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.

[Klingon Fanatic]

 

Is this program capable of replacing race icons? F

or example remove the Korgath Cartel Alien Ant Lion and replace it with the Tholian race symbol?

[Corbomite]

It's too bad Chris Jones isn't still around. I think his head would explode.

[Bernard Guignard]

Freaking incredible very nice work 

[TarMinyatur]

Excellent! Band-box selection, hiding hardpoints, cycling through shield groups by empire...

[d4v1ks]

I updated the post on the page 1.
If you have any sugestion, or found any bug, please feel free to drop a line here.

Hope you enjoy. 

[d4v1ks]

Meanwhile, fixed that Hit And Raid button in mirak UI.

[Javora]

I think that bug occurs in OP as well.  Click the mouse too far up on the screen and the ship makes weird turns.  Never understood why until now.  Is this able to be fixed?

[d4v1ks]

The layouts and cameras seems to be all ok now. 

Wanna see how is going the SFC's Full HD project?
Take a look on the video below, were SFC CE is running in a never seen 1920x1080. 

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=5BEA448F9325A62B!45689&authkey=!AJukByzPlelz-fc&ithint=video%2cmp4

[d4v1ks]

I'm happy to announce that the new Q3_Editor 1.6.5 is already made.
This version will not be publicly released at the moment.
But, the result of this work will appear in the form of 2 patches in the days ahead (for SFC OP and SFC CE).   

[d4v1ks]

The SFCCE HD patch is almost here.

I made the layouts simpler, by get rid of those useless panels that were filling the gaps on the left side.
So now it just uses 1 unique background, in the left, per race, that is going to be used in every resolution, and its different heights.
If you think you can improve them in any way, the images that i needed to edit are here:

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=5BEA448F9325A62B!46427&authkey=!ADQeLdKXoGxB7LY&ithint=file%2czip

We will provide:
   1280x800
   1366x768
   1440x900
   1600x900
   1920x1080

These are some of the screenshots, running in 1920x1080...
(almost all of them have the fleet control enabled for demonstration purposes)


















It will be available in the SFCCE 2676 unofficial patch during this week.

[d4v1ks]

Two questions?

1) What about 1920x1200?
2) Will I be able to make new images to replace those crappy ones under the functional displays?

Adam

You can edit all the images, by using the Q3_Editor.
Are the images so bad?
Well you can download that Zip i linked and send me the replacements. I used the stock ones.
About the resolutions, we can always add new ones.

[Corbomite]

Cool! Will it work on OP too?

[d4v1ks]

Cool! Will it work on OP too?

It works already on OP.
We are just holding it a bit to release it together with the other things needed to make it run.
Both will be released in a highly customizable package:

starfleetXX.exe + SFC_Editor & offsets.txt + Q3_Editor & sprites.q3

And perhaps in a smaller package:

starfleetXX.exe + sprites.q3

[d4v1ks]

SFC CE had a lot of potencial...

Sprites.q3 gives us a lot of things to play around, but alone it doesn't solve everything.
Anyway, just look what i was hable to do in less than 1 hour...

for example...   https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=5BEA448F9325A62B!46430&authkey=!ABMYLLUAJesUvSk&ithint=file%2cmp4

Who knows, maybe in the future we could do something inside the current limitations...
As it seems, it doesn't work 100%, as some things aren't updated.
But other things do their job... like buttons, sliders, etc...

[TarMinyatur]

Jesus, I forgot about the other races using the UI, I just thought it change colors not have to replicate the entire thing

Strange. I assumed I'd have to change lots of data when I added a hardpoint to the ZCL. Hardpoint "W21", which ShipEdit shows as valid yellow, was invisible on the ship schematic panels. I discovered its offset blindly after twenty trials-and-errors 54 15 00 00 did the trick...thankfully all the other hardpoints used xx 15 00 00, where xx is approximately 30 to 70.

I edited the Horizontal Weapon, the Vertical System, and the Vessel Library sections, adding 16 bytes to each. I did not edit the FF, GG, HH, II, KK, LL, RR, and ZZ sections (which use race-specific offsets to describe elements within W1-W25). Apparently, the .exe reads the three primary ZCL entries and somehow ignores the missing data from the 8 racial sections! 

Anyway, the Z-MEC in CE now has 3xPh1 FX located in the bow in all panels for all racial UI's. It is a 3-minute edit of Sprites.q3.

The ZCL's W21 hardpoint works in Orion Pirates.

[d4v1ks]

This is how i feel when i speak about the sprites.q3

https://www.facebook.com/LovehelloU/videos/1370724749659646/

Some have all the information.
I've some partial information.
Others have just a little less of information.
Others have no clue about it.

Lets all celebrate!! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ortpIJOj1b4

[TarMinyatur]

I haven;t a clue what you are talking about LMAO

Ha. I didn't understand the race-specific ship UI sections (FF ZCL, GG ZCL, ZZ ZCL, etc.) a month ago or even a few hours ago. They actually control the shield bitmaps, even though there is no mention of shields! So adding a hardpoint manually isn't a ton of work.

Certain ship UI's such as the ICV only have 3 hardpoints for heavies, which is too restrictive. Adding two more isn't difficult. Just increase the array by two, discover the correct offsets (borrowing from the ICA, testing on a saturated ship) and insert these offsets carefully. Then adjust the coordinates with the Q3_Editor. Seems so simple to me after struggling for an hour, experimenting, and determining cause and effect. Not a black box!

[TarMinyatur]

It is possible to enable all 25 hardpoints for every ship UI. This would, however, take a lot of effort to do manually. A Hardpoint Editor could do this quickly, but it would first need all the offsets to be associated with specific weapon slots (W1 through W25). Unfortunately this information cannot be gathered directly because the offsets are not sequential (I've seen wireframes of Klingon destroyers appear in the weapon panel as "hardpoints" during trials). Sometimes there is no data for a particular hardpoint (e.g. W21 for Mirak) across an entire race. So it is pure guesswork.

But most ships in SFC2 already have an adequate quantity of hardpoints. Whew. Just a few need additional slots for phasers or heavy weapons. Those that have 4xDisr, 2xPPD, or 2xPlaR should probably be split in half.

[d4v1ks]

I saw some code in the exe where the weapons seems to be loaded.
It basically tell us that is possible to have 10 heavy weapons and 15 light weapons.
It is not hard to add those hardpoints to every ship.
I can track easily the rigth assets and add them all.
But you feel such functionality is needed?
We can already duplicate a heavily geared ship at the moment.
And adding all the 25 harpoints, will make the ship ui's look like a huge block of things. As it needs to fit in a small space. It is likely that we won't even see the ship diagram behind.

[TarMinyatur]

And adding all the 25 harpoints, will make the ship ui's look like a huge block of things. It needs to fit in a small space.

Agreed. Perhaps a Tholian Pinwheel (combining three destroyers, cruisers, or dreads) would need so many hardpoints. Most ships are fine with 8 Heavy slots and 8 Light slots, or fewer.

The primary problem was with the ZCL's W21, which I enabled so it will work as expected with ShipEdit.

[d4v1ks]

There are another things we can do atm.
Like adding some interface elements...

I finally found the ultimate weapon to defeat you in a duel!!
The hidden developer interface. **** evil laugh ****



But we can add another things more pratical.
Some things aren't updated (like the current state of certain elements), but other things work well,
like buttons, sliders, etc.

A person can design something...
It is crazy what we achieved this last weeks, rigth TarMinyatur?

We need to celebrate a bit!

[d4v1ks]

I will look into it Adam.
Maybe i will add it to the shipUI interface in the Q3_Editor.

[Corbomite]

It would be nice to have all available to be able to customize things more. I wouldn't think that all 25 could show up on one UI anyway w/o overlap or interference (except maybe a BB or a Borg Cube). You'd just have to design with the philosophy of "just because I can, doesn't mean I should".

[TarMinyatur]

I finally found the ultimate weapon to defeat you in a duel!!
The hidden developer interface. **** evil laugh ****

Ha, ha, ha. Kobyashi Maru.

Does "Destroy Target" actually work?

Adam, I can upload pictures of the necessary sprites edit later tonight. Basically, the first step is to increase the total hardpoint counter by 1. Then insert 16 bytes (int offset, int x-coordinate, int y-coordinate, int descending_index) to enable the new phaser hardpoint. The offset for your extra phaser will be similar to the last available phaser slot, maybe just two bytes downstream.

