Version 1.0.1 Now Available

Please note:Version 1.0.1 (build 18) is a minor bugfix release for v1.0.0. If you already have 1.0.0, hop to the end of this post to get the patch. If not, keep reading. New users will need to get the 1.0.0 full install, then apply the 1.0.1 patch. And now, back to your original post for v1.0.0:

Well, It's finally done. FLICster v1.0.0 (build 17). Its a major revamp. Hopefully you won't even recognize it. Here the short list of new stuff:

* New FLC Viewer. Allows viewing of Civ3UnitFlcs. Each direction can be viewed. Units can be viewed with default colors or with any civ-specific colors. Also allows viewing with 'simulated alpha blending', to show how shadow effects actually look.

* New Export formats: StoryBoard PCX, Filmstrip PCX, and Cel PCX. Storyboard creates a single PCX containing all frames of all directional animation laid out in a grid. Each direction is tiled left-to-right in its own row. Filmstrip is similar, except that each direction's row of frames is saved to a different PCX file. Cel creates a separate PCX for each frame in each direction of the animation. Exporting to these formats also creates a FXM (FLICster eXport Manifest) file, containing information required to create a new Civ3UnitFlic from the PCX File(s). Storyboard and Filmstrip formats can include an optional border (recommended!).

* New FXM Viewer. The FXM viewer allows the animations stored in a PCX Storyboard, or PCX Filmstrips/Cels, to be viewed just like a completed FLC. Viewer features are the same as the FLC viewer. Additionally, the FXM viewer has a 'Popup' mode, which hides the full application, and displays an always-on-top version of the viewer, for checking your progress while editing the PCX file(s).

* Change more stuff - when exporting to PCX, you can change the frame size, frame count, filename, color palette, and animation speed.

* Start from scratch - Just select File|New... to create a blank StoryBoard (or other PCX format).

* Support for single-direction Civ3UnitFlcs, such as CruiseMissileDeath.flc

* Additional PAL file created with 'Alpha' coloring. See 'HOW TO USE IT' for important details.

* FLICster 0.2.2 style 'split' and 'merge' functionality is still supported, although it is deprecated. To split a file into standard FLC files, open the Civ3UnitFlc and set the export type to 'Multiple Standard FLCs'. Still creates an INI file. To merge the standard FLCs into a Civ3UnitFlc, Choose File|Open... and select the INI file. You may need to set the file type to "*.*"

* Help|About... function.

* Rewrote the readme file.


As always, I will send copies to the mods, to post here if they wish. In the interim, I've posted the full install and a small install to my Yahoo! Briefcase - http://briefcase.yahoo.com/moeniir. Note that in order to use the small install, you will need the latest comdlg32.ocx, mscomctl.ocx, mscomct2.ocx, and msvbvm60.dll. If you aren't sure, just grab the full install.

v1.0.1 (build 18) patch note: The full install is still for v1.0.0; just get the patch and apply when done. The small install for v1.0.0 is no longer available, just get the v1.0.1 patch (the patch is the same as the small installer - an exe and a couple of readmes.)

The files are now uploaded to CFC's file server!

v1.0.1 (build 18) Patch/Small Install (120 KB): http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?s=&postid=164601_Small.zip

v1.0.0 (build 17) Full Setup (2.4 MB):
http://www.civfanatics.net/downloads/civ3/utility/FLICster1.0.0.17_FullSetup.zip

Many thanks to Thunderfall for hosting the full install. The link is now in the original post. If you want the small dsitro, read the next reply.

Remember, you need to already have the VB6 runtime (VB6RUN.DLL) and the latest MS Common Dialog (COMDLG32.OCX) to use the small distro. Otherwise, get the full installer.

UPDATE 30 Nov 2001 The latest version is 0.2.2 (build 5). You can get the small install here: http://forums.civfanatics.com/attachment.php?s=&postid=118590

PART 1 of 2
---------------------------------------------

README.TXT
for FLICster 0.1.1beta
by Moeniir - moeniir@home.com

WHAT IT IS
----------

FLICster is a FLC file utility for working with unit .FLCs for Civization III from Firaxis/Infogrames. This version is *extremely* beta quality. For the love of all that is holy, BACK UP YOUR civilization III\art\units folder and all subfolders before running this thing. You've been warned.

WHAT IT DOES
------------

FLICSter, or at least, this version of FLICster, does two things. Well, three things. The first feature - it can read a Civ III unit animation (.flc) file and split it into 8 standard .FLC files ( one for each direction, N,NE,E, etc ) which can be edited with a standard FLC editor like Animation Shop. The second feature - it can read in 8 standard FLC files and turn them into a CIV III compatible unit FLC (with a truckload of limitations and caveats - keep reading). The other feature is that it can spit out a bunch of information about FLC files to help in diagnosing problems.

WHY IT EXISTS
-------------

The FLC format is a file format for animation - a series of still frames, displayed in sequence. CIV III uses FLC files for many purposes, most complex among them for unit animations. Each unit in CIV III has several different animations - run (movement), attack, death, fidget, etc. Each animation is stored in a FLC file. Unfortunately for potential unit creators, CIV III uses a non standard FLC format. For this reason, existing FLC editing programs, such as Jasc's Animation Shop, cannot edit these files. Some programs just crash opening the CIV III files, others appear to work, but any files saved from them will crash CIV III. FLICster was created to address this problem. Keep reading for all of the gory details (at the end of this file).

INSTALLATION
------------
Run the installer. If you already have the VB6 runtime on your system, you may be able to get the SMALL distribution, which is just the exe and the readme. If so, you can figure out the rest :) In any event, check the civ III forums on http://www.civfanatics.com for the latest version.

HOW TO USE IT
-------------
Run FLICster.exe. Click the little ... button next to the filename box, to browse for files. It will start you in C:\Program files\infogrames interactive\art\units. If you installed to another location, sorry. I'll fix that next release (I think). Navigate into a unit folder, pick a FLC file, and click okay. Now, in the main interface, you can click 'View File Info' to see a bunch of info about whats in the file. I suggest you do this before splitting a file... it'll hoot if it can't make sense of the file. Now, click 'Split File' to create the direction files. FLICster will create a subdirectory, called FLICster (didn't see that coming, did you?), in the folder where the civIII file was opened. This subfolder will contain an INI file used for remerging, and 8 animation files.

Edit the individual animation files. Please don't change the size (height & width) of a file, unless you've read THE GORY DETAILS and are sure you know what you are doing. Also, DON't change the number of frames. Just resist the urge man.

Once you are ready to see your handi work in CIV III, run FLICster, and browse to the FLICster folder containing the files you've been editing. Point it at the INI file (be sure to thet the INI file in the FLICster subdirectory, NOT the INI file in the unit directory - that belongs to civ III). Click 'View file info' to test the files. If there is a potential problem merging, you'll be warned. Once this is done, if all is well, click MERGE. The new FLC will be put in the FLICster subdir where the INI file came from. Its up to you to move it up a level into the unit folder. AND YOU REMEMBERED THE BACK UP, RIGHT?

BTW, take a look in the INI file if you like. When testing the program, I split open the CavalryRun.flc. I then hand edited the INI file to change which animations went with each direction (it has simple lines like "NE=CavalryRun_NE.FLC". Then I merged and tested it. I got a cavalry unit that gallopes backward everywhere it goes. :) WARNING: Don't get crazy and try using paths (like, "NE=C:\MYWORK\UnitRun_NE.FLC"). All your files have to stay in one directory. Sorry.

LICENCING
---------

There isn't really any. Use it, abuse it, share it with you friends. Just dont:
- distribute part of it. If you share it share the whole thing (including this README!)
- Blame me if it breaks. I told you it was extra-beta with a side of "oops!"
- forget to backup your art\units folder. Really.
- Decompile. I'll probably release source code once I clean it up (but no promises). If you just can wait, e-mail me.

THE FUTURE
---------

The fututre of FLICster depends on a few things. First of all is Firaxis. If they release a whiz-bang FLC editor for CIV III, that will probably make reduntant all of this. Another dependancy is you - and everyone else. If people like it, I'll probably keep working on it. If people hate it, well, screw 'em, I may still keep working one. Lastly, is my time. I have a wonderful job as a programmer which feeds and clothes me and mine. But it takes up my time. As do my home, my wife, and my kids. In between times, I like to play CIV III (duh). FLICster is somewhere further down the list.


APPOLOGIES & CREDITS
--------------------
I've never done anything with graphics programing or graphics file formats before. So If I screwed up, sorry. Also, I'm no artist or mod maker, so I haven't really put this thing thru its paces. Sorry there too.

Big thanks to SWB of Civfanatics' "CIV3 Creation and Customization" forum (http://forums.civfanatics.com) for getting the ball rolling on this. Thanks also to Dan Megha of firaxis for reading the threads and getting Mike Breitkreutz, a Firaxis developer, involved. Big Thanks to Mike Breitkreutz for sending SWB a rundown of the custom parts of the format. ANother round of thanks to SWB for posting that info, and a link to an excellent FLC format reference at http://www.compuphase.com/flic.htm. These are the resources I used to build this thing.


(This post is too long. Part 2 of 2 contains THE GORY DETAILS.)

(This is part 2 of 2. Part one is also on this thread)
----------------------------------------------------------------

THE GORY DETAILS
----------------

1. Frames
Each unit in CIV III can face, and move in, 8 directions - the 4 cardinal directions (N, E, W, S) and the 4 'betweens' (NE, NW, SE, SW). In order to animate, say a horseman moving, you need 8 animations - one for each direction. Instead of having 8 FLC files for each animation, Firaxis decided to combine the 8 animations into a single file. They also added a custom header inside a 'reserved' 40-byte range in the standard FLC header.

A FLC file doesn't normally just store a bunch of still images. To save space, the first frame is stored, and then DELTAs are stored. A delta is a description of the difference between two frames. Taking the RUN animation of the CIV III Horseman unit as an example, it turns out that the Horseman RUN animation is 10 frames long (for a single direction). So, instead of something like this:

IMG1, IMG2, IMG3, IMG4, IMG5, IMG6, IMG7, IMG8, IMG9, IMG10

The FLC Format would store this:

IMG1, DELTA1->2, DLT2->3, DLT3->4, DLT4->5, DLT5->6, DLT6->7, DLT7->8, DLT8->9, DLT9->10

Only, there's another surprise. After displaying only the changes, or deltas, up to frame 10, the program looping an animation would have to display all of frame one, which is slower. SO, FLC files include an extra DELTA frame, called the RING FRAME, which is the delta from the last frame back to the first. In our case, this means we add DLT10->1 to the frame list above.

SO, we seem to have 11 frames for a 10 frame animation. The header of the FLC file has a field indicating the number of frames, it should say 10, and programs reading the file should know about ring frames.

