Anyone using Paint Shop Pro 5 ?

[DOGFISH]

I finished my first animated sprite today (a catapult)...actually only the move sequence is animated. I have the attack and the death images ready to do. I have a move sound (made it myself) and the attack sound.
I took a break from the animation... worked on the sounds, and then moved on to the icon files. I didn't want to release anything but a "total" unit.
The problem is that PSP5 compresses tga files and CTP displays garbage. This as near as I can tell by comparing images with Irfanview. Has anyone encountered this? Does anyone know a work around? I only have the eval copy so I can't relly get tech support.
Does anyone know a cheap/free package to use instead.

Thanx Dogfish

[Morgoth]

Dogfish
PSP5 has an options button once you've selected the TGA format for saving. This options button then lets you decide compressed v uncompressed as well as whether the TGA should be 8, 16 or 24 bit format.

[DOGFISH]

Thanks Morgoth... I don't know how I missed that... but that doesn't seem to fix it. I noticed now that my 96X72X24 bit tga's are 20k or over... the ones I can test that work (sattelite and helicopter) are 15.5k.
I create a blank image 96X72X24 (black 0,0). I load a bmp of my catapult. (also tried using a tiff from my animation but then I have to deal with the alpha channel)
I cut my cat and paste on the blank. I think I have tried every possiblty as far as pasting and merging. Obviously everyone except the correct on.
If you have anymore thoughts I would appreciate them. I've given up and if I don't have the tga's when I finish the attack, death, and bombard sections of the animation, maybe I'll pass it along without them.
Again thanks for the help...
Dogfish

[Atahualpa]

You have to save it as 16 bit uncompressed tga with alpha channel! Did you do this?
Photoshop is better IMO.

ATa

[Depp]

I want to make some more messageicons, but i guess they must to follow the standard you are talking about.

I have photoshop, so where do i chose aplhachannel and uncompress tga? I saved it as a 16 bit tga but uncompressed or not i have no clue...

[Morgoth]

Dogfish
How are you creating your animations? I used Raydream using 6 frames per animation. This seamed to work fine although maybe the death scene and combat could do with some more.

Are cou converting these to uncompressed in PSP? I have tried using them straight from Raydream (which creates compressed LZW TIFF). The only problem I encountered whether I used compressed (ie not going into PSP) or not was the problem on the alpha channel where a black pixel hadn't created the correct alpha. I don't know what problem LZW is suppose to cause but I'm not sure it does but if you are using Raydream would like to know if you hit any conversion problems at this stage.

For the TGA files I simply took the first frame of one of my facings. Took it into PSP remove the alpha channel (option under masking) and saved as TGA uncompressed 16 bit. Things all worked then.

I did have some problems originally which I assumed (but not sure) was caused by me saving uncompressed. All I did was delete the files and the exercise again and all was OK.

Only problem I have had in PSP regarding alpha channels is that when I follow the instructions on the mod page for PSP I ended up with a chequered back ground instead of black! I'm still not sure how to get passed that.

NB I only bought Raydream and PSP to do the sprites so I haven't used either for very long.

[DOGFISH]

Thanks Atahualpa, Depp, Paul, and Morgoth. I'm responding to this before I try anything else... but it sounds like the key is to save as 16 bit... not 24.
It's strange though the tga's that CTP likes, that I have, the sattelite, helicopter, cruiser and the 2 Jerome Lux included with his catapult all show up in Iview and PSP5 as 96X72 24bpp 16mil 1 layer no alpha.
Depp, I have Paint Shop Pro 5... if I get this working maybe I can help... but I don't have photoshop.
Atahualpa, having encountered anyone who disagrees with you. Unfortunatly Paint Shop was avail. as 30 day eval. download... and I had never done anything like this before. I have to decide if I like doing this enough to outlay the cash...
Paul, I will try the tga's as 16 bit... I haven't been using an alpha... but the good ones show up as 24 bit so maybe...
Morgoth, I'm only using Paint Shop Pro 5... I make one tiff at a time... I think the move animation has 5 per facing... 25 total. I've just finished making the attack and death sequence tiffs but I haven't written the script and ran makespr to include these yet.
I don't know raydreams... again if I decide I like this I will outlay the cash. Good tools are worth it.
I will try the 16 bit as soon as I get off here.
I seem to remember getting the same checkered background, I don't remember for sure, and my method may differ from yours and the mod page but it works for me. I make a new blank 96X72X24 (black 0,0. I then select my image, either select all or use marquis. Cut and paste on the blank. I then make a new mask, from image, then save to alpha. After that I merge. I think I got the checker board thing by merging before creating the new mask. I see if I can duplicate it.
I will be working on the animated cat attack and death stuff now. I have one now that moves but is missing these sequences. If I get no joy on the tga's I'll finish the animations and pass it along. If anyone can make the tga's that would be good.
I'm also going to repeat my attack sequnce as the special action/work sequence since it would be the same for the cat.

