Tom's Unit Factory

[Vuldacon]

The Fiend and Scorpion are Great
With a little effort, many of these units can be combined in part of totally with other Units.
I could see the Fiend using the Black Coffin as an Airdrop for example.

I have already combined the Large Skull with the Reef and sunken ship as a "Devil Reef". The Reef uses rhodie's Maelstrom as the Attack and the Skull is in the Death with the Reef vanishing. I remade the Flcs and sounds along with re-coloring it all specifically for the water in the game.

 

[Gojira54]

Awesome as always Tom, I might give the Large a whirl....

 

[Vuldacon]

Tom... I shortened the Scorpion Run Animation to 15 frames.
I have not checked yet but I believe all animations can be shortened in the same way.

Rather than using 31 frames, start with the 1st frame and remove every 2nd frame through the animation and omit the last frame #31 as it is a duplicate of frame #1.

That makes a 15 frame animation so sounds and animation playback in the CIV Game is better. It also does not alter the animation as seen in game.

I set the 15 frame Run animation to 66 speed and set the .ini normal and fast speeds to 90.
I made a new Run Sound that works fairly well without having a .amb file.

..In any case, I thought you should know because I am sure it would help you save time making the conversions.

Here is the ScorpionRun.Flc and Sound if you want to check it out.

 

[tom2050]

I could see the Fiend using the Black Coffin as an Airdrop for example.

I have a Kohan unit conversion that will work perfect with your Coffin.. I should be able to post it in a few. Of course, I'm not sure exactly how it could work in game. EDIT: It rises from the ground/or grave so-to-speak.

I shortened the Scorpion Run Animation to 15 frames.

I do that on some which I had to do it on when the Animation frames were over the 64 limit... but it is probably a good idea to do that on all of them, since it would drastically reduce the large file sizes of these as well. Plus, some of them which use a Fortify animation of larger frames, can't actually play the whole thing in game. I'll do this from here on out.

Prob with 3ds Max is that there is no 'render every n'th frame' when using batch rendering. I think I have found a MaxScript that will do this though. Deleting files en masse is usually time consuming.

I will update the Scorpion download with your files in a bit.

Tom

 

[Vuldacon]

Tom... Here is a New Re-colored Scorpion Run and palettes .pal and Alpha.pal if you care to try them out.
Testing in game the Bright colors and contrast with the surrounding dark pixels sort of make the unit appear more like a cartoon...you know, less texture and surrounded by the dark pixels as if a drawing. I realize that is the way the unit is for the game in which it came but to get around that, reduce the color saturation and adjust the colors.

Just so you know, there were many pixels of #226 (faintest Smoke shade) across the top of the horizontal frame lines.

...in any case, you can take a look as see what you think. If you like it, you can simply apply the included palette to all flcs.

This is a little more "Natural" colored that looks better in game to me.

 

[Vuldacon]

Tom... I forgot to mention that for attacks that are very long and need to have all frames, you can separate the frames into three Attacks: AttackA, AttackB and AttackC and the game will play them all in sequence as if one animation. That also makes sounds work better.
I had to do that with The Drunk Attack because it had to be long in order to accommodate the needed actions in the animation.

 

[Tank_Guy#3]

Abaddon (unit conversion)

Abaddon, the seemingly indestructible master of The Shadow. All submit to Abaddon's will, or face the immense power and the swarms of demons and Undead spawning at his command.

Sounds like some of the bosses from Diablo II, all of whom have met the dual axes of my barbarian (or the undead swarms of my necromancer).

The units look awesome! Incredibly detailed and very well animated

 

[tom2050]

Tom... Here is a New Re-colored Scorpion Run and palettes .pal and Alpha.pal if you care to try them out.
Testing in game the Bright colors and contrast with the surrounding dark pixels sort of make the unit appear more like a cartoon...you know, less texture and surrounded by the dark pixels as if a drawing. I realize that is the way the unit is for the game in which it came but to get around that, reduce the color saturation and adjust the colors.

Just so you know, there were many pixels of #226 (faintest Smoke shade) across the top of the horizontal frame lines.

...in any case, you can take a look as see what you think. If you like it, you can simply apply the included palette to all flcs.

This is a little more "Natural" colored that looks better in game to me.

Pixels of shadow colors have been fixed. I included your accomodations of Large Scorpion to the updated download. The INI Normal and Fast speeds effect all FLC's do they not? Every FLC would be playing much faster..

I am no expert on lighting.. in 3ds Max. Chances are the unit may be a big different looking before I add fill lights (to get shadow). In fact, originally it was somewhat 'not as bright', but a more flat color (still yellow-ish).

I will test with adding multiple fill lights of less intensity, instead of the 2 I was using now (direct spot and a free directional).

If you wish, the recolours can be posted, I don't mind at all.. the more the better. Let me know if you want to post them up, or I can do so later on. EDIT: Flc's are done, will upload once PCX are recolored.

The bright one can be:

Recoloured can be (is practically spot-on with the recolour you posted above )

There is still 2 more to be done, a temperate Scorp and an arctic Scorp, if they are the same model/animations, then I won't re-render, but recolours will be sufficiently easier.

BTW, I hate to drag this post out... but when you cut out every 2nd frame, did you export FLC to Individual CEL PCX, then delete every other frame? I did this, made a new 15 frame CEL Storyboard, but Flicster crashed (probably have to rename the files to be numbered correctly again; renamer programs can do this quickly enough). Deleting every other column in a full Storyboard seems like a pain in the ace. Just curious what you did, I tend to like efficiency

Tom

 

[Vuldacon]

Tom... to answer your questions:
The .INI Speeds ONLY affect the Map Speed that provides the Movement across the map for units. No Other Flcs are affected at all.

As for the Frame reductions... I did that manually in PSP.
I was thinking that perhaps you had the ability to control the frames you use for the Conversions or at least what you want to use.

It is positive that you can use only every other frame and if the last frame is a duplicate of the first frame, omit it. That can help speed up the Time involved in these conversions.

Here is the Scorpion as I have adjusted it... Flc Frames, Flc Speeds, Re-colored palette and images.

I also removed all of those faint Smoke Shades that found there way into the Frame Lines.
The Read Me file explains the changes.

You can check it all out and see what you thing.

I will be making sounds for the Unit that Fit the animations but have not had time to do that today so the Only sound included at this point is the Scorpion Run.

 

[tom2050]

Tom... to answer your questions:
The .INI Speeds ONLY affect the Map Speed that provides the Movement across the map for units. No Other Flcs are affected at all.

As for the Frame reductions... I did that manually in PSP.
I was thinking that perhaps you had the ability to control the frames you use for the Conversions or at least what you want to use.

The batch render gets the info from the render interface about N'th screen... so it does work afterall... it speeds things up many times over.

Here is the Scorpion as I have adjusted it... Flc Frames, Flc Speeds, Re-colored palette and images.

I also removed all of those faint Smoke Shades that found there way into the Frame Lines.
The Read Me file explains the changes.

You can check it all out and see what you thing.

I will be making sounds for the Unit that Fit the animations but have not had time to do that today so the Only sound included at this point is the Scorpion Run.

Lights were also the culprit for the background shadow color... I initially forgot to correct that when I was going through them.

The Scorpion was actually a bit darker than your recolor. The lights in 3ds Max were providing too much reflective light, specular color, glossiness, illumination or w/e they were doing (the Materials themselves were the culprits actually). I have been able to tone it down quite a bit so it almost looks like the originals do. I am not 100% happy with the way it renders (because it still looks slightly brightened to the original models), but I can batch correct that in Photoshop when I batch resize the images for the right sizes.

I am rendering the Arctic and Temperate versions now. They have different textures, so they look different enough to make it worthwhile. I'll probably have them up in a bit.

I already posted your version in all 3 sizes. But I did not redo the run for the med / small size. If you are going to redo and make sounds, I can remove that file at that time, or replace it. The PCX are done to match the unit though, so those can be used still. Thank you again for your help... it has without a doubt helped me much.