Now, in the case of a civIII file, say, the horseman FLC we were discussing, the file contains 88 frames (8 directions x 11 frames per direction). The Frames field of the header, however, says 80. So if a standard program reads a CIV III file, the best you can hope for is 11 frames of SW, 11 frames of south, etc, ending with 3 frames of West - 80 of 88 frames, including 7 ring frames. When splitting a CIV III FLC, say, HorsemanRun.FLC, FLICster will emit 8 standard flics, with names like HorsemanRun_SW.FLC, HorsemanRun_S.FLC, etc. It also spits out an INI file, which specifies all the the standard files created, as well as a few other pieces of info from the reserved field of the original header - information need to remerge the files.

2. Colors
In addition to the framecount issues, there is another issue that arises when splitting. In a FLC file, each frame is stored in a 'Chunk'. Each frame can (and indeed, must) contain sub-chunks. The first kind of subchunk you are likely to find is a BYTE_RUN chunk. This is just a RLE-encoded image. The first frame of an animation will always contain a BYTE_RUN (well, always for purposes of this discussion). The next type of chunk you'll see in a frame is DELTA_FLI. This is delta info. So, our Horseman's 10 frame run might be 1 frame containing a single subchunk of type BYTE_RUN, followed by 10 frames, each containing a single DELTA_FLI.

BUT (and there's always a but, isn't there), the images in the BYTE_RUNs are 64 color or 256 color palleted bitmaps. So, we need to stick a pallete in there, at least for the first byte_run. And you know, if we could change palletes as we load deltas, we could get some cool effects, and extend our color range for the whole animation. So, it turns out, any FRAME chunk can contain a COLOR_256 chunk (or color_64, but CIV doesn't go play that way) in addition to a BYTE_RUN or DELTA_FLI.
In practice, I found that for many CIV III files, only the first BYTERUN has pallete, but for others, several frames have palettes. IN EVERY CASE I LOOKED AT, however, only the frames in the first 'direction' ever had palettes. In our horseman example, that means the the first 11 frames (10 + ring), you may see COLOR_256 data, but never in the other 77 frames.

FINALLY getting to the point, that means I can't just split the FLCs willy-nilly. If I did, only the SW facing files (SW is direction 0, for the trivia-minded) would have palettes. So my solution is to steal the palette(s) from direction 1 for each other direction. SO, if in direction 1, frames 1, 3, and 7 have a COLOR_256 chunk, all the split files will get the same chunks for frames 1, 3, and 7, so you editing program shows the right colors. On merging, the the palettes from the first direction are used, the others are tossed. I should add some code to resolve the palettes, but not this time. The moral of the story is, don't go mucking about in the palettes unless you're willing to do it in all the component FLCs you will merge into a unit.

3. Clipping
We're not done yet. Seems that firaxis decided to make all animations 240x240, but most don't need all that room. So, to save space in the files, they clip the frames. Imagine printing all 80 frames (not including ring frames) for our horseman onto cellophane, and then stacking them up. The smallest rectangle you could draw around the pictures in the stack is the clipping region. In the case of our running horseman, the clipping region is 71x80 pixels, offset (83,57) from the top left corner of at 240x240 square. So, the civ III FLC stores 71x80 size frames, and makes a note in the custom header (insider the reserved space in the standard header) that the original size was 240x240, and the offset is 83x57.

What this all means is that for now, YOU ARE STRONGLY URGED to create new units by starting with a standard unit. Split it, open each directional animation with something like Animation Shop, edit the animations, and remerge. But DON'T change the size of the frames! If you do, you'll need to tamper with the INI file that FLICster creates, so don't. I'll probably look for a way to address this later.

Impressive!!! And I love the epic tale described in the text. I laughed... I cried... I downloaded.

:) :goodjob:

I have uploaded the full installer of FLICster to the download server:


Here is the download link:

http://www.civfanatics.net/downloads/civ3/utility/FLICster.zip (1.46 MB)

Thanks to Moeniir for this very useful program! :goodjob:

it is to early to give us that presents, you should wait until late december :lol:

Thanks so much for undertaking this project, it's going to open up the game in a new way. Now let's see who can make the coolest, fully animated (with their own art) new unit!

Armor

You are the Pumkin King! (movie reference)

Woohoo, great work if I do say so myself! Course the frickin' files are so big that finding a place to store the suckers is a rediculous pain in the arse. Oh how I long for the days of simply photoshopp'ed .pcx's...


Anyway, you done good! :D :D :goodjob:

Moeniir excellent work on ur program.. tis great..

Just wondering what flic editors everybody is using at the moment?? also after looking round the jasc site I find no info about a SDK or anything of the sort for developing plugins for Animation Shop. If this were possible then I wouldnt find it very hard to write a plugin to import and export the civ flic files natively. This would make life much easier than having to convert between the formats with an external program. I know adobe premier supports flic format.. however I believe that the SDK for premier plugins is commerical, out of my reach :P I was thinking maybe a plugin for GIMP(GNU Image Manipulation Program).. however I doubt alot of people would use *nix and it is difficult to setup on a win32 system...

my 2c

[GaNoN]

interesting idea, Ganon... you know if GIMP's been ported to win32? I know some of the more popular gnu/linux stuff has. I'll keep an eye open for plug-in ready gfx apps.

Well, I gave it a shot, but so far no luck. I converted one of the flics from the battleship into my own unit, keeping the frame numbers, ini file settings, etc. Then I merged it, and hooked it up to play under a particular unit (ensuring that the new flick file was the only difference, so no other factors played in). Then, going into the game, just selecting the unit with the new flic from the build que caused a complete crash -- note that this didn't happen with regular (non-Fraxis) flicks (the game only crashed when the unit was produced, and the full animation had to be played).

Looking back at the merged flick file, I noticed that it was rather messed up -- after the first 'directional' set of frames, subsequent sets showed heavy artifacts from the previous sets, as though they weren't erasing left over pixels from the previous frames. I presume this is connected to the flick method of storing frame data documented above.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Armor - If it's not too much trouble, would you zip up your individual directional flics and the ini file? I'd like to take a look. Unfortunately, I was only able to test by re-aranging the directions - I didnt make any animations of my own.

Send it to moeniir@home.com


Thanks

One thing I'd like to point out is that (assuming Moeniir's tool works properly, and it probably does) just because FLIC is an animation format, you don't need to create big, complex animations.

One thing I've been wanting to do (whenever I get some free time) is to take a set of Civ II units and convert them into single-frame FLC's for use in Civ III.

By creating eight "directions" that consist of the same single image, you can make a really small FLC which will work in the game. And since there's already a wealth of Civ II scenarios with really cool units available, there should be ample source material to get started with.

Thanks again to Moeniir for developing this program! We may be able to get our in-house FLC tool cleaned up and released sometime in the future but thankfully no one has to wait for that now... :)

Dan

As for GIMP: http://www.gimp.org/~tml/gimp/win32/

Nothing like using Google to search for "GIMP for Windows" :D



I'm going to check out the program and see if I can't figure out how to make my little initials nametags appear in their respective unit animations.

Thanks for the link, Plutarck.

I took a quick look at the GIMP stuff. Seems there's a semi-stable release form last december available for windows. I'll pull that down tonite at home and take a look.

Someone has also done a plugin for GIMP to work with FLC files. Being GNU licenced, it's got source code. I took a brief look, and I think I MAY be able to do something with that... but I don't know. I'll post more here when I've actually run GIMP. In the meantime, if anyone has success creating a new unit, please post it! If anyone has failures, e-mail me your files (the 8 edited directional FLCs and the INI file) and I'll try to take a look. I've done a little playing with Animation shop today (What's that, boss?), and I think there may be palette issues with some units, that may require me to export a .PAL file when splitting, for use by animation shop (to keep the 8 palettes synchronized).

Another thought I had was instead of creating 8 animation files, I could create one animation file (kinda like the existing CIV III format but without the extra ring frames), and you would just edit the animations all as one strip. This should kep the palettes under control, especially if 'local palettes' are disallowed. The down side of this approach is, to convert an edited file back to CIV III format, I'll need to learn how to create ring frames (DELTA_FLIs). I think there's some info in the Compuphase page, and the GIMP plugin code works with deltas as well, so perhaps that's do-able. would make things a little easier to have 1 file instead of 8.

Keep those cards and letters coming!

Something I have noticed with Animation Shop is that it completely messes up the palettes. If there are multiple indexes defined as being the same color, for example, Animation Shop will merge these together, thus creating a palette with fewer than 256 entries and no redundant entries. I woudn't be surprised if it also rearranges some of the colors in the palette. Since in Civ3 (and I imagine in most other games that use 8-bit paletted graphics), the color indices are important (in fact, often more important than the colors themselves), the fact that Animation Shop fiddles with the palette behind your back makes it useless as a Civ3 FLC editing tool. Any rearranging of the colors in the palette could potentially cause the FLC to look strange in Civ3, and Civ3 FLCs with less than a 256-color palette are likely to crash the game.

That is my concern as well. However, when saving a FLC with Animation shop (2.0, ships with PSP6.0) there is an options dialog that gives a number of choices for dealing with the palettes. One of the choices is to load a PAL file, which defines the palette to use (and should avoid palette optimizations like color-combination). I'm going to try experimenting with AS2 some to see if this step is necesarry. If so, perhaps I can extract a PAL file from the orginal FLC's COLOR_256 chunk.

Take a look at http://www.wotsit.org/ they have source code for a bunch of formats including flc and a few flc variants at:

http://www.wotsit.org/search.asp?page=17&s=ALLFILES

Quick update.... I built a modified version of FLICster that emits JASC .PAL files when splitting a unit FLC. I then edited a unit (I took the Modern Worker's RUN animation, and edited the South animation to add a bird flapping its wings over the worker's shoulder). I used Animation Shop to open the file (ModernWorkerRun_S.FLC), and edited each frame with Paint Shop Pro. As I loaded each frame in PSP, I loaded the PAL file using 'nearest color'. This seems to keep the original palette order intact. Once the whole animation was updated, I saved the FLC file. Animation Shop 2 offers a dialog when saving FLC files, which allows you to determine how to resolve palettes. One of the options is to load a palette file - again, I loaded the PAL using 'nearest color' and saved it. I quickly learned that animation shop fools around with frame counts based on delays - my 10 frame file with 6ms delay per frame (default) ended up 60 frames. Quickly setting the frame delays to 1, I save it again... success.

I remerged the file, and loaded up a game with Modern Workers and Roads (not railroads, the units don't animate on Railroads). SUCCESS! When he walks south, the bird appears over his shoulder, the rest of the time, looks like normal. I should note this is my first unit acutally edited by hand... my earlier tests just consisted of swapping directional FLCs to make the units walk backwards (yes, I'm easily amused).

*SO* (and here I said quick update) - I've been playing with this at work (shame on me), so I may be working a little late. When I get home, I'll try to get a new build published, along with some detailed instructions for AS/PSP (the only apps I have).

All in all, I'm not very happy with the number of steps needed, and I'm working on a few ideas to improve the situation. Meantime, I thought that a poor tool beats no tool at all.

TUNE IN NEXT WEEK (well, later tonite, I think) - SAME BAT-TIME, SAME BAT-FORUM.

:)

Thanks for the link, DiB. The FLIC reference on Wotsit.com is actually a zipped of version of http://www.compuphase.com/flic.htm, the main reference I used for the Standard FLC part of this proj. Wotsit also has another reference labeled FLC, which includes FLC, FLI, and about a dozen other variants. I think that may make a nice cross-reference/double check.

I had trouble making changes to an existing FLIC using Jasc Animation Shop 3.

I separated the Marine Attack FLC and messed with the colors a little, replacing the greens with whites and greys. After I saved, the files wouldn't recompile so I read the readme and discovered the part about the palettes, so I changed the .ini file to make all the attack animations use the .flc I created. I then recompiled successfully. I went into the game (using modified rules so I could build marines right away) and promptly built a marine. I went and attacked my neighbor and something strange happened: the animation was successful, except there was a black box around my marine. This must have been the box that was supposed to be transparent, but it didn't remain transparent after I saved my FLC. I have no clue why it showed up black instead of the pink-ish color. (I also had this problem when adding new resources, but solved it -- easy since those were just .pcx files) Anyway, after I took the town I fortified my marine and the next turn my neighbor's warrior came and attacked me and the game crashed. I assume it crashed as soon as it called the attack FLC but why would it crash this time and not the time before??

Any ideas/suggestions?

By the way, has ANYONE successfully made their own unit with Animation Shop?

First, sorry this is very late in being posted. Had something unexpected come up this evening.

Second, I'm not building a new full install, at least not tonite. If you already have the tool, just replace FLICster.exe with the new one. If not, please run the installer (at the start of this thread) and then replace the exe with this version.

NOW: What's new? Palettes, thats what. In a CIV3-FLIC, all the directional animations share a palette. When FLICster splits a CLIV3-FLIC into Standard FLCs, each FLC gets its own copy of the palette. Animation Shop has a nasty habit of "optimizing" the palette (its not a bug, its a feature!) by re-arranging and even merging the entries. This is a Bad Thing. Further, when editing the cells in another program (say, PaintShopPro), if you make any changes to the palette of any cel, you can end up with multiple palettes in one animation. While this is technically legalk in a FLC, it seems to also be a Bad Thing for civ3.

So, on to solutions. Most of the Civ3 FLCs (mebbe all? not sure) follow a pattern - the first frame of the first direction (SW for those keeping score at home) has a palette (COLOR_256 chunk with 1 packet of 256 rgb tuples, but who's counting), and none of the other frames in any direction do. So, I've updated FLICster to take advantage of this.

When splitting a file, FLICster 0.1.2 will read the COLOR_256 chunk of the first frame of the first direction (basically, the palette for the whole animation) and emit the palette as a JASC .PAL file - a saved palette file usable by AS & PSP. It's created in the same directory as all the split files.

When editing a FLC file using Animation Shop, be sure to edit the individual frames in PSP (they're integrated... go for it). Once you open the frame in PSP, go to the Color menu, and choose Load Palette (edit palette and save palette aren't available yet, because PSP thinks the file has transparency info. Go figure), and load the .PAL file created during the split. You will be asked if you want to "flatten" the file. Yes, you do. BE SURE that when you load the palette, you choose 'Nearest color' error correction. Since all the colors in the picture are in the palette already, there's no error correction needed, and everything will look fine. Now, you are using the exact palette the original CIV3-FLIC used. IF YOU CHANGE THE PALETTE (edit palette on the color menu) - there are 3 rules. Rule 1 - stay away from the first row of 16 colors - all shades of blue. These are the colors that CIV3 translates for civ colors, ie, green for persia, pink for france, etc. Rule 2 - Don't touch that last color! The gawd-awful fucia we all know and hate is the transparency color, and I think Civ3 wants that in the last spot on the palette. Rule 3 - save the palette and use it for ALL of the animations, and all of the frames.

Okay, if you've gotten this far, then you have edited all the cells in a standard FLC file, and it's time to save the changes. First up, select all the frames at once in AS and right click to choose properties. In the ensuing dialog, change the frame delay to 1/1000 of a second. By default, the AS seems to use 6 ms, which is nice for viewing your FLCs in AS, but BAD BAD BAD for saving. Right before you save it, be sure you set the frame delay to 1 MS. Good.

Now, save it. When you save a FLC in AS, you get a dialog box. Click the CUSTOMIZE button. Pick 256 colors, and choose "Custom Palette". Now click Browse, and browse to your PAL file ( the one FLICster created for you, or the one you created if you edited the original PAL ). Okay, NOW you can save it.

I did test this, and it worked fine. I put a flapping bird over the shoulder of the Modern Worker's RUN animation (South bound only). Sorry, i'm no artist. Anyway, using the above steps to keep the palettes in sync, I re-merged the file and tried it in game. WORKS! WOOHOO! I would post it for people to see, but I did it at work (blush) and forgot to mail it home. I'll try to post it tomorrow.


As I've said before, I think this process is pretty &*%^** unwieldy, and I don't like it. I'm working on something better. In the mean while, I figured folks would rather have a poor tool than no tool at all. The updated EXE is attached. Stay tuned for more.

PLEASE post your successes/failures... I really want to see this help folks, but I don't have the time or the artistic talent to do as much testing as i'd like.

Rule 1 - stay away from the first row of 16 colors - all shades of blue. These are the colors that CIV3 translates for civ colors, ie, green for persia, pink for france, etc. Rule 2 - Don't touch that last color! The gawd-awful fucia we all know and hate is the transparency color, and I think Civ3 wants that in the last spot on the palette.

(In the following discussion, I'm assuming the colors in the palette are numbered 0-255, and the palette is conceptually arranged in 16 rows of 16 colomns. Row 1 contains colors 0-15, row 2 contains 16-31, etc.)

Actually, there are more reserved colors than the ones Moeniir mentions. For any of the reserved entries, the particular color used is irrelevant - the only thing that matters is its position in the color table. If you don't like the magenta, feel free to use any color you wish, as long as it's at position 255.

The last 8 colors (numbered 248-255) in the palette are used for alpha blending. The last color (number 255, usually magenta) is fully transparent. The other seven colors (248-254, usually all red) represent a "transparency ramp" (for lack of a better term). These colors are used for the shadow. Color 248 is the darkest (least transparent) part of the shadow, and each successive color is progressively lighter (more transparent).

The first 4 full rows (64 colors, numbered 0-63) - not only the first 16 colors - are used for civ colors. The civ colors are stored in the PCX files in the "Palettes" subfolder (under "units"). Each PCX file is only 1 pixel (in the primary color of the civ), but contains a palette of 70 civ-specific colors. The PCX palettes are reversed compared to those in the FLC files. For civ colors, the first 4 rows in the FLC palettes are replaced with the last 4 rows (in reverse order) of the civ's PCX palette (color 0 in the FLC is replaced with color 255 in the PCX, color 1 in the FLC is replaced with color 254 in the PCX, etc.). I'm not sure what the extra 6 colors (numbered 186-191) in the PCX palette are used for.

So, this means there are 184 colors (numbered 64-247) left over for arbitrary use in your units. It also means that creating professional, high-quality units is going to be really complicated - you'll need to use the right reserved colors in the right places to get nice looking shadows and proper civ-specific coloration.

Steve W. Brewer (SWB)

SWB-

Thanks for laying that out. Makes alot more sense. I've looked in my units\palettes directory. There are 2 sets of files: 32 ntp files (ntp00.pcx to ntp01.pcx) and 16 otp files (otp00.pcx to otp15.pcx). All seem to be 1 pixel files used to store palettes. Do you know why so many? I would have expected 16 files, for the max 16 civs in the game. I feel like I must be missing something stupid.

Thanks

There are 2 sets of files: 32 ntp files (ntp00.pcx to ntp01.pcx) and 16 otp files (otp00.pcx to otp15.pcx). All seem to be 1 pixel files used to store palettes. Do you know why so many? I would have expected 16 files, for the max 16 civs in the game.

I'm not sure what the otp files are used for, but it's definitely the ntp files that are used for civ-specific unit coloration. There are 32 of them because it's possible to pick from 32 different civ colors - open up civ3mod.bic in Civ3Edit, edit rules, and look at the color settings on the Civilizations tab and you'll see what I mean.

The 17 otp files (otp00.pcx to otp16.pcx) are still a mystery to me. They have a completely different palette layout than the ntp files. Although the first half of them seem to somewhat relate to the ntp files (the single pixels in otp00.pcx to otp08.pcx seem to be "lighter" versions of ntp00.pcx to ntp08.pcx), the rest do not. Plus, of course, there's only 17 of them compared to the 32 ntp's, so that would leave many ntp's without a corresponding otp anyway.

Steve (SWB)

A bug has been found (insert joke here) in the Merge code. I think I've got it licked, but I've sent a couple copies out for testing to people who've reported problems. I *plan* to post an updated FLICster sometime Thursday evening (Nov 29), but I'd like to hear back from my testers. Stay tuned.

In the mean time, if you are experiencing any problems, let me know about them.

It's still beta, but it's a whole lot better. Full details in the readme, but here's the highlight reel:

CURRENT: v0.2.2 (build 5) beta

* New versioning scheme. The build numbers will always go up, even with major version changes. The build numbers may also skip, because not all builds get released.

* Fixed a merge bug causing incorrect chunk counts in frame headers after direction 0

* Fixed a merge bug caused by assuming color_256 chunks always follow a byte_run. Sometimes they precede it.

* Now sets the Creator field of the standard FLC header to 0xF2F2F1F1 when merging. Civ may crash if another number is present.

Someone mailed me a set of animations they were working on, to help me test a bug. It was all new animation, and all 8 directions. Once I got the last bug knocked out, I got the new unit in the game. WOW! Hopefully we will start seeing some units posted here... Unfortunately, I have no artistic ability!

I'm attaching the latest SMALL patch, use if you already have the program. If you want the full installer, check the top of this thread, I'm mailing it to Thunderfall to post (too big for me to post).

Have you tried Animation Shop 3... I am d/l it now...

Thanks Moeniir, great job!

I dont have the programing skills to understand, much less make these editors. I am interested in making new units though. I made many for Civ2 MGE.

If I ever figure out how to make this stuff work, I deffinately will post any art for download here at CFC. Im going to take a crack at it this week. Wish me luck. Alot of it. :D

Thanks again, from the computer illiterate.;)
-joespaniel

Moeniir - whats with the 31000 turkish lira? is that what one American dollar is worth in turkish money? if so, being a millionare over there doesnt mean much huh? :)

ACtually 31000 Turkish Lira = 2 cents, or $0.02 USD. In America we sometimes refer to our opinions as "our two cents." 1 USD equals approximately 1.5 million Turkish Lira, give or take a few hundred thousand.

The "31,000 Turkish Lira" in my sig is also a link to Yahoo.com's currency converter. If you click thru the link, you should find that 31,000 TRL converts to $0.02 US, or my two cents worth, as Zippo pointed out. Used to be my 23,000 TRL, but the exchange rate fell :eek:

It's my little way of making my opinion appear to be worth more. If you think my opinion is worth very little, you could say that its my seven one-hundred-thousandths (0.00007) of an ounce of gold (http://finance.yahoo.com/m5?a=.00007&s=XAU&t=USD&c=0). :D

Moeniir, I wonder if you actually split my TerroristDefault.flc file to look at it? Somehow I cannot resplit to file now. Flicster say something like encounter a second chunk that is not 256 color, BYTE_RUN.

Any idea why this happen??

That is a bug (due to an assumption I made) which I really thought I had fixed. The first frame of the first animation caries two chunks, or groups of data. In an original Civ3 FLC, the first chunk is a compressed bitmap of the first animation cell, and the second chunk is the palette information. Unfortunately, when I wrote FLICster I incorrectly assumed that that order was manditory. Turns out, those two chunks can come in either order, and animation shop likes to put the palette first. FLICster's error message indicates that it can't find the palette because it only looks in frame 1 chunk 2 (well, frame 0, chunk 1, because it's all 0 based, but you get the point).

When I looked at your file, I was using the new version of FLICster, currently under development. It's got a bunch of new features, and completely eliminates the need for Animation Shop. I hope to release it soon, but it's not ready yet. Still debugging the delta encoding code (among other things).

Meanwhile, you should be able to modify the files you used to create your FLC and re-merge them. Even though FLICster won't split the FLC, its a perfectly good FLC, and you can re-build it from the sources as often as you like. If this problem becomes a major hassle before I can get the new FLICster done, I might be able to fix the bug and release a 0.2.3 version, but that will take time away from the new version, which I'd rather not do.

I can still open the flc file with AS, just not spliting them with Flicster. So I guess I will resplit the original file and copy and paste my image over (I deleted the split image...hehe)

I was just wondering why you can split it while I can't ;) I will be waiting for the new version of flicster :D

Doing all these animation is tedious work but when you completed the animation there is a sense of satisfaction I must say :cool:

Hey Moeniir.

Thanks to your help I have completed the Terrorist Unit animation and finally post them in the completed mod pack section :D

Keep up the good work :goodjob: I can't wait for the next version. Even with the current version, I can add frames into the animations (as long as each direction has the same number of frames). Woohoo :D

Doing thise flc files does take the toll on me though. Staring at the monitor for a long period of time trying to complete those flc really makes you tired :king:

Moeniir,

I notice that when I try to edit the flc for an animation that has only one single file (in this case, CruiseMissileDeath.flc), Flicster is unable to merge back the file after its been edited.

The number of frame remains the same, I can load the edited file back into AS but Flicster cannot merge the file. So the new animation cannot be used in the game. :(

Maybe you already getting this fix, but just to be safe I will post it here and let you know anyway. No that many file comes with only one flc inside anyway ;)

Thanks for the update, DS. I had no idea that a single-direction Unit FLC was possible.
originally posted by SWB, quoting Mike Breitkreutz of Firaxis
int directions: Bit flags representing which directions are present. If a bit is set, that direction is present.
Bit 0: southwest
Bit 1: south
Bit 2: southeast
Bit 3: east
Bit 4: northeast
Bit 5: north
Bit 6: northwest
Bit 7: west

I believe this was done so that you could have an animation with 4 directions and set bits 1, 3, 5, and 7 so that you have just the cardinal directions (for example). However, I don't think this will work for units in Civ3.
The above is a quote from the information about unit FLCs that Mike B of Firaxis very kindly shared with the Civ community - without which, there would be no FLICster. I, being the lazy programmer that I am :blush:, didn't really check every FLC, I just assumed the above info covered all the possibilties. I will definately account for this in the new version, which should be going beta before Christmas (i hope!).

Ah.....I thought you knew

Oh well, I guess the CruiseMissileDeath.flc might be the only one with one single flc inside ;)

When Flicster extract the file, it ended normally with no error and the file extracted was CruiseMissileDeath_SW.flc (SW is always the first file, right?).

So I thought, fine, there is only one file. Then when I finish Flicster refuse to merge it back :king:

I used to have a head of hair,
Now it's all laying in bloody clumps around the computer chair,

It's not flickster, it works great (thank you btw for putting the ongoing effort into perfecting the system. it's a lot of work for which you ain't getting paid, and those of us with all the computer skills of a dead hamster appricate it.) It's the damn shadows!*!*!*!*!*!

okay, here is the situation. I split the file, copy the cell from animation shop to paintshop, apply the flickster created pallette from the split file, the pallette has the rows of blues (ala the readme.txt) and the favorite end fushia (or the missing teletubbie color as it's known here) with the rest of the colors taking up about half way down the pallette load. The rest of the colors, up to the teletubbie-puke color are the 'shadow' color of the animation..red/green whatever.

now, here is the hair pulling part... I've tried using color 248, (as has been talked about in this thread) I've used all of the last 8 (except for the last of course) colors...and I keep getting blobs of whatever color it was...rather than the nice neat shadow that was intended.

now, *insert lunatic calm here* what am I doing wrong? Was it something I did in a previous life? Was it the fact I bought my wife an iron for christmas? Did my dog curse me for bringing in the stray cat? Is the IRS after me for that entire Amway thing a few years back and this is their revenge? Any help would be appricated.

Again thanks for the work you're putting in here. Hopefully the hair will grow back.

Also: this is a request for anyone with artistic talent. Any advice for how to get pics/animations not to have that aweful flat quality that comes when making them raw? (as opposed to recoloring a premade unit?) Everything I'm doing kinda just looks like...well, like jethro bodine's boots after he got done playing with the steam roller. Thanks in advance.

Ok. Here's the way I do it.

These instructions are to Paint Shop Pro:

1. Load palette that flicster produce in picture.

2. Choose in menus Colors/Edit Palette...

3. In Edit Palette window double click color number 248. You see another window. Color picker. I use for shadow color light blue (First in fourth row in Basic colors). But you can use what color you want. Just make sure that color you use is't in another location in unit palette. Make your choise and click OK. You should see your new shadow color in palette position 248. Click OK and you are done.

4. Choose in menus Colors/Save Palette, and save your new palette.

Use color number 248 for shadows. Remember that you must use that same palette in every frame in unit and when you save unit in Animation Shop.

Actually you can put your selected color into any slot from 248-255 as shadow. All this 8 position is for shadow with 248 being the darkest to 255 being the lightest (for shade of shadow of course, which I don't bother ;) )

Personally I uses 253 as the shadow shade, not too light, not too dark :D Oh, of course remember that the same color should not appear anywhere else in the palette :king:

Originally posted by Dark Sheer
Actually you can put your selected color into any slot from 248-255 as shadow. All this 8 position is for shadow with 248 being the darkest to 255 being the lightest (for shade of shadow of course, which I don't bother ;) )

Personally I uses 253 as the shadow shade, not too light, not too dark :D Oh, of course remember that the same color should not appear anywhere else in the palette :king:

Thanks for advice:D Now I know why my shadows are too dark.:goodjob:

Wow, amazing what works when you get good advice,

Thanks for explaining to me about not using a color that was previously already on the pallette....I'd never come up with that, (and clearly didn't, a shame I didn't know before, now all I want for christmas is a good scalp-rug, mebbe I'll jump a reindeer and use the pelt, though with my luck the one I'd catch would give me a big red light on the top of my head. Then I'd look like an ambulance whereever I went, put a siren up my sitdown and I could get through the mall in no time.)

My bazooka dude looked a lot better with a shadow, made the depth come shooting out, it still looks a little like grandma moses (that was the lady who started the folk-art revolt err revival in the states for them who don't know) and actually made him look like something more than a flat sheet of paper.

Merry Comercial-with-slight-religious-implications to all and to all a good Knight.

Moeniir.

Here is a new issue for your Flicster discovered by papajohns ;)

papajohns has reduced the 15 frame flc for NuclearSubDefault to 1 frame each for all the 8 direction. However, Flicster seems to like to add a new frame to the flc when merging and this resulted in some of the original frame being lost :confused:

What I have found out when testing with his file is that Flicster seems to always add 1 frame to the animation in each direction but retain the total frame count for all the 8 direction :confused:

So if 1 frame then it becomes 2 and 2 becomes 3 (I tested all the way to 4 which becomes 5). So instead of say SW_SE_N_S_NW_NE_W_E it becomes SW_SW_N_N_NW_NW_W_W. This meaning to say Flicster increase one frame but retain the total frame count (this is consistent from 1 frame to 4 frame in my test). Maybe you can look into this issue?

EDIT: Ok, my bad :p Forgot about the ring frame, just ignore this message, heh :rolleyes:

Ok, I just completed my Crossbowman flc and along the way it seems that Animation Shop mix up my transparent color vs canvas color :confused:

The animation looks fine in game. However, the little box on the right bottom corner that shows unit info has a transparent box around the unit and any terrain graphic will appear inside the box around the unit graphic.

When I did my first flc (ie the terrorist) I do not get this problem. In both cases, the last color (256) is also the pink color which I always use it as the canvas color in Animation Shop.

Can anyone shade some light on this matter?:scan:

I have been following 'Make your Own Unit' with great interest. I have not managed to produce a unit that works correctly in the game as the background color and shadow change when merging the files.
I separate the files with Flicster, then 'Open' each one of them in 'Animator', then 'Save' each one without attempting to do any retouching or color changes.
At this stage each separated file appears unchanged.
Then I merge the files using Flicster.
When I open this merged file in 'Animator' each file of 8 frames has a different color background and shadow !!!

The reason I 'Open' and 'Save' every split file is that it appears that the files cannot be merged unless they are all treated in a similar manner.

I anxiously await the an improved 'Flicster'.

However I came across this web page which might be of interest to our technical experts:-

http://www.compuphase.com/flic.htm

Don Sutton

Don -

Thanks for the interest in FLICster. I know everyone has been having a tough time getting the colors to look right in the game. Sorry it has taken me so long to get a new FLICster ready. It's almost done! It's really taken longer than I ever thought, but it's a major overhaul. I'd like to release it sometime on new year's day, but that's still questionable. I have abt 2 minor features left to add and one <known> bug left to squash, plus I haven't written a lick of documentation, readme, faq, tutorial, what-have-you, and this is a huge re-write of FLICster. Hopefully, you won't even recognize it (save the name). On top of all this, I've been away from home on vacation with my family for over a week, so work on the app occurs late each nite after everyone else is abed.

