Just thought i'd repost this, since everyone is downloading PB4. I made a teamcolor enhancement for 1.3 awhile back, which makes units look much better in multiplayer.
The only minor bug is that on darkly lit maps, your units will look much brighter than the ambient lighting would normally permit. Should not cause any other issues that i'm aware of.
(http://zeroangel.overminddl1.com/misc_images/teamcolor1.jpg)
(http://zeroangel.overminddl1.com/misc_images/teamcolor2.jpg)
DOWNLOAD: Here (http://zeroangel.overminddl1.com/misc_files/teamcolorupdate.zip)
INSTALL INSTRUCTIONS:
Simply Unzip to your "Battlezone 2/addon" folder.
REMOVAL INSTRUCTIONS:
Go into your "Battlezone 2/addon" folder and delete the folder ivglowskins
I can vouch for this. They make HE look ALOT better since I use TeamColor for Blue Squadron instead of trying to re-texture all of the squads.
Thanks, Zero!
they probably would go great with my texture pack :P
careful... careful...
BUMP
Aw, man, sorry!
Anyway, is there any chance of having different team colours on different maps, like they had in ZST? It seems a little weird playing in the snow in bright red and blue.
it would be nice to have a shell button or selection box for colour
*writes on to do list for Mod*
Actually, I'm planning a semi-global patchy thingy... I'll make a new thread if I can.
Quote from: AHadley on November 11, 2008, 12:45:14 AM
careful... careful...
BUMP
Aw, man, sorry!
Anyway, is there any chance of having different team colours on different maps, like they had in ZST? It seems a little weird playing in the snow in bright red and blue.
That functionality has to be coded into the mission DLL.
Here's a line pulled out of one of the INF (map configuration) files from a ZST map.
ivar56 = 7 // ivar56=0 std 1=night 2=ice 3=jungle 4=desert 5=chess 6=spy
...
svar1 = "Team Orange" // Team name for team 1
svar2 = "Team Black" // Team name for team 2
Could anybody point me to the DLL that enables all this stuff?
Well, I might be a bit late, but im still assuming this is for the 1.3pb4a patch, and im only getting the Sabre's, Atilla's and Scavenger's fix
Any tips, or something i missed, and yes i have tried reinstalling.
I must admit things don't work desperately well for me either.
I'm not sure what changed in 4a as these skins worked flawlessly in PB4 and earlier
Are these BZ2DXT files? I have a feeling you will need them to be now.
No, they're either PIC or TGA files if I recall correctly. Is there a tutorial on this site on how to convert these formats to bz2dxt?
It is very easy as GSH provides the application used to create dxtbz2 files.
BZ2DXTGen - Bloody good program. Saved my arse a few times it has...
thanks senors. If I ever get around to doing the conversion, i'll release an updated pack for 1.3PB4a and higher. But in the meantime if anyone wants to do the conversion for themselves it shouldnt mess with assets at all.
Quote from: TheJamsh on November 11, 2008, 07:25:01 AM
it would be nice to have a shell button or selection box for colours
That is a good idea!
Where can I get BZ2DXTGen? I've googled and got one result on FilePump, which links to somewhere else, which wont let me download.
I've tried BZScrap too, nothing.
Quote from: hybirdisdf on April 15, 2009, 05:00:18 PM
That is a good idea!
Yeah, then you could colour co-ordinate with teammates during a strat, rather than risk having colours that clash. :P
God forbid you wear bauge and your commander purple. GOD! Get the queer-eye ppl in here!
I didn't do anything but state that these do not seem to fully work for me :/
It's amazing how people can't seem to find what's right under their noses... (http://www.bzuniverse.com/forum/index.php/topic,6735.0.html)
It's a sticky in the BZ2 Maps and Mods board, guys...
VSMIT.
I was just about to tell you that I found it!
Is there some way to fix some craft not getting the enhancement?
As soon as I work my way around the interfact of the converter, I'll get on it. It should be fixed once all the images are converted to DXTs.
Since the game loads DXTs with priority over Targa and PIC files, so the ones in the patch13.pak show instead of the images included in the update, with a few exceptions. Addon folders are loaded with priority over PAK files, so dropping DXTs in there will allow them to read over the originals.
EDIT: Updated, textures should work. Uploading to Medafire, I'll go test while I wait.
