Issue with custom city graphics?

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lemony

Chieftain
Joined
Oct 22, 2012
Messages
36
I've been trying to edit the city images for Lady Deirdre and am having an odd issue. I edited the profile image and that worked flawlessly, but the cities graphics are appearing like this:


Any idea what exactly I'm doing wrong?

Thank you for your time!

P.S. I have no patches at all applied to my client, it's a straight install from the game disc.
 
Hey lemony,

Take a look at this thread. I think it might be relevant to your problem. If that doesn't help, please post again and perhaps one of our resident graphics experts can provide more advice.

(Which release of the game do you have? Is it the original, Planetary Pack, Sold-Out Software, GOG, or something else? I ask because some of those versions don't include the official patches. Although the unofficial patches are optional, you really should install the latest official patches.)
 
Thanks for the link! It helped me get rid of the blue boxes, but the colors still don't work right :\. The base in the photo is pretty close to how they're still loading, but it's supposed to be purple.
I think the game version I have is labeled as "SMAC Classic PCCD"
 
Glad to hear that you made some progress with your colors problem. That link was about all I know about these matters. I hope that one of our graphics experts will show up to offer more advice.

Sounds like you have the disc with the original release of SMAC. Start a game and press Ctrl-F4. What version number is shown?
 
Thanks for the replies! Petek that command doesn't do anything inside my alpha centauri client (attempted at varying points).

Buster's uncle I'm attaching a screenshot reference of what's happening and the file I've been editing.
I'm using Gimp 2.6 to edit the images. When I edit I cut off the entire magenta background and all the orange shadow effects and paste them to a different layer, then I use the colorize tool to edit the bases and copy the layer (that now has no background, just the sprites) over to the Gaian file. I have the palette file open in Gimp, is that what you mean?

Please ignore the odd profile picture, I was testing changing the profile image and it was the first one I found on my computer that I liked XD.

Thanks everyone!
 

Attachments

  • ref1.PNG
    ref1.PNG
    187.6 KB · Views: 115
  • Gaians.pcx
    227.5 KB · Views: 67
Try this to display the version number: MENU --> HELP --> Show Version Number.
 
Okay good - I know GIMP best.

To create a SMAC(X) palette in GIMP, load an official faction>Windows>Dockable Dialogues>Palettes. Right-click on any palette in the menu>Import Palette. Check Image, the second option, below Gradient, and [faction].pcx(and a number) and import.

For more information, check the article here: http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?action=articles;sa=view;article=29 -And a level up, there's a whole series of articles about faction art.
 
Petek It says Version release 1.0i
Date: 4-Jan-1998
Does it need to be patched still?

Buster's uncle thank you so much for all the links and help! I'm attempting this again, I'll post how it goes.
Thanks!

Edit: Tested it several times, even following the article to the letter my bases are still blue :(.
 
lemony said:
Petek It says Version release 1.0i
Date: 4-Jan-1998
Does it need to be patched still?

Buster's uncle thank you so much for all the links and help! I'm attempting this again, I'll post how it goes.
Thanks!

Edit: Tested it several times, even following the article to the letter my bases are still blue :(.
Click to expand...

Yes, you definitely need to patch your game. You have the original unpatched release of SMAC. Multiple patches (both official and unofficial) fixed many bugs. I'm not certain, but patching may help with your graphics problem.
Follow the instructions on this page, starting with the bulleted item that's labeled [If you don't own SMAX]. Installing the unofficial patch is optional, but highly recommended. Disregard the information about Hamachi; that's only for multiplayer.
 
Just guessing about what's going on, if you have the original of the bases saved separately in a format like .png -something I cannot recommend too strongly- you probably need to paste them back in. That is, if you loaded the palette into what you already have saved, it may have been too late.

Do the bases in the .pcx look normal in GIMP, but in blue in the game? How about the other elements?
 
Thanks Petek, I didn't realize it was so out of date x.x, a friend gave me the disc YEARS ago and I've just been playing it as is since then. I'll update it here in a little bit.

Buster's Uncle I have the files I'm using backed up don't worry, After each test I restore the Gaian file to it's default appearance.
The bases look normal in gimp, but after I flatten the layers and save the pcx file for Gaians and test it in game they look blue (in game anyway, if I re-open the file in gimp the bases turn back into their intended purple color).

The bases are also saved in their own separate .xcf file so make sure I don't lose the look I want should I goof up somewhere.

The only other element I've edited thus far would be the profile image that is in the same file, and it works just fine and looks as it should in game.
 
Yep, that's how it looks in Gimp for me too. The bases turn a ligh ice-ish blue once the game loads them.
 
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