As to your comments - first, thanks for the Compuphase link. That is the reference (for standard flcs) I've been using since the very first release, thanks to SWB. Second, as to your problems - The issue isn't really with FLICster, it's with Animation Shop. AS wasn't really designed for FLCs - it doesn't use the same timing mechanism, and it doesn't like the 256 color palette. With care and careful planning, it is quite possible to create a new unit via FLICster, AS, and the paint program of your choice - it's just a pain in the AS (animation shop... i didn't forget the S ;) ). Most all of the problems folks have are with AS - changing palettes or adding frames.

So, for the new FLICster, the soon-to-be-released v1.0.0 (yes, it really has grown enough to be called version 1.0), I've eliminated the need for Animation Shop entirely, cause care and careful planning are for the birds :) . v1.0 will open a Civ3Unit FLC and let you export it straight to PCX for editing, in your choice of three layouts:

*Storyboard: 1 big PCX, with 8 rows (1 per direction). Each row contains all the frames for one direction.
*FilmStrips: 8 pcxs, 1 for each direction. Each PCX contains all the frames for a direction.
*Cels: 1 pcx per frame.

The storyboard and filmstips layouts can include optional borders (highly recomended).

The PCX files can be edited in your paint program of choice. As long as you do not perform any functions in your paint program that would change the palette order (such as increase/decrease color depth), the palettes remain safe and intact. Once the PCX files(s) are edited, v1.0 will create a new Civ3Unit Flc from them.

But the fun won't stop there! v1.0 will also let you increase frame size, add extra frames, load any civ-specific color set into a unit, change animation speed, and other neat stuff. Plus, v1.0 allows to view animations - both FLC and PCX versions, in any direction, with any civ color scheme, even with simulated alpha-blending (see how your shadows really look!). The PCX viewer also has a Popup mode, which places the animation in an "always on top" window so you can see how your pcx edits look in motion.

Well, now that the cat is firmly out of the bag, I guess I'd better go finish the app. I expect it will be released by next weeked (5 Jan '02), but I'll launch sooner if all is complete. In the meantime, thanks to everyone who has made FLICster 0.2.2 (and all the prior versions) worth my time.

Moeniir,
Well thank you. I have made some progress since my last message but your progress is fantastic.
What can I say ? - Just waiting. It seems as if you will be solving all our problems.
Sounds as if we can soon have fun creating the units we want - to make a good game better.
Happy New Year to everyone

Don Sutton

Thank you so much for the upcoming changes, for those of us with limited artistic skill, (who insist on applying our nebulous talent to drawing rather than something productive) the changes sound like they will be a hUGE help.

The arrgh, is I just finished (litterally five minutes ago) creating a new pallet to make the team-colors (1-70 in psp) all one icky color, (since the game don't care it will take them in order anyway,) and then putting the useful colors into the main body of the pallette. Dunno if it's a good idea yet or not, it seems to work for recoloring units (no more zulu-yellow in the midsts of the armor-dude's chest/hair/feet/etc) dunno the downside here yet as the testing has only been with scenario units created to let me test the animiations/colors combo.

What you are going to do will help GREATLY with the ideas I have that I know I can do (read the above about a basic lack of artistic talent) without having to actually draw too much.

All the work you're doing on this is a big help to those of us out here, awhile ago someone said that Friaxis should at least buy you the tools you need, if not at least sending you a company t-shirt, and I'll add my voice to that call, ...or at least buy you taco's if I ever run into you somewhere *G*

Thanks again.

Version 1.0.0 Now Available

Well, It's finally done. FLICster v1.0.0 (build 17). Its a major revamp. Hopefully you won't even recognize it. Here the short list of new stuff:

* New FLC Viewer. Allows viewing of Civ3UnitFlcs. Each direction can be viewed. Units can be viewed with default colors or with any civ-specific colors. Also allows viewing with 'simulated alpha blending', to show how shadow effects actually look.

* New Export formats: StoryBoard PCX, Filmstrip PCX, and Cel PCX. Storyboard creates a single PCX containing all frames of all directional animation laid out in a grid. Each direction is tiled left-to-right in its own row. Filmstrip is similar, except that each direction's row of frames is saved to a different PCX file. Cel creates a separate PCX for each frame in each direction of the animation. Exporting to these formats also creates a FXM (FLICster eXport Manifest) file, containing information required to create a new Civ3UnitFlic from the PCX File(s). Storyboard and Filmstrip formats can include an optional border (recommended!).

* New FXM Viewer. The FXM viewer allows the animations stored in a PCX Storyboard, or PCX Filmstrips/Cels, to be viewed just like a completed FLC. Viewer features are the same as the FLC viewer. Additionally, the FXM viewer has a 'Popup' mode, which hides the full application, and displays an always-on-top version of the viewer, for checking your progress while editing the PCX file(s).

* Change more stuff - when exporting to PCX, you can change the frame size, frame count, filename, color palette, and animation speed.

* Start from scratch - Just select File|New... to create a blank StoryBoard (or other PCX format).

* Support for single-direction Civ3UnitFlcs, such as CruiseMissileDeath.flc

* Additional PAL file created with 'Alpha' coloring. See 'HOW TO USE IT' for important details.

* FLICster 0.2.2 style 'split' and 'merge' functionality is still supported, although it is deprecated. To split a file into standard FLC files, open the Civ3UnitFlc and set the export type to 'Multiple Standard FLCs'. Still creates an INI file. To merge the standard FLCs into a Civ3UnitFlc, Choose File|Open... and select the INI file. You may need to set the file type to "*.*"

* Help|About... function.

* Rewrote the readme file.



As always, I will send copies to the mods, to post at the beginning of this thread. In the interim, I've posted the full install and a small install to my Yahoo! Briefcase - http://briefcase.yahoo.com/moeniir. Note that in order to use the small install, you will need the latest comdlg32.ocx, mscomctl.ocx, mscomct2.ocx, and msvbvm60.dll. If you aren't sure, just grab the full install.

The must be the best New Year Present for anyone who want to mess around with Civ3's flc files :D

I will try it out now!! :king:

Moeniir,
Well you have suceeded !! When I learned to read your instructions correctly - I got a perfect test result.
Many thanks for all of your work - it must have been a slog - but intriguing ?
Our frustration is at an end. We can now create !!!
The world is my lobster !!! (sic)
With the powers vested in me. :king: I dub thee LORD FLICSTER

Hope everyone's enjoying the new FLICster. I'm eagerly awaiting new units!

If you use the program and like it, post some feedback here. I'd like to know which PCX format people like. I thought Storyboard was the easiest and most intuitive when I designed it, but I was afraid some of the files might get large (export BattleshipDeath to see what I mean... the PCX is under a meg, but in-memory in your paint program, it will take nearly 9 meg... its 4821x1929x256), hence the Filmstrip format. Finally, I thought some people might already have animation tools for working with each frame as a separate file, so I tossed in Cel format. Besides, they all use the same basic code.

Also, anyone see any reason to continue support for the old behavior, i.e., multiple standard FLC files?

Lastly, let me know how to improve it. Some of my ideas for future enhancements are in the Readme.

Let's see those units!

And I don´t know what the others think, but I would nominate you for the CivFanatics "Hall of Fame" for that...;)

I am sure there are pople like me who still uses the old format of individual flc files :D

The reason why I prefer the old file format is:

1) I study the original flc to see how movements are applied in the animations. Sometime the diff between frames are just a few pixels and watching the individual flc is the best way to see it ;)

2) I am so used to the relation between AS and PSP now I started to love it :lol:

3) I generally use the original flc as a guide for size and placement of the unit. I used the original Destroyer's flc frame and also size to make sure that my Perry Class Frigate is about the real size when placed next to a Destroyer.

So keep up the good work and I will keep those new units flowing :D

originally posted by Dark Sheer
1) I study the original flc to see how movements are applied in the animations. Sometime the diff between frames are just a few pixels and watching the individual flc is the best way to see it

2) I am so used to the relation between AS and PSP now I started to love it

3) I generally use the original flc as a guide for size and placement of the unit. I used the original Destroyer's flc frame and also size to make sure that my Perry Class Frigate is about the real size when placed next to a Destroyer.


1) This is why I added the popup viewer. Would it help if the viewer let you pause the animation, and flip/flop between two frames or just view a few sub-frames as a loop?

2) Um, okay. I won't even comment on that :D

3) The grid in the PCX formats are meant to help with size and placement. Would it help if the popup viewer underlayed a smaller grid of some kind when in alpha-blend mode? Or some other way of guaging proper size and position?

Thanks DS - Keep those comments & suggestions rolling!

Hmmm, after 3 days and I am the only one giving feedbacks? :mad: Comon guys, give some feedbacks. Without them Moeniir cannot improve on the current version ;)

Ok, support for the old format is a must! For one I like to load a few flc at the same time. Sometime to copy something, sometime just compare and view them to see whats wrong with mine :D Current version of Flicster cannot do that.

Oh, and maybe make the future version of Flicster able to view those standard single direction flc as well? I was trying to view my single direction flc (my prototype for Scud Launcher ;) ) but Flicster load it and did not allow me to view it.

Other than the suggestions, there is no complaint so far. Keep up the good work, Moeniir! :goodjob:

Darksheer -

Thanks as always for the feedback. In no particular order:

On the idea of letting FLICster view standard FLCs, that's certainly something I can do. I only realized a few days before I released the current version that the viewer code wouldn't handle standard FLCs correctly, so I just shut off that feature - too many other things to do on the punchlist at that time. I'll have another look at it.

As to the old format, Give me a chance :D ! There's got to be some way I can get you to use PCX's ;) Seriously though, as far as the limitations you spoke of, I'm not sure I understand. You mentioned loading a few flcs at a time to copy or compare. Most PCX editors, like paint shop pro, let you load multiple PCXs at once. Certainly should be easier to copy things using the PCXs. As far as comparing them, if you mean the ability to see two FLCs animating side-by-side to compare, you can do this in FLICster, just not when in pop-up mode (wanted to keep the popup size smaller). I'm thinking of giving the animation viewers the ability to pause the animation, and to step through a frame at a time, and to toggle between two frames, to help animators fine-tune their creations.

Tell me any other things you prefer about using animation shop - maybe I can add the features to FLICster. I've already got half a mind to add some paint tools and just allow PCX editing right in the app. :D If I do, it'll take a while, though.

In the meantime, I'll let you know if I get the viewer changed to view standard FLCs.

Has any one else out there used the new PCX format for editing or creating a FLC? How do you like it? Pros/Cons?

Hi Moeniir.

