annoying black box.

Ok. Im useing EVNew to create a ship. I've got a 2D image from my computer and put it into SpinApp (resource for makeing a 6x6 frame grid of the rotated image. Once retriveing that image i imported it as a rleD with pixel 59x59 per tile and X frames = 6 and Y frames = 6. I went on to the shan resource and imputed the values...
Frames 36
Base Image ID 1133
Base Mask ID 1134 (after noticeing the heavy shuttles was 1 above the image ID, and EVNew is suppost to create the mask)
Base Set Count 3 (not sure what this is but copyed the shuttle's set count, if some1 knows please include a description)
Base X size 59
Base Y size 59
and the rest are as defaults as i havent made the rest of the stuff.

I've created the ship resource and linked the shan resource to the ship resource (i know enough to do that) and saved the plugin and loaded nova. Once in nova i bought the ship and leave the planet and the ships graphics show up nicely but encased in a black box like on the rleD resource and the box doesent rotate with the ship. How am i to stop that showing?

Thanx for your help. Sharx

While it was good thinking to try to copy the base set count from the shuttle, what the base set count does is set aside additional frames for banking or ship animations. Since you don't have those if you used SpinApp, you want to have a base set count of 1.

The other problem that I would probably bet on would be that you didn't create a mask for your sprite either. Import the picture that SpinApp output into an image manipulation program like Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, or the open source alternative The GIMP. You'll need to select everything around your sprite that is black, and cut it out to another file or at least a second layer. That will be important. When you have the second image with holes for where your sprite is, flatten it to a 1 bit black and white image (the method for this will depend on your image manipulation program) and then save it as another file. You'll import the second image in EVNEW as a mask under the rleD import box. While EVNEW does theoretically create masks automatically, they don't tend to work very well. I would also suggest you fill in the background around the sprite itself with a medium gray paint to distinguish the sprite and the mask from each other.

One nice thing EVNEW does is that if you hold the cursor over a field, it will pop up a little box that tells you what that particular field does. Very, very handy to the developing plug maker. Those little help boxes really clarified lots of the bible terms for me when I started.

Hope that works!

Ok. I'll try that in a moment and let you know how that tuns out, but while i waited fo a reply on this i imported another of my ship graphics and set up the ship, shan and rleD resources as the other one. True it has the box around it but this one has also missed out about a quarter of the frames which go from left faceing to top faceing (the last quarter) any help on this one aswell?

Thanx for your help. Sharx.

P.S. Ok. I've tryed createing the mask and i changed the image background gray so i can determine wether the mask works and i've figured out that somehow my mask isent working, ive put it in as a rleD with ID 1134 (image id is rleD 1133) and as a rle8 at ID 1133 aswell as 1134 and none have worked... How can i fix this and can you clarify which image goes where? Thanx.

This post has been edited by Sharx1 : 30 January 2009 - 05:29 AM

rle mask is part of the same resource. Only the old PICTs required sequent resources.

Ok. Thanx for the last post it helped me discover the rle resources hold 2 pictures the image and mask and not one rle resource for each. After noticeing this i have the mask and image working together to a gegree i can tell there working but i got a static like haze surrounding my ship so im working on removeing that which is a problem to do with the mask i believe. Thanx for you help people but i also have the problem where the last quarter turn frames of my capital ship are missing anyone know why?

Thanx for your help. Sharx.

That's caused by the fact that you didn't flatten the mask down to a 1-bit black and white only image. Learned that one the hard way recently. Best to save the image and mask as PNGs or other lossless formats as well.

As far as why you have missing frames, are you sure you have 6x6 marked in the rleD import and the shan? And do you have the frame sizes correct?

I used spinapp which creates a 6x6 tile set and i got the individual tile size right as all images use in spinapp are square so i divide the width (in pixels) by 6 and input it so im sure the values are right the only thing i could guess is that the file is too large to import and therefore it cuts some off? Suggestions on other causes all welcome, and my graphic is no larger than the leviathan i believe.

Thanx for your help. Sharx

This post has been edited by Sharx1 : 30 January 2009 - 04:26 PM

Well, I would check two things: one, are you sure that your images are square. It might be best to import them into a program like The GIMP or Photoshop to make sure - check the pixel sizes. Make sure that the actual image you are importing really conforms to exactly the numbers you put in. I'm working on a plug that would add the USS Defiant to the game, and I learned that the hard way. I thought I had one pixel size, but I was off about 16 pixels and it screwed me up royally until I figured out where things had gone screwy.

Two: Check to see if EVNEW didn't wrap those images to a second page. If you have a large sprite, it may do that automatically. It doesn't mean that the sprites are gone, it just makes them easier to view. This would be my more immediate bet.

For the haze around your ship, you rendered with anti-aliasing on a light-colored background. Render to a black background and/or disable antialiasing. Both methods have shortcomings. Rendering to a black background with anti-aliasing will look funny in a system with a non-black background (slightly related to the way certain hypergates look), whereas disabling anti-aliasing will give the edges of your ships a jagged look.

I'm betting it has more to do with the fact that he didn't flatten the mask to a 1 bit image before importing it. This drove me mad until someone told me about the problem. EVNEW is picky about that point.