Home » MODDING HQ 1.13 » v1.13 Modding, Customising, Editing » v1.13 Modding, Customising, Editing » Usermade Faces Data Bank
Re: Usermade Faces Data Bank[message #259253] Thu, 12 August 2010 06:50 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Marlboro Man

 
Messages:1159
Registered:October 2005
Location: USA
That dosen't look bad. Smile She could also be used as Meltdown too. Wink

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Sergeant Major

Re: Usermade Faces Data Bank[message #259294] Thu, 12 August 2010 17:01 Go to previous messageGo to next message
kris_h is currently offline kris_h

 
Messages:7
Registered:February 2010
Location: Katowice, Poland
Haha, some pretty bold statements out there!

Quote:
I've got good looking pics, but I have no idea how to changed the coloring to JA2 style.


There's a "replace color" function in Photoshop. If you play with it for a while, you can get some pretty oldschool, JA2-style effects. But be prepared, the face is going to look, hm, worse than the original photo (some people would say: ugly) Very Happy

Quote:
Where did you get the pic from?.... Don't say it's your mother or we're all going to hell.


Flickr. My mom is a lot meaner. You know, its tough here in Poland, you can easily get killed by polar bears or yetis if you leave your home without an AK-47.

Quote:
Prolly it's a polish women.


Yep, Polish beauty at its best. If you'd like, I can make some portraits with German beauties:

http://i449.photobucket.com/albums/qq217/kristofer_h/germangirls1.jpg

Wink

Gorro der Gr

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Private
Re: Usermade Faces Data Bank[message #259357] Fri, 13 August 2010 08:21 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Hachiryoku is currently offline Hachiryoku

 
Messages:97
Registered:June 2009
Do you have the original photo for comparison?

I've actually been using MS paint......... sad but true. I resize the pics with MS word.

My guns and items come out really good (IMO), but I'm not sure I could get the faces to look JA2 with that combination unless I use a pic that someone has already modded.

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Corporal 1st Class
Re: Usermade Faces Data Bank[message #259401] Fri, 13 August 2010 19:56 Go to previous messageGo to next message
silversurfer

 
Messages:2793
Registered:May 2009
Hachiryoku

I've actually been using MS paint......... sad but true. I resize the pics with MS word.



Why not use GIMP? It's free and much more powerful than Paint.

http://www.gimp.org

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Lieutenant
Re: Usermade Faces Data Bank[message #259424] Sat, 14 August 2010 02:34 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Hachiryoku is currently offline Hachiryoku

 
Messages:97
Registered:June 2009
I tried that once. It attempted to make my computer sick and I uninstalled it. I do not think it was a virus. It was a compatability issue or something.

I'm currently experimenting with different programs. I've been using a face filter and MS Picture Editor.

This one was changed a little with face filter;
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v377/hachi-ryoku/JA2/210big2.jpg

I messed with the colors on this one with MS picture editor;
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v377/hachi-ryoku/JA2/36big.jpg
My biggest problem on this one, was that when I put a black background in, it was really hard to see the hair, which gave it a funny look. That's why I left it with a whitish background.

On both, I did final editing for facial movements and sizing with MS Paint and Word though. Word is nice because it keeps the picture together better as you take it down in size.

I think all I really need is one program that can do more with colors and I'm gold. The pictures in this game are generally small enough that editing for facial movements and size is easy with word and paint.

I'm still tinkering. I may actually get somewhere when I get more time.

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Corporal 1st Class
Re: Usermade Faces Data Bank[message #259971] Fri, 20 August 2010 12:59 Go to previous messageGo to next message
K0ukku is currently offline K0ukku

 
Messages:188
Registered:December 2009
Can't figure out how to install wraith, I unpacked the file to Data/faces and it doesnt work, do I have to change somethin in the ja2_options.ini or what? I am a total noob and don't know jackshit, I need all the necessary instructions.

Also I'd like to get the 2nd row, third dude from the left, you know the hot lady from 2nd page of this thread.
http://img714.imageshack.us/img714/3430/npc2.png

I downloaded the zip which is here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?unm2ckjt3dn

How do I install this? It seems that there's one folder for each merc.

