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Image Shaper
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cxtian39
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Joined: 11 Feb 2016

PostPosted: Tue Jun 11, 2019 11:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Bittah Commander wrote:
You should boycott the Epic Games launcher for its shitty exclusivity deals anyhow #Tongue
yeah but I need it to launch UE4

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Lin Kuei Ominae
Seth


Joined: 16 Aug 2006
Location: Germany

PostPosted: Wed Jun 12, 2019 7:08 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

why is it a problem in the first place?
Do you have all programs installed in the same folder and sorted by filetype seeing dozens of different exes at the same place?

I have games folder and modding tools folder. No chance to mix up anything there.

Though feel free to create a new icon. If it's nice and fitting i can implement it.

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Lin Kuei Ominae
Seth


Joined: 16 Aug 2006
Location: Germany

PostPosted: Wed Jan 01, 2020 11:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

new Version uploaded

Version 01.01.00.18
-(update) support for RGBA JASC palettes
-(update) Euclidean color conversion with Alpha-channel support
-(update) [Options] menu added
-(update) "#Worker Threads" setting moved into [Options]
-(update) "Output Folder" setting added to [Options] to define output folder for SHPs
-(update) support to save/load a palette setup. Select "ImageShaper Palette Setup" as fileformat in the Load/Save Palette Dialog.
-(update) Console command line functionality added. Run ImageShaper.exe ? for help.


The console command line functionality works like a consecutively parsed list of commands.
That means you can not load with -i= some files and then use -p= to set a palette. You have to give the command line parameters in the correct order!
e.g.
ImageShaper.exe -p="D:\unittem_noglow.isps" -i="D:\test folder\myunitnormalframes*.png" -p="D:\unittem_shadow.isps" -i="D:\test folder\myunitshadowframes*.png"
so it first loads a palettesetup, then loads with this setup the normal frames, then changes into a shadow-palette setup and loads with this the shadow frames.

if you want to set a certain compression format, do this before loading the files as well.
e.g.
ImageShaper.exe -p="D:\unittem_noglow.isps" -c=3 -i="D:\test folder\myunitnormalframes*.png" -p="D:\unittem_shadow.isps" -c=2 -i="D:\test folder\myunitshadowframes*.png"
this way the normal frames get with -c=3 detect_best_size compression (either uncompressed or RLE_Zero) and the shadow frames get with -c=2 RLE_Zero

\Edit
Version 01.01.00.19
-(bugfix) Preview shows alpha channel correct
-(update) "Preview Background Image" setting added to [Options]

If a background image is set, the tool will set palette color #0 into ARGB 0,0,0,0 for the preview to show the background image behind the object.


\edit
Version 01.01.00.20
-(update) Preview updates for the selected image automatically when changes to the palette are made (e.g. colors set to "ignore")
-(update) with the DataGrid focused, CTRL+V copies the Clipboard image into it

\edit
Version 01.01.00.21
-(update) the Preview isn't locking the access of the shown file anymore. Image files can now be replaced/changed while Image Shaper is open.
-(update) new option "Reverse order of selected cells" added to the DataGrid context menu.

\edit
Version 01.01.00.22
-(update) The resuling SHP filename has trailing numbers only removed when operating on image files. When loading an SHP file, the resulting filename is exactly the same.
-(bugfix) in rare cases "opt. canvas" caused an index of bounds error when creating a frame

\edit
Version 01.01.00.23
-(update) new format "Uncompressed_Full_Frame" added, which stores each SHP frame in its full size. "optimize canvas" doesn't work for this case
-(update) command line option added to support setting "Split result"

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ApolloTD
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Joined: 19 Nov 2003

PostPosted: Fri Jan 03, 2020 10:00 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Lin Kuei Ominae wrote:

Version 01.01.00.23
-(update) new format "Uncompressed_Full_Frame" added, which stores each SHP frame in its full size. "optimize canvas" doesn't work for this case


Since LKO asked describe this one in practical uses.

1. Suitable for alpha related material like for example commonly used alphaimages where the content ideally should be left exactly as is and if there is zero index pixels used they are left as is and no cropping/compression is attempted.

