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| Thread: Resizing hero adventure graphics to be creatures [Quest for volunteer] | |
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NimoStar
Responsible
Legendary Hero
Modding the Unmoddable
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posted September 26, 2019 05:02 PM |
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Edited by NimoStar at 07:24, 08 Oct 2019.
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Resizing hero adventure graphics to be creatures [Quest for volunteer]
So, this may not be readily apparent to everyone, but whereas
creatures have a coherent appearance in both the map (adventure) mode and combat mode:
On the other hand, heroes have a different appearance due to their steeds. Heroes always have steeds as their adventure mode, whereas creatures do not:
However, this poses a problem. If one were to use the sprites of a hero (and there are like twelve special hero sprites not used for normal heroes, only campaign or easter eggs),
It would not be possible with the default assets to stop these creatures from looking like "heroes" in the map mode. In the case of "Old man" easter egg hero, it is altogether impossible for him to have a (non-giant) map sprite.
Now, I would like to have a mod with many creatures quite different from the ones we are used to, and some heroes including campaign heroes would be good for that (imagine the Red Lich sprite for Varon Von Tarkin for example, which Equilibris used as a custom Lich creature in a showcase); but the "horse mode" in the map prevents this from being a aesthetically coherent option.
That's where the volunteers come in.
As I am not very good in the manipulation of these kind of graphics (shown by my utter lack of graphics other than hero portraits and UI manually imported), it would be a great favor if someone can manually resize the big, combat hero sprites into the small, map walking sprites with the correct heroes 4 format. I can write the .spr sequence myself, and would just need the graphic files.
The hex files I would edit would be the ones in
adv_actor
Whereas the graphic ones that need editing first are in actor_sequence
As you can appreciate from the screenshots, there are different files for each action, and there are "combat" files (large sprites, with larger files in Kb), and ones that don't say "combat" (these are the adventure sprites, smaller in both pixels and filesize)
Whereas there are many combat actions, only the following are strictly needed for adventure, which would reduce the number to resize:
- prewalk
- walk [tends to be larger file due to anim]
- postwalk
- stand
- attack
- postwalk
These six actions are replicated each in eight directions.
However, the process should be relatively easy at base if there is a fixed editor and good way to use it (just open, resize all frames action, and resave? File type doesn't change nor does any other indicator except frame bounds along with content size.)
If there is export and re-import, the images can be bulk-resized before re-importing into the new files. (there are even online services for that like https://bulkresizephotos.com/es and https://imageresizer.com/bulk-resize)
So, shortly put, the anim from
actor_sequence.hero.might_might_male.combat.melee.e
[Big Combat image, without horse]
should be resized and renamed into
actor_sequence.hero.might_might_male.attack.e
[Smaller Adventure image, currently with horse]
(note the difference between "melee" and "attack" since there is only one attack anim out of combat, whereas in combat there is also ranged attacks not to mention magic and normally-unused blocks)
So, is anyone down for this project?
All hero types would make a fascinating alternate creature rooster. Armies of spellcasting Druids, anyone?
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NimoStar
Responsible
Legendary Hero
Modding the Unmoddable
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posted September 26, 2019 05:39 PM |
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PS: If anyone would help me I will give them whatever they want that is within my grasp in H4 modding in return.
Some possibilities:
- A custom Music mod with their favourite music
- Make them a custom hero
- Make a mod with a custom town featuring their favourite creatures :V
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Karmakeld
Responsible
Supreme Hero
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posted October 05, 2019 05:26 PM |
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Your wish is noted. I will likely have time to do this as well as look at your other request (which you need to mail me btw) by week 43. Perhaps I can also try to finish the object package by then. Although I prob won't be spending my time one renaming all the files properly..
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NimoStar
Responsible
Legendary Hero
Modding the Unmoddable
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posted October 08, 2019 07:28 AM |
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Edited by NimoStar at 07:28, 08 Oct 2019.
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Thanks.
Is week 43 of the year, or 43 weeks from now? Counting years by weeks is probably a weird Nordic thing, since I hadn't heard the year being divided like that until now...
Actually I think it best that objects aren't renamed, because if they are, the ones I already included in maps would stop funcitioning. A unified package would be nice certainly, though.
As for the one that has to be sent to mail, they are the spells for the spellbooks, but I haven't yet finished all of the necessary files, since they are hundreds and each has to be separately saved (And designed!) from my side... in a week or two, they will probably be done.
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Karmakeld
Responsible
Supreme Hero
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posted October 08, 2019 07:01 PM |
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NimoStar said:
Thanks.
Is week 43 of the year, or 43 weeks from now? Counting years by weeks is probably a weird Nordic thing, since I hadn't heard the year being divided like that until now...
Actually I think it best that objects aren't renamed, because if they are, the ones I already included in maps would stop funcitioning. A unified package would be nice certainly, though.
As for the one that has to be sent to mail, they are the spells for the spellbooks, but I haven't yet finished all of the necessary files, since they are hundreds and each has to be separately saved (And designed!) from my side... in a week or two, they will probably be done.
Haha it's the 43'rd week of the year (which consist of 52 weeks). We're in week 41 now, so in 2 weeks from now, which seems to fit fine with you.
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