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Re: Usermade Faces Data Bank[message #259972] Fri, 20 August 2010 13:05 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Logisteric

 
Messages:3199
Registered:December 2008
Location: B
they need to be renamed and correctly packed to be of any use - unfortunately they are not ready to use in that zipfile (just had a look)

edith: the ini has got nothing to do with it

folder 'faces' with subfolders 'bigfaces', '33face' and '65face' the sti. are to be renamed 2##.sti in any (sub)folder with 2## depending on what face they are to replace

[Updated on: Fri, 20 August 2010 19:10] by Moderator

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Captain
Re: Usermade Faces Data Bank[message #259994] Fri, 20 August 2010 18:41 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Logisteric

 
Messages:3199
Registered:December 2008
Location: B
can some face-drawer please tell me what

15x14, 31X27, 48x43, 90x100 - bigface is obvious

are supossed to mean folder-wise? we have a bigfaces-, 33face-, 65face- and faces-folders and sometimes '...'A-pix
it would be far easier for everyone if pix were upped 'ready to go' instead of 'sort it out'

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Captain
Re: Usermade Faces Data Bank[message #260253] Sun, 22 August 2010 04:06 Go to previous messageGo to next message
K0ukku is currently offline K0ukku

 
Messages:188
Registered:December 2009
Man... someone call Samuel L. Jackson to do new sound acting for the black man, how awesome would that be? Ving Rhames would do also.

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Staff Sergeant
Re: Usermade Faces Data Bank[message #260260] Sun, 22 August 2010 08:44 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Kaerar is currently offline Kaerar

 
Messages:2022
Registered:January 2003
Location: Australia :D
Can get sound samples of them from nearly every film they have been in. Only thing that would be hard is getting them describing Crepitus, but I guess you could just use some funny quotes instead Wink

At Logi, stop being a Mac user and use ya brain Wink
They are quite simple to install (there have even been tutorials written on how to install them...).

Just for you though:

Most have set eye and mouth coords so don't alter that number unless you know what you are doing...

The 90x100 goes in Bigface
The 48x43 goes in the main Faces folder as the number ID of the Character being replaced.
The 31x27 goes in 65Face
The 15x14 goes in 33Face

There are even templates sitting in the "Data-1.13\Faces\" folder from the inclusion of UB's characters...

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Lieutenant

Re: Usermade Faces Data Bank[message #260262] Sun, 22 August 2010 10:00 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Logisteric

 
Messages:3199
Registered:December 2008
Location: B
thx - thought that was somewhere, but didn't find it

about that coords-stuff see #259972

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Captain
Re: Usermade Faces Data Bank[message #260266] Sun, 22 August 2010 10:52 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Logisteric

 
Messages:3199
Registered:December 2008
Location: B
okay just checked - with 33 and 65 your right

90/100 seems to be not bigface - it's to be called B### and it's used for npc-interaction - bigface is the one called bigface in my stis. :devilaugh:

again why don't you guys pack them 'ready to go'? don't understand why i have to ask mr. sci that :thinkerg:

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Captain
Re: Usermade Faces Data Bank[message #260416] Tue, 24 August 2010 01:48 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Jerry is currently offline Jerry

 
Messages:28
Registered:February 2002
Kazuya
dave17

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b144/Navetsea/ladybig.png
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b144/Navetsea/kath.jpg

Does anyone have a functioning STI for this?


As far as I know, there are no STI versions and the JA2 archive just contains the bmp files for the first girl in 90x100 and another chick.
I don't know where to get the second girl.
I you want to use them for your own mercs, you have to create at least the 48x43 versions, otherwise they will be of very little use to you.
The ladybig.png file from the archive has the wrong dimensions, so it needs to be resized as well. On top of that, all images have way to many colours. Usually around 4000. Sti files use reduced colour palettes with a maximum of 256 colours. If you have done all this, you will notice that the chicks will stick out, because they are too pale. So you probably want to recolour them as well.
See for yourself: http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/5381/testfn.png

I could do all of this, it is not too much of a hazzle, since the animations are already there. So, if no one has working sti files, just send me a PM and tell me who you want to replace.



If you're still doing this, I'd like to see the two middle ones as imps. (208 and 209 maybe?)

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Private 1st Class
Re: Usermade Faces Data Bank[message #260467] Tue, 24 August 2010 16:42 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Kazuya is currently offline Kazuya

 
Messages:208
Registered:January 2009
Jerry
If you're still doing this, I'd like to see the two middle ones as imps. (208 and 209 maybe?)

