Also Known As: banshee_revora (Steam) Joined: 15 Aug 2002 Location: Brazil
Posted: Sat Nov 29, 2003 12:01 am Post subject:
Home made tools for graphics? Show them all here!
I'm gonna post my tools in this topic and I suggest you to do the same, so everyone will be able to download it and it's easy to locate it, since the topic is sticky.
To inaugurate it, I'm posting my JASC to C&C Palette Converter 1.2 (by Banshee). It's a simple tool (freeware and open source... you can modify, transfer, upload and download it whenever and where you wish. All I ask is to credit me). Also, I'd like to help Stu, who aided me with some basic info when I was working on it. The current version is completely bug free. It converts the JASC 8bit palettes into 6bit palettes used in C&C 95, Red Alert, Tiberian Sun and Red Alert 2 (and all expansion of these games). But it doesnt converts back to JASC (and I personally prefer to not implement this feature since XCC does a great job with this already). The source code can be found at the TS Research Center.
For now, I wanna do some tools based on SHP files... but SHP format is a way harder to deal than the palletes. So, if you guys help me in TS Research Center, I might do tools that makes some jobs easier... let me see... what about a tool that replaces an specific colour to another in 600 or more frames of infantry in a second? Or clean the green line syndrom problem from a list of files in one second? Or a program that converts jpg and bmp into shps already including the pallete you want to the infantry? Or could I include a massive resize tool for these ideas I mentioned? It's not very hard to do these things. I know that some of these ideas can already be applied by Paint Shop Pro and specific plugins (usually paid ones), but I dont have access to them and I believe I am not alone.
And just to end this message, if you have a tool (i.e: a voxel editor or anything C&C related), post here also in the attachments.
palleteconverter.zip
Description:
JASC to C&C palette converter: make your custom palettes to C&C games!
Joined: 14 Sep 2002 Location: Las Vegas, Nevada, United States of America
Posted: Sat Nov 29, 2003 12:09 am Post subject:
ohhh I really like the change the colors in 600 frames in one second Idea... it would come in handy... and massive resize tool, one for voxels, and one for SHP's or hell, have it do both.. _________________ Formerly active PPM modder (maps, voxels, sprites) and Webmaster of C&C Central in the early 2000's on the Origin/Revora network. QUICK_EDIT
Joined: 26 Apr 2003 Location: Somewhere in Germany
Posted: Sun Nov 30, 2003 6:16 pm Post subject:
Banshee, I'd LOVE to see a tool that can replace colors on shps, I often had the problem when resizing shps with XCC Mixer it mixed up remapable red with non-remapable red and so on. Not sure if the fixed resize function does that still, but even if it doesn't such a tool would be really helpful.
And the other functions you mentioned could make 2D editing easier also.
So I'll go to the research center now and try to help. QUICK_EDIT
Terragen makes extremely high poly count renders that would only ever be good when used in a picture. This is also why the camera movement tool in terragen isnt like a 3d flyby of the terrain, its a 2d placement, because if it was 3d in camera placement it would lag so bad you wouldnt get anywhere. Considering it can take 5 minutes to render the tiny preview if you have made a pretty good scene. QUICK_EDIT
The problem is antialiasing in 3D graphics. Without it, 3D work looks like crap. With it, colors bleed across the background and remaps. Olaf fixed the bleeding problem ith background, but the remap problem is still unsolved.
The fix is to have a special resizer, since resizing down to 1/3 a triple size no-AA image results in smoothing, exactly like AA (this is how AA works). The resizer is configured to handle BG & remap in a way that prevents color bleeding. This is what my program does. Olaf's Mixer only takes care of the bg problem and is very slow for large images.
To operate:
Render your images with AA off and 3x bigger (each dimension 3x bigger that is) as 24-bit (no alpha) noncompressed TGAs.
Make sure the TGAs end with 4 digits reflecting on their position in the animation, put them in the 'In' folder.
Run Downsizer, press Process.
Your SHPs are in 'Out'.
