Topic: sprites.q3 Editor!

[d4v1ks]

Q3 Editor (c) D4v1ks,  December 2015 - January 2016




Moved to this >Topic<

[TarMinyatur]

Again, nice work, d4v1ks!

Glad to see that Voyager(?) starship in your MFD, Adam.

I'd like to see a DY-500 class ship, or even things like the Space Shuttle, Atlas rocket, and Tholian wireframes. Or X-wings/B-wings/Milennium Falcons for the SW fans. Or BSG, or Babylon 5, etc. Or even ships of sail, like the original USS Constitution, and turn the space grid .bmp into a blue-green sea...

[Corbomite]

Ermm, that's an Intrepid (looking) hull, not a Galaxy.

[Corbomite]

I don't need to check my eyes. On my monitor it looks like an Intrepid hull with the oblong saucer and long body. It is not round by a long shot and the engines are placed far too forward on the pylons to be a Galaxy, which has its engines mounted near the center of the pylon. We may not be seeing the same image, which is weird in itself.

[Tus-XC]

Its a galaxy, the wireframe has been squished,   however, you will note that the aft end of the secondary hull is wrong for an intrepid.  Here  is an intrepid for reference.  http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130918171840/memoryalpha/en/images/thumb/5/53/Intrepid_class,_overhead_view.jpg/500px-Intrepid_class,_overhead_view.jpg

[TAnimaL]

we'll see about the latest version of the Q3 editor, but I imagine the ratio of the image has to match (106x67, for example of a F-CL schematic)

[TAnimaL]

I'm only here to help Adam

When you say you are having troubles with borders, are you generating new schematics in "max"? Is that 3D Max? Or are you working in graphic editing software like GIMP or Photoshop? For me, I have been taking an image from the sprites (as in 2889 = splash page or 3100 = F-DD schematic), opening it in my graphics editor (Photoshop) and editing, and then resaving with the original images' size (sprite 3100 = 318x176). I'm just trying to find out how you managed to turn a Galaxy class into an Intrepid.

I'm still having some problems with the placement on screen, as in this example. The first 3100 is the stock image for the F-DD, the second is one of my own creation, using an Intrepid schematic from the innernets. The last one is a screengrab from how it showed up in-game. I believe the slight scaling error comes from the 16-bit BMP advanced settings, but I'm not sure why it's off kilter

[TAnimaL]

Adam, just a suggestion, but maybe you could use another model viewing program to grab images of the ships you want. In the attached example I used Modelviewer to replace the F-DDX schematic with a Constellation-class one using modelviewer, but I did the same thing with SFC2EDv2 (and with that program you can just click on "top view" and such). Then I just did a screengrab and pasted it into my graphics editor. I tweaked the brightness levels a little and I might grey back the center lines on the new schematic so it won't confluict with the weapon button overlays, but this quick example literally took me 90 seconds to get into the game - thanks again a hundred times to d4v1ks and his awesome tool!

[TAnimaL]

I did find the workflow that works for me in Photoshop and it was your comment on resoution d4v1ks, but first:

Please, let's not spiral off on a tangent, and if you don't know, this is a topic that makes an argument over magic photons or Kirk-vs-Picard look like a polite disagreement, but... the concept of "DPI" in digital image is a sort of myth, and long drawn out battles have been waged over it. I'm ONLY bringing it up to illustrate what works and doesn't work FOR me and perhaps illuminate paths forward, not to spark an argument. In my own video-professional business, 72 dpi/ppi is the standard for online/video but this was just what I was taught and I only recently read about 72 becoming 96 in Windows when the IBM 8514 came out back in the day, blah blah blah. I know it gets very confusing (it is to me) and I have no intention to teach/discuss right/wrong mythology as I have no horse in this race and I just want to know what works for me, profesionally and as a hobby. So...

Seeing you comment about trying 72 suddenly clicked that there was my problem -  72 is my default document resolution and why it was coming out stretched. Switching it over to 96 made everything I make work just fine (so much for "dpi" not mattering I suppose).

 To make an image in Photoshop for the sprites and replace it, as I did in both examples:
-after making my new image, (& working in 96 pixels/inch resolution), I resized it to the same horixontal-x-vertical pixels as the image I am replacing. E.g., the splash page is 800x600, the F-DDX schematic is306x175
-save as bmp. In Photoshop, when the "BMP options" pops up, use file format "Windows" and depth "16 bit". (Under "Advanced Modes," X1 R5 G5 B5 works, A1 R5 G5 B5 does not). Name it the same as the one you're replacing ("2889", "21376")
-using the wonderful Q3 Editor (currently I'm using vers. "1.4", from 12/12/15, 1618), the images  slide in like butter and look fine in-game, no noticeable shifts in centering as of yet.

I've only been working on images of ships and menus so far, so maybe I'll try something smaller like a 36x30 icon, to see how it places.

[TarMinyatur]

Finally got rid of that BETA in the splash screen for CE. Added the roman numeral, II, to the title too.

[TarMinyatur]

Fixed the "KFX" arc graphic for Romulans in Community Edition.

