LBM creation question.

[DRG]

Thanks for the offer but no. We'll pick up where we left off when the time comes and then we'll decide on how to proceed on a case by case basis. Andy and I usually have our own ideas on what needs to be "smoothed over". We are not abandoning the game for a year, we are just altering it's priority a bit.

Don

[blazejos]

So I uderstand that works in WinSPWW2 starts. Meaby SPCAMO can create a new forum in shrapnelcommunity yet before game relase so we can post in this place many things like icons , Lbm's pictures and new units for OOB this materials should be useful to create WinSPWW2 beter than today version.

[DRG]

Blaz, when the time comes that we are ready to look at things like this we'll let everyone know. This is not the time. The groundwork needs to be done first and we need to concentrate on that. Also, OOB's will not be accepted. Andy and I will retain total control of the OOB's through out the process. This helps to avoid "surprises". What we need when it comes to OOB's, when the time comes, if people have things they wish to contribute is information. That's all somewhere down the road from here at the moment.

Don

[Richard_H]

Oh dear, I see the 'control freakery' continues. Don, get real! Some of the B/W lbms swim/flicker in the game as well, and how anybody can justify using 1 pic (I'm looking specifically at 13012, cos I'm working on it at the moment) to represent AAA with calibres from 23mm to 57mm is quite beyond me. It actually looks from the helmet like a German 3.7cm FlaK, which barely belongs in MBT anyway!

As for oobs, I haven't got round to MBT yet, but if you consider that I had to make over 200 changes to the Dutch WW2 oob to get it anything like accurate (OK, that included taking it back to 1914, but even so . . .), there's a lot of work still to be done.

No, you'll never get 100% colour, I agree; and if anything, I'd rather have an *accurate* b/w shot over an inaccurate colour shot any day. I can live with the mix - some folk can't. That's their privilege.

Anybody in this forum who wants colour (or color<g>) lbms should search for 'SPColormods' and 'SPColormods2'. I'll be posting a new series of colour lbms which will be compatible with the Windows version. There will be about 1000 new lbms - some will work in-game, some will not. I hope to get positive feedback about those that don't. I've also made a start on renumbering, so that country-specific lbms start with the right pair of numbers - eg all US Army lbms will start with '12'. I know I can't go beyond 65000, but will also publish a list to show which countries are 'doubled up'.

This really *is* a great game, and all those of us who mod are doing is trying to improve it in our own way. I hope this is taken in the spirit in which it is intended.

Richard H

[DRG]

Richard_H said:
Oh dear, I see the 'control freakery' continues. Don, get real! Some of the B/W lbms swim/flicker in the game as well,

Really? And which ones are they and I will fix them for the next upgrade? 90% of the people who complain about these type of errors never, EVER bother to pass on any info that allows up to find and correct things like this You are continuing the tradition and it's not very helpful.

Richard_H said:
and how anybody can justify using 1 pic (I'm looking specifically at 13012, cos I'm working on it at the moment) to represent AAA with calibres from 23mm to 57mm is quite beyond me. It actually looks from the helmet like a German 3.7cm FlaK, which barely belongs in MBT anyway!

Gee, now I have to "justify" why a pic is used buy a dozen or more different OOB designers in 33 different OOB's and 84 different entries ? Well.. I'm not going to bother. Maybe they'll step forward and explain it to you. It's more than likely is the result of not having the correct photo on hand and that one being "good enough" and better than " Photo not available" and to 90% of the people playing, it is and when we find better pics, or someone bothers to constructively offer better alternatives we always accept that.

Richard_H said:
As for oobs, I haven't got round to MBT yet, but if you consider that I had to make over 200 changes to the Dutch WW2 oob to get it anything like accurate (OK, that included taking it back to 1914, but even so . . .), there's a lot of work still to be done.

And I'm guilty of 'control freakery'?? . So sorry we don't quite live up to your standards of accuracy and completeness.

Richard_H said:
No, you'll never get 100% colour, I agree; and if anything, I'd rather have an *accurate* b/w shot over an inaccurate colour shot any day. I can live with the mix - some folk can't. That's their privilege.

vive le difference

Richard_H said:
Anybody in this forum who wants colour (or color<g>) lbms should search for 'SPColormods' and 'SPColormods2'. I'll be posting a new series of colour lbms which will be compatible with the Windows version. There will be about 1000 new lbms - some will work in-game, some will not. I hope to get positive feedback about those that don't. I've also made a start on renumbering, so that country-specific lbms start with the right pair of numbers - eg all US Army lbms will start with '12'. I know I can't go beyond 65000, but will also publish a list to show which countries are 'doubled up'.

This really *is* a great game, and all those of us who mod are doing is trying to improve it in our own way. I hope this is taken in the spirit in which it is intended.

Richard H

Oh yeah Richard, the attitude come though load and clear. Enjoy your work.

Don

[cusbut]

I have been working on updating and tidying the game lbm,s for about 7 months, at present I have completed 41 countries. I have added an extra 6260 lbm's, every unit now has a picture, most have pictures relevant to that country (ie a japenese F16 will have japenese markings and be a different pic than that of a US F16. All infantry weapons have been replaced with pics of the relevant infantry unit for that period (or as near as I could find). All tank and vehicle variants have individual pics instead of one T-55A representing a number of variants. It has been a long and often tedious project and I still have quite a lot to do. The problem with this type of major OOB change is when you get new patches you will have to individually change every lbm in the new patched version. This will take quite a long time to do. When the new patch is released I will change the pics to correspond with my lbm database and then offer it up to a few keen people who dont mind a lot of tedious number crunching when patches come out. I will have to send it by CD ROM because it is just too huge to put up on this forum (159mb).

[DRG]

Wow ... that certainly sounds interesting. Can you post a random sample of the pics you've done here? Maybe a couple dozen random samples.

Don

[cusbut]

Not a problem these are a few random lbms

[DRG]

While I applaud the work you have done but I wish, for your sake, you had asked about this when you first started and I would have given you a couple of suggestions that would have saved you some problems

Most of the pics do not use the correct, abbreviated PIC palette I provided in the games \Game Data\Design\Palettes folder for WinSPMBT. The one you need for B&W use is JASC_WINSP_PICPAL.pal. If you use any other palette for B&W you risk the a "shimmering" effect when the game is run on some systems. These are shades of grey used by the game for smoke etc and if they get into an LBM you will see twinkling. When I find a PIC that does this I fix it but they are not common but all pics should use JASC_WINSP_PICPAL.pal to elliminate any chance that may happen. The reason I have not done this for every PIC in the game is there are now 4,390 in the game and redoing each one is, as you know, a bit tedious

However, I think for the most part you may be OK with the "red bands" palette you have used for most of them but I found two in that sample that use the entire palette so those "smoke" greys are included in your PIC. PM23107 and PM23109 both have the full palette and both pics contain a number of pixels that come from the last row of greys that are used by the games for colour cycling

This is quite a project you've taken on. Good luck with it

Don

[cusbut]

Thanks for the tip, I was aware that some would shimmer, because I initially started with the old DOS SPMBT pallette and didnt realise the palette had changed until about 1000 odd pics later, but never fear I plan on testing and redoing any pics on completion. A labour off love as they say, lol