[Tutorial] Extremely Basic Sprites

SpacePirate

Quote

Originally posted by CaptAceHarddrive:
**Okay, boss! Here's mine!
ERASERHEAD
If ya can't tell, it's a "Pink Pearl" type of eraser replacing the Fed Carrier. I would have preferred it to replace the RAGE Gunboat, but when it was resized, it would have been too thin.

~Tim ^_-

**

Heh. You may consider adding more stuff, and entering it into the contest...

~ SP

------------------
Fear the SpacePirate,
He made a (url="http://"http://www.evula.org/infernostudios/search.html")plug-in search page(/url)...
And he'll board your ship! -mrxak
*** (url="http://"http://www.evula.org/infernostudios/")InfernoStudios(/url) was last updated 06 June, 2004. ***

Dr. Trowel

Quote

Originally posted by SpacePirate:
**Heh. You may consider adding more stuff, and entering it into the contest...;)

~ SP

**

CaptAce: Do that! (Or enter it pretty much as-is, if you want -- no plug too small, if it'll make people laugh!)

Orca: Time's short this AM, and I don't have time to check a couple of the things you mentioned -- but I thought I had been able to control "frames in seq" animation speed in my "Swamp" plug with the "AnimDelay" field.

Guest_Dr. rowel_*

Quote

Originally posted by CaptAceHarddrive:
**Okay, boss! Here's mine!
ERASERHEAD
If ya can't tell, it's a "Pink Pearl" type of eraser replacing the Fed Carrier. I would have preferred it to replace the RAGE Gunboat, but when it was resized, it would have been too thin.

~Tim ^_-

**

Dr. Trowel

Guess who had problems with "backspace" and "delete" when entering his user name? :redface:

Anyway, I can't get to "ERASERHEAD" -- I get a "server not found" error for "bcvrf.yahoo.com." :frown:

zmwworm

Very good, very helpful, and why didn't I guess that the PICT resource was the same as a PICT file? And will Appleworks 6.0 save as a pict? If not, then I'm going to have to wait till December when we might get the internet, and get Nova for my PC, and use the Photoshop on that.

CaptAceHarddrive

I edited the link, so it works now!

Sorry 'bout 'dat Chief!
~Tim ^_^

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"Hanging is too good for a man who makes puns; he should be drawn and quoted." --Fred Allen

orcaloverbri9

Quote

Originally posted by zmwworm:
Very good, very helpful, and why didn't I guess that the PICT resource was the same as a PICT file? And will Appleworks 6.0 save as a pict? If not, then I'm going to have to wait till December when we might get the internet, and get Nova for my PC, and use the Photoshop on that.

Why don't you check? :rolleyes: Yes, AW 6 will save as a PICT.

------------------
The programmer's code of entomology: there's always another bug.
There are 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary and those who have friends.
Windows users: stop asking for plugins. (url="http://"http://www.aznt.com/EVN/EVNEW/")Make one yourself.(/url)
(url="http://"http://www.cwssoftware.com")Sephil Saga Website(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.evula.org/infernostudios/search.html")Add-ons Search Engine(/url)

zmwworm

Because I'm on a PC, and ckecking would require walking about 8 miles home, looking it up, and walking 8 miles back, most likly forfeiting my internet time. At least it's better than the 13 miles in Hardin.

Dr. Trowel

Orcaloverbri9: Hmm. The old engine glows & lights are showing up with computer-controlled smilie-shuttles. I'll investigate further.

zmwworm: Glad you found the tutorial useful! Appleworks will indeed save files as PICTs. (You'd be OK if it didn't, though, since with NovaTools you get your pictures from your image-editing program to your plug using "Copy" and "Paste.")

CaptAceHarddrive: Thanks! I downloaded & unzipped successfully. Now I gotta locate my copy of the Win-to-Mac plug converter....

zmwworm

I tried copy-paste before, but I guess I need to try harder. (Was trying to change Jupiter to a Kerry station, sort of pointless without the Kerry ship.)

CaptAceHarddrive

You don't copy/paste the pic, you import the file you saved on your computer using the File>Import at the top of the Pďct resource input box.

~Tim ^_^

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"Hanging is too good for a man who makes puns; he should be drawn and quoted." --Fred Allen

Dr. Trowel

Quote

Originally posted by CaptAceHarddrive:
You don't copy/paste the pic, you import the file you saved on your computer using the File>Import at the top of the Pďct resource input box.

That depends. In EVNEW on a PC, you're right. In NovaTools on a Mac, you use copy/paste. I think zmwworm may be moving back and forth between the two platforms.

what_is_the_matrix

Quote

Originally posted by Dr. Trowel:
**Orcaloverbri9: Hmm. The old engine glows & lights are showing up with computer-controlled smilie-shuttles. I'll investigate further.
**

This usually happens when the AI tries to use a variant ship with unmodified shans. Don't forget that there must be a shan for each ship, so if there are four variants of the same ship that use the same graphics, then you have to change four shans.

Matrix

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"Interestingly, according to modern astronomers, space is finite. This is a very comforting thought -- particularly for people who can never remember where they have left things." - Woody Allen

(url="http://"http://htf.mondominishows.com/valentine/main.asp?seed=7375&serial;=214877")The funniest valentine I've ever gotten.(/url)

Dr. Trowel

Kwap. It looks like 'Matrix is likely right. I'll have to revise my tutorial.

