Jason Posted February 7, 2004 Report Posted February 7, 2004 Pardon me if these questions have been posed before, and I somehow managed to overlook them, but after browing through the forums for about a half hour now, I've yet to find anything that's quite what I'm looking for in the way of help/guidance. I'm wondering if there exists a general/comprehesive tutorial for those trying to get a start making shipsets, tilesets and even combining a tileset with lvz objects in order to create particularly fancy maps. I don't need tons of info, just give me the basics or at least point me to where I can read up on the basics, and I'll be fine. I'm just wondering about a few things, such as the following:What is the basic format/layout of a shipset? I realize that if you want to customize a ship you would make your original (first frame) ship image (although I'm unclear as to what dimensions it must be), then make each rotation frame so that you can have 360 degress of rotation. I'm not aware just how many frames you need to have though, or how many degrees of rotation each frame should have. What sort of programs do people use to create shipsets? I'm !@#$%^&*uming Photoshop is a big one, but then there's lighting effects to deal with for those who have ship rolling enabled, and that seems like it wouldn't be all that easy in PS. Perhaps folks are using other 3D rendering apps to apply lighting effects? The whole idea of ship rolling also has me thinking that my shipset needs to contain all of the frames without the lighting effects (for those with ship rolling disabled) and all of the frames with the lighting effects (for those with ship rolling enabled). (By the way, I know that last sentence probably made you think, "Duh, that's common sense. This guy's an idiot." I apologize if I seem like a moron, but my intent is to be as absolutely clear as possible. I hate when you come onto a forum and some !@#$%^&*wad throws up a thread asking some ridiculous question with little to no explanation and you're left wondering what the -*BAD WORD*- he's talking about.) What programs/techniques are people using to create tilesets? Again, I'm guessing Photoshop is a biggie. It seems to me that creating a tileset is much like putting together background sprites for an old school RPG (such as FFI) or what have you. This means pixel art I guess, perhaps even isometric pixel art? Is there a definitive, comprehensive guide on implementing lvz objects in a map? I'd like to have an idea as to how the whole process works, from initially creating the graphic, to converting it to lvz format and then getting it in the map. (I'm not even sure if that's the correct process or not.)Well, I think that pretty much covers everything. I apologize for writing a book. I just wanted to be as thorough as possible to avoid having to clarify a bunch of stuff later. Thanks in advance to anyone who can offer me some guidance and/or !@#$%^&*istance. And if you're not going to be helpful in any way and would rather flame, please do me a favor and -*BAD WORD*- off. That's all folks.
»CypherJF Posted February 7, 2004 Report Posted February 7, 2004 What is the basic format/layout of a shipset? I realize that if you want to customize a ship you would make your original (first frame) ship image (although I'm unclear as to what dimensions it must be), then make each rotation frame so that you can have 360 degress of rotation. I'm not aware just how many frames you need to have though, or how many degrees of rotation each frame should have. [*]What sort of programs do people use to create shipsets? I'm !@#$%^&*uming Photoshop is a big one, but then there's lighting effects to deal with for those who have ship rolling enabled, and that seems like it wouldn't be all that easy in PS. Perhaps folks are using other 3D rendering apps to apply lighting effects? The whole idea of ship rolling also has me thinking that my shipset needs to contain all of the frames without the lighting effects (for those with ship rolling disabled) and all of the frames with the lighting effects (for those with ship rolling enabled). (By the way, I know that last sentence probably made you think, "Duh, that's common sense. This guy's an idiot." I apologize if I seem like a moron, but my intent is to be as absolutely clear as possible. I hate when you come onto a forum and some !@#$%^&*wad throws up a thread asking some ridiculous question with little to no explanation and you're left wondering what the -*BAD WORD*- he's talking about.) [*]What programs/techniques are people using to create tilesets? Again, I'm guessing Photoshop is a biggie. It seems to me that creating a tileset is much like putting together background sprites for an old school RPG (such as FFI) or what have you. This means pixel art I guess, perhaps even isometric pixel art? [*]Is there a definitive, comprehensive guide on implementing lvz objects in a map? I'd like to have an idea as to how the whole process works, from initially creating the graphic, to converting it to lvz format and then getting it in the map. (I'm not even sure if that's the correct process or not.)Well, I think that pretty much covers everything. I apologize for writing a book. I just wanted to be as thorough as possible to avoid having to clarify a bunch of stuff later. Thanks in advance to anyone who can offer me some guidance and/or !