Civ 3 Unit FLCs to be converted Part 2

[Caranorn]

1) That sprite was just a test, the actual size I am planning for is somewhat smaller and almost identical to a CTP sprite (115% of original civ3, the test sprite was 125%).
2) The 115% sprites end up taking about as much room as the CTP sprites of similar type (I am now convinced CTP horses use larger sprites then 96x72 anyhow).
3) I have a lot of trouble adjusting the hotpoints (getting confused so I'll take a break now, it should be straightforward but for some reason I get it wrong most of the times with these larger sprites) (I have it almost correct in my current test sprites, probably good enough).
4) I might have a relatively simple fix for the black edges around the scaled up sprites, but I won't say anymore till I'm sure.

Right now I am progressing really slowly because I have to switch into the PC environment a lot to check the hotpoints etc. Worst is having to restart CTP2 all the time (playing is fine, but for testing purpouses this is really annoying).

Marc aka Caran...

[Martin Gühmann]

Originally posted by J Bytheway
I seem to recall Faded Glory saying that he reduced resyncs in MP games by making sprites smaller (or something like that...). So big sprites might be bad news, or I might be remembering incorrectly...

I thought he manly changed the size of the *.tga's. The resyncs can also be caused by the shrinking process of *.tga's that is done in CTP2. Actual i the theory this should work without any problems, I know that in CTP1 there were alot more smaller versions for buildings and wonders.

-Martin

[Caranorn]

Ah yes, that's something I have been thinking too. For units there definitelly is room for a 4th size tga as I mentionned in another post. That would cut down on scaling within the game.

Marc aka Caran...

[Pedrunn]

**BUMP**

Any luck with the hot points.
I have some plans for the warrior.
Any chance of fixing it?

[Caranorn]

I'll look into it in the coming days. I haven't worked on this at all the past week. Once I return to it it should go fast again and I'll put the warrior up as next after updating the sprites I already did (plus the cossack which was half done).

Marc aka Caran...

[Peter Triggs]

Marc, you're doing an absolutely great job!

But, I can see one problem that's about to raise it's ugly head: what are we going to do about sprite numbers when we get more than 200 sprites?

[Martin Gühmann]

Originally posted by Peter Triggs
But, I can see one problem that's about to raise it's ugly head: what are we going to do about sprite numbers when we get more than 200 sprites?

As long as we don't have the source code, the only way is to hack the ctp2.exe to solve this problem. Actual as ugly as not to solve the problem.

-Martin

[Pedrunn]

There are about 30 sprite slots to go (170-198). We could use those as modders starting using on their mods. After that if no fix have been managed i guess we are going to have to take some existing but barely used ones like the BlueO's, etc...

[Caranorn]

No one will have to use all the sprites after all. I for one, if ever I get back to actual modding, would only have use for one or two dozen of the new sprites, all of Tom Davies' and maybe 2/3rd the original CTP2 (and a few CTP1) sprites. I doubt that would exceed the 200 sprite limit. Though it's rather sad that such a limit exists (considering 6000+ years of history, 200 unit types is rather limited).

If the game can be hacked to exceed the 200 numbers that would be good, but only as long as it won't risk damaging other parts of the game. On the other hand I would not wish to get on the wrong side of Activision, so hacking to do anything but patch the game might be a bad idea.

Marc aka Caran...

[J Bytheway]

Modswapper could be extended to allow different mods to have their own sprite directory (by replacing civpaths.txt), and then the restriction would only be 200 in any one mod, rather than 200 overall. (Though it would make for larger ctp2 directories that shouldn't be too bad).

[Martin Gühmann]

Originally posted by Caranorn
If the game can be hacked to exceed the 200 numbers that would be good, but only as long as it won't risk damaging other parts of the game. On the other hand I would not wish to get on the wrong side of Activision, so hacking to do anything but patch the game might be a bad idea.

A hack patch could only posted here with the express consent of Activision, that should be clear, but I think we shoulld first wait what Vel's efforts bring.

-Martin

[Pedrunn]

But, I can see one problem that's about to raise it's ugly head: what are we going to do about sprite numbers when we get more than 200 sprites?

Plus scenario makers can use every number until exceed the whole limit. So the units will be a much bigger addition for them and avoid the request.

Modswapper could be extended to allow different mods to have their own sprite directory (by replacing civpaths.txt), and then the restriction would only be 200 in any one mod, rather than 200 overall. (Though it would make for larger ctp2 directories that shouldn't be too bad).

How hard to do this? This will be a major addition and the solution for this problem. We still have contact with the moswapper creator dont we?

[Immortal Wombat]

Yeah, Paul is still around. But it will make all the downloads bigger, or force them to include instructions for manually copying sprite files.

[Martin Gühmann]

Originally posted by Pedrunn
How hard to do this? This will be a major addition and the solution for this problem. We still have contact with the moswapper creator dont we?

That won't be too hard, it is just replaceing one more file, finally I would like to have also the civ3.ldl included so we could mod the UI like the rest of the game.

-Martin

[Pedrunn]

That won't be too hard, it is just replaceing one more file, finally I would like to have also the civ3.ldl included so we could mod the UI like the rest of the game.

Terrific Idea