Tom

 

[Vuldacon]

That's Great Tom... Time consuming enough without having extra needless work added on

I am curious how the Duplicate Frame gets in the last frame of the animations. Same as the first frame. The Death animation does not have the duplicate frame.
It isn't a Big problem generally other than a slight hesitation between Flcs in game and also affects the Flc Speeds and Sounds.

As you know, the Fidget, Death and Victory animations can be longer animations if needed and that can allow for longer sounds that some times can be advantageous. The Fortify is the main Flc that needs to be kept short. 15 frames at 66 speed is generally ok if 10 frames is not enough and the Attack can be longer if only one Attack. IF two or three Attacks are used they each need to be short because timing for sounds is problematic if too long.

I am not familiar with 3D Studio Max but if you use a Work Light, turn that Off before Rendering.
In Poser, I use Main Light: 80% Intensity and cast Shadows, Shadow Blur Radius: 2.0, Shadow Min Bias: 0.640000. Tertiary Lights 1 and 2: 50% Intensity No Shadows. Secondary Light: 20% Intensity, No Shadows. Work Light Off before Rendering. All Lights are set at infinite.
EDIT: I believe it is the Spot Lights that are causing your Light Problems. Try using only Infinite Lights.

 

[tom2050]

That's Great Tom... Time consuming enough without having extra needless work added on

I am curious how the Duplicate Frame gets in the last frame of the animations. Same as the first frame. The Death animation does not have the duplicate frame.
It isn't a Big problem generally other than a slight hesitation between Flcs in game and also affects the Flc Speeds and Sounds.

As you know, the Fidget, Death and Victory animations can be longer animations if needed and that can allow for longer sounds that some times can be advantageous. The Fortify is the main Flc that needs to be kept short. 15 frames at 66 speed is generally ok if 10 frames is not enough and the Attack can be longer if only one Attack. IF two or three Attacks are used they each need to be short because timing for sounds is problematic if too long.

I am not familiar with 3D Studio Max but if you use a Work Light, turn that Off before Rendering.
In Poser, I use Main Light: 80% Intensity and cast Shadows, Shadow Blur Radius: 2.0, Shadow Min Bias: 0.640000. Tertiary Lights 1 and 2: 50% Intensity No Shadows. Secondary Light: 20% Intensity, No Shadows. Work Light Off before Rendering. All Lights are set at infinite.
EDIT: I believe it is the Spot Lights that are causing your Light Problems. Try using only Infinite Lights.

Are you talking about dup animation of the original FLC's, or the FLC's that are cut down to 15 frames?

It could be something with the animations from Kohan 2. Since the animations are imported into 3ds Max, I determine which go to what sequence by number (1-30 default, 31-61 melee1, etc) and then render to the appropriate folders using these numbers. It's hard to tell exactly if a frame is 'too similar' in 3ds Max because of the frame count, as with 30 to 60 (even 90 to 120 frames on some) it's impossible to see anything.

It seems that the extra frame may be visible if the frame count is cut down to 15/16 though... as I only rendered 15 frames each for the Arctic Scorpion, I had to fix this on several Storyboards. (I must say, 15 frames on many of the FLC's looks choppy compared to 30... I will go back to 30 each except for the run and fortify as you mentioned). Depends on how it looks in-game, I need to test it first.

As I go I will probably learn new things with Lighting... and how to adjust it properly. Online tuturials have been very helpful as well.

Tom

 

[Vuldacon]

Tom... also try to keep the Attacks short because although they will play, sounds will not be possible if too long.

I was referring to the Original 31 frame animations for the Duplicate frame at the end.

Working of some sounds for the Scorpion... I have it named Androctonus (killer Scorpion)

 

[tom2050]

Tom... also try to keep the Attacks short because although they will play, sounds will not be possible if too long.

I was referring to the Original 31 frame animations for the Duplicate frame at the end.

Working of some sounds for the Scorpion... I have it named Androctonus (killer Scorpion)

Yea, all the animations are usually 31 frames initially in the .KF animation files that came with Kohan 2. Not sure why they picked 31, but it may be the culprit.. Only rendering 30 of those frame may fix that problem. When I did every 2nd frame rendered instead of all of them, it caused problems with a jump in the frame.

