I am fairly new to making plugins and have found it highly entertaining and engrossing, but I've run into a few obstacles in my attempts to expand my creative capabilities.

I've been trying to develop a mission string for a new government in a new system. I'm not skilled enough with paint programs to attempt to design new ships, but I would like to take existing ships and recolor them (much like how Rebel ships are recolored variations of civilian, Federation, and Polaris ships) so that they appear personalized for the new faction.

I've found the colored sprites in the rleD resource, but EVNew doesn't seem to have a utility for altering them or a method for extracting the images for editing in Paint. The EVN Bible doesn't seem to address this.

Obviously, since I'm using EVNew, I'm a PC user. Does anyone know of a PC-friendly utility that can do this, or perhaps direct me to an online resource that can instruct in such things?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

joonix

I do not know of a Windows compatible RLE editor, though Mission Computer, an EVN editor for Mac, does have an RLE editor. I can, if you like, extract the images and masks, convert them to PICT format, and send you a link to them.

What ships do you need?

Or if you want to be quick and fast, you could specify a paint color in the govt resource.

I'd just like to point out that the paint color in the govt resource does not last if the player captures one of that government's ships, whether the player uses it as an escort or keeps it for themselves. It's not the prettiest sight, either.

I'd recommend your idea, joonix.

Oh, and by-the-way, welcome to the forums! Enjoy your stay!

Thanks. I wasn't even sure there was an active forum here. But now that I know, I'm sure this board will be the best EVN resource I could hope to find.

So I was hoping to alter a few government-specific ships. I wanted to have Fed Carriers and Rebel IDA Frigates with with orange paint instead of blue or green paint, respectively. I was considering doing similar jobs on Lightnings, Valkyries, Vipers, and Mod Starbridges.

We could try it, I suppose. If I can get it into paint and then back into rle-form, then I'm set. It's just a shame no one developed an rle editor for Windows..

Many thanks,
joonix

Will that be including the shipyard images? I assume it would be, but just to be sure. Also, would you like the large 600x400 pixel info pictures as well?

I can do the IDA Frigate and the Fed Carrier, though I can't get rid of the insignias. I'll only do those two, though, until you're sure you want the other ships. I should have them before the end of today at Pacific time.

Oh yeah. The altered shipyard picts would be great, too. Looking through my Nova Files, if you're willing, I'd probably just want Rebel Valkyries, Rebel Lightnings, and Rebel Vipers all shifted from Green to Orange. And I'm not really worried about the insignias.

I found a prog called RezEditor which seems to be a Windows-based editor with some kind of rle editor built in. If only I could get it to work...

joonix

QUOTE (joonix @ Jan 28 2010, 08:47 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The EVN Bible doesn't seem to address this.

The Nova Bible is really a guide to the format, rather than a manual for any specific editor. I use it extensively when I'm working on a MissionComputer editor, but I don't really expect my users to do the same.

QUOTE (joonix @ Feb 1 2010, 09:57 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

If I can get it into paint and then back into rle-form, then I'm set. It's just a shame no one developed an rle editor for Windows..

EVNEW can apparently create RLEs; is there really no export command available when you're viewing them?

Also, I'm moving this over to the EV Developer's Corner forum, where it's more likely to get the attention it needs.

Alright, here it is! I've included all the graphics to make a functional ship. The shan resources all came from EVN for the weapon mounts as well as the engine glows, lights, and target images. The ship RLEs and the shipyard PICTs, though, are my work.

I'd also like to mention it wasn't easy making those ships look good in orange.

EVNEW creates RLEs very easily, but it does not export them as an RLE file or a resource file. It exports them as a image file (you can specify which format, I believe. It's been a while.)