Note that this is a batch converter. You don't specify what files it converts, it just finds them and converts them without the hassle.
The core functinoality of this program is established, but it is still very incomplete. Please test it and report any bugs to me. If you find a bug, please send me the source files and (if available) the outgoing SHP in a rar or zip: meselfs_himself@yahoo.com. Please check the graphics in game if possible, cuz my SHPs do differ (slightly) from game SHPs. I think OS SHP Builder's does also but am not completely sure.
To do:
Make selectable palette.
Make downsize factor choosable between 1 (no resize),3 , and 5.
Make a small message stating the time the conversion took.
Make it work with files that don't end with 4 digits (single frames SHPs. Good for cameos).
Some small optimizations that'll take me hours to implement and save you a few milliseconds per conversion.
Add a fix shadows option, same as that found in the mixer.
Possibly make compression optional, for mouse.shp. Probably not.
Possibly add bmp support. But probably not. As a matter of fact, you didn't read that.
Other stuff? Feel free to post suggestions but remeber that this is intended to be a quick, minimalistic batch converter and nothing more. You gots OS SHP Builder and the Mixer for things like color replacement or whatever.
So, while you test it out and make sure it works I'll do the above.
BTW, this software is crap in some ways (openGL UI? say 'lol', or 'wtf' is maybe better), I wholeheartedly admit. I'm not a good programmer, but I thought that at least I could benefit from it (not the file size of the exe). I also noticed that Gangsters incredible work lacks remaps... don't I wonder why.
Oh & one more thing, it works only with RA2/TS palettes. Don't ask me to support JASC pal.
Edit: also, don't ask for a downsize factor of 2 or 4. The resizer algorithm works only with an odd number of pixels, due to (legitimate) technical reasons. 3 is good for most purposes, in some rare cases 5 is appropriate.
I tested it and it converted cahosp (8 frames), upsized 3 times, in about 15 seconds. I forced the Mixer to close after 2 min . _________________ My 3D to SHP tutorial
A downsizing factor of 3 is not nearly good enough for slightly slanted lines, unfortunately...
This program looks very useful and worthwhile. Glad someone finally made it. I had been manually mixing antialiased and non antialiased version of images for my RA2 mod. _________________ QUICK_EDIT
Well, 5 will come. And if you ask I can add 7, but for a 300x300 image the file size won't be pretty.
Glad you like it. Previously, I resized with mixer and either color converted or put the remaps in seperate active anims <- not useable for buildups. _________________ My 3D to SHP tutorial
pd brought to my attention two rather serious problems. I fixed them and added several rather significant optimizations (memory & speed). It's now located here, with my 3D tutorial:
rather than post an entirely nu post y not just edit the
previous one u posted?
(other wise people here tend to get angry with you)
_________________
"The high and lofty, they see me as weak, cause I won't live and die for the power they seek" QUICK_EDIT
i thought it was alot longer than that.
oh well... _________________
"The high and lofty, they see me as weak, cause I won't live and die for the power they seek" QUICK_EDIT
It can convert between alot of color formats (even TS/RA2 HSB), see the screenshot and you'll see
Oh BTW the RGB/4 format is used by RA2 palettes I think.
I made it at a time I didn't know XCC mixer can extract palettes from a pcx... (would be a really nice feature for OS Pal Editor btw)
the downsizer sounds great, but as soon as i double click the exe, everything freezes and i have to close the process with task manager. _________________ Singer-Songwriter Christie Isaac QUICK_EDIT
A) I don't have the problem (tried it on 3 different machines).
B) I'm a crappy programmer.
But maybe I can try.
What's your OS?
Have you ever had problems with OpenGL?
Any chance you have very little RAM?
Does it draw a window? With a title? With my primitive GUI? _________________ My 3D to SHP tutorial
It can convert between alot of color formats (even TS/RA2 HSB), see the screenshot and you'll see
Oh BTW the RGB/4 format is used by RA2 palettes I think.
