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Interface templates beta
Interface templates beta, for creating custom interfaces for mods.

http://www.mediafire.com/?prrwmjzgnuw

Contents of readme below:

Requires:

Imagemagick is installed (http://imagemagick.org)
Anibuilder
Aniview
nvDXT (provided for windows users, for converting to DDS)

Notes:

 - Excludes preload, mainhall, medal screen and medals (as preload can be anything and recolours of the rest look crap)
 - Only 1024x768 is available, as it was a total PITA to fix up templates for it, and I'm not going through that again
 - Only batch files provided, as I do not have other environments to test with, nor do I know any shell scripting etc.
 - Mixing DDS/TGA and PCX is possible, though not advised due to palette issues messing up colours (load priority is DDS --> TGA --> PCX)
 - Use of DDS/TGA allows better colours/quality, but runs into palette issues with the loading screen animation and other ANIs
 - Use of DDS results in better performance, but requires more disk space compared to TGA
 - Use of PCX requires careful background image selection to minimise quality degradation

WARNING: conversion to PCX takes significant time

Usage:

1. Pick an interface colour and find its HSV value (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HSL_and_HSV, most graphics software can give you HSV values, or use http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_colors)

note: mspaint does not give the correct values for this purpose

2. Assemble 1024x768 background images in "base" directory

3. Edit edit_me.bat (backed up as example.bat, which includes extra notes), replacing screen_base.TGA with desired background image for each screen

4. If desired (and is usually a good idea), run sample.bat (may be edited) and inspect the results in the "sample_output" directory

5. Run edit_me.bat and wait. Results will appear in the "output" directory

note: you will be asked whether you want to convert to DDS and PCX

6. If you wish to convert to DDS and did not do so in step 5, it can be done later by running make_dds.bat

note: 38 files (2_BAB_*.tga) will not be converted by nvDXT due to odd pixel height/width. Software such as GIMP may be used to convert the required files by opening TGA files in "output" and saving as DDS in "dds". Alternatively, the missing files can simply be substituted with tgas

7. If you wish to convert to PCX and did not do so in step 5, it can be done later by running make_pcx.bat

8. Swap the filenames 2_Loading0000.pcx and 2_Loading0007.pcx in the "load_temp" directory using swap_loading.bat

9. Create an ANI with anibuilder using default options (adapt to 1st frame, command briefing/techroom animation, 15 frames/sec)

10. Save the frames from the resulting ANI over the PCX files, then swap the 2 files again

11. Create the ANI again and copy to your desired location

12. (optional) Run make_load.bat from the command line (can be opened using open_prompt.bat) to create custom load screens for missions using:

make_load <path of background image> <destination>

These may also be converted to PCX or DDS using batch files if <destination> is the "output" directory

13. Copy the contents of either the "output" (TGA), "dds" (DDS) or "pcx" (PCX) directories to your desired location

14. (optional) Run clean.bat to remove files created by the other batch files

 
Re: Interface templates beta
I feel kind of guilty this has so many views and next to no replies but I was waiting for someone to try it and see how well it works before getting my hopes up.
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Re: Interface templates beta
There's nothing stopping you from trying it yourself. :P

There's a default background I whipped up in GIMP so you can already play with colours before committing to a background. I'm mostly worried the documentation is incomplete or something. The results will appear in the next release of my shivan mod, which was my main reason for doing the templates. If other people can get some good use out of it, I consider it a bonus.

 

Offline ShadowGorrath

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Re: Interface templates beta
I already tried them and they were great.

 

Offline Galemp

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Re: Interface templates beta
If the source code for AniBuild was available you might be able to do this whole thing in one batch.
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Online Colonol Dekker

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Re: Interface templates beta
Is Imagemagick an absoulute requirement?

I hate installing progs that i won't use for more than one purpose*

*kanes voce- one vision

*downloads templates......
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Re: Interface templates beta
Technically, you don't need imagemagick. It's just that almost all the things that need to be done (other than making the ani and converting to dds) can be done automatically through a batch file. If there's something else you prefer to use, I'd like to hear about it, since I can probably whip up batch files for that too (I hope). The alternative is creating 963 image files using the templates in something like gimp, which tends to try the patience of modders.

Remember, this is a beta I produced largely for my own use, and may be incomplete or contain errors.

