, on release quack}, {on static, on approach}.

Walking pets follow you around by land. You can specify the distance, to which the pet will walk. You can specify the closest distane to which they can chase you,
Example:
Wings are located behind your duck. They are prebuild to use specific animations. You can either use metapixel 13 to generate them or define them yourself. You can also specify idle and gliding frames.
Frames must be locaed vertically, from top to bottom. The first frame represents closed state of the wings, the last one - opened.
To make auto generated auto changing animations, put metapixel 20 and set it's G channel to how many different textures you have.
Example:

In this element auto animations are generated 3 times. The color of wings changes every match.

Theres a limit for hat's size: 32x32 pixels. I don't like limits, so I added a way to use bigger hats (up to 64x64). To point out that the hat is big, set 1-st metapixel (it's nessesary, because otherwise all particles, stones and capes would be considered as big hats).
Example:
Contains vanilla additional hat information (cape, stone, particles, etc.). Extra hat will be applied to each frame of the hat element. If you want it to also be animated (to have animated particles probably, cause cloack can't be animated), define it's frame size and the size of the area where sprites are contained, as usual. Then your can put as many extra hats as you want. They will be applied to each frame in order you placed them, from right to left and from bottom to top (so, frame 1 will get the first extra fat, frame 2 will get second, and so one). If you didn't placed enough extra hats, it will just loop through all of the extra hats, until hat frames are over.
Example:

If you want to create a hat pack as a mod, follow these steps:

• Prepare a client mod template
  
• Create a folder in the content folder of your mod and put all the hats here
  
• Open your mod's code in any code editor (I assume you are familiar with coding)
  
• Add a reference to the Hats++ mod (the .dll is located in the folder of the mod in steamapps\workshop\content\312530 folder)
  
• Override OnPreInitialize method and add a path to your hats folder using AddHatPath method

Code example: