Server Help :: View topic - How do I get my custom shipset into my arena?

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LVZ/LVL Questions - How do I get my custom shipset into my arena?

Sharpflame - Sun Feb 18, 2007 8:48 pm
Post subject: How do I get my custom shipset into my arena?

I cant find out so any help would be leet right now.

Bak - Sun Feb 18, 2007 9:43 pm
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basicly, you can override any graphics in your continuum/graphics/ directory by using LVZ files. The files are .bm2 files, but don't worry, these are just bitmaps in disguise and will open normally in a program like paint.

For ships you can either make a file with all 8 ships and call it ships.png (or .bm2 or .bmp or any extention). You can, alternately, do it one ship at a time by naming the file ship1.png, ship2.png, ect. Your format of the image must match that of the ships.bm2 file (open it up and you'll understand this a litte more). That is, the file must be a series of ships, 4 rows and 10 columns with the initial ship facing straight up and the rest of them rotated 9 degrees per picture. If you have an image of your ship facing directly up, you can create the rotated image using a program like EZ Image Rotator.

You can do other images like exhaust by just naming it as the one in your graphics directory (so exhaust.png). Make sure your image has the same number of rows and columns as the default one, or the result won't be what you want.

Then you need to include your image(s) in a .lvz file. To do this you need an lvz toolkit such as X-LvzToolkit.
Detailed instructions on how to create a lvz file are included inside the toolkit and on the wiki page on lvz scripting.

Once you have the .lvz file created, you need to place it into the server folder. If the server is run off your computer this is easy: just put it in the folder. Otherwise, you need to upload it to the server through continuum. This isn't too bad either, but you need sysop access in your zone. First put the .lvz file in your continuum directory. Then go in to your zone and type *putfile <lvzname.lvz> where <lvzname.lvz> is the name of the file. Okay, one more step!

You need to tell the settings to use your lvz file. This is done by editing a setting, misc:levelfiles. You can do this by pressing ctrl + c in game and editing it... or simply typing ?set misc:levelfiles=<lvzname.lvz> where <lvzname.lvz> is the name of the file. Now reenter the arena and if all goes well you should see a downloading level screen and your lvz should work.

You can also do other neat things with lvz files, such as placing images on a map either over or under a ship. Read the sticky in the LVZ forum for more info on this sort of thing.

Animate Dreams - Sun Feb 18, 2007 9:43 pm
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Well, you'll have to make an LVZ. First off, name all your ships like "ship1.bm2", obviously changing the number to match what ship it is. then, make a file called shipset.ini, and put this in it:

Code: Show/Hide

Outfile=shipset.lvz

File=ship1.bm2
File=ship2.bm2
File=ship3.bm2
File=ship4.bm2
File=ship5.bm2
File=ship6.bm2
File=ship7.bm2
File=ship8.bm2

Again, only add what you need... for example, if you're only changing ships 2, 3, and 5, you wouldn't include a File entry for the other 5 ships. Anyway, you'll have to download the lvz tool kit from ssdl, then just open up BuildLevel.exe, find your shipset.ini, make sure the ships are in the same directory, and then doubleclick shipset.ini. Then, just copy over the shipset.lvz to your zone, and add that lvz to your LevelFiles like LevelFiles = shipset.lvz , and you're done.

Animate Dreams - Sun Feb 18, 2007 9:44 pm
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Dangit, Bak, you got in seconds before me. -.-

Sharpflame - Mon Feb 19, 2007 5:56 pm
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ok so i uploaded the file with putfile,and then i go to the settings and tell it warships.lvz (the file name) and then i save the settings and leave and come back but the shipset isnt there.

tcsoccerman - Mon Feb 19, 2007 6:26 pm
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you have to include it in arena.conf. actually, before i get into deep description is this subgame or asss?

Chambahs - Mon Feb 19, 2007 6:47 pm
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Sharp, if its for subgame like i think its for.

You said you did the following steps:

*putfile warships.lvz
Esc + c (To get settings)
In Misc:LevelFiles you entered warships.lvz
You pushed f10 and saved settings.

Is that correct?

