I download Character Sprites from the add-ons on coldstones homepages.
But when i try to make th picture to NPC , it´s only turn to black when i play it. I have try to take the picture into Graphic Converter and take only one picture, but when i put it in to the game it only flashing in black.
Help me please!
/simon
------------------
Quote
Originally posted by Simomac:
**I download Character Sprites from the add-ons on coldstones homepages.
But when i try to make th picture to NPC , it´s only turn to black when i play it. I have try to take the picture into Graphic Converter and take only one picture, but when i put it in to the game it only flashing in black.
Help me please!
/simon
**
So many posts on this subject, I finally downloaded the "Zelda" sprites and took a look at them. Congradulations to someone; those are truly lovely sprites!
This is what I did to adapt one to Coldstone;
Working within PhotoShop (version 4.01), I pre-set a selection rectangle to exactly 32x32 pixels. With the Navigator view blown up to 400% I centered my selection on each character picture and cut-and-pasted into a new document.
In each of these new documents, I took a paint bucket with a tolerance of "1" and anti-alias DE-selected, and filled the background blue areas with pure white (not any white will do, it has to be the pure stuff or Coldstone will not render it as transparent).
I then changed the format and saved as the following names (I used the "Save a Copy As" command in PhotoShop but there are other ways);
Grace_walkN000.PCT
Grace_walkN001.PCT
Grace_walkE000.PCT
Grace_walkE001.PCT
Grace_walkS000.PCT
...
Grace_walkW001.PCT (8 pictures total for the Princess Grace walk animation)
...
...
Bard_walkN000.PCT (8 more pictures for each other character walk animation)
...
Troll_walkN000.PCT
...
Okay, I didn't go through the whole set. I just did enough to make sure my method was working.
The next step would be to open Coldstone and create a new animation. With that window still open go back to the Finder and drag and drop the pictures for one character in_order (N,E,S,W)
Hit the radio button for "directional 4", make sure you are in the "0-default" part of the animation, and set the following flags; for every one of the "-000" frames, flag "1" (set marker) and for every one of the "-001" frames, flag "2" (loop to last marker).
Finally, save this animation and within the NPC editor (map page), the main editor (misc. page), etc., you can select your new animation to be used.
(The method is vastly similar for the attack animation, which is a good thing to have for a player character. If this is saved in the same animation as part "1-attack" the game engine will select it automatically. The flags are not the same, however; consult your manual for more detail.)
------------------
everywhere else, it's --
"Nomuse"
Thank you Commander Arashi, for your help.
But when I am playing the game the NCP and the hero flashing.
I think it could be the I named my pictures into example Rikard.PICT and not Rikard.PCT.
But I can´t translate me PICT in to PCT.
I use Graphic Converter and I dont have Photo Shop 
If
------------------
Quote
Originally posted by Simomac:
**Thank you Commander Arashi, for your help.
But when I am playing the game the NCP and the hero flashing.
I think it could be the I named my pictures into example Rikard.PICT and not Rikard.PCT.
But I can´t translate me PICT in to PCT.
I use Graphic Converter and I dont have Photo Shop
If
**
PICT to PCT is easy. Change the name of the file! It's just a two different ways of spelling the same extension (and Coldstone is very, very specific about which spellings it will accept).
I'm not sure you understand the make-up of a sprite. Open the demo game in the "Wizards" folder from within Coldstone and click on the Hero animation. You will be able to see what graphic files are used and how they are organize.
My bad; the moment I hit frame two I found two ways of making the process faster and more accurate. Select-by-color for the entire document, and edit, fill, white. Then save the original as PCT. Now all you have to do is select, copy, paste, save -- 8 times per character, but still...
------------------
everywhere else, it's --
"Nomuse"
I have try to changes all the namne into PCT and do the animation agin. But it dident work
It works only if I translate the PICT to JPEG. But when i use JPEG, can I see whit lines and the background is not transparent. I think it is so becuse off JPEG have 256+ coluors and then it is differents whits colours in the bakground.
------------------
Quote
Originally posted by Simomac:
**I have try to changes all the namne into PCT and do the animation agin. But it dident work
It works only if I translate the PICT to JPEG. But when i use JPEG, can I see whit lines and the background is not transparent. I think it is so becuse off JPEG have 256+ coluors and then it is differents whits colours in the bakground.
**
Yes. As an artifact of JPEG compression, the colors are made "best choise"; not always true. Interesting to hear that JPEG goes display, though. Have you tried GIF? My guess is that will not work, as it uses indexed colors.
Aha. Since you mention JPEG, I have a possibility for your PICT problem. When you save your PICTS, do_not use the JPEG compression options. Save them uncompressed only.
------------------
everywhere else, it's --
"Nomuse"
Coldstone doesn't support the GIF format.
Something else to check - are your images RGB color, or are they indexed (8-bit)? Indexed color images don't work in Coldstone. If your images are (and if they're from bitmap sprites, it's quite possible) open 'em back up and convert 'em to RGB.
------------------
"A scientist can discover a new star, but he cannot make one. He would have to ask an engineer to do it for him."
Quote
Originally posted by Glenn:
**Coldstone doesn't support the GIF format.
Something else to check - are your images RGB color, or are they indexed (8-bit)? Indexed color images don't work in Coldstone. If your images are (and if they're from bitmap sprites, it's quite possible) open 'em back up and convert 'em to RGB.
**
The sprites opened in PhotoShop as RGB, and the one I tested works just great. I've uploaded one complete animation file, as a sample to be deconstructed, to my site -- (url="http://"http://home.earthlink.net/~nomuse/Grace_walk.zip")http://home.earthlin.../Grace_walk.zip(/url)
Maybe this will help people figure out how it works.
------------------
everywhere else, it's --
"Nomuse"
Okay there's some key elements you guys aren't keeping in mind.
Your hero or NPC are flashing because on of the animated cells doesn't have the proper white in the background. It ruins the transparency.
If you're concerned with what white to use to make something transparent...
here's the color coding:
255,255
Quote
Originally posted by Potatoman:
**Okay there's some key elements you guys aren't keeping in mind.
Your hero or NPC are flashing because on of the animated cells doesn't have the proper white in the background. It ruins the transparency.
If you're concerned with what white to use to make something transparent...
here's the color coding:
255,255
**
Read above posts (mine don't flash, thank you.)
------------------
everywhere else, it's --
"Nomuse"
I seem to be having a problem with one of my images.. no matter what I do, it keeps
on flashing!!!
See?
And it just scares the poor lady to death...
(I certainly hope this doesn't offend anyone. It certainly isn't meant to)
------------------
Surprise! You are the lucky winner of random I.R.S. Audit! Just type
in your name and social security number. Please remember that leaving
the room is punishable under law:
Name_______________________ SSN# --___
