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Ship Icons anyone??

The general place to discuss MOD''ing Freelancer!

Post Thu Oct 02, 2003 4:41 pm

Sodrak - thankyou! My only remaining problem is that i cannot make tga files either
Told ya - i have no artsy fartsy stuff apart from Paint that came with XP - thats it!
Chips

Post Thu Oct 02, 2003 7:01 pm

Get ourself a copy of Paint Shop Pro 5.. I'm pretty sure its free and can make tga files... It was also on the lastest? PC User magazine....

Anyway, good icon making everybody!

Post Thu Oct 02, 2003 7:17 pm

Here is a pic viewer/converter program (free)
it will load any bmp file and save as tga file in any size you want to make.
of course icon file should be 50 to 64 pixels square.

download Here

Post Thu Oct 02, 2003 8:43 pm

Try WinGIMP ... it is free ... it is cool ... it handles any file format you can imagine!!! It is at least as powerful as Paint Shop Pro, but maybe a little quirky to use.

"If genius is 1[% inspiration and 99[% perspiration then Insanity must be 100[% perspiration"

Post Thu Oct 02, 2003 9:18 pm

A few important notes before you go crazy Chips

1) Make sure the name used in the material library and texture library are unique to your icon, in other words don't use names like "bh_elite" or anything else that already exists.

2) The material library (Dt_name) refers to the image in the texture library but the name used in the texture library does not have to be the same as the image you created nor does it need the extension. For example the node in the texture library could be named "Bob" and the image filename could be "51248372514.tga" as long as the material library node has a Dt_name of Bob everything will work fine.

Otherwise, yeah... what he said, just keep an eye on that Lightwave tutorial it answers just about any question you could have for importing a ship into freelancer even if you're not using Lightwave.

Post Thu Oct 02, 2003 11:49 pm

Thankyou everyone!!

*edit* - well - if it wasn't a family website there would be a page and a half of obscenities. It did seem to good to be true that i could make icons. Like i said - i have the artistic skills of a beached whale with a paintbrush in its blow hole....... darned awful. I followed the tutorial and couldn't get anything other than a blank box with no pic. Oh well - so if anyone out there manages to do this, or has a load of these lying around - please let me know. Am back off to my capship weapons - 31 and counting this evening!

Edited by - chips on 03-10-2003 02:32:37

Post Fri Oct 03, 2003 3:14 pm

Sorry for the lack of updates on more icons......I've recently contracted a head cold , and with still having to go to work and school, I spend my freetime sleeping. Hopefully I will get better soon, so as to resume production of more icons. Sorry to keep you all waiting!

Post Fri Oct 03, 2003 4:12 pm

I got the same problem with the empty item box, althou i did exactly what was said in the tutorial.. if anyone knows why the field might be blank, pls tell us. thx
marcus aka c.kork

Post Fri Oct 03, 2003 5:07 pm

Well I don't know exact steps you tried but if you could send me a picture of your ship I could make you a 3db icon file.

Post Sat Oct 04, 2003 2:04 pm

Erm - well WinGIMP aint free at all, also i think that they all have to be in 16 bit, which i cannot get my comp to do.......either 24 or 32 bit..... In fact, i opened up the FL one to then 'save' an image over the top hoping it would keep the format, but it wouldn't.......... So - i think the reason why icons aint working is cause we have them in 24 bit not 16, anyone know of anything that can do this (paintshop pro 8 is a 57meg download for a trial, the website isn't responding, and i have a 56k modem (means about 4 hour download)

Chips

"I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it!"

Post Sat Oct 04, 2003 9:06 pm

I got mine to work, and it looks great. i now know what caused the image to disapear (in my case).

the error is to be found in step 23 of the other tutorial you refered to.

to fresh up your memories:

Step 23: In the UTF Editor, hit the "Open File..." button.
Go to your "Freelancer\DATA\EQUIPMENT\MODELS\COMMODITIES\NN_ICONS" directory.
Now open the "bh_elite.3db" file. This file is the file that is used for the icons when purchasing your ship.<-- (there are others available)
Expand the tree, and go to the "material library" node. This seems to be optional, but I highly recommend it anyways; Rename the "SHIP_bh_elite" node to "SHIP_group_shipname".
Underneath it, edit the "Dt_name" node in string mode. I recomend replacing the text with "group_shipname_icon.tga", as it will be unique.<--any TGA filename will work

--

see where it says "Rename the 'SHIP_bh_elite' node to 'SHIP_group_shipname'."?
that's the line that causes the image to disapear. whenever you copy an existing .3db file and modify it to fit your own ship, leave the name of this node AS IS! if you change it, you'll mess it all up.
note: this is not a perfect solution, since if you go to a ship dealer that sells the ship of the original and/or your modded ship and/or you possess one of those ships, both will have the same icon (but only in this very rare case).
to comment the above: my image has a size of 64*64 pixel and is saved with a 24bit codex. so it doesn't have to be 16 bit
and wingimp is freeware!

one last thing: don't give ME credits for this. i got this information from someone else i asked for help.

that's it. hope it works for you, too

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