PLEASE ADVISE (resizing units help)

[Erebras]

HELP WANTED: I am having considerable trouble with palette issues or something when I attempt to cut-and-paste or resize a unit flc's storyboard pcx. The main issues involve shadow effects -- the "pure green" colors used for shadows and shading -- so that gunpowder puffs or the shadow on the ground below the unit is bright green after I engage Alpha Blend with FLICster.

I am using Irfanview and Windows Paint. Irfanview is for processing an image as a pcx (Paint won't do it) and Paint is for cutting and pasting parts of the image (Irfanview's incapable of copying and pasting transparently).

I am familiar with decreasing color depth to 256 colors, importing palettes (PAL files), increasing color depth to 24-bit (I use this a lot to copy an image from one pcx to another without losing color integrity and detail), editing the palette using Irfanview's Edit submenu, and some other concepts that aren't coming to mind right now.

If I could reassign a color on the palette to one of the shadow colors on the bottom row of the palette, this would probably solve my problems, but after reading through the Help files in the programs and the threads on this forum, I'm coming up empty and ready to ask for much-needed help and advice.

I've seen resized units on the Unit Downloads forum. How did you guys do that without messing up the color scheme?

 

[T-mun]

Palettes are tricky sometimes... I hope Vuldacon will come to your rescue. BTW I'm practising on resizing too so I will follow this discussion. Sorry I can't help you there.

 

[Wotan49]

(ich habe noch ein altes PaintShopPro4 zum bearbeiten der Farben Paletten)
I have an old Paint Shop Pro 4 to edit the color palettes

(sonst ist es Gimp286 Freeware und von civfanatics das Civ3FlcEdit)
otherwise it is Gimp286 freeware and civfanatics of the Civ3FlcEdit

greeting
Wotan49


it is hard to rebuild it all defective hard disks to

 

[Vuldacon]

Erebras... Not sure how you are making your Palettes but it seems to be an index issue. The CIV Speccific Colors and Shadow, Smoke colors have to be on the palette in specific places. Look at a Normal Game Unit Palette and compare the palette to your palette for those specific color areas.

One way to resize a unit is to first use Flicster to export each of the Flcs to single frames in separate Folders.
Flicster will name each Frame for its direction and Number them so you can separate each Direction.

Open any images and save the Original Palette for later use.

Then Open all frames and change each to 16 million colors and save as .BMP... you will not then need the original Frames.

Just like making a New Unit... you place the frames for each Flc in separate Folders that are named for the Flc such as A for Attack, D for Default, DT for Death, F for Fortify, R for Run, V for Victory FG for Figet. IF you have more than one Attack, you name more Folders AB and AC and place the 8 direction folders in them as well.

... now each of those Direction Folders will have a folder for each of those 8 directions... Named SW, S, SE, E, NE, N, NW, W.

This is an example for just the Attack Flc but you do the same with Each Flc for the Unit.

Place the correct (16 Million Colors.BMP) Frames in each direction folder then rename each of the frames in each Direction Folder All the same names. An example is to name the Attack Frames A_0001, A_0002, A_0003, Etc... The Name does not matter but the end numbers do. Start with _0001

Note: To make renaming easier, you can Rename the Flcs before you generate the single frames. For this example I would rename the Attack to just "A" so you would only have to rename the Numbers and remove the directions from the names.

To Clarify, You have different frames that are named by Flicster for their Directions in each of the Directions Folders, you rename all images the same for that FLC such as the Attack. All 8 Direction Folders will have the images All Named A_0001, A_0002, A_0003, Etc... Make sure you place the Correct Direction images in the Correct Direction Folder because they will all have the same Names when you are finished.

Once you have the Folders set up as stated above, you can Open SBB (Step's Storyboard Builder) navigate to one of the Direction Folders for your Unit and double click one of the images. IF you have correctly set up the Folders and Names and 16 Million Colors as .BMP files, SBB will Open all directions that you will see Checked in the SBB Direction Boxes. You can then Resize as wanted and generate a New Storyboard for each FLC.
Note: SBB will Open either 0000 or 0001 beginning images so you could start your image Numbers either way but if you start with 0001, place a check in the SBB Box that says "First = 1".