[intermech]

Great job! Works great with SFCIII. I have been waiting forever for someone to crack this. If only I had the time I had ten years ago. I had several non-Trek Conversions waiting for something just like this. May be re-motivated here.

[TAnimaL]

Thanks for the Xmas present!. Now, like Adam points out, if there weren't so many other demands on time....

[EschelonOfJudgemnt]

On a slightly unrelated note, has anyone found out how to add a new race, without deleting a current one from the shiplist, or piggybacking two races into the new race slot?  (Yeah that's more of an .exe thing, but ties into this).

Since y'all have figured out how to add new UI's, that'd be the next logical step after adding new UI's to current races...

[Corbomite]

That is really cool and user friendly! With all the models out there I feel sorry for someone trying to make all those wireframe UIs, but I'm sure it will be fun work for someone who knows what they are doing.

[TarMinyatur]

Wow. You have made excellent progress, Carlos.

I tried to make a new UI for the Gorn Medium Cruisers. I copied the GCA UI, and chose GCM for the new name. Then I adjusted the position of several hardpoints in the "horizontal" weapon schematic, which took time and concentration to accomplish with a Hex Editor. But then I noticed that I'd have to do this 7 more times for the other races' versions of the GCM! And then I'd have to edit another 8 "vertical" system schematics -- plus the Gorn "vessel library" schematic. So I gave up. Seventeen complicated edits are required for each new UI. This task would be much faster with an advanced editor, I thought.

Lo and behold, it looks like your 1.64 editor can do this...

I haven't tried it yet.

[TarMinyatur]

On a slightly unrelated note, has anyone found out how to add a new race, without deleting a current one from the shiplist, or piggybacking two races into the new race slot?  (Yeah that's more of an .exe thing, but ties into this).

Since y'all have figured out how to add new UI's, that'd be the next logical step after adding new UI's to current races...

If you replace the CE sprites with the OP sprites, the number of races seemingly increases to 16 for Community Edition. But these extra races are not recognized in the shiplist. I had hoped that the Orion, Tholian, Jindarian, and "Andromedian" assets would be activated. But a Tholian test ship did not appear in the vessel library.

Seems that OP could easily replace an Orion cartel with a more interesting fleet, such as the Tholians or Andros. But adding slots will require an unexpected breakthrough.

[TarMinyatur]

All we need then is to disable the engine doubling...

I guess that StarfleetOP.exe has some code like this:

if (eRaceName > 7) allowEngineDoubling(true);

eRaceName is a variable that uses integers to conveniently represent words such as: Federation, Klingon, etc.

|RaceName|Federation = 0
||Klingon = 1
||Romulan = 2
||Lyran = 3
||Hydran = 4
||Gorn = 5
||ISC = 6
||Mirak = 7
||Orion = 8
||Korgath = 9
||Prime = 10
||TigerHeart = 11
||BeastRaiders = 12
||Syndicate = 13
||WyldeFire = 14
||Camboro = 15
||Orion (from EAW) = 16

We could substitute Andromedans for "OrionOrions" in the #8 slot. Then we'd add one to the test for Engine Doubling. So now only races with an associated value > 8 would be allowed to overload their warp and impulse engines. Since we don't have the OP source code, this function could take forever to find with a HexEditor...   

[Klingon Fanatic]

 
 
Nice work gentlemen, thank you for taking this on.

There are two versions of SFC: OP that ALREADY have Orion Cartels being replaced by Tholians, Andromedans, etc. :

1. Bonk's SFB OP mod based on SFB and Fleetdock 13 models

2. Rod O'Neal's Galaxies at War Beta which uses Taldren's Aborted GAW models

Also look at how Firesoul treats the Orions. Some of his OPPLUS 4.1.1 missions allow for the possibility of encountering Andromedans. I never completely understood why he chose not to code Tholians that didn't have web spinners...

Chris Jones also added Andromedans from Taldren and Brezgonne's SFB and TNG Tholians in the huge multi-era Universe at War mod.

Personally, I found the cartel slots used for the Tholians and Andromedans in GAW made the most sense IMHO. IIRC the Cartel Slots were chosen based on Trek lore/ stellar cartography (Tholians settled on the edge of Klingon space in SFB) which is why the Tholians were put in the Klingon Orion Cartel slot in that mod.

OrionOrion = non-playable, neutral faction that harassed everyone
Korgath = Tholians
Wyldefire = Andromedans

I have no preference on Jindaran or any other races to be added.

I would like the ability to wipe out the *GASP* Klingon-Romulan tech exchange ships entirely, and remove the LDR and Wyn to free up more slots for other unique races.

Please look at those mods BEFORE you sprite editors overly complicate things for new folks.

There is also no point in talking about Andromedans for SFC: CE unless TRBs and other SFC: OP weapons can actually be added.

Carry on the great work gentlemen.

[Corbomite]

Is there a keybind to double the engines?
If not we can just remove the button from the UI.

O is the keybind for engine doubling. IIRC it can't be changed via the hotkey inputs, but it's been a long time since I looked at it.