Civ3FlcEdit - Civilization III animation viewer & editor

[Parthius]

Cyber Dreyk,
The latest version is great (on many counts)!

There does still seem to be a bug associated with saving an adjusted timing rate. Whereas before, exporting to a flc with custom timing would often play fine in both your program and flicster, the time would default to 10 sec per frame. The work around was to first export to flc, and then "save as" with the same custome time. I just noticed (when I doublechecked all the times) that it is still saving a time delay different from the custom one selected, probably the default one it started with. The work around, as before, is to export to flc and then follow with a second save.

The ability to read the palette from the pcx image is a real work saver!!!!!
Thanks again for the wonderful program!!!

 

[Cyber Dreyk]

Hey Dreyk that grass background is kinda anyoing with those seeds anyway you can get rid of them in the next Version?

Well, it's already done - last version don't have "bonus grassland" seeds on the "Land" background. But you should delete the Land.pcx from the same folder where is placed Civ3FlcEdit.exe to compel the utility renew this file. Also you can replace the Land.pcx with any other file, but: it must be 256-colors PCX file 240x240 pixels.

And could you make it to where right when you load a flic it not be in that middle position where it shows you all of them because I have to just beable to glance at how many frames it is when I make M-units

You can use "Change Offset" feature to place frame in the top-left cornor.

 

[Cyber Dreyk]

There does still seem to be a bug associated with saving an adjusted timing rate. Whereas before, exporting to a flc with custom timing would often play fine in both your program and flicster, the time would default to 10 sec per frame. The work around was to first export to flc, and then "save as" with the same custome time. I just noticed (when I doublechecked all the times) that it is still saving a time delay different from the custom one selected, probably the default one it started with. The work around, as before, is to export to flc and then follow with a second save.

Thank you for bug report!

I'll look for it.

 

[warmwaffles]

Cyber for some dam reason the land background is all scewed and warped do you know what it is? The .pcx file is fine and the flic plays but the grass and ocean background are messed up.

 

[Cyber Dreyk]

Cyber for some dam reason the land background is all scewed and warped do you know what it is? The .pcx file is fine and the flic plays but the grass and ocean background are messed up.

No, I don't know, what happend - on my PC all working fine.
Did you try to remove pcx files or replace them with different handmaded?
And one more question - wich OS you have installed on your PC?

 

[warmwaffles]

No I didn't replace any of the pcx files it hapened right after I had made a pcx with flicster and used the PCX to replace the pcx storyboard made by your program. Have no clue what happened.

I run windows XP on a 2.4GHz processer with 516MB of RAM an ATI radeon 9225 pro video card.

 

[Dease]

First of all, the latest update is excellent! much easier than flicster and more userfriendly.

The offset feature is by far the most useful feature, i find, it works perfectly though I'd suggest keeping the bonus grassland indicator since it's helpful for centering. On that note, I'd suggest the ability to overlay an outline of the grid on the background for even easier centering

When creating a new storyboard I usually already have an 8bit storyboard all ready to save over the blank storyboard that the program creates. Would it be possible to tell Civ3FlcEdit to not create a blank SB but use a specified SB so civ3flcedit would simply create a c3f file.

I'd suggest to make the .c3f file not dependant on the name specified in the process of creating a storyboard. For example, if I have a unit with 7 different animations, but they all have 15 frames and dimensions of 160*160, then it's more efficient to simply create one .c3f file w/ those specs and just copy and paste to create 7 files. Then renaming them to thier appropriate animation, causes the .c3f file not to recgognize your SB.

Whenever I try and select a single direction for the animation to play, the program freezes, any ideas?

The colour replacer tool looks like it could be very powerful but, whenever I open it, and try and do something (anything) a popup says "a required resource was" in unusually bold letters which makes me think it has something to do w/ system ressources, I have win98.

Once again, great job on this utility, it's extremely useful. Would you mind if I linked to this utility in my sig?

- Dease

 

[Cyber Dreyk]

No I didn't replace any of the pcx files it hapened right after I had made a pcx with flicster and used the PCX to replace the pcx storyboard made by your program. Have no clue what happened.