EDIT 2: Texture fix seems to work at first, Sabre looks good, as do Rattlers. Recycler textures don't work, nor to Scavengers. Hold on, I'll write a list.
WORKING:
Rattler
Thunderbolt
Handyman
Constructor
Jackal
Avenger
Sabre
NOT WORKING:
Recycler (Undeployed and deployed)
Scavenger
Extractor
All buildings (Exception Bomber Bay? Not sure, the 'Sea Fog' had swept in by this point)
Service Truck
Griffin
Bulldog
Atilla
APC
Bomber
Conversion complete. Download here. (http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?wg5bbkfktnj)
Good news, I had my hopes up at first and then i was let down because Thunderbolts and other vehicles wern't working
EDIT: I am glad to see that they are working, but i think im going to do some work and figure out which ones work and which ones do and mixing the two versions
EDIT[2]: I proceded to test after installing to #bzroot\addons, and i found that less enhancements work for me than ever, now after installing i have lost the recycler.. Now only the Scavanger and Sabre work :/
I have made an impotant discovery, In order for this enhancement to work, Bumpmaps must be toggled, In which state i do not know as i mess with it frequently, I will test and see shortly and I shall report back, Either way the point is that you must have your Bumpmaps toggled to one of the 2 binary.
Thank you for the enhancement, and i am glad i have newkeys :)
EDIT: I am reciving strange behavior, when I toggle Bumpmaps Off, The enhancement works, but in some cases it works both ways, I belive that my clashed files might be the wrong idea, Ima test em with AHadley's version. and see what comes up
EDIT[2]: Hmm When I tested strictly Ahadleys conversion I have problems with the Sabres and the Scavangers, but when I installed both Sepreate as nomally installed All was well
FINAL REVIEW: The best bet to get this enahncement to fully work is to Install both the origional, and the conversion seperatly as inteded indvidually, and have bumpmaps on/off depending on wheather it works or not, another tip that i have found is be sure before you start the game to turn the bumpmaps OFF and then turn it on, so thatway your ships are red and not just a pink. Either way, I belive that as a close install both not messing with the internal files, start the game with bumpmaps off and you should have yourself one working Teamcolor Enhancement
Now, Unless something big comes up, Im done with this mod, and im just gonna enjoy it, To anyone who is having problems, ask me and be SURE that you read EVERYTHING here with great intent.
It's acutally hard to mess this up
ALL OF MY PREVIOUS POSTS IS NOT BASED OFF OF MY BUMPMAPS ON/OFF THEORY I HAD NO KNOWLAGE OF THIS THEROY UNTIL THIS POST
Turning Bumpmapping OFF and P3 ON will have the same effect on the red/pink issue as having Bumpmapping ON. This may be a better fix since Bumpmapping occasionally makes units show through as pure white (or in the case of the teamcolours, pure pink)
EDIT: Using Purplehaze's fix, I can now tell you what's working.
WORKING:
All vehicles (with the exception of the APC and Bomber)
Extractor
NOT WORKING:
All buildings (with the exception of the Exctractor)
APC
Bomber
Unit cockpits
Vehicle treads
Pilot
It should be noted that the only difference Bumpmapping and P3 make is the shade of blue used on the vehicles. What does/doesn't work is unchanged.
ZA, how did you make the original fix? I may be able to use the same method on the bits that don't work.
So wait, if you turn P3 on and you have bumpmaping off then you will still see red instead of pink?
I didn't test that yet
As for AHadley's report i belive that you are wrong Hadley. When you install both of the versions as normal everything works for me, Before the game you must turn Bumpmaps off.
EDIT: I belive that his should be sitcky'd with the off topic posts removed now that this has not been fully sorted out, but for a most part
Bumpmapping should be off anyway, they tend to cause graphics problems on most PCs.
I think we should make sure it works completely and properly first, for units and buildings too, then maybe make it a sticky.
I agree. I guess i was too quick to jump, We do need to work out everything and make sure it works, the only problem is that everything aready works for me :/
What, buildings too? And unit treads and pilots and things?
Hold on, where's my list of stuff that doesn't work...?
Cockpits
Vehicle treads
Pilots
Buildings
Units (when being built)
APC
Bomber
aww.. you busted my bubble
Yeah, Now that i remember only my recy works, and vehcile treds are not right color (I didn't know this could be fixed) 3d cockpit works good for me, Pilots (??? didn't know they were fixable)
Apc (idk i didn't build it)
Bomber (didn't build it)
We'd better get working on getting them fixed then.
