Need help creating a base fixer (PR1.2)

[Dilloh]

Hi all,

I'm currently trying to create a base fixer for PR1.2. For some reason, it won't appear in the bar - I've noticed that last with Miggs (Lynch's compagnion) who also won't display. I tried to make all the settings the same, use png, 32bit, transparent colours for background, but it simply won't work - I've attached an example picture in 128x128, 64x128 doesn't work too. I also checked the spr files, those are okay too.

[ace123]

If you look in the stdout/stderr.txt files, you can do a search for the name of the texture in question... it may be displaying not loaded.

Also, realize that there is a .SPR file for every texture... make sure that the SPR file is correct...


Can you explain exactly what you changed that made it not work? (did you only replace one of the PNG images?)

[Dilloh]

Hi ace, thx for your reply.

Okay then - what are the steps to do if the file is not loaded?

Of course the file had a spr on its own - based on the original sprs. It was part of a - working - campaign I created on my own, but it also didn't display if I put it into e.g. Sandoval's original position.

I recently noticed such problems with the original Miggs.

I created a new PNG from scratch and didn't change original files.

My question is: Do I need a special app or special picture settings for that (except of the ones mentioned above)?

[chuck_starchaser]

Dilloh, this is completely OT, and I apologize in advance. Just wanted to let you know I've been working on a scaler with edge detection, precisely to scale priv/WC images with better quality than we can get from Gimp. Here's your image above scaled up 2x with Gimp's bicubic:



And here's what my little program can do for you:



It's still very incomplete; can't handle alpha channel, for one thing; but I can fix that easily.
And right now it needs the texture to be square, and power of two sized, but I could fix that too.

For another example, Lynch:



Scaling 4x with Gimp bicubic:



With my current code:



My apollogies again. I know nothing about the question of your post.

[Dilloh]

Hi chuck, never mind.

Though I'm not the born artworker (I can barely hold a pen, as well as a trackball, without trembling), I'm following the current WCU discussion threads with great interest, I've also frequently read your rescaler thread. I've made my "Sandomiggs" with simple progs like MSPAINT, MSPhotoEditor and UltimatePaint for the transparency. I think your rescaler routines will be of great help for anybody willing to contribute with artwork. Nevertheless, I'm currently more in for making new missions for PR which might be usable for WC0/Priv0 scripting some day - I must say although I just copy and paste, I can set up nearly every kind of skirmish I want --

But back to my problem, any artworkers out there who can explain to me while the picture in the first post cannot be loaded or displayed?

[ace123]

Can you look in the stdout/stderr.txt files?

If you search for the name of the texture or sprite you made... it may be displaying why it did not load

Anyway, you probably want to figure out what exactly is the problem.

I would start by taking some image that displays and is easy to test (even if it's a base background), and stick your picture in its place. If it loads there, then you can be sure that it's not the texture file format that is the problem.

To replace an existing texture, rename the old one to .bak, and then put your texture in its place, even if you have to change the extension from .png to .jpg, since vegastrike does not care.

I can't tell you what's wrong, but if you can find an example where one sprite is working and another is not, then you might be able to figure it out.

If none of the sprites load at all, then maybe it is a problem with your python scripts instead of the textures.

[Dilloh]

Okay then... I'lll reproduce the error and post the relevant files - but there's one thing I can say in advance:

I'm pretty sure it is a file format problem. I tried to isolate the problem by using a generic fixer (merchant) with a fresh install of PR. I changed just a pixel and saved it in the correct format (colors, transparency, resolution, pixels per cm) - the fixer was gone, no make that "invisible" for I could still click at its position.

Thanks for the advices - you'll hear from me later.

[chuck_starchaser]

I'm having the same problem, except, it wasn't the fixers's texture I changed; it was the bar texture; the Oxford bar. In fact, I changed it multiple times, but the last time I did, the fixers and barman disappeared, though I can click on them. I'm using jpg, so it's not an issue of alpha channel.

This is a bit OT, but, the wiki description of .spr format is written in Aramean on papyrus; I mean, it's pretty old; VS version 4.0, says there. In the current century's spr's, there's something following the texture filename, which is sometimes true, sometimes zero, so I'm not sure if it's boolean or numeric ; but I'm damn sure I've no idea what it's for.
Most importantly, it doesn't mention what I've just learned, namely that the python code that summons the spr can provide additional offsets; so, to get my precisely calculated values for the spr's to actually work (7 decimal places, --to try and get texels to line up exactly dead on screen pixels at 1280 rez, without interpolation artifacts), I guess I'll have to go looking for python code invoking them, and nulling those pesky offsets. :-/ (Ahh, the ironies of abstraction...)

[Halleck]

I have no idea what those spr values do either. Maybe ace knows.

The whole python/sprite part of the data set seems to be rather poorly documented... I think it will take a community effort to really get the documentation up to snuff. I'll help where I can but a lot of it is still a mystery to me.

[ace123]

Yeah it's a stupid remnant of the "Sprite" format that the game uses for all the 2D textures. Basically the .spr defines width and height, while position is dynamically set.
As to the reason for this, the idea is that images in cockpits and mouse cursors have a static width/height proportions... but this seems to have been a hindrance all along.
There is now a function like SetTextureSize (I don't have it in front of me) which the PrivGold GUI uses all over the place.

Basically, many the stupid problems in the base interface are like the problems that you see in HTML and the web. The base interface wasn't originally intended to be used in the way that it is being used now. But now there is too much old code to easily change to a new format.

Also, as one of my earlier projects on VS, it wasn't designed with too much expansion in mind either.
Sorry

I could help with documentation however...

[Dilloh]

That'd be very appreciated, ace. Thanks. Sorry I forgot about the stuff. I'll do some experiments on my own now and if I don't suceed, I'll post my files.