It's a very curiously. I have the Win XP and never seen this problem.

Did you try NOW to remove pcx files or replace them with different handmaded?

I run windows XP on a 2.4GHz processer with 516MB of RAM an ATI radeon 9225 pro video card.

Well, you have a good PC!

 

[Cyber Dreyk]

The offset feature is by far the most useful feature, i find, it works perfectly though I'd suggest keeping the bonus grassland indicator since it's helpful for centering. On that note, I'd suggest the ability to overlay an outline of the grid on the background for even easier centering

Maybe you are right. Now you can simple replace Sea.pcx or Land.pcx with handmaded pcx file with necessary grid to easy change frame offset.

When creating a new storyboard I usually already have an 8bit storyboard all ready to save over the blank storyboard that the program creates. Would it be possible to tell Civ3FlcEdit to not create a blank SB but use a specified SB so civ3flcedit would simply create a c3f file.

You can try to use 'Import To Storyboard' feature (menu File). But you need a correct palette file.
Otherwise you need to create new C3F storyboard and then replace created pcx file with your one.

I'd suggest to make the .c3f file not dependant on the name specified in the process of creating a storyboard. For example, if I have a unit with 7 different animations, but they all have 15 frames and dimensions of 160*160, then it's more efficient to simply create one .c3f file w/ those specs and just copy and paste to create 7 files. Then renaming them to thier appropriate animation, causes the .c3f file not to recgognize your SB.

It seems to me that it's not impossible. How the utility will knows which image file is the same necessary file in case we have several storyboards in the same directory and C3F file will not contain information about image file name?
You can try to manually edit C3F file to change image file's name - first 64 chars reserved for it. But it's better to make 7 C3F storyboards - now you can do it quickly enough.

Whenever I try and select a single direction for the animation to play, the program freezes, any ideas?

What did you mean? Is the utility hang up, or just animation stop to playing?
In the second case try to click 'Pause' in the 'Animation' menu option or press "Pause/Break" button on keyboard.

The colour replacer tool looks like it could be very powerful but, whenever I open it, and try and do something (anything) a popup says "a required resource was" in unusually bold letters which makes me think it has something to do w/ system ressources, I have win98.

Yes, I know about such bug under Win 9x. Unfortunately, I have not Win 98 with compiller to check what happends. Win 2000 and Win XP have not such problem. I'll try to find way to fix this bug in future because it's a very useful features.

Would you mind if I linked to this utility in my sig?

Sure!

Thank you for such interesting advices!

 

[warmwaffles]

No no no I had not ever thought about replacing the .pcx's with handmade ones here is what happened in a chain of events.

Got a request to make an Apache Multi Unit (it's in my sig)
When I had opened the apache flic and exported them the border outside the origanal was lighter. But I expoted it any ways. Then I opened the same apache file with flicster and exported it at 240x240 (same with your program). Then I used the SBB storyboard creator made by Steph. Opened the PCX from flicster with SBB and made a multi unit correctly. Then I just replaced the origanal pcx that your program made. Then that is when the problem started.

Here is the summary:
1: Made a story board with your program at 240x240
2: Made another storyboard with the same file at 240x240
3: I took the pcx from #3 and made a multi unit correctly
4: replaced the pcx file that your program made
5: This is when the background was all screwy
6: Took the finished pcx and made it a flic. It works I finished the unit look in my sig, those units were made in a simpler method because they were all pretty easy to resize.

I looked at the pcx files that are used for the background and they are fine. I will try and post a screenie but I might have to just uninstall then reinstall.

Sorry if it sounded complicated but in my mind it wasn't.

 

[Cyber Dreyk]

No no no I had not ever thought about replacing the .pcx's with handmade ones here is what happened in a chain of events.

Please, TRY to remove these background image files (land and sea). Civ3FlcEdit will automatically create a new one when you try to select land background... Maybe it will fix your problem.
Otherwise you can try to reinstall Civ3FlcEdit, but I doubt whether it will help.

I really cannot understand what happened...