As a Side Note... generally I experiment with the size Unit I want by using a Normal Game Unit image from a Flc and an image from the Original Storyboard Unit I am Resizing. I compare them in a Graphics Editing Program and play around with Frame Sizes... You can even take a screen shot of your Game terrain and copy and paste your Unit on it by another Game unit... what ever helps you decide the size you want. Remember or write down the Frame Size you like best for resizing your Unit...160 X 160 for example.

Open the New Storyboard in your Graphics Editing Program and apply the Original Unit Palette you saved earlier using "Maintain Indexes" then save the New Storyboard as a .pcx file and you can add the name of the Unit now or later.

Look at the Original Unit Flc in Flicster and write down the Number of frames and Flc Speed.

Open Flicster and generate a New Storyboard by adding the Frame Size, Frame Count, and Frame Delay. The Frame Size is your New Storyboard Size you made in SBB. When you generate the New Storyboard, you only need to save the _.FXM file because you add your New Resized Storyboard to the same Folder. Note that when you export the new storyboard, you can either Name the storyboard or add it later.
You can look at how the names for the _.FXM and Storyboard are named by generating a new storyboard from an existing unit... this way you can understand how to Name your Storyboard and _.FXM as you want so Flicster will Open the Files. Or use this example: TornadoAttack_StoryBoard.FXM and the Storyboard is named TornadoAttack.pcx

Now Open the New Storyboard in Flicster and Generate your New Unit Flc. Finished... Hope this is clear

I am uploading the Direction Folders and also the CIV III/Conquests Unit Palette Colors for Shadow, Smoke and "Fog" for use.

The Lists show the Red, Green, Blue numbers for each of the indexed Shadow and Smoke Shades that are on the Unit Palettes. Both .pal and Alpha.pal are listed. The Bold Numbers are the indexed Numbers for the colors on the Palette.

I placed extra Folders in the Direction Folder that I named AB and AC for when a Unit has more Attacks. Naturally, you can Omit any Folders that you do not need for a Unit when using the Folders.

 

[clamel]

Vuldacon, that was indeed helpful.
I´m not going to hi-jack this thread, and turning it into a how-to-do-it,

BUT

Would it be too much to ask if I have a unit made by some of the "masters" of unit creation and I would like to just change the uniform color. Is it a hard case ??

My question is to change the scarlet red color of a British infantry during the Zulu and Boer wars. Turning that red color into a blue color to represent the Marine units that also did some fighting in that war.

I was thinking on a easy palette change perhaps, if that´s the way to operate ??

Any hints or other good threads on helping out with this ??

 

[Erebras]

Thanks, Vuldacon. I was hoping you'd respond. I'm certain what you are saying is accurate, but your thread reply has me saying this:
1. I don't have SBB. I'll have to download it and learn to use it. I use Irfanview. I'm going to presume I cannot adapt your suggestions to Irfanview, and it'd be best I stick with the tried-and-true method you describe.
2. The palette (PAL) files are derived right from FLICster exports. I haven't tinkered with them in any way to cause the issue. I merely reimport them to the final storyboard pcx after I've made my bitmap image changes so the game understands it.
3. I know that smoke effects are only on the bottom row of the palette, but if you were to open up the PAL for (say) an exported musketman_attack pcx, you'll see the bottom four or five rows are all green (0,255,0), which I believe is causing the non-shading effects after resizing. If the PAL exports like this, how will Maintain Indexes help?
4. How is SBB any different at creating storyboards than FLICster? Also, in Irfanview, when you import a PAL, you have the option of "match nearest color" or "replace 1:1" (which I take to mean "plug in this new palette's color on every pixel in the image with the same palette location on the old palette, even if the color is different"). I have found that if you don't match nearest color you often end up with a highly distorted, mostly colorless, nonsensical image after you import a new PAL.
5. It sounds like the SBB is the "resizing tool" I've been looking for on the forums. I'll give it a whirl and report back on my overwhelming successes/dismal failures.

Thanks, Vuldacon.