2. Weird cases like high vertical anims that exceed height more than usual width in the usual compression method are cropped and this crop per frame can sometimes cause an flicker like effect infront of building and since here dimension is always same size this can't occur and no, zadjust etc doesn't always work in positioning over with constantly changing inner dimensions.

3. Can be used to remove compression features from shp for testing normal shp for alpha etc or to find out if compression causes issues.

4. This is a last resort option in usual use if nothing else works flawless and for other methods where are no issues with the shps, this should not be used due to filesize considerations.

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Lin Kuei Ominae
Seth


Joined: 16 Aug 2006
Location: Germany

PostPosted: Sun Mar 15, 2020 2:26 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

new version uploaded
Version 01.01.00.24
-(update) new function "Load and Split Image" added to right click contextmenu, which allows to load an image with frames as panels inside the image.
-(update) new tool "FireFLH Finder" added to menubar "Tools" , which makes it easy to find the correct values for FireFLH, PrimaryFirePixelOffset, DamageFireOffset# and MuzzeFlash#.
-(update) the custom image control (e.g. Preview window) doesn't reset the view/scrollbars anymore whenever the image is changed.

Load and Split example, splitting a Dark Reign explosion into separate frames

another example from Dark Reign, splitting a projectile column after column



The new FireFLH Finder, providing an easy way to get
the PrimaryFirePixelOffset, including special IsLaser case in TS. (see Tooltip over IsLaser for more infos)


DamageFireOffset# for RA2


MuzzleFlash# for RA2 (works the same as DamageFireOffset, just a different art.ini Key)


and the FireFLH finder

for that make sure you have the unit facing west in the left picturebox and the unit facing north in the right.
The left picture is used to determine Forward and Height, the right for the Lateral value.
It's best to first click in the left image, setting F and H, then L in the right image.


For each of these options just click inside the image to get the resulting Offset/FireFLH in the right TextBox. From there copy the value into your art.ini

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Crimsonum
Seth


Joined: 14 Jul 2005
Location: Fineland

PostPosted: Sun Mar 15, 2020 10:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Nice improvements Smile Could you perhaps look into implementing a finder for DamageSmokeOffset too? I've yet to test it thoroughly, but from what I know, increasing X values move the smoke origin to the right, Y to the bottom-left, and Z moves it upwards (and also towards the screen, maybe?).

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PussyPus
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Joined: 14 Jul 2015
Location: Egypt

PostPosted: Sun Mar 15, 2020 3:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

PrimaryFireFLH is widely used on voxel units too, is there a way to easily determine a PrimaryFireFLH of a voxel? I know this is a non-SHP question but just wanted to ask.

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Lin Kuei Ominae
Seth


Joined: 16 Aug 2006
Location: Germany

PostPosted: Sun Mar 15, 2020 5:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

yes, go ingame and follow this tutorial instead: https://ppmforums.com/topic-33833/primarysecondaryfireflh-turretoffset-pbarrellength/
outside the game it's not possible so far, as none of the tools render voxels exactly the same as the game.

@Crimsonum: I've checked it
the distance is measured in leptons.
0,0,0 is on the center cell of the foundation (only tested on 3x3 foundation so far), not sure if it's always the perfect center (on 2x2 it would be the point where all 4 cells meet)

so there are 2 issues with this
a) Shaper has no info about the foundation size (could be added as extra input field)
b) Shaper has no info about the cell size (TS, RA, etc would need another input field where you can enter tile width & height)
e.g. 256 leptons in TS are diagonal 12 pixel, in RA2 15

getting the point then is pretty straight forward
+X goes southeast, 1 cell for every 256 leptons
+Y goes southwest, 1 cell for every 256 leptons
+Z goes north and moves it higher in render layer, visually 1 cell for every 256 leptons (in TS 24 pixel up, in RA2 30)

This means if you enter 256,256,256 you stay in the same spot as 0,0,0 but move the anim 1 cell higher in the render layer.
As you go one cell south due to X and Y, then back up by the same 2D distance due to Z

Since that involves 3D, it would be also difficult in a 2D image to simply click the wanted point in the image.
The only way i see how this could be done, is a window with 3 input fields for X, Y and Z and it could only show a wandering preview point in the image.

