Sprite Generator... CA ?

[Lord Adherbal]

I guess all modders realise this is a problem: we need a sprite generator. This is not something that can (or will) be done by a community member such as vercingetorix, as it must be a hell of a lot of work (basicly writing a small 3D engine that can display the models and animations).

Now CA must have had some kind of tool for this job, so I wonder if they could consider releasing it *hopes a CA member reads this*. This doesn't need to be a userfriendly, nice looking application, just a stupid executable that uses a commandline would be more then enough. Or whatever CA used to get it done.


I hope I'm not the only one who thinks this is important :help:

[JeromeGrasdyke]

Ah. Yes. The sprite generator. It's there already, but I'm afraid it's not all that user friendly. Like many of the tools used for Rome it's embedded in the main Rome exe, and you access it by starting up the game with "-sprite_script" on the command line. It was made available in the 1.2 patch exe, and won't be there in earlier versions.

What this does is cause the game to start up looking for a file called "sprite_script.txt" in the game's root directory, which it uses to construct the sprite pages and .spr files for the sprite imposters into the data/sprites directory. This process references data in the descr_model_battle.txt file to create sprites which correspond to the different faction colour / model texture pages. I'm including a chunk of the syntax below, so that you will have something to work from when creating the script:


barb_female_peasant no_faction
east_female_peasant no_faction
generals_horse romans_julii generals horse
generals_horse romans_brutii generals horse
generals_horse romans_scipii generals horse
horse_cataphract seleucid horse cataphract
horse_cataphract parthia horse cataphract
barb_cavalry gauls generals horse
barb_cavalry germans generals horse
carthaginian_medium_cavalry carthage generals horse
carthaginian_medium_cavalry numidia generals horse
carthaginian_medium_cavalry spain generals horse
persian_sparabara_merc no_faction
egyptian_peltast_merc no_faction
greek_elephant_crew_merc no_faction sprite_root


And so on... it's essentially a list of "descr_model_battle type id" "faction type" "mount type". You have to explicitly list all the factions that you want sprites for, since you could economise on space by sharing sprites among factions. The sprite_root keyword is used to indicate a model which is on a mount but is nevertheless standing up (chariot drivers, etc).

Be warned that this process can take a long time - a couple of hours for regenerating the complete set of sprites was not unusual - and requires a decent graphics card (128mb of video memory minimum, I believe). If you run with -ne on the command line you should be able to do other things during that time, although I wouldn't recommend running anything that uses DirectX.

After it completes you'll have to modify descr_model_battle.txt to correctly use the new sprite files.

Hope that gets you started...

[Lord Adherbal]

yes, thank you, thats excellent :D


a couple of hours for regenerating the complete set of sprites was not unusual

I hope you don't mean for 1 unit's sprite set :O either way, anything better then the alternative ways of making sprites :)

[Encaitar]

Fantastic. Thank you very much Jerome :)

[Vercingetorix]

Thanks Adherbal for finding that! And thanks Jerome for the explantion!

[Myrddraal]

Thanks Jerome, thats saved me a hell of a lot of time (believe it or not, I was going to recolour the existing sprites so they vaguely fit my units)

~;)

[Lord Adherbal]

well it works perfectly - generating a sprite for 1 unit (1 faction) took only like 1-2 minutes.
The game then went back to desktop (I assume that's normal) and the sprite files (spr + TGA files) were there in the data\sprites folder. The TGAs are then easily converted to the much smaller DDS fileformat with photoshop.

[SigniferOne]

Jerome... :2thumbsup: !!

[blindfaithnogod]

this is great news indead. thanks for helping us as much as you have Jerome. I sure do apreciate it.

[Kraxis]

Being a lowkey modder and a bad photoshop, and such programs, user I have always avoided changing the look of units in games.
Thus I know next to nothing about this.

So am I getting this right when I think this makes it possible for every faction to get every unit with the correct colour if you just make the correct changes in descr file?

[blindfaithnogod]

So am I getting this right when I think this makes it possible for every faction to get every unit with the correct colour if you just make the correct changes in descr file?
no, what this does is it creates 2d sprites for the models and textures one would make. sprites show up at a long distance to keep the cpu usage down.

[WhiteWolf]

Ah I could just kiss you... except Im not that kind of wolf..

Anyway thanks for the great info!

[Monkwarrior]

Could I suggest somebody to make a "How To" about this question? :dizzy2:
It would be great. :bow:

[Simetrical]

I tried doing this. I created a shortcut to my RTW.exe which went to "C:\Games\Rome Total Realism\RomeTW.exe" -sprite_script. I made a file in C:\Games\Rome Total Realism\ called sprite_script.txt. In that file, I wrote

generals_horse romans_julii generals horse
with that spacing, copied directly from Jerome's post. When I clicked the shortcut, RTW started up, went through the initial loading screen, and then returned me to the desktop almost immediately. The data\sprites folder doesn't even exist. I must be doing something wrong—but what? Jerome, [cF]Adherbal? Any ideas?

-Simetrical

[JeromeGrasdyke]

When I clicked the shortcut, RTW started up, went through the initial loading screen, and then returned me to the desktop almost immediately. The data\sprites folder doesn't even exist. I must be doing something wrong—but what? Jerome, [cF]Adherbal? Any ideas?

Are you sure the original Rome dataset is still completely intact? The fact that it returns almost immediately could indicate that it's not even getting to the sprite generator execution.

Also, you need to make sure there are no -mod options on the command line, and since it's a modded game, there's a risk that some of the typenames have been renamed or removed from descr_model_battle.txt or descr_mount.txt ... i'd suggest you make sure that the typenames are there, the cas models reference valid textures, and so on. And of course run with -show_err on the command line as well.

[bouis]

I tried it on a fresh installation and I couldn't get it to work either. Went straight to desktop after the red credits screen. show_err was used but said nothing.

[bouis]

I haven't been able to get this to work, with a fresh install of RTW and 1.2 patch. The game returns to the desktop after showing the red credits screen, and show_err gives no report.

In fact, no one I know of who has tried it has been successful either.

[lt1956]

Question if you Put no faction will it generate a sprite with the unit color and not faction color it? In other words, made the sprite more realistic by keeping the colors of the unit and not the faction?

Thanks,

Lt

[JeromeGrasdyke]

In fact, no one I know of who has tried it has been successful either.

No-one i know who has tried it has failed ~;) Make sure you have the 1.2 patch exe.

[Lord Adherbal]

@Simetrical
Use: "C:\Games\Rome Total Realism\RomeTW.exe" -sprite_script -show_err
so it shows error reports.

generals_horse romans_julii generals horse is wrong. The 3rd mount type parameter is for mounted units only, NOT for the mount itself (generals_horse in your case). Leave it out and it should work.

@lt1956
Not sure what you mean, but it doesnt use faction colours anywere. It only uses the texture you specified for the given faction.

[blindfaithnogod]

In fact, no one I know of who has tried it has been successful either.
i have 2 complete factions done. so now you know one person who has been successful. ~;)

[lt1956]

Wow it seemed to work for me. lol Now Do we just delete the TGA files? Because it made a Spr file and a pile of TGAs just for one unit.

Lt1956

This is neat.

[Lord Adherbal]

no, you either use the TGA files or convert them to (tga.)DDS files

[Myrddraal]

As far as I can tell, the spr file is just the information about the TGA's. The tga's contain the images, the spr file tells the game which bit of image to use for which sprite.

[lt1956]

But it makes 600 TGA files! lol Even at 40k each compressed that alot of Megs for one unit. isnt it?

It did work as I could tell and made the sprite show up at 40 instead of 60 and I couldnt tell the difference seemed to be the same color etc.

