cut and paste

[Shady]

ok if it's so easy then it won't be hard to explain.

i export the damn thing and i get .pal , .fxm, and .pcx the .pcx is the only thing i can view edit open etc. now how am i supposed to work witht hat?

 

[pdescobar]

Originally posted by Shady
ok if it's so easy then it won't be hard to explain.

i export the damn thing and i get .pal , .fxm, and .pcx the .pcx is the only thing i can view edit open etc. now how am i supposed to work witht hat?

Err, can you be more specific or rephrase this? I will assume that you are making/editing a unit via cut&paste and that you have used Flicster to export an existing FLC into a storyboard PCX.

• The .fxm file is a Flicster-specific file that tells it how to use the other two files in making the unit.
• One .pal file is a JASC palette file containing the palette currently used in the unit (and in the exported PCX storyboard) and the -alpha .pal file is the same palette with the background and shadows "alpha-blended" to better mimic what the unit will look like in a game. These are provided so that you may more easily create a customized palette if you wish, although you will often simply ignore them and work on the internal PCX palette.
• The PCX storyboard file is, well, a PCX file containing every frame of the unit animation in every direction.

In general, you will edit the heck out of the PCX file, messing with the palette if necessary but being careful to treat the civ-specific colors and smoke/shadows with the proper respect. You then save the PCX file, open the .fxm in Flicster to view your changes, and export it out as a new FLC when done. Note that a good deal of this process is covered in detail in the FLiCster readme file.

 

[Shady]

it seems i was specific enough cuz i solved exactly the problem i wanted to. thanks pdescobar!

await a new unit pretty soon!

 

[Shady]

ok, now i've tried a couple of times (using psp 8) to save the .pcx i saw my changes just fine until i saw the damn shadow green in the alpha blend. how do i save the .pcx without the shadows being messed up?

 

[Kryten]

Have a try of this....

"ALWAYS change to the nice grey alpha.pal palette if you are drawing, copying or pasting shadow. Otherwise, they will appear bright red or green in the FLICster 'clock-face', and in the game".
ADDITIONAL: you MUST make sure that the 'maintain indexes' option in the 'Load Palette' window is selected.....

This was quoted from the following thread, which has more information about palette colours & shadows....

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=43179

 

[Shady]

well, i wasn't changing the shadows at all. i don't wanna mess with that in this case but it just keeps saving as a bright green and i don't know how not to make it that way.

 

[Kryten]

Originally posted by Shady
ok, now i've tried a couple of times (using psp 8) to save the .pcx i saw my changes just fine until i saw the damn shadow green in the alpha blend. how do i save the .pcx without the shadows being messed up?

I say again....maintain indexes.

 

[Shady]

so let me just make sure i understand this correctly. the .pcx file which has the magenta background is what's exported. when you're done with editing it, you load the alpha.pal and THEN save?

 

[Kryten]

Originally posted by Shady
so let me just make sure i understand this correctly. the .pcx file which has the magenta background is what's exported. when you're done with editing it, you load the alpha.pal and THEN save?

Not exactly.
You make alterations to the PCX storyboard and then save it....either with the horribal 'pink' .pal background OR the nice 'grey' alpha.pal background, it doesn't matter, because FLICster ALWAYS saves it in a 'pink' .pal format (because that is what Civ3 needs to work).

The 'pink' is for the Civ3 program, and has the true colours.
The 'grey' is for us humans, and is only an approximation of the true colours.

The problem is....when cutting/pasting/drawing/altering shadows on the 'pink' background (even just copying from one frame to another on the SAME storyboard), something gets lost, the shadows lose their 'transparency', and end up bright red or green.

So what I always do is to try and work with the 'pink' background as much as possible, BUT, if there is any hint of shadow or smoke involved, then I always change to the nice 'grey' background first, THEN copy-'n-paste it.
When I'm happy with it, I save it (grey or pink....dosen't matter) just to see what it looks like in the FLICster 'clockface'.
If it looks ok in the 'clockface', I then 'export' it so that FLICster adds my alterations by permanently changing to original .flc file.
(To put it another way, if you want to stay 'in-the-pink' and happy, then stay in the pink.
But shadows are grey, so to avoid a miserable 'grey-day', change to grey. )
Either way....maintain those indexes!.