Thanks for this fantastic utility. I think Earlie r version Flickster is alreary good, but this is the best. I use it to produce my incoming World War modpack units. It's so easy to use. I like it better than AS. I like use PCX and paint shop pro. Keep up good work!:D

Ok, ok, I like to just edit pcx files as well ;)

But the reason why I continue to use Animation Shop is because:

1) Animation Shop allows me to insert frames from existing files be it pcx or an existing flc files (for flc files any frame from that flc). This is an important feature to make sure all the animation flow smoothly. Let me show an example of how all the flc for a unit is linked :D

Default is linked to fortify as the first frame of fortify is the same as default. Fortify is linked to attack as the first frame of attack is the same as the last of fortify. And of course the first frame of dead and fidget is also linked to last of default. Thats why the units' animation flow smoothly from default to fidget, default to fortify and fortify to attack etc :D Do note that when a unit fortify it is always facing SE. The other direction of the fortify flc is used when you attack. The flc used are default --> fortify --> attack. I do study those flc files created by Firaxis :D

2) Animation Shop's a few other features is also very handy such as transition frames and mirror image of a whole animation file ;) If you haven't notice, for vehicles and ships the SE & SW are mirror images (not for human animation of course :) ) and so are the NE & NW. This save alot of work!! ;) And transitional frame feature makes the flow of animation very smooth. As the flc is pretty small as it is, a one pixel animation over say 2 frame can be too much but over 5 frame is a totally different story. I find the transitional frame especially useful for both vehicles and ships (again not for human flc).

After Downloading the Program, reading the two first pages i can honestly say: im confuesed...

DS -

Thanks for the great feedback! I can see why you still like to use AS now. You've given me some things to think about for enhancing FLICster.

The linked animation is something I've been thinking about, but only from the viewer perspective. The idea of starting a new animation from the last frame of the previous animation makes alot of sense, and is something I could add to the program.

Mirroring - I should of thought of that myself. I will definately add the abiltity to mirror the directions into FLICster. SE & SW are mirrors, and NE & NW... what about E & W?

Inserting frames is possible in PCX mode, but FLICster always adds them at the end. While you can move the frames manually in PSP (for example), it does make more sense to allow the frames to be inserted at any point in the animation. Adding frames is one the primary reasons why I decided to go with the PCX format (aside from the problems everyone was having with AS). By letting FLICster add frames (or resize the frames if need be), you ensure that all the frames remain the same size and all the animations have the same number of frames. These safety nets should help prevent some headaches.

About the 'transition frames' - never tried that. I will definately play with it and see if I can find a way to add that idea to FLICster.

Thanks for all the great ideas - keep 'em coming!

Originally posted by some other guy
After Downloading the Program, reading the two first pages i can honestly say: im confuesed...

The only thing I do worse than programming is documentation :D Sorry about that. If you can be more specific as to what you are confused about, I'll try to help out tho.

its not ur fault im a moron :confused: :confused:

here's what you should do, Download Snagit 6.0 (http://www.techsmith.com/freetrials.asp#snagit) and use it to create a Tutorial,


btw can i edit pcx files whit Imaging?

ps. the FLCster movie is laging cuz my comp is only a 333mhz

i edited the pcx file whit animation shop but cant save it as a pcx

If you export to PCX, you don't need Animation Shop. Just edit the file directly using a paint program (if you have AS, you must have Paint Shop Pro... that will work). After you have edited the PCX in PSP, just save it... PSP supports PCX. After you've saved, you can use FLICster to view the PCX as an animation (open the FXM file). If you are happy with your work, export it to Civ3UnitFlc and you are done. Note that by default, completed Civ3UnitFlcs are exported to the FLICster directory; back up your original and then copy the new version into the parent directory to see the unit in game.

HTH,

Mr. Blue Screen dosen't like me using PSP

if PSP is bluescreening. you may have other issues. In the meantime, windows paint should handle a PCX, although I'm not sure if it's worth the agravation. I'd try to get PSP working, or another program of similar quality/features.

I have no problem opening the PCX files extracted by Flicster using PSP ??:confused:

First let me say that I´m very thankful for this utility :)

However, I´m also a bit confused, maybe I should study the readme more. The hardest part for me is to turn a new anim into a civ3.flc. I have attached a little example I´m working on - a M60 MBT. To test it I´d like to turn this simple 8 frame anim into a flc, but I can´t get it to work...

Here´s what I tried so far:

- used flicster to view the Civ3 panzer anim, turned it into the pcx storyboard
- created a 256 color .pal file (from the existing 24bit M60 anim), and loaded it into the pcx storyboard from the panzer
- pasted the frames from the M60 anim into the panzer storyboard
- filled all unused frames with the background color (can I fill the hole space, or must the red borders be there - empty or not?)
- saved the storyboard

When I load it back to flicster, it shows the M60, but not all frames (only one direction). It also showed all empty frames, how can I get rid of them? Any help would be great...;)

BTW, I read also what is planned in the future. I´m not a programmer, but the best thing for me would be an option to convert an existing 8bit gif anim to the Civ3 flc format. Is that possible?

BeBro -

The storyboard layout is 8 rows of x columns, where x is the number of frames in one direction's animation loop. In the case of the Civ3 PanzerDefault.flc, which is the 'Default' animation used when the unit is selected but not moving/attacking/etc, each direction's animation has 5 frames. In FLICster, you can see this on the First tab as 'Frames per direction' or on the view tab in the counter under the picture. So, If you export this to PCX Storyboard, you will get 40 frames, as 8 rows of 5 cells each.

If you have 8 single-frame directional shots, you can plug each direction in the first column, starting with SW and going counter-clockwise around the compass. However, if you leave the other 4 frames in each row blank, then you get four blank frames in each directional animation.

Instead, try this. Open the Panzer in FLICster again. Go to the export tab, but click on the 'Frame Count' button to open the frame count dialog. Change the frame count to 1. Now export the storyboard. You will get a pcx containing 8 rows of 1 column each... which is exactly what you need for single-frame animations.

Once you get the single frames in place (and save the edited PCX), you can open the FXM file in FLICster to view your work. If it looks good, you can export the FXM to a Civ3Unit Flc and use it in game. If, after getting single-frame animation working you want to try longer animations, just open the FXM in FLICster, go to the Export tab, set the Export Format to Storyboard PCX, and increase the Frame Count. Now, re-export the PCX, and FLICster will add empty frames to the end of each row of your storyboard. Note that you must work on all directions at once, if SW has 3 frames, all directions must have 3 frames.

Since you mentioned you already have a storyboard with empty frames... assuming you put the correct frames in the right spots in the first column, you can open the FXM in FLICster, set export type to Storyboard PCX, decrease the frame count to 1 and re-export to trim your existing PCX down to 1 column.

Hope i'm making sense so far... I'm a touch long-winded at times :D

Something else you mentioned needs attention... you said:

- created a 256 color .pal file (from the existing 24bit M60 anim), and loaded it into the pcx storyboard from the panzer

I think you've done that backwards. The palette used in the PCX is in a special order for Civ3, and some of the palette positions are 'magic' - the first 64 colors are civ-specific, and the last 32 colors are used for alpha-blending (like shadows and smoke). I'd reccomend taking your 24bit m60 picture and make it use the PCX's palette. FLICster exports a PSP-compatible .pal file when you create a PCX. Use nearest color error correction, i'd think. This wont be perfect, though... if the palette loading process uses colors from the magic ranges, you might get an odd effect in the game. I'm thinking of having FLICster create a special PAL file in which all 'magic' palette positions contain a color you'd never see, like hot flaming pink, for use when importing. Still, that depends on the rest of the palette (which you can edit) already containing useful colors.

Of course, this would all be easier if FLICster would import animated GIFs as you suggested. A few thoughts here. First, I thought GIFs were 256 color (actually 255, + transparency). Certainly easier to convert than 24 bit color. The real issue with GIFs is legal - I understand that the GIF scheme is copyrighted, and one must have a licence to write code that manipulates it. Now, don't get me wrong... I make my living as a programmer, and I don't care if others want to do the same; I just can't pay to licence something for a project I'm giving away :) . I'll look into it, mebbe they have a shareware licence available. FLICster could read AVIs, mebbe, depending on the encoding.

One final comment... you asked about the borders in the storyboard... those are there for your benefit only... FLICster ignores them. If you mess them up, you can re-export the PCX to restore them.

p.s. - If none of this adds up, blame me :D . If you'd like, you can mail me your original animation and I'll play with it a bit if time permits. E-mail address is at the top of the readme.

Thanks for the help so far, I´ll try your suggestions and post the result in the next days...;)

Ok, so I am not really evil ;) But Moeniir always thought that my continuous love for animation shop is evil :lol:

First, a little suggestion which is still what AS has but at the moment Flicster lack (told ya I am evil ;) ) :

1) Duplicate frames. This feature is handy in any animation job. AS allows you to duplicate a frame and the same frame is automatically inserted right behind the current frame.

2) Save a frame from an animation. This is useful because sometime you need to manupulate something in one frame (take for example, my current work, scud launcher. I need to work on the scud missile on the launcher and also create a blank launcher without missile. For this I save one frame, erase the missile then save as one file, after that erase the launcher and save the missile as another file. After that I can use a combo of both files to show the missile being raised on the launcher :D)

3) I know you plan to discontinue support for AS but atleast for now extract a pal file when do the 8 direction flcs? ;)

Actually, I wonder why you want to remove the extract 8 direction flc feature since its already in the code at the moment and nothing new needs to be done for this? :)

Finally, for the guy who say he likes to convert animated gifs into flc. Good news!! Animation Shop can do just that :D

The FLC I create crashes Civ3

Originally posted by heardie
The FLC I create crashes Civ3

You flc looks ok except for the Civ specific color. I notice that the first 64 color in the pallete is not the original Civ color and you seems to use the first 64 color elsewhere on your graphic as well. Could this be the cause for crash?

Perhaps Moeniir can explain better :)

Originally posted by Dark Sheer
Ok, so I am not really evil ;) But Moeniir always thought that my continuous love for animation shop is evil :lol:


Evil? :) Animation shop is the purest of evil :flamedevi, but not you! At least, not too much :D

Tell you what, you keep giving me this great feedback, and i'll leave in FLC support until you tell me you don't need it anymore. Deal? As to your comments:

1) Duplicate frames. Great Idea. Officially on the list.

2) Save a frame. Another good idea. Code's practically written anyway, given the way I wrote the PCX code. Also on the list.

3) Pal files when exporting to Multi-FLC. Whoops! :blush: I thought I fixed that... it was on my pre-release punchlist, don't know how I forgot. Will definately do. I think I will soon build a minor release (like 1.01) with a few tweaks and bug fixes, prior to a new feature release. Sorry for the oversight. In the meanwhile, i'm sure you already know to export the Civ3UnitFlc to PCX once to create the PAL files.