Lt

[Myrddraal]

600, I haven't tried the generator yet, maybe thats usual

Open up the one of the TGA's, is it one sprite or a collection of many? I know that the existing ones contain many sprites in one tga..

[lt1956]

Its only one per tga, that must explain it, but then is there a different string or something? It made the sprite but looked like 1 per tga when I opened it some had black background others had yellow.

Anyone else?

Lt1956

Example of My Script inside.

egyptian_elite_guards_spears egypt

It only took 15-20 seconds to make the 1 unit sprite, but then again I have a powerful system and a x800xt platinum video card 256mb

[Lord Adherbal]

600 files ??? I had 4 at max, some unit (archer i think) only had 1. Each TGA file has like 60 sprites on it.

[lt1956]

whats going on then it did it on TWO units the same thing? Is there a string to use with the editor? Show me what you entered in your Stript that may help.

Did you try it on a NEW unit model and skin?

Lt

[Lord Adherbal]

the script example you use is fine, and yes I'm only using brand new models and textures. Maybe it's video card related ? I have a GF4 Ti 4200 myself (pretty old but very reliable)

[lt1956]

Come on fess up, what are you doing different. ;-)

I did this twice now again and tried just using the name and not egypt or faction behind it and got 324 tga files that dont look like they have much in them but black or yellow background. lol

My card is very reliable top end card you should now that. lol There is something with the generator that your not saying, Help me out here. please? :-)

Lt

Some details.

My command line executable.

"C:\Program Files\Activision\Rome - Total War\RomeTW.exe" -sprite_script

The name of my script file.

sprite_script.txt

THe text in my script file

egyptian_archer


I have also tried egyptian_archer egypt

There must be something else your adding or doing to make 1 or 3 tga files because I get hundreds. I am doing everything as stated or I a missing something. Please help me out, we should help eachother.

Lt

[Lord Adherbal]

my current script file is:
woodsman scythia

so that's exactly like the strings you are using. I did add a number of manualy edited sprite files (spr and dds) to the sprites dir (after creating it) before path 1.2, but I don't see how that could make any difference. You did put the script.txt file in the ROOT dir right ?

And I know your card is very good, that is exactly why I'm saying it *could* be causing the problem. As you surely know new cards often give more problems then old ones (especially the GF4 series was very compatible). Still, it would be strange, but it's the only reason i can come up with. Wanna change your card for mine ? :P

[JeromeGrasdyke]

It might be worth explaining that the "root dir" mentioned here is the project root, ie the same directory in which RomeTW.exe lives, and not c:\ or some such.

[lt1956]

Jerome, do you have any idea whats causing this? I have a high end system. P4 3.6 Prescott 1 gb Ram ddr 400 2-2-2-5, WD Raptor 10krpm HD. and my ATI x800xt PE.

This should be more than enough to make sprites. lol

I knew to put the script into the same directory as the .EXE that makes since by your post. But I am at a loss why I get 3-6oo tga files, does anyone else know in department?

Lt1956

[bouis]

After rearranging my show_err and sprite_script, I started getting this error (as opposed to none):

Generic Error: Model_db: model registry has requested a model " which was not found in model load script 'data/descr_model_battle.txt'.

The solution seems to have been to delete my preferences, save games, all that stuff, and create a \data\sprites folder. I'm not sure what did it, but after that it stopped giving errors and started making sprites files & tgas. Empty tgas.

:(

My vid card is a Geforce 6800 GT, and, curiously enough, when I hit printscreen in game, I get blank TGAs from RTW.

Maybe I should try it with another video card?

[bouis]

Okay...disabling anti-aliasing in the preferences seems to have fixed the screenshots -- now I get 470 files, like lt1956.

I think the key to this is in the preferences.txt file somewhere.

[bouis]

Can someone who has it working correctly post, or e-mail their preferences.txt to me?

bouis (at) datasync (dot) com

[blindfaithnogod]

i had it make and inortinate amount of tgas one time. i just deleted those and tried again and it worked fine for me.

[Lord Adherbal]

copy paste away


SAFE_REFRESH:FALSE
USE_TRIPLE_BUFFER:FALSE
USE_WIDESCREEN:FALSE
SUBTITLES:FALSE
MORALE:TRUE
FATIGUE:TRUE
LIMITED_AMMO:TRUE
SUPPLY:TRUE
FOG_OF_WAR:FALSE
RESTRICT_CAMERA:FALSE
DEFAULT_BATTLE_CAMERA:DEFAULT
EVENT_CUTSCENES:TRUE
SMOKE:TRUE
DESYNC:TRUE
SPLASHES:TRUE
GLINTS:FALSE
REFLECTIONS:FALSE
SHADOWS:TRUE
VEGETATION:TRUE
DETAILED_UNIT_SHADOWS:FALSE
GLOSS_MAPPING:FALSE
STENCIL_SHADOWS:TRUE
MULTI_TEXTURE:TRUE
AUTO_SAVE:TRUE
SHOW_BANNERS:TRUE
UNIT_SIZE:80
MASTER_VOL:100
SPEECH_VOL:100
SFX_VOL:100
MUSIC_VOL:70
CAMERA_ROTATE:78
CAMERA_MOVE:100
CAMERA_FOV:75.000000
ENABLE_AUDIO:TRUE
ENABLE_MUSIC:FALSE
ENABLE_UNIT_SPEECH:TRUE
DISABLE_BACKGROUND_FMV:FALSE
DISABLE_ARROW_MARKERS:FALSE
AUDIO_3D_PROVIDER:Miles Fast 2D Positional Audio
CLOUD_TRANSITIONS:TRUE
GRASS_DISTANCE:75
AA_QUALITY:AA_OFF
STRATEGY_RESOLUTION:1024x768
STRATEGY_32_BIT:FALSE
BATTLE_RESOLUTION:1280x960
BATTLE_32_BIT:FALSE
UNIT_DETAIL:SUPER_HIGH
BUILDING_DETAIL:ULTRA_HIGH
TGA_CAPTURE_WIDTH:1024
TGA_CAPTURE_ASPECT:1.333333
TGA_CAPTURE_INPUT_SCALE:1
TGA_CAPTURE_RESERVE_SPACE:FALSE
LABEL_CHARACTERS:FALSE
LABEL_SETTLEMENTS:TRUE
MINIMAL_UI:TRUE
CAMPAIGN_MAP_MAX_SCROLL_SPEED_MIN_ZOOM:30
CAMPAIGN_MAP_MAX_SCROLL_SPEED_MAX_ZOOM:30
FIRST_TIME_PLAY:FALSE
ADVISOR_VERBOSITY:0
MUTE_ADVISOR:FALSE
BLIND_ADVISOR:FALSE
CAMPAIGN_MAP_CAMERA:FOLLOW_AI_FACTIONS
CAMPAIGN_MAP_SPEED_UP:FALSE
CAMPAIGN_MAP_GAME_SPEED:99
DISABLE_EVENTS:0
MICROMANAGE_ALL_SETTLEMENTS:FALSE
ADVANCED_STATS_ALWAYS:FALSE
UNIT_USE_SHADERS:FALSE
TERRAIN_QUALITY:HIGH
EFFECT_QUALITY:MEDIUM
VEGETATION_QUALITY:HIGH
KEYSET:0
UNLIMITED_MEN_ON_BATTLEFIELD:FALSE
CAMPAIGN_MAP_CAMERA_SMOOTHING:TRUE
CHAT_MSG_DURATION:10
USE_QUICKCHAT:TRUE
GS_PIDS:TRUE
GS_PIDS_FULL:TRUE
GS_PIDS_CUR:TRUE
ALWAYS_LOGFILE:FALSE
TIMESTAMP_LOGFILE:TRUE

[bouis]

Alright!

Using the preferences you posted I've been able to get it to make sprites... well, it made three sprites instead of 300, but that's a start.