@#$%^&*istance. And if you're not going to be helpful in any way and would rather flame, please do me a favor and -*BAD WORD*- off. That's all folks.What is the basic format/layout of a shipset?If you open ships.bm2 which can be renamed to ships.bmp; each ship has a 9 degree turn, which makes 40 frames total. All you need to do now is create a BMP or several other formats such as this: ship#.ext -> and the size of the image does NOT matter BUT you must keep the 10x4 measurement. The idea behind this-> take the image height / 4, image width / 10 and this gives us our frame cells.Always consult the /graphics/ folder in your continuum; just rename .bm2 to bmp and wa2 to wav... What sort of programs do people use to create shipsets?There are several programs out there, many people choose to model it in 3D with programs such as Bryce, etc. Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro can also do these as well. If you check http://forums.minegoboom.com and under the user applications, there are several programs that will add lighting effect to your ship, and i believe there are some photoshop scripts to do this also... What programs/techniques are people using to create tilesets?Once again, Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro (which I use). TileEdit (off of ssdownloads) is a big help occasionally. I am not one for creating tilesets, so I'm sure someone else can help you here better than I...These follow the same basic ideaologies of the ship.bmp, where there are so many tiles width/height, the last 2 rows have special features, such as the last 10(?) on the 2nd to last go like this 4 - doors, 4 doors, 1 flag, 1 safezone; the next row has some format like this: goal, fly under, fly over some w/ transparency.. i forget off of the top of my head... Is there a definitive, comprehensive guide on implementing lvz objects in a map?There have been some nice tutorials written somewhere on the SS Community; but the best program to create the LVZ INI is LIE off of http://forums.minegoboom.com user applications; go ahead and read up on http://www.shanky.com/server/ too, it has some good stuff on it.. That's all folks.Hopefully I helped ya on your way...CypherJF
Yupa Posted February 7, 2004 Report Posted February 7, 2004 Does a comprehensive tutorial such as this exist?, basics of shipsets/tilesets/lvz/mappingsoon
»CypherJF Posted February 7, 2004 Report Posted February 7, 2004 meh I keep tellin myself I'd work on Underlord's mervbot plugin tutorial lol... but nevah got around to it :/
Trained Posted February 8, 2004 Report Posted February 8, 2004 gamemapping.com was supposed to have some kind of info regarding all that.. I think there was gonna be a tutorials section or something, but something happened, and JC's site got fcked
»CypherJF Posted February 8, 2004 Report Posted February 8, 2004 Cypher=sexxayrawr! lol jk.. awesome avatar
»1587200 Posted February 9, 2004 Report Posted February 9, 2004 It's not the Godsmack sun. I got it off an abstract background I found online.
»CypherJF Posted February 9, 2004 Report Posted February 9, 2004 Oh also -- here is a list of what I consider my 'ss server dev. toolkit' http://www.subspacenetwork.com/serverToolkit.html of course its missing 3d junk etc cause i dont have that software ya'll should check it out.. Ive just finished the 'notes' section to the new mervbot tutorial, so users can post other comments about code/articles etc etc similar to PHP.net http://www.subspacenetwork.com/mervtutor/
fresca Posted February 10, 2004 Report Posted February 10, 2004 Well, for about 2 weeks i've been considering making a website for newbies and even some pros on Development on Continuum and what a zone should be like and etc. The site would have like 50 tutorials on stuff ranging from rotating a shipset, to making inverse repels, to making a scoreboard, and all the way to staffing right. These all sound pretty basic, but I would also post some nice tricks i've found and settings and stuff that people that aren't beginners could use. Dos and Don'ts, too.. Anyways, when I get enough time I may work on it.
»CypherJF Posted February 10, 2004 Report Posted February 10, 2004 "what a zone should be like.." i know we all hate newby zones that are all super; but no one person should say what a zone should be like thats the fun and joy of SS.. and being able to run your own servers... so i dont suggest u writting a topic on that unless well SS did have that thing once where, tutorials on how to make a 'good' zone w/ the like.. how back in SVS having tubs for bursts being like 6 or 8 tiles at most in width or w/e junk like that...
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