Every ship in the game -- and that means every variant of every ship with different weapons and stats, not just each class of ship with different graphics -- has its own shďp resource (in Nova Data 1) and its own shän resource (see the Nova Ships 7 file for all the extra shäns for the variants!).

In his (smily) Tongue Shuttle plug, Orca followed my (bad) recommendation by including a replacement for only shän 128, which corresponds to the "Version A" stock shuttle that can be bought. For the other variants (the "Version B," the two "used" varieties, and the "economy at work" one), the plug provided no replacement, so the original shäns, which included references to the original lights and engine glows, continued to work. Orca had put his smily in (RLE-formatted) resources with numbers that matched the original ones for the shuttle, so all the variant shäns now pointed to his smily rather than to the original ship sprite. The Nova engine tried to be generous: it successfully displayed the smily base sprite for the variants, even though the dimensions of the smily (15 X 15) did not match those of the expected ship (24 X 24). (Also interesting: note that the variant shuttles stick out their tongues as they rotate, not as they prepare for hyperspace.)

The moral: make copies of your replacement shäns with ID numbers matching those of the pre-existing ones for all the variants. I'll adjust the tutorial to mention this.

Oh, this variants problem also explains why the "Eraserhead" replacement for the Fed Carrier only shows up for "Flagship" -type Carriers. Unlike Orca, CaptAceHarddrive followed my directions in using PICTs (not RLEs) for the sprite, and in using unused ID numbers for them instead of matching the IDs used for the original ship sprite. The unreplaced shäns for the variants therefore didn't point to the new graphic. As an added treat, Nova lost track of the hail and target PICTs for the variants....

Ugh. I'll try to get the tutorial fixed tomorrow.

CaptAceHarddrive

Whassup Doc? How come you're starting us off with sprites instead of with (as was suggested in another thread) something like dëscs? Just wonderin'.

~Tim ^_^

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"Hanging is too good for a man who makes puns; he should be drawn and quoted." --Fred Allen

orcaloverbri9

zmwworm: Sorry, That didn't occur to me. It just seemed to me that you would be on a Mac or you wouldn't be asking...

Dr. Trowel & matrix: Thanks! I wanted to make some changes anyway. I'll go fix that (and make sure it's Npïf/Növä ;).

------------------
The programmer's code of entomology: there's always another bug.
There are 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary and those who have friends.
Windows users: stop asking for plugins. (url="http://"http://www.aznt.com/EVN/EVNEW/")Make one yourself.(/url)
(url="http://"http://www.cwssoftware.com")Sephil Saga Website(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.evula.org/infernostudios/search.html")Add-ons Search Engine(/url)

Dr. Trowel

CaptAceHarddrive: Yeah, maybe I should have explained how to replace simple things like descs first. It's just that it is so simple that it didn't occur to me to say it. It goes something like this (quickie version):

1: dësc resources are used to store most of the text that appears in Nova. The brute-force way to find ones that you want to mess with is to use your plug-editing program to look through Nova Data 3, Nova Data 5. Nova Data 6, and Nova Ships 7. Copy the resources that you want to change into your new plug file (Use Copy/Paste in NovaTools, as in the sprite tutorial).
2) Open the dësc copies in your editor, and change the wording to suit your own warped tastes.
3) Save your plug.

Many of the PICTs in the game -- the landing scenes, the outfitter pics, the red ship target pics, and the small and large shipyard pics, for instance -- can be replaced almost as easily. Great hilarity can be thus unleashed.

(Eventually, though, you're going to want to know how to add new things to the game, rather than just fool with what is already there. For that you will need to get familiar with the Nova Bible and with other peoples' tutorials!)

Orcalover: if you are gonna revisit Tongue Shuttle, perhaps you'll try giving it glowing eyes? How 'bout a shield? This might work well: without bothering to match the number of base-sprite frames, set the Tongue Shuttle's shans to reference the engine glow from the Anaconda. I think you'll get a single spike of flame to indicate direction of travel.

zmwworm

Quote

Originally posted by orcaloverbri9:
zmwworm: Sorry, That didn't occur to me.

Sorry not nescesary. And this morning, I got copy-paste to work for my "Exploding Paint" picture, my problem was that I was trying to copy it into the planet, which can be a set of pictures.

Edit:And no switching, I've only got Nova on my mac.

(This message has been edited by zmwworm (edited 08-04-2004).)

Dr. Trowel

zmwworm: "Exploding Paint" picture? Sounds... messy. Messy can be good.... The silly plug contest awaits!

I'm still working on revising this tutorial, based on comments here and on my conversations with noba man and others (url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/webboard/Forum26/HTML/017889.html")in this thread.(/url) If Real Life gives me the time, I'll have it up later today.

By the way, if you are looking for other tutorials to take you farther (and in different directions), I commend to you (url="http://"http://www.ev-nova.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7605")Nova Lightbringer's list of tutorials(/url), at least until SpacePirate gets the list incorporated into his growing (url="http://"http://evula.org/infernostudios/plugdev/")Plugin guides(/url) collection.

(This message has been edited by Dr. Trowel (edited 08-10-2004).)

SpacePirate

Yeah, I already contacted Nova LB about that... Of course, you all know how slow I am about updating these things.... :redface:

~ SP

------------------
Fear the SpacePirate,
He made a (url="http://"http://www.evula.org/infernostudios/search.html")plug-in search page(/url)...
And he'll board your ship! -mrxak
*** (url="http://"http://www.evula.org/infernostudios/")InfernoStudios(/url) was last updated 06 June, 2004. ***

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