If so, make sure and check your zone folder and MAKE SURE warships.lvz is in there. If it is, and if you havent used *recycle yet...please do. After you recycle, there should be no problems if you followed the steps correctly.

Sharpflame - Mon Feb 19, 2007 7:01 pm
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Yes i did just as u said,even *recycle, but it doesent work. note this isnt my zone,but my arena and i am sysop of the zone.

Samapico - Mon Feb 19, 2007 7:38 pm
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hmm, either your lvz file is not compiled correctly (maybe post it here, or post your ini file so we can take a look)

also, if you want to be sure your file got to the server correctly, try *getfile warships.lvz, see if the server sends it to you

you might also want to take a look at the server log, it could give you a hint on the problem (I don't know exactly how to get server log through commands though, I'm used to running server on my own computer)

Bak - Mon Feb 19, 2007 8:04 pm
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attach the lvz to this forum and we'll see if it's made correctly

Anonymous - Mon Feb 19, 2007 8:25 pm
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ok here it is

Chambahs - Mon Feb 19, 2007 9:00 pm
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Code: Show/Hide

Outfile=warships.lvz

File=warships.bmp
; Filesize: 1244214 Compressed Size: 190851 Compression: 84.7%

That isnt correct. Each image has to be named Ship1.bmp, Ship2.bmp, ect ect. So that it can replace the current ship graphics. If you want to see what its supposed to look like, then ill show you here:

Code: Show/Hide

; This file was created by DeBuildLevel, version 0.02, created May 15 2003 19:07:30

Outfile=utships.lvz

File=ship1.png
;       Compression Info: FullSize: 28879 Compressed Size: 28879 Compression Percent: 0.0%
File=ship2.png
;       Compression Info: FullSize: 29958 Compressed Size: 29958 Compression Percent: 0.0%
File=ship3.png
;       Compression Info: FullSize: 33294 Compressed Size: 33294 Compression Percent: 0.0%
File=ship4.png
;       Compression Info: FullSize: 30209 Compressed Size: 30209 Compression Percent: 0.0%
File=ship5.png
;       Compression Info: FullSize: 26196 Compressed Size: 26196 Compression Percent: 0.0%
File=ship6.png
;       Compression Info: FullSize: 30314 Compressed Size: 30314 Compression Percent: 0.0%
File=Ship7.png
;       Compression Info: FullSize: 35822 Compressed Size: 35822 Compression Percent: 0.0%
; Bytes Saved in Compression: 0
; File Compression Percent: 0.0%

Chambahs - Mon Feb 19, 2007 9:17 pm
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Hey, i had a guess you didnt do the imaging right, so i double checked the lvz after i posted. And sure enough you didnt...you stacked the ships all on 1 file...i felt being nice today so i took the liberty to do the lvz for you. As you can see in this copy, there are 8 different files, each of 1 ship and check the INI to see how its supposed to be done.

Anonymous - Mon Feb 19, 2007 10:23 pm
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wow man ty lots thanks for taking ur time for me man idk wut to say.i know

-hugs u-

ty.

Samapico - Mon Feb 19, 2007 10:23 pm
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if your picture has all 8 ships in it (like default ships.bm2) , you can just include one file named ships.bm2 and it will work too

but that is not necessarly practical (updates need the whole thing redownloaded ; all ships have to be the same size ; harder to figure out frame placement when changing stuff... lots of problems)
So spliting them as chambahs did is the way to go

Chambahs - Mon Feb 19, 2007 11:00 pm
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Its no problem, as long as you learned something, thats all that really matters. Also, if you didnt know (im assuming you dont), whenever you make a lvz, the name has to be the same as the original gfx, unless your making mapobjects or screenobjects. Example: Ship1.bmp, Ship2.bmp ect, had to be named that to replace the ship gfx that was in your cont folder. Same thing needs to be done with repels, if you look in your cont/gfx folder, find the repel gfx, its called repel.bm2, so the lvz you make to override it, has to be called repel.(bm2, bmp, jpg, png, whatever).

Samapico - Tue Feb 20, 2007 7:36 am
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ships being some kind of exception to this... as the original gfx is called ships.bm2 , you can override single ships with ship#.png