{EDIT: I see that I've been resizing the entire storyboard instead of each individual flic frame. I'll fire up FLICster and see what I get when I change its output. Hmmm.}

 

[Erebras]

Like clamel said, how DO you change the coloration of a unit that's been finished? Many unit-makers either use way too much civ-color or not nearly enough. (For some reason, they'll make a unit's belt, underwear, tongue-piercing, or shoelaces civ-specific, and completely ignore the shield, cape, helmet crest, or vehicle marker staring them in the face.) I'd love to be able to switch what is or is not civ-specific on a unit -- I already know how to replace one color with another -- and I suspect it has something to do with exporting a flc as a civ color instead of default, but is there a proper way to do this?

 

[T-mun]

that's why I was hoping Vuldacon would answer this thread Now you got yourself a very nice tutorial!

 

[Vuldacon]

WOW...Many Questions

Camel... Some Units can easily have parts such as clothing changed to a different color but the Majority use too many colors from the palette for everything on the unit. This is due to the limited amount of colors we can work with on the palette.

So if you change the Red Clothes to Blue using the palette, it will also affect many other parts of the unit... NOT just the clothes. That said, you can certainly look over a unit to see if you can change the clothes and not affect other parts of the unit. That would be a simple Color Change using the existing Palette.

Erebras... I am sure you understand how lengthy typing something technical can be as opposed to just doing it.. same here... All is Easy. Only the name changing for SBB is time consuming and even that can be made easier with programs and scripts.

1. SBB is far too easy and simple to use... a Fraction of a second and done. Get it.

2. OK, if that is the case, I do not understand why you had palette problems.

3. The Green Blocks on the Palette are to Block Out those Colors and they are Not used for that unit. The reason to use "Maintain indexes" is to Keep the exact Colors on the palette exactly where they go on the palette. IF we use Nearest Color Matching... the Graphics Programs can make mistakes and apply the wrong Palette color to the unit such as the Smoke Colors that are extremely close to the Pure Magenta Transparent Color used. The Pure Green color would be placed exactly on the palette as it was if you maintain indexes. The Color Green does not matter but the indexes for al,l of the colors do.

4. SBB differs from Flicster in that SBB allows you to change the Size as well as it Puts together all of the single images for a Flc to make a storyboard... This is Great when making a New Unit or in this case... resizing. Rather than Copy and Paste Hundreds of single images... SBB puts all together in a fraction of a second.

On a side Note... don't bother trying to simply resize the entire storyboard because many images will be distorted... Must do one frame at a time and SBB Greatly Helps with that. You just type in the Frame size you want.

Changing Unit Colors... Again... as far as changing colors for a unit... over all color change is easier than specific areas because the units have to use all palette colors throughout the image. That said, You can open the palette and look for the colors you want to change and see where they are. IF they are throughout the unit then you can change the unit over all but not easy to change a specific area without much time and effort using good techniques. Multiple layers and files, etc...

Note... Most Units are Not like "Coloring Book" images where total areas are colored separately but rather they are many shades blended for texture and smoothness. Anti Aliasing is used usually to smooth the pixel edges when rendering the unity and that has many shades that are taken from the simple 256 palette that we can only use 160 Unit Colors from other than the Civ Specific Colors, Smoke and Shadow shades.

I also recommend getting the Free program FastStone Photo Resizer It does a Great Job of enlarging images without Giant Blocks of colored pixels that happens with most Graphics Editors. http://www.faststone.org/

 

[Erebras]

Thanks for the clarifications, Vuldacon. (I've just returned from Mexico, and I remember acknowledging your reply-post before I left, but I don't see it.)

 

[Erebras]