You sir, are lucky. My laptop overheated while I was away and a lot of my files were destroyed, but the two beauties are among the suvivors. I made the sti files when dave17 requested them. I have uploaded them to my public mediafire account:
http://www.mediafire.com/?b9973gt9u898bg5
http://www.mediafire.com/?e2162nav6u0e4ap
dave17 requested them for the slots 209 and 210. each zip file contains a coordinates.txt with the coordinates for eyes and mouth, so you could try to adjust the coordinates in STI-Edit or reedit them yourself. The eyes and mouth coordinates for 210 are:
eyes x=4 y=4
mouth x=5 y=25 (if I am not mistaken)

If you don't want to do that, you have to either live with the fact that they are made for 209 and 210 or wait until I get everything set up again, because I don't have the means nor the time to reedit them myself right now.

Put the files into:
bigface.sti goes to faces\bigface\
48x43 goes to the faces\
31x27 goes to faces\65face\
15x14 goes to faces\33face\

There they have to be renamed to 209.sti or 210.sti (the coordinates.txt will tell you which one)

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Sergeant 1st Class
Re: Usermade Faces Data Bank[message #260666] Thu, 26 August 2010 22:12 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Jerry is currently offline Jerry

 
Messages:28
Registered:February 2002
Cool, thanks. Sorry to hear about your bad luck though.

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Private 1st Class
Re: Usermade Faces Data Bank[message #260681] Fri, 27 August 2010 00:41 Go to previous messageGo to next message
wanne (aka RoWa21) is currently offline wanne (aka RoWa21)

 
Messages:1961
Registered:October 2005
Location: Austria
Hi guys, has anyone of you working download links for the faces in the 5th post (#216009) in this thread?

EDIT: I have found them. They are located here:
http://kermi.kapsi.fi/ja2/faces/

[Updated on: Fri, 27 August 2010 01:01] by Moderator

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Sergeant Major

Re: Usermade Faces Data Bank[message #262030] Thu, 09 September 2010 13:35 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Kazuya is currently offline Kazuya

 
Messages:208
Registered:January 2009

http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/3161/killerimps.png

Okay, before anyone points out that those suckers are already in the game: Yeah, I know. I created the missing files to use them as IMPs (Just copy the files). You can use their pictures to replace other hirable characters as well. Their coordinates can be found in the readme.txt.

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?68w664t9oxpekki

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Sergeant 1st Class
Re: Usermade Faces Data Bank[message #262050] Thu, 09 September 2010 20:12 Go to previous messageGo to next message
sorca_2 is currently offline sorca_2

 
Messages:202
Registered:September 2010
Location: California, USA
K0ukku
Man... someone call Samuel L. Jackson to do new sound acting for the black man, how awesome would that be?

Kaerar
Can get sound samples of them from nearly every film they have been in. Only thing that would be hard is getting them describing Crepitus, but I guess you could just use some funny quotes instead Wink


Here a few funny ones I thought of and/or found. Sorry for the profanity, but you asked for it.

Spotting an enemy:
"...you're the evil man, and I'm the righteous man, and Mr. 9mm here, he's the sheperd protecting my righteous ass in the Valley of Darkness."
(Pulp Fiction)

Renewing contract:
"That's how that s*** works: you get your ass in trouble, I get your ass out. That's my m*****f*****' job. And I don't mind telling you, it's steady work."
(Jackie Brown)

Upon getting clearing a sector:
"YES THEY DESERVED TO DIE, I HOPE THEY BURN IN HELL!"
(A Time to Kill)

Upon seeing a ton of enemies:
"Hold on to yer butts..."
(Jurassic Park)

Trying to make an impossible shot:
"My ass may be dumb, but I ain't no dumbass."
(Jackie Brown)

After exploding a head:
"What the f*** happened to you, man? S***, your ass used to be beautiful!"
(Jackie Brown)

Getting an awesome weapon:
"The very best there is. When you absolutely, positively have to kill every m*****f***** in the room, accept no substitutes."
(Jackie Brown)

Crepitus:
"Enough is enough! I have had it with these m*****f****** [bugs] [in] this m*****f****** [cave!]"
(Snakes on a Plane (with a little help from editing))

When an enemy shoots a near-miss:
"Hate to shatter your ego, but this ain't the first time I've had a gun pointed at me."
(Pulp Fiction)

OR:
"I mean, it could be that God stopped the bullets, or He changed Coke to Pepsi, He found my f******' car keys. You don't judge s*** like this based on merit. Now, whether or not what we experienced was an "According to Hoyle" miracle is insignificant, but what is significant is I felt the touch of God. God got involved."
(Pulp Fiction)

