Tom's Unit Factory

[Balthasar]

Re: Gimp palettes

Have you checked out the GIMP plugins repository?

 

[tom2050]

I found the Palette generator on there earlier, but I am unsure exactly what it does from the description.

It generates palette by following the harmonic schemes of color: monochromatic, complementary, triadic, tetrad and analogous.
Options:
- you can choose between the digital wheel (RGB) and the real wheel (RYB);
- you can choose whether to use the color "web safe" or not;
- you can see in real time in a preview page the combination of colors;
- you can save a Gimp or Inkscape palette.
Required python libraries: :
- GrapeFruit-0.1a3
INSTALLATION: copy file gimp_palette_generator.py to the standard place for plugins (folder "plug-ins").

I still use TilesetPal quite often for mergers, but It can also be used easily enough to apply palettes to PCX and BMP files, and then save the files as such. It can do so pretty quickly, and is quite easy to use. I would have to check out each GIMP plug-in to see which does what though, since it is often easier to do everything in a single program.

TilesetPal can not use palettes with 'unused spots' though, so in the case of units that have no civ colors, the last 64 spaces would just need to be filled with an unused color (such as a green color, 01FF00 would probably do fine). I'm not at my house though, so I cant look at it until tomorrow.

---------------------------

EDIT: TilesetPal cannot be used fully for what is needed, so a GIMP plug-in it seems will need to be found to extend the base GIMP palette capabilities. I'll have to browse through the GIMP plugins repository and find something suitable.

This is the reason... to get the absolute best palette for the unit, which does greatly increase the quality of the unit in-game:
1. The unit is resized in JASC animation shop, which means the edges blend with the Magnenta background. This is something that is desirable, because the blended edges will become the first row of Magenta shadows, giving a anti-alias'd look.
2. To get ONLY the unit colors, the creator needs to make the Grey background transparent (or one of the original unaltered GIFs), and then do a resize, so now the unit has it's perfect colors. The pixels around the unit has nothing to blend with since the BG is transparent, and then you have the exact unit colors.

I just now thought, the best way to easily get a transparent resize is to do it in JASC animation shop. I think you can change to Grey background to transparent, and then do a resize (do this only once) to get the unit color palette. EDIT: JASC Animation Shop cannot do this.

But we still need a GIMP plugin to be able to load the initial shadows palette (ShadowsOnly.act), so GIMP can then apply the remainder of the unit colors (from the transparent BG unit image in 2.) to get the full working palette (which will be applyed to every Storyboard).

Tom

 

[tom2050]

This is a more detailed explanation of creating the unit palette from the tuturial, and has been added in there.

So here is what would need to be done. 2 ways are shown:

BEST WAY:
-----------
JASC Animation Shop can not make gif's with transparent background. So it cannot be used for this. So everything needs to be done in your graphics editor.

Open an unmodified GIF graphic into your graphics editor (a GIF with the grey background).


Make the grey background transparent (there are several ways to do this, I am not going to explain them all here).


Make sure the image is changed to RGB mode (if it has not been done already).

Resize the image to the proportions you had planned for the unit. It's edges should look somewhat blended.


Index the image, load the Shadows palette, and select 192 colors (no civ colors here, so last 4 rows are not used) and you have the perfect palette to use for all of your storyboards. It does not matter what the actual unit looks like at this point. The palette is all we are concerned about.


Final Palette, save this palette


Some Tuturials on Palettes with GIMP:
How to make a working palette for pcx using the Gimp - Varwnos
GIMP palette recommendation to Varwnos palette info above - Micaelus
Cutting and Pasting with GIMP (Step by step Improvement creation) - Spacer One (has some palette and transperancy help in it)

Some changes may need to be made though, for units with No Civ Colors, 160 colors instead of 254 would need to be used, and the Shadow rows would have to be added in each time for GIMP.

NOT AS GOOD WAY, but works if the above cannot be done:
----------------------------------------------------------

Don't do any of the steps above.

Do all resizes using the regular Steph's SBB (Do NOT use the Sandris version). It resizes in an indexed mode, so edges of units may not be as smooth.

You still need to make the final palette, but no magenta pixel blending doing it like this. First 2 rows need to be the shadow rows, and the next 160 colors are unit colors. I still don't know if GIMP can do this automatically though... (see above GIMP palette tuturials) ???

Tom

 

[Balthasar]

That reminds me of some Gimp tricks -

Guaranteed way to make transparent backgrounds in GIMP:

1. Copy the image.
2. Use Create from Clipboard to create a new image.
3. Edit > Select All > Copy again..
4. Create from Clipboard again..
5. Now erase the background color. The new background will be transparent.

