06-09-2003 11:42									#31
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Thanks IW

	06-09-2003 19:40									#32
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quote: Originally posted by Martin the Dane Ok I have a question for all you potential sprite-artists: How do you prefer to work with the individual frames of the sprites?

Difficuilt question, if I just want to change the color of the sprite e.g. change the color of the uniform of an unit than I don't need the shadow. If I want them to convert them to the makespr 0.3 format two files would be better. If I want to export it and modify it in PSP then one image would be better so I know where to place the shadow. I don't see a need for the three file system. So I would like to see both the two file and the one file system, but as I think the one file system is more of use it should have the higher priority.

-Martin

	07-09-2003 00:40									#33
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imw what about the continental shelves :d

	07-09-2003 01:32									#34
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What about them? It's in the picture just after the beach.

	07-09-2003 04:07									#35
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Ok I've just updated SpriteEdit

Changes from Build 4 to 5

1. Added Background image option (Thanks Imortal Wombat for the image) It is now possible to display an image as the background. You can make your own background image-stripe, first image in stripe should be blank. Color of upper left pixel is transparant color and any pixel in the image with this colr will be replaced by the current background color.
   
2. Added save as 32 bit tga with alpha. Both with and without the shadow.
   
3. Added save alpha Mask to 32 bit tga.
   

	07-09-2003 19:13									#36
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Martin there is a problem with gx09.spr on both ctp and ctp2 so you should have the spr file the shadow is going over the image

	07-09-2003 23:53									#37
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quote: Originally posted by The Big Mc Martin there is a problem with gx09.spr on both ctp and ctp2 so you should have the spr file the shadow is going over the image

Have looked into the sprite and it seems it's not me but Activision that has a problem with that sprite, for some reason they have saved the shadow and not the image where thay overlaped, so there's nothing I can do. But at least it showed me a situation I'll have to take into account when importing shadow from a seperate image.

For the not so faint-harted here is the cpmplete data-block in Hex mode for line 40 of frame 4

code:

24 0A 09 0E 06 0F 01 00 0A 0F 01 00 0F 0F 20 00
15 0F 40 00 1C 0F 40 00 23 0F 80 00 2B 0F A0 00
33 0F C0 00 3A 0F E0 00 42 0F 00 01 49 0F 20 01
4F 0F 20 01 61 0F 40 09 72 0F A0 09 71 0F 80 01
24 0A 09 0E 06 0F 01 00 0A 0F 01 00 0F 0F 20 00
15 0F 40 00 1C 0F 40 00 23 0F 80 00 2B 0F A0 00
33 0F C0 00 3A 0F E0 00 42 0F 00 01 49 0F 20 01
4F 0F 20 01 61 0F 40 09 72 0F A0 09 71 0F 80 01
80 0F A1 02 73 0F 60 0A 5C 0F 60 09 5B 0F 40 09
5B 0F 80 09 59 0F 40 09 65 0F 00 09 7F 0F 00 0A
76 0F 00 0A 69 0F C0 09 5D 0F 60 01 65 0F 00 02
5E 0F 80 01 69 0F 61 02 46 0F 00 01 38 0F E0 00
30 0F 40 00 4D 0F 60 01 30 0F 00 01 10 0F 01 00
06 0F 01 00 0F FA 

	08-09-2003 19:34									#38
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can we ahve a way to turn the shadow off

	08-09-2003 19:58									#39
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quote: Originally posted by The Big Mc can we ahve a way to turn the shadow off

Apart from not selecting shadows in the Render-options list, Save Masked Image, and Save Frame? Nope , but that should be plenty. I'll give in a little and save the Render-options to the ini-file.