And finally, killing the Queen:
"The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of the darkness. For he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know I am the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you."
(Pulp Fiction)

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Sergeant 1st Class
Re: Usermade Faces Data Bank[message #262060] Thu, 09 September 2010 23:40 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Loucipher

 
Messages:157
Registered:October 2009
Some of them just plain rock, but some are a bit too lengthy. Remember, JA2 is a game, not a movie Smile

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Staff Sergeant
Re: Usermade Faces Data Bank[message #262064] Fri, 10 September 2010 00:17 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Logisteric

 
Messages:3199
Registered:December 2008
Location: B
lucy, you have 255 225 letters for that

[Updated on: Fri, 10 September 2010 00:25] by Moderator

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Captain
Re: Usermade Faces Data Bank[message #262109] Fri, 10 September 2010 14:01 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Loucipher

 
Messages:157
Registered:October 2009
Logi: that was not my idea to use those long quotes, it was sorca_2 who proposed them Smile
Anyway, I think the toughest part about using these quotes would be convincing Samuel L. Jackson to actually record these lines for the game Smile

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Staff Sergeant
Re: Usermade Faces Data Bank[message #262110] Fri, 10 September 2010 14:06 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Logisteric

 
Messages:3199
Registered:December 2008
Location: B
i know, thought you were thinking they were 'technically' too long

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Captain
Re: Usermade Faces Data Bank[message #262115] Fri, 10 September 2010 15:22 Go to previous messageGo to next message
K0ukku is currently offline K0ukku

 
Messages:188
Registered:December 2009
Man, those Sam. Jackson lines souns good. Here's some too from Long Kiss Goodnight (if you havent seen it, it's a decent 90's action flick).

After getting shot:

Mitch Henessey( Sam.J): Oh, shit! Ah, that hurt like shit!

When Fox excells in the battlefield:

Mitch Henessey: You foxy bitch.

When assaulting enemy base:

Mitch: I'm goin' in.

When the player gives an impossible target:

Mitch: Yeah. What's the weather like on your planet?

From Basic after clearing sector:

Sgt. Nathan West: So pretty. So dead.

[Updated on: Fri, 10 September 2010 15:31] by Moderator

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Staff Sergeant
Re: Usermade Faces Data Bank[message #262148] Fri, 10 September 2010 23:13 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Loucipher

 
Messages:157
Registered:October 2009
Hey, these are nice, too Smile And doable - short and concise, yet, they deliver their payload Smile
(especially that one about Fox... Very Happy )

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Staff Sergeant
Re: Usermade Faces Data Bank[message #267380] Thu, 25 November 2010 07:38 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Hawkeye is currently offline Hawkeye

 
Messages:2413
Registered:October 2005
Location: Australia
Hey folks,

I have been dusting off my old pixel pushing skills and getting together a face for an upcoming Merc who I will also record the speech for...
https://hosting.photobucket.com/albums/aa9/collector_hawkes/Arsenal.gif

What my question is, in regard to the mouth and eye animations in the Sti, Now I understand the concept that the Sti's use small chunks of the eye area and mouth area of the characters face which in turn has it's co-ordinates used in game to overlay these accordingly.

Now I was just wondering would there be any problem using a whole change of face art for the different expressions? For example can I have a unique facial expression for say eyebrows raised? Which would use the entire 48 x 43 pixels for that expression? Not a chopped down view that crops the image and uses co-ordinates?

From an artists perspective this gives me a few more options and details in the expression, but wanted to check if this is even plausible? Would there be much work involved to have a face arranged like this? That is if it's possible?

Appreciate any answers with this.

[Updated on: Fri, 12 June 2020 06:41]

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Lieutenant

Re: Usermade Faces Data Bank[message #267404] Thu, 25 November 2010 23:26 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Kazuya is currently offline Kazuya

 
Messages:208
Registered:January 2009
Hawkeye

What my question is, in regard to the mouth and eye animations in the Sti, Now I understand the concept that the Sti's use small chunks of the eye area and mouth area of the characters face which in turn has it's co-ordinates used in game to overlay these accordingly.

Now I was just wondering would there be any problem using a whole change of face art for the different expressions. For example can I have a unique facial expression for say eyebrows raised? Which would use the entire 48 x 43 pixels for that expression? Not a chopped down view that crops the image and uses co-oridinates?

From an artists perspective this gives me a few more options and details in the expression, but wanted to check if this is even plausible? Would there be much work involved to have a face arranged like this? That is if it's possible?