Corbomite, I agree. There would potentially be lots of overlap. Maybe we could make a new generic UI called "ALL" which would enable 25 hardpoints . You could then customize it for a Borg Cube, playable planet, or a Dysonsphere.

[d4v1ks]

Does "Destroy Target" actually work?

Not in singleplayer. Haven't tested it further.
But the heal button works, and the turn rate and charge slider.

[Corbomite]

LOL, what could you possibly throw at a Dyson's Sphere that would dent it? 

[Javora]

I finally found the ultimate weapon to defeat you in a duel!!
The hidden developer interface. **** evil laugh ****

I'm wondering if you inadvertently found the hand of Bethke...

[TarMinyatur]

LOL, what could you possibly throw at a Dyson's Sphere that would dent it? 

I don't know. Doesn't every structure have an Achilles heel? ...and now I must listen to Achilles Last Stand...

The mighty arms of Atlas might dent a Dyson's sphere.

[TarMinyatur]

...my galaxy class needs an extra phaser but I can do it at the moment.

Here's the first step for the horizontal image of the FBB. (The second step is for the vertical. The third step is for the Vessel Library.)

[TarMinyatur]

Second step:
Had to push the two hardpoints in the aft row to the left to make room for the new phaser hardpoint (containing a 1xPh2).

[TarMinyatur]

Step 3:

[Corbomite]

LOL, what could you possibly throw at a Dyson's Sphere that would dent it? 

I don't know. Doesn't every structure have an Achilles heel? ...and now I must listen to Achilles Last Stand...

The mighty arms of Atlas might dent a Dyson's sphere.

Yeah, but you'll have to wait until April.   

[d4v1ks]

Spent this afternoon trying to make the multi-panels work.
I did managed to make some controls get updated in the process, like the shield's buttons (now turn green when they are raised or reinforced). Some bars get filled too.
I was really hoping it could be a start of something... but in the end turned out to be a little frustrating. I was really hopping that the taldren' programmers had build a more generic algorithm to handle the user input, that would allow adding more panels/controls, but they seems to be heavily hardcoded. And it makes sense. Its much faster.

Anyway this was what i was trying to do... 

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=5BEA448F9325A62B!47038&authkey=!AO4KOPq71ubnG00&ithint=file%2cmp4

Still have some last experiments to do. But i dunno if it will ever be possible with the current limitations.

[d4v1ks]

The sprites work till 1920x1200. I didnt forgot you.   

[d4v1ks]

I think there is no limit to the number of sprites/assets you can add.
I created a unique image of 200x1200 to replace the stock one, and removed all the extra panels on the left side. So each race has only 1 left panel that is common to all the resolutions' layouts.

[d4v1ks]

After waste my time this week trying to find a way to incorporate multi-panels in CE, i turned my attention to SFC3...
And "viola", i managed to make SFC3 run in full HD too! 
It works in a very similar way to CE and OP.

So, it deserves a patch! 

I will start working on it as soon i have some patience.
The adventure on the sprites.q3 is getting close to an end.
Spent almost 2.5 months on this.
And there is not much more that can be done.

[yochenhsieh]

After waste my time this week trying to find a way to incorporate multi-panels in CE, i turned my attention to SFC3...
And "viola", i managed to make SFC3 run in full HD too! 
It works in a very similar way to CE and OP.

So, it deserves a patch! 

I will start working on it as soon i have some patience.

Thank you for making SFC3 wide-screen compatible. 

[d4v1ks]

There has been some interest on the HD patches recently.
I want to announce that i've updated my q3_editor to work with all the SFC versions, and allow any kind of custom resolution!
I just need to finish some details on the sfc1/sfc2 eaw sprites.q3 files, so each resolution could have its own left panel to customize, and not having all those extra panels floating around when we change resolution.
I'm also looking on a way to let people increase their size so when you adjust any resolution those are taken in account! Cause you can resize things, you know? Make it larger to play in a tablet, for example. You just don't have the tool for it yet.

