Hard Light Productions Forums
Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => The FRED Workshop => Topic started by: Dysko on December 06, 2006, 09:44:28 am
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I've created a loading screen for a mission, but when the mission is loading I see the default GTVA logo.
I've created both 640x480 and 1024x768 version of the screen. I've tried JPEG, TGA and PCX formats, but none of them did show up. The loading screens are in the "Interface" folder of the mod and I set up both screens in the "Mission Specs" in FRED.
What can I do? :confused:
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Maybe maybe they should e contained in a VP...
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Maybe maybe they should e contained in a VP...
Nope. Sticking things in a VP is never the solution to a problem like this. On the rare occasions it solves peoples problems it's because they've made some stupid error about where the files should be which they rectify in the VP. Far better to actually solve the problem then resort to mysticism when looking for a solution.
I've created a loading screen for a mission, but when the mission is loading I see the default GTVA logo.
I've created both 640x480 and 1024x768 version of the screen. I've tried JPEG, TGA and PCX formats, but none of them did show up. The loading screens are in the "Interface" folder of the mod and I set up both screens in the "Mission Specs" in FRED.
What can I do? :confused:
Works for me. I picked a random BSG picture and went to mission specs and added it. Worked perfectly.
Are you actually browsing for the pics or simply typing the names into the box?
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Are you actually browsing for the pics or simply typing the names into the box?
I am browsing the pictures.
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Whenever I have trouble with anything in FRED, my trick is to leech off the success of other people's work. When making custom loading screens myself, I got *ahem* another person's loading screens that I knew worked, pasted my image over what was there originally, and it worked like a charm. I did the same thing when I was having trouble with Orion nameplates, and it saved me a lot of agro. See, technically it's not plagiarism, it's just like asking the other person for help but they're not actually aware of it. :)
Put the attatched files in the interface folder and do the right tinkery in FRED, and if it works just cut'n'paste your own images right over the ones there and logic dictates that it will work.
[attachment deleted by admin]
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I tried to do the screens pasting them over Transcend's and Derelict's ones, and they didn't work.
Now I tried to paste them over your screens and... they worked! Thank you Mefustae!
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Glad to be of help. :)
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I'm sorry to :bump: this, but I have another problem: the .tga samples Mefustae sent me work very well, but their size is quite big. Isn't there a way to have smaller loading screens? (unless you want to download a campaign which is 6 MB for essential files + 100 MB for the loading screens ;))
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I'm sorry to :bump: this, but I have another problem: the .tga samples Mefustae sent me work very well, but their size is quite big. Isn't there a way to have smaller loading screens? (unless you want to download a campaign which is 6 MB for essential files + 100 MB for the loading screens ;))
JPG or PCX format, I'd imagine - or are you asking for samples of that type?
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DDS would be the best choice.
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D'oh! totally forget DDS - guess that shows how many eons it's been since I made anything for FS......
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Can you can use DDS for interface graphics? It didn't work the last time I tried it, but that was around a year ago. 8-bit PCXs certainly work though.
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I just downloaded the DDS plug-in for Photoshop, and the loading screens work and are small enough to allow downloading (I hope :nervous:). Thank you! :)
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Check they work first. CP5670 could be correct now that I think of it. Probably isn't but could be.
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PCX is probably too big to allow downloading. DDS and JPEG are perfect: which of those should I use then (without sacrifying quality)?
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PCX should actually be pretty small in file size, since it only has to keep track of 256 colors and not a huge palette. DDS have to be uncompressed for use on the interface (unless they are power-of-2), so that makes them pretty much the same size as TGAs. JPGs will typically be pretty small, but the user has to use the -jpgtga cmdline option in order to see them.
If you use uncompressed DDS (either 24 or 16-bit) then it's lossless. JPG is lossy, and PCX only has 256 colors to work with, so you can consider it pretty lossy as well. I've been recommending that everyone use DDS for interface graphics now, since you can easily move between graphics formats with the same file type. You can use compressed formats for power-of-2 art, and uncompressed 32-bit, 24-bit or 16-bit for non-power-of-2 art, or just when you need really good looking gradients. The main benefit of using DDS is that everyone will be able to use it without having to do anything special, and you the artist get to use any DDS format that you like in order to get the quality you want/need. And remember that interface graphics are only in memory so long as they are on screen, which means that you don't have to care about how much memory they use like you do with normal texture maps.
With post-3.6.9 builds you are going to start seeing to main things though: 1) the introduction of compressed VPs (CVPs), which will greatly reduce file size (even more so than simply putting the VP in a RAR or ZIP), and 2) the removal of the -jpgtga option (DDS will be default, followed by JPG, followed by TGA, followed by PCX). CVPs will easily take care of your filesize problems regardless of what format you use (all DDS formats compress in a CVP really well). And with -jpgtga being removed there will be less of an issue in mixing the various file types and having things missing when the user doesn't do something special.