minimize units
- Thread starter tindi
- Start date
What editor do you have? The one that came with Civ2 (under the Editors menu)?
That won't be able do shrink a unit. You'd have to re-draw the unit smaller by hand, as Souron said.
Even more professional image editors can't smoothly and uniformly resize units either (not simply by fixed steps anyway).
Because you're reducing the size you will get a loss of quality. There's no certain way to deal with all different units in the same way and still get a good result for all of them.
But how much smaller would you want them?
That won't be able do shrink a unit. You'd have to re-draw the unit smaller by hand, as Souron said.
Even more professional image editors can't smoothly and uniformly resize units either (not simply by fixed steps anyway).
Because you're reducing the size you will get a loss of quality. There's no certain way to deal with all different units in the same way and still get a good result for all of them.
But how much smaller would you want them?
First of all...thanks for trying to help me.
Yes I´m using the ingame editor, I´ve allso have been trying something called "EA-graph" there I`ve been able to shrink the units and then increase the contrast, looks ok, but then they appear the same original size in the game.
I want to shrink them just a little bit. If anybody have an idea where I can download a image editor for free, that could do the job, please feel free to advise me.
Thanks
Yes I´m using the ingame editor, I´ve allso have been trying something called "EA-graph" there I`ve been able to shrink the units and then increase the contrast, looks ok, but then they appear the same original size in the game.
I want to shrink them just a little bit. If anybody have an idea where I can download a image editor for free, that could do the job, please feel free to advise me.
Thanks
Pariah
Outside Influence
Any more luck with your editing in the last couple of months, Tindi?
If, as Kobayashi asked, you're using a scenario platform (which can recognise bitmaps as well as GIFs), old-fashioned Windows Paintbrush should be an adequate editor. I know it's a slow process, recreating the sprites pixel by pixel - but it can be fun, especially if you let yourself get creative.
With Paintbrush, don't use the default red colour: for some reason, pixels that hue will appear purple in the game. The thing to do is select orange, then customise the color to look as close to red as possible.
If, as Kobayashi asked, you're using a scenario platform (which can recognise bitmaps as well as GIFs), old-fashioned Windows Paintbrush should be an adequate editor. I know it's a slow process, recreating the sprites pixel by pixel - but it can be fun, especially if you let yourself get creative.
With Paintbrush, don't use the default red colour: for some reason, pixels that hue will appear purple in the game. The thing to do is select orange, then customise the color to look as close to red as possible.
Catfish
Emperor
I'd avoid Microsoft Paint like the plague. The reason you're getting strange effects is that Paint attempts to match your colour selection to the nearest equivalent in the Civ2 palette. The 8-bit Civ2 palette has 256 colours, of which only 192 are actually usable. The red (#FF0000 or RGB 255:0:0) in your example is one of Civ2's mask colours and therefore cannot be used for drawing units.
If you want better control of the palette, you're going to require something a bit more functional than Paint. Jasc Software's Paint Shop Pro, the poor man's Photoshop (although improving rapidly), is a popular choice. A 30-day shareware version can be found here. For some odd reason, mine's been working considerably longer.
Finally, please try to avoid saving your files as bitmaps (for most Civ2 files they're probably around 5 times as large as gifs), unless of course, you're making 24-bit graphics for Civ2: Test of Time.
Pariah
Outside Influence
Cheers for that information, Wobbegong! I guess I've just been too stingey to invest in Photoshop - I'll try the link you gave.
Just open the Editor in MGE, edit something in the .gif file and save. The Editor will save an identical file in .bmp format which you can then edit using the Paint program that comes with Windows. You don't need anything more advanced than this to edit units. Just use the selection tool to outline the unit, copy it, paste it and (before selecting any other tool) select the 'stretch' (not sure of the exact name) option from the menu bar and alter the image in x and y dimensions to make it bigger or smaller.
Making units as small as possibe is a good way to prevent maps from looking to cluttered, as is the case with full-sized units.
Making units as small as possibe is a good way to prevent maps from looking to cluttered, as is the case with full-sized units.
Catfish
Emperor
I've never edited units with the Civ2 Editor in my life, so I guess I'm biased. 
As you say, you don't need anything more advanced than these to edit pixels - Pariah's managed to get by so far. I guess it boils down to what sort of quality you're after.
As you say, you don't need anything more advanced than these to edit pixels - Pariah's managed to get by so far. I guess it boils down to what sort of quality you're after.I've used Photoshop but it the features it has over MS Paint aren't really needed unless you're a really hard-core units designer.