Appreciate any answers with this.


Well, there is a good reason why the eyes and mouth animations are stored in smaller pieces. The animation technique used by JA2 for the faces is called dirty rectangle animation. Your approach of using a subsurface with the same size as the original portrait goes against the very concept of dirty rectangle animation and several problems will inevitably arise.

As you correctly pointed out, the subsurfaces of the eyes and mouth are blited over at special coordinates in order to show up at the right place. If you insert a subsurface with the dimension of the portrait, that subsurface will be blited to the lower right, unless the coordinates are set to (0,0). Setting the eye coordinates to (0,0) is possible, but then all subsurfaces for the eyes have to use those coordinates as well.
You can not however use (0,0) for the mouth coordinates. The mouth coordinates should always have a higher y-value than the y-value of the eyes plus the height of the eyes subsurfaces. Setting the y-value of the mouth to zero will inevitably blit over the eye animation and therefore interfere with it.

Another point that you will have to keep in mind is that a new face surface stored in the eyes-section, has to use the same coordinates for the eyes and mouth as the original face. You will also lose the "original" eye-bows up animation of course. Not to mention that you might run into more trouble, if the game decides to draw your new eyebrows up surface and then an unaltered part like the eyebrows down. What will happen then, is that the game draws the eyebrows down over your new face, thinking that it merely draws new eyes on the original face. This means, that you don't get that much artistic freedom as you may have hoped. In case you got confused, let me tell it cristal clear:

Your new face, has to be compatible with the mouth animation of the original face and any unaltered eye animations have to be compatible with your new face, which effectively means, that your new face has to have the mouth and eyes at the exact same spot (not just coordinates!) as the original face.

On top of all this, there might be more trouble with the source code, because you will have to tell the game somehow, to keep the eyebrows up for your character. Otherwise your portrait might just change for a second and switch back after that (and then maybe forth again, depending if the game decides to use the eyebrows up again), which might end up looking like and epileptic attack.

So to summarize it: Yes, it might be possible to do something like that, but the gain will be very limited and I don't think it is worth the hassle.

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Sergeant 1st Class
Re: Usermade Faces Data Bank[message #267411] Fri, 26 November 2010 03:05 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Hawkeye is currently offline Hawkeye

 
Messages:2413
Registered:October 2005
Location: Australia
Thanks for the detailed answer Kazuya. I figured later after posting that I'd forgotten that splitting the eyes and mouth into parts gives more options, as in if I drew a complete 48 x 43 face with eyebrows raised I only have one mouth to use (the one on the same picture.) Understand code would have to be edited also.

Guess I was just thinking a bit outside the square, but things will be simpler working with the correct, existing system, even if movement is a bit limited.

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Lieutenant

Re: Usermade Faces Data Bank[message #267532] Mon, 29 November 2010 09:03 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Hawkeye is currently offline Hawkeye

 
Messages:2413
Registered:October 2005
Location: Australia
Has anyone noticed a loss in the number of colours of their face after loading a BMP in the Sti editor? I currently am working from an indexed image (under 256 colours) which I have then converted to a BMP. All seems okay there, but once I load the BMP into the Sti editor there seems a significant loss of colour depth in the replaced image, almost as if it's only 16 colours.

https://hosting.photobucket.com/albums/aa9/collector_hawkes/Sti_palette.jpg image in Sti
https://hosting.photobucket.com/albums/aa9/collector_hawkes/My_indexed_palette.jpg original indexed image

I've been trying to find more info regarding Sti's palettes, even how the game engines makes use of them, as I have also noticed characters drawn by Sir Tech do not use the full amount of their 256 colour slots (and no I'm not referring to mask or background colours either) there is a full set of gradients in different colours within the 256 palette, but not all of them are used in the visible image, so I am wondering if the editor is somehow reducing my existing palette to make room for something else or there is some conflict going on with the transfer of my converted BMP image?

I have also attempted to load palettes, but these seem very hit and miss, and just about useless if there is no remap function, but perhaps I am using it the wrong way.

Looking at the current palette that the Sti is using there are a lot of colours that seem to have come out of nowhere, noticeably yellows and Magentas, Aqua blues and purples all of which are not in my faces original image or palette. Where has the Sti inherited these from?