It's ten years too late, but it would have been nice to have established standards for unit creators, so that they conflict less with existing graphics. I'll acknowledge it's nit-picky, but hopefully no one would be offended, but I think the artwork the Firaxis team put out is top-notch for the Civ III game, and as good a quality as many of the units on these forums are, they don't quite compare to one created by a corporation design team, and it shows.
1. Running units in Civ III "bounce" a little (and the unit creation tutorial points this out). The early fan-made units rather "floated" across the gameboard terrain, and the newer ones generally still have less action than the Firaxis ones.
2. Civ-colored areas on a unit are noticeable, and (as I mentioned earlier) usually involve the clothing or crests/insignia of the unit. Many fan-made units have civ-color in odd places, if at all.
3. Some of the color schemes unit creators choose are bright and gaudy, even for the non-civ-colored areas of the unit. That works fine for sci-fi and fantasy units, I would think, but historical units not so much. I mean, sure, Spartans and British Redcoats wore red, but not neon red.
4. I'm not saying Firaxis unit graphics are historically accurate depictions. I mean, the jaguar warrior and zulu impi look great -- I really like them -- but I wouldn't consider them correct in all details. Close works in horseshoes and hand grenades, and unit graphics, too, right?
5. The horse model (Poser?) many mounted units are made from has enormous kneejoints and hooves, and some fan-made horses have strange locomotion sequences, very unlike the Firaxis horse-units. I think one of the fantasy knights moves more like a bunny rabbit than a horse, for example.

I'm saying this to be critical, not to criticize. I appreciate ANYONE who takes the time and effort to enhance the gaming experience for us all who love Civ. I point these things out as a way of requesting a unit creator to double-check themselves. So many fan-made units are amazing (some of the battlemechs, the floating lobster, Grim Reaper, and the spell-casting priests come to mind), but I'm disappointed I couldn't include a given unit in a mod because something about it was off. (Now that I have a better understanding of how to do it, I can make those "corrections" myself, but before now I was at the mercy of what appeared online.) Also, I'm looking forward to a few mods that are in the works -- Steampunk and Warhammer -- and it'd be nice to have new units with pretty graphics. CivFanatics has come quite a ways from when it first started, and until I convince myself to move on to Civ V or Civ VI, I want to stick with this. A decade of Civ III and it hasn't gone stale yet.

 

[Vuldacon]

Erebras... You are Welcome

The Thing about Units is the same for almost all Game Graphics... they need to "fit" the Game they are in. That means that for a Unit to look really Good in a Game, the Unit Maker would have to have your Game to have a chance to make the Unit look good against your Game Terrain. So when you say "standards for unit creators, so that they conflict less with existing graphics", that would also mean that everyone would have had to Only Use the same Game Graphics which would have taken away Many Great Games with different terrains... this is all part of the Modding experience that includes changing all Graphics.

Resources and all graphics that are made for a specific game terrain and background will look good there but we all have many different games. So the Unit Maker can only make a unit look Good on his or her Game terrain.

Personally, I don't like many of the Original Game Units because they are a bit too Solid Color without textures for a more realistic appearance and they rather Hop around too much That said, it is true that "they" and we are all limited with the 160 Colors for a Unit using a 256 Color Palette

Many people that make units do not also know how to make Good units_32.pcx files or sounds, etc... That is Not a Complete Unit but the best they are able or want to do... This is all free and many people post their creations for others to use if they want to do so.

Sure, Not All graphics, including units, will work for all games and especially the games that greatly differ from the game the graphics or units were made for. This is where individuals that know how, can adapt or change a graphic or unit to "fit" their personal Game. This is all a part of Modding games and using what has been created. Some things can be a Chore to adapt but not as much as creating it all from the beginning. I very much like how people share their Hard Work here and try to help others with their creative endeavors.

CIV III/ Conquests has a Big "Canvas" that is far from being obsolete, perhaps especially when compared to the newer Games. It is just Fun to create, share and make new Games along with the many things that go into it.

CIV III/Conquests is Far easier to MOD and is more understood concerning How to MOD it... this is one of the Big reasons why it is still going strong and probably will for quite some time to come.

 

[Erebras]

I very much agree with you , no surprise there. I compare a new unit with the ones that came with the game, without regard for the background terrain. Certainly, I realize from the screenshots people have posted that many CivFanatics are unhappy with the default terrain coloration and use one of the modsets that have, say, blue ocean and continental shelves, for example. (I do not.) Unless the terrain someone uses is way, way out there, I don't believe any unit (garishly colored or not) would actually "clash" with it, and even if the contrast is stark, I wouldn't actually consider it a bad thing, necessarily, particularly if it aids visibility.
I don't want to take back what I said about gaudy unit colors, but it's pretty clear if people were to debate the issue, it would degenerate into a discussion about whether or not this cartoon or comic book character was more cartoony or comicbookish than another. So I'll concede that bright units coloration isn't all that important. Units are nothing more than overglamorized chesspieces on a world-sized chessboard, after all.

