Besides working on graphics, I've been creating new ships for Escape Velocity to test sprites. However, I've got a small problem. Creating resource IDs and such in the graphics file is no problem, but I cannot get the shipyard / comm picts of the ships to show up in Escape Velocity. All the statistics and such work very nicely, but how do I link the ship info with the appropriate graphics? I can't seem to find such a resource in the data file... All I get in Escape Velocity in the shipyard is "no picture available."

Any help would be appreciated.

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(url="http://"http://saberstudios.evula.net")Saber Studios(/url) - Your source for original EV/O/N graphics.
GameRanger: -Sß- Captain Skyblade | Battle.net: Skyblade86
(url="http://"http://home.cfl.rr.com/aresev/")The Legion(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.gameranger.com")GameRanger(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.evula.com/")EVula's Lair(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.meowx.com/")Meowx Design(/url)

Unfortunately, this could be several things, but the most likely one is that you've set the PICT resources to the wrong ID.
The best thing for you to do would be to get (url="http://"http://www.sutherland-studios.com.au/family/evo_software.html")ShipWrite.(/url) It gives a more graphical interface than ResEdit, and it sets all ID numbers automatically; however, there is a bug in ShipWrite where if you makea ship with an ID number of 180 or higher, ShipWrite will delete the sprite and mask files for your ship which has an ID of 175. It's very annoying, but you can get around it by opening your plug-in in ResEdit and making a 'sh•p' resource and setting the ID and name properly, then using ShipWrite to edit it.
If you don't want to use ShipWrite, try the (url="http://"http://members01.chello.se/warlordpontus/ev/evocalc.html")EVO Formula Calculator(/url). You type in the ID of your 'sh•p', 'oŸtf', 'spšp', whatever, and Formula Calculator tells you the ID number of your spin, PICT, STR, and 'd‘sc' resources. It isn't an editor, so it works for both EV and EVO.

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ŃCafall

Quote

Originally posted by Captain Skyblade:
**Besides working on graphics, I've been creating new ships for Escape Velocity to test sprites. However, I've got a small problem. Creating resource IDs and such in the graphics file is no problem, but I cannot get the shipyard / comm picts of the ships to show up in Escape Velocity. All the statistics and such work very nicely, but how do I link the ship info with the appropriate graphics? I can't seem to find such a resource in the data file... All I get in Escape Velocity in the shipyard is "no picture available."

Any help would be appreciated.

**

Each resource related to a ship, including the various PICT resources, requires a specific resource ID number. Easiest way to determine these is by using EVO Formula Calc available here:
(url="http://"http://members01.chello.se/warlordpontus/ev/index.html")http://members01.che...s/ev/index.html(/url)

I believe the original PICTs are stored in the 'EV Graphics' file, but it really doesn't matter if you put appropriately numbered PICTS in a plug-in file.

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Joe Burnette
"I find that humans can be divided into only two meaningful categories: Decent Humans and Sonsofbitches; both types appear to be evenly distributed
among all shapes, colors, sizes, and nationalities." -- Keith Laumer

I've used ShipWrite before, and encountered the same mentioned bug. Does it work with Escape Velocity?

Also, I'm simply editing the original data files (adding on to them). I'm not creating a plugin file at the moment.

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(url="http://"http://saberstudios.evula.net")Saber Studios(/url) - Your source for original EV/O/N graphics.
GameRanger: -Sß- Captain Skyblade | Battle.net: Skyblade86
(url="http://"http://home.cfl.rr.com/aresev/")The Legion(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.gameranger.com")GameRanger(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.evula.com/")EVula's Lair(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.meowx.com/")Meowx Design(/url)

Quote

Originally posted by Captain Skyblade:
**
..Also, I'm simply editing the original data files (adding on to them). I'm not creating a plugin file at the moment.

**

Do you mean you are editing the existing ship resources or creating new ones? If you edit an existing ship to change the performance, weapons, or whatever, the game will use the existing PICTs. If you are adding new ships, then you must add the PICTs for them, either in the graphics file or a plug-in file.

BTW, I really hope you are working on a duplicate of the EV Data file and have an unaltered backup somewhere.

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Joe Burnette
"I find that humans can be divided into only two meaningful categories: Decent Humans and Sonsofbitches; both types appear to be evenly distributed
among all shapes, colors, sizes, and nationalities." -- Keith Laumer

Quote

I've used ShipWrite before, and encountered the same mentioned bug. Does it work with Escape Velocity?

Maybe. I've never played EV, let alone made plug-ins for it. But if the 'sh•p', 'd‘sc', 'PICT', and 'STR ' resources all work the same in both games, it will. Or you could just ask R&R;Ńalthough they're working on the NovaTools and probably shouldn't be bothered.

Quote

Also, I'm simply editing the original data files (adding on to them). I'm not creating a plugin file at the moment.

It's the same thing, except that you're working with a different type of file.

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ŃCafall

Ok, perhaps I should re-word my question. I know how to create new resources, edit old ones, and place them into the EV Data file (that's no problem. And Joe, I have quite a few back-ups). I just created a new ship, added the sprites, shipyard views, comm views, and target image into the graphic files, made the ship the way I wanted it within the EV data file, and cranked up EV. My ship was in the shipyard with all the stats I had given it, and the sprite and such was working properly. However, the shipyard graphic was not showing up in the shipyard. My question is, how do I get the shipyard image to show up? How do I link the image to it? I'm sure this can be done with ResEdit alone...

...Hope that made a little sense.

