FLICster Suggestions Thread

[Moeniir]

Hi All -

It's been a while since I've been here. RL and other pursuits have kept me busy. Now It looks like I'll have some time to make some improvements to FLICster, so I'm looking for suggestions.

One thing that is already on my list is foreign-language support. I have received some requests from people who wish to translate FLICster into other languages. For my own reasons, I am not prepared to release the source code to FLICtser, however, I'm planning to develop a method to allow people who wish to translate FLICster to develop language files for it.

So what would you like to see? Enhancements, improvements, bug fixes? I'm a bit out of touch with the content of the boards, so I'm not sure what everyone may be looking for.

Thanks,
Moeniir

p.s. Hey Darksheer - Congrats on becoming a Mod, bro I'm sure it's old news around here, but like I said, I'm out of touch.

 

[cracker]

Your Flicster is very helpful, even when someone has lots of tools FLicster speeds up the process. My compliments and please let me know if you ever need my help with anything in my areas of specialization.

An add on to Flicster that would be helpful would let use change the internal focal point that is defined the horizontal and vertical offset values.

I have not 100% confirmed this, but the offsets would seem to impact how the animations are centered within the isometric terrain squares of CIV3.

I think we will see this issue more prevailently as we begin to see more units that are not just minor copies and adjustments on existing CIV3 units. I also think these offsets may facilitate some file size optimization.

Thanks again for all you work, ..............

 

[Jimmyh]

I'd agree with the option to change the x and y offsets, I've had problems with the yoffset in my AoE units, so I had to manually change the values in the file.

Command Line Parameters:
Probably not some thing many people would use, but here goes.

Pass in a fxm file to load into FLICSTer, with the options to export it. Maybe some other option aswell, like anim speed.

Parameters to create a new story board, passing in width & height, num frames, civ colour, and name..

Also what about remembering the directory of where you last opened a fxm file from, it's really annoying when it opens in the civ3 units folder all of the time.


I think that's about it.

Although knowing what the format of the flc file is would be nice.

Cheers.
James.

P.S FLICSter would fine the way it is, don't go changing the whole program!!!

 

[Dark Sheer]

Hey Moeniir!

Good to see that you are alive and kicking. Welcome back to the forum and we all hope to see a new version of Flicster soon.

Not that the current one is no good, you should know that it kick ass as there are over 100 new units on the forum now.

 

[Level]

A pallet editor would be nice, background terain or color with grid, stop/next/back controls, longer recent list, cut and paste, .bmp compatibilty, maby pixel editor

Some times the top right corner gets smeared to other frames is this a Flicster bug?

 

[Smoking mirror]

First of all let me thank you very, very much for making flickster. I only bought CIv three for the customisation possibilities that I loved in Civ II, and was devestated when I found no way of editing the animations.
any way, down to business;
Sometimes when a part of an image changes (the rotation of a tank turret for example) the final flic shows some pixels still in place (the barrel of the gun leaves small bits of itself behind as it moves), I guess this has something to do with how the images are handled in flic files (the "delta" image that is saved being the difference between the two frames). I don't know if this is fixable in the code of flickster, it doesn't happen very often, and only when the animation is near the edge of the frame (my fix so far has been to make the frame size bigger, but this in turn makes the file size bigger). A similar problem occurs with bits (lines) of the image being "cut out" (replaced with back ground colour) with the same fix as before (See Kentonios Pershing Attack animation SE view, I dont have any examples my self, as Iv'e deleted them, to cut down on duplicated filenames, Too many files laying around called BANGred.flc or ALPHAdefault.flc. When you start calling flcs BIGbangStukaSHADOWred.flc you know its time for a clear out ). Like I say, I doubt there is any fix for these little bugs in the code, but I thoght I'd point them out anyway.