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Graion Dilach
Defense Minister


Joined: 22 Nov 2010
Location: Iszkaszentgyorgy, Hungary

PostPosted: Sun Mar 15, 2020 7:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Lin Kuei Ominae wrote:
b) Shaper has no info about the cell size (TS, RA, etc would need another input field where you can enter tile width & height)


This didn't stop you from adding FireFLH. Which is also in leptons and thereby scales with cell size.

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"If you didn't get angry and mad and frustrated, that means you don't care about the end result, and are doing something wrong." - Greg Kroah-Hartman
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Past C&C projects: Attacque Supérior (2010-2019); Valiant Shades (2019-2021)
=======================
WeiDU mods: Random Graion Tweaks | Graion's Soundsets
Maintainance: Extra Expanded Enhanced Encounters! | BGEESpawn
Contributions: EE Fixpack | Enhanced Edition Trilogy | DSotSC (Trilogy) | UB_IWD | SotSC & a lot more...

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Lin Kuei Ominae
Seth


Joined: 16 Aug 2006
Location: Germany

PostPosted: Sun Mar 15, 2020 8:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Graion Dilach wrote:
This didn't stop you from adding FireFLH. Which is also in leptons and thereby scales with cell size.

I have no functioning RA2 and vanilla RA2 has no SHP vehicles with FireFLH. So i had nothing to work/test with.
The FLHs in RA2's art.ini also seemed extremely high.
Forward 100 for a simple infantry is more than most tanks in TS, so i assumed they don't calculate differently.

Would be glad to get an example screenshot of a unit firing west and north with a FLH of 256,0,0 and 1024,0,0 to check the difference.
I used 1024 in TS to roughly calculate the factor at which pixel convert into leptons.

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Crimsonum
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Joined: 14 Jul 2005
Location: Fineland

PostPosted: Thu Mar 19, 2020 8:38 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

@LKO: I see it's quite complex to implement, but thanks for checking how the values work.

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Banshee
Supreme Banshee


Also Known As: banshee_revora (Steam)
Joined: 15 Aug 2002
Location: Brazil

PostPosted: Thu Mar 19, 2020 12:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

PussyPus wrote:
PrimaryFireFLH is widely used on voxel units too, is there a way to easily determine a PrimaryFireFLH of a voxel? I know this is a non-SHP question but just wanted to ask.


OS Voxel Viewer also has a PrimaryFireFLH finder that seems to be good to provide a first guess, at least with the original Westwood voxels (I've tested many of them).

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G-E
Defense Minister


Joined: 09 Feb 2015

PostPosted: Sun May 31, 2020 4:38 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

I used this today to merge two image sets, and this was unintuitive to say the least...

1. there's no mention of where to load palettes, I eventually edited the ini and set anim.pal there
2. there's likewise no indication they have to be JASC palettes, I only clued in reading the changelog in your post
3. if I'm loading indexed pngs as sources, there should be a menu option to use the png's palette
4. in the off chance you don't add loose images in the right order, "moving" them in the list duplicates entries without shifting
5. is there a way to select the range in one list and move it up or down relative to the other list? if not why not?

And a nitpicky interface thing, it doesn't remember last opened dir, meaning each time you want to add, you have to browse all the way there again. This doesn't make sense because in almost all cases you keep your working dirs close together, if not the same, and never the program's home dir...

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E1 Elite
General


Joined: 28 May 2013

PostPosted: Sun May 31, 2020 8:44 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

1. On the right palette panel, right click and load palette. Whichever palette is already selected, is assigned to the newly dropped images on the left panel. When different palettes have to be assigned to different set of images, load multiple palettes and select the images that you want for different palette and then select the current palette from Palette manager on the right and then use set palette available on right click of the selected images.

2. Both Jasc and TS/RA2 palette formats are supported. Load those on the palette panel on the right.

3. SHP files are supposed to stitch together multiple images in same palette. Alternatively, palettes from indexed images can be easily extracted to Jasc palette with tools like IrfanView.

4. Select the set of images and use cut and paste. May be pressing Shift while dragging for move or hotkey for cut and paste etc. could be added for this.

5. When dropping the images after dragging, keep the mouse on the row where you would like the new list to start and then drop.

Drag and drop can be done from Windows Explorer from any folder, so last used folder becomes less relevant to pickup images.

