Afterburner Project - by DizzyRox

DizzyRox · Post by **DizzyRox** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 2:28 am

I wanted to ask Novacron or Diedel or anyone else that knows for that matter, a couple questions about the high rez texture creation for D2XL.

The deal is, Im a mediocore graphic artist whom is fairly competent in photoshop and I wanted to create some high rez texures,If they turn out well,, thats great, but I dont presume to be that good. I jus wanna try cuz Im freakin hyped about D2XL (Descent2 has been 1uhmy all time fave games since it came out) and I believe that given the extra rez it would be fairly easy to get a better result than standard D2 textures,,I dont think I can do as good as novacron though,,DUDE your awesome!! as with most of this community,, man there's more talent here than one can shake a stick at.I just have the interest and the time.

I have Novacron textures working well in the game,,WOOT!!
I have photoshop and the Dtx2 program ,Ive extracted
the blue power orb (seemed robots are being worked and wall/ceilings) from the image manager to get 8 pixs,I upscaled to 512X512 and lined them up down a 512X4096 file started to work on it,,then realized hey this IS quite some work,,I better see if I can get this in the game(far from finished) saved as TGA named pwr02.tga slammed it into the textures folder to no avail,,D2XL still doesnt see it and used the same old orb.

keep in mind its far from finished..

my question is , it seems Im missing some info,, can anyone help me figure out what Im doing wrong or not doing at all?
thanks

here's a few textures i just finished ,,for the most part..they dress up lvl 3,pretty well until novacron gets closer..if interested

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 3:13 am

I am not sure whether D2X-XL currently reads hires textures other than for the level walls, but I can take a look into it.

DizzyRox · Post by **DizzyRox** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 5:47 am

OIC thanks Diedel, Im glad I didnt go too far into that stuff then.

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 5:57 am

Animated images need to be named like pwr02#0.tga (it must be the name of the original texture plus the character string '#0' - see Novacron's textures for examples). You also need to add an alpha channel to mask the transparent areas of the image, and I recommend using a black background, not a white one, to distinguish it from any opaque white areas of the image.

I will check your hires textures - you are very welcome to make some. Novacron has been detracted from his hires texture project by other things ... as I had expected.

Edit: Displaying hires powerup images had been buggy. Fix available (v1.6.78 ).

DizzyRox · Post by **DizzyRox** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 6:58 pm

Thanks much Diedel

I was reading,in the forums of the guestamation of 2.5 years to create all the textures for XL and was like,,, WOW!!! thats alota textures.. then the mention of community help and all. I jus wanted to help.Thanks again man..

DarkFlameWolf · Post by **DarkFlameWolf** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 8:26 am

Okay, I've seen new textures here, new textures there, but is there a repository where people can go to to find all the textures that have been made thus far, all at once? Like a high-rez texture database? I think that'd be a good idea. Rather than having to scrounge around for topics with the textures in them. Just a thought. Maybe make a sticky post with a updating list of high rez textures made for XL.

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 8:48 am

The 'standard' (preliminary) D2X-XL hires texture pack can be found on http://novacron.koolbear.com.

We have yet to find a way to coordinate all hires texture contributors.

DizzyRox · Post by **DizzyRox** » Fri Jun 23, 2006 12:51 am

I hear ya Darkflamewolf on the collective part.
Ive created 21wall/floors so far(covering much of lvls 1-3/4),but quickly running out of room on my webspace (each about 800k),whether anyone uses the ones I create or not doesnt really matter, but If they did ,Ill have to look for hosting very soon.I cant imagine how much would be needed for the entire game set.

DizzyRox · Post by **DizzyRox** » Sat Jul 01, 2006 1:02 am

I finally got a working powerup WOOT!,I believe finished,
check it out

Aus-RED-5 · Post by **Aus-RED-5** » Sat Jul 01, 2006 3:02 am

cool.. where is the d/l for it?

