[wesp5]

I'm getting an error when running this in debug.

I get the same error, but the file isn't included with Zathras and the other Earth Brakiri War files seem to be older.

I also get the error below. Although both doesn't seem to matter at all right now if I play with the release version!

"Starfield bitmap 'xparent' already listed as a xparentxparent bitmap!!  Only using the xparent version!"

I also have two suggestions, but I don't know if this is possible with Zathras at all:

1) Could it be made so that all HUD elements connected to a targeted ship object turn into that object's colorr?
I mean like the central health counter or the stats info and health in the left hand corner magnification window.

2) The Drakh fire blue power beams, but small yellow plasma blobs, which does look strange. I don't know if
they were shown firing the latter in the show at all, blue plasma bolts would look much better in their place!

[Vidmaster]

A lot of weapons are not accuratly portrayed but changing that (appart from beam colors) is not Zathras' responsibility.

[FUBAR-BDHR]

I also get the error below. Although both doesn't seem to matter at all right now if I play with the release version!

"Starfield bitmap 'xparent' already listed as a xparentxparent bitmap!!  Only using the xparent version!"

Can you run the debug build and post a log so I can try to track this down.

I also have two suggestions, but I don't know if this is possible with Zathras at all:

1) Could it be made so that all HUD elements connected to a targeted ship object turn into that object's colorr?
I mean like the central health counter or the stats info and health in the left hand corner magnification window.

2) The Drakh fire blue power beams, but small yellow plasma blobs, which does look strange. I don't know if
they were shown firing the latter in the show at all, blue plasma bolts would look much better in their place!

No idea on either of these.  Have to check the show to see what the weapons are supposed to look like. 

[wesp5]

In Crusade "War Zone" (the first episode) a Drakh cruiser was being pursued by an Omega.  The cruiser was showering the Omega from an aft turret that fired yellow-orange pulses.

In my opinion Crusade doesn't really count ! I mean look at the Excalibur itself. That's not a typical B5 ship and the consistency of beams and ship styles went completely downhill once the amateurs of ND took over the CGI. Before that all older races, and the Drakh as helper race of the Shadows should count as one, use the same type of weapons and colors for main ships and fighters. Single exception is the Shadow fighter itself and this was probably only to show off the blow-me-up-and-spit effect. As far as I remember even the Centauri are always seen firing yellow stuff, with only Narn and EA and other younger races firing mixes, because they stole and bought their weapons from all around the galaxy . That's what I like so much about B5, the universe made some kind of sense !

[wesp5]

A lot of weapons are not accuratly portrayed but changing that (appart from beam colors) is not Zathras' responsibility.

Okay, but can I do this myself if I want to, or is this too difficult? And if you do fix beam colors, the power beam of the Centauri should be yellow! I don't think it is seen once in the original show, but I think in The Lost Tales it was clearly shown that way. Personally I would make the Brakiri beams yellow too, because their ships seem quite organic and advanced, but I don't think we ever see them firing in the show.

[Slasher]

The cone of fire of the Drakh pulse gun and damage inflicted on the EA ship gave me the impression the weapon was some sort of last ditch suppression firepower the Drakh ships use to discourage pursuit.  It makes sense it would be a different color than their regular armaments. 

[wesp5]

The cone of fire of the Drakh pulse gun and damage inflicted on the EA ship gave me the impression the weapon was some sort of last ditch suppression firepower the Drakh ships use to discourage pursuit.

You are talking about Crusade here right? As far as I remember even Drakh fighters have blue powerbeams, so why should their capital ships have anything less? Except someone with Netter Digital messed up again...

So again, where could I alter these myself, just to test how e.g. the Drakh would look in blue?

[pecenipicek]

The cone of fire of the Drakh pulse gun and damage inflicted on the EA ship gave me the impression the weapon was some sort of last ditch suppression firepower the Drakh ships use to discourage pursuit.

You are talking about Crusade here right? As far as I remember even Drakh fighters have blue powerbeams, so why should their capital ships have anything less? Except someone with Netter Digital messed up again...

So again, where could I alter these myself, just to test how e.g. the Drakh would look in blue?

examine ships.tbl, find ship in question, find its weapons, examine weapons.tbl entries for said weapons, find the bitmaps associated with particular weapon, edit them to your liking/make new bitmaps for it?

(i have no idea how tbp/zathras handles their stuff, this is just a basic modding suggestion really)

[wesp5]

examine ships.tbl, find ship in question, find its weapons, examine weapons.tbl entries for said weapons, find the bitmaps associated with particular weapon, edit them to your liking/make new bitmaps for it?

Okay, I can see how this would work with plasma blobs and similar, but are powerbeams done the same way? I mean with bitmaps? They look like colored vectors to me...

[pecenipicek]

examine ships.tbl, find ship in question, find its weapons, examine weapons.tbl entries for said weapons, find the bitmaps associated with particular weapon, edit them to your liking/make new bitmaps for it?

Okay, I can see how this would work with plasma blobs and similar, but are powerbeams done the same way? I mean with bitmaps? They look like colored vectors to me...

they are made via beam sections which are colored specifically in the bitmap of the beam section. wiki to the rescue!

[wesp5]

wiki to the rescue!

Wow, that sounds complicated! I will check it out if I have the time ...

[pecenipicek]

wiki to the rescue!

Wow, that sounds complicated! I will check it out if I have the time ...

eh, not really. just figure out which texture files (located in the effects folder/vp) the beam sections use and change them/recolor them/whatever.

[wesp5]

just figure out which texture files (located in the effects folder/vp) the beam sections use and change them/recolor them/whatever.

I looked through ships.tbl and weapons.tbl to find the Centauri Primus has four "CR Battle laser", with no model, no bitmap, but color 90, 150, 100, which is a dark green which isn't consistent with the show and which I have never seen in TBP. In MAGs "Fall of night" the Centauri Primus fires beams that look like those of a G'Quan cruisers, which I don't like either, because in Lost Tales they are yellow and also you can't really see who is firing at whom when both ships use the same beams. So where else could this be defined? I tried changing the color in Zathras-wep.tbm but it had no effect...

[Slasher]

Do you have any pictures of the Centauri beams from The Lost Tales?  I was going to keep them red like the Narn and EA beams, who both inherited their tech from the Centauri.  But if the TLT beams are pretty enough I could be convinced to change them. 

No luck on Youtube, though I noticed the Warlock from TLT firing a particle beam considerably different than the ones we are used to seeing the GOD sats fire. 

[wesp5]

Do you have any pictures of the Centauri beams from The Lost Tales?

Check the video below at 2:22 minutes. It shows a yellow beam destroying New York. Now this can only be from Primus battle cruisers, because Secundus would use mass drivers. Sadly we don't see beams in the battle scene as the Vorchans still don's use them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0t0i4iFs6ck

No luck on Youtube, though I noticed the Warlock from TLT firing a particle beam considerably different than the ones we are used to seeing the GOD sats fire.

Yeah, they look yellow to me as well. I always figured it like this: The weakest beams are the red ones from the EA and the Narn and we know that the EA bought them from the Narn during the EA/Minbari war and even retrofitted old destroyers with them. Although the Narn probably stole a lot from the Centauri, I still believe Centauri weapons must have been better, because even Drazi fire more powerfull yellow beams as can be seen in 0:40 in the Shadow Dancing scene below. This is why I assume the Brakiri do the same, also because at 1:57 in the same video yellow beams stop incoming Shadow battlecrabs and in the original formation only Brakiri cruisers stayed close to the Minbari cruisers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAsk3ay3e98

[pecenipicek]

just figure out which texture files (located in the effects folder/vp) the beam sections use and change them/recolor them/whatever.

I looked through ships.tbl and weapons.tbl to find the Centauri Primus has four "CR Battle laser", with no model, no bitmap, but color 90, 150, 100, which is a dark green which isn't consistent with the show and which I have never seen in TBP. In MAGs "Fall of night" the Centauri Primus fires beams that look like those of a G'Quan cruisers, which I don't like either, because in Lost Tales they are yellow and also you can't really see who is firing at whom when both ships use the same beams. So where else could this be defined? I tried changing the color in Zathras-wep.tbm but it had no effect...

you can change the color of those in the table then

its just that apparently the latest builds in the engine dont support the manual coloring via those. (at least for the beam sections)

[wesp5]

you can change the color of those in the table then

I tried, but nothing happened.

its just that apparently the latest builds in the engine dont support the manual coloring via those.

So how do I do this with the latest builds then?

[pecenipicek]

you can change the color of those in the table then

I tried, but nothing happened.

its just that apparently the latest builds in the engine dont support the manual coloring via those.

So how do I do this with the latest builds then?

by changing the effect textures themselves. I am not familiar with names/intricacies/potential cruft of TBP and Zathras so i cannot tell you precisely what is and what isnt.

if you want i can take a look at the whole shebang eventually, just tell me which weapons need color changing.

[wesp5]

Okay, I have found the responsible texture in the beam section now, it seems the other parameters are indeed not used anymore. I took two yellow bitmaps used for Minbari beams (minbari_b1 and minbari_b4) and they make a fine yellow beam ! I gave them to the Drazi and Brakiri too...

Update: The new beam looks a little to similar to the Minbari beams, but now I know how to change them ! I think the Minari beams should be much greener and not as yellow as they were in Netter Digital days. The same it true for the EA beams, they have no yellow core in the show...

[wesp5]

Update: Just will post this here as well. I made proper yellow power beams for Drazi, Centauri and Brakiri. I did this in another way than described above now and it looks great! You see, there are separate Drazi beam bitmaps which are in fact copies of the EA files. So I changed them to yellow in Paint.Net and gave them to the Centauri and Brakiri using weapons.tbl. This would be an easy thing to do in Zathras and would make TBP more consistent to the show !