Ok I admit that the Save-Menu-items-names are a bit unclear.
There are 5 Frame Save items:

1. Save Combined Image - all thre elements Image Pixels, Mask, and shadow is saved. (Mask in alpha chanel)
   
2. Save Masked Image - Image Pixels are saved with Mask in alpha chanel.
   
3. Save Frame - only the Image Pixels are saved
   
4. Save Mask - only the mask is saved, as a grayscale image and in alpha-chanel.
   
5. Save Shadow - Only shadow is saved.
   

	09-09-2003 00:54									#40
	Increase the size of your Attachments

save spr file all the images that make an spr file up

	09-09-2003 16:02									#41
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quote: Originally posted by The Big Mc save spr file all the images that make an spr file up

Patience my fiend, patience (where is that sweathing smily???)
I'm working on it, both with and without script export. And yes there will be the same for import.

	09-09-2003 19:10									#42
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quote: Patience my fiend

My fiend ??

	09-09-2003 19:20									#43
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nice one martin i am just working on a new terain strip for you be done very soon

	09-09-2003 19:24									#44
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quote: My fiend ??

Oops! Sorry MC Should have been Friend!!!!

And sounds good with that terrain-strip

	09-09-2003 19:28									#45
	Remove this text

i did not notice

	10-09-2003 02:41									#46
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Good to know I'm not the only one who didn't notice

	10-09-2003 17:01									#47
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I reported this as a news item by accident (not the first time ive pressed that link by accident) but all publicity is good publicity

	11-09-2003 15:32									#48
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martin what is with the numbering of frames on some spr files (eg ai spy plane)

Some have frames with the same number or is some spr files numbers are missing

it appears to be in all builds.

oh and here is the terrain strip I promised you

i have altered them so you can see what the unit would look like on the map also as a bit of a bonus the new terrain strip is good for larger fx (eg eco ranger). as on most of the land and sea tiles they make one big image rather then what happens at the moment

i also moded the original to fix the dead, plains and volcanoes

Attachment: tiles.zip
This has been downloaded 4 time(s).

	11-09-2003 18:28									#49
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quote: Originally posted by The Big Mc martin what is with the numbering of frames on some spr files (eg ai spy plane) Some have frames with the same number or is some spr files numbers are missing it appears to be in all builds.

The list of frame-numbers, is the animation-sequence - a list of the frames as they are played, not the list of frames in the file. I'll add the number of frames to the display as well as a number of other minor but usefull bits of information.

Let me use give a short description of the structure of the .spr-file:
The file has three parts:

1. File-headder - describes what type of sprite the sprite-file contains and what version number.
   
2. AnimBlocks - a number of animation blocks.
   
3. Footer - the firepoints, shieldpoints, etc. (This has not yet been implemented into SpriteEdit, but will obviousely have to be implemented befor long)
   

Each AnimBlock consists of the following:

1. Block-headder - Dimentions, facing-offsets, etc
   
2. Frames - the frames available to this animation.
   
3. Animation-Description-Block - three lists (all with the same number of elements): first a list of frames to be shown, then a list of deltas or nudges, and finally a list of transparency-values.
   

Note that there are to number of frames: first SPRITE_NUM_FRAMES or number of sprite-frames witch is the number of "slides" stored for this particular AnimBlock in the file. Secondly ANIM_NUM_FRAMES or number of animation-frames to be played in the playback-sequence fro this particular AnimBlock. This system lets the artist reuse each sprite-frame in several anim-frames.

quote: Originally posted by The Big Mc oh and here is the terrain strip I promised you

Thanks, looks good.

Last edited by Martin the Dane on 11-09-2003 at 18:56

	11-09-2003 19:43									#50
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That’s great now I know what is what I can get back to my planes for world domination

	15-09-2003 16:27									#51
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Ok, here comes a new version of SpriteEdit.

The reason for the long delay between build 5 and 6 is that I have made some major (from a programing point of view) changes to the display, and finally got all the Export options working.