As to why I want to remove the multi-flc code... well, just too many places for problems to creep in. No biggie for a pro like yourself, but alot of chances for the rest of us to have problems :D As a software developer, I'd rather improve FLICster to meet all the needs of a unit animator directly. In the meanwhile, as I said... I won't take it away as long as it's still useful.

Sorry I can't look at your unit tonite. WinME (i know, don't say it) finally pushed me over the edge so I formatted my hard drive. Boy, did that feel good. I've installed Win2000 (should have done that a LONG time ago), and I'm still getting all my apps re-installed. now it's gotten late, and I gotta work in the AM.

Tommorow (monday) evening, I'll be installing Civ3 and my development environment, so I'll pull down your file then and see if I can figure it out. Or, if things are slow at the office tommorow (don't hold your breath!) mebbe I can check it out at work (yes, of course I have Civ3 & FLICster installed on my work pc!)

Will follow up soon.

Alright I got a problem im sure your already familier with dealing with and I wanted to know if you can help me. Like a fool a decided to start work on my Carrier (WWII Carrier) without reading the instructions or thread for flicster. So I modified my entire carrier unit in Animation Shop. Well I get done and then I find out that I have to split the file ala flicster and so do it, then copy all my finished frames into their proper domains ie Carrier_S, Carrier_SE, yada yada yada. Then when I merge I discover all of my directions besides the first one (SW) are distorted with a blue or grey background and an inverted Carrier. Fun, I know. So I read up a little (me and my short attention span) and try and cancel optimization in AS, re-save with nearest color on and the loaded pallet from the original time I split it with Flicster 022 and instead I get a white background with an inverted carrier. IS there someway you can help me figuer out how to rework this to get the animation finished? I just dont wanna have to do this all again. Thanks.

Scipio,

I think you should attach a copy of your flc for at least one direction so someone can take a look at them ;) From what you have said, I believe the trouble lies with the palette. Don't worry, I get into lots of trouble with the palette when I first doing the animation too. :D If you attach the flc here I will try to take a look at them for ya. I also like to help you so you can finish the Carrier faster and start working on some of the other request ;)

Oh, I am glad you like the final product on the launcher :king:

Thanks dark sheer ive attached the S and SW versions.

The SW version runs fine. The S version is where it starts to go invert. I didn't change the pallets and only used colors already in the frame but i guess the optimization screwed it up.

hmmm...your flc files look perfectly alright to me when I load them into Animation Shop ??:confused:

Other than the 200 frame count (you need to go to frame properties and change frame delay to 1/100 of a second before you save to remove these extra frames) the color of the flc looks quite standard to me ??:confused:

Anyway, I have removed the extra frame for you and resave the files using the default palette for carrier and rezip the files and attach here. Try to take a look at them again?

I don't have time to d/l the files now, since I'm at work, but...
DS, if you only viewed his FLCs in AS, you wouldn't see a color problem, since AS loads the palette from the FLC. The problem occurs when he merges the two directions using flicster... FLICster only uses the palette from the SW flc... all the other directions are supposed to have the same palette. If they don't, then chaos ensues (or at least, the color looks wrong :) )

I'm not sure what the best solution is. Re-opening the bad directional FLCs (SE, E, NE, etc) in AS will use the 'optimized' palette stored in the flc, and you could try saving it using the PAL file created by FLICster (export the original Civ3 file to PCX to get the pal) as DS did for your S animation.... This should get you close. Once you re-merge, if you have slight issues with shading or civ-specific colors, try exporting to PCX and cleaning it up in PaintShop Pro. The big advantage to StoryBoard PCX format is that all frames in all directions share a single palette.

HTH...

Originally posted by Moeniir
Of course, this would all be easier if FLICster would import animated GIFs as you suggested. A few thoughts here. First, I thought GIFs were 256 color (actually 255, + transparency). Certainly easier to convert than 24 bit color. The real issue with GIFs is legal - I understand that the GIF scheme is copyrighted, and one must have a licence to write code that manipulates it. Now, don't get me wrong... I make my living as a programmer, and I don't care if others want to do the same; I just can't pay to licence something for a project I'm giving away :) . I'll look into it, mebbe they have a shareware licence available. FLICster could read AVIs, mebbe, depending on the encoding.

To come back to this, if you could implement GIF support it would be fine. Of course I understand that it may be impossible due to the licence issue.

You mentioned AVI support, would that be possible without the a licence similar to those for GIF? My point is, it would save a lot of work for me if flicster would read also a more common anim format. Then I could create the entire anim with my 3d rendering software. Currently I also create my anims in that way, but then I have to paste the single frames into a pcx storyboard with PhotoPaint - this costs a lot of time. With AVI or GIF support, I would need PhotoPaint only for palette operations and some optimizing.

However, your post helped me a lot, most of the anims for the M60 tank are finished and look good in flicster, I only have to test them now directly in the game...;)

Originally posted by BeBro

Then I could create the entire anim with my 3d rendering software. Currently I also create my anims in that way, but then I have to paste the single frames into a pcx storyboard with PhotoPaint - this costs a lot of time. With AVI or GIF support, I would need PhotoPaint only for palette operations and some optimizing.

I'll look into other formats, but to be honest, I really haven't started any new FLICster work yet, short of some planning. I've got a project deadline at work, and decided to rip out an entire code module and rewrite it from the ground up, so I've been a little brain-fried for more coding at nite. :)

About pasting the single frames into the PCX... does your software let you crank out a series of individual files? FLICster currently supports exporting to and importing from "Cels" which are individual PCX files for each frame of each directional animation. unless you want to rename your files, I'd need to add some kind of wizard or setup screen to let you pick any set of files for the animations, but the code changes would be minimal. Also, if PCX is inconvenient, I could code BMP support easily. Any other format, and I'll need to read a spec first :) since I'm not using any pre-written libraries for gfx i/o. Come to think of it, the windows API provides native jpg support since Win98, I think. In any format, all files would need to be the same size (in pixels) and use the same palette. The big problem would be palette resolution, but my prior post to DarkSheer and Scipio suggest a possibility. If this file-per-frame approach looks feasible, I could probably write some palette-fixing code ( or get angry trying ;) ).

At any rate, I can't promise any major new features in the next few weeks, but a minor new feature, like bmp support and support for other file names in Cel mode might be something I could do more quickly, if there's a real need/use for such things.

As always, thanks for the feedback. As I've said before, I haven't had the time or talent to try to create a unit myself, so I don't always recognize the best way to do something.

PS - If your 3d prog lets you export animated gifs or AVIs, could you use create the 8 anims for a unit, then use Animation shop to convert the Gifs/avis to FLC, then merge with flicster? Might require some tinkering, but the good news is the INI file that drives the multi-flc process is text based and editable. just a thought.

Unfortunatly im not able to join the files you gave me Dark Sheer with my other flc's, I think it may be the seperate number of frames per file now. Can I join the two files you gave me without an ini? I're read the readme but Im not sure if its touched this subject as the layout is a bit difficult. Thanks for your help, though Im not sure if the files I gave you have the extra frame on the end. I thought the flc's made by Flicster reduced the extra frame when its exported, but replaced it when it merged. Anyway, thanks again and i'll try using the pallet made by the export of pcx format frames. Do I have to change the canvas color when i resave in AS? the canvas color was white when i resaved with a loaded pallet from the exported CarrierDefault with Flicster 0.2.2 and the carrier was still invert but the background was now white. I know the recommendation is to export the frames into paint shop pro in pcx format then resave with the pallet made when you split the original file with 1.0.0, however I just love my AS to much. Besides the horrid optimization AS has it gives me the option to easily view my progress by simply hitting left and right back and forth. Modify my next frame based from my last which makes for some great frame by frame work on existing units for a more fluid look. Seeing the animation in motion helps me modify it more. I just dont get that option with pcx a button away. If only AS had been designed with as many options as PSP.

Ummm...I am not sure if you need to replace the color before resave but if I open the file individually and see the right color then I think you do not need to replace the color. Just try to resave using the correct palette.

Ah, YES!! Another lover of Animation Shop! Woohoo!! :lol: ;) As to the frame count, as long as the delay in AS is not 1 when AS save the file it will create 1 frame for each 1/100 of a sec. :p

Hi I'm newbie here. I d/l and try flicster because i want to try to make my own unit (a mech). i've try readme.txt but found no information i want to know so here is my question.
1. i like function that export animation into one large pcx with many cell. and i edit graphic in this file. how can i put it back into flc

2. when start a new file can i get a blank large pcx with cel

3. what can i use to open .fxm

thanks ahead for your help

Zaku -

To answer your questions in revers:

3) You use FLICster to open the FXM.

FXM is short for FLICster export manifest. It's basically a file that stores information about the animation that can't be stored in the pcx file. So, once you edit the PCX, you open the FXM file with FLICster, and the choose the View tab. You will be viewing the PCX file, animated. All three of the PCX export options (Storyboard=1 file, filmstrip = 8 files, cel= many files) create a single FXM file containing the format name (StoryBoard, etc). This FXM file ties the PCX(s) back to an animation.

2) To start with a new PCX, just choose file | new... from the menu. The dialog that appears will let you select your frame size and the number of frames per direction. When all your options are set, you just click Export (oops, that should have been labeled create I suppose).

1) To turn your edited PCX into a FLC, open the FXM as in Question #3 above, then go to the Export tab. Make sure the export format is "Civ3 Unit Flc", and click the export button at the bottom of the window. The new .FLC will be placed in the same location as the FXM you opened.

Hope this helps.

SO my unit is pretty much stuffed:goodjob: :crazyeyes

Originally posted by heardie
SO my unit is pretty much stuffed:goodjob: :crazyeyes

Umm, :confused: I don't follow you.

HOWEVER... If you're referring to your FLC that crashes Civ3, I finally got that one figured out! The standard flc format has a Speed field in the header which is the delay in ms between frames. The civ3 version of the flc format has another field, Anim_Time, in the custom header. The info I had said that Anim_time was unused, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Anim_time should be equal to frames_per_anim * speed. Once I corrected this in your animation, it works fine in game. I'm attaching a copy.

This is a bug in the FXM->FLC export code. I will try to put out a patch in the next few days. In the meantime: After creating a Civ3Unit FLC from your pcx file(s), open the newly created FLC (becomes first item on MRU file list after exporting) with FLICster, and look for "Animation Time" on the info tab. If the value is 0 ( or not equal to the value of "frames per direction" x the value of "speed") then fix it like this:
* export to Multi-flc format
* open the INI file (the one in ...\art\units\unitname\FLICster)
* edit the anim_time=0 line, enter the correct value
* now open the ini file with FLICster and export to Civ3Unit Flc again.

Sorry for the inconvenience. As I said, I'll try to get a patch release posthaste.