Q & S (quick and sloppy) indexing in Gimp:

1. find a properly indexed image with roughly the same colors as the image you want to index.
2. Paste a new image on top of it. The result will retain the indexing of the original.
3. Don't use this on terrain pcxs or it comes out horribly wrong.

A final note: the GAP (Gimp Animation Package) used to (as of vers. 2.2) include a Gflic plug-in that would allow you to edit flc animations directly. Since it's open source, I always held out the hope that a programmer here could take a look at it, and perhaps modify it to suit our putposes (to allow palette changes, for instance). I know I've discussed it before and didn't get far...

 

[tom2050]

@Balthasar - the Deionarra Ghost unit has more issues than Time magazine. There are large portions of her body that are missing in the Gif's and DCC files. I'm pretty sure this is not meant to be, because missing portions are filled in at certain angles of the animation. Here is a preview, I will complete it if you still want it; she will just be able to be seen through in certain portions; may actually look a bit unique.






Tom

 

[tom2050]

Sahuagin / Sea Devil (unit conversion)

The sahuagin are sometimes referred to as "sea devils" or "devil men of the deep." They dwell in warm salt waters at depths of 100 to 1,500 feet. Sahuagin are predatory in the extreme, and they pose a threat to all living things because they kill for sport and pleasure as well as for food. They abhor fresh water and strongly dislike any form of light.

No Civ Colours.



Download here... Sahuagin.rar

Unit32, Large/Small pcx, and Sound Files included. Is a Bioware/Interplay unit.

Tom

 

[Balthasar]

@Balthasar - the Deionarra Ghost unit has more issues than a Time magazine. There are large portions of her body that are missing in the Gif's and DCC files. I'm pretty sure this is not meant to be, because missing portions are filled in at certain angles of the animation.

My guess is that that's deliberate - to make her more 'ghostly', she is transparent wherever shadows would be. That suggests three or four possible courses of action:

a. Make her 'as is' with the holes, then see if that works in gameplay...
she is, after all, a ghost - so not entirely on our corporal plane to begin with, and being able to see through her from certain angles wouldn't matter alot if she's still recognizable. And it could be how she's supposed to look.

b. fill in the holes with neon green (shadow) color, to add missing shadows.
The shadow color was used to great effect on the 'Ghost Hunter' unit

c. 'fill in' the holes with Cn'P pieces.
perhaps from a different animation, same angle...

d. Try recoloring it; see if the missing colors come out...

e. move on; pick it up later.
not my favorite option, but understandable if you don't want to Richard with it.


Edit: Thanks for making the Sahuagin, Tom! It fills a huge hole for me.

 

[Orkel]

Can any1 download anything from here?:
http://phrozenkeep.hugelaser.com/resources/infinitum/index-anims-ac.html
Fileplant links are down

 

[tom2050]

Fileplanet has been doing that quite frequently as of late. I just tested it and it is back up as of this post.

Tom

 

[The Guardian]

Fileplanet has been doing that quite frequently as of late. I just tested it and it is back up as of this post.

Tom

I have been using atomicgamer and find them quite reliable. No fees downloaders don't need to signup and only have a short wait ( depending on traffic ). Signup for uploading is absolutely free.

Check it out.

 

[nick0515]

I have been using atomicgamer and find them quite reliable. No fees downloaders don't need to signup and only have a short wait ( depending on traffic ). Signup for uploading is absolutely free.

Check it out.

Actually Tom isn't uploading anything to fileplanet, it's the website where he is getting all these great units to be converted from.

Cheers

Nick

 

[tom2050]

I'll keep AtomicGamer in mind if it is a good upload site, nothing worse than getting bombarded with popups.

Fileplanet has quite often been saying that those unit files are Adult files and that you are not 18 so can't download them, then they fix it, then it happens again

Tom

 

[Orkel]

Fileplanet has been doing that quite frequently as of late. I just tested it and it is back up as of this post.

Tom

thanks for the support. It works now, it was some error with the site.

Do you know other sites that have convertable assets for CIVIII?

Infinitum is a excellent site but the more the better.

 

[tom2050]

thanks for the support. It works now, it was some error with the site.

Do you know other sites that have convertable assets for CIVIII?

Infinitum is a excellent site but the more the better.

I have yet to find a source with so many ready to go GIF graphics. All of the Infinitum grahpics were rendered from Bioware games for Diablo 2.

ALthough I have not done an exhaustive search either. I believe Zoo Tycoon had animals that I may figure out how to do, but I'm not sure what format they are (they may be GIF). There are many games that can be converted, some games are free, most are not.