DizzyRox · Post by **DizzyRox** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 5:13 am

Sorry Red
I posted it here, this morning
http://dizzyrox.koolbear.com

Aus-RED-5 · Post by **Aus-RED-5** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 5:46 am

Hi Dizzy.
Thanks for you work on the textures sofar!

Can I reguest something?

When and if you do reworked for better quality textures? Can you tell us which texture pack it is? This way we don't have to d/l them all again and over write them all.
Or better yet. Maybe have a reworked.zip file so we only have to over write what needs to be over writen.

Just an idea!
Thanks mate!

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 8:08 am

Dizzy,

a hint about hires animations. Actually you can have them contain more frames than the original does. D2X-XL will play the entire clip back with the original speed, allowing you to improve the playback quality by providing 'finer grained' changes between two subsequent frames. You could easily do that e.g. for the shield orb powerup, making the white lightning look better when wandering across the blue sphere.

DizzyRox · Post by **DizzyRox** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 9:48 am

Hi fellas thanks much for the tips,

Aus_RED_5 wrote:Maybe have a reworked.zip file so we only have to over write what needs to be over writen

Aus_RED_5 Ive got a link to just that file in the paragraph about the topic, but the link is in the words "Improved Textures". Maybe I should put that also under the packs list, maybe addy the word improvedtextures(only).zip or something lke that, sound good?

Diedel wrote:Dizzy,

a hint about hires animations. Actually you can have them contain more frames than the original does. D2X-XL will play the entire clip back with the original speed, allowing you to improve the playback quality by providing 'finer grained' changes between two subsequent frames. You could easily do that e.g. for the shield orb powerup, making the white lightning look better when wandering across the blue sphere.

Man thats good news to hear diedel, so I jus increase file length for however many frames I add to it and the speed remains? hmmm that adds great power to the situation. good stuff

Ill try to work it to a better end.

Neumaennl · Post by **Neumaennl** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 2:33 pm

Hi DizzyRox I really LOVE your textures, you did a really good job. After making so many Wall textures how about some doors, panels and powerups like your wonderful shield orb?
*DROOLS at the thought of our beloved weapons and Energy powerup in hirez*

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 2:37 pm

Dizzy,

two limitations:

#1 Max. 127 frames
#2 512x512x4 bytes per frame is a lot. If I was you I would shoot for doubling the frame count, not more. Heck, doors with doubled frame count should look awesome!

DizzyRox · Post by **DizzyRox** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 5:14 pm

Neumaenni wrote:Hi DizzyRox I really LOVE your textures, you did a really good job. After making so many Wall textures how about some doors, panels and powerups like your wonderful shield orb?
*DROOLS at the thought of our beloved weapons and Energy powerup in hirez*

Thanks much Neumaenni

It jus so happens I finished the Energy powerup this morning, alas it was done before I got to read diedels post about fine tuning them,so the little orbs are movin pretty quickly, Im gonna try to slow them down abit. and there's a small halo in it thats not being shown in screenshot.Ive posted it here
http://dizzyrox.koolbear.com/
if you want to check it out.

Diedel wrote:Dizzy,

two limitations:

#1 Max. 127 frames
#2 512x512x4 bytes per frame is a lot. If I was you I would shoot for doubling the frame count, not more. Heck, doors with doubled frame count should look awesome!

Ill try diedel, I hope Im on the right page, Does this mean that they are ,sized by the game, i.e..the stuff wont be rendered half sized in the game?

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Mon Jul 03, 2006 1:21 am

You can have D2X-XL scale hires textures down. This is controlled by the texture quality slider in the advanced render options menu. The possible sizes are 512x512 (max. qual.), 256x256, 128x128 and 64x64 (which doesn't show any hires effect any more, but will still give you improvements in animations).

Aus-RED-5 · Post by **Aus-RED-5** » Mon Jul 03, 2006 2:06 am

Its all good Dizzy!

