I've got 36 jpegs and their associated masks for use in making a ship. Using Photoshop, I can align them all into a 6x6 matrix, the way it used to work for making spins for EVO.

However, back then I used EV-Edit. Importing a Pict was as simple as clicking a button.

I can't figure out this particular aspect of NovaTools. Could someone explain, first, the difference between a rl8t and a rled; second, what format I need to save a photoshop file to in order to import it (Pict or otherwise?); and third, how exactly to go about the importing.

Thanks in advance!

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Oh, one other thing. If there's anything special that needs to be done to make the finished product Windows-compatible, I'd like to know that too.

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Basically you just need Enrle/Derle to convert your graphics into Rled and Rle8 format. It's in the nova addons section.

Rled and Rle8 are basically just forms of R un l ength E ncoding, a form of compression wherby things are shortened to succinctly say how long they run for. The way I had it explained to me (about five seconds ago in fact :)) is that, say if you had YYYYYY, six Y's, it would convert it to Y6. Or something.

Also, Rle8 is 8bit colour, and Rled is 16 bit true colour. (I think)

Hope this helps.

~A~

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"How can I make it go faster?" -Me-

its sorta complicated. the how-to-guide really comfused me, so i spent a couple days trying to figure it out on my own.

1st: put the pictures into a plug. (so it will show a PICT section on the plug.
2nd: Make a shan resource on the same plug. easist if you just copy another ship, and change its ID number)
3rd: Put the PICTs into the shan resource by putting their ID number into the appropite spot, and then give them the right size(make sure its set to PICT intead of rled or rle8).
4th: once its spinning correctly, save and close it.
5th: click and drag the plug you saved into the Enrle application(which you can download here: (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/cgi-bin/vftp/dl-redirect.pl/EnRLEDeRLE.sit")http://www.ambrosias....EnRLEDeRLE.sit(/url)?
once this is done, delete the PICTs in the plug, open the new res resources that should have come up either in the folder with NovaTools, or in the same folder as the plug.
6th: once you've put those in, simply put them in place of the PICT's places.

NOTE: You may want to change the sprites rleD's and rle8's id number to a much higher one.

if this still proves to be difficult, send all the sprites of the ship to my email and i will peice them together and send them back in the same day.

kartanik@yahoo.com

Edit: changed "spend" to "spent" in second sentance.
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Finding the perfect sig. for my self bites. I quit.

(This message has been edited by KarTaniK (edited 08-01-2003).)

(This message has been edited by KarTaniK (edited 08-01-2003).)

^Thanks, I'll try that.

One thing----putting PICTs into a plug, is that simple? Or is there some trick to it?

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As easy as copy and pasting.

Yes, I figured it out.

Nice option in photoshop---"Save as Pict Resource".

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EDIT: Problem seems to have solved itself....

(This message has been edited by Lindley (edited 08-01-2003).)

ok, i'm glad it worked out then.

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Finding the perfect sig. for my self bites. I quit.

I do have one other question.

When you're trying to do a not-quite vertical perspective on a ship, using a 10 degree rotation for every frame (rotated along its true vertical axis) doesn't seem to work correctly. The result is that there are more frames in its "upward-facing" arc than its downward-facing arc.

When NovaTools displays the rotating ship in the Shan editor, it seems to slow down in the top arc, then spin through the bottom quickly. I doubt it will work properly in the game itself.

Anyone have any tips on this? Should the degree of rotation per frame differ depending on the "camera angle"?

(My temporary solution is to simply use a completely overhead view.)

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make sure you have the same about of frames for each set.

other then that, i'm not sure.

sorry.

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Finding the perfect signature bites. I quit.

Are you doing this all in Photoshop? I'm impressed. I'd try and eyeball it. Does each ship look correct on the ship sprite? How are you rotating everything? The angle of perspective changes for every frame the object rotates. Most of my ships I've rotated in Strata. Instead of using a fixed camera (like I should) I changed the pitch of the ship to reflect looking at it from an angle. Because you only have to have 4 timeline points when rotating, I've noticed that some of the numbers get a little funky during the frames in between the hard points as it makes the movie. Basically, it may not be a true 10 degrees everytime you rotate with the perspective on there. If you have only 36 frames there should only be one BaseSet of 36 FramesPer. Also make sure your AnimDelay is set to 0

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((Ż'ˇ.¸(Ż'ˇ.¸Ť•-KAME-•ť¸.ˇ'´Ż)¸.ˇ'´Ż))
I used to jog but the ice kept falling out of my glass.
(url="http://"http://www.0three0.net/l-1551/")L 1551(/url) - The official site of RONIN and The Way and the ten thousand things

^I'll look at those.

And no, I'm not doing all this in photoshop. I know someone online who has the 3D model; he sends me the 36 pics according to my specs, which I then arrange in Photoshop.

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Okay I believe I understand all this here is my problem.. since the pict I'm using is large! (200 x 200) I keep getting an error when I try to copy paste it because it is too large ofr the clipboard.. What am I doing wrong?