Paint can alter size (as I said), cut/paste, reverse image, ect. Essentially everything you need that isn't available in MGE's editor.
One thing I forgot to mention is that the other advantage of making units smaller is that you can place air unit images closer to the top of the square so that they look more like they're in the air --which is how high-flying aircraft should look IMHO.
Mimimizing unit size also means that they look more in proportion to one another (i.e. from infantry which are smallest to ships which largest). The units will also look more proportional to cities (especially if you make the city image as big as possible).
Paint can alter size (as I said), cut/paste, reverse image, ect. Essentially everything you need that isn't available in MGE's editor.
One thing I forgot to mention is that the other advantage of making units smaller is that you can place air unit images closer to the top of the square so that they look more like they're in the air --which is how high-flying aircraft should look IMHO.
Mimimizing unit size also means that they look more in proportion to one another (i.e. from infantry which are smallest to ships which largest). The units will also look more proportional to cities (especially if you make the city image as big as possible).
If you minimize units too much, they lose too much detail such as the infantry which tends to be the smallest unit.
Here's an example of some units I downloaded off the net an messed around with (it's a real pain that you can't post bitmap --.bmp-- files on CFC, considering it's a pretty standard format now):
Here's an example of some units I downloaded off the net an messed around with (it's a real pain that you can't post bitmap --.bmp-- files on CFC, considering it's a pretty standard format now):
Attachments
Archer 007
Rebirth
Why would you want to make the units smaller?
Catfish
Emperor
Then I must be considered a hard-core units designer.
I use Paintshop Pro. As I said in the last post, "it boils down to what sort of quality you're after".Yes, but that's about all it's good for. If you're after a higher level of quality, your needs will be different. Still, I've heard too many stories about Paint corrupting people's Civ2 graphics files. This could be the result of palette-ignorant users, but regardless, I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole (in my case, I've got no need, anyway).
I think he already answered that question:
But that's a matter of personal taste, of course. Different people have told me that my units were either too small or too large.
Go figure.Yes, but why would you want to? You've just posted a gif using the Civ2 palette. That's all you need, unless you're posting ToT stuff.
Archer 007
Rebirth
Originally posted by Wobbegong
But that's a matter of personal taste, of course. Different people have told me that my units were either too small or too large.
I'd rather the units be easy to see with a standard zoom then be some ideal proportion.
Its the color-related problem you're referring to right? If you use bmp instead of gif format, this problem does not arise. If you use the wrong palette color (the 'pink' background I think) with Paint, the program will crash. I never really bothered confirming what the problem was since you can use bitmap instead (and that's the format the Civ2 Editor saves in anyway). But gif files are smaller so that is a factor to consider I guess.
Paint is suitable for average unit design (although starting from scratch is no picnic --it's always best to use an already existing frame (infantry, mechanized, ship, cavalry) and build on that. If you go beyond that, Paint will probably not be appropriate.
The reason why I suggest smaller, or proportional units is because I've found that many scenarios use units that take up practically the whole slot (especially where mechanized units are concerned). When you have many of these units adjecent to each other, it looks like a mesh of colors rather than independent units. Granted, in the end this is a matter of personal taste, but I find that the clearer the overall image, the more comfortable players will be playing the scenario.
There is of course the other tendency to make units so small that no amount of zooming in will improve the unit image.
If you look at the example image I posted above, you will notice that the infantry unit sort of looks like a blotch with two legs. So, I use the term proportional lightly.
I guess if you were to set a standard, you would place ships as largest (takes up maximum amount of space in slot) next to cities and infantry as 'smallest.'
Just note that athough graphics are good, the strategy element always takes precendence over everything else. Although watching a bunch of letters (representing unit types) walking around on the screen might not be pushing it.
The other thing to note is that you don't necessarily want the units to cover up the hard work you put into terrain design.
Catfish
Emperor
None of the stories ever elaborated, other than to claim that Paint corrupted their files. That Paint would corrupt the palettes of gifs over bmps sounds like a strange one, though.
That's a big factor approx. 50-70 Kb vs 300 Kb for a units file.
Yeah, well I'm a shallow bastard and I like good graphics.
Leonel
Breakfast Connoisseur
Yes, I have come out of my very long silence to say... I've actually done this minimize unit thing for Civ 2. Although they are multi units, they are as proportional to the city without having the units consisting of only 2 pixels. There's even cities.gif, terrain1.gif and terrain2.gif in the thread to fit with the units.gif