 

[Balthasar]

Game units may seem like mere chesspieces, but programmed correctly, can exhibit some surprising behavior, particularly when in opposition to another, and under the control of the AI. There are, after all, many more possible moves and abilities for each civ unit than for any chess piece, just because there are more flags for each civ unit.
I was sharing this with Vuldacon the other day: in my Old West Mod, there are 'renegade' indians (i.e., barbarians) as well as regular tribes. The other day, I was playtesting in debug mode, and saw a group of Settler wagons, under the control of the AI, get attacked by the 'renegades', and proceed to circle their wagons. It made me laugh so hard that it was a few minutes before I could tell my brother what I was laughing about.
This was perhaps a one-off event, but my point is that the units aren't actually interchangeable; in EFZI, the Zombies have to attack relentlessly, like Zombies do. The point is that in every scenario, each unit can be individually programmed by the scenario maker, and the interaction between them and the map is different for every scenario. This is one of the goals of every scenario maker, to make each unit move as it should. I'd add that all of Vuldacon's units move very realistically, so they can be trusted to look good in any game.

 

[Vuldacon]

Erebras... Do you only play the original Terrain and game graphics? You might be missing some new gaming experiences with very different terrains, for instance, my own EFZI Complete Scenario, or the Star Trek Scenario, or the Super Scenario.

I can certainly see a big difference in units on different game terrains. I have had to make two versions of some units and resources for dark and light game maps for example. Big Difference.

There are many units that differ from the original units and they serve a purpose for the MODs they are in. People upload their units to share them with anyone who can use them.

My point is that most units aren't necessarily going to work on all Game Maps.

As I have said many times, for Game Graphics... including Units, to look great in a Scenario, it's best if they're customized for that particular scenario's map. Many of the units in EFZI Complete are color-corrected to match that scenario's terrain, for example.

So it follows that if all unit makers had a "standardized" method of making units we wouldn't have nearly the variety of games and units available here, though it might make things easier for some Modders. 12 years on, of course, that's all water under the bridge, I guess.

Your opinions and what you like is no less important than mine or anyone else here... merely saying that there are major differences in Mods and the units and graphics that will not "fit" if everyone has any "standardized" rule of creating anything they make.

by the way... Love Chess all my life, since I was 8 years old. I get your comparison

 

[Erebras]

Okay. I'm missing some things, I suppose, but I don't think I'm missing out if I play Civ with the default green sea while others like their blue seas, continental shelves, palm-tree jungles, and farmland irrigation. Also, I don't see any appreciable difference when I see the custom units alongside the standard ones, though, admittedly, I've stayed away from the more outlandish ones. My scenarios tend to be strongly based on the default game, and I just fill in perceived blanks.

Spoiler :

For example, in CivSpecific, I put in a more gentle transition between early handgunners and (American) Civil War-era infantry, made the non-Europeans use junks or dhows instead of European sailing vessels, and used era-specific graphics so that Industrial-era artillery, aircraft, and infantry looked visibly different from their Modern Times counterparts.

This is on purpose. The several times I've gone out on a limb, the game crashed. (The most recent disappointment was Dark Emperor/Loslon, based on an Avalon Hill boardgame. I might just upload it and see if someone else can figure out why it stops working. Seems like it's graphics.) I'm waiting to see what's gonna happen to MagePunk after I add the undead faction.

As for getting units to do what you want, I'm behind the curve. I'm being told that units can be programmed to behave a certain way -- such as circling the wagons when under attack by renegade Indians in the above example -- but I've always thought a unit's behavior is just a function of its A.I. script (Explore, Naval Power, etc) and its special qualities (all terrain as roads or more than one movement point or wheeled), and you're saying the reason the zombies attack in EFZI is more about how the unit is programmed to behave and less that the Zombie faction is in a locked war with everyone else or that there are victory points scattered about the map (I don't know if there are victory point locations in EFZI, but I bring the point up as an aside).

I find that interesting.