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(url="http://"http://saberstudios.evula.net")Saber Studios(/url) - Your source for original EV/O/N graphics.
GameRanger: -Sß- Captain Skyblade | Battle.net: Skyblade86
(url="http://"http://home.cfl.rr.com/aresev/")The Legion(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.gameranger.com")GameRanger(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.evula.com/")EVula's Lair(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.meowx.com/")Meowx Design(/url)

Take the index number of the ship (0 for 128, 1 for 129, etc... subtract 129 from the ID). For Shipyard views, add 5000 to that index number, and that should be the PICT ID# for the shipyard. Small PICTs, add 101 to the large PICT number. I think the Comm views are at index# of ship + 4000, but don't quote me on that. Just set your PICT images to the appropriate value and they should link automatically.

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- Macavenger | e-mail: (url="http://"mailto:e-gamerguy1@attbi.com")mailto:e-gamerguy1@attbi.com(/url)e-gamerguy1@attbi.com

Quote

Originally posted by Captain Skyblade:
**... My question is, how do I get the shipyard image to show up? How do I link the image to it? I'm sure this can be done with ResEdit alone...

...Hope that made a little sense.

**

Yes, finally, it does make sense. As Macaveger said, the ID#s for the shipyard, comm, and target picts are all indexed to the ship ID# (actually based on the index #, which is ID# -128). Some of the info on this is in the EV Bible, and a bit more in the Annotated Edition. A handy resource for finding the correct numbers is "EV Objects Formulas" if it's not available in the archives here it can be found at this site
(url="http://"http://www.ixoft.com/dyna.html")http://www.ixoft.com/dyna.html(/url)

EV Formula Calc which I recommended earlier makes the job easier, you just enter the ID# of your ship and it displays the correct ID#s for all the related resources - desc, str , and pict.
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Joe Burnette
"I find that humans can be divided into only two meaningful categories: Decent Humans and Sonsofbitches; both types appear to be evenly distributed
among all shapes, colors, sizes, and nationalities." -- Keith Laumer

(This message has been edited by Joe Burnette (edited 12-18-2001).)

Yes, it's all about the IDs. I also reccommend EV Formula Calc (as linked above) - enter the ship ID, and it'll give you the correct IDs for the other resources.

Heh, way back when I was making my own EV plugins, before EV Formula Calc existed, I'd made a ClarisWorks spreadsheet that calculated all the IDs for any resource for me. It worked, and it worked well - I was very pleased with it. I even figured out the formulas just from observing the IDs used in EV and in various plugins. sets aside cane and ends story about back-in-ye-olden-days

:rolleyes:

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(This message has been edited by Weepul 884 (edited 12-20-2001).)

And, actually, if you haven't already figured this out, let me correct what I said earlier about the Comm PICT IDs: It should be index + 5300, not index + 4000. Sorry for the confusion there. I'm surprised no one else here caught me, actually.

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- Macavenger | e-mail: (url="http://"mailto:e-gamerguy1@attbi.com")mailto:e-gamerguy1@attbi.com(/url)e-gamerguy1@attbi.com

I used the EV Formula Calculator, and matched up all my ID numbers in ResEdit. Still no luck. Better yet, the game crashes an startup. Thank goodness for backup copies...

I'll give it another try.

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(url="http://"http://saberstudios.evula.net")Saber Studios(/url) - Your source for original EV/O/N graphics.
GameRanger: -Sß- Captain Skyblade | Battle.net: Skyblade86
(url="http://"http://home.cfl.rr.com/aresev/")The Legion(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.gameranger.com")GameRanger(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.evula.com/")EVula's Lair(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.meowx.com/")Meowx Design(/url)

Quote

Originally posted by Captain Skyblade:
**I used the EV Formula Calculator, and matched up all my ID numbers in ResEdit. Still no luck. Better yet, the game crashes an startup. Thank goodness for backup copies...

I'll give it another try.**

Just to make sure, you are running it at around, say, 40 MB of RAM, right? Graphics intensive plugs can take up a lot of memory, and not having enough to support that plug might cause it to crash.

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- Macavenger | e-mail: (url="http://"mailto:e-gamerguy1@attbi.com")mailto:e-gamerguy1@attbi.com(/url)e-gamerguy1@attbi.com

Quote

Originally posted by Macavenger:
**Just to make sure, you are running it at around, say, 40 MB of RAM, right? Graphics intensive plugs can take up a lot of memory, and not having enough to support that plug might cause it to crash.

**

Could be the problem, but it shouldn't. I normally give Escape Velocity 30meg RAM, and 60 if I'm trying out something large. Even with virtual memory enabled (had 124meg on my iMac after activating it), the game crashed on startup.

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(url="http://"http://saberstudios.evula.net")Saber Studios(/url) - Your source for original EV/O/N graphics.
GameRanger: -Sß- Captain Skyblade | Battle.net: Skyblade86
(url="http://"http://home.cfl.rr.com/aresev/")The Legion(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.gameranger.com")GameRanger(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.evula.com/")EVula's Lair(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.meowx.com/")Meowx Design(/url)

Quote

Originally posted by Captain Skyblade:
**Could be the problem, but it shouldn't. I normally give Escape Velocity 30meg RAM, and 60 if I'm trying out something large. Even with virtual memory enabled (had 124meg on my iMac after activating it), the game crashed on startup.

**

You haven't mentioned it, but do you get any kind of error message or does the game just crash without any warning?

If the loading gets as far as the title screen and the progress bar starts to fill in, then an "insufficient memory" dialog is displayed and the game quits, you probably have a problem with a 'spďn' resource. Thingas that can cause this type of error are incorrect ID#s for spins or the PICTs they point to, incorrect size values in a spin resource, incorrect number of frames in a PICT, a spin pointing to a PICT that isn't there, probably others I can't remember at the moment.

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Joe Burnette
"I find that humans can be divided into only two meaningful categories: Decent Humans and Sonsofbitches; both types appear to be evenly distributed
among all shapes, colors, sizes, and nationalities." -- Keith Laumer