Quote

Originally posted by KarTaniK:
**its sorta complicated. the how-to-guide really comfused me, so i spent a couple days trying to figure it out on my own.

1st: put the pictures into a plug. (so it will show a PICT section on the plug.
2nd: Make a shan resource on the same plug. easist if you just copy another ship, and change its ID number)
3rd: Put the PICTs into the shan resource by putting their ID number into the appropite spot, and then give them the right size(make sure its set to PICT intead of rled or rle8).
4th: once its spinning correctly, save and close it.
5th: click and drag the plug you saved into the Enrle application(which you can download here: http://www.ambrosias...EnRLEDeRLE.sit?
once this is done, delete the PICTs in the plug, open the new res resources that should have come up either in the folder with NovaTools, or in the same folder as the plug.
6th: once you've put those in, simply put them in place of the PICT's places.

NOTE: You may want to change the sprites rleD's and rle8's id number to a much higher one.

if this still proves to be difficult, send all the sprites of the ship to my email and i will peice them together and send them back in the same day.

kartanik@yahoo.com

Edit: changed "spend" to "spent" in second sentance.**

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"Well, I've been thinking. How'd you like to steal $750
million worth of illegal equipment from a GENOM subsidiary and put it
to a use that will benefit society?"
Gryphon, Hopelessly Lost Vol. 4

Question:

I tried to replace the standard Nova title screen with my own, by adding it as a pict resource to the plug with ID 131, which is the same ID as the Nova title screen. However, it wasn't replaced.

I modified the image to be 832x624 pixels, but it still doesn't work. Running a search, I came across reference to a clut resource----does that apply to Nova, or only the earlier 8-bit games?

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i have been having a bit of trouble my self.

but its a bit diffrent. ok, here it is.

i went around, finding ships from old(and new) EVO plugs to put in Nova. it works, i did it with two tie fighters i found in a starwars plug.

anyways, i found this, really big one. 400x400. when i getting it ready to conversion into a res edit file, it wont work when i put its Mask in. and When i DO put in it(which is required to make the res edit file from the pics) its comes out right when converting(shows the ship spining), BUT , when i open it up to put in the plug(only for personal use), instead of a visable ship, its invisable. and to top that, i can still fly it in the game, only its still invisable. very irritating.

if anyone wants to try this them selves, i would be more then happy to send them an email with the ship spin and ship mask attached.

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:::::::::::::READ THIS:::::::::::::
there is nothing to read. i simply created this sig to waste your time. mission accomplished.
:::::::::::::READ AGAIN:::::::::::::

Quote

Originally posted by KarTaniK:
**i have been having a bit of trouble my self.

but its a bit diffrent. ok, here it is.

i went around, finding ships from old(and new) EVO plugs to put in Nova. it works, i did it with two tie fighters i found in a starwars plug.

anyways, i found this, really big one. 400x400. when i getting it ready to conversion into a res edit file, it wont work when i put its Mask in. and When i DO put in it(which is required to make the res edit file from the pics) its comes out right when converting(shows the ship spining), BUT , when i open it up to put in the plug(only for personal use), instead of a visable ship, its invisable. and to top that, i can still fly it in the game, only its still invisable. very irritating.

if anyone wants to try this them selves, i would be more then happy to send them an email with the ship spin and ship mask attached.

**

Did you create both an rlë8 and an rlëD? Because if you only made one, it might be that your computer needs the other.

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I'm president of the United States and I refuse to eat broccoli! - George H. W. Bush
If the opposite of pro is con, then the opposite of progress is Congress!
(url="http://"http://www.tashian.com/multibabel/")Lost in Translation(/url)

yup. both come out completly Blank(by blank i mean space black, change the space color, and its still not there. i've tried everything i could think of, and even things that ended up making res edit quit.

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:::::::::::::READ THIS:::::::::::::
there is nothing to read. i simply created this sig to waste your time. mission accomplished.
:::::::::::::READ AGAIN:::::::::::::

(quote)Originally posted by KarTaniK:
**yup. both come out completly Blank(by blank i mean space black, change the space color, and its still not there. i've tried everything i could think of, and even things that ended up making res edit quit.:p

Try running the PICTs through EnRLE again, and using the new ones. Also, did you remember to keep the shan resource in the plugin with the rle's?

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I'm president of the United States and I refuse to eat broccoli! - George H. W. Bush**
If the opposite of pro is con, then the opposite of progress is Congress!
(url="http://"http://www.tashian.com/multibabel/")Lost in Translation(/url)

yup. i did absoluty every the same as when i did it wit the other EVO sprites i used to put in Nova. maybe its the sprite its self. would anyone care to try it them selves?

just drop me an email, and i'll send them. i'm not asking anyone to get it to work, and then send them back. but if you find out what the problem i, then please tell me.

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(url="http://"http://www.resexcellence.com/")http://www.resexcellence.com/(/url)
go here for all your Res Edit Needs(has no Escape Velocity Related item).