I made it at a time I didn't know XCC mixer can extract palettes from a pcx... (would be a really nice feature for OS Pal Editor btw)
IMO it's really handy.
A HTML value of #FFFF00 is equal to $FFFF00 in delphi. #FFFF00 and $00FFFF are 2 different numbers.
The ONLY difference between languages is the 'key' at the start that tells the compiler what it is. i.e 0x for C++, $ for delphi, etc but the actual data is the same in all. _________________ Free Map Editor - Game Requirements - Stucuk.Net QUICK_EDIT
i run win xp, i got 512 mb ram (grrrrr my dad wont get any more!) it doesnt draw any windows at all, and no i havent had any problems with openGL as far as i can tell. _________________ Singer-Songwriter Christie Isaac QUICK_EDIT
Ok, try this. I've compiled it so that, when it starts up, it'll show message boxes. The first one says '1', next is '2', etc...
You run it and tell me what is the last number it displays before it gets stuck, this way I can have at least a good guess where the flaw is.
And FYI, I ran this on 64 mb machine fine, so don't worry about your RAM .
BTW, are you the same Chris the Great from the E & W forum?
Edited 10 min after I posted: If you downloaded before that, please redo.
I have a problem with a 'send error report' window, very likely related to my graphics card suddenly seeming to reject any OpenGl applications - it gets to number 12 then crashes just to not on that version. QUICK_EDIT
none of the popus showed! i'm really suprised at that! maybe my computer has a problem with openGL.
what does E&W stand for? i'm on Tumsun Revora, derelict studios and maybe sleipner's stuff, i'm not sure, and i think i'm on a few more that i've forgotten about.
edit: muahaha it works now i just updated my graphics card driver from the nvidia site and it solved everything.
edit again:
why doesnt it split the shadows? i made the shadows RGB: 168,0,168 (or abouts, i found out the proper number using palette editor) and it just recolours them red!
well i guess it kinda worked:
none of the popus showed! i'm really suprised at that! maybe my computer has a problem with openGL.
what does E&W stand for? i'm on Tumsun Revora, derelict studios and maybe sleipner's stuff, i'm not sure, and i think i'm on a few more that i've forgotten about.
Nevermind, it's a non-CnC related forum.
Not even one? That's crazy, before my app even begins to initialize anything it's supposed to say "1".
Quote:
edit: muahaha it works now i just updated my graphics card driver from the nvidia site and it solved everything.
Uhkay good.
Quote:
edit again:
why doesnt it split the shadows? i made the shadows RGB: 168,0,168 (or abouts, i found out the proper number using palette editor) and it just recolours them red!
well i guess it kinda worked:
The tolerance is 2, your shadows must be within 2 color units (per component) of the shadow color on your palette.
Quote:
I have a problem with a 'send error report' window, very likely related to my graphics card suddenly seeming to reject any OpenGl applications - it gets to number 12 then crashes just to not on that version.
I looked over that are of code, the crash happens just when OGL starts to show itself (setting pixel format).
I have this template for all my work, and I'm currently switching to DirectDraw (no, I don't like Microsoft, but DDraw is better for my purposes); that should be more compatible. ATM I have my own drawline function, once I write a text output and rectangle drawing function I can redo Downsizer for it.
Quote:
meselfs you just became my deity
this works like a charm
i have a one-frame example of how well downsizer works
ah right, one tiny thing, could you add an option to not convert to any unlighted colors?
such as pallette number 8 and so on
Heh, thanks.
The easiest way to exclude colors is to kill them on the palette; so you could have one palette for the game and one for converting. I think that's better since you can exclude any color you want... _________________ My 3D to SHP tutorial
I prefer using it for things like removing background and swapping RGB channel. It supports many features, it's light and compact. I'm not even close at using it at its full capabilities, but it's extremely useful for cameos in modding. _________________ Red Alert 2 Yuri's Revenge Apocalypse mod:
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum You cannot attach files in this forum You can download files in this forum
Home made tools for graphics? Show them all here!
.
.