Is it supposed to do 3?

[bouis]

Well, it works. But it doesn't look very good:

http://www.datasync.com/~bouis/sprites.JPG

I wish it would do the shields' color.

[bouis]

Actually looking carefully at the sprite tga it seems that the shield is colored, but in the game the sprites are showing the guy from the wrong side?

[Dimitri]

With recent revelations of the built in sprite maker and the skeleton snimation parser, it makes me wonder if there are any other hidden mod tools in the RTW executable. Perhaps CA could release a list of command line options and other built in tools that the community might not know about.

[professorspatula]

Well if it's so simple to do these sprites, why hasn't CA released the sprites for those new Spartans? I'm fed up of the silly 'look I'm barechested... now I'm wearing a robe and a stupid looking helmet' trick. If this thing works, perhaps some nice kind person could post the sprites on the net anyway...

[Simetrical]

Are you sure the original Rome dataset is still completely intact? The fact that it returns almost immediately could indicate that it's not even getting to the sprite generator execution.

Also, you need to make sure there are no -mod options on the command line, and since it's a modded game, there's a risk that some of the typenames have been renamed or removed from descr_model_battle.txt or descr_mount.txt ... i'd suggest you make sure that the typenames are there, the cas models reference valid textures, and so on. And of course run with -show_err on the command line as well.Well, I cut-and-pasted [cF]Adherbal's preferences, and now I get a split-second view of some freakish-looking spiky thing, and no files in data\sprites. I tried taking a screenshot of the thing, but it seemingly didn't get copied to the clipboard. I'm now running with show_err. I'm sure the model type and texture exists (I took it straight from descr_model_battle in the correct directory), and I'm not using -mod.

Adherbal]generals_horse romans_julii generals horse is wrong. The 3rd mount type parameter is for mounted units only, NOT for the mount itself (generals_horse in your case). Leave it out and it should work.I took that straight from Jerome's post, but it doesn't work even without.

-Simetrical

[lt1956]

OK so maybe it was my preference settings. High end settings may mess up the generator, lower settings it may work. sheesh, I what they use a CA P2 1.2? lol

Ok,

I'll tyr the different settings and see if I can get 3 files instead of 400

Lt1956

[Encaitar]

I'm getting the hundreds of tgas per model too. I've got fairly low-end specs and settings, and I've tried fiddling with them a bit to no success.

[lt1956]

First I just removed my preferences and tried. I did get only 1 tgs for the archer, BUT it was emptied.

I then took your settings as pasted in the preferences file,. then tried and it worked! lol There must be a setting to two that you need to use to do it. I have everything on High because my system can handle it.

Problem though. I noticed it does NOT use the textures you use. See I used different skins for egyptian_archer, but its using CAs colors because mine have blue skirts not gold! So I have a feeling you need to RENAME the model like egyptian_archers_new.

Jerome is that correct? WILL the generator look for the original model skins if the name is unchanged?

Lt1956

Getting close though, but still no cigar.

P.S. Neat thing is it only took less than 10 SECONDS to make the sprite! also when I get this down pat, if anyone wants me to make the sprites I will just send my the files and I'll make the sprites I fingure it would take 30minutes to make 200 model unit sprites.

[lt1956]

Ok, I got it working great.

I had to specify which skins to use.

egyptian_archer egypt

otherwise it went straight to the CA default. NEAT.

Looks like I have Alot of Sprites to do, see you in half hour.

Lt

Well it took 3 minutes to do 2 units worth of sprites. I still need to figure out the Mount thing correctly, I beleive I add that string to make the unit mounted with a horse? Oh well. It works and thats all that counts.

Thanks Adherbal, I knew you did something different to get it to work! All it was was in the Preferences file. I'll have to look to see whats different and caused that.

[Lord Adherbal]

Originally Posted by [cF
Adherbal]generals_horse romans_julii generals horse is wrong. The 3rd mount type parameter is for mounted units only, NOT for the mount itself (generals_horse in your case). Leave it out and it should work.
I took that straight from Jerome's post, but it doesn't work even without.

-Simetrical

woops, you are right, I was wrong about this (that could explain the error I got) it should work without the mount type parameter tho, but I guess you should include that so the generator knows the scale of the horse model.


Actually looking carefully at the sprite tga it seems that the shield is colored, but in the game the sprites are showing the guy from the wrong side?

correct, it only generates half the sprites, and mirrors them for the other directions (just like in MTW actualy). I think thats a pitty because the difference between the shield side of a unit and it's sprite is very noticable.

[lt1956]

Has anyone else had this problem. When I convert the TGA files to DDS and played in game they worked, BUT if you look at the side of the unit and zoom out they disappear! lol I'm not sure whats causing that glitch, when they are in TGA format no problem. Soundsl ike an alpha issue, but then why is one effected and not the other? Since its obvious one of the dds files wasnt working.

Just wanted to ask, other than that this WORK perfect! Units with the correct skins blend in MUCH better and there is less noticeable change between the switch in game!

Lt

BUG thanks Jerome, Let the guys as CA know I truly do love their game, I just want to be the best it can be. The 3d Sea battles would really have been great, too bad we were never told why they did make it in. Now there is that Copycat game out which basically looks like they took the ideas from RTW.

[Tux]

Ok guys i just figured out what make the generator pruduce hundreds of tga, the problem is here:
STRATEGY_RESOLUTION:1024x768
STRATEGY_32_BIT:FALSE
BATTLE_RESOLUTION:1024x768
BATTLE_32_BIT:FALSE
You must disable 32 bit so that it produces the textures for the sprites.

[lt1956]

None of the other settings effect it?

Lt

Would lower unit settings make lower detailed sprites? Anyone know?

[Simetrical]

Highest unit detail settings remove sprites altogether in-game, I know that. Could that be the problem?

-Simetrical

[Lord Adherbal]

Highest unit detail settings remove sprites altogether in-game, I know that. Could that be the problem?

erm, I seriously doubt that. Even low poly models should cause a much higher slowdown then sprites (basicly 2 poly models). The distance at which units turn into sprites is just much higher.


Has anyone else had this problem. When I convert the TGA files to DDS and played in game they worked, BUT if you look at the side of the unit and zoom out they disappear! lol I'm not sure whats causing that glitch, when they are in TGA format no problem. Soundsl ike an alpha issue, but then why is one effected and not the other? Since its obvious one of the dds files wasnt working.

so it doesnt do that with the TGAs ? interesting...

[lt1956]

[cF]Adherbal, I kept trying but everytime I convert them to dds files there is an alpha issue. The prites are missing in areas ingame and makes them look funny, Unless you keep them TGA then they are perfect.

Its really wierd has anyone tested this Ingame to see if this is just me or if its going to be a problem. and if someone got it too work can they tell me. Because the TGA files are large. lol

Lt

[Lord Adherbal]

I know the shield side doesn't show up in the sprites (instead it mirrors the other side), but didn't know that only happens after converting the files to DDS - actualy I find that hard to believe. I will try it myself and get back to you. And is that what you mean by "sprites are missing" and "look funny" or is there another problem ?

[lt1956]

Bouis gave me a link to a converter of TGA to DDS its works good. It can convert a pile all at the same time. When I Converted them using the paint program something was wrong with the alpha and animations were missing, go figure. lol Sometimes units could disappear. But with the converter its seems fine, I already converted the files and added the tga so the file can read them I tested all of them out and found no problems.

Is there anyway to fix that shield side Problem? Did Jerome say if there is a switch or something?

Anyway the converter link can be found in the SPQR released trhead on this page. Hope it helps you because it helped me. The only problem with the sprites is the lack of shields like you said other than that they blend in wonderfully.

