I'm just learning how to make planets in EVN. I think I did it correctly; at least it seems to work. I made a PICT resource of the planet, a corresponding mask and a spin resource in ResEdit just like I would for EVC/O. Then I dragged them onto EnRLE. That made the rleD and rle8 resources which I put in a plug. It works! When I checked the Nova files in ResEdit, I see that the spin resource for the planets is in there. Is this necessary? I tried my plug with and without the spin resource and it seems to work either way. I'm confused.

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BIBLE: Basic Information Before Leaving Earth

The spďn resource should be necessary. I think that if your plug is working correctly without it then something else is going on. To have a correctly constructed and effecient plug, for a planet you should have several resources (just one of each for each planet): spöb, spďn, rlë8 and/or rlëD. The rles should reference the PICT resource IDs. (At this point, the PICTs are not necessary and can be deleted.) The spďn should reference the rle ID. And the spöb should reference the spďn. Then of course you need a s˙st to put the spöb in. If you're planet is somehow showing up without a spin resource, I'm guessing it may be referring to a spin that already exists by default.

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OK, I see what you're saying. I'm replacing a planet so by removing the spin resource from my plug it was still really there. The thing that confused me was that the spin resource references a pict and a mask and there is no mask. You said that there should be an "rlë8 and/or rlëD" resource. Not Both? How come EVN has both? Should I use both as long as EnRLE generates them or should I just pick one? Which one? I'm getting closer to understanding this. Thanks.

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BIBLE: Basic Information Before Leaving Earth

The graphics for a planet are pulled from spin 1000+(Graphics field of spob), which must be a number between 0 and 255 (Higher numbers cause instability on PC nova but not Mac nova. DO NOT ever do something that causes crossplatform incompatability.)

Heres the deal with RLEs:
If there is an RLE with the ID of the pict referenced, the mask field is ignored. I have set it to a variety of values with no ill effects.
You MUST include an RLED, becase that is required for PC nova, as well as for Mac nova in 16 bit color mode. The RLE8 is only used by mac nova, and only when the color depth is 8-bit. Very few people run 8-bit color, but it couldnt hurt to include it (actually, it could, but only if download time/bandwidth is really tight)
-Az

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(This message has been edited by Azratax2 (edited 02-05-2004).)

I've got a question along these lines.

I've just starting fiddling around with LunarCell (great PS plugin, BTW), and trying to make my own planets. Here's what I've done:

-Made a planet in LunarCell, black background.
-Made a mask, by magic-wanding the black with a tolerance of 1 (no anti-aliasing), and copy/pasting it over a white background.
-Saved both as PICT resources.
-Pasted them into a new ResEdit document, PICT ID 1000, mask ID 1001.
-Made a spin resource, referencing the pict and mask IDS (ID 128).

I then dragged this only EnRLE, and I didn't get any sort of error message. HOWEVER, I can't find where it outputted the converted files, or even if it outputted anything. They're not in the EnRLEDeRLE folder, not on the desktop, not in the origin folder of the original file, not at the root level of the HD, not in the Nova folder.....

Anyone want to make a guess at what happened?

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I've had this problem as well, mostly with DeRLE.

I was playing around with the standard cursor (which now switches from easter colors, to the standard red with green fillings in the moving arrows to the standard red and back again ) and I began trying to edit some of the weapons to create oddities that would make the game a bit more eye pleasing (the superheavy blaster being a bit redder, etc). After finding a particularily easy to deal with RLE8 from Nova Graphics 2, I dropped it into DeRLE and searched and searched for the outputted PICTS to edit in Appleworks.

Finally, after doing this multiple times in many styles (separate folders, different locations), I came to the realization that DeRLE was creating invisible RESEdit files. Invisible ones that I can't delete now clutter my desktop and tons of folders. And worst off, they're not even correct! All I have are superheavy blaster masks with the color removed!!!

Try searching those folders with RESEdit's "open" window. If you find them, they'll probably be black and white holes in the black background, same as here (or not, since you were doing the opposite). If you do find them, if you can figure out a way to get rid of them, please tell me!

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When viewing a Terrapin for the first time, I realized that anything flies-if you throw it hard enough!

Well, I figured it out. EnRLE was creating files with the names ".relD" and ".rle8", with nothing before the file extension. For some reason, this made them invisible, even though the "Invisible" flag wasn't active.

I made them visible by using the "Get File/Folder Info" option in the ResEdit file menu, and renaming them.

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Okay, thanks for that solution.

I think the problem is not dealing with finding and deleting these invisible files, but figuring out what's wrong with EnDLE and DeDLE that causes this though.

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When viewing a Terrapin for the first time, I realized that anything flies-if you throw it hard enough!

^I agree. I'd hate to have to do that for every single planet I make.

Out of curiosity: It was said above that its best to include both a rleD and a rle8 for each object. However, the spin resource is very specific about which kind of resource its looking for----rleD or rle8. Do I need two spins, one for each, or is the engine smart enough to automatically switch to rle8s in 256 color mode?

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I just have a question, completely irrelevant to what you just said.

When you finally got your RLE8 and RLED's, were they intact, just as you had them when you tried to import them into the Nova format, or where they screwed up (i.e. black and white masks instead of color)?

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When viewing a Terrapin for the first time, I realized that anything flies-if you throw it hard enough!

They seemed to be fine.

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