WarFan
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 Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2004 5:13 pm Post subject: LVZ Image Placement Tutorial - Picture version |
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LVZ Image Placement
Pictured Version
Written by WarFan / Jonus
| Quote: | | This tutorial will try to guide you through the process of placing images on your subspace/continuum map. This is sometimes needed for larger images that you want on your map but will not fit on your tileset. This is the picture version for people who are not fully understanding the directions in lvztoolkit. |
Things you will need:
- LVZ Tool Kit
- The kit for compiling and decompiling lvzs
- SSME
- An Image Editor
- If you dont have Macromedia Fireworks or Adobe Photoshop, I guess MS Paint will work. For this tutorial you dont need anything.
- Calculator
- One is built into Windows, Programs -> Accessories -> Calculator
Here is a test image if you dont have or want to make one for this tutorial. It is the correct size for what we will be doing.
First of all you need to decide what image/s you want to place, in our case the testimage.png. One thing I like to do when determining the pixel size of my images is to always make sure they are divisible by 16. That means if you divided the images width and height pixels by 16 you would end up with a whole number. Tiles in SSME are 16x16 pixels, thus making sure our image is divisible by 16 will give it a nice fit on the map and also easier for you to see how your image will look. For example our testimage is 368 pixels wide by 240 pixels high or 368x240, the SSME size would be 23 tiles wide by 15 tiles high. Lets have a look in SSME to see exactly how we would do this.
For this tutorial, we will be placing our 368x240 image in the center of our map, this will represent a zone logo. First off, we find the center of our map:
Diagram 1
Now we have center and need to have a way to get our image exactly centered so it looks right. This is where having your image disivible by 16 may help you out a bit. Although this is not a must, it just helps. As stated above, our 368x240 image breaks down into 23x15 tiles in SSME. Lets draw a box on our map this size to determine exactly where our image should lay.
Diagram 2
Ok, now that we know where our image will lay, we need to jump into the fun part, creating our LVZ ini.
To make a new ini on your desktop:
Click Right -> NEW -> Text Document
Open it up and type or paste the following:
OutFile=
File=
[objectimages]
[mapobjects] |
Now click FILE -> SAVE AS and type "test.ini" WITHOUT quotes and save it.
You should have a new ini called test on your desktop with the needed lines inside.
Quick explanation of there use:
- Outfile
- The name you want your lvz to be called. It can be anything, just dont use spaces.
- File
- The files the lvz toolkit will use to build the lvz. In this case our test image.
- ObjectImages
- Gives our files an object number.
- MapObjects
- The coordinates the lvz will use to place your ObjectImages.
Ok, Open your INI and do the following:
Outfile=test.lvz
File=testimage.png
And directly under [objectimages] type
IMAGE0=testimage.png
Your ini should now look like this:
OutFile=test.lvz
file=testimage.png
[objectimages]
IMAGE0=testimage.png
[mapobjects] |
The only thing left to do is figure out our mapobject so the image will be placed correctly. Open up SSME again and look at your box, also open your calculator.
The lvz toolkit will always use the top left tile for figuring out your coordinates.
Diagram 3
To get our lvz coordinates, we take our SSME coordinates times 16. In this case 501, 505 times 16.
501x16 = 8016
505x16 = 8080
Now in your INI under [mapobjects] you need to type:
8016,8080,IMAGE0,AfterTiles
The numbers are the lvz coordinates, the IMAGE0 is our objectimage and AfterTiles tells you what layer the image will be in.
AfterTiles will do exactly what it says, the image will cover tiles, you if you wanted to leave the box you drew on the map, you will not be able to fly over it.
Your INI should now be complete and look like this:
OutFile=test.lvz
file=testimage.png
[objectimages]
IMAGE0=testimage.png
[mapobjects]
8016,8080,IMAGE0,AfterTiles |
Save the INI and goto your lvztoolkit folder and double click BuildLevel.exe. It will open up and want you to point to your INI on your desktop, if thats where you saved it to.
You should also have the testimage.png on your desktop or you are going to get an error.
For larger projects with multiple lvz's, create a separate folder for each. each folder should contain that lvz's images and ini.
After you select your ini, the software should build your new lvz. It will be located on your desktop or wherever you had your ini.
The lvz should be about 30.6kb in size. If it isnt, you did something wrong.
To add the LVZ to your server, you need to edit your server.cfg.
You can do this manually by opening the cfg in notepad or using Esc+c while logged in as sysop in the zone.
You will look for an option in [Misc] called LevelFiles=
Set it to: LevelFiles=test.lvz
Save your server.cfg in notepad or press F10 if you are editing the config ingame.
Upload or move the test.lvz to your server folder. The test.lvz should be located in the same folder as subgame, if not, it will not work.
You can now delete the box you made on your map, save it and recycle your server to see if it works.
You should have something like this in the center of your map.
Diagram 4
All regular images are placed in this way. You may want to read through the lvztoolkit instructions again to now better understand it.
testimage.png - 27.91 KB
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