So, how did you do it, ZA?
Well, Im not sure what has happened here but I think it's just me, P3 did not work for me, To be honest it was oppisite. . .
here are screnshots of me messing around with two settings
PIII opitmazation (P3)
Bumpmaping
You can also see the recycler working, but the rest of the buildings do not, Or maybe the ramp was always the normal color, I though not, Undelployed, the recy is Enhanced.
EDIT: I Finally Got them
As you can see, The enhancement works, but in order for non pinkish red color, supposedly you have to have PIII on, Well i have it off and it works better
The Enhancement works.
well. some of it.
(http://img106.imageshack.us/img106/4438/bz20011.th.png) (http://img106.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bz20011.png)
(http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/4125/bz20012.th.png) (http://img511.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bz20012.png)
(http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/9579/bz20010.th.png) (http://img259.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bz20010.png)
(http://img126.imageshack.us/img126/3082/bz20013.th.png) (http://img126.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bz20013.png)
Weird.
Indeed, Maybe there is just something with my computer, Ima stick to what version i have, make a backup and then help you guys out
Maybe it'll get better :/
I belive the imput of others will help more, If you guys can at least give feedback, It'd be nice. Even if you don't have it installed and still have an idea.
EDIT: So. . . What does need to be done¿
Thank you for doing this for me. :-)
I'm not sure that I fixed ALL of the textures, just the most noticable ones.
As far as creating the textures go, I just took the stock textures (the: iv*00.pic) and edited them in photoshop. I think I used the following method:
1) Used one of the smart erase tools to erase the orange colored parts of the texture (FGColor: Grey, BGColor: Orange -> 'protect foreground' on)
2) Did a manual erasing/cleanup of the parts that the smart tools didnt catch
3) Saved as a 32-bit (with transparancies) PIC file using photoshop's PIC plugin.
Now that I think about it, It wouldve been a better idea to erase using masks (so I could later unerase and otherwise perform a better cleanup of the edges between the transparant and opaque areas) but its no big deal.
With that done, I renamed the image files from iv*00.pic to iv*a0.pic (so they would act as the 'glow skins' overlay -- which is the same principle that the scion warrior and other units use for the yellow parts on their craft) and just put them into the addon folder.
If you want to see which textures are used, try opening them in XnView
I took a look at your four images.
It's somewhat of a well known fact that PIII optimization messes with the unit coloring, causing red to become pink. In the pictures you posted it seems that the thing that stops PIII optimization from turning things pink is enabling EMBM. So I can speculate that maybe EMBM cancels or disables PIII optimization.
The thing is that PIII should be turned off anyways unless you have a PIII. Otherwise its a fairly useless setting unless you're a girl or you otherwise like pink. :-)
Keep in mind that you won't be able to do the glowskin overlay thing if your original textures do not use the *00.pic naming format. So a file named tread.pic would not be able to be fixed using this method. As far as I know. Though tread00.pic would be a simple matter of renaming the file to treada0.pic and then running BZ2DXT on it.
Pity about the treads not working, and I'll see if I can do the replacements in FireworksMX04 or GIMP or something. It'd be nice if we could get it all working.
I am not POSITIVE, but anyone try "trea0.pic"? I bet it doesn't work, just wondering.
Is there a Smart Erase tool I can use for GIMP without spending a hell of a lot on Photoshop?
Well you dont HAVE to spend a lot on photoshop.
As well:
http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/art-imaging-linux/48035-gimp-color-eraser.html
It its a little bit kludgy and time consuming but it works. If you've already mastered the 'select' tools (add, subtract, new, etc) then this shouldnt be a huge problem. It will just take several minutes.
Eh. You guys let me know when you get done with this, Picture editing is not my thing, Ill help you anyway else i can
Treads are not important yet (IMO), just send what you have to my email address zeroangelmk1-at-gmail.com and I'll upload them to my webspace and put you on the credits for that.
How did I not see that? Could it be simpler?
Quote from: Zero Angel on April 21, 2009, 11:24:53 AM
It's somewhat of a well known fact that PIII optimization messes with the unit coloring, causing red to become pink. In the pictures you posted it seems that the thing that stops PIII optimization from turning things pink is enabling EMBM. So I can speculate that maybe EMBM cancels or disables PIII optimization.