The code i have to edit the sprites.q3 is very good.
You can display/copy to clipboard any sprite or layouts; call any asset by name or index; see how they are connected in a object's tree.
You can add, remove or replace any sprite or asset in the fly.
it allows to upload, create or download sprites in 8, 16 and 24 bits, compressed or not.

But i've not completly mapped all the assets yet.
Studiyng unknown byte structures don't play nicely with my personality.
As i think it is a waste of time when, we realize that, the complete information about the assets has been available since 2008.
Make us think right?

But hey! Who can't say it is not a cool tool?   

[d4v1ks]

Hi all,
Today i've made a little video about how to fix an ship's UI in the Q3_Editor.
The ui's issue was found by Corbomite.
On the future, if anyone is willing to make any video tutorials, you are very welcomed, as my english is not the best.

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=5BEA448F9325A62B!49762&authkey=!AD-iQvLJG5to3LY&ithint=video%2cmp4

(The keys i used in the Q3_Editor are on the first page of this topic)

[Corbomite]

Could we possibly get the new commands for the latest edition of the editor?

Thanks.

[d4v1ks]

The last keybinds added to the ShipUi interface were:

Insert -> add new ruler
Delete -> delete current ruler
Page Up, Page Down -> select active ruler

G -> Toggle shields/hardpoints grouping
S -> Toggle view between shields and hardpoints

[Moonligth]

Amazing work guys!
I knew that after you get the source code,
that would just be a matter of time until you crack the sprites.q3!
Thank you Dynaverse for keeping this great game alive! 

[d4v1ks]

Did you know that Q3_Editor enables you to add completely new models to SFC and expand your model list?

Imagine the Federation added a borg cube to their fleet.
It has its own ship interface, its own model, its own place on your vessel library, and in your shiplist.

I will post a video later.

[d4v1ks]

Today i thought: what stops the game from accepting more models?
So i toke a look at the assember code that loads the models.
For my surprise i did saw a pretty generic algorithm there to load the ship's models.
So, i just needed to do 4 things and voilá.
Another big mistery solved in 1 hour. 

It looks like with the help of Q3_Editor, the SFC CE game can load and use all the SFC OP models.
But i've only tested it with success in SFC OP till now.

I'm like...

[TarMinyatur]

Excellent. If CE could load OP's existing models and UIs that could be helpful in getting more people to play CE. Moving OP's mauler and advanced weapons into CE is absurdly laborious with a hex editor, but these weapons can be imperfectly approximated with the SFC_Editor.

However, the AI is wonky in CE, so that needs work too. Today I am going to try to replace the AI "capture style" with the "kill style"... Results: The AI still tries to capture shuttles and ships. So the style is probably a modifier, not a prohibiter. The AI decides to capture elsewhere.

[d4v1ks]

I have uploaded an youtube video where i demonstrate how to add news models to SFC, using the q3_editor.
Theoretically speaking, you could load and use hundreds of models and ship' interfaces in your SFC game atm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86PlBFOcZeQ

[d4v1ks]

It toke me a lot of tries to make (was always forgetting something ), but i managed to make a tutorial for the ship's schematics.
I used one of the new models of Darkdrone in the video (hope you don't mind). 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwaPty1RBrs&feature=youtu.be

[TarMinyatur]

I noticed in the video that you used 96 dpi when scaling a bitmap. When I used 96 dpi instead of the default of 72 dpi, I was able to upload images properly into the Q3_Editor.

I needed to uncheck the box next to "Remove unused colors from colormap" in the indexed color conversion, too.

Thank you

[d4v1ks]

Why stick with the images?
Have you ever thought in redoing the interfaces?
New feature coming soon... 

[Tiberius]

Nice caint wait 

[Bernard Guignard]

I really enjoy the Video Tutorials.  You've done a great job  keep up the great work

[d4v1ks]

Today i added the code to load and save everything rigth. And started to add some detail to it... 
Also fixed the use of the menu buttons while the layout's window is open.

[TAnimaL]

sweet zombie jesus d4, where did you come from and where have you been all our lives?! A million thanks for all this work you do!

Man, I can't wait til April is over and I can play with this!

[Captain Adam]

You and me both. I wish this was out when I was younger in high school. Now with work and family/friends, it's hard to devote much time to getting things done. So much we can do if we only had more time.