Improvements to flickster I can't think of many, A Optional terrain background viewer would be nice, just the option to place a custom PCX behind the animation for viewing, like nine grassland tiles, or nine sea tiles, or nine of Snoopys jungle tiles; with the unit placed in the middle square, also an option to view the active unit cursor.
The ability to change the X-Y offsets while in the viewer (little +/- buttons would be great) would also be nice.
And finaly, for ultimate conveniance, the option to view multiple flics simultaneously (perhaps just the outline/silouete) superimposed on top of each other, or played one after the other, and then change the X-Y offsets.

I havn't done any programing since I did frogger/space invaders/pong/etc. on the Spectrum 128k 12 years ago (I didnt actualy do it, I just copied the code out of a book), so I don't know how difficult it is to do anything in the more modern computer languages. So I don't know what is possible.
I think JimmyH is working on increasing the capabilities for his (as yet unreleased) Age of empires converter. It would be great if you guys could combine resources (though If you both dont want to release the source code that could be difficult).

Also the information on the play the world XP claims that the pack will include some editing utilities, I should imagine that will include a simple paint type utility like in Civ II fantastic worlds/MPGE and perhaps a flickster type utility, Perhaps Mike B from firaxis could give us some info .

 

[Smoking mirror]

Oh yes, the ability to pause flics in the viewer would be nice

 

[cracker]

I would add that it would be nice to increase the maximum frame size up to 400x400 pixels as set by the autodesk FLC spec if this size is supported within CIV3.


(added info)

I took a few moments to verify the frame size that needs to be supported and determined this size by measuring the diagonal distances on a typical CIV3 map grid for a 3x3 square.

This space is the minimum operating space for some of the aerial combat flics and bombardment flics that span over more thna one grid square.

The minimum values for the the maximum flic frame size need to be 384w x 250h. The autodesk format limitation was set at 400x400 the last time I checked.

 

[Moeniir]

Great stuff guys!! I'll post some thoughts, responses, etc, when I have more time. For now, keep 'em coming!

--Moe

 

[Moeniir]

So here's the enhancement requests that i've culled from the responses so far (some comments in parens):

• Ability to change the X and Y offset of a unit
• Command line mode (for batch processing)
• 'Open' dialog should remember last directory
• Pallet Editor
• Background terrain with grid option (Always wanted to do this, its the alpha blending I had trouble with. I cheated by using grey . I'll take another stab at this)
• stop/next/back controls for the animation
• longer MRU (most recently used) files list
• cut and paste (cut and paste what? frames?)
• bmp compatibility (where? as an alternative to PCX? those could be big files)
• pixel editor (i like this, but starting to sound like a paint prog. gotta decide how much to do)
• view units simultaneously/superimposed (how about alternating 2 units back and forth quickly?)
• view multiple animations, one after the next

Also, a couple things I wanted to comment on directly:

cracker wrote:
please let me know if you ever need my help with anything in my areas of specialization

Thanks! I've not been around for a few months... what are your areas of specialization?

Jimmyh
Although knowing what the format of the flc file is would be nice

All the info I used for flc file formats I got from this forum. There is a thread somewhere that references a great doc on the 'standard' flc format (I think you can find that doc at wotsit.org), and there's a thread concerning the Civ3 customization of the format, SWB passed along a bunch of great info that Mike Breitkreutz of Firaxis supplied.

Level wrote:
Some times the top right corner gets smeared to other frames is this a Flicster bug?

Several folk mentioned this. It is a bug in FLICster. I thought I'd squashed it. Has to do with the funny way FLC's (or was it PCXs?) encode scanlines of odd-numbered pixels. At any rate, I'll be looking to fix that as well.

cracker wrote:
I would add that it would be nice to increase the maximum frame size up to 400x400 pixels as set by the autodesk FLC spec if this size is supported within CIV3

AND

The minimum values for the the maximum flic frame size need to be 384w x 250h

FLICster currently enforces a maximum unit size of 240x240, due to the following quote from Mike Breitkreutz of Firaxis, in his discussion of the format:

Our FlicAnim program calculates the smallest bounding box needed to contain all of the frames of the animation. The upper-left corner of this bounding box is stored as x_offset and y_offset. The xs_orig and ys_orig are the original height and width of the image (not taking the bounding box into account). I believe all of our units are 240x240 which is why you found these fields to always be 240.