Things I'd like to add in the future:

1. Support for other software (in case people want to use something other than imagemagick)[/li][/list]
2. Shell scripts for other operating systems (eg. linux or mac)

1. is mostly because I don't know of any other software that can do what imagemagick does as easily
2. is mostly because I don't have linux or mac installed anywhere and don't know shell scripting in any case

 

Offline Droid803

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Re: Interface templates beta
I'd prefer to run it through Photoshop or Ifranview, both of which I have...if at all possible :P
If not, then I'll just have to install another program =.=, either way, it's ok.
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Re: Interface templates beta
I've never used photoshop, but irfanview can do colour balance in a batch operation. However, the screens can't be done in irfanview (as far as I know), as the templates need to be recoloured, then placed on top of the desired background. I know how to do it in gimp, and photoshop can probably do it too.

I guess I'll update the documentation with less emphasis on imagemagick. You can use anything you like really. The other thing to look out for is errors in the templates themselves (odd pixels, that sort of thing). I went through them 3 times, but I still might not have caught everything.

Whoops, typo in my previous post. :P

 
Re: Interface templates beta
Sorry for double post, but general instructions below:

OPERATIONS

These are descriptions of operations to be performed on the templates to create custom interfaces (using your preferred software):

1. (optional, but highly recommended) Make backup copies of the templates

2. Perform colour transformations on the contents of "buttons", "screens" and "loading", preserving alpha channels where they exist

3. Create screen backgrounds by taking the contents of "screens" and placing them on top of backgrounds

4. Create an ANI using the contents of "loading" (converting to PCX with the same palette for every frame, then using Anibuilder)

5. Move files into single directory

6. (optional) convert from TGA to preferred format (PCX must have all transparent areas converted to green ie. rgb(0,255,0))

7. Copy files to desired location

 

Offline chief1983

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Re: Interface templates beta
Link seems broken.
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Re: Interface templates beta
Odd. I can get to the download page. Is that the page you can't get to, or is it the download itself?

I didn't want to put this anywhere permanent just yet until I ironed out any issues.

 

Offline chief1983

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Re: Interface templates beta
Now it's working.  Not sure what it was, earlier it was just timing out, tried two or three times.  No error.  Then I went to mediafire.com and that loaded.  Maybe it was just strange timing.

Edit: Frak me.  Wouldn't you know it, as soon as I reply, I go to actually download it, and they take their site down 15 minutes early for a maintenance window.  Bastards.
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redsniper:  Platonic hips?!
iamzack:  lays

 

Offline Solatar

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Re: Interface templates beta
I'm trying this out right now.

Just thought I'd let you know somebody's using it. :)

BTW, imagemagick is free, isn't it?

Do I need to run the batch file in a folder in a certain relation to Imagemagick? I've run sample and the full thing, yet no matter what I enter in I get the same red output. I get some error that says "mogrify" is not a recognized command.
« Last Edit: August 17, 2008, 08:12:16 pm by Solatar »

 
Re: Interface templates beta
Imagemagick is free, and linked in the first post.

The red output is the unmodified template itself, since it has a hue of zero degrees (and I'd already done the recolour to red for my shivan mod :D). mogrify is an imagemagick command, and if that's not working, you either don't have imagemagick installed, or haven't set your environment variables to it.

I grabbed the windows binary from here: http://imagemagick.org/script/binary-releases.php

It set everything up on my winxp machine, so the batch files run from anywhere I put it. Linux users can simply copy/paste commands from the batch file (I included some notes in a batch file in the backup directory) and maybe make a shell script (which I would be interested in including in the final release).

 

Offline Solatar

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Re: Interface templates beta
Excellent, I've got it working. Not sure what I did earlier, but I downloaded a zip and unzipped it, and the program was already there. I installed it from the .exe and now it's working well.

 

Offline shiv

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Re: Interface templates beta
Awesome. I'll test it later.
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Offline Solatar

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Re: Interface templates beta
Works great. I only have one complaint, and that's the glows on buttons. When you change the color, they become rather dull. Is there any way to fix this?

 
Re: Interface templates beta
Alas, that is one issue I've noticed if you set the value of the colour too low. What colour are you using? Essentially, the imagemagick commands perform the colour change on everything, so if you pick a dark colour the glows are darkened too.

One thing to do would be to compromise and set the value to something above 60-70 (the sample batch file is very useful for experimenting). Otherwise, I'll have to try to figure out how to keep the glows at the original value (thresholding or something, maybe).

 

Offline Solatar

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Re: Interface templates beta
I used a shade slightly above slate gray. Basically I was trying to color it to be a bit closer to the original Freespace 1 interface. I'll experiment with a few different colors, as it's not really too bad now, just noticable. The interface could use a tad brighter color anyway.