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Lin Kuei Ominae
Seth


Joined: 16 Aug 2006
Location: Germany

PostPosted: Sun May 31, 2020 9:07 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

G-E wrote:
I used this today to merge two image sets, and this was unintuitive to say the least...

E1 answered everything already, so let me only add that the first post has images and a quick step by step "how to use" explanation there. RTFM #Tongue

it basically comes down to "use right click for self-explanatory contextmenu on every bigger control"

There is indeed no "move" feature included yet, it always duplicates them. So the right-click contextmenu cut and paste option is best used for moving images in the list.
Though its best to make sure you drop the files on the right cell in the first place. No need for extra steps then.

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G-E
Defense Minister


Joined: 09 Feb 2015

PostPosted: Sun May 31, 2020 2:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

E1 Elite wrote:
2. Both Jasc and TS/RA2 palette formats are supported. Load those on the palette panel on the right.

Well I don't know why but I was getting corrupted images until I saved it as JASC... I tried >5 times.
E1 Elite wrote:
3. SHP files are supposed to stitch together multiple images in same palette. Alternatively, palettes from indexed images can be easily extracted to Jasc palette with tools like IrfanView.

If you can load the image, why can't you load the palette from it? I don't get it.
E1 Elite wrote:
5. When dropping the images after dragging, keep the mouse on the row where you would like the new list to start and then drop.

Yea my point was about fixing it if you didn't get it right, or decided to change the alignment after...
E1 Elite wrote:
Drag and drop can be done from Windows Explorer from any folder, so last used folder becomes less relevant to pickup images.

While true, this doesn't negate the utility of continuing to browse where you were. Workflow is better, just like it would be better to be able to shift columns up or down with hotkey or by selecting and dragging.

PS. one thing that just occurred to me would help with the palette loading is the dropdown at the top where you'd naturally expect to find the stored palettes, you can have a "load palette" choice that would bring up the dialog, though I still don't understand why the existing palettes aren't listed there to begin with.

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E1 Elite
General


Joined: 28 May 2013

PostPosted: Sun May 31, 2020 3:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

If you are getting corruption then share the example/files, so that it can be fixed.

SHP files don't store any color or palette, it only stores indices which are mapped by the game to a palette to get the color. Just imagine whats the point to show the color from an indexed image when it is supposed to get the color from a fixed palette. If you have more than 1 indexed image with different color set, what will happen then!

If you do wrong in listing, just use cut and paste to move.

All existing palettes are not loaded already because the tool gives the choice to make a project with specific inputs which can be used later, that is my understanding.

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G-E
Defense Minister


Joined: 09 Feb 2015

PostPosted: Sun May 31, 2020 3:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

E1 Elite wrote:
If you are getting corruption then share the example/files, so that it can be fixed.

I made screenshots of the corruption, but after saving the pal to JASC with XCC Mixer the problem went away.
E1 Elite wrote:
SHP files don't store any color or palette, it only stores indices which are mapped by the game to a palette to get the color. Just imagine whats the point to show the color from an indexed image when it is supposed to get the color from a fixed palette. If you have more than 1 indexed image with different color set, what will happen then!

I was specifically referencing PNG with a palette, although it applies to PCX or GIF equally, I should be able to rightclick and save/use that built-in palette without having to go load a new one. I understand if it's full 24bit this doesn't work, but again I'm referring specifically to an image already saved as 8bit.
E1 Elite wrote:
All existing palettes are not loaded already because the tool gives the choice to make a project with specific inputs which can be used later, that is my understanding.

You aren't loading distinct palettes per frame, nor are you likely to store files in vastly different dir trees, everyone has a working dir. There should be no need for the extra step of making a new project either, that's a huge amount of work relative to the actual job, that has to be repeated each job... I'm only suggesting an automation tool should engage in some basic interface automation itself.

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Lin Kuei Ominae
Seth


Joined: 16 Aug 2006
Location: Germany

PostPosted: Sun May 31, 2020 5:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Image Shaper was mainly meant to create indexed palette SHP, not to load already indexed images and save them again.
What should it do with those indexed palette images anyway? Should it then also extract and save the palette as a separate .pal file?
That's not how the games work, except you're using Ares and plan to give each and every single SHP its own custom palette. But that's more a problem of bad color/palette planning and unnecessary memory bloat with all these palettes.

