unit graphics

[GazOC]

is there any way i can edit the unit graphics? on
Civ II they are all on gif pages, but SMAC are in some format my paint package does n't recognize

any help would be welcome , thanx

[Helium Pond]

As far as I know, the unit graphics are all the files in .cvr format. There is an application called CVRPLAYER that lets you load and view these things, and most of them are indeed units or parts of units, but some of them won't load, so I assume they're something else. CVRPLAYER won't let you modify them at all, but you can rotate them and play them (some of them animate) and look at them from all angles, wheee. It will let you save them, and it has some menu options for loading animations, so you might be able to make your own .cvr files with it.

But that's all irrelevant: the sad fact is, it would be a hellish task to try to modify any of the 3D unit art. The reason is that the game "builds" the units itself: every weapon, chassis, armor, reactor, and even some special abilities, have their own .cvr files, and the game uses all the files to mix-and-match depending on the unit you've created. So, for instance, there is no single graphic for "Chaos Rover". If you wanted to modify the Chaos Rover design, you couldn't touch the Rover art without also affecting every other unit with a Rover chassis, and you couldn't touch the Chaos gun without also affecting every other unit using a Chaos gun. Since the Armor and the reactors are unique to each chassis, I suppose you could change those. Although, from your post, it sounds like you're only using 2D programs, and you'd definitely need some sort of 3D tool for these files. But anyway, like I said, the task would be quite daunting.

But if, after all that, you'd still like to take a stab at it, I suggest you do a web search for "CVRPLAYER.EXE" I don't remember where I got it, I think it was a foreign site, although maybe there's a link from Appolyton, I can't recall. The program iself says it's made by AnimaTek Int, Inc, and under contact info it gives this: roman@animatekusa.com. Good luck.

(Oh yeah, I forgot to mention: all the 2D units (worms and alien artifacts, basically) get their art from a file named units.pcx. You can change this art easily. You can even add some new units, if you look at the alpha.txt file and figure out how to modify the units section. But you can't ever have more than 9 non-3D units, and some of them have to be used for the mindworms. So that's kind of no fun, either.)