Tomalla
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Post by Tomalla on Oct 5, 2012 2:33:17 GMT -8
Here's a little surprise for ya. Zu, does it look any familiar to you? It's just a test, not all of the tiles match and all of them have transparency disabled, but I feel like it's a great leap forward. I hope soon enough we'll be able to refresh vanilla Gruntz without needing to create a sequel! Any thoughts? ====== MODDING TOOLS ======= Cheers
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Post by hugheth2 on Oct 5, 2012 3:08:16 GMT -8
Teeheee Good work!
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Post by Perfect Grunt on Oct 5, 2012 5:42:29 GMT -8
What is "Vanilla Gruntz"?
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Zu
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Post by Zu on Oct 5, 2012 6:01:57 GMT -8
Awesome! It's great to see some progress on it! Excellent job, Tomalla! I must say though: man, this tileset could use some tweaking, now that I look at it. But we'll see about that once we (or rather you, Tomalla ) figure out how to make it 100% working (transparency and animations). I feared that there might be some problems with transparency. What exactly causes it, I wonder? What is "Vanilla Gruntz"? The good, old, run-of-the-mill Gruntz from Monolith.
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BattlezM
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Post by BattlezM on Oct 5, 2012 8:59:45 GMT -8
Loving the tileset for the most part! The main thing I feel really needs changing is the plateau tilez, those should still give that height illusion imo.
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Tomalla
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Post by Tomalla on Oct 5, 2012 11:17:40 GMT -8
I feared that there might be some problems with transparency. What exactly causes it, I wonder? There is no problems with it actually. I'd just have to modify each PNG file manually and replace transparent areas with key color which the game interprets to be transparent. It's something around hot pink I suppose. Loving the tileset for the most part! The main thing I feel really needs changing is the plateau tilez, those should still give that height illusion imo. True. But still, what I'd really like to see though is something different. I always have dreamed of a moody tile set, like a ghost town! Plateaus making a distinction between streets and houses, stairs being the doorways. Everything in a deep purple hue. Think about it! I wish I was good at drawing.
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Tomalla
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Post by Tomalla on Oct 5, 2012 11:48:15 GMT -8
Never mind, adding transparency was even easier than I though. Here's another screen shot of how it looks in game:
Note the pink edges. There is no alpha channel as is. There's only a key color - that means that pixel can be either fully opaque or completely transparent. There's no mid states. But that's not my concern, only yours Zu. Can you correct it and update your texture pack? The key color for the transparent areas must be RGB (255, 0, 132). Cheers
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BattlezM
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Post by BattlezM on Oct 5, 2012 11:48:47 GMT -8
True. But still, what I'd really like to see though is something different. I always have dreamed of a moody tile set, like a ghost town! Plateaus making a distinction between streets and houses, stairs being the doorways. Everything in a deep purple hue. Think about it! I wish I was good at drawing. I certainly agree that would be a much better place for an alternative to plateauz.
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Zu
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Post by Zu on Oct 5, 2012 12:09:35 GMT -8
Note the pink edges. There is no alpha channel as is. There's only a key color - that means that pixel can be either fully opaque or completely transparent. There's no mid states. But that's not my concern, only yours Zu. Can you correct it and update your texture pack? The key color for the transparent areas must be RGB (255, 0, 132). Cheers Oh boy. I will try, but there might be some notable problems with that, given that there are various tilez for which I no longer have the original, full resolution source file with layers. I really should have made those as vectors. If only I was already working on vectors when I got to this... Well, anyway. I will try to do something about that. It may take a moment though.
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Post by SwordGrunt on Oct 5, 2012 17:08:40 GMT -8
Are you altering the program or just the REZ file?
If it's the first option... dude, get custom music working and I'll absolutely love you forever.
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Tomalla
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Post by Tomalla on Oct 6, 2012 2:43:06 GMT -8
Zu, you don't really have to correct it, since you don't have means to do it. I thought you were interested in finishing this pack off. Since it's not the case that's fine with me, the pack I already have is good for testing. SwordGrunt, I'm just repacking the REZ file. If you're asking me if I'm modifying the actual GRUNTZ.EXE file, then the answer is simply no. I highly doubt it's even ... legal, to be honest All of the strings are not localized - the contents of Help Books for instance are compiled within the EXE file and that's a pity. However, adding custom music doesn't necessarily require modifying EXE file. It's just a matter of replacing the proper XMI files in REZ package.
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Zu
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Post by Zu on Oct 6, 2012 3:00:32 GMT -8
I am interested in finishing this pack, it's just that due to how it was created (and I must say, it's pretty messy the way it was made) I might have certain problems with fixing the transparency issue. Nothing impossible to fix, but like I said, it may take me a while. But hopefully, I should be able to do something this weekend. (The key word being "hopefully".) If we manage to make it 100% running, then I think I would have an idea on another tileset. I improved quite a bit over this time, so it shouldn't be this difficult. Though obviously, it will probably still differ notably from Gruntz' default style. Two important questions I have are: - Is it possible to also replace the animations? I made some possibly plausible replacements for original ones and I'm curious if we can get them to work in-game. Notably, rolling balls and static hazards are completely different, together with altered sounds. - Is it possible to not only replace EyeCandies the tilesets originally have, but also add completely new to them?
