Sprite Editor

[Martin the Dane]

Originally posted by The Big Mc
Martin the ctp sprit maker did not work something to do with needing tiffs instead of tga

You didn't convert them first?

Originally posted by The Big Mc
Plus I noticed on some ctp units that when I extract them there is pure black on them (I can’t think of a ctp example of the top of my head)

There should only be pure black on the background and/or shadows, as makespr.exe changes pure black to very dark blue. (R:0 G:0 B:8)

Originally posted by The Big Mc
Also what kind of alpha channel support you offering

I'll only support 32 bit .tga where the alpha is saved in the high 8 bytes (format ARGB) this is the default for uncompressed 32 bit .tga and the same version as I'm using when exporting.

[The Big Mc]

I exported a spr file open the first frame in paint shop pro and to test put a mask on the top the same kind I use for CTP unit creation and it took some of the image away and before you ask it was a white background

So when we load tga into sprit edit we will have to have a alpha channel?

[The Big Mc]

I copied the image with the holes left form the mask on to a new image consisting of dark blue with the same make up as the one in sprit edit saved it quit then reloaded the image and to my surprise the image did the same thing with the alpha channel.

So it is ever the tga file or paint shop pro

[The Big Mc]

You are going to love me i found a fix

Just double the blue from 8 to 16 and the image is ok

[Martin the Dane]

Originally posted by The Big Mc
I exported a spr file open the first frame in paint shop pro and to test put a mask on the top the same kind I use for CTP unit creation and it took some of the image away and before you ask it was a white background

What happens is that PSP combines the alpha chanel with the pixels, therby making parts of the image translucent, with a non-black background this looks as if some of the image is removed.

To se the effect, open the image, promote the background to a layer, add a new layer and place it behind the original, paint this new layer in some color or pattern, apply the mask to the origial layer, and se the the blak borders change to almost the new background

About importing into SpriteTool: I'll allow both alpha-chanel and a mask image.

[Martin the Dane]

Originally posted by The Big Mc
You are going to love me i found a fix

Just double the blue from 8 to 16 and the image is ok

I'm not sure I understand what you are talking about.

Do you load the alpha chanel or do you create a mask from the image?

[The Big Mc]

i created a new mask on the original image i get of your sprite edit program

but I noticed if I move this image with the mask enabled so i only move the none black pixels on to a back ground of blue(0,0,16) so the black is replaced by the blue that when I save it re open the file and make a new alpha channel the mask do not select any pixels

[Martin the Dane]

Originally posted by The Big Mc
i created a new mask on the original image i get of your sprite edit program

but I noticed if I move this image with the mask enabled so i only move the none black pixels on to a back ground of blue(0,0,16) so the black is replaced by the blue that when I save it re open the file and make a new alpha channel the mask do not select any pixels

Ah! that's one of the quircks of PSP, you can't trust that mask function of theirs. Have had all sort of strange things happening when creating masks. The only thing that seems to work for me is on/off masks (any non-zero values)

So what I do when creating complex masks, is to create a number of different on/off masks in different layers and then merge them. This way I get to make smoth transitions. (I use this when manipulating photos)

Unfortunately the sprites are so small that doing it this way is not particularely easy, but still doable.

[The Big Mc]

i used a non-zero mask

[Martin the Dane]

Hmm. have you tried playing with the tollerance value for the fill tool, this might affect the way PSP treats near-black values. (just a thought)

[The Big Mc]

your right it is psp

maybe you could add a psp friendly option i know if you double the blue value in the black colour that replaces pure black you get it working correct in paint shop so all you would do is convert black from any colour value at 0 to 16( in red, blue and green) to a colour version of 16 this would eradicate any problems with sprite edit and psp before the person exports to paint shop may be more code but it will save you hours of people reporting bugs

[Martin the Dane]

Well you sure have a point there, I'll se what I can do. As it is now I don't change the color values, I just export them as they are in the sprite file. (and convert them from 15 to 32 bit)

[The Big Mc]

I don’t know if you have altered this but on some options to save the images you don’t have a file extension so you go to save and you have to type the name and then .bmp on the end this may upset some people

[Martin the Dane]

Oops! that's supposed to be automatic. No save-dialogs support more than one file-format yet.

[Martin the Dane]

Ok here comes a new version of SpriteEdit.

Changes from Build 6 to 7

1. Added edit capability for all non-graphical elements of the SpriteFile.
2. Added save SpriteFile. For compatability reasoons the sprites are saved in version 1.3, so they are compatible with both Civ:CTP and CTP2.
3. Made a lot of minor changes to the ini-file structure, so now default values for options are not saved in the ini-file.
4. Images can now be saved as Windows-Bitmaps as well as tga.
5. The save dialog now adds the selected extention if the file name does not include an extention.
6. Fixed a lot of minor things in loading and manipulating SpriteFiles.

Take a look and please report any problems using sprites generated by SpriteEdit.