Hard Light Productions Forums
Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => The Modding Workshop => Topic started by: Vengence on September 05, 2006, 06:18:31 pm
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Well, I made some great planet pictures for backgrounds but yet they aren't showing up in FRED2. Search didn't really give any results so how exactly do I add background bitmaps into FRED? My planets are 800x800 dds and tga format with alpha channels in the effects folder.
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All you really have to do is follow the format of the stars.tbl. All the entry has to be is the filename, no extension or anything. Just make sure the entry is beside the other planets, not the stars.
And compressed DDS (and ideally everything else) should really be using power of 2 dimensions. Stuff like 512x512 or 1024x1024. The game really doesn't like it if they aren't like that. It'll either scale it up to the next highest, or won't use it at all.
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Thanks. I never knew about that one. For some strange reason the nebulas I put in are no longer showing when I entered the stars.tbl. There was supposed to be a nebula background as well but its not showing. Is there a stars.tbl for the mediaVPs or do I use modular tables to fix that problem?
Here is the current progress. I haven't gotten anything new yet.
Its a huge battle. Nothing really new except for the cool planets. High res planets coming soon. Btw, don't mind the ship names. My Heavy Cruiser only replaces the Colossus right now.
(http://img165.imageshack.us/img165/1322/screen0081hx0.jpg)
(http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/7193/screen0084vj0.jpg)
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What did you put before the nebula filename? Nebulas use "$Bitmap:" and planets use "$BitmapX:". So if planets are working, but nebulas aren't, I'd check that out.
I don't think the Media VP's have a different stars.tbl. But if you want to try a modular stars.tbl, they are the easiest thing ever. ;) The only required thing is the Bitmap stuff and that file ends with #End. The file naming goes XXX-str.tbm.
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Nebulas appear in FRED but not ingame. I haven't tested the tables yet but the new mediaVP textures are selectable again in FRED which is a good thing.
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Idle question Axem: what about background bitmaps that are neither planet nor nebula? Do we just classify those as "planets"?
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Hmmmm, That looks nice..............I'm stickin to skyboxes.
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Wait a minute... is that Kuat in the background?!
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Kuwait ? or Kuat, Whats Kuat, the freak from total recall?
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Oy, Vengeance, would you want to share your planets with others as they are in the Celestial Objects Thread (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,41939.msg858572.html#new)? These look cool...
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Open the mission's .fs2 file in notepad and look for a line that starts:
;;FSO 3.6.9;; $Bitmap List:
If it's there, take it out - newer versions of FRED are putting it in but it does break the background nebulae in the game (at least on this PC).
I have mentioned this in the SCP forum but it's not been replied to.
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Did you report the problem in Mantis? If not someone probably just saw the problem and then forgot about it again.
I'd look at it now but I have to go out in a little bit. When I get back I'll probably have forgotten about it again. With Mantis I'd have a constant reminder once I'd assigned it to myself.
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Trying not to be cocky/arogant here, but : http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,41879.0.html#msg854602
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Wait a minute... is that Kuat in the background?!
No its not Kuat and those are not shipyards either. And it wasn't inspired by Kuat either. I drew up this planet before I got Empire at War and thats when I first saw Kuat. And I doubt that Kuat is a double planet either. I'm reading about skyboxes and I think it might be useful but I'm sticking with textures right now.
(http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/3180/planethome01qj4.jpg)
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Skyboxes FTW !,
Once we can add ani / dds to a standard background, and add a Skybox behind them, (think HW2 as the Vaygr bomb the homeworld) Then FS2 will be even better :D
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Well I got the nebulas working but alas, my skybox didn't work. I'll disclose the name of the planets in due time. Right now its classified level omega and only me and my friends know the works.
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Why didnt the skybox work, Its just a .pof right?
They dont need to go into any TBLS as far as i know........ :confused:
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I used 3ds. Do the math, the wiki talks only about TS.
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You tried to use a 3ds as a skybox, ::)
*rings the Kaj bell* Or Nuke........... Nuke knows skyboxes :D
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If its only a pof then all I have to do is like make the skybox model like 120000 units large. The default units in 3ds appear to be the size units for fs2. 20 units in 3ds is 20 meters in FS2.