[Updated on: Fri, 12 June 2020 06:36]

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Lieutenant

Re: Usermade Faces Data Bank[message #267534] Mon, 29 November 2010 12:08 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Kazuya is currently offline Kazuya

 
Messages:208
Registered:January 2009
Ah, this reminds me of my earlier days, when I first started making my own new faces! Very Happy
I remember quite well, how I was about to lose my mind over this. You may have now one face that gets screwed up, when you want to convert it to sti, but imagine what it feels like, when you have done a dozen faces and now you realize they all get fucked up in STI Edit. :roulette:

The routine that STI Edit uses in order to determine the colour palette of a bmp file is probably screwed up. Don't worry though, because there are several ways to bypass this.

1. Use GRV. Remove all pictures in the sti file and paste your face into the file. A dialog window will pop up. Just hit okay and you'll have the propper palette for your picture (the picture should be reduced to 255 colours of course, before you do this).

2. Export the palette in photoshop and import it in sti. I have done this only once, and can't tell, if the colours were 100% correct, but it worked fine.

3. Double click on the colours in the palette in STI Edit and set them one by one to the correct colour values by hand and paste in the original face picture. (Use this method only, if you have too much time and if you are extremly masochistic.)

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Sergeant 1st Class
Re: Usermade Faces Data Bank[message #267536] Mon, 29 November 2010 12:21 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Hawkeye is currently offline Hawkeye

 
Messages:2413
Registered:October 2005
Location: Australia
Yeah it's a little like wading through concrete, but always the way when getting to grips with in-house tools!

Sooooo what's GRV?

I haven't worked with indexed images in this context for a long time, and never found BMP's were all that clever at handling them, it probably doesn't help I'm using ancient tools like Dpaint, but I'm a bit set in my ways.

Funny you mention editing the correct colour values by hand, it sometimes unfortunately is an option, but lets hope not in this case.

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Re: Usermade Faces Data Bank[message #267537] Mon, 29 November 2010 12:38 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Kazuya is currently offline Kazuya

 
Messages:208
Registered:January 2009
GRV is the Game Resource Viewer
http://www.fallout-files.de/index.php?c=details&f_id=52&go

scroll down, until you see the line:
"Bitte hier hier klicken."

It means: please click here"
And you should be able to download it.


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Re: Usermade Faces Data Bank[message #267576] Tue, 30 November 2010 04:00 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Hawkeye is currently offline Hawkeye

 
Messages:2413
Registered:October 2005
Location: Australia
Where's that gun?

Only joking Kazuya, thanks for the instructions. Plan 1 didn't work, the palette was still coming out in a limited range as before, this was the first time I've used paste clipboard image, so gave that a go in Sti editor also, but still the same results.

So on to plan 2. I loaded my image in Photoshop, saved palette in Photoshop as:

Image Mode> color table >save...

Then loaded up that palette in the Sti editor, however the image had not updated, so I again had to reload the image with the paste clipboard image and finally my Merc appears as he should!

That was the first time I'd used to paste clipboard button as I'd heard bad things about it, but appears to work so far. I did notice Sti did decide to spazz out some of my frames though, almost at random when loading in new images, for example I loaded frame 6, then when returning to frame 0 it was all buggered, so had to reload that one again, Nice! So as mentioned by another poster on here regular saving is a must!

Well that's one big hurdle jumped, just need to crop the mouths and eyes and we should be cooking.

[Updated on: Tue, 30 November 2010 04:03] by Moderator

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Lieutenant

Re: Usermade Faces Data Bank[message #267577] Tue, 30 November 2010 04:26 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Kazuya is currently offline Kazuya

 
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Registered:January 2009
Hawkeye
Where's that gun?

Only joking Kazuya, thanks for the instructions. Plan 1 didn't work, the palette was still coming out in a limited range as before, this was the first time I've used paste clipboard image, so gave that a go in Sti editor also, but still the same results.

Are you sure, that you pasted the correct image and not the damaged one from STI Edit in GRV? (Again, when you use GRV, delete all pages in the sti file, before you paste your face.) Because it works perfectly for me and this is the way, I create all my STI portrait files. The only thing you have to look out for, ist that you paste a picture with only 255 colours and the picture mustn't have any pixels in it with the RGB value (0,0,0) <- This value is often treated as the colour key value, so hands off of it.

Hawkeye
That was the first time I'd used to paste clipboard button as I'd heard bad things about it, but appears to work so far. I did notice Sti did decide to spazz out some of my frames though, almost at random when loading in new images, for example I loaded frame 6, then when returning to frame 0 it was all buggered, so had to reload that one again, Nice! So as mentioned by another poster on here regular saving is a must!