Lt

[Tux]

Adherbal']I know the shield side doesn't show up in the sprites (instead it mirrors the other side), but didn't know that only happens after converting the files to DDS - actualy I find that hard to believe. I will try it myself and get back to you. And is that what you mean by "sprites are missing" and "look funny" or is there another problem ?
What would hapened if you mirror the shield in the .cas, would it show the shield on the other side so that the sprite look correct, have you tried this?

[Lord Adherbal]

the shield side of the units are not included in the texture (otherwise what would be the point of not displaying it properly), so in order to make that work you would have to add those shield side images to a new texture and edit the spr file so that it points to those new images instead of mirroring the other side - if that is even possible, I certainly couln't do it. Has anyone checked whether the sprites in RTW vanilla have shield sides ?

[lt1956]

I beleive they do if I recall the romans, because those are the most noticeable ones.

I think we need a switch or something, that someone forgot to tell us, because like you said shields are gone in my sprites, but then again its SO far away its better than nothing! lol BUt I think there MUST be a command they forgot to tell use, otherwise why do there roman sprites have shields. Agrippa cohorts also had shields when he made his sprites. So it can be done, eitehr they are using a different editor and threw this one in just for us, or they have some switch we need to use?

Lt

[Marshal Murat]

So,
You enter the -sprite_generator into the command line, then create a file in the main directory of what units you want to sprite generate?

[Tux]

No sprite_script is the command, then you create a text file in the game root folder named "sprite_script" and go to the descr_model.txt get the name of the unit,the one like "roman_triarii" and write that in the txt file and after that you add "julii" or "bruti" wich faction have the triairi with the colred textures.Also don't forget to add a folder named sprites in the data folder.

[DimeBagHo]

I got the generator to work fine. The generated files look OK. I put the new files into data/sprites/. I put suitable sprite entries into descr_model_battle.txt. But as far as I can tell the game is not using the new sprites.

Do I have to extract the original sprite packs, or pack the new sprites into them? That would be a pain, because my mod only uses a handful of new models and skins.

[Lord Adherbal]

Do I have to extract the original sprite packs, or pack the new sprites into them? That would be a pain, because my mod only uses a handful of new models and skins.

not if the sprite names are not identical to the original RTW ones

[DimeBagHo]

Must be some other problem then, because the sprites are all for new units.

[eastsidehighrise]

i am hardly a modder of any sort and i got my sprites working, so maybe your solution, DimeBagHo, is this:

-make sure you have the correct info in sprite_script.txt. The i.d. from descr_model_battle followed by a faction (egypt, romans_julii etc.) for which a texture is available under that i.d. So for example, hastati would go roman_hastati romans_julii
make sure there is a 'texture' line for the faction you're specifying in sprite-script, or else it will go default.

-convert the tga files, usually about 1-3, to dds. dont know if this has any bearing, but it sure reduces the file size by a good amount. DDS Converter 2 is a good one.

-for the new dds files, rename them: put '.tga.' just before the ".dds" extension. so "roman_hastati_sprite_000.dds" = "roman_hastati_sprite_000.tga.dds". This is because the accompanying SPR file (.spr) will look for .tga files, which youve turned to dds.

-rename each set of sprites to one that is not CA. you must add the same thing to all the files (spr and tga/dds). for eg. "roman_hastati_sprite.spr" and "roman_hastati_000.tga.dds" are CA defaults so i simply add "rtr_" at the start of everyone. although the filenames have changed, in comparison to each other, they are still the same (because you added in rtr_ equally).

-in descr_model_battle, assign the model_sprite line with the name of your new .spr file.

thats all i got for now.

[DimeBagHo]

Eastsidehighrise - thanks for the suggestions. It turned out to be a very silly mistake in the descr_model_battle.txt entries. I just hadn't specified the faction in the sprite lines.

[hobb'es]

Hi!

Does anybody know something new about the problem with sprites without shields?

And I encountered one more problem. The game doesn't seem to use the assigned sprites for standard bearers, generals and so on. Instead you see the sprites for the units they belong to. Or is it only me who doesn't get this to work?

Thanks for your answers and please excuse my bad English.

[Myrddraal]

Welcome to the forum hobb'es :smile:

when you say "Without shields" do you mean the shields don't appear?

I'm not sure about this as I haven't used the sprite generator yet... anyone?

[hobb'es]

Thanks for the welcome, Myrddraal!

The problem with the shields means that the sprite generator doesn't recognize the shields of units when making sprites. So the sprites of e.g. Princeps don't have shields and are rather dark because of their clothes in difference to their red, blue or green look because of the shields.

[professorspatula]

If anyone else notices their sprites have missing weapons when they generate them, here's a way to get a full set of tgas complete with weapons:

Go to the models_unit directory and temporarily rename the .rum file that shares the same name as the model your chosen unit uses. Eg: You've created a new uber-Greek peasant with Adidas style stripes and killer body odour. The Greek peasant uses this model: unit_roman_peasant_lowest.cas. In the models_unit directory, there will be a file of the same name, only with a .rum extension. Rename that to something else before you run the generator (don't bother renaming the other .rum ones, only the smallest size one is necessary). When the generator is run, it should now generate more tgas than before, complete with weapon animations. I was getting 2 tgas without weapons, but now I get the lot. Actually the generator tends to now create 1 more .tga file that those created by CA. Eg, My spearmen has 4 tgas, whereas the old one had 3.

To be honest, it doesn't make a massive difference, and it takes up more hard disk space, but it's nice to have proper sprites generated.

I actually found this out by accident when I was trying to get the 'new' CA Spartan to work. I couldn't get it to work without it reverting to the old model after zooming out only a tiny amount, and after much trial and error, realised renaming the .rum files the model uses fixed the Spartan. And when I then created the sprites for the fixed spartan - I got 5 tgas instead of 2, which I then realised was a result of not using those .rum files. Which makes me wonder what the .rum files are, and why I either create less tgas than what CA made, or 1 more.

I don't know if this is a known issue, and if everyone knows it already, but I thought I'd just share my findings with you. Course, means I now have a load of old sprites to redo.

[Monkwarrior]

I noticed one slight problem that I'm not sure if it is general.
I prepared a new carthaginian standard bearer and made the corresponding sprite.
I also did the sprite for the new sacred band, which in fact has this bearer as an officer and the game uses the sprite of a sacred band soldier for the standard bearer instead of its own sprite.
The result is that the standard disappears when looking the unit from long distance. I will try to put here a screenshot to illustrate this problem.

[hobb'es]

@Monkwarrior

I have this problem to with all standard bearers, generals etc. The games uses the sprites of the assigned units for them.

[Myrddraal]

Does it happen with the units made by CA.

[Encaitar]

Well I finally managed to get the sprite generator to create just a single, complete page tga file, instead of hundreds for each model. The difference being if I ran the -sprite_script command switch with the -ne switch also (that's the non-fullscreen switch), it created hundreds of partial tgas, if I ran it without the -ne switch, it create the one complete tga. Rather happy that I've finally got that done.

[SirNateofWessex]

I was able to create a sprite package with 450 images with bright yellow on my desktop which has a geforce 5200xt 128MB and on my laptop with a ATI Radeon IGP 320m 64MB and it worked like a charm. My simple file was a vanilla unit. I am at a lost of why my worse card worked.

[Monkwarrior]

Yesterday I was shocked. :dizzy2:
Last week I was able to create a full set of sprites of the reskinned carthaginian faction. However yesterday I had the same problem, the sprite generator created between 300 and 500 tgas with no content. I hadn't changed any part of my hardware, but I had been changing some preferences in the game.
I copied the preferences posted by Adherbal in the second page of this thread and the sprites were generated without problems. ~:thumb:

I don't know which parameter perturbs the sprite generator, but there is something in the preferences that, if changed, doesn't allow the spriter to work properly.
Just copy those values and test the spriter.