G-E wrote:
You aren't loading distinct palettes per frame, nor are you likely to store files in vastly different dir trees

actually you do. at least i often have to
a) the normal frames, where i use unittem.pal and set "ignore color" to all glowing colors
b) the shadow frames, where i use a clone of unittem.pal and set "ignore" to all colors except the shadow color
c) in the second column the separate render pass of all glowing pixel, which again uses unittem.pal, but this time all normal colors set to "ignore" and only leaving the glowing color range

see the example in the very first post, which shows this combination of different render passes into a single SHP

G-E wrote:
, everyone has a working dir. There should be no need for the extra step of making a new project either, that's a huge amount of work relative to the actual job, that has to be repeated each job... I'm only suggesting an automation tool should engage in some basic interface automation itself.

When i create SHPs, i render each unit/building into a separate subfolder, so there aren't millions of frames all mashed in a single folder. Loading them via the slow and ugly default windows openfiledialog would be too cumbersome, so i simply drag and drop them into Image Shaper.

It's true that there is quite some potential for automatism, especially when it comes to giving the second half of frames the special adjusted shadow palette. But then again, this would be annoying when creating animations, since those don't have shadow frames.

So what might be convenient for you, would be an annoying to undo job for someone else.
If you have an idea how to implement more automatism that helps everyone, i'm open for improvement suggestions.

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G-E
Defense Minister


Joined: 09 Feb 2015

PostPosted: Mon Jun 01, 2020 3:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Lin Kuei Ominae wrote:
What should it do with those indexed palette images anyway? Should it then also extract and save the palette as a separate .pal file?

No it's purely for the purposes of your manipulation, if someone already extracted a .shp as a series of .pngs with XCC Mixer, they are potentially in the right palette already, or at least a known palette that matches one, and no further loading of palettes should be required. This is a recommendation not because you'd ALWAYS use it, but there's a great tendency to use it if available.
Lin Kuei Ominae wrote:
...in the second column the separate render pass of all glowing pixel, which again uses unittem.pal, but this time all normal colors set to "ignore" and only leaving the glowing color range

This makes me think that the tool needs a way to set the relative strength of the merge of each side, meaning that it doesn't operate as a transparency that would screw up the source image merging on background, but rather the strength only where they overlap. You can have a group of preset values for this like 25-50-75-100% which you could apply to a range of images or individually. This would also allow progressive blending, so that a fire animation could progressively get weaker while the debris or smoke added could get stronger.
Lin Kuei Ominae wrote:
It's true that there is quite some potential for automatism, especially when it comes to giving the second half of frames the special adjusted shadow palette. But then again, this would be annoying when creating animations, since those don't have shadow frames.

This can be resolved by putting a checkbox on the leftside of the field or something that indicates that it's a shadow frame which you can right-click and choose. Once you know it's a shadow frame you don't need to load a new palette, you just internally ignore any colours past the second. You're taking the long way around by loading a palette for this.

On that note too, if you select multiple entries, your right-click menu choice should apply to all of them at once.
Lin Kuei Ominae wrote:
When i create SHPs, i render each unit/building into a separate subfolder, so there aren't millions of frames all mashed in a single folder. Loading them via the slow and ugly default windows openfiledialog would be too cumbersome, so i simply drag and drop them into Image Shaper.

This is what I am talking about, those separate dirs are closer to each other than the program is most likely, I don't think anyone would work from the dir they install their program, just like you don't save all your documents on the desktop. The proximity is partly why you want it to remember where it opened/saved last, so that it's relatively closer to the stuff you want.

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Lin Kuei Ominae
Seth


Joined: 16 Aug 2006
Location: Germany

PostPosted: Mon Jun 01, 2020 4:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

um, Image Shaper is already reading 8bppIndexed images as is, without any further color conversion.
Could you give an example png? I assume yours isn't 100% 8bpp or it's one of the cases where .NET sees them different than all the other image editors/viewers on this planet.