I found this to be irritating at first too, but it's not really an issue for me anymore. I select the parts that I want to past and hit Ctrl+C in my graphics program, in STI Edit it's just Ctrl+V to paste the clipboard. If STI Edit decides to paste its own psychedelic coloured version of my picture, You just need to hit the save button and press Ctrl+V again. That should solve the problem.

Hawkeye
Well that's one big hurdle jumped, just need to crop the mouths and eyes and we should be cooking.

Glad, I could help.

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Re: Usermade Faces Data Bank[message #267578] Tue, 30 November 2010 04:36 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Hawkeye is currently offline Hawkeye

 
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Kazuya

Are you sure, that you pasted the correct image and not the damaged one from STI Edit in GRV? (Again, when you use GRV, delete all pages in the sti file, before you paste your face.) Because it works perfectly for me and this is the way, I create all my STI portrait files. The only thing you have to look out for, ist that you paste a picture with only 255 colours and the picture mustn't have any pixels in it with the RGB value (0,0,0) <- This value is often treated as the colour key value, so hands off of it.


No, all of my imported faces come from another folder in BMP format, I've actually got formats coming out my arse at the moment, with Dpaint using PCX's (yeah real old skool!) then BMP's in Photoshop and this sacred Sti format!
I do have a solid black in my palette, which wasn't being grabbed in the cut and paste, but all I did was fill those missing bits in in the Sti editor, I may just lift the values a fraction to avoid any issues if it's likely to cause problems, traditionally in games we've always used a way out colour for masks or transparent backgrounds in games such as a bright acid green or eye aching magenta!

The mental palette corrupts are a pain, but as you say easily fixed, I just wish things were a bit more stable though for something pretty basic.

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Re: Usermade Faces Data Bank[message #267668] Thu, 02 December 2010 07:17 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Hawkeye is currently offline Hawkeye

 
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Palettes are a real contention with me now.

I find it surprising the Sti editor saves BMP's to an RGB image rather than an indexed one, considering the file only contains a limited indexed image of 256 colours.

I have now moved on and have been working on a 106 sized face in Photoshop, using some Sir Tech portraits as a guide. What has surprised me is how poorly the Sti editor handles it's palettes. I've again tried using Sti editor and GRV but the imported image converted the palette poorly, actually using only 163 colours of the 256 palette. This means for my particular image it's lost subtle gradients in the flesh tones, something which has disappointed me as I put effort in to include them, especially for a female character such as this.

For best results I've found ensuring palettes are saved by hand in Photoshop and then those palettes loaded into the Sti editor is the way to go.

https://hosting.photobucket.com/albums/aa9/collector_hawkes/1Wildcat_original.jpg Original hi colour art from Photoshop

https://hosting.photobucket.com/albums/aa9/collector_hawkes/2Wildcat_sti256.gif Sti import and limited indexed palette https://hosting.photobucket.com/albums/aa9/collector_hawkes/crappalette.jpg not sure

http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/8c9f/oo3vrm8lla91igjzg.jpg Correct palette saved from Photoshop https://hosting.photobucket.com/albums/aa9/collector_hawkes/My_palette.jpg thumbs up



Some may say there's very little difference between them, but remember in the game's lower resolution these pixels and the colours they use will appear larger in game. I may be picky, but I'm sure many of you budding artists want the game to use the colours you have in your art, not some inferior variation.

Technical art rant over.

[Updated on: Fri, 12 June 2020 06:57]

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Re: Usermade Faces Data Bank[message #267669] Thu, 02 December 2010 07:22 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Hawkeye is currently offline Hawkeye

 
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This may also be why backgrounds of Merc's by Sir Tech are of a limited number of colours to avoid stealing those that could be used elsewhere on the faces.

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Re: Usermade Faces Data Bank[message #267697] Fri, 03 December 2010 01:26 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Kazuya is currently offline Kazuya

 
Messages:208
Registered:January 2009
I really like your new portrait. Good job! :ok:

Hawkeye
I find it surprising the Sti editor saves BMP's to an RGB image rather than an indexed one, considering the file only contains a limited indexed image of 256 colours.
My guess is, that the author of STI Edit just used a preexisting routine for saving as bmp. I guess, back then when STI Edit came out the sti file format was still some sort of a mystery to the modders.