[d4v1ks]

Your welcome.
I've posted a version for you to play with >here<

[RazalYllib]

I also tip my hat...some of the things you have accomplished, were only dreams not too long ago.

It is doubly sad that the wonderful pholks that have kept the impulse engines warm (U know who you are!) for those still around, do not have the source for OP....iirc Mr Bethke is the only person who might still have it.

This community, somewhat chaotic at times, could at this point, finish the work Taldren started by "adding" Andro and Tholian to the existing systems, that would be EZ compared to the incredible amount of work already invested by many individuals as uncompensated labor.

It shows utter love for the game, and the initiative to make it better.

[d4v1ks]

I managed to fix the Hydran Plasma Interface on SFCOP!
Not a big deal, but it is done.
Yesterday was reviewing what we were missing, and Tar remind me of that detail, as he had made a similar fix on CE.
It took like 20 minuts to fix.
I will spare you to the details.
Lets just day that the "indexes" were reversed and the "positions" too. The buttons itself were perfectly ok.

[d4v1ks]

I updated the Q3_Editor to version 1.7.0.2.

All the new ships, added to the game, will come with all the 25 weapon hardpoints available for customization! (10 heavy and 15 light).
If you later add any weapon to one of these slots, don't forget to give it a proper position in the ship's UIs!

The link is on the first post of this topic.

[Nemesis]

Excellent work.   

Now if only I had a computer to play it on.

[d4v1ks]

Excellent work.   

Now if only I had a computer to play it on.

"Resistance is futile"

[Nemesis]

Excellent work.   

Now if only I had a computer to play it on.

"Resistance is futile"

But a whole lot of fun.  Especially when you win against the so called impossible odds. 

[xeryx]

I updated the Q3_Editor to version 1.7.0.2.

All the new ships, added to the game, will come with all the 25 weapon hardpoints available for customization! (10 heavy and 15 light).
If you later add any weapon to one of these slots, don't forget to give it a proper position in the ship's UIs!

The link is on the first post of this topic.

I must be missing something about this editor.  I have watched your video's and read the other forum.
I understand how to edit an existing Ship UI.

Q1; Why is there no Clipboard in the Ship UI? or ability to Insert or Delete graphics from the Ship UI editing window?  Is this not an easy solution to install?   It would make things 10x easier.

Q2; How do I delete the extra hard points from the UI once I have made a new Ship UI?

Q3: How do I replace and old SHIP UI (FCA) with a new one I have just made  (FCA2)?  Why can't I just copy and then save the new one over the old one?

I will watch the video again on youtube before asking any more questions.

The Video I watched got me confused.

[d4v1ks]

Q1; Why is there no Clipboard in the Ship UI? or ability to Insert or Delete graphics from the Ship UI editing window?  Is this not an easy solution to install?   It would make things 10x easier.

Q2; How do I delete the extra hard points from the UI once I have made a new Ship UI?

Q3: How do I replace and old SHIP UI (FCA) with a new one I have just made  (FCA2)?  Why can't I just copy and then save the new one over the old one?

Hey there!
Thanks for your interest in the sprites editor.
This program was made last december\january when i was unemployed .
Before this, the sprites.q3 was a complete mistery. Not even the persons with access to the game source code, here in dynaverse, had any ideia how to access it, or handle it. It was literally made while i was discovering how the file worked and was structured. So yes, it has some limitations.
Adding a clipboard, or undo\redo system would be cool, but it is just too much work.
I started this program with no idea of what it would became. So i didnt even considered any features like this.
The file itself offers some limitations, as it has hundreds of compressed images, and thousands assets of diferent types (some still unmapped), interconnected between them. Also many things are directly linked in the exe. So, some things are just impossible to remove, add or replace.
But hey!! It is the only program program in the world, that allows you to do anything, right?
You just have to love or hate it.

Cheers.

(the extra hardpoints are ignored by the game if you dont use it)

[xeryx]

I am glad you found Employment!  I hope I didn't come across bad I was kind of frustrated at the time I wrote the post. 

I am really grateful for your program, just being able to fix the existing UI's is a godsend...they drove me crazy!

I will keep working with it.