G-E wrote:
This makes me think that the tool needs a way to set the relative strength of the merge of each side, meaning that it doesn't operate as a transparency that would screw up the source image merging on background, but rather the strength only where they overlap. You can have a group of preset values for this like 25-50-75-100% which you could apply to a range of images or individually. This would also allow progressive blending, so that a fire animation could progressively get weaker while the debris or smoke added could get stronger.

I don't think i'll do that
a) Image Shaper is no image editor (only a mere SHP converter) and such alpha blending would go too far into that area
b) it would be impossible to set "glowing colors" to those pixel as the color would need to be found after the images are merged.
Right now however it first converts each image into the right palette and then merges the images. This way making sure glowing pixel stay that way.

With alpha blending you would have no control anymore over which pixel get which color.
Such a job is better done before you use Image Shaper to create the SHP

There would also arise many other issues, like your 25% transparent pixel merged on a pure transparent pixel. Those would get lost as the game has only a single 100% transparent color in the palette, or worse, you get bad bad outlines when instead converted into the opaque pixel with the closest color.

G-E wrote:
This can be resolved by putting a checkbox on the leftside of the field or something that indicates that it's a shadow frame which you can right-click and choose. Once you know it's a shadow frame you don't need to load a new palette, you just internally ignore any colours past the second. You're taking the long way around by loading a palette for this.

i create SHPs on a weekly basis and sometimes multiple in a few minutes.
The few seconds to "clone" the palette, select the second half of images, select the cloned palette, click "set palette" on the selected images, then set "ignore color" for all unwanted colors is done pretty quick.

when rendering against a non-pure colored background, it's often also necessary to do some fine adjustments and set certain colors to "make transparent" to get a good result.
So i can't simply take the palette and set "ignore" to all colors except the background #0 and the shadow color #1

But i'll see what i can do to simplify this.

G-E wrote:
On that note too, if you select multiple entries, your right-click menu choice should apply to all of them at once.

it does that.
select multiple cells (images), right-click and click "set palette" makes them all use the currently active/shown palette. Just make sure you select the right palette after you have selected all the images.
Because with each image selection, the palette on the right is changed to show the palette used by that image.

G-E wrote:
This is what I am talking about, those separate dirs are closer to each other than the program is most likely, I don't think anyone would work from the dir they install their program, just like you don't save all your documents on the desktop. The proximity is partly why you want it to remember where it opened/saved last, so that it's relatively closer to the stuff you want.

well, since i almost never used the right-click "Load Images/SHPs" i haven't seen the need for it to remember the last used folder. But i can add it for the next version.

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G-E
Defense Minister


Joined: 09 Feb 2015

PostPosted: Mon Jun 01, 2020 8:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Lin Kuei Ominae wrote:
G-E wrote:
This makes me think that the tool needs a way to set the relative strength of the merge of each side, meaning that it doesn't operate as a transparency that would screw up the source image merging on background, but rather the strength only where they overlap. You can have a group of preset values for this like 25-50-75-100% which you could apply to a range of images or individually. This would also allow progressive blending, so that a fire animation could progressively get weaker while the debris or smoke added could get stronger.

I don't think i'll do that
a) Image Shaper is no image editor (only a mere SHP converter) and such alpha blending would go too far into that area
b) it would be impossible to set "glowing colors" to those pixel as the color would need to be found after the images are merged.
Right now however it first converts each image into the right palette and then merges the images. This way making sure glowing pixel stay that way.

With alpha blending you would have no control anymore over which pixel get which color.
Such a job is better done before you use Image Shaper to create the SHP

There would also arise many other issues, like your 25% transparent pixel merged on a pure transparent pixel. Those would get lost as the game has only a single 100% transparent color in the palette, or worse, you get bad bad outlines when instead converted into the opaque pixel with the closest color.

This is precisely why I avoided calling it alpha or transparent, it would only apply how overlapping pixels work, which side "wins" in effect. On solid pixels overlapping transparent, the solid just wins 100%...

And yes I am aware that this isn't useful for all cases, but if you are blending a fire, you actually want it to dull or get obscured by smoke as the fuel source evaporates. Likewise if you have an explosion that's really bright, you can merge it with a particle explosion where the fire blots out the particulates in the beginning somewhat, and decreases over time.