Originally posted by Moeniir


Umm, :confused: I don't follow you.
Sorry, only had a few secs to post that message :) If only I spent less time on smilies....


HOWEVER... If you're referring to your FLC that crashes Civ3, I finally got that one figured out! The standard flc format has a Speed field in the header which is the delay in ms between frames. The civ3 version of the flc format has another field, Anim_Time, in the custom header. The info I had said that Anim_time was unused, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Anim_time should be equal to frames_per_anim * speed. Once I corrected this in your animation, it works fine in game. I'm attaching a copy.

Thanks

....Snip....
Sorry for the inconvenience. As I said, I'll try to get a patch release posthaste.
Inconvenience...ha! Imagine how inconvient it would be if you never mdae this utility? Trust me, its not inconvient

"Moeniir for hall of fame :egypt: "

Well, couldn't stand it anymore. I've built a new version to patch a couple of bugs. From the changelog in the readme:

This one is just a quick bugfix release:
* Fixed a bug that caused some units created from PCX exports to crash civ3. The Anim_time in the FlicAnimHeader was being written as a 0.

* Added code when opening a FLC to check for the condition listed above. If a FLC is opened with an invalid FlicAnimHeader value, FLICster will offer to fix it on the spot. You can accept, decline, or cancel opening the unit.

* Added .PAL file creation when exporting to Multi-Flc format (FLICster 0.2.2 compat). This was supposed to be in the original release, and was overlooked. Note that only the actual palette is exported; the "alpha" palette available for PCX mode isn't created, since it doesn't work when using Animation shop to export a frame to PaintShop Pro. I'm looking into a way to address this in a future release.

I decided not to build a new full install this time. If you already have v1.0.0, grab the patch below, and just replace the old .exe with the new one. If you don't have FLICster yet, Grab the full installer from the start of this thread, and then apply this patch.

note If you have built any units with v1.0.0 using FXM/PCX mode, they could have a bug that crashes Civ3. To check, just open your completed unit in FLICster. It will check automatically, warn you if the condition exists, and offer to automatically fix it. (see Items 1 & 2 above)

Thanks Moeniir

I current work on to get my Unit Done (it is hard just to get one direction look Ok but i do have to create 7 More + Animation) but i not give up Yet.

Hey Moeniir,

Take a look at what I have got!! I think you will love it! :D

I did it with AS and Inside UO. ;) Just a test and it seems this will work :lol:

Thanks Moeniir. It's all good.

Check this low-quality gif out

Wow! I love the ettin! It's been years since I played with InsideUO. Does it export the animations to some format? This would be great for someone doing a fantasy mod. Very cool.

One thing I notice... the animation speed is way way too fast (at least in flicster - did you try him in game?). How'd you create this guy. multi-flc? Did you start from an existing unit? If there's an issue with the animation speed, I'd like to fix it.

Wow, that's awesome looking. Tell us a little about the animation - did you start from scratch, or start with a anim or 3D model from somewhere? Did you use PCX/FXM format or multi-flc? Any problems with FLICster? (I'm so nosy!)

Also, where's the design/idea come from? I love the look, but I don't associate a bald guy in a red jacket with a ninja. Am I missing some game/movie reference?

Can't wait to see the finished unit. This standalone, or going into a mod?

Now I'm out of questions :D

Originally posted by Moeniir
Wow! I love the ettin! It's been years since I played with InsideUO. Does it export the animations to some format? This would be great for someone doing a fantasy mod. Very cool.

One thing I notice... the animation speed is way way too fast (at least in flicster - did you try him in game?). How'd you create this guy. multi-flc? Did you start from an existing unit? If there's an issue with the animation speed, I'd like to fix it.

I know you will love it :lol:

Actually Inside UO can export the animation in avi format. After that its just a matter of converting the avi using AS (told ya its useful ;) ), change the background to the pinkish color, resize the animation so its not too big and resave using one of the existing unit's palette (I used pikeman in this case).

In fact, by using Inside UO I can make almost infinite number of fantasy unit by combing all those different animation and weapons (using the method I discussed in the tutorial). I have tested this out with Dupre swinging a viking on a bucking horse (I purposely choose the bucking horse to proof that the animation is not captured from the game ;) ). Its a combinaton of 3 different flc. I am attaching the gif here to let you have a look. As to the speed, I can always tweak the speed in Flicster's ini file to make it slower. I am pretty comfortable in editing Flicster's ini file for the 8 direction flc by now :king:

I use poser. One of the default figures was a man in a suit; one of the default poses was a karate kick. The idea sort of stemmed from there...

I used the 1 pcx format. The only problem I had was with the pallete. The red jacket changes colors with each civ, but I am finding it hard to make a smooth transition.

Moeniir

There seems to be some problem with the remerging of Storyboard style pcx file with the latest Flicster :(

I created a simple missile for IceBlaZe and when I merge it back to Civ3 flc a few of the directions' flc is damaged. All frame except the first frame has some residue from the previous frame :confused:

However, this problem seems to happen to Default flc only. I created two missiles and both the default flc is damaged. The Run and Attack flc seems ok though :confused: :confused:

Can you take a look at the flc? Its at the unit animation section.

Sounds like a bug with the delta-enocder or the delta-decoder. Probably the encoder... Hardest bit of code I had to write. I'll take a look at it - thought I had all the bugs worked out. I may need you to send me a copy of the FXM file and the PCX used to created the unit... if it was encoded incorrectly, I'll need the source material to correct it.

Originally posted by Moeniir
Sounds like a bug with the delta-enocder or the delta-decoder. Probably the encoder... Hardest bit of code I had to write. I'll take a look at it - thought I had all the bugs worked out. I may need you to send me a copy of the FXM file and the PCX used to created the unit... if it was encoded incorrectly, I'll need the source material to correct it.

Thanks! I will post a copy of the file when I get home today. (Been reading this in the office again :blush: But I am just dying to know what happen since the 8 direction flc has no problem so far. :cool: ). Now, if only my office's IT people respond half as far as you do I would have a much easier life acting as the System Admin in my regional office. ;)

Hey DS... have a look on the thread where the missile is posted. More info as well as a possible work around.

Originally posted by Moeniir
Hey DS... have a look on the thread where the missile is posted. More info as well as a possible work around.

I got that, I will try the work around when I am home tonight :) I do notice that it happens only for those frames that touches the right edge too. Perhaps your method of work around will work since those sequence that do not touch the right edge has no problem when merging. :cool:

While I do have Flicster on my office notebook, I only have PSP & AS at home (I am fulltime CPA, part time Sys Admin/Security Officer/Tech Support but not Artist in my office ;) ). I will try it out tonight and post the result. I believe it should work. :)

Ok, ok, so I can't ressist the urge to try it out. I use paintbrush to cut and paste during my lunch break ;)

Adding one pixel to each side of the frame doesn't work. HOWEVER, adding 2 pixels to each side works!! It seems that the graphic must be at least 3 pixels from the right edge (ie leaving 3 blank line on the right side) to make sure that there is no residual effect when merging. :cool: The residual effect will be there if there is only 1 or 2 pixel between the graphic and the frame. The left side has no effect as my graphic has no space from the left side and its fine.

So, Moeniir, does this test result worth a piece of real estate in UO (say a small tower) ? :cooool: J/K ;)

Thanks for the info DS. I'll try to get time to build a patch. Been extra busy at work lately... not in the mood for more coding at nite. I hope you were kidding about cut & pasting.... just exporting to Storyboard (you can start from a storyboard) & enlarging the frame width (using the FLICster export screen) does all the grunt work for you. Either increase the frame width by 3 or 6 (don't remember if it centers the old work, I think it does).

As to why this happens, and why its the right edge (if you care... if not take a short nap :) ) the Delta encoding used in a FLC to record the frame transitions has a scanline break... meaning that the encoding algorith starts over at the start of each row of pixels. So, when you hit the end of the row (the right edge), you have to end the current encoding run and output it to the file. This is basically special case code, and I must have overlooked a particular case. Sorry about that.

And as to the small tower... I've got one one LS - Trammel. How's 10 million gold sound? :D Shoot, for that price, I'll even throw in a free copy of FLICster! :lol:

Thanks again for the info.

Originally posted by Moeniir
Thanks for the info DS. I'll try to get time to build a patch. Been extra busy at work lately... not in the mood for more coding at nite. I hope you were kidding about cut & pasting.... just exporting to Storyboard (you can start from a storyboard) & enlarging the frame width (using the FLICster export screen) does all the grunt work for you. Either increase the frame width by 3 or 6 (don't remember if it centers the old work, I think it does).

As to why this happens, and why its the right edge (if you care... if not take a short nap :) ) the Delta encoding used in a FLC to record the frame transitions has a scanline break... meaning that the encoding algorith starts over at the start of each row of pixels. So, when you hit the end of the row (the right edge), you have to end the current encoding run and output it to the file. This is basically special case code, and I must have overlooked a particular case. Sorry about that.

And as to the small tower... I've got one one LS - Trammel. How's 10 million gold sound? :D Shoot, for that price, I'll even throw in a free copy of FLICster! :lol:

Thanks again for the info.

Well, the reason why I do the cut and paste is of course I downloaded the flc at the office and re-export to Storyboard using Flicster. Luckily for me those have problem is only 3 of the direction and Default for missile is just moving up and down :D

And I love to know why a program doesn't work. In fact, whenever I play a game of use a program, I always think of how the code work and why certain things can or cannot be done (I used to do lots of programming in the old days with Assembly Language on Apple II machines ;) ).

As to the tower, I have 2 small tower in Trammel on Pac and 1 large tower and small house in Fel on Cats :D Never have much gold though as I always give them away. In total I must have given away more than 5 million in gold plus countless GM armor and stuff :coool:

Sheer I knew I liked you, anybody who goes back to assembly langauge for the Apple II is okay in my book. You two talkin' about UO has got me all titilated, I used to write muds but never made the switch to the hardcore stuff, it sounds cool. Mebbe I'll hafta dust off my crash chair (specially suited to muddin' and losing a character you spent 100 hours on :)

Originally posted by micmc_atl_ga
Sheer I knew I liked you, anybody who goes back to assembly langauge for the Apple II is okay in my book. You two talkin' about UO has got me all titilated, I used to write muds but never made the switch to the hardcore stuff, it sounds cool. Mebbe I'll hafta dust off my crash chair (specially suited to muddin' and losing a character you spent 100 hours on :)

Hehe, this just go to show that we are not only interested in TBS. We also have the spirit of adventuring in some untamed land :lol:

I still remember the good old days of programming. Its kinda hard to forget when there are 200+ people in the lecture hall and only 5 of us really understand what the lecturer says ;) We were treated like king back then (what do you expect, a year's assignment finished within a day :coool: ). Of course our dear lecturer is now the Managing Director of one of the t