Cheers.

[SirNateofWessex]

Well when I get home I will paste my differences and compare it to the the aforementioned post.

[player1]

As far as I know, if you put color depth for campaign and battle to 16-bit, it will generate srpites fine.

But, with 32-bit it will give horde of small useless tags.

[matrik the conckery]

ok, i'm going to ask y'all to help me out here, because this isn't working for me. here's what i'm doing:


created the sprite_script.txt in the root folder

in the sprite_script.txt file entered 'roman_triarii romans_brutii' (i'm only doing one unit at a time til i get it right)

created the sprites folder in the data folder (data/sprites)

copied and pasted the preferences list as posted by Adherbal

started program as "C:\Program Files\Activision\Rome - Total War\RomeTW.exe" -sprite_script

and here's what happens:

games loads up with initial rome total war screen then creative assembly/activision screen, then crashes to desktop (as i've read it's meant to do)

however, it doesn't seem to produce any files at all. nothing appears in the sprites folder or anywhere else.
anybody see a problem here at all? i'm really keen to get this working, so any help you can give is appreciated.

cheers

[matrik the conckery]

never mind, i've worked it out. i had named my sprite_script file wrong (had put .txt on the end). working well now. cheers

[Myrddraal]

Well I'm glad u got it sorted, I didn't have a clue :smile:
Welcome to the forums. :smile:

[SirNateofWessex]

Instead of posting my differences, I made the sprite generator not work on my working machine. At the time, I had other programs running like Windows Media Player, notepad, and I tried it again and it worked. Also, doing more than a handful creates some real differences. I had a custom file of 36 units and they all were messed up. But 6 at a time works perfectly. Every journey starts with a small step.

[Martinaz]

i can't start up the generator.
i have type -sprite_script on the command line and i have patch1.2
but when i start it , you see the splash screen , and then you see again your desktop :S:S

[Monkwarrior]

i can't start up the generator.
i have type -sprite_script on the command line and i have patch1.2
but when i start it , you see the splash screen , and then you see again your desktop :S:S
That's the normal way it works.
After closing the game, you have the corresponding files (in tga format, not in dds, you must change it) in the Data\sprites folder.
Did you create this folder?
Did you prepare your script?
Did you have the correct preferences?

If everything is OK it should work.

[Martinaz]

what are the correct preferentses?

[player1]

16bit battles and campaign colors.

But even if it's 32-bit, generator would work too, but would give bad sprites.

[Martinaz]

:S
it isn't working i have the map , preferencis and script :(

[player1]

Try adding "-show_err" maybe it will give you some error code.

[Martinaz]

no error message...

[Proper Gander]

hi, i just stumbled across this thread and i thought i would give the sprite generator a try. at first i had a couple of problems, but it works fine now.
i DO have a problem though, the sprites for a cavalry unit only show the men, as if dismounted. i DID include the mount in the sprite_script.txt. but it is not in the sprite it seems. do i have to make a separate sprite for the horses?

and what about the TGAs, what do i do with them. they don't seem to be of any use. i only assign the spr file in the descr_model_battle.txt file.
can i just delete them without any worries?

[Proper Gander]

right, forget the first question. i used a different descreption and it worked out fine now. ~D

but the question about the TGA's remains.

[Martinaz]

this is what i have done :
-i made a shortcut and on the command line i have -sprite_generator
-made in the data folder a text file called sprite_script
-and in that txt file have i : roman_archer romans_julii
-and made in the data folder a new folder called sprites
-copiet the preferentcis in my preferencis
when i run the shortcut , i see a spash screen and then the program crash

but the sprite folder is still a empty map

[alman7272]

this is what i have done :
-i made a shortcut and on the command line i have -sprite_generator
-made in the data folder a text file called sprite_script
-and in that txt file have i : roman_archer romans_julii
-and made in the data folder a new folder called sprites
-copiet the preferentcis in my preferencis
when i run the shortcut , i see a spash screen and then the program crash

but the sprite folder is still a empty map

It's supposed to be -sprite_script on the command line

[JeromeGrasdyke]

It's probably worth mentioning that the sprite generator does not work on 100% of all graphics cards able to run Rome, because some cards don't support the (slightly more advanced) features it uses. That was one of several reasons why we decided to pregenerate the sprites rather than generating them on the fly at load time.

Almost all NVidia AGP cards do work, and so do most ATI cards after the Radeon 8500. Quite a few of the built-in graphics solutions don't cut the mustard, as they say, and the lesser graphics manufacturers are a mixed bag.

[Martinaz]

i think that will be the problem

[Stuie]

Did anyone ever get shields working properly on their sprites?

[SirNateofWessex]

Some sprites from the game do not have shields I did notice, so we may be out of luck. Also, I would like to to ask Jerome or anyone else why some chariot sprites seem to put the riders higher in the air when they are "accessed" as you zoom out.

[vastator]

It's probably worth mentioning that the sprite generator does not work on 100% of all graphics cards able to run Rome, because some cards don't support the (slightly more advanced) features it uses. That was one of several reasons why we decided to pregenerate the sprites rather than generating them on the fly at load time.

Almost all NVidia AGP cards do work, and so do most ATI cards after the Radeon 8500. Quite a few of the built-in graphics solutions don't cut the mustard, as they say, and the lesser graphics manufacturers are a mixed bag.
I have an ATI Radeon 9600 Pro Atlantis - is that the problem? I just can't get the sprite generator to work. I've completely reinstalled RTW with the 1.2 patch. I have -sprite_script and -show_err in my command line, I've copied and pasted Adherbal's preferences, and created a data\sprites folder. Every time I start the game it crashes immediately after the credits screen, with no error message displayed. What am I doing wrong? ~:confused: What's so annoying is that I only want a sprite for British barbarian light cavalry!

[Stuie]

Every time I start the game it crashes immediately after the credits screen, with no error message displayed. What am I doing wrong? ~:confused: What's so annoying is that I only want a sprite for British barbarian light cavalry!

That's what happens when you generate sprites - it hangs a minute or so per sprite on the credits screen, then sends you back to the desktop.

Look in the data\sprites folder and your sprite should be there.

[vastator]

That's what happens when you generate sprites - it hangs a minute or so per sprite on the credits screen, then sends you back to the desktop.

Look in the data\sprites folder and your sprite should be there.
The game's crashing without even opening the sprite generator. Any suggestions?

[Yuri]

Hi there. I've tried this sprite generator and it doesn't work.

I get an error message like this:

DATABASE_TABLE error found : unrecognised record id r requested

or this

DATABASE_TABLE error found : unrecognised record id m requested

I created the sprite_script.txt. If i open the file and write "barb_female_peasant" (without the ""), i get the first error message. If i write "camel numidia", i get the second error message.

It doesn't create any sprite files (i've created the sprites folder though).

The command line is:

...\Rome - Total War\RomeTW.exe" -sprite_script -show_err

I use a fresh installation of RTW with the 1.2 patch. I copied the preferences posted in this thread but it still doesn't work.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance!

