*WOW* JUST LOOK AT THIS ...

[Venko]

:o

The new generation of skin editing is coming soon from me...
See this ? I dont even edit the GMF file for this...
Every component can be made with different and variable transparency and with shape and holes and so... No limits more in skining... I kill them... Even chassis can be made like this... NP to make everything what we want. So expect from me soon MEGA COOL skins...
I will work with Sage to make our skins even better and include some mega cool skins in his pack...
Just imagine some new well made matrix components like this in DSL...
If someone is interested he can contact with me and i will explain to him how to make skins like this. NP :biggrin:

[Clickbeetle]

Isn't that just a .tga with an alpha channel for transparency?

And I've tried applying .tga skins to the chassis.  I've even tried manually inserting them directly into the bot file.  No luck, transparency doesn't get applied.

Also the matrix disc would look nicer if it was round, and you'll have to go into the gmf to get rid of that white edge.  But I suppose it could be cool on some designs.

[Venko]

"Isn't that just a .tga with an alpha channel for transparency?" Finally someone that speak my language... This trick is old like the world (it remaind me how i was made transperant cars in Need for speed long time ago...) . And its so easy to make alpha channel in images. I wonder how no one discover about this before me (exept you CB,cos i never see skins like this i think no one do it but it seems we are two ). So i will try different alpha channel strength for one face of component and some holes and so more...

"And I've tried applying .tga skins to the chassis. I've even tried manually inserting them directly into the bot file. No luck, transparency doesn't get applied." I think its posible. When i have more time i will try to apply this to chassis.

"Also the matrix disc would look nicer if it was round, and you'll have to go into the gmf to get rid of that white edge. But I suppose it could be cool on some designs." I just made this component in a very hurry. Its not made well i know how to improve it more to be more cool. So with this effect and some small GMF editing ( to remove things like white edge ) you cant imagine what things can be done... If this with chassis cant be done i have another idea how to do it, see below :

But nooo... I even want to go far further... I will try even to make ANIMATED textures. Even with anymated GIFs and transparency at the same time !!! I thing game engine can handle it. I succed to decompile RA2.exe back to C++ code so if we have good programer on C++ we can change a lot things for good. For example Mad was wanted to increase chain speed and stuff, and i will try to make game use TGA alpha channel and GIF animated always and for any component or chasis. I think all this is posible cos this have it in any game, and video cards handles alpha and animated gifs hardwarely (not by some software) so it must be posible to use it at all costs, just game exe need to allow it...

You can contact me in MSN to clean this more...
THANKS. Keep good working now with BBEANS...

[Madiaba]

Yep, nice. A .tga with an alpha channel skin is already used in the game on arenas and components. I like your skin though. And it's nice to see you diving into stuff, Venko.
(I'm presently visiting my parents, but when I get back I'll send you some related stuff...)
 
The exe, stuff I'd like to see then too.

[Naryar]

This one broke the record of posting.

Transparent skins are possible, but making the chassis transparent... not to mention that all things attached to the chassis are invisible even if you smash a way to them by chassis crushing.

Animated skins will lag the game seriously, if you even can do some. Moving an animated GIF in 3-D, or no, more than one, six at least, will use a bunch of calculus and memory. And worse, moving a DISTORTED GIF in 3D (after some chassis damage)...

[Venko]

Yeah, if ACAMS is so busy why then he dont make somebody that is a lot active in forum admin to ban spammers like this one...

Nary... Stop beeing so big pesimist and leave programing to programists and keep silence please... OK ?
And you forget that we play old lame game on modern video cards... I think if my video cards can handle game like Crysis thats look like real pictures ,then they will handle some primitive cube bot with some GIFs... And you forget that the lag in RA2 is from complicated physics calculations in havok engine that try to simulate real live physics (which is imposible) but the game have very pathetic recommends for graphical cards and dont lag from this, so our videos cards can handle the gifs, but not too much overlapped and complicated weapons... Can you make difference between CPU lag and video card lag ?

[Madiaba]

Nar, I'm going to make a whole AI pack that is totally invisible (chassis and components), with the help of Trov. and Sage. But its not using an alpha channel. Although I was thinking of making a chassis where an alpha channelled tga is used to skin it, and thus all of the baseplate and components are visible.   "The Visible Bot".
 
Venko, I tried using gifs to skin, but I could not get the exe to recognize the format. So if you've figured that out, I would like to see it.

[Venko]

4 reasons why alpha channel editing is better than editing MATERIAL_TRANSPARENCY in GMF...
1) TGA editing is more easy than GMF editing... :tongue:
2) With alpha channel you can have very precision value for transparency like from 0 to 255 (i can even draw pictures in alpha channel with transparency) , not like from 0 to 1... :tongue:
3) Can you make the component transparent and with visible hole on him with MATERIAL_TRANSPARENCY at the same time?... :tongue:
4) With gmf editing you can make only one transparency value for whole component and chassis , but with alpha channel you can make EVERY PIXEL with different transparency strength... What about that ah ? :tongue:
:biggrin:

[Naryar]

Oh very well Venko. Then, try to put an animated GIF on a chassis since you're that smart.

This is not a video card problem... it is the GAME itself.

Mad: Totally invisible, nice idea, but... what would you do in the bot lab? ... Excepted if you build the bot first and then copy the invisible skin pack into Components.

[Sage]

Oh very well Venko. Then, try to put an animated GIF on a chassis since you're that smart.

This is not a video card problem... it is the GAME itself.

Mad: Totally invisible, nice idea, but... what would you do in the bot lab? ... Excepted if you build the bot first and then copy the invisible skin pack into Components.

theres this thing called a DOS Batch file that can change all the components from invisible to visible with one click.

[Madiaba]

Sage is telling secrets:shock:. Actually it involves gmf and bot file editting.
 
Nar, I already made one totally invisible AI, and it is pretty cool and tuff to beat. They are visible in the lab.
 
Venko, thanks but I know that stuff; but seeing GIF action on a bot or component would be cool...

[Venko]

"seeing GIF action on a bot or component would be cool..."
Hahahahahaahahahahahahahahahha Mad...
Not "would be", IT WILL BE... IT WILL BE AWESOME WITH MY IDEAS FOR ANIMATED AND TRANSPERANT COOL SKINS AT THE SAME TIME... Trust me, im good with art remember ? :D

[Gigafrost]

There is also a way to create animated JPEGS (credit given to RFSHQ team/goose). I think it would be more conveinent for you in the sense that they have a wider range of 'compatibility' in games and use less KBs, but I don't know if it could be used with python...
 
If there only was a way to create animated .tga files...

[Venko]

send me link to this animated jpegs for more inspection...

[Gigafrost]

Link: http://www.webdevelopersnotes.com/tips/html/animated_jpgs.php3

[Venko]

Dude...
This is java script that change few JPGs very fast to simulate animation... And this is java script for html code for web pages... Its total useless for me and its not one animated graphic file that i can use... I knew it will be like this cos i  never see in my live animated JPG in one file... So this is mistake... And if user turn off java scripts for web pages in his browser he will not even see this changing pictures...
I know many tricks with JPGs but JPG cant be animated, sorry...
I will try with GIFs or PNGs for RA2...