LBM creation question.

[blazejos]

I made some color intro Lbm's . Moust of them are with "western" equipment and soliders. So I made with "eastern". Here are pic from war in Chechenia , Iraq with Warsaw pact equipment and from rusian intervention in Afganistan. Pic are from range 1500 to 15117 is that posible to coded this range for use as intro pictures in game?

[blazejos]

next pocket of color lbm's range 15118 to 15152

[DRG]

Blaz......wouldn't it make more sense to ask if this can be done BEFORE creating 152 colour PIC's? I wish I had your spare time.

Yes, I *could" change the code to open up those numbers as potential colour LBM's pics for the screens that use the colour pics but it's not a trivial code change ( there are over 1 dozen colour pic lists in the code ) and it is WAY too late for this patch and, as I said in another post.... not all colour pics look good when converted to the palette we have to use when displayed in the game and although there ARE a number of the ones that you did that look fine there are a number that don't and while I don't claim the ones we do use in the game now are the crème de la crème of colour pics I culled them down from 4 or 5 times the number of ones you do see because most simply do not turn out well when converted

Also, I noticed in some of the pics something I've seen other people do as well and that is resize the existing photo to fit the game PIC's 2:1 aspect ration without maintaining the original photos aspect ratio which either stretches or squashes the original photo and distorts the image when turned into a PIC. 15020 is one example 15067 looks like another and a few other pics just look a bit "compressed" as well.

I'm not trying to discourage you from creating items for the game but if you'd asked about this first I could have explained a few things that would have saved you a lot of work. For example. I like the pic 15128 but I would have liked to have seen the original photo. Sometimes colour pics have to be done twice, once using "error diffusion dithering" and once with "nearest color matching" then the two cut and pasted together but I don't know until I see the original. Sometimes the best pic is square and simply won't fit a 2:1 ratio and in that case I use the square pic in a 2:1 frame then fill in the background using cut and paste from the original photo then reduce it to 160x80 ( and sometimes that doesn't work and the whole thing has to be tossed out and start again )

Don

[Richard_H]

Don

Strange you don't like my attitude but Ian's (Cusbut) is OK.

Ian, last I saw you were doing colour as well. Have you changed to b/w?

Don, if I had the time, I'd be delighted to instance every b/w flickering shot, but I don't. That's one issue. I guess what really gets to me is that the game is so accurate in so many respects, so why skimp on the graphics? And if you're going to rubbish my efforts, please don't copy (some of) them, as you *appear* to have done with the modded Polish oob. I may be flattering myself, of course, & you may well have thought of the new units all by yourself.

You want specifics re lbms? OK. 23800, 25019, 25154, 34064, 34078, 34601 - all wrong size, & that's just in a sample of about 500. 36190 - I think it's probably the last of the 'white borders' - at least I hope so. Anything duplicated - although I can understand that, with so many people involved. *Any* missile graphics.

Most of the shots are there somewhere, whether on the net or in books. I'm sorry - and this is *not* intended personally, but not to find them = sloppy research. I repeat, why be so accurate in some ways but not others?

Richard H

[DRG]

Richard, it's quite obvious you do not pay the least bit of attention to what's said on this forum. The " modded Polish oob" HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH SPCAMO. Any "modded" OOB HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH SPCAMO unless we specifically endorse it and the Polish mod is not endorsed by us. You might want to contact the guys who did the mod and ask them about it. If any of your work has been used in the OFFICAL OOB's issued with the game I want to know which pic if it WAS used I want to know about it becasue I issued specific instruction that NO PIC from third parties was to be used without their express permission and if that was the case their names would be in the credits. "Modded" OOBs are NOT my problem.

As for "23800, 25019, 25154, 34064, 34078, 34601 all wrong size," If I could get people to follow simple instructions I would have less crap like this to deal with months or years after the fact. Yes, they are the wrong size. One is 1 pixel too short, 3 are one pixel too tall and one is two pixels too tall and neither error make the least bit of difference when displayed in the game and yes..... they all should be 160x80 as I have explained repeately to anyone who makes them but people screw up and I simply don't have the time to check that every PIC sent to be during development is 160x80 unless it shows up incorrectly in the game. And 25154 isn't even used by a unit in the game and there are lot's of "old" PIC lurking in the files that are no longer used as well.

Don

[DRG]

Richard. If "Richard_H" is "Richard Hopkins" you are credited in V3 of SPMBT with OOB and LBM contributions. If you did NOT OK the use of your work in V.3 I was not aware of it.

Don

[DRG]

And Richard, please do show me where I "rubbish" your efforts in any way? Please show me the text on this forum where I have belittled your work. ALL I stated to someone else entirely was why I don't use colour in the game for regular units and the exact quote was ..."I know there is a little cottage industry of people building colour pics for the game and in many cases some of them are quite good but it's impossible to get 100% colour and it IS possible to get 100% B&W" Explain to me how that "rubbish" your efforts in any way at all. I wanted consistency in the unit pics in the game and B&W gives me that and in the vast majority of the cases B&W gives a better image in the game because their are a wider range of greys than any other colour.You start off your first post with "Don, get real! Some of the B/W lbms swim/flicker in the game as well" and ***I*** never mentioned anything about flickering or shimmering at all. Andy did and then in your next post you accuse me of plagiarizing your work with "please don't copy (some of) them, as you *appear* to have done with the modded Polish oob. " and even a simple investigation would have revelled I had nothing to do with that modded OOB and SPCAMO does not support it

In two posts you attribute two other peoples comments or work to me then go on to say I "rubbish" your work when I clearly said "there is a little cottage industry of people building colour pics for the game and in many cases some of them are quite good " and that is complementary. You don't check the facts and you twist my words and THAT explains why I don't like your attitude. Starting off with "I see the 'control freakery' continues" pretty much set the tone and saying in the second "this is *not* intended personally" is almost amusing.

Don

[Richard_H]

Don, I know SPCAMO doesn't endorse the mod. Granted, that was a bit off-topic given that I started on about lbms.

May as well reply to all your posts while I'm here. Yes, I am that Richard Hopkins and apologies, I hadn't seen any attribution. Thank you.

Can't quote the post of yours that I *really* got cross about cos it's disappeared - as has my first.

Seriously, my remarks were not intended personally. How could they be? I don't know you except via the forum. I take your point about the greys, it's the pain of working with only 256 colours. And it's to an extent why colour will not work properly unless & until we get the (now) standard 16.7 million to work with. I know I despair every time I make what looks like a decent lbm, add the palette and watch it skew (particularly) the blues. But I guess that's a code issue.

Odd about the sizes - every time I make an lbm that isn't exactly the correct size, I get a pic in the encyclopedia that I can only describe as 'brown noise'.

Unlike Leo,I have no wish to fall out with either yourself or anybody else on this forum. But I do feel that I'm entitled to an opinion, & to get angry every once in a while. If you recall from the old forum, I was actually usually playing the part of mediator - or trying to!

Richard