What is the proper war to implement a new UI once made, Just change the shipslist?  What is the  proper set up for a spreadsheet, I seem to be having problems with that corrupting my file.

Hopefully, you can add these features later as time permits.  Thank you for your hard work

[xeryx]

Hello Again,

I have a question about replacing the stock UI's.

I wanted to know if there is a way I can replace the stock UI graphic.  Is there a way to fool the game into using a set of UI's without actually replacing the main graphics set. Or does it only work with new copies created? For instance, I want to have a new stock graphic for the FCA.  The reason I would want to do this is so that when I use ships edit it shows the weapons correctly.

Man how great it would be if we could export those UI's into Shipedit, then it would make life so easy, or a new ship editor being built into Q3.  Oh one can dream.

[d4v1ks]

Hello Again,

I have a question about replacing the stock UI's.

I wanted to know if there is a way I can replace the stock UI graphic.  Is there a way to fool the game into using a set of UI's without actually replacing the main graphics set. Or does it only work with new copies created? For instance, I want to have a new stock graphic for the FCA.  The reason I would want to do this is so that when I use ships edit it shows the weapons correctly.

Man how great it would be if we could export those UI's into Shipedit, then it would make life so easy, or a new ship editor being built into Q3.  Oh one can dream.

If i remember correctly, shipedit doesnt use anything from the sprites.q3 file. It has its own set of images.
Now, about the stock UIs, you can replace everything you see there, when you navigate throw the treelist, or using the Left/Right keys, on the Q3_Editor. That include all the stock UIs.
The new UIs you add, are for new ships you add, that you wish to personalize with its own ship images, and hardpoints.

[d4v1ks]

Yesterday i finally added the code to remind us to save the changes, before we leave. 
Adding a zoom to the editor requires a lot of changes into the code, with having to resize everything, convert coordinates, improve the font system used, etc.

Nevermind, this afternoon while i was thinking on this "zoom" feature, i got another idea of how to implement it.
It should take a hour or so.
I will post tomorow the new version.

[xeryx]

OK that answered my questions! I was wondering if it had it's own sets of sprites. 

That helps a lot.

Thank you for the added features!!

[d4v1ks]

I updated the sprites.q3 editor.
Now it includes a zoom feature, using key Z and CTRL+Z.
Hope it helps your eyes.

 I finally fixed the loading screen positioning. It was on the sprites file and not in the exe. Will fix it for 2564 patch.

Cheers

[TarMinyatur]

Zoom works. Nice.

Only very minor glitch is the checkmark in the lower-right corner of the hardpoint editor. It shows four duplicate images, although three of them are slivers.

[d4v1ks]

Humm.. That never happened with me.
Thanks for reporting it.
I imagine it happens when you resize the window?
Or when you zoom?
Also the miniature doesnt look right...
Have to test it in Win7.

Edit: It looks like a minor latency in the control refresh event.
Nothing wrong with it.
It is scheduled for a review in the future ahead... 

[Captain Adam]

Thanks Carlos...
You guys are da best!

[d4v1ks]

SFC2OP 2.564 patch update:

Today, we took a step further, and fully implemented the remaining assets for the planets.
The systems, weapons, and shields hardpoints are not aligned correctly yet, but we can already see the difference!
For the first time in history, we can now launch a probe at a planet and see what they have !!

[Tumulorum Fossor]

This is so so so so coooooool!!!
Thanks, guys.  I'm technically limited so I can't wait for the idiotproof patch.
My only remaining request (and it might already have been implemented) would be an easy way to adjust HUD font size.  It goes hand in hand with the awesome resolution control.

This is great. Still one of the best damned games out. Amazing that this many years later and still no one has a Star Trek game as good as OP.

[d4v1ks]

Thanks Tumulorum !

This weekend i spent 2 days just to try to make it feel right...  :shock:

It is a lot of assets, and i had to do a great clean up on the sprites.q3 file, to organize it.
This the last screenshot i took today. It surely looks a bit better now, with everything aligned.
But, doesn't that tactical screen feels small when dealing with 25 weapon hardpoints? Humm...

Anyways, everyone will be able to customize the planets tactical screens, and their hardpoints, for each race, with the Q3_Editor, when we release it!