You rock!

Keep up the good work!

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Mon Jul 03, 2006 2:33 am

I would like to see the energy powerup less edgy (those elevated edges you can see in its middle). It's pure energy after all, not a material physical body.

Duper · Post by **Duper** » Mon Jul 03, 2006 3:29 am

My 2 bits:

I don't like the energy powerup.

It looks like it was carvedout of gold soap. I'm saying it was done poory or that it doesn't look nice. It is certainly both, but it is wrong.

In D1 I got the impression that the energy power up was an energy sprite or spark with a couple orbiting static blobs. D3 went a long way to make the energy powerup as you see it there. They used a 3d model instead of the image sprite that D1 and D2 had.

I'm sure everyone is thinking \"WTF??!\" but oh well. that's how i feel. ... I'll go back to sleep now.

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Mon Jul 03, 2006 5:03 am

Duper wrote:I don't like the energy powerup.

It looks like it was carvedout of gold soap.

I have to agree.

DizzyRox · Post by **DizzyRox** » Mon Jul 03, 2006 5:06 am

Diedel wrote:I would like to see the energy powerup less edgy (those elevated edges you can see in its middle). It's pure energy after all, not a material physical body.

Yup, I had this debate in my head as I was working on it. I agree ,and Ill try for a different way about it tonight.

Thanks for the props Aus_RED_5

Duper wrote:My 2 bits:

I don't like the energy powerup.

It looks like it was carvedout of gold soap. I'm saying it was done poory or that it doesn't look nice. It is certainly both, but it is wrong.

In D1 I got the impression that the energy power up was an energy sprite or spark with a couple orbiting static blobs. D3 went a long way to make the energy powerup as you see it there. They used a 3d model instead of the image sprite that D1 and D2 had.

I'm sure everyone is thinking "WTF??!" but oh well. that's how i feel. ... I'll go back to sleep now.

Duper its all good man, Im not a professional, I can use all the help I can get ,good and bad.This stuffs mostly all new to me and just meant for "Hey if ya likem hav'm ,if not dont" ,But really nothing can be its best without cold hard critisism.

Neumaennl · Post by **Neumaennl** » Mon Jul 03, 2006 5:14 am

I for one don't think that the Energy powerup is THAT bad - at least it's better than the one in D3 IMHO.
But the shield orb as well as the energy sparkle are animated WAY too fast (dunno if it's just my PC)

Aus-RED-5 · Post by **Aus-RED-5** » Mon Jul 03, 2006 5:34 am

I like the energy powerup. I like the haze around it too.

Nice look and nicely done too Dizzy!

Neumaennl - Its not just you. The frames need to be longer.
Maybe something like this: Frame 1 Frame 1, Frame 2 Frame 2, Frame 3 Frame 3..... and so on? Maybe that will slow it down?

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Mon Jul 03, 2006 5:53 am

Aus-Red,

I stated that more frames will not make the animation last longer. If it plays too fast, the animation probably has the 'sputniks' circle too fast and generally needs to be changed. If the number of rotations per animation cycle is correct, the clip might also be played too fast by D2X-XL.

Duper · Post by **Duper** » Mon Jul 03, 2006 11:33 am

I was going to extract the gif from D1, but DTX deosn't seem to like XP!

Ok, just ran through some D1. Got to hand it to you, you got it pretty close. Even the one orb a bit higher than the other.
Rather than a chizled look for the center, perhaps something like a bright white that feathers out to gold? This is ONLY a thought as I hate it when I'm drawing something and someone starts.. \"oh! you should do this!' or that!\"

Aus-RED-5 · Post by **Aus-RED-5** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 1:54 am

Duper wrote:I was going to extract the gif from D1, but DTX deosn't seem to like XP!

DTX 1 doesn't have a "save as gif option".

DTX2 does though, and it works fine with WinXP.

^^^^ This is right out of DTX2 and the powerup is no different from the D1 version.