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Tomalla
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Post by Tomalla on Oct 6, 2012 3:29:43 GMT -8
Two important questions I have are: - Is it possible to also replace the animations? I made some possibly plausible replacements for original ones and I'm curious if we can get them to work in-game. Notably, rolling balls and static hazards are completely different, together with altered sounds. - Is it possible to not only replace EyeCandies the tilesets originally have, but also add completely new to them? Yes and ... yes You can add your own "Candies" and tiles without replacing the old ones. I just don't know how can I change the color of a pixel on a mini map that represents one particular tile, but for now it's not a big deal. You can even make your new animations as "EyeCandyAni" objects, even with sounds being played! It's a bit experimental now, but I feel like it's doable.
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Zu
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Post by Zu on Oct 6, 2012 4:15:17 GMT -8
Yes and ... yes You can add your own "Candies" and tiles without replacing the old ones. I just don't know how can I change the color of a pixel on a mini map that represents one particular tile, but for now it's not a big deal. You can even make your new animations as "EyeCandyAni" objects, even with sounds being played! It's a bit experimental now, but I feel like it's doable. Wonderful news! Does it mean that we can even add tilez past the number 329 (with an exception of 401-464, because those are used by the distant backgrounds in bottomless pits)? If so, then this opens many new possibilities...
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GooRoo
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Post by GooRoo on Oct 6, 2012 7:31:00 GMT -8
SwordGrunt, I'm just repacking the REZ file. If you're asking me if I'm modifying the actual GRUNTZ.EXE file, then the answer is simply no. I highly doubt it's even ... legal, to be honest All of the strings are not localized - the contents of Help Books for instance are compiled within the EXE file and that's a pity. However, adding custom music doesn't necessarily require modifying EXE file. It's just a matter of replacing the proper XMI files in REZ package. What are you using to manipulate the REZ filez? WinRezLT has been recognized to contain a trojan, and my firewall immediately quarantined every version I was able to locate. So my own project of attempting to add in Secret Levelz came to a dead stop.
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Tomalla
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Post by Tomalla on Oct 6, 2012 9:44:23 GMT -8
WinRez was not working on my PC at all That's why I've written my own application which packs up the entire directory and replaces the GRUNTZ.REZ file with the new one. It's for convenience - one click of the mouse and the changes are applied and are ready for in-game tests.
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GooRoo
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Post by GooRoo on Oct 6, 2012 11:35:27 GMT -8
WinRez was not working on my PC at all That's why I've written my own application which packs up the entire directory and replaces the GRUNTZ.REZ file with the new one. It's for convenience - one click of the mouse and the changes are applied and are ready for in-game tests. That soundz like an application that should be made available to all Gruntzerz ... a program by a Gruntzer for Gruntzerz!
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Tomalla
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Post by Tomalla on Oct 6, 2012 11:55:30 GMT -8
Yup, it does. But if you expect it to be something like WinREZ with a viewer and stuff, you'll be disappointed. My application has no GUI, even more - it has no input system. You wouldn't be even able to tell it what to pack and where it should save the output REZ file. I'm not hiding anything from anyone, and it really sounds like you suspect me to do it deliberately and I don't like it.
But fine, if there's a demand, I'll make the most simple application ever designed just to create a new REZ package. No GUI, you'll have to use batch commands to get it working.
In future I have plans on making a patcher which would apply patches filled with new tiles, skins, sounds and whatsoever to the original REZ file and run the game afterwards. This way when distributing new content, uploading the whole GRUNTZ.REZ file will be unnecessary - just the changes you want to make. But it is going to take a while.
PS. Just a thought. Since we're discussing modding-related things here, I'll make a list of modding applications in original post in this thread. When there'll be this REZ packer I've just mentioned, I'll let you guys know and update the OP. How about that?
Cheers!
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Zu
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Post by Zu on Oct 6, 2012 16:24:30 GMT -8
Good news! I managed to completely update the tileset! zutheskunk.deviantart.com/art/Gruntz-Virtual-Reality-v2-183417731Hopefully it works as it should now. Please tell me if there is anything else needing fixing. Please note that a good majority of tilez has been updated, so it's recommended to just update them all. Also, I removed the replacements for water-related BehindCandyAni, since the lack of partial transparency was completely defeating their intended purpose; we will have to go with just vanilla water sparkles. Edit: Just a heads up, I updated fortress' animation a bit, and also updated the crumbling bridgez tilez (those worms on top of them didn't look good if many of these tilez were put together) and replaced the original Giant Rock tilez with IMHO much better ones. I must say, this newer version of the fortress is easily one of my most favourite creations!
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Tomalla
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Post by Tomalla on Oct 7, 2012 7:05:36 GMT -8
Dude ... this is awesome. I've just exported the entire tile set and image sets + additional sounds you made ( why do they sound familiar to me? Where did you get them? ). Here's an example of what is yet to be corrected: The plateaus and the water edges must occupy the wrong tile numbers. Everything else looks magnificent.
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