[Proper Gander]

i had a wierd problem.

some units sprites, sort of, sank into the ground as i zoomed out.
could anybody enlighten me what the reason for that could be?

the same units would work for some factions, but for others i had this rather weird phenomanon.

also, the DDS files weren't accepted recently, only the tga's.
has this got to do with the mod itself? (i installed the latest version of the mod, that is work in progress. i am sure that i didn't have that problem before i did that)

[~Hadès~]

ola all

for my first message I need help ~:eek:
it's not a good thing ~D

I read all post of this tuto and I have a problem ~:confused:

- I have patch 1.2
- -sprite_script in shortcut
- sprite_script is created
- in that txt file have I : greek_hoplite greek_cities
- repertory sprites in data\ is cerated
- copie preferences in my preferences (with erase all)
and when I run the shortcut , I see activision and then rtw crash (ok it's normal) I don't have sprites in the data\sprites

I don't understand :book:
a little help for it please :duel:

I'm french, english it's difficult for me, sorry for my bad langage :bow:

[SirNateofWessex]

Quick Tutorial Guys:

http://www.freewebs.com/nateswebportal/sprite.html

Post any non working lines in the text file and I will post the correction if I can get it to work.

barb_female_peasant =works
camel numidia =works

[~Hadès~]

thanks for answer ~:)

I'll look it at home but I think my files are good :dizzy2:



in the first time I have tested with greek_hoplite greek_cities

~:cheers:

[~Hadès~]

oki it work now many thanks ~D ~D

my problem : I create sprite_script.txt in data\
now it's ok ~:cheers:

exellent :bow:

[SirNateofWessex]

Glad I could help.

[Proper Gander]

could SOMEBDY PLEASE help me here. it is driving me round the bend and i have NO idea how to solev this.

this is what happens:

https://img64.imageshack.us/img64/6979/error7wt.png

i once deployed a unit that had this problem alone, 1 unit vs 1 unit. and it didn't happen then.

ANY help would be welcome. PLEASE i am desperate here, and NOBODY has even tried helping me out yet.

[SirNateofWessex]

Send me the files to useraron (at) hotmail.com. Though with my computer down, I can reply mid week, if I cannot solve the problem without going into the game.

SNoW

[Proper Gander]

errrrm. still waiting for a reply mate....

do you people not know how to solve this or can't you just be bothered to answer?

[Suraknar]

Wonderfull!!

Thanks CA!

[PSYCHO V]

Can everyone who is continuing to have sprite problems and or questions please post them here or PM me at the .com. A sprite guide / FAQ is on offer from CA.

Cheers

[DimeBagHo]

Did anyone ever get shields working properly on their sprites?
People would like to know. ~:)

[SomeNick]

Could someone do a step by step visual tutorial of this please?

Like Epistolary Richard's 'adding a new model tutorial'?
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=51750

I have a model of a spartan released by CA that doesn't have a sprite file and I am very confused reading this thread. Plus I suck at this sort of thing.

And from reading this I am worried I could damage my game :O , yes I am that newbish at this sort of stuff...:duel:

Please haaaaalpp!!!!!!!!~:cheers:

[SomeNick]

Ahhh thankyou SirNateofWessex :bow: Great work!
The link wasn't working the other day.

I'm Code-aphobic. I admit it. Plus this whole thread has me worried about damaging the game... lol! :hide:

Could someone maybe write a little prog that does sprite generation for any particular model that is chosen to do?

Please. ~:cheers:

I for one would be a very grateful newbie.

[zhumin1978]

I am wondering if this works with ver1.3 or it's a v1.2 only.
I can not even put "-sprite_script" on the command line of RomeTW.exe v1.3.

[wlesmana]

I tried this and got this error:

DATABASE_TABLE error found : unrecognised record id c requested

so I'm guessing this is not a video card problem but something else. I followed the instruction to the letter so I have no idea why this happened.

[Balbor]

does this work with 1.3

all i'm getting are black tga files that don't have alpha chanels

[Balbor]

i've been able to make sprites with 1.2 but not 1.3, has anyone tried 1.5?

[aazj]

I tried this and got this error:

DATABASE_TABLE error found : unrecognised record id c requested


Hi there. I've tried this sprite generator and it doesn't work.

I get an error message like this:

DATABASE_TABLE error found : unrecognised record id r requested

or this

DATABASE_TABLE error found : unrecognised record id m requested

I created the sprite_script.txt. If i open the file and write "barb_female_peasant" (without the ""), i get the first error message. If i write "camel numidia", i get the second error message.

It doesn't create any sprite files (i've created the sprites folder though).

I use a fresh installation of RTW with the 1.2 patch. I copied the preferences posted in this thread but it still doesn't work.

1-ran game/reseted my graphics on automatic in opptions/video
2-made a folder data\sprites
3-made a file in rtw directory - sprite_script.txt
4-put the descr_model_battle.txt inside the sprite_script.txt/desert_infantry greek_cities
5-run RomeTW.exe -sprite_script -show_err,
6-the errors are shown in the following picture. The letters after the wrong ID are the third letter of the file of "sprite_script.txt"



I'm chinese, english it's difficult for me, sorry for my bad langage .

[SomeNick]

The Modder who makes a little prog that can do all this will make RTW almost perfect :)

[Xenophon12]

Are sprites really needed?

Is there not some way of making the low poly model visable from 40 distance instead of having to go through all of this?

If so then that would save space in a mod's final download size by not including any sprites. Maybe a super_low.cas could be used incase all 3d models caused the game to go very slow?

[Pinarius]

what do I have to write in this textfile, when I want to create sprites for horses, for example Genaral horses for the Brutii?

[Ahmose]

what do I have to write in this textfile, when I want to create sprites for horses, for example Genaral horses for the Brutii?
Hi Pinarius, I am Ahmose a member of the RTR: Ancient Empires that uses your realistic horses mod, it was DMC before. If you asked that question because you will make sprites for your mod, I am currently making them. If you want when I finish them I can send them to you.

Anyway, here is the method I followed. You must type the name of the unit in the descr_model_battle in the line " type " then the faction that owns the unit. For example, when you want to generate sprite for Genaral horses for the Brutii you must type "generals_horse romans_brutii" be aware as the example I created is from the typos from RTR file.

I hope this will help.

[killerxguy]

Will this work in BI, i tried to put the txt file in the BI folder but i get no sprites
EDIT:got it to work! Thanks for this amazing tool CA!

[Pinarius]

Hi Pinarius, I am Ahmose a member of the RTR: Ancient Empires that uses your realistic horses mod, it was DMC before. If you asked that question because you will make sprites for your mod, I am currently making them. If you want when I finish them I can send them to you.

Anyway, here is the method I followed. You must type the name of the unit in the descr_model_battle in the line " type " then the faction that owns the unit. For example, when you want to generate sprite for Genaral horses for the Brutii you must type "generals_horse romans_brutii" be aware as the example I created is from the typos from RTR file.

I hope this will help.
Thanks, but Lusted already did that. There were just no sprites for the Roman factions, besides red ones, as his mod has a unified Rome. So the only sprites that are missing so far are those for the Senate, the Brutii and the Scipii.

[wlesmana]

So did anyone manage to create the sprites with 1.5/BI? So far I'm only getting black TGA files.

[DimeBagHo]

It's working fine for me.

[Monkwarrior]

It's working fine for me.
Hi,
I observed that the sprite generator worked only with some preferences (I used those posted by Adherbal some time ago).
Could you please post here the preferences you are using for the sprite generator? Just to see if they are different.
Thanks.:2thumbsup:

[DimeBagHo]

Here are the preferences that I used. BTW, I can't remember whether this was necessary before, but you do need to convert the resulting .TGA files to .TGA.DDS for them to display properly.