To recolor a ship, why don't you just use a paint outfit and have it assigned standard to the ship? That should solve your problem and make life a lot simpler for you.

darthkev: My gods! These are epic! Thank you, sir! I really appreciate you going out of your way to do that for me. These will give me the motivation I need to actually finish this project.

krugeruwsp: ... You, sir, just made me feel like a complete idiot. I couldn't figure out how to export the images, but once you mentioned that EVNEW could export images, I see, for the first time, the drop-down file menu in the corner of the rle resource window. This completely solves what was definitely my single biggest problem with my plugin development.

On your other note, I dislike the paint outfit. I find the solid-color ships an eyesore, and would rather recycle default nova graphics for eternity than use the. Besides, the faction that will be using these could certainly afford a decent paint job for their ships.

joonix

Fair enough. The export image menu is a bit hidden in EVNEW, I will admit.

For quick and easy recolors, I use Macromedia Fireworks MX (which I think no longer exists, now that Adobe's bought Macromedia). There's a feature Modify > Adjust Color > Hue/Saturation. It gives you a slider, which will shift the ship's colors through the rainbow; very useful for 1 color+white/grey ships, like most of Nova. I haven't tried it myself, but there's a similar feature in GIMP, a free, open source image editor. I hear it's powerful, but with a steep learning curve. If you know anyone with Fireworks or Adobe Photoshop, you might be able to borrow their computer; otherwise I'd try GIMP.

Linkey:
http://www.gimp.org/downloads/

Here's a guide on how to do it:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Quick-Color-Change/ (the bit about feathering isn't necessary, as you'll probably be applying it to the entire image)

This isn't the same thing that I was talking about, but it may help:
http://www.ehow.com/how_2152270_adjust-hue...p-freeware.html

QUOTE (darthkev @ Feb 1 2010, 02:14 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'd also like to mention it wasn't easy making those ships look good in orange.

You did a pretty good job of converting all the ships to orange, but there are a few inconsistencies. For instance, the Fed Carrier's engines are bright blue, there are pink spots at the rear end of the IDA Frigate, and there are several other weird color instances on your recolored ships.

If you wouldn't mind, I can modify the files to make the coloring more natural.

This post has been edited by king_of_manticores : 06 February 2010 - 03:22 PM

Go right ahead. I would've fixed that myself, but got a little lazy. Plus, I quite like the blue engines. The pink, though, is very unbecoming, so if you can get rid of that, go ahead!

Though I am done, joonix and darthkev, I can't upload anything yet. My internet connections won't let me access many websites, so I can't access any filesharing networks to upload this file. I'll have it (hopefully) ready by tomorrow after someone fixes up our internet.

This post has been edited by king_of_manticores : 07 February 2010 - 09:37 PM

Just do what I did. Download Dropbox and you can upload any file anywhere for free. It's available for Mac, Windows, and even Linux. You get 2MB for free which should be more than enough for all your needs.

Try it out!

QUOTE (darthkev @ Feb 8 2010, 03:22 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Just do what I did. Download Dropbox and you can upload any file anywhere for free. It's available for Mac, Windows, and even Linux. You get 2MB for free which should be more than enough for all your needs.

Try it out!

There was another one I was using, but I couldn't remember its name. Crap. Anyways...

Here's the revamped version of the Orange Ships plug, hosted by DropBox. I got rid of the blue on the Fed Carrier (sorry, darthkev), and did my best to remove the pink spots. Sorry if the ships are grainy--the saturation did all that.

joonix, I've left a shïp placeholder for you. The way I set up the shäns and PICTs are so that everything starts at resource 500. Good luck to your plug-in.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4568545/Orange Ships v2.rez.zip

Pretty good, king, but your Fed Viper and RAGE could use a little improvement as the orange looks more like a dull brown or rust. One question, though: why did you change the target images?

QUOTE (darthkev @ Feb 9 2010, 12:12 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Pretty good, king, but your Fed Viper and RAGE could use a little improvement as the orange looks more like a dull brown or rust. One question, though: why did you change the target images?

First point: I think the Viper's just fine, but you're right on the RAGE.

Second point: Uh, oops. I had assumed that the new target images would be a bit more interesting to use than the standard red target pics.