 

[Erebras]

Open the FLC in FLCster, and Export.
* The Export Type is changed to Individual Cel PCXs (many files).
* Base File Name is changed to the new unit name, if applicable.
* Output Directory is a New Folder with a descriptive name.
* Click Export.

In the renamed output directory folder, create a new folder named with the convention UnitName_actiondescription, such as _default, _attack, or _fortify.

In the newly renamed folder, create eight folders named for each compass direction: S, SW, SE, N, NE, NW, E, W. Optional: At this point, before moving any groups, copy this folder once for each action, and rename each folder appropriately (unitname_fortify, unitname_default, etc). You should end up with several folders, each containing eight appropriately-named empty folders.

Cut and paste each group of exported PCX files according to their direction into the appropriate folder. This ensures that the proper direction PCXs go in the proper direction folder.

Beginning with the first PCX in the first direction folder, increase color depth to 16.7 Million colors and save as a bitmap image (BMP), renaming by removing the direction letter, such as E or NW, and adding an additional 0 to the file name number (001 becomes 0001). In this way you can merely scroll through the group of PCXs one by one, increasing color depth and resaving as BMPs as you go. Do this for each direction folder.

So far so good?

 

[Erebras]

I've given up trying to reduce the size of the units I need. The utilities are fine for expanding a unit size, but not reducing it. I am missing a step in the process where I can tell the program to make a unit 60% smaller instead of only given the option of starting with 100% and increasing the size from there. I shall start a new thread on the customization forum where I can barter the skill I do have -- such as writing a civilopedia, which few modders enjoy doing -- for someone who can correctly resize the units I need but cannot tell which end of an apostrophe to use when creating possessives and plurals.

 

[wuhjah]

I've given up trying to reduce the size of the units I need. The utilities are fine for expanding a unit size, but not reducing it. I am missing a step in the process where I can tell the program to make a unit 60% smaller instead of only given the option of starting with 100% and increasing the size from there. I shall start a new thread on the customization forum where I can barter the skill I do have -- such as writing a civilopedia, which few modders enjoy doing -- for someone who can correctly resize the units I need but cannot tell which end of an apostrophe to use when creating possessives and plurals.

Okay, I'm not the master here, but I'd guess reducing a civ unit to 60% of its it's its it's (Oh no, which one...) original size would pretty much ruin it.

Anyway, supposing you could reduce it so and supposing you didn't want to spend any gold, you're your you're your(Oh no, which one...) going at it with the wrong two programs. May I suggest getting paint.net and tileset pal. Both are easy to find on google, but if you cannot find them, I'd be happy to post links.

Paint.net is nowhere near Photoshop or Paintshoppro, but:
I use it for all my work (as crappy as that may be.)
You can work in layers. Easily and intuitively.
With a plug-in you can save to pcx and maintain the current palette (in order.)
Pretty easy to learn.

Con - you can't actually work the palette, only apply original or make a new 256 color palette from the image.

This new palette, all out of order, is where Tileset pal comes in. You can do magical things with palettes with this simple program. Not sure why it's not common knowledge by now. I'm sure I originally found out about it in some thread discussing palettes...

If I could reassign a color on the palette to one of the shadow colors on the bottom row of the palette, this would probably solve my problems, but after reading through the Help files in the programs and the threads on this forum, I'm coming up empty and ready to ask for much-needed help and advice.

You can import palettes, you can arrange your transparent colors, you can even copy and paste from other palettes. ((That means copying those smoke colors over that were giving you so much trouble in the past.))

The con here is you have to save back to bmp, and then use paint.net again to save as pcx - maintaining current palette... Anyway, I don't know why everyone doesn't use this program. It makes palettes quite easy to handle.

Hope these can help you.

EDIT: Just playing around changing some of my terrain files. Seems I misspoke a little. I think you need a third program to place the last two transparent colors. At least that's what just happened to me. Perhaps your Irfanview can help in this regard.

Still, get the Tileset program (anyone who needs to work with palettes.) It will help you a lot.

 

[Erebras]

Thanks, Wuhjah, for the links. I started another thread to see if someone will take a task in trade, because for now, I have no intention of wasting any more time on failed attempts at resizing. But I do appreciate your input, and, perhaps, it will help others, too.
This forum is how I discovered irfanview, after all.