SAFE_REFRESH:FALSE
USE_TRIPLE_BUFFER:FALSE
USE_WIDESCREEN:FALSE
SUBTITLES:FALSE
MORALE:TRUE
FATIGUE:TRUE
LIMITED_AMMO:TRUE
SUPPLY:TRUE
FOG_OF_WAR:FALSE
RESTRICT_CAMERA:FALSE
DEFAULT_BATTLE_CAMERA:DEFAULT
EVENT_CUTSCENES:FALSE
SMOKE:TRUE
DESYNC:TRUE
SPLASHES:FALSE
GLINTS:FALSE
REFLECTIONS:FALSE
SHADOWS:FALSE
VEGETATION:FALSE
DETAILED_UNIT_SHADOWS:FALSE
GLOSS_MAPPING:FALSE
STENCIL_SHADOWS:FALSE
MULTI_TEXTURE:FALSE
AUTO_SAVE:TRUE
SHOW_BANNERS:FALSE
UNIT_EXPERIENCE_UPGRADE_EFFECT:FALSE
UNIT_SIZE:80
MASTER_VOL:100
SPEECH_VOL:100
SFX_VOL:100
MUSIC_VOL:70
CAMERA_ROTATE:78
CAMERA_MOVE:100
CAMERA_FOV:75.000000
ENABLE_AUDIO:TRUE
ENABLE_MUSIC:FALSE
ENABLE_UNIT_SPEECH:TRUE
DISABLE_BACKGROUND_FMV:FALSE
DISABLE_ARROW_MARKERS:FALSE
AUDIO_3D_PROVIDER:Miles Fast 2D Positional Audio
CLOUD_TRANSITIONS:TRUE
GRASS_DISTANCE:75
AA_QUALITY:AA_OFF
STRATEGY_RESOLUTION:1280x960
STRATEGY_MAX_RESOLUTION:2048x1536
STRATEGY_32_BIT:FALSE
BATTLE_RESOLUTION:800x600
BATTLE_MAX_RESOLUTION:2048x1536
BATTLE_32_BIT:FALSE
UNIT_DETAIL:LOW
BUILDING_DETAIL:ULTRA_HIGH
TGA_CAPTURE_WIDTH:1024
TGA_CAPTURE_ASPECT:1.333333
TGA_CAPTURE_INPUT_SCALE:1
TGA_CAPTURE_RESERVE_SPACE:FALSE
LABEL_CHARACTERS:FALSE
LABEL_SETTLEMENTS:TRUE
MINIMAL_UI:TRUE
CAMPAIGN_MAP_MAX_SCROLL_SPEED_MIN_ZOOM:30
CAMPAIGN_MAP_MAX_SCROLL_SPEED_MAX_ZOOM:30
FIRST_TIME_PLAY:FALSE
ADVISOR_VERBOSITY:0
MUTE_ADVISOR:FALSE
BLIND_ADVISOR:FALSE
CAMPAIGN_MAP_CAMERA:FOLLOW_AI_FACTIONS
CAMPAIGN_MAP_SPEED_UP:FALSE
CAMPAIGN_MAP_GAME_SPEED:99
DISABLE_EVENTS:0
MICROMANAGE_ALL_SETTLEMENTS:FALSE
ADVANCED_STATS_ALWAYS:FALSE
UNIT_USE_SHADERS:FALSE
TERRAIN_QUALITY:HIGH
EFFECT_QUALITY:MEDIUM
VEGETATION_QUALITY:HIGH
KEYSET:0
UNLIMITED_MEN_ON_BATTLEFIELD:FALSE
CAMPAIGN_MAP_CAMERA_SMOOTHING:TRUE
CHAT_MSG_DURATION:10
USE_QUICKCHAT:TRUE
GS_PIDS:TRUE
GS_PIDS_FULL:TRUE
GS_PIDS_CUR:TRUE
ALWAYS_LOGFILE:FALSE
TIMESTAMP_LOGFILE:TRUE
32BIT_UI:FALSE
GS_LOG_RESULTS:FALSE
CHAT_COLOURS:name=ffffa0,private=ff7707,game=94aadc,public=fff777,system=ffffff,lobby=fff777,setup=9 4aadc,playing=ff0707
EDIT_SETTLEMENT_NAMES:FALSE

[Monkwarrior]

Thanks.:2thumbsup:
I will give a try next days.

[Jarardo]

@lt1956, what tga-dds converter were you using?

And anyone still having problems with the hundreds of tga's, it was turning off the -ne tag that made it work for me.

[Jarardo]

I seem to be having the same problem where the sprites look like they're sinking into the ground, or are just laying on the ground, anyone have any ideas?

[player1]

I remember that on my Radeon 9000 (64MB) I needed to switch in game color depth to 16bits, before launching sprite generator.

Otherwise I get corrupt files.


P.S.
Helped me in making fixed sprites for Creatan Archers back in times of 1.2 patch.

[Jarardo]

I definetly tried that. I tried changing all sorts of options around. I was thinking my video card just couldnt do it. I have a saphire radeon 9000 128mb. Whats wierd is when I try to take a SS of it, the units look fine in the screen shot? I'm just using the print screen key, and they are saved as tga's I can view with photoshop.

Anyway thanks for the response man.

[zowrath]

I have read this thread through 3 times now, and I have tried every option that you guys have presented. But my tga-files are still totally black. My card is a ATi X800 Pro 256mb card with latest drivers. Any clues?

[Lusted]

Have you tried the set of preferences Adgerbal posted near the beginning of this thread? I used it and it worked like a charm

[Makanyane]

It seems that you get black tga's if you still have anti-aliasing on. Pasting in the preferences should fix this but see below:

DimeBagHo, gave me this reply when I had a similar problem:

Did you put the new preferences in the right place? A normal install of RTW will have two preferences files. One in the game directory that is now obsolete, and one in the preferences folder. It's the one in the preferences folder that you need to replace/edit.

Another problem that people might run into is that most graphics drivers allow you to force anti-aliasing from the control panel settings for your graphics card. Obviously you need to switch that off as well.
(Guess who'd pasted them in the wrong file)

[zowrath]

Yes, I have anti-aliasing turned off as I used the preferences you refer to. And still I get black tga's :no:

[zowrath]

It seems that you get black tga's if you still have anti-aliasing on. Pasting in the preferences should fix this but see below:

DimeBagHo, gave me this reply when I had a similar problem:

(Guess who'd pasted them in the wrong file)

Ahh, I must have missed this one. It works now, thanks :-)

[SirNateofWessex]

I have done 1.6 sprites using the BI exe, if you just follow the same directions in the beginning of the thread, it will work.

[Jumper]

hello, i am Jumper but doesn't jump jet

I do have a question and i am not sure if this is the right place to put my question.
So i sorry.

I wanted to ask for making Sprites.

what i have done is this.
put a txt file Sprites_Script under Map Rome -Total War
change AA in preference in AA_QUALITY:AA_OFF
change 32_BIT in STRATEGY_RESOLUTION:1024x768
STRATEGY_MAX_RESOLUTION:1280x960
STRATEGY_16_BIT:FALSE
BATTLE_RESOLUTION:1024x768
BATTLE_MAX_RESOLUTION:1280x960
BATTLE_16_BIT:FALSE

Placed a map Sprites under Map DATA
the unit i wanted to make a sprite is;
barb_cavalry thrace generals horse

did make a sortcut of Rome-total war icoon
and put in the propeties -Sprites_Script -Show_err

and i do have a clean Rome Total War install
Still it doesn't work what is wrong with me
Thank you and again sorry if i post this in the wrong place..

[Makanyane]

First in your preferences I think it should be
STRATEGY_32_BIT:FALSE
so effectively it is 16 bit - I think that's the correct way of writing it.

If you look at 1st / 2nd page of thread I think it shows that adding 'generals horse' at end is incorrect. You just need
(descr_model_battle)'type' faction
in script file, if that doesn't help post again as I could have interpreted the mount effect bit wrong!!

[Roman_Man#3]

Ah. Yes. The sprite generator. It's there already, but I'm afraid it's not all that user friendly. Like many of the tools used for Rome it's embedded in the main Rome exe, and you access it by starting up the game with "-sprite_script" on the command line. It was made available in the 1.2 patch exe, and won't be there in earlier versions.

What this does is cause the game to start up looking for a file called "sprite_script.txt" in the game's root directory, which it uses to construct the sprite pages and .spr files for the sprite imposters into the data/sprites directory. This process references data in the descr_model_battle.txt file to create sprites which correspond to the different faction colour / model texture pages.


