Hard Light Productions Forums

Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => The Modding Workshop => Topic started by: DaBrain on September 05, 2004, 12:35:51 pm

Title: Need help with Ani conversion
Post by: DaBrain on September 05, 2004, 12:35:51 pm
Ok I have two problems.

Nr.1: The PCX files have all the same color palette, yet after conversion to ANI, one white part becomes black. (No error message about wrong colors.) It's not only in ANI View, but in the game also.


Nr.2: The ANI is used for an animated glow map on a capship.
My problem is, it's way too fast, even though it runs with only 15 FPS.

I'm going crazy :mad:
Title: Need help with Ani conversion
Post by: Black Wolf on September 05, 2004, 12:39:57 pm
You can set the FPS in advanced setting in anibuilder. ALternately, add more frames to the animation (note that this will increase memory useage though)
Title: Need help with Ani conversion
Post by: DaBrain on September 05, 2004, 02:34:51 pm
Well, I know, but it runs faster in-game than 15 frames/sec.
Title: Need help with Ani conversion
Post by: DaBrain on September 05, 2004, 05:13:32 pm
It's for a special project of mine ;7
(http://img30.exs.cx/img30/8521/7819.jpg)
The Ani is used as glowmap for the hangar.

This is frame Nr.5 (PCX, 256 colors, before conversion with Anibuilder)
(http://img30.exs.cx/img30/1688/a125.jpg)


This is frame Nr.5 (PCX, 256 colors, after conversion with Anibuilder)
(http://img30.exs.cx/img30/2294/b37.jpg)
Title: Need help with Ani conversion
Post by: aldo_14 on September 05, 2004, 05:22:29 pm
Quote
Originally posted by DaBrain
Well, I know, but it runs faster in-game than 15 frames/sec.


IIRC the anis use run-length-encoding, so try shoving in more exactly identical frames to 'pad' the delay (crude, but should work).

It shouldn't make a major a size difference, because only the pixel colour changes are registered. (actually, if you look at a ship ani created with a pure black backround, it takes much less space than one with a detailed background ala the V ones)

EDIT; for the pallete problem, maybe try replacing true white with a very,very slightly greyer shade of white (colour replace on the 8-bit-pcx frames).  I have no idea if this would work. :)  But it might.

Or might not.

:p ;)
Title: Need help with Ani conversion
Post by: DaBrain on September 05, 2004, 05:41:51 pm
Yeah, thanks I'll try that. But there is much more white in each frame. Perfect super-pure white... Perhaps an Ani builder bug.


I demand new tools :rolleyes:
Title: Need help with Ani conversion
Post by: Lightspeed on September 05, 2004, 06:08:36 pm
Okay, clearing up all the misunderstandings packed together in this very thread :)

The FPS on texture ANI's work reversed. i.e. 30 FPS will run at half the speed you get with 15 FPS. Try setting the FPS to a value around 50 ~ that's what I use for capital ship maps. If you still want it slower, just set the value higher.

On the black thingy problem: What setting do you have set in AniBuild for the palette thingy? Are you by any chance using a transparent colour in the PCXes?
Title: Need help with Ani conversion
Post by: Liberator on September 05, 2004, 09:39:09 pm
You realize that it's going to animate everywhere on the Orion, right?  I tried this once, the Orion looked like a Discotek.  Of course, I couldn't remap it.  If you can confine it to the launch deck it will r0x0r.  Make sure your using the Raptor's Orion (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,18814.0.html) with the higher poly turrets.
Title: Need help with Ani conversion
Post by: DaBrain on September 06, 2004, 01:26:40 am
Quote
Originally posted by Lightspeed
Okay, clearing up all the misunderstandings packed together in this very thread :)

The FPS on texture ANI's work reversed. i.e. 30 FPS will run at half the speed you get with 15 FPS. Try setting the FPS to a value around 50 ~ that's what I use for capital ship maps. If you still want it slower, just set the value higher.

On the black thingy problem: What setting do you have set in AniBuild for the palette thingy? Are you by any chance using a transparent colour in the PCXes?



I thought  you couldn't set transparent colors in PCX files... I don't see an option for transparent colors in Ani Builder.


Thanks for the help with the speed. I'll try it. ;)


@Liberator If the animation is really slow, it should look ok. If not, I'll have to change the textures and rePOF it. (I'm not sure if I can do it...)
Title: Need help with Ani conversion
Post by: Lightspeed on September 06, 2004, 02:36:54 am
It looks bad. Thats the reason why I didn't make an animated glowmap for it. :)
Title: Need help with Ani conversion
Post by: DaBrain on September 06, 2004, 09:12:09 am
I can avoid this, without much trouble.

There is only one part where the whole map is used. (size-wise)

And I rebuild the map complete, so I can adjust it, so it has the glow somewhere else. :)
Title: Need help with Ani conversion
Post by: aldo_14 on September 06, 2004, 09:24:11 am
Quote
Originally posted by DaBrain



I thought  you couldn't set transparent colors in PCX files... I don't see an option for transparent colors in Ani Builder.


True green (0,255,0) is always rendered as transparent AFAIK. (NB: I've not tested on ani textures on ships)  

This even appies to the weapons or ship anis in the techroom (I noticed this doing CoW, some of the anis were never fixed and thus appear partly transparent).  I'm not sure if there are occlusion differneces between this and the TGA-based / invisble texture transparencies.
Title: Need help with Ani conversion
Post by: DaBrain on September 06, 2004, 11:28:57 am
I think it has to be a problem with the Ani Builder.

Is somebody willing to convert my frames to ANI?
Title: Need help with Ani conversion
Post by: DaBrain on September 07, 2004, 11:28:34 am
Oh I just found out how the glow has to look. I was wrong, about the color and the position.
So I'll start again. With less problems, I hope ;)
Title: Need help with Ani conversion
Post by: DaBrain on September 09, 2004, 10:27:02 am
Ok, now everything to worse....

The 8bit PCX frame, ready for ANI Builder
(http://img89.exs.cx/img89/7890/problem1.jpg)


The same frame extracted from the actual ANI, should look exactly the same...
(http://img89.exs.cx/img89/9997/problem3.jpg)

Someone please try using ANI Builder with these frames.


http://www.8ung.at/dabrain/weird.rar
Title: Need help with Ani conversion
Post by: Sesquipedalian on September 10, 2004, 06:40:13 pm
I've run into this problem with anibuilder before, DaBrain.  It often screws up one colour palette entry, replacing that individual colour with another from the palette.  The only fix is to build the ani once, extract any frames that get messed up, fix the error in the extracted pcx (don't change the colour palette after extracting), and then recompile the ani using that fixed pcx.
Title: Need help with Ani conversion
Post by: DaBrain on September 11, 2004, 05:58:46 am
Problem is already solved. I had the wrong version. ;) I thought there was only one version. Well, guess I was wrong.

Thx for you help anyway ;)
Title: Need help with Ani conversion
Post by: Sesquipedalian on September 12, 2004, 03:37:45 am
NP