EDIT::
Just extracted the D1 powerup images and put them together with a gif animator program.

Duper · Post by **Duper** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 2:11 am

oh? mine won't even load up. I get some kind of 16 bit protection error. and yea, I tried running in win95 compat.

Aus-RED-5 · Post by **Aus-RED-5** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 2:16 am

Mine isn't running in compat mode.

I don't know why yours isn't working. I didn't do anything different. Just install it is all I did.

DizzyRox · Post by **DizzyRox** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 2:43 am

What do you guys think of this look, I had to agree with you guys on this, thing is I jus cant figure how to get the orbs to slow down, Im prolly jus not quite getting yet, what diedel has spoke of. It does look better than the floating bar of soap anyway,

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 3:26 am

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH! Gorgeous!

Do you think you could make the 'orbiters' look a little more 'ghosty' as well? Where can I d/l the new energy powerup animation?

Btw, I just compared the lores and the hires energy powerups, and the animation speed looks perfectly ok for me. At least they are no different. They are considerably faster than the animated gif a few posts up.

Can someone compare animation speed in D2X-XL with standard D2 please?

Aus-RED-5 · Post by **Aus-RED-5** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 5:18 am

Ohhhh nicely done Dizzy!!!!!

Like Diedel said. The orbs floating around it should be pretty close to the same as the rest.

Well done dude! Well done!

EDIT:
You know.... you could probably add a touch of haze around the shield powerup to get rid of the white edges that are showing up?

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 5:36 am

Looks like D2X-XL played animations to fast at higher frame rates. Don't ask me why, the code should have been frame rate independent. Maybe rounding errors ...

DizzyRox · Post by **DizzyRox** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 7:55 am

Im sure glad you guys like it, It wont be a prob making the orbs more ghosty lookin and the Blue orb defringed or hazed,hopefully i can have them tonight/tommorow.

Diedel could I ask you ,do the panels with multiple Ani's and stills get lined up in one file, or how does this happen? Ive been fiddlin (by no means done really) around with this panel and I cant get it to animate. its box01a#0.tga ,box01b#0.tga ,box01b.tga, Ive got these, but it wont work

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 9:25 am

Novacron has made a hires switch or two, just look at these. He has e.g. made a box01a#0.tga containing the animation for the live and box01b.tga for the destroyed switch (whis isn't animated).

DizzyRox · Post by **DizzyRox** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 5:43 pm

Diedel wrote:Novacron has made a hires switch or two, just look at these. He has e.g. made a box01a#0.tga containing the animation for the live and box01b.tga for the destroyed switch (whis isn't animated).

Sure nuff, it says he's got that one done on his site. doe

, Ill do a different one..

Ive posted that new energy powerup, see what you guys think http://webpages.charter.net/ericengland/pwr01.zip

Duper · Post by **Duper** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 12:35 am

wow, for all intensive purposes, I think you nailed it.

Very cool effect!

Having a much faster machine than D1 was intended to be run on, my energy powerups move much faster than the ones ya'll posted. ; )

Not crazy fast, just about twice as fast as the gifs here...course, that might be my browser too. *shrug*

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 1:41 am

Duper,

grab D2X-XL v1.6.95 - I fixed powerup animation speed there.

Neumaennl · Post by **Neumaennl** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 2:22 am

DizzyRox the energy powerup now is perfect!

But now to another thing: DizzyRox works around NovacroN's efforts, which is ok since it would be stupid to do things twice, especially if there's that much work involved, but as NovacroN didn't release all of his textures and obviously isn't working on them anymore, don't you think it would be nice if he would make all of the textures he did accessible to the public on novacron.koolbear.com? Maybe someone with more influence on him (Diedel, or maybe DizzyRox) could try to contact him (someone got an eMail address of him?) and persuade him to release his textures for the benefit of the community. Otherwise someone may have to do things twice or we will never see those textures in HiRez