new map

[tailmister]

I think I have an Idea of what Tronman is saying.

You know how in the game where at certain points they have little 'boards' or something which shows some kind of a digitized rough draft of the level, like in the PDA level, kinda like its not a clear map, but like a digitized one of some of those map guides you find at the mall or something.

Come to think of it, maps like that would help on a level That big.

[TronFAQ]

I understand the question now.

Images you want to import using DEdit need to be uncompressed .TGA files. So in whatever paint program you use, save it as a .TGA. Usually when you go to save, somewhere there's a button that says Options or something like that. In there there should be an option to save the .TGA in uncompressed form. If you save it with compression, DEdit won't be able to import it.

Then DEdit will convert the .TGA to the .DTX format that the game uses.

If you don't have a paint program that can save .TGA files, you can use the free Paint .NET program.

[tronman63304]

thanks that is what i thoght. iv got a vary good paint program thanks
my map-map will be real good thinking of having it be one that is two planes in a + kinda thing and make it like the dedit top view and a tall one for the main room and another for dm-03, aswell as a flat map with ai rez locations markd
oh tron faq maby we can talk on IM some time would make this go faster and give opportunity to brainstorm

[tronman63304]

here is the texture i came up with there will be a secrezer in each box
http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/1876/t ... ezzers.jpg


they will be split up on walls in the room each set like this

_____________::::::________
|:::::::{area}--|-----|section:|
|::::MAP:::::::|:::::::::::::::::
|::::::::::::::::|:::::|section:|
|:::{area}------|--------^:::::::
|_:_:_:_:_:_:_|:::::::::::::::::

:=floor -----=line

do you get it?

[Jizaboz]

Ah ok, I think I get what you mean now. Interesting concept.

[tronman63304]

ok so i decided to move this here im trying to import the tga file and i get this mesage:


what should i do

[TronFAQ]

ok so i decided to move this here im trying to import the tga file and i get this mesage:


what should i do

Are you sure you saved the .TGA image uncompressed (which I mentioned before) before importing it? Again, there should be an option in your paint program somewhere to save the file uncompressed.

The palette size also needs to be 24-bit or 32-bit like it says. If you're using only 256 colors or whatever, increase the palette size to true color.

[tronman63304]

im using a freeware paint that will save in tga file format its great for working with but there arent any options like that on it

maby it would be best if i send you the files and you do it

[xistence]

You tried GIMP already? It is no Photoshop or Photopaint, but at least it is free and has lots of features. And for sure you have to go a bit through learning some new stuff as the interface of the program is different. But it should be more capable to do what you want to do. So if you can't get your hands on somthing like Adobe Photoshop or Corel Photopaint (what, for example, i use for all what i made/make) GIMP might be your choice.

And for your help, here are some basic information about textures:
- Textures must have dimensions (width/height) based on the power of 2 (2^x). So you end up with pixel-sizes like 8,16,32,64,128... and so on. Sizes like 31 or 144 (or whatever) will not be accepted by this engine. 8 pixel is the minimum and 1024 the maximum for a texture allowed to have. So, smallest texture possible is 8x8, largest 1024x1024.
- Textures have a third 'size' or 'dimension', in some cases you could get error-messages where DEdit is moaning about a wrong size. This size, that might be ment there, is the color-depth which is treated as 'size' as well. (Try to import an Alphamask (.PCX) which is not grayscaled (8-bit), and you see what i mean)
- Texture should have (except for a very few cases) 24-Bit (RGB). Just for cases like importing alphamasks (which must be grayscaled (8-bit)) you need something different then RGB.
- You can deal with TGA's or PCX's to build your textures. I recommen TGA's as they also store an alphamask in the same image-files. But can also work with PCX's, but then you have to create a second PCX containing an alphamask (which must be 8-bit grayscaled, as noted above) if you want your texture to work with transparency or glow. And you have to import both to prepare one texture. More work compared to TGA, but on the other side most programs might handle PCX in an easier way then TGA, as this file-format is much simplier
- You can set up many properties on a texture as soon you have imported it and doubleclicked it. These are important if you want your texture to use glow (it is not active by default!) or if you want to use effects like environment-maps (simulated reflections). You also set mipmaps (scaled version of the textures shown at different distances in the game)

There are tons of more information just about textures, but these few are important to know.

[tronman63304]

!!!!!! wow !!!!!!!

i have coral but its not installd on this comp.
thanks for the info.
so i gota mesure my pics grreeaat

[TronFAQ]

- Textures must have dimensions (width/height) based on the power of 2 (2^x). So you end up with pixel-sizes like 8,16,32,64,128... and so on. Sizes like 31 or 144 (or whatever) will not be accepted by this engine. 8 pixel is the minimum and 1024 the maximum for a texture allowed to have. So, smallest texture possible is 8x8, largest 1024x1024.

Thanks for mentioning that. That's another reason why a texture might not import into DEdit. The dimensions always have to be in powers of two.

The only thing I'll add to that, is that while they both need to be powers of two: the dimensions don't have to be the same in both directions. They can be 64x128, 128x64, 512x256, 256x512, 512x1024, even 8x1024, etc.


Tronman, what paint program are you using? For a program not to give you options when you save in any format, would be pretty unusual. Practically every paint program allows this.

[tronman63304]

im using pc image editor its what i got to replace vistas paint program that dont do what its sopost to do like you point the pen one place and its a pixl off. vary frustrating

so i will figure out whare my coral program is and will use it

[tronman63304]

the universe is agenst me today corel wont work

now im mad

update.....
grrrrrrrrrrrr now im realy madd

i got it to work and it wont save in tga!!!!!! it has compresion thing but wont load or save tga!!!1

[cryogen4000]

photoshop!! well fix all your problems (tronman63304) you want to get serious about making textures/skins you need a good paint program..............if you buy it**its worth the money you will pay for it**believe me i do alot of skinning/texture work and i cant put a value on the time it saves me

[TronFAQ]

So this is the program you used?

http://www.program4pc.com/image_editor.html

I checked it out and, yeah, it seems that for the sake of simplicity they didn't include any options when you save images. Which is kind of atypical from the norm. Nice little program, but not very good for serious image editing.

And while Photoshop is great and all, not all of us can afford it or *ahem* *cough* easily obtain it by other means.

Seriously, check out the Paint .NET program I mentioned earlier. Or grab GIMP. Either one is really good for a free paint program. Though if you got that Corel program working, their stuff is pretty good too.


Now with that all said, if you can't get .TGA importing to work then save your pictures as .PCX files instead. DEdit can also import .PCX images. I even tried importing a .PCX saved from PC Image Editor, and it worked. No need to worry about a compression setting or anything like that.

So then, you ask, "why didn't you tell me that in the first place?!" Because it's better to work with .TGA files if you can. They support alpha masks, while .PCX files don't. Later on as you get more ambitious you might start wanting to make your textures transparent, and that's where alpha masks and .TGA files come in. It's best to start working with them now, already. Otherwise you're just going to hit this same road block later on, anyway.

You can load two separate .PCX images (one the main image, the other the alpha mask), but like xistence said it's more hassle.