ToT or MGE?

[curtsibling]

Cheers, man!

I will try it out, it will be useful for some scen ideas I have.

[Kull]

Here's another tip for those looking to convert FW/MGE scenarios:

ToT allows units to face the direction in which they move (left or right anyway), so there's one thing to remember when converting unit graphics. A left-facing unit will always appear to move BACKWARDS! All units.bmp graphics should be adjusted to face either front or right in order to eliminate this disconcerting effect.

[curtsibling]

Good advice!

The facing directional unit movement is another of ToT's little neat touches.

[techumseh]

With Mercator's Sprite tool, you can make a unit with 6 facings, or animate it if you're really nuts.

[Catfish]

Originally posted by Kull
All units.bmp graphics should be adjusted to face either front or right in order to eliminate this disconcerting effect.

Mirroring units so that they face left-to-right was mentioned earlier in the thread.

Originally posted by techumseh
With Mercator's Sprite tool, you can make a unit with 6 facings, or animate it if you're really nuts.

It's 5 actually, 3 of which are mirrored, effectively giving a total of 8.

Example: Frames 2, 3 and 4 are mirrored.

[curtsibling]

How do you implement these different views into the game?

I take it that the sprite utility takes care of the technical side of things?

[jim panse]

Say, you mighty ToT Gods, I do own Test of Time as well as MGE but I have to admit I do not know ToT really.

If there would be a decent scenario editing tutorial I would definitely try a ToT scenario as well ... *hint*

[Mercator]

Originally posted by Catfish
…and you're the one who sets the record straight when we get it wrong.

Naturally.

Originally posted by curtsibling
How do you implement these different views into the game?

I take it that the sprite utility takes care of the technical side of things?

That depends on your definition of technical.

To implement different views, you'd need to use CivSprite. All 5 views of all 81 units (in the static.spr) are exported to different images. All you have to do then is replace those default graphics with your own and import them back again.

Not too complicated, but not very user-friendly either.
I should really make a new and better sprite utility, but I'm too busy lazy.

[techumseh]

There are dozens and dozens of these graphics in the Talon Soft games -West Front, East Front and Rising Sun. Could they be rapidly converted using your utility, Merc?

[Mercator]

Not quite "rapidly", but copy-pasting them into a 64x64 magenta bitmap will get you most of the way. CivSprite would do the rest.

Judging from the facing directions it looks like those units were made for hexagonal tiles though. So they wouldn't face exactly the right direction in Civ2. You'd have to decide which of those images you'd want to use for the 5 different facing directions (N, NE, E, SE, S)

[curtsibling]

@Merc:

If the program exports out a Bmp for editing purposes, then that is workable.

And if the program rewrites the file with the new info
for you, that is about as user-friendly as I would need.

[fairline]

It does both and is easy to use. It also spits out a mask for each frame that allows you to incorporate the individual civ colour on the unit graphic, which is handy for diferentiating generic units.

[curtsibling]

I seen examples of the unit masks on Catfish's site.

Very dandy too - His multi-colour units look great.

Coloured generic units would be awesome for implementation in some units in my current projects!

Is it only CivSprite that can enable this feature?

If so, I must acquire a copy ASAP!

[typhoon]

I actually have TOT but I can't use since I bought it 2 years ago. For some reason, it keeps crashing midgame due to a problem with the civ2.exe.

I really don't want to have to buy TOT again, it cost me nearly $20 If anyone could e mail me a copy of the civ2.exe, I would be very grateful. Thanks

PS: Thought I should mention this. I don't have a TOT disc anymore- it got fried from sitting in the sun for too long. What I do have is a copy sitting on my harddisk. Thats why I can't reinstall. Just my luck

[curtsibling]

Why not order it via the net? - It's pretty cheap!



Another option is to download No-limits ToT...

This cool utility patch recreates CIV2.exe.

And removes the pop and gold limits!

Give it a try!