Hawkeye
I have now moved on and have been working on a 106 sized face in Photoshop, using some Sir Tech portraits as a guide. What has surprised me is how poorly the Sti editor handles it's palettes. I've again tried using Sti editor and GRV but the imported image converted the palette poorly, actually using only 163 colours of the 256 palette. This means for my particular image it's lost subtle gradients in the flesh tones, something which has disappointed me as I put effort in to include them, especially for a female character such as this.

What exactly did you do with GRV? I checked again, and I am 100% positiv, that GRV handles the portrait properly when the picture is reduced to 255 colours, before it is pasted into the sti file. I just used your colour reduced gif file with 256 colours (and noticed that there is black in it), and pasted it in GRV. A check in STI Edit verified that it uses the exact same colours as in your gif. They are just in a different order in the palette.

Hawkeye
Some may say there's very little difference between them, but remember in the game's lower resolution these pixels and the colours they use will appear larger in game. I may be picky, but I'm sure many of you budding artists want the game to use the colours you have in your art, not some inferior variation.
That's true. Personally, I would like to see all sti files converted to proper png. From a technical standpoint this would be the best solution, because we would have 24 bit colours + 8 bit alphachannel + losless compression. Animation parts for the faces could be stored as layers with lower dimensions, just like sti now and we would get rid of STI Edit. Some progress has been made regarding this, but we are far from getting rid of sti.

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Re: Usermade Faces Data Bank[message #267701] Fri, 03 December 2010 03:47 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Hawkeye is currently offline Hawkeye

 
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Kazuya
I really like your new portrait. Good job! :ok:


Cheers, she's a retouch job of what I can only presume was a photo from somewhere. The line under her chin sort of plays on me a bit, but I've noticed a few Sir Tech characters have these elements and give it more of a hand drawn sort of look.

Kazuya
What exactly did you do with GRV? I checked again, and I am 100% positiv, that GRV handles the portrait properly when the picture is reduced to 255 colours, before it is pasted into the sti file. I just used your colour reduced gif file with 256 colours (and noticed that there is black in it), and pasted it in GRV. A check in STI Edit verified that it uses the exact same colours as in your gif. They are just in a different order in the palette.


Hmmm yeah, I did this again and surprise, surprise, seemed fine this time. I had two go's, one with the 0,0,0 black to see if that was causing any problems but both pasted and exported fine.

Kazuya
Personally, I would like to see all sti files converted to proper png. From a technical standpoint this would be the best solution, because we would have 24 bit colours + 8 bit alphachannel + losless compression. Animation parts for the faces could be stored as layers with lower dimensions, just like sti now and we would get rid of STI Edit. Some progress has been made regarding this, but we are far from getting rid of sti.


Yeah would be good, but I guess indexed stuff has a certain charm if done right, I was still a little surprised that the large Merc portraits were even indexed at first (quick) glance, especially after Sti's BMP exporting them as a 64K image. It's funny at closer inspection that there's a fair amount of difference in quality too, Stogie is virtually perfect palette-wise(though notice he has no background image?) while some not so much. I wonder how many artists they had on the portraits?

Anyway things seem to be clicking now, so on with the progress!

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Re: Usermade Faces Data Bank[message #267714] Fri, 03 December 2010 13:31 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Hawkeye is currently offline Hawkeye

 
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Is there any reason for the smaller 33 faces and 65 faces having the eyes and mouth frames included? They never appear to animate in game do they?

The game won't crash if my 33 and 65 faces are just single frames, will it?

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Re: Usermade Faces Data Bank[message #267751] Sat, 04 December 2010 01:24 Go to previous messageGo to previous message
Kazuya is currently offline Kazuya

 
Messages:208
Registered:January 2009
Hawkeye
Is there any reason for the smaller 33 faces and 65 faces having the eyes and mouth frames included? They never appear to animate in game do they?

the 33 and 65 faces animations are not used, as far as I can tell.

Hawkeye
The game won't crash if my 33 and 65 faces are just single frames, will it?

No, they won't. At least I didn't experience any problems when I tried. However, there is a good reason why it would make sense to include the frames. The face pictures of the original JA Mercenaries have those animation frames. So if a Modder makes use of them, the game could crash or throw an unhandled exception, if he used a user made picture that does not include those frames. For that reason, I add six small frames to the 33 and 65 faces that are filled with the colour key. This way, the file format stays the same like the original files and attempts to use their (not existent) animations, won't cause any trouble, except for the face remaining static of course.

Oh, and don't ask me, what the 33 faces are used for. I have no clue.

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