Animated Images

[Resinball]

"Hi Everybody"

I'm still working on bringing new (and old) weapons to H2V. I've had a good amount of success so far and some have probably seen my tutorial for importing the models (from GBX to render_model).

One area where I have not made any headway is when you compile an animated image file (BMP, JPEG, TIFF, TGA) into the Halo 2 .bitmap format. Its just not working out, maybe they need to be separate layers, or named in a specific sequence, or separately sequentially named files, I'm not really sure.


I found this tutorial but I still am not getting the desired results
http://www.modnexus.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=104&t=69139&p=685460&hilit=transparent+bitmap#p685460
(LINK IS DEAD)


Here is what I tried so far:

-I ripped the Assault Rifle's numbers_plate.bitmap into .dds files

-Opened said files in Photoshop CS2, selected default size on import to allow me to save as .TGA

-Saved each file as a 32-bit .TGA

-Selected the directory containing the .TGA's and compiled through H2 tool


The Problem is that they still appear as separate files after compiled and I need them compiled into one bitmap. I suspect its either how they are named or the name of the directory that contains them. They are labeled as the following:

Before

numbers_plate0.tga through numbers_plate9.tga

After compile

numbers_plate0.bitmap through numbers_plate9.bitmap



EDIT: Okay, I found this link and a few others that explained a bit more
http://www.modacity.net/forums/showthread.php?t=5890&highlight=animated+bitmap
(LINK IS DEAD)

Perhaps the other tutorial was wrong and has been throwing me off this whole time? Hmmm, so the images are missing from the above link and I'm unsure about how to set the offset for each block but I do understand about putting all the images in one .TGA file, just not exactly where.

So if anyone has any info on properly compiling images into animated H2V .bitmaps I would be most appreciative and if not I guess I'll PM Skyline who wrote the above tutorial two years ago.

[Resinball]

Always like that, you post then find the answer yourself. Talking to myself here, but I'll post my findings for anyone else who was/is curious.

This is the image that tool would actually compile except this is a JPEG and I used a 32-bit .TGA file.

http://www.monstrmoose.com/killsalone/Custom_Data_+_Tags/Data/objects/weapons/rifle/AssR/bitmaps/numbers_plate/numbers_plate.jpg


01) Make your Image in Photoshop

*My canvas (overall image size) was set to W:673 by H:80 because that is the originals dimensions from Halo CE. This is one area where I'm kinda unsure what to suggest as H2V Tool expects most images to be in multiples of two. My best guess is that it does not consider this image as breaking those rules because it ignores the blue area


02) Put each image in order and on its own layer

*I was unsure about the spacing so I separated the images by 3 pixels and then centered all of the images width and height


03) Make a bottom layer, fill it with this blue R:0 G:0 B:255


04) Make your alpha layer, if it does not already exist


05) Save file as *.PSD (Photoshop format)


06) Flatten the layers


07) Save file as 32-bit *.TGA (no RLE compression)


08) Open H2V Guerilla


09) Create a new Bitmap tag with the same name and location as the new image.

Leave the Type and Format settings alone.

Set its Usage to Default.


09a) I did not have to adjust the offsets but I did have to set the Sequences to the following...

First Bitmap Index: 0 (starting frame)

Bitmap Count: 10 (amount of frames or layers)


10) Compile the image with Tool, while listening to Tool, this is crucial ;)


11) Back in Guerilla...and at the bottom of the tag I set the following...

color compression quality: 15

alpha compression quality: 15

overlap: 1

color subsampling: 4:4:4


12) Recompile and success.

[supersniper]

nice guide.
I didn't think h2v would allow it.
mainly cuz it's so limited.

[Shock120]

nice guide.
I didn't think h2v would allow it.
mainly cuz it's so limited.:suicide: