My Hull Concepts... (Monsters and Drones Too)

[Dart00_Tech]

if u want i could make a batch of buildings and such....

I also wana get anything i missed once i see the commit.

I also wana start on the ship yard with its modules and planet defence platforms. Haveing these models available for the combat system may make things easyer in development.

[eleazar]

Committed revision 4639. "Hull icons and design views for all current hulls by Dart00_Tech. Not yet wired in."

I also wana start on the ship yard with its modules...

A heads up:
I expect the number of shipyard add-ons to be dramatically reduced in the near-ish future.

[Dart00_Tech]

ok....Ill take a shot at it later. Ill make room for up to 5 addons....that should be enough.

How hard is it to 'wire' in the designs, im rather curious to see whats left with the 'Default' hull after the wiring.

Also im stuck on the 'Drone Factory'....is it a large ship with docks'....or is it a suspended structure in space...

Sorry for the lack of punctuation, my phone doesnt like some symbles...

[Geoff the Medio]

How hard is it to 'wire' in the designs, im rather curious to see whats left with the 'Default' hull after the wiring.

Added an icon to a bit of content is usually a change like this. For hulls, you'd want to added appropriate file names to the entries in ship_hulls.txt.

[Dart00_Tech]

How hard is it to 'wire' in the designs, im rather curious to see whats left with the 'Default' hull after the wiring.

Added an icon to a bit of content is usually a change like this. For hulls, you'd want to added appropriate file names to the entries in ship_hulls.txt.

Oh...I see...alright, Ill take a shot at updating ship_hulls.txt with the proper filenames and post the resulting file for a commit.

[Dart00_Tech]

Eh..I have an issue....It looks like ship_hulls.txt only lets me specify the large design graphic....Where do i specify the smaller thumbnail like graphic?

Also I think eleazar forgot to the commit the graphics in the "Standard Based" folder in the archive...i cant see them on sourceforge?

After some testing I found out it takes a good while for the game to load all the hulls if you view "Unavailable Hulls" from a new game as it loads them into memory. I was able to downgrade them to 8-bit and they loaded MUCH faster and it cut the file size in half...but sadly quality suffers too...im working on trying to preserve quality currently...until then ill post what I got and redo them later in 8-bit high quality.

EDIT:

Alright. Here is a zip with the hulls and small hulls folders and a updated copy of ship_hulls.txt. I downloaded the tarballs off of sourceforge, applied my new 8-bit graphics and added in what was missing. I also marked pd's stuff as .png.old till we reinstate his artwork to make all the designs blend and not become a game of "which one of these dont look like the other".

I tested this in my game and it works great...except for the double click on a design in the little icon corner. Turns out it references the same icon (which now is missing do to the .old). The code needs to be modified to match the first small icon.

High Quality 8-bit renders to come....Till then heres this:

Files.zip (Hotfile): http://hotfile.com/dl/146152013/4115207/Files.zip.html

Instructions: Overwrite your folders and ship_hulls.txt in the FO directory.

[Geoff the Medio]

Eh..I have an issue....It looks like ship_hulls.txt only lets me specify the large design graphic....Where do i specify the smaller thumbnail like graphic?

There is no separate thumbnail graphic.

After some testing I found out it takes a good while for the game to load all the hulls if you view "Unavailable Hulls" from a new game as it loads them into memory.

One time loading delay is fine; you'll notice something similar on the sidepanel in systems with asteroid belts.

I tested this in my game and it works great...except for the double click on a design in the little icon corner.

... What? Please rephrase coherently.

Turns out it references the same icon

Same icon as what?

[Dart00_Tech]

There is no separate thumbnail graphic.

I meant do I do anything with the 256x256 icons that got commited for them to be taken into effect in the game? Or are those not be used just yet?

One time loading delay is fine; you'll notice something similar on the sidepanel in systems with asteroid belts.

I agree a "small" one time loading delay is fine, however, a delay that is so long that it makes the music freeze on a quad core processor with 8GB of Ram (in my oppion) is massivly unacceptable. High quality lossless 8-bit interlaced Transparent PNGs are the way to go on this one I think which ill have ready hopefully by tonight. Also where are the graphics that are used in the asteroid belts? I may be able to optimize them as well.

... What? Please rephrase coherently...Same icon as what?

Alright. Lets see. When you open the "Design" Screen and click on a design, it brings up a pedia entry and it shows a mini thumbail of the unit.



However, when you double click the design, it displays "generic_hull.png" for every design.



This behavior seems to be hard coded. Do I need to provide a updated "generic_hull.png" or could it be programmed to just keep the same picture?

[eleazar]

Hmmm, it appears the thumbnail images (such as appear in the fleet window) can be attached only to pre-made ship designs. Which is probably not what we want.
Because if a design doesn't have a thumbnail, it will use the default thumbnail, i.e. the generic hull.

[Dart00_Tech]

Hmmm, it appears the thumbnail images (such as appear in the fleet window) can be attached only to pre-made ship designs. Which is probably not what we want.

I figured lil issues like this would crop up once we start to have unique hulls....

Also did I do the ship_hulls.txt update properly? Iv never modified a config file like that before....

Because if a design doesn't have a thumbnail, it will use the default thumbnail, i.e. the generic hull.

What config file do i specify the "Mini Design Thumbnail" in, if its not taking it from ship_hulls.txt?

[eleazar]

Hmmm, it appears the thumbnail images (such as appear in the fleet window) can be attached only to pre-made ship designs. Which is probably not what we want.

I figured lil issues like this would crop up once we start to have unique hulls....

Also did I do the ship_hulls.txt update properly? Iv never modified a config file like that before....

Yeah, it was right. A couple of typos which i fixed.

revision 4641: "Dart00_Tech's hull graphics wired in."


I think all that needs to be changed is:

• a) Change what the default thumbnail is for designs that don't have one specified. I.E. look in "hull_small" for a file of the same name as the big graphic. Currently they all have "_small" appended to the name, but that could be changed.
  
  b) Use the small version for the left side-bar of the design screen. My computer locks up for ~20 seconds while processing the 20+mbs of large designs when i first click on the "unavailable" hull tab. There's really no need for that.

Also I think eleazar forgot to the commit the graphics in the "Standard Based" folder in the archive...i cant see them on sourceforge?

I'm not yet sure if it is better to go with the prettier but not very distinct versions we currently have, or your new ones.

[Dart00_Tech]

I think all that needs to be changed is:

• a) Change what the default thumbnail is for designs that don't have one specified. I.E. look in "hull_small" for a file of the same name as the big graphic. Currently they all have "_small" appended to the name, but that could be changed.
  
  b) Use the small version for the left side-bar of the design screen. My computer locks up for ~20 seconds while processing the 20+mbs of large designs when i first click on the "unavailable" hull tab. There's really no need for that.

Also I think eleazar forgot to the commit the graphics in the "Standard Based" folder in the archive...i cant see them on sourceforge?

I'm not yet sure if it is better to go with the prettier but not very distinct versions we currently have, or your new ones.

Response to A) Im aware of the XXX_small.png graphics, but what config file do i specify them in? ship_hulls.txt only lets me assign the side view ones?

Response to B) I noticed that to, im working on a fix. Also how can i specify a diffrent picture for the side hull listing like your suggesting?

If we use mine, they all blend together nicely, if we mixed in pd's people will wonder why the rest are like that.

PS: Check out viewtopic.php?f=2&t=6509

[Geoff the Medio]

I'm not yet sure if it is better to go with the prettier but not very distinct versions we currently have, or your new ones.

I'd rather keep (pd's) nicer renders when available. The contrast is potentially motivating for others to update the less nice art to the nice art's quality.

[eleazar]

I think all that needs to be changed is:

• a) Change what the default thumbnail is for designs that don't have one specified. I.E. look in "hull_small" for a file of the same name as the big graphic. Currently they all have "_small" appended to the name, but that could be changed.
  
  b) Use the small version for the left side-bar of the design screen. My computer locks up for ~20 seconds while processing the 20+mbs of large designs when i first click on the "unavailable" hull tab. There's really no need for that.

Response to A) Im aware of the XXX_small.png graphics, but what config file do i specify them in? ship_hulls.txt only lets me assign the side view ones?

Response to B) I noticed that to, im working on a fix. Also how can i specify a diffrent picture for the side hull listing like your suggesting?

Those comments were directed to Geoff. I'm pretty sure what i suggest can't be accomplished with scripting. Some codes needs to be tweaked.

I'm not yet sure if it is better to go with the prettier but not very distinct versions we currently have, or your new ones.

I'd rather keep (pd's) nicer renders when available. The contrast is potentially motivating for others to update the less nice art to the nice art's quality.

A while ago I recycled PD's standard hull at a couple different sizes with slight color variations for some hulls i added. Those near duplicates are what i consider replacing.

And as for using PD's stuff, his "Mark 1" hull graphic should be assigned to one of the hulls. Currently it only appears in the thumbnail of a "mark 1".

[Dart00_Tech]

And as for using PD's stuff, his "Mark 1" hull graphic should be assigned to one of the hulls. Currently it only appears in the thumbnail of a "mark 1".

Ill include that in my next update later today with the 8-bit graphics.

EDIT:

Alright...Iv redone all of them and now the file size is down to ~9MB. Thats the best I can do without starting to take a hit to quality. The archive also contains a updated ship_hulls.txt with the mark1 design assigned to the Titanic Hull.

Files.zip (Hotfile.com): http://hotfile.com/dl/146260103/84c62a5/Files.zip.html