Server Help :: View topic - How to make a mini ship?

Server Help

General Questions - How to make a mini ship?

Erf - Sat Aug 09, 2003 8:26 pm
Post subject: How to make a mini ship?

how would you go about making a mini ship, like the weasle in TW?

SuSE - Sat Aug 09, 2003 9:54 pm
Post subject:

open image "ships.bm2" which can be found in your Continuum\graphics folder or in this file (may have to change file extension to .bmp - post again if you don't know how)

open the image in some image editor

find the weasel part

select and crop the weasel section (if you have adobe photoshop, set grid to 36 pixels and select the weasel area - if you don't have it, then you will have to do something else [like remove the top 720 pixels and the bottom 288 pixels of ships.bm2])

shrink the image (by 50% or half-sized is probably what TW did)

save this image as ship6.xxx (.xxx being .bmp, .gif, .png or .jpg - .gif or .png will make the filesize smaller - a very low quality .jpg will probably be smallest, but awful-looking)

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to get it in your zone for all to download and use, you will need to know how to upload files and alter settings, or upload files, alter settings and create .lvz files (using lvztoolkit.zip - post again if you need to know how

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to use it just for yourself - post again

Erf - Sat Aug 09, 2003 11:26 pm
Post subject:

okay, I've gotten the ship's image(outside of game) sized down in Paint(I'm making the lanc smaller, btw) and downloaded the lvztoolkit, and I have figured out how to make the ship statistically smaller in game (changed it's radius to 7), but I still don't understand how to get the smaller image into my zone using the tool

Katie - Sun Aug 10, 2003 1:13 am
Post subject:

Save the ship as ship7.bm2 (assuming it's still the Lancaster that you are shrinking), and put it into whatever directory your buildlevel.exe or makelevel.exe are in.

Open your Example.ini file (for speeds sake, I just use the example.ini, but you can make a new file if you like, and name it the same as the lvz file that you will be creating, for orginizations sake {E.G. ship7.ini}), and you should see two things like below:

Quote:

Outfile=

File=

Do note, you can put up to I believe 255 files, but your maximum lvz file can only be 4 megabytes.

To upload your image...

Quote:

Outfile=ship7.lvz

File=Ship7.bm2

Then open Makelevel.exe and select your Ship7.ini. This will create a ship7.lvz file inside the same folder. Take this file to the same folder as your server utilities. Go to your server.ini file, and under misc [Misc] section, imput your lvz name.

Quote:

[Misc]

Levelfiles=ship7.lvz

Now fire up your zone and enter. If the steps above were followed right, you'll see a download. This means it worked.

Erf - Sun Aug 10, 2003 1:48 am
Post subject:

I got the lvz file created(thanks!), but I don't have the "Levelfiles=" option in my server.ini, and when I added it, it didn't seem to read it

SuSE - Sun Aug 10, 2003 2:18 am
Post subject:

she meant server.cfg (or anyname.cfg for other arenas aside from public ones)

and don't use .bm2

if you must, use .bmp (the exact same thing)

but you will save download time (by reducing size) if you use .gif, .jpg, or .png

ShortyMatt - Sun Aug 10, 2003 1:49 pm
Post subject:

now akai...so it is in server.cfg? or do i have to put it there under misc?...cause i went through server.cfg (trying to help erf) and it isn't there

Erf - Sun Aug 10, 2003 2:01 pm
Post subject:

Well, I didn't have it in my misc there either, but when I added it, it worked! =D

As for the size... I don't plan on making many lvzs, in fact, this will probably be the only one.. I'm making this zone just so I can say I can make one, and to see if I have any talent in it =]

thanks I and akia! (aren't I a relief from *coughmattcough*)

yes matt, add "LevelFiles=" under misc, and it should read

FudLe Pucker - Sun Aug 10, 2003 7:13 pm
Post subject:

akai, i think continuum can only read bm2 files when it comes to graphics like ships, bombs, bullets, etc. NOT png, jpg or gif. Because once i uploaded ships.gif, and it didnt work.

SuSE - Sun Aug 10, 2003 7:49 pm
Post subject:

then you did something wrong

the only problem that I know of thus far is with ship images in very specific circumstances

like...the main UI only looks for ships.bm2, no other extensions to display in ship chooser boxes

and if you have .lvz's with no rolling images and things...well it gets complicated, but those extensions work