[Paul]

You don't need an alphachannel for the tga files. You only need the alphachannel if you make tiffs for new sprites. I don't use Photoshop, so I don't know where to set compressed or uncompressed, it's probably an option somewhere.

[Morgoth]

Dogfish
Did you get any further? When you go to open a file in PSP5 - go to the directory and select the file. A box comes up giving you some brief info on the file you are opening. There is also a tab 'Details' if you press this you get more info on the files. As you say the CTP picture files show as 96*72 24/16 1 layer no alpha. Going into the details you see this is the normal setup for 16bits/plane so this should be OK. Suggest you check and see if any are set as compressed, have alphas, or anythign else looks different. I did get the same problem but just cleared things and recreated and that solved it.

In the meantime intend to try and resolve my alpha problem.

[DOGFISH]

Thanks Morgoth and all. I finally made a working tga icon image. All were correct on the 16 bit thing. I couldn't get it to work taking any of my tiffs and converting them. I had to go back to an original bmp. I use the cow to test my sprites... see an old string. The new problem is I put the tga in pictures... renamed as the cow tga (upua01.tga) this gives the icon on prodution tab and on the units tab. I renamed a copy as cu001f.tga (the other cow tga mentioned in uniticon.txt) and put it in the icons folder. I thought this was the icon you see when you select a unit on the map then right-click on it. It doesn't change from the cow. Anyone know about this?
I guess the unit is fine even if you don't get an icon when you right-click... I just want to be able to do it all, correctly, even if only once. Document it and move on.
Morgoth if you still need help with your alpha's... let me know. Maybe I can take a look at them for you... document step by step what I do and send them back.

Dogfish

[Paul]

Dogfish: You should be able to make a tga by converting the tif. Did you remember to remove the alpha channel before saving it as tga? I had a crash caused by a tga with alpha channel once.

About the right click image: make a tga named upu0xxb.tga where xx is the number of the unit (in this case it would be upu001b.tga). Unlike the other tga files this one should have a width:height ratio of 1:1. It doesn't really seem to matter what exact size the tgas are, they are automatically resized. The only important thing is that you have the proper width: height ratio which is 4:3 for all tgas except the upu0xxb.tga I just mentioned.

[DOGFISH]

Thanks Paul, you guys are great. You were right on both counts... I didn't rmove the alpha from my tiff before (or after) converting to tga. And your help about the right click was 100%.
Maybe you can answer some other questions:
The tga's that are in pictures are for the production/unit tab... and the "b" is for the right click. What are the one's in icons for? I thought maybe they were for the unit icons in the cheat mode but the cow doesn't show there?
I finished the attack sequences and added more lines to my script... (actually copied the move lines and edited any changes) makespr is choking. It says expected keyword "Unit_Sprite_Attack" not found at line 27.
I been over it... must be something really obvious... any ideas... I'll e-mail it to anyone who wants to take a look.

Thanks
Dogfish

[Paul]

I have done some more checking on the tga files and found that there are four necessary for every unit. CU0xxF.TGA is the image in the Great Library, UPUAxx.TGA is the image for the build and units tabs, UPU0xx.TGA is the image in the cheat mode and UPU0xxB.TGA is the image when you right-click on the unit. The names of the first two images are read from UNITICON.TXT, for the other two xx is the number of the sprite as defined in SPRITEID.TXT. As I mentioned in my earlier post UPU0xxB.TGA has a width:height ratio of 1:1, the other three TGA files have a width:height ratio of 4:3. If you want to be really complete you should also make an AVI for the Great Library. I just use the TGA to make an AVI that doesn't move. It's just two frames, both with the same image.

I'm not really an expert on those scripts, I have only used Harlan's standard five facings script, but I guess I could take a look at your script. You can mail it to the address in my profile.

[DOGFISH]

Paul
Thanks for your offer to take a look at my script. I just e-mailed it to you... along with the animated sprite (move only) sounds, the tiffs for the attack sequence and the tiffs for the death sequence... if you spot something that will be great, if not enjoy the move sprite... it works.
I did intend to make the avi file... as I mentioned in the e-mail I can make animated gifs then convert to avi's... the software is outhere... either demo or freeware.
If anyone else wants to take a shot at fixing my script let me know.

Thanks
Dogfish

[Paul]

I mailed you a new working script. The original problem was only a zero that should be a one, but there were some other issues that other people might want to know that I don't think were in Activison's documentation.

If you have an attack animation the line after UNIT_SPRITE_ATTACK 1 should say UNIT_SPRITE_ATTACK_IS_DIRECTIONAL 1. It also works with zero instead of one, I don't know if it does anything, but you get an error if you don't include it. Also, in the shieldpoints there should be five shieldpoints per section, one for each facing. Dogfish had one for each frame of animation in his attack section and that also caused an error.