...Sorry if it sounded complicated but in my mind it wasn't.

In my opinion, all your movements described above have not any interdependence with background problem.

Did you made any hardware/software changes when it happened or shortly before?

 

[warmwaffles]

Ya actually I did never thought of that I just added the new Video card (ATI 9225 pro), a new Linksys wireless G with speed booster, a TV wonder pro card, and a CD/DVD burner. Those have any affects on it. BTW I will try to remove the file and see what happens from there.

 

[warmwaffles]

God I love christmas got those all as gifts

 

[warmwaffles]

I still can't get it to look right. I deleted the pcx's just like you said then I got pooped on.

 

[warmwaffles]

Ohh and here is a cool Idea cyber could you make a multi unit editor but instead of saving it as a BMP save it as a pcx. I think it could be better than stephs SBB storyboard builder.

 

[Dease]

You can try to use 'Import To Storyboard' feature (menu File). But you need a correct palette file.
Otherwise you need to create new C3F storyboard and then replace created pcx file with your one.

Wow, I never even noticed that feature, it looks perfect, I can go from a 24bit bmp to a centered .flc in one step, thanks!

It seems to me that it's not impossible. How the utility will knows which image file is the same necessary file in case we have several storyboards in the same directory and C3F file will not contain information about image file name?
You can try to manually edit C3F file to change image file's name - first 64 chars reserved for it. But it's better to make 7 C3F storyboards - now you can do it quickly enough.

I'm not sure how it would work exacly, but it works w/ flicster so at least it's possible, though the import to storyboard seems to fix that too!

What did you mean? Is the utility hang up, or just animation stop to playing?
In the second case try to click 'Pause' in the 'Animation' menu option or press "Pause/Break" button on keyboard.

The utility hangs up, I have to close it via ctrl+alt+delete the pause method doesn't work either

Yes, I know about such bug under Win 9x. Unfortunately, I have not Win 98 with compiller to check what happends. Win 2000 and Win XP have not such problem. I'll try to find way to fix this bug in future because it's a very useful features.

If it's not hard I'd be willing to do whatever it is that has to be done to get you the info you need

 

[Cyber Dreyk]

Ya actually I did never thought of that I just added the new Video card (ATI 9225 pro), a new Linksys wireless G with speed booster, a TV wonder pro card, and a CD/DVD burner. Those have any affects on it. BTW I will try to remove the file and see what happens from there.

Well, possible your new video card is plausible reason of this affects... Throw out this hardware! Actually, I don't know what else propose...

God I love christmas got those all as gifts

Yes, I see!

I still can't get it to look right. I deleted the pcx's just like you said then I got pooped on.

Ah! Please, don't cry!

Ohh and here is a cool Idea cyber could you make a multi unit editor but instead of saving it as a BMP save it as a pcx. I think it could be better than stephs SBB storyboard builder.

I don't think so!
At first, we are already have the MU editor and I think that Steph's SBB is working fine. From other hand, Steph is my friend (I hope so ) and I don't want to compete with him.
As far as I know, Steph want to make a new version of SBB with FLC support. I think that it will more useful than current version.

P.S. Nice armoured troop-carriers on the attached preview!

 

[Cyber Dreyk]

Wow, I never even noticed that feature, it looks perfect, I can go from a 24bit bmp to a centered .flc in one step, thanks!

I'm not sure how it would work exacly, but it works w/ flicster so at least it's possible, though the import to storyboard seems to fix that too!

OK, that's good. I'm glad that you like this feature.

The utility hangs up, I have to close it via ctrl+alt+delete the pause method doesn't work either

I'll look for the bug.

If it's not hard I'd be willing to do whatever it is that has to be done to get you the info you need

Good news - I have already fix problem with palette tables under Win 9x. It will be in the next release.

 

[warmwaffles]

Well I am just gonna uninstall it then reinstall it just to see if it works.

 

[warmwaffles]

Hey I have an Idea or Ideas:

Put an uninstall icon availible for people like me
And could you E-mail me the dll's my e-mail is: widereceivernumber89@yahoo.com