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You could just use the scale sunction in the converter/exporter as well i assume :)
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Dark Hunter: I'm guessing that Bitmap makes the backgrounds use additive rendering, while BitmapX uses alpha rendering. So for partially transparent backgrounds (like nebulas), you use Bitmap, and for opaque backgrounds (like Planets), you use BitmapX.
Vengeance: There's a skybox (well skysphere) in mv_models, starfield.pof, that you could look at to see how it works. Bascially its just a box (or sphere) with inverted faces.
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I know that. I use inverted faces all the time when I render space movies in 3ds.
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Open the mission's .fs2 file in notepad and look for a line that starts:
;;FSO 3.6.9;; $Bitmap List:
If it's there, take it out - newer versions of FRED are putting it in but it does break the background nebulae in the game (at least on this PC).
I have mentioned this in the SCP forum but it's not been replied to.
I took a look at it but I don't see anything wrong with my nebulae. Get a proper report of the problem on Mantis and I'll look into it.
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Get a proper report of the problem on Mantis and I'll look into it.
NNNGHHHH
Kara : Read very carefully, for I shall say this only once (more)
Mantis will not send me my login password so I cannot!
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Well give me a detailed report of the problem and how I can recreate it here at least. And then register for mantis using a non-hotmail e-mail account. Yahoo has been reported to work IIRC.
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Well give me a detailed report of the problem and how I can recreate it here at least. And then register for mantis using a non-hotmail e-mail account. Yahoo has been reported to work IIRC.
Dude. Read my original post! I am not using Hotmail or Yahoo. I'm using my own email domain, that uses my own email server.
I'll see if I can get a recreatable scenario that causes the problem
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it does break the background nebulae in the game
That's not a bug report. Break how? They don't show up at all? The first one is missing? The last one is missing?
Like I said I tried it with a mission of my own and it worked fine.
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I'm not sure what your problem is but I'm sure not having anymore problems (except for a small, annoying, but easily avoidable bug). I'm done with this topic but go ahead and figure out these problems here PotzUK. Oh! Karajorma, I only have one question: I pressed the Hide Cues in the ship editor and I can't it to 'unhide'. How do I unhide the cues? This is only a minor problem though, I can just use a different build of FRED to go around this problem but it would be good to know how to fix it if I press it again.
Other than that last problem I have no other questions so finally these are my last pics for this topic. As you can see its all working at last.
How unsettling, a red and blue giants close to each other litterally spewing out nebular materials. This place is just dying to be in a heap of trouble. The MediaVPs are working great now. The Hi-Res nebulas are back in and working.
(http://img313.imageshack.us/img313/4122/screen0096zj6.jpg)
This pic has a new planet I made today in 3ds. I decided to contrast my 'paradise' planets with a hellish planet which worked out. I added a nebula texture over it to make it look as if the planet is spraying material or is just very foggy. However because of the fog and thick atmosphere you can't see the volcanic canals I added :p. And yes, there are 3 HTL Lucifers in the field of engagement... I just wanted to test my hardware capabilities ;).
(http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/5941/screen0099pe8.jpg)
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Oh! Karajorma, I only have one question: I pressed the Hide Cues in the ship editor and I can't it to 'unhide'. How do I unhide the cues? This is only a minor problem though, I can just use a different build of FRED to go around this problem but it would be good to know how to fix it if I press it again.
It doesn't come back when you press the button again?
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No, because its not there anymore... The menu cuts off right under Special Exp and right through Texture Replacement so I can't see the hide cues button again.
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Which build are you using? Can you get me a screenshot?
It is possible that someone (probably me) forgot to extend the hide cues dialog box when buttons were added but things seem to work perfectly well in 3.6.9 RC 7.
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I got that as well actually, I had to change to a different build of FRED to get it back. This screenshot is from one of the earlier 3.6.9 RC builds. The latest build doesn't do it so it looks like it's fixed. To get it back use the tab button to move the highlight around and press space after each tab press, eventually you'll hit the right button :)
Screenshot attached
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When I referred to my original post, I meant the one I linked to in the other forum where I told you that Mantis wasn't sending me my password and that I wasn't using Hotmail/Yahoo
[attachment deleted by admin]
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Which build are you using? Can you get me a screenshot?
It is possible that someone (probably me) forgot to extend the hide cues dialog box when buttons were added but things seem to work perfectly well in 3.6.9 RC 7.
The build just says 3.6.9. Right now I'm using your 20060517 build for FRED2 only though I think I need to get a recent build now.