I guess on reflection, that doesn't mean it *has* to be 240x240... it only means none of the original units are bigger than 240x240. I'll look at this some more.


Whew! think I made it through everything. Comments? Additions? Questions? I like all these ideas... I'll let you know which ones I intend to work on once I've figured it out

--Moe

 

[skywalker]

RL? That exists???!!! I thought it was only a myth.

Seriously, one thing that would help ENORMOUSLY (probably not me, though, as my artistic ability is about nil) would be knowing how things would look IN THE GAME, like showing the plane actually flying across the screen, or showing the nuke going down and then BOOM!, that sort of thing.

 

[Quentin]

-Add unit management abilities and help people to create the INI files and the folders so the game will not crash on a little human error.
-Ability to show multiple units in a "screen" in combat.
-Pixel editing(I know someone mentioned this but I really want this so I'm repeating it).
-Preview creator for all the people who always love to ask for previews.

Just a note, BMPs do not have to be huge. They are big because often they are in 24-bit. If they are in 256 colour(if that is what they call it,) they are the same size as PCX files.

 

[Moeniir]

Originally posted by Quentin
-Add unit management abilities and help people to create the INI files and the folders so the game will not crash on a little human error.
-Ability to show multiple units in a "screen" in combat.
-Pixel editing(I know someone mentioned this but I really want this so I'm repeating it).
-Preview creator for all the people who always love to ask for previews.

Just a note, BMPs do not have to be huge. They are big because often they are in 24-bit. If they are in 256 colour(if that is what they call it,) they are the same size as PCX files.

A couple questions/notes:
* regarding "unit management/ini file creator"... I'm not too up on this end of things. Does this in anyway overlap with other tools, such as Gramphos' Civ3MultiTool? I like the idea, however, since the info in the INI file will help with another feature request, displaying multiple animations in succession.

*regarding BMPs: RLE encoded 256-color BMPs should be *roughly* the same size as a PCX. If I remember correctly, all win32 API calls that accept a BMP will accept an RLE as well. I can look at it. So is the idea to allow use of a BMP in FLICster anywhere a PCX can be used now? Wish I'd considered that several months ago, before I wrote a PCX library. I chose PCX since that's what most Civ files use. Oh well... if I add terrain display to the viewer, i'll need to read PCX's anyway

*regarding preview creation: what format? Animated gifs are out, because I'm not going to pay to licence the format. I could create a "standard" FLC, but i don't think that will display in the forums, plus it could get confusing to have standard FLCs and Civ3Flics. I don't see AVI on the list of accepted upload formats either.

--Moe

 

[Level]

For cut and paste i mean cut from one frame to another frame/flic.

3D Stuido Max and Paint cant save in PCX but they can save as 256 color BMP, and Paint flips the pallet when it opens PCXs, it would nice not have to change formats.

You can have a warning for larger than 240x240.

How about a refresh button in View Animation tab so you do not have to change directions to update.
The ability to open FLICster files from outside of FLICster from Explorer or drag and drop them in.
Open multiple files at a time.
Align to top/Center/ect. when changing size on export.
Option to not export pallet files.

Minor bug in File Infomation tab you can change text in Property field.
Another minor bug when you hit enter in resize it cancels instead of ok.

 

[Moeniir]

Originally posted by Level
3D Stuido Max and Paint cant save in PCX but they can save as 256 color BMP, and Paint flips the pallet when it opens PCXs, it would nice not have to change formats.

Sold. BMPs are in And the other ideas look good. I'll update the suggestion list (and perhaps make an official 'in-the-patch' list later this week.

