Hi I have an Idea

Starhawk · #1 December 1st, 2003, 05:05 AM

I have perfect pictures to create a "Hiigaran" shipset from the Homeworld 2 game.

Problem is I can't seem to get them to the right proportions and everything to get them in the game and still looking good. I was wondering if any of you would be so kind as to help me in this area either by making the ship set or by helping me figure out how to get the ships to still look good while at the same time fitting the size limits of the game.

David E. Gervais · #2 December 1st, 2003, 01:31 PM

What are the game sizes needed and where are the pics? I might be able to fiddle with them in my spare time.

btw: is the problem that the pics are tiny and get ugly when enlarged? or are they huge and loose too much detail in the reduction?

Cheers!

[ December 01, 2003, 11:32: Message edited by: David E. Gervais ]

Starhawk · #3 December 1st, 2003, 06:37 PM

Well they are rather large as the screenshot manager doesn't let you decrease their size.
But when they get shrunk to the approropriate size the game makes em look really really bad even though in like MSN paint they look pretty good.

And I am currently grouping them all together in a .zip file and getting enough screenies to make a good full shipset so I'll have the download available (hopefully) by later today.

Andr�s · #4 December 1st, 2003, 07:14 PM

Every ship size needs a 128x128 "portrait" and a 36x36 "mini".
You will allways lose some details when reducing to those sizes, but if resampled nicely they should look ok anyway.
Another important detail is that minis should show relative sizes between the ships, so the largest ones should use all 36 pixels of its mini while the smallest much less.

Starhawk · #5 December 1st, 2003, 09:07 PM

That is where I am having the real problems...I tried to make a dreadnought mini and a cruiser mini. I replaced the "cruiser" pic from the demo with my dreadnought and the light cruiser with my cruiser.

But the dreadnought actually came out smaller and less detailed then my cruiser did.

David E. Gervais · #6 December 1st, 2003, 09:26 PM

any chance of sending me one of the more difficult pics to test out? If I can do a good job on one of the more difficult ones then chances are the others will be ok too.

Cheers!

P.S. my e-mail is in my profile. Just be sure to notify me here if you send it. I don't often check out my hotmail account.

P.P.S. I'm not sure I agree about the mini's needing to be of varying sizes, I would make all ships fit the largest possible area in the 36x36 pics, they are after all just a representation of the ship, accurate scale is not IMHO necessary in the mini pics. (Scale can be kept in the 128x128 size though, there is a bit more room to play there.)

[ December 01, 2003, 19:30: Message edited by: David E. Gervais ]

Starhawk · #7 December 1st, 2003, 11:02 PM

Problem is they are all IMHO very difficult

Well since you don't often check ur e-mails I'll just give you all my download links

.

Here are the links: http://www11.brinkster.com/starhawk11/HiggaranFleet.zip

http://www11.brinkster.com/starhawk1...aranFleet2.zip

http://www11.brinkster.com/starhawk1...aranFleet3.zip

http://www11.brinkster.com/starhawk1...aranFleet4.zip

Sorry about the four links but Brinkster wont allow anything over 1 mb to be uploaded.

[ December 01, 2003, 21:29: Message edited by: Starhawk ]

Andr�s · #8 December 2nd, 2003, 12:29 AM

Starhawk, your links give me an error:

Quote:

HTTP1.1 STATUS 403 Remote Access to this object forbidden This file cannot be directly accessed from a remote site, but must be linked through the Brinkster Member's site.

You can try, cropping the picture first, then resizing and then pasting into a blank 36x36 pic.

David, the 36x36 minis are what you see in the game most of the time. The game get's very confusing if you can't visually tell apart a dreadnought from an escort (or even worse, if the escort looks bigger).
On the other hand the game never shows two or more 128x128 portraits at once, so relative scales here is not so important.
BTW, and just in case, minis are top-views and portraits are perspectives.

[ December 01, 2003, 22:40: Message edited by: Andres ]

Starhawk · #9 December 2nd, 2003, 12:40 AM

Hmmm it works for everyone else I tested it with.

Ah well try it this way let's see if it works

http://www11.brinkster.com/starhawk11/HiggaranFleet

http://www11.brinkster.com/starhawk11/HiggaranFleet2

http://www11.brinkster.com/starhawk11/HiggaranFleet3

http://www11.brinkster.com/starhawk11/HiggaranFleet4

David E. Gervais · #10 December 2nd, 2003, 12:50 AM

Ok, I grabbed the files and did a few of the ships, where should I send them for you to look at the results.

Oh and I see the problem with reducing the ships, they are way too colorfull. The bright colors tend to obscure the details. Also, there seems to be no consistancy in the ship orientations, many of the pics I can't tell if the ship is comming or going away from the camera's pov. I have rotated the few ships I did to orient them vertically, (the overhead view ships. the perspective view I cannot rotate, I can only x-flip them if they are pointed in the opposite direction.

anyway, let me know where I can send the samples I'll let you decide.

Cheers!

P.S. I also had trouble with the links, but found that if I right-click and "Save target as.." I managed to grab them. your site gave an error message saying that it does not allow remote linking to files.

[ December 01, 2003, 22:51: Message edited by: David E. Gervais ]