Changes from Build 5 to 6
(minor-version changed from 1 to 2)

1. Implemented all the save image options, (I hope) so now you can save as Combined Image, Masked Image, Pixels, Mask, and Shadow.
2. Added Export images options. You can now save all frames in the sprite file in three different modes:
1. One file : All elements of the frame is saved to the same image.
2. Two Files : Each frame is saved as Masked Image and Shadow.
3. Three Files: Each frame is saved as Pixel, Mask, and Shadow Images.
3. Fixed the shadow color bug.
4. Added displaying of a number of properties: (Not fully implemented)
1. Centerpoints, for each headding
2. Deltas or nudges for each Animation frame
3. Transparency (fade) values for each Animation Frame
4. SpriteNumFrames, number of frames pressent in the animation block
5. SpriteFirestFrame, first frame in animation block only used in the scripts from Activision, has no impact on the spritefile.
6. AnimType, sequential, loop, or back-n-forth.
7. AnimNumFrames, number of animation frames.
8. AnimPlayBackTime, length of animation in milliseconds, not implemented acording to Activision.
9. AnimDelay, number of times to play last frame in animation befor restarting animation.
5. Relative Paths now work in the interface (note: This is only visual).

	15-09-2003 18:45									#52
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i will let you know how it handles

	16-09-2003 13:22									#53
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Small problem when you extract all the images that make up the spr file you save the victory animation wrong the file names you have selected is gu__w for some reason when it should be gu__v

	16-09-2003 15:22									#54
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quote: Originally posted by The Big Mc Small problem when you extract all the images that make up the spr file you save the victory animation wrong the file names you have selected is gu__w for some reason when it should be gu__v

And Work is gu__v not gu__w. Have fixed it so it'll be corrected in the next version. And I'll add a reset filename-mask option, to take care of mask strings saved in the ini-file.

	17-09-2003 01:04									#55
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Martin I have a idea for you when exporting the image and shadow as two different files could it be possible for you to allow the user to export each image with different background colour for example black for the main image and whit for the shadow for some reason ( like the first compiler) I prefer to see the main image on black but the shadow on white

	17-09-2003 01:33									#56
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Thought I already did that. The idea was that if you exported with black shadow and black background, in any other than Single File mode, you'd get black shadow on white background, but apperently I messed it up somewhere along the way, so you now get black shadow on black background, witch is not verry usefull.

Thinking it over, it seems to be a better idea to add an 'individual colors option' to the advanced page on the export menu. That way you can export in any color combination you like.

	17-09-2003 14:52									#57
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You get a dark blue image on black

Other then that I think the export spr file is not bad

I found a temp work around like I sav the spr file 2 times one black one on white and just copy and past the white background on top of the black background :d

	19-09-2003 13:47									#58
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I am trying to get a test image ready for you when you come to compile the spr

To make sure it works I am compiling it throw the original make spr file but I just noticed the program can’t handle with file names like gu090 funny hay.

When it come to lading the images in to your make spr what will the import options be

Eg

One frame at a time

The hole spr file (like the original make spr)

One characteristic at a time ( like victory)

	19-09-2003 14:02									#59
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quote: Originally posted by The Big Mc To make sure it works I am compiling it throw the original make spr file but I just noticed the program can’t handle with file names like gu090 funny hay.

Well that's 'caus MAKESPR.EXE is version 1.3 where units have two digit numbers, not three as in 2.0

quote: When it come to lading the images in to your make spr what will the import options be Eg One frame at a time The hole spr file (like the original make spr) One characteristic at a time ( like victory)

Yes

The whole answer is: the plan is to include several different options, ranging from importing one frame (and possibly single elements like pixels, mask, or shadow) at a time to importing a whole sprite in one go.
For programing reasons, the first option to be implemented is replacing single frames in an exsisting sprite, then I'll probably add the ability to add and remove frames. When that works, I'm going on to the variouse multi-frame import options.

	19-09-2003 15:10									#60
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Martin the ctp sprit maker did not work something to do with needing tiffs instead of tga

Plus I noticed on some ctp units that when I extract them there is pure black on them (I can’t think of a ctp example of the top of my head)

Also what kind of alpha channel support you offering