By the way, I had some time to kill this morning on a train to Manhattan... so I spent some time working on the list. Stupid me had an older codebase (rev 15, pre-publish) on the laptop, so I've got some merging to do tonite... but anyway! VCR-style pause/ahead-one/back-one controls are in... MRU list is doubled to 8 files (i should make this user-configurable, but I was lazy and grabbed the MRU code off the web, and it want hardcoded sizes. One of these days I'll write my own... hell, I wrote the PCX and FLC manip. libraries from scratch Oh!! and I added controls to adjust the X & Y offsets.

I've got more work to do before I compile a beta... as a matter of fact, as this becomes more editor-like, i'm considering re-working the gui a bit... I'm running out of places to cram controls on the preview tab . Anyway, the work begins....

--Moe

 

[TedG]

Originally posted by Moeniir


Oh!! and I added controls to adjust the X & Y offsets.

So will that make it so that the position of units can be changed, so they're not off-center in the terrain squares? If so, I REALLY need that ability for a unit I'm making.

Thanks.

 

[Quentin]

Originally posted by Moeniir


A couple questions/notes:
* regarding "unit management/ini file creator"... I'm not too up on this end of things. Does this in anyway overlap with other tools, such as Gramphos' Civ3MultiTool? I like the idea, however, since the info in the INI file will help with another feature request, displaying multiple animations in succession.

*regarding BMPs: RLE encoded 256-color BMPs should be *roughly* the same size as a PCX. If I remember correctly, all win32 API calls that accept a BMP will accept an RLE as well. I can look at it. So is the idea to allow use of a BMP in FLICster anywhere a PCX can be used now? Wish I'd considered that several months ago, before I wrote a PCX library. I chose PCX since that's what most Civ files use. Oh well... if I add terrain display to the viewer, i'll need to read PCX's anyway

*regarding preview creation: what format? Animated gifs are out, because I'm not going to pay to licence the format. I could create a "standard" FLC, but i don't think that will display in the forums, plus it could get confusing to have standard FLCs and Civ3Flics. I don't see AVI on the list of accepted upload formats either.

--Moe

I think the unit management idea does overlap a little with the multitool but think of it this way: if you add this function in FLCster, no one would need multitool for unit creation.

I was quite sure the last time I tried saving PCX to 256-colour BMP it was EXACTLY the same size as the PCX file. But now I just cannot seem to get it right.

I have thought of a few ways to produce animated previews without paying for the license.
*Find a freeware gif animation program and distribute it with
FLCster and then have an option to run it from within FLCster.
*Create a file format that is very similiar to gif so the internet
browser can view it but just a little bit different so the people
cannot sue you(although I really don't recommend you do this).
*Create a completely new file format and make it run in FLCster
so that people can put a link to the file in their post and when
people click the link it automatically opens in FLCster.

 

[GenMarshall]

So will that make it so that the position of units can be changed, so they're not off-center in the terrain squares? If so, I REALLY need that ability for a unit I'm making. -TedG

Same here . Its quite anoying seeing a custom unit some how "Hangs" in the southern corner of the "Unit Select Circle".

Oh!! and I added controls to adjust the X & Y offsets. -Moeniir

Is this going to be in the next patch or is it already in it in the current version? If it is already in this version then where is it?
I am going bonkers trying to have the darktrooper be at the right place in the terrain(Unit select circle) insted of floating in the southern corner . Any way Good job on the Flicster and keep up the good work on adding more things in to Flicster .

 

[Moeniir]

Originally posted by CivGeneral

Is this going to be in the next patch or is it already in it in the current version? If it is already in this version then where is it?

X & Y Offsets have been coded for the next release. I haven't released anything yet. I've been a little busy the last week, and I've been banging my head against the wall trying to implement Alpha Blending against a terain bmp.

I'd been hoping to avoid a bunch of different releases, but I may go ahead and put together a point release in the next week or so, with some high-demand quick-hitters like offsets. No promises tho... this will be highly schedule dependant.

--Moe

 

[TedG]

Can we expect a new version any time soon? (Not that the current one is bad, BTW. Just can't wait to see some new features included.)

Thanks.