I'm sure it's not noticable in game, it is only when looking at a 15 frame side-by-side with a 30 frame in Flicster

For the Arctic Scorpion, I have used your run sound and made the run animation 15 frames, and will set the INI accordingly, tis much better!

The Zombie unit they give has an animation in which it rises from the ground (comes straight up though, no digging it's way up), but it may be useful for EFZI, so I'll try to post it soon.

Tom

 

[tom2050]

Arctic Scorpions have been upload, and are available in the Scorpions unit post.

Vuldacons Recoloured Scorpions are also available in the Scorpions unit post.

Tom

 

[Vuldacon]

Ok Tom, I have plenty of Zombies but am interested to see that Zombie
I should have the Sounds for the Scorpion completed today... Game testing and adjusting now.

30 Frames is smoother than 15 of course and can be used ok other than the Fortify, Attacks IF more than 1 and the Run.

 

[Vuldacon]

Tom... Question regarding the Convertions. Are all of the Units surrounded with Black and have Bright Areas on the Units? This appears too artificial as if a Cartoon Drawing and no good way to alter that manually.
I finished the Sounds for the Scorpion earlier but was trying to correct the Dark Outline around the Unit as well as the Bright spots.

 

[tom2050]

It is probably due to the lighting in 3ds Max; I'll have to try to see if I can get that corrected somehow. It's easy to re-render the images, since everything else is already set up and ready to go. I'm not overly familiar with lighting aspects, since Max has a million options, and each option seems to have a million more inside of it.

I've looked online, and gone through tuturials, help pages, etc for hours, but I suppose it's just a matter of eventually figuring it out well enough to get the desired results.

If there was someone who knows 3ds Max here well, I could send the .MAX file over (they are quite small), since the object is already imported and animations are in... and they could have a look at it to see what could be adjusted / or what I am doing incorrectly that I can't figure out.

For example, the only way I know to create the shadow, was to place 'ground' under the object, give it the FF00FF color, and then have the light source cast shadow on object... the light is sometimes not perfectly even to get the shadow facing the right direction, so that was why there were different shades of Magenta on the run animation. There has to be a better way to set it up, I just don't know how at this time.

Tom

 

[Vuldacon]

I like the Unit but want to have the Dark Outline Changed to colors and shadows so the unit appears more real in game to match the other units.
If I had all necessary files, I could try to render it in Poser.

You should be able to obtain a Light Set that will help.

 

[Vuldacon]

Here is the Finished Scorpion that I renamed "Androctonus"...Killer Scorpion

Included Files:
AndroctonusDefault.flc (recolored)
AndroctonusFortify.flc (Frames reduced to 15, Changed Flc Speed to 66, Recolored)
AndroctonusRun.flc (Frames reduced to 15, Changed Flc Speed to 46, Recolored)
AndroctonusFidget.flc (Changed Flc Speed to 66, Recolored)
AndroctonusAttackA.flc (Frames reduced to 15, Changed Flc Speed to 66, Recolored)
AndroctonusAttackB.flc (Frames reduced to 15, Changed Flc Speed to 100, Recolored)
AndroctonusDeath.flc (Changed Flc Speed to 66, Recolored)
AndroctonusVictory.flc (Frames reduced to 29, Changed Flc Speed to 62, Recolored)

Remade Sounds:
AndroctonusRun.wav
AndroctonusFidget.wav
AndroctonusFortify.wav
AndroctonusAttackA.wa
AndroctonusAttackB.wav
AndroctonusDeath.wav
AndroctonusVictory.wav

Remade Civilopedia Large and Small Images and included the Alternate Normal Unit Images I remade earlier.
Androctonus_units_32.pcx

Adjusted the .ini File Speed to Normal 150 and Fast 175 and added Flc Changes.
This speed with other changes is the best I could adjust for the Run animation and sound timing without a .amb file.

Unless the Scorpion can be rendered again with better lighting and surrounding shadows, this is about the best it can be without spending months trying to make the changes manually.
Game Tested as always