Modding unit shadows

[Potatoman]

I've begun a MOD to change Tien'Chi into a nation loosely based on feudal Japan; Samurai, ninjas, Oni, I'm sure you know the theme.

Anyhow, I've been working on forging some nice .tga sprites for my men, but I've run into a rather annoying problem. I can't figure out how to give my men shadows, outside of just coloring them in with RGB=0 0 1 almost-black. I've been using the hoburg mod as my guide for most of this, and the units in that seem to use a peculiar shade of purple which, when cut & pasted, dissapears and has no effect in game.

Anyone know a way around this (aside from vampirism, that is)?

[void]

Shadow: R 255 G 0 B 255 (#FF00FF)

But something wrong when ur MODUnit paralyzed use this color...

[Arralen]

My guess (havn't checked): It isn't purple, it's transparency.

Unit shadows are very small anyway, so why not use black?

A.

[Saber Cherry]

Potatohead,

I'm working on a Japanese theme as well, and some other people have added input or indicated that they were interested in working on it. Perhaps we could collaborate? You might want to read this thread:

http://www.shrapnelgames.com/cgi-bin...;f=74;t=000404

Also, I've found the combat sim to be quite useful in estimate modded unit power...

-Cherry

[Johan K]

Purple (255,0,255) is supposed to be the shadow color. It darkens the color behind it. If you want something more complex, you might try using an alpha channel. I think that should work even though the standard sprites don't use that.

[Potatoman]

Alright, Saber. My mod is loosely based on the Ashikaga Shogunate of feudal Japan, and shares the same name. Overall I plan to have about as many units in my mod as are availible to standard Ulm, mostly ashigaru peasants, noble samurai and sneaky ninja.

So far I have:
1. Created unit sprites (still can't get shadows to work correctly though!) for 4 units: Samurai Swordsman, Samurai Bowman, Aoi Standard Warrior/Samurai Commander--they share the same sprites--, and Ashigaru Spearman.

2. Written unit descriptions for the units I have already created.

3. Successfully modded these starting units into the game so that it does not crash when loaded.

4. Found a nifty banner for the mod.

If you'd like to collaborate I could send you what I've already done. I've looked over your mod thread, and I am unsure exactly how much of what you have talked about is already completed; depending on how much you might not need my help.

Also if you know how to make any of the "new=1" items listed in the modding resouce work spill the beans at once (the items/weapons never appear in unit inventory when added). Samurais running around with falcions and shortswords doesn't have all the desired thematic effect!

[Saber Cherry]

Originally posted by Potatoman:
Also if you know how to make any of the "new=1" items listed in the modding resouce work spill the beans at once (the items/weapons never appear in unit inventory when added). Samurais running around with falcions and shortswords doesn't have all the desired thematic effect!

The new items are only in the combat simulator and cannot be added to the game until weapon and armor modding is added (possibly in the next patch?) I put nation-modding on hold until I can add equipment=)

[PvK]

Alpha channels work, but it's nice to know the official shadow color - makes it easy to match the existing units' shadows.

PvK

[PvK]

Originally posted by Johan K:
Purple (255,0,255) is supposed to be the shadow color. It darkens the color behind it. If you want something more complex, you might try using an alpha channel. I think that should work even though the standard sprites don't use that.

Odd - I tried this, but ended up with opaque purple (actually, radioactive pink) instead of a shadow. Maybe because I am also using alpha channels in the tga? Or something else.

PvK

[Johan K]

Yup, if you use alpha channel you have to make a proper black, alpha 50% shadow too.