There are a lot of use cases I can think of, and it doesn't have to be complicated like infinite sliders or settings for each column, since we're only talking about reducing the strength of one column relative to the others. You could even specifically limit the strength adjustment to the first column, as I'm sure 90% of the jobs only consist of 2 anyway. Per frame adjustment would be best, but a starting and ending strength would work too I think in many cases...

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Henskelion
Cyborg Firebomber


Joined: 29 Dec 2011

PostPosted: Sun Jun 21, 2020 2:28 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Hi, is there a way to change metadata for the outputted SHPs using ImageShaper? I am trying to make custom large terrain for an OpenRA mod (128x64) but this presents problems since odd shaped tiles (such as for cliffs) will auto-designate the center of the tile as being the center of the image frame, which causes these tiles to misalign when loaded ingame.

Using another tool like TMP Editor isn't really viable since the tile size for that program is hardcoded to TS/RA2's values, so I was wondering if you would include a feature (or already included a feature) to specific where the actual tile cell part of each frame is.

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G-E
Defense Minister


Joined: 09 Feb 2015

PostPosted: Thu Jul 02, 2020 11:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Ok so I've used ImageShaper for a the muzzle/damage locations a couple times and I have suggestions:

1. make the spot marks more visible like a 3D looking dot that fades off, or a vivid coloured X, not just a white pixel, perhaps several options with colour choices like bright red/green?
2. make a way to delete previous marks, like if I remove the entry from the text list, the dot shouldn't stay on the building
2b. if entries are deleted, sometimes new entries are smashed into the previous line, a little sanity checking whether a return exists before writing the new one would help
3. when opening a .shp for this, I'm finding the window is usually way too small, defaulting to the .shp dimensions would be ideal... if you worry about something extreme, just have a hardcoded min and max for it
4. the tool name of "FireFLH" is not terribly indicative of it's uses, even if the base function started as such... I'm not sure what it should be named, but something with pixel offsets would make more sense? then as menu entries you can have all the various tool options, that will open the same window but pre-select that particular radio button
5. rather than a zoom dropdown box, I think a notched slider would be better, and there appears to be plenty of room in the ui for it

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G-E
Defense Minister


Joined: 09 Feb 2015

PostPosted: Wed Jul 08, 2020 5:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

It would also be nice if the FLH tool thing loaded the last used palette at least within the same session. Not important to save when you quit the program however.

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Lin Kuei Ominae
Seth


Joined: 16 Aug 2006
Location: Germany

PostPosted: Wed Jul 08, 2020 9:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

almost everything done.

not gonna add a notched slider for the zoom. The .NET TrackBar is too imprecise, annoying (have to use the mouse very precisely to move it, you can't simply click on a position) and big (the smallest window size in FLH mode showing 2 image canvas doesn't provide much space).

G-E wrote:
It would also be nice if the FLH tool thing loaded the last used palette at least within the same session. Not important to save when you quit the program however.

done as well.

haven't uploaded it yet, since i'm still trying to figure out a convenient way to auto setup the shadow palette for the second half of frames.
Issues:
-a shadow palette may also be set up by the user and it would suck if the program creates another one and assigns it instead
-the user can add files multiple times and also delete or move files in the datagrid, thus each time shifting the half position. It could be time consuming to automatically set each time the second half of frames to use the shadow palette and thus annoying for the user when he has to wait for thousands of cells to get the shadow palette. It may be even unwanted if the user already assigned one himself.

so in the end it might need a button to "create shadow palette and set shadow frames"

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SHP Artist of Twisted Insurrection:  Nod buildings

Public SHPs
X-Mech Calendar (28 Mechs for GDI and Nod)
5 GDI, 5 Nod, 1 Mutant, 1 Scrin unit, 1 GDI building

Tools
Image Shaper______TMP Shop______C&C Executable Modifier

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McPwny
Cyborg Artillery


Joined: 29 Jan 2018

PostPosted: Sun Feb 21, 2021 1:24 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

this tool is seeing heavy usage these days with 3D rendering becoming more and more popular in the cnc community, and
has become an invaluable asset for .shp creation of all kinds. however, the lack of documentation makes shp builder tricky to
learn. expanded functionality of the flh finder to include things like dockingoffsets, damagesmokeoffset, refinerysmokeoffset,
and other such offsets would be welcome additions to the editor.

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