Many graphics from games usually require using 3DS MAX or something to render the 3d models, which takes longer and is more time consuming to do than a GIF... I've done this for only a few units to date.

If anyone finds anything, please post... I will browse this thread again soon, and make a list to post on the first page with any and all sites that have convertable gifs.

Here is a list of games on Wikipedia that have isometric graphics. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Video_games_with_isometric_graphics

I have already tried converting graphics from some of these, such as Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic... but in this case I was unable to because AoW: SM units only have 6 directions.

Tom

 

[DJ Bonebraker]

Well, the Phrozen Keep has all kinds of Diablo II graphics editors/extractors.... It would be easy to convert bad guys, i.e. the Fallen, Dark Rouges, etc, but not any of the Player Characters, since I know from experience that each part of a Player Character class (i.e. Amazon, Barbarian, etc) are contained in separate files that are merged together somehow (i.e. the torso, legs, arms, head, etc are all separate files for each possible piece of equipment that the character can wear).....

 

[tom2050]

Well, the Phrozen Keep has all kinds of Diablo II graphics editors/extractors.... It would be easy to convert bad guys, i.e. the Fallen, Dark Rouges, etc, but not any of the Player Characters, since I know from experience that each part of a Player Character class (i.e. Amazon, Barbarian, etc) are contained in separate files that are merged together somehow (i.e. the torso, legs, arms, head, etc are all separate files for each possible piece of equipment that the character can wear).....

I have actually already converted Izual from D2 (still have him ), and posted a preview in the CoMM3 thread... but took it down because I was warned that Blizzard will not hesitate to shut down anyone or even press suit when using their graphics even for non-profit non-commercial use, etc.

I personally do not know exactly what their stance is, but I didn't pursue any further conversions since that time. Although there are some nice units there, anyone else know why Blizzard may have such a tough stance?

Those conversions are pretty easy to do also, since they are pretty much the same thing as doing the Infinitum conversions.

Tom

 

[tom2050]

In celebration of Christmas, here is the:

Arch Angel (unit conversion)

Converted for use in the upcoming mod Conquests of Might and Magic III.

Angels were created as messengers of God. The Archangels were the divine messengers between the humans and God. They are the battlers of the Sons of Darkness.

No Civ Colors.



Download here... ArchAngel.rar

Unit32, Large/Small pcx, and Sound Files included. Is a HoMM4 unit.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!!!!

Tom

 

[DJ Bonebraker]

I have actually already converted Izual from D2 (still have him ), and posted a preview in the CoMM3 thread... but took it down because I was warned that Blizzard will not hesitate to shut down anyone or even press suit when using their graphics even for non-profit non-commercial use, etc.

I personally do not know exactly what their stance is, but I didn't pursue any further conversions since that time. Although there are some nice units there, anyone else know why Blizzard may have such a tough stance?

Those conversions are pretty easy to do also, since they are pretty much the same thing as doing the Infinitum conversions.

Tom

Well, Navydawg did a Zerg Hydralisk a few years back, and we have yet to hear anything from Blizzard's "Revenous Horde" of Lawyers, so I'd say that it's pretty safe, particularly if you post them under the same deal that you're doing with these conversions... I.e. go ahead until you get a "cease and desist" order....

 

[vmxa]

That is how most companies do it. They just send a cease letter or fax and that is the end, unless it is ignored. It is cheaper for them than taking action. My friend years back had a store selling CD's and got a cease fax from Allen Klien to stop a Ruby and the Romantics CD.

How they knew about it, I have no idea and they want the money he got from the sales. I doubt it was more than 75 dollars. I could see, if it was the Stones stuff he had the rights to, how many Ruby and the Romantic CD's could be sold?

Tom the angel looks more like a Homm4 angel than III.

 

[tom2050]

Tom the angel looks more like a Homm4 angel than III.

Yes, it is converted from HoMM4 It is the closest thing available I could find for the CoMM3 mod.

Well, let me look and check around to try to get a feel for how Blizzard may react. I could maybe post one unit, and then wait some time and see... but if they are highly likely to send a cease and desist, I don't want to invest alot of time doing those conversions for them to not be able to be used.

EDIT: Can't really find anything on Blizzard (could be looking in the wrong place...), I have had the Izual completed conversion.. should I post it? The sound effects are not named in the MPQ file that contains the Sound FX, so I have no clue which goes to which unit. Since there are over 2300+ wav files with no unique names, if I do post Izual, no sounds will be included (going through that list to find the right ones is just way too time consuming).

But you are right about the Hydralisk, that was posted in 2007 and still there.

Tom