Humm....

Hi, I need help with creating a ship in nova on a mac using osx and mission comp. I've got my thirty-six images, but how do I make them into the grid nova uses? Also, what other resources will I need to make for it to be flyable, but also a Caried fighter for a Warship?

Thanks,
Bird of War

You have to get w00tware's Sprites. It is located at: http://w00tware.ev-nova.net/
From there you can just read the readme to see which program to use. If I am not mistaken it will convert it to readable files in Mission Computer with RIDs of 128. Remember to make sure that your graphic IDs don't interfere with any current nova graphics. Also because Nova doesn't have full support for PICT based sprites, you can get from w00tware's page EnRLE and DeRLE. These will convert your pict sprites to RLED and/or RLE8 files.

It's been awhile since I played with fighter bays but I believe to make a ship carriable as a fighter you simply create a fighter bay as a weap resource and designate the ship's resource ID as the ammo. This is also a case where looking at the Nova files is a lot of help.

I also recommend Graphic Converter to export a concat 6x6 grid of your ship.

To make a ship flyable you will also need to specify values for the shän resource. As well as this you will have to make sure that the RID doesn't interfere with current RIDs. If you are having trouble with what any values are, turn to the Nova Bible. If you can't find you answer there, post here and you'll get some help.

Thanks for the replies, but I have another question. What are RLED and RLE8 Files?

Thanks,
Bird of War

They're sprites. Much better than pict sprites. the rleDs are the high color version, and if you want to make a low color version in case somehow someone still uses 8-bit color, that is, a mere 256 colors, you make an rle8.

Ok, but how do I change a PICT sptite into a rleD one? And where does nova store these?

Remember how I told you to go to http://w00tware.ev-nova.net ? It's there. It's called EnRLE and DeRNE. It's one download. Based on settings, EnRLE will encode and rle and DeRLE will decode it. Now, you see, there's actually a problem if you use MC. Only ResEdit and EVNEW can view RLE files. If you download ResEdit and w00tware's Nova Tools you can use them in ResEdit. ResEdit is actually a more capable program, but you can use either. Once you have used ResEdit in classic to get the right RID for your RLE files, go ahead and switch back to MC for everything else. I recommend ResEdit though.

I think I get that.. I'll see how far I can get.

Thanks, Bird of War

You know, it's funny. In Windows, I actually have the easiest time of changing a pict to an rleD. Export the base pict sprite grid to say, a png image file, do the same with the mask, then import them both into an rleD resource, all using EVNEW.

Ok, I'm still confused. What am I suposed to drop into Enrle so it will work?

Thanks,Bird of War

Drop the file you put into a grid with Sprites( http://w00tware.ev-nova.net ) into Enrle. Then check the right settings. From there's just hit 'Make RLE' or whatever it is. I'm not the best at explaining, but that's what I have to offer.

You'll need a spin resource as well. Just make a new spďn resource, enter the size of the sprite in the appropriate fields, and then drop the file onto EnRle.

Edwards

A spin if it's a weapon or planet, a shan if it's a ship.

CaptJosh, on Jun 11 2005, 05:22 PM, said:

A spin if it's a weapon or planet, a shan if it's a ship.
View Post

I think spďn resources can still be used with ships, its just that, like pict sprites, they will be ignored in favor of shäns with the same number. I have used spďn resources while making rlëds because I couldn't get the shän to not crash. Though I know that the data files use the spďn resource primarily for planets.
Spďns are used for asteroids and weapon sprites as well.
But if I am wrong (and you have tested it, as I intend to), please correct me.

(edit) I am very wrong. Spďns should not be used for ships as they do not allow for designation of weapon exit points or alternate frames (banking, flying animations, firing animations). Because of their worthlessness with ships I have not bothered to test if they work. And I recall that spöb resources will look for a spďn resource.(/edit)
(edit) sued replaced with used, hopefully this will clear up possible confusion. (/edit)

This post has been edited by Klepsacovic : 11 June 2005 - 06:09 PM

Ok, now I'm fed-up. I've tried puting a .rez file with the required Shan and the two grids, base and mask, I've tried the shan and two seperate files containing the base and mask, I've tried a shan and the 36 jpegs, so what will make this anoying program work.

Thank you,
Bird of War

.rez files won't work. If you mean a ResEdit file though then just make sure the resources have names else the resulting file will be hidden.

All right, I've tried to follow the advice you guys have given to me, but
I'm totally new at this and don't understand what half of it means. Sorry for the inconveniance, but can someone spell this out in as-plain-as-possible english? I just don't get it.

Sorry if I was a bit rude, but I'm a little fed-up at the moment.

Thanks,
Bird of War

Where are you up to? Did you get a sprite and mask from p2s?

(EDIT): Mission Computer's shan editor appears to have some fields messed up so I'd strongly suggest getting ResEdit with NovaTools.

Once you have the sprite and mask, open them with resedit and copy the picts into a single file. Create a new shan, being sure to give it a name and fill in the necessary info. Then you can drop the file onto EnRLE.

This post has been edited by Guy : 12 June 2005 - 12:52 AM