Animated units transferring

[Alex The Magnificent]

There are two collections of animated units in TOT. They are hidden in "spr". format.
Anybody know which tool can open or to see this format or how is possible to transfer
some units from Fantasy folder to Original Folder?
Best Regards
Alex

[techumseh]

I think Darth Veda was going to work on a tool to open and modify the animated sprites.

As for changing sprites, can't you just copy and rename the sprite and move it? I haven't tried it yet, but see no reason it wouldn't work. BTW, there are 3 sets of sprites: for the original/extended game, the fantasy game and the sci-fi game.

Has anyone tried the CTP animated sprites in ToT? I know the CTP fans have developed a tool to create new sprites for that game.

[Kestrel]

Certainly copying the Unit sprites from one directory to another and / or renaming them does work as I have used it in my Scenario.

Remember that if you wish to do this that the counting starts from zero not from one (thus, as an example, the sprite for the FANATICS is actually UNIT08.SPR not Unit09 even though it occupies position 9 in the Units.Bmp)

[DarthVeda]

I'm currently trying to figure out how the units are stored. I've been looking left and right in HEXIDECIMAL and It doesn't give any clues like the .dlls do to the format. They could be .tga, .tiff, or .bmp

too bad MPS doesn't give out any clues either

Although I had a little victory yesterday, I figured out how to open files in Visual Basic 6

Saving files is still somewhat troublesome.

[techumseh]

Darth, have you looked at the sprite tool that Activision provided for making CTP sprites? It's available on the Apolyton CTP site, along with a how-to by Harlan Thompson. I'm sure it's too much to hope that it would work on ToT sprites, although maybe it will give you some ideas. It's quite complex, but there are step-by-step instructions for animating a cow.

Hang in there, Darth! Until Microprose realizes their obligation to their loyal customers, you are our best hope.

[Alex The Magnificent]

Hi Friends, Thank You for information, but I still not understand. I tried to copy some
"spr" files from "Fantasy" to "Original",
but nobody know how much unit's positions hidden in "spr". For example how much "spr" files for settler or siege engine and what is it number of them? I meand number "spr" file.

Very interesting Idea about V. Basic, but I suspect, that it allow to see dll files, not spr? Yes? I have Basic, and will try in future.

Actually I asked about it because I created
"Carthage" scenario fo "multiplayer" game where used unly ancient units, which are single not bad in TOT, (trieme, etc.But they not enough and I wonted to transfer Siege Tower and "Ballista" from "Fantasy" version. This scenario not contain my graphic
but good map with land design of mine and Captain Nemo, I tested it in "hot seat" mode and it was good. I do not think that it wil be a problem to create a good animated units
for TOT. I need only a tool and time.

Was glad to meet here old friends.
Thank You.

Alex

[ghosh9]

The sprite files go in order according to the icon.bmp file. However, there seem to be a couple of strange effects. The three extra slots in #50-53 in the .bmp are .spr animations #70-72.

The safest way to do it is to keep track of the unit you are replacing and the one you are replacing it with. For instance, say I replace the explorer with the tall grey ogre monster in the fantasy scenario.

First, go to the fantasy .bmp and count up to the tall grey ogre. NOTE: start from ZERO. The settler is in slot 00! This will give you the number of the fantasy directory animation you want.

Second, find out the number you need to replace. Go to the origional (or extended) directory and open the .bmp. Counting from zero, count up to the explorer. This is the number of the animation you want to replace. NOTE: actually, just dropping a new animation in the /extended directory will cause the game to use that one instead of the original. This is probably also true of scenario subdirectories (haven't tried yet). So, copy and *rename* the animation you want to the animation you are replacing (make backups and keep 'em safe so you can go back to the way things were one day).

Simply renaming the animation and dropping it in /extendedscenario or your scenario(??) should actually do the trick.

You can then replace the picture in the .bmp file or place a new edited .bmp file in the directory you are working in.

Do away with the static.spr in the game's root directory. This is where I had a lot of trouble. If you don't, your new monster will keep turning back to the thing you replaced when at rest.

In this way, you can replace a great deal of units. What I do is to find animations in the science-fiction and fantasy game directories that look simular to the unit I want to create and use those.

I hope we get more animations from some source or another for the game as this is easy once you get used to it. But there's not a lot of animations in the game for variety and you might have to get an animation which isn't very close to what you have in mind.