How sure are you about that? Cause you might want to have a look at the following screenshots:
http://members.ziggo.nl/red_spot/bz2_0005.jpg -with EMBM and P3
http://members.ziggo.nl/red_spot/bz2_0006.jpg -without EMBM but with P3
Perhaps these SP-units arent properly set up for EMBM else I think there is more to it than just these 2 settings, perhaps its the sky, perhaps the outdated graphicsdrivers I use ...
I will have a look in MP and see if the colors turn into anything else when I switch between EMBM and P3.
Just checked how things worked on my rig, it does also seem that turning off EMBM and P3 has the same effect as turning on EMBM ....
Both on:
http://members.ziggo.nl/red_spot/bz2_0000.jpg
P3 off:
http://members.ziggo.nl/red_spot/bz2_0001.jpg
EMBM off:
http://members.ziggo.nl/red_spot/bz2_0002.jpg
Both off:
http://members.ziggo.nl/red_spot/bz2_0003.jpg
ps:this is without the enhancement, its pb4a out of the box.
copy paste this into a reply and remove the code-tags, press review to see all screenshots under each other
Both on:
[img]http://members.ziggo.nl/red_spot/bz2_0000.jpg[/img]
P3 off:
[img]http://members.ziggo.nl/red_spot/bz2_0001.jpg[/img]
EMBM off:
[img]http://members.ziggo.nl/red_spot/bz2_0002.jpg[/img]
Both off:
[img]http://members.ziggo.nl/red_spot/bz2_0003.jpg[/img]
Hmm, I have it the other way, Although it's just me so we better focus on fixing the problems for you
EMBM overides P3, it would seem, so having P3 and EMBM on has the same effect as turning just EMBM on.
EMBM can cause some problems like the rather odd cockpit in the first picture, most people should leave that off unless they have a card that supports it.
P3 seems to make team colours brighter, so that should probably be kept off too unless your card supports that.
Most people should keep them both off, which produces best-looking options too, and means the game won't try to load stuff it can't use.
Quote
P3 seems to make team colours brighter, so that should probably be kept off too unless your card supports that.
P3 is a CPU-level optimization. 1.4pb4a
requires that your CPU support it -- P3 and newer have that, AMD's Athlon XP and newer have that. This is because BZ2 does transform & lighting all on the CPU -- starting with DirectX 7 and the GeForce video card, it became more efficient to do the T&L on the video card. But, BZ2 was programmed for DX6 (heck, is mostly DX5-ish with a few smatterings of newer things.) In short, use the P3 optimizations if you think it helps, either in the framerate or the looks.
-- GSH
Interesting.
I'm heading to work on the pilot and broken vehicles ATM, as soon as they're fixed I'll set to work on the vehicles.
Cockpit done already.
Sounds good, when your fully finished, Upload it and ill help yeah test it
Some problems... odd...
The DXT files I made from the PICs seem to work 100% ?
You made some? Which ones?
I seem to be getting problems with the pilot, and there's a little bit on the Avenger's cockpit that hasn't been covered with ivcockha.tga. I've not converted to DXTs yet.
I was wrong.
For some reason they only work if I have both the PIC and BZ2DXT files.
90% of them use the PICs and 10% use the BZ2DXTs for no good reason.
Is that still the case Nielk1?
Still acting strange...
You should not need both formats
EXACTLY!
But I do...
Or actually, i need some in BZ2DXT and some in PIC, but not the same ones, but testing each and every one would drive me MAD!
Even in TA5? If so, mantis it.
the enhancement shouldn't be needed for TA5 anyhow should it?
If its done carefully the a0 textures can still greatly enhance the look of skins in TA5.
You need a good graphics program to do it though.
GIMP isn't quite up to the task... maybe somebody with photoshop should get on it.
surely you mean the c0 textures?
a0 are glowskins arnt they? only a few models have them.
The texture patch used glowskins of the grey areas of stock textures to prevent them being coloured over in MP.
Yeah, This still works in TA5 and makes em look even better.
AHadley is fixing them up a bit for TA5 i believe.
Does BZ2 just apply the colour to any region that isnt totally black? Or do these ones work on transparency?
BZ2 works colourskins like this, I beleive.
Each of the following are loaded in sequence, top one first.
*c0 skin (Colour skin, in the case of the ISDF this is a white skin rather than
orange.)
Blue layer (This is the colour)
*a0 skin (Glow skin. Anything in this layer shows over both previous skins.
