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Author Topic: Ship editing and Graphics  (Read 13006 times)
Arne
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Ship editing and Graphics
« on: June 21, 2005, 09:16:32 am »

I posted this in another thread (cheat codes) but decided I was too far off topic, so new thread it is.


It would be nice with some quick and dirty support for ship editing, just something for people to toy with until the real resource system gets done (which could be a while).

Where does the ship values end up? In the .exe or in the .shp files? The .shp files in UQM are smaller than in the old PC version right?




One thing that hinders editing hungry people is having to draw angles*sizes (16*3 ?) images for each ship.
It could of course be automated by an external program. I could write one. Maybe I will... right now. Or maybe not, cuz I'm incredibly lazy.


I made some rotation tests anyways. It seems 3x gives best symetry (because of the center pixel). It depends on where you put the handle/hotspot though. On most I didn't put it anywhere special, but the one's marked (A) had the same handles aligned to the pixels.

The 2x ship didn't end up symetrical because different source pixels were selected on respective sides of the ship.

These are all nearest neighbour scaling/rotation. No aliasing.

(firefox mouse gesture users can scale up with diagonal down-right)

Here's the 3x version rotated with photoshop (seem to sharpen it a bit), then scaled down with bilinear. I'm not a huge fan of blur. For my project I'm using 5 x originals and then I sample just a couple of the 25 pixels per source block (maybe 3 in a triangle).
(Scaled up 3x for clarity)



Edit: Here's the 2x ship scale-rotated in PS with aliasing (I think it sharpens too), then pasted onto a canvas using the SC2 palette. (No doubt using some illegal colors).
Not sure how hot it looks without the light angles that the original SC ships have.


In any way it would be nice not having to draw all those frames, even if it doesn't look as good. It would probably be affordable to have the game (pre?)generate the frames.
« Last Edit: June 21, 2005, 09:37:01 am by Arne » Logged
Ivan Ivanov
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Re: Ship editing and Graphics
« Reply #1 on: June 25, 2005, 08:11:46 pm »

Ladies and Gentlemen it is done!
By downloading this neat little package:
Just the exec and content files (if you already downloaded all the dll's and just want the newest version of the mod)
Just the the dll's (if you have the mod but forgot the dll's)
The exec, content files and the dll's (to install the mod from scratch)

and unzipping it in your UQM directory, you will now be able to edit all the ships (excluding the Sa-Matra and Vindicator).
The properties are stored in the text files, in the content direcotry.
Have fun!

EDIT:
By the way, Arne, I think your idea is too much work with too little payback. If anyone is able to make one frame of a ship, he will be able to do as many of them as he needs.
Most, if not all graphics programs have the option of rotating an image, so I don't see a problem here.
« Last Edit: June 26, 2005, 04:21:36 pm by Ivan_Ivanov » Logged

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Deus Siddis
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Re: Ship editing and Graphics
« Reply #2 on: June 25, 2005, 10:20:29 pm »

"Ladies and Gentlemen it is done!
By downloading this neat little package and unzipping it in your UQM directory, you will now be able to edit all the ships (excluding the Sa-Matra and Vindicator).
The properties are stored in the text files, in the content direcotry."

Hmm, I keep getting the message "This application has falied to start because SDL.dll was not found. Re-installing the application may fix this problem."

I put the unzipped "uqmESP" folder in the "Ur-Quan Masters" folder, did I do something wrong?


"By the way, Arne, I think your idea is too much work with too little payback. If anyone is able to make one frame of a ship, he will be able to do as meny of them as he needs.  
Most, if not all graphics programs have the option of rotating an image, so I don't see a problem here."

Yea, especially if the ships are rendered off a 3D program.
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Ivan Ivanov
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Re: Ship editing and Graphics
« Reply #3 on: June 25, 2005, 11:27:22 pm »

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Hmm, I keep getting the message "This application has falied to start because SDL.dll was not found. Re-installing the application may fix this problem."

I put the unzipped "uqmESP" folder in the "Ur-Quan Masters" folder, did I do something wrong?


Nope, it was me.
Right now I have no idea of any solution to the problem aside from supplying you with the proper file(s).

Ok, download the zip once again, it has alll the dll's I have, just to be sure.
If/When it asks you wheter you want to overwrite... well it doesn't matter what you do, the files you have should be the same as I have.
« Last Edit: June 25, 2005, 11:28:49 pm by Ivan_Ivanov » Logged

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Re: Ship editing and Graphics
« Reply #4 on: June 26, 2005, 01:23:36 am »

"Ok, download the zip once again, it has alll the dll's I have, just to be sure."

I replaced them, but I still get the same message. Weird.

Just to make sure, you're supposed to unzip uqmESP, then put the unzipped folder uqmESP directly in the main Ur-quan Masters directory (no sub-directories). Then you open the uqmESP main executable file inside the uqmESP folder, right?
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Ivan Ivanov
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Re: Ship editing and Graphics
« Reply #5 on: June 26, 2005, 01:33:06 am »

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"Ok, download the zip once again, it has alll the dll's I have, just to be sure."

I replaced them, but I still get the same message. Weird.

Just to make sure, you're supposed to unzip uqmESP, then put the unzipped folder uqmESP directly in the main Ur-quan Masters directory (no sub-directories). Then you open the uqmESP main executable file inside the uqmESP folder, right?


Nonono!
There should be no uqmESP folder. The executable goes straight to the main ur-quan masters folder and the text files go to the content folder
« Last Edit: June 26, 2005, 01:33:38 am by Ivan_Ivanov » Logged

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Re: Ship editing and Graphics
« Reply #6 on: June 26, 2005, 02:14:05 am »

Yea, I had tried doing that too, with the same result. One thing has changed, though. It now says it's missing "MSVCRTD.dll". It has SDL.dll now, it came on the updated zip you uploaded. But now it thinks it needs this MSVCRTD.dll, as well.
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Re: Ship editing and Graphics
« Reply #7 on: June 26, 2005, 02:18:18 am »

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Yea, I had tried doing that too, with the same result. One thing has changed, though. It now says it's missing "MSVCRTD.dll". It has SDL.dll now, it came on the updated zip you uploaded. But now it thinks it needs this MSVCRTD.dll, as well.


Wow, this one I didn't expect.
If I could ask you something Deus.
Finding a download of these files is as easy as typing their name in google. If you'd be so kind, could you download all the missing files one by one, and make a list of them so I can put them in the zip?

EDIT:
Still, it is strange that the regular Ur-Quan Masters work fine and my little mod needs additional libraries...
More experienced programming comrades, if you could tell me what the hell is going on, I'd really appreciate it.
« Last Edit: June 26, 2005, 02:21:44 am by Ivan_Ivanov » Logged

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Re: Ship editing and Graphics
« Reply #8 on: June 26, 2005, 06:52:57 am »

Ok, I downloaded it and the game runs now. Let's see how tough those fat maggots are when my cruiser has 50 crew, hardy, har, har. Anyway, I needed SDL.dll and MSVCRTD.dll to make it run.
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Re: Ship editing and Graphics
« Reply #9 on: June 26, 2005, 07:08:03 am »

Something interesting happened. I edited the cruiser fire rate so that it could fire off large salvos very quickly. The funny thing is that now all weapons on all ships have a very fast fire rate. Hehe, I drove my super cruiser up to an urquan thinking he'd chewed his last leaf. Instead I found he could fire off a beam of fusion that ripped through my hull in .1 seconds. The kohrah is even better. His f.r.i.e.d. unfolds like a blue rose. . .that obliterates a dreadnaught with one pass.
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Re: Ship editing and Graphics
« Reply #10 on: June 26, 2005, 01:11:26 pm »

Ok, fixed it.
They were stupid copy-pasting mistakes. The Ur-Quan ship read the Chmmr file, that's why its main weapon was so quick, and the Kohr-Ah's FRIED energy cost was accidently set to... 1 Smiley
I also corrected some other minor things, though I'm not sure if they even will be visible gameplay-wise.

Anyway, thanks for the help with testing Deus.

Here are the new files:
Just the exec and content files
Just the the dll's
The exec, content files and the dll's

As for interesting things... try changing the ship's mass to, say, 1000, and start ramming your enemies...
« Last Edit: June 26, 2005, 10:01:20 pm by Ivan_Ivanov » Logged

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Re: Ship editing and Graphics
« Reply #11 on: June 26, 2005, 08:08:30 pm »

"Anyway, thanks for the help with testing Deus."

No problem, thanks for giving us the power to defeat dreadnaughts without having to run away like little cowards all the time. It was beginning to affect my self esteem, but now I can proudly fly my souped up cruiser directly into the face of those behemoth slugs, as a true warrior should. Cool


"As for interesting things... try changing the ship's mass to, say, 1000, and start ramming your enemies..."

Hehe, that's like a whole new weapon on its own. Maybe one of the weakest ships should be given this ability, like the umgah drone.
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Re: Ship editing and Graphics
« Reply #12 on: June 26, 2005, 08:13:22 pm »

Quote
Hehe, that's like a whole new weapon on its own. Maybe one of the weakest ships should be given this ability, like the umgah drone.


The drone coudn't kill anyone that way unless you tweaked it's speed, because somehow the AI takes into account your ship's mass, and if it is so bloody heavy, it won't fight, won't even fire anything at you.
The AI will try to run away, occasionally trying to fend of your projectiles if you fire any.
Funny stuff.
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Re: Ship editing and Graphics
« Reply #13 on: June 30, 2005, 01:15:51 am »

Curious ... any way to plug this in to the Mac version? I remember hexedit-hacking the SHP files on the PC version of SC2 and having some CRAZY high-powered battles with my room-mate, it would be fun to do that again.
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Re: Ship editing and Graphics
« Reply #14 on: June 30, 2005, 04:16:26 am »

Alright, I know im new, but I have no ability whatsoever at fighting in this game. I dont know why, or how, but I have never won one battle...except the very first one and barely at that. So Using this to set the earth cruiser to shoot super fast with low energy I find for my first time I beat somebody!! Only to find out after I win it just sits there zoomed in on my ship and does nothing...this is a bug I dont like at all.
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