Is this being worked on still by anyone? It would be nice if the buildings could have the same enhancements as the ISDF ships got.
The ISDF ships look nice with the new team skins, it would be nice if Scions could get a similar update since ISDF ships and Scion ships using the same team color are slightly different.
Yeah, I'm still working on it. I'm having texture problems though, is it possible to trigger team colours in IA?
Quote
Yeah, I'm still working on it. I'm having texture problems though, is it possible to trigger team colours in IA?
You'd have to edit the DLL, as the DLL turns those on/off. You can't use the stock function(s) to turn on teamcolors, as those are built for MP. In MP, teams 1-5 get one color, 6-10 get a second color. In IA, the AI is on team 5. It shouldn't be that hard, especially with TA5, to read in the color from team 6 and copy it to team 5.
-- GSH
I have no way of editing DLLs and I don't really want to learn languages right now... I thought there was a console command for it?
Quote from: Commando on April 26, 2009, 10:25:40 AM
Is this being worked on still by anyone? It would be nice if the buildings could have the same enhancements as the ISDF ships got.
The ISDF ships look nice with the new team skins, it would be nice if Scions could get a similar update since ISDF ships and Scion ships using the same team color are slightly different.
I have enhanced buildings and even did a c0 skin for the interceptor, but I am having lots of issues with BZ2 using them. BZ2 randomly uses the PIC, the BZ2DXT, or decides to use neither! It is different every game.
I'm getting some odd things like that. I've checked all the textures under data.pak\objects\isdf\buildings have no orange on them, and ive got PICs and DXTs, it still doesn't use either. I've got the same problem with the cockpit skin too.
Nielk1, I posted your issue on mantis, you will have to post your comment with as much detail and assets as possible.
AHadley is continuing work on this. So long as Zero Angel is ok with it he said he wants to put in in with the un-official add-on pack as well which is nice.
Any chance of doing building textures as well AHadley :)? A Similar update for the scions would also be cool but im not sure how we would work that, seeing as they have glowskins already, it would mean changing all the scion multiplayer assets wouldn't it?
No, shouldn't do, would just mean remaking the glowskins. Shouldn't be too hard.
I think the Scions would look cool if the yellow parts AND the light blue ones were kept in place, leaving the darker blues only to change colour. That would be interesting, if it worked.
I am working on buildings too, but I'm trying to get the vehicles completely sorted first. And for some reason, nothing will fix the cockpit.
I should let you know I've had nearly every texture done for a while now...
Since I started talking abut my issues...
lol.... typical N1 always one step ahead of everyone :P
Thanks for mentioning it to the rest of us earlier(!):P
Any chance of sending them to me and saving me the bother or recreating them all?
As soon as I figure out how to stop the current issue. Otherwise you will end up pulling all your hair out.
If you mean your pc picking random textures, could i have a look? I think it might be computer specific...
These files are released under an open-source style licence. Which means that anyone can modify, fork, and re-release the textures any way they see fit. Nobody needs my permission to do anything.
QuoteIf you mean your pc picking random textures, could i have a look? I think it might be computer specific...
That sounds like what would happen if duplicate assets were placed in a similarly prioritized directory.
Also it might be worth finding out if BZ2DXT files are generated and cached somehow. If that's the case then one might want to try clearing such a cache and seeing if that solves the problem.
some models now have .dxtbz2 textures specified in the XSI. Maybe thats whats causing it?
for some reason, any models that were changed during the patch dev. were told to point directly to .dxtbz2 files, rather than the .pic files they used to point too... no idea why.
Quote from: Zero Angel on April 30, 2009, 03:32:04 AM
That sounds like what would happen if duplicate assets were placed in a similarly prioritized directory.
You would think but sometimes it doesn't work at all (more often) when both are not there and BZ2DXT it SUPPOSED to be prioritized in call cases.
If you ask me its because of models textures. on my end its NOT random, the same models use dxt / pic each time. My bet is, BZ2 looking at the textures specified in the MODEL. some now use bz2dxt textures (specified in the model), rather than .pic. The rattler for example.
Ive been trying for ages to make these damn textures only to sign in and find nielk1 has done it. Could you post the .pic's Nielk1? For some reason my photoshop wont save with transparency.
Yes please, that would mean I can get to work on the rest of the textures without worrying about the ISDF.
Could you include the Interceptor's files too, please?