"game with "-sprite_script" on the command line", i dont understand what it means by this

[Makanyane]

Its same as where you put -show_err, right click on your desktop icon, select properties and in target box, add a space after ...exe" and add -sprite_script
so result looks like
"X:\blah\blah\RomeTW-BI.exe" -sprite_script

[Roman_Man#3]

thank you

[Roman_Man#3]

haha, I finally got it to work. Thank you.


ah, nvm, i knew it was too good to be true. the sprites were made no problem, bu the when i tried to play a game, this signal that said:out of area - came up. then i went to adherbal(?) preference thing on the second page, and just as battle was about to begin, it went to that stupid signal again. Please help!!

[Roman_Man#3]

did make a sortcut of Rome-total war icoon
and put in the propeties -Sprites_Script -Show_err


i do believe it is supposed to be -sprite_script, not sprites_script. but don't take my word for it, I can't get it to work either. and sorry about triple post.

[Makanyane]

Its definitely -sprite_script (singular)

Meghas Alexandros, haven't seen your error before

this signal that said:out of area
sounds a bit more like a graphics card glitch than a RTW error message, does that seem right? If thats possible have you done rest of process and converted the tga's the generator gives you to tga.dds files? Think game runs with them left as tga but they are bigger files that way so may overload something?????

Also check what it has generated as tga's for you to see if they look right. You should get roughly between one and five tga's for each sprite (depending on size of unit - guys with long spear get more files) and if you open tga in your graphics program you should be able to see lots of very small men per tga (well blobs really). Mainly just make sure you haven't got 100's per sprite or blank tgas. Finally check the DMB sprite line is correct.

[Roman_Man#3]

I doubt it is my graphics card, because I can run rtw and m2tw almost perfectly. I am going to put in my original preference text into the folder and see if it plays then. I will also try to take a screenshot of the message so you can see it.

It did generate the sprites. There was three of them. In the descr_model_battle text, i changed the sprite for my hastati from the original to whatever name the sprite created was called.

[Roman_Man#3]

which set of sprites do I use? I have 3 of them. I tried to take a screen of the error sign, but when I loaded the screen outside of the the game, it was the actual loading screen, except that wasn't what I saw. My guess now is maybe my moniter could possibly have gotten disconnected a bit? and can someone please post the vanilla preference text so I can see if that is it?


thanks.

[Makanyane]

Sorry I don't have original preferences - mangled mine a while ago.

Not sure what you mean by three sprites; what you should get for EACH sprite is something like:

alemanni_horse_medium_sprite.spr
alemanni_horse_medium_sprite_000.tga.dds
alemanni_horse_medium_sprite_001.tga.dds
alemanni_horse_medium_sprite_002.tga.dds
number of tga's it generates varies - and example shows naming after they have been converted to .tga.dds files, all of those files stay in sprites folder (only thing you delete is the original .tga files after you've converted them to .dds)

For that example what you put in DMB is just reference to the .spr file i.e.

model_sprite alemanni, 100.0, bi/data/sprites/alemanni_horse_medium_sprite.spr

As you mentioned hastati I assume you're using RTW not BI, I'm not sure if you might have to do something different in that as original sprites are all in packs.
(perhaps call folder with new sprite in something different to sprites and change path to match, so you know its looking there and not in packs)

[Roman_Man#3]

Thanks for your help, I don't think it generated a .spr file, but I will check none the less. I took my preferences from my other comp and put them on the one where I was having problems, and it worked fine. I will just have to fiddle with the system a bit.

[Monkwarrior]

This may sounds stupid, but I'm not able at the moment to generate sprites at all.

This is what I'm doing in RTW 1.5.

- Shortcut with -sprite_script and -show_err.
- sprites folder in Data
- sprite_script.txt in root directory; the text inserted is only
barb_peltast_dacia dacia (I've also tested with other units)
- copied preferences by DimeBagHo in preferences folder.
- turned graphic card to 16 bits

When I run RTW with the shortcut, I get the normal behavior, but when it kicks me to the desktop, I have neither error message nor sprite in the corresponding folder.

This is a new computer:
NVIDIA GeForce 7300 LE
Pentium D 3.4 GHz
RAM 2 GB

In the old one with only P4 1.4 GHz, RAM 256 MB and GeForce MX100 I was able to make lots of sprites with the same procedure (perhaps it was with RTW 1.2)

Any idea about what I'm doing wrong?:help:

[Makanyane]

First thing to check is that
barb_peltast_dacia
is set up as type in DMB with texture for dacia in that example.

Only problems I know of in creating sprites are to do with correct setting of 16 bit graphics and no-antialising. Depending on graphics card you may need to change those settings both within game (i.e. preferences.txt - err watch out for where you are placing that as it needs to be one in relevant preferences folder not root folder) and also in your general graphics card menu settings, as some overrule others with unpredictable results.

Also unfortunately there do seem to be some things some computers will not do - our mod had a little saga as one comp. wouldn't make sprites - whereas mine would, but mine wouldn't allow mass .dds conversion, and other would - if all else fails, either dig out old computer or find volunteer (I'll do sprites to tga stage if you send me all bits, inc DMB and script)

[Squid]

One other mistake I've seen made before is that in windows the default is to hide the file extension of known file types so when creating the sprite_script.txt file it accidentally gets created as sprite_script.txt.txt (where the second .txt is hidden).

[Monkwarrior]

Thanks for your answers.

It is not a question of file extension, I checked it.

Regarding the graphic card and settings, I thought that problems in this aspect would generate black or wrong sprites, but something would be generated.

If the mistake were in the txt file, I should receive any error message from -show_err (although this function doesn't work properly for me in last time).

I wonder what would happen if the mistake is in the command line, but I've checked thousands of times.

I think that I will try with the old computer (if it is able to start :juggle2: ).

[Dol Guldur]

Has anyone worked out how to create sprites when all your files, textures, etc. are all in a modfolder? (BI) I tried putting some stuff into the main folder in the hope it would not read too deep before executing the script, but no luck - it failed.



Thx.

[Makanyane]

just run the shortcut with the -mod and the -sprite_script in it

"X:\***\activision\Rome - Total War\RomeTW-BI.exe" -mod:bi\eod2 -show_err -ne -nm -sprite_script just worked for me.

Whatever shortcut you run you still just have the actual sprite_script.txt in the root level folder, but if the shortcut is pointed at the modfolder it seems to run fine from dmb and textures etc being in modfolder contents only.

[Dol Guldur]

I had already tried that and though it appeared to work I could not find the textures; I did not try again because Jerome mentioned something about making sure that -mod was not in the command line.

I have now tried again and it worked - I think I had the wrong dmb file active when I tried before.

My, it does bring back memories...thx Mak.

[Monkwarrior]

Is there any difference when making the sprites for chariot crews?

I'm trying to make them but I'm not able.:embarassed:

(I've successfully made all the rest of sprites, both infantry and cavalry units)

This is the line in sprite_script.txt:
mercader mercenary barbarian heavy chariot

- mercader is the name of the model in descr_model_battle.txt
- mercenary is the faction (I've tested it is correct)
- barbarian heavy chariot is the mount type as it appears in export_descr_unit and descr_mount

I've made a new animation, based on the carriage_ballistae_crew. Can this be the reason?

[Makanyane]

you can probably just get the sprite for the crew separately using the
mercader mercenary
part on its own, the automated sprite script writes mercenary units as
mercader no_faction
but both probably work.

Sticking the mount name on the end never actually gave you a sprite for the mount, you just got the sprite for the rider, and the sprite for the mount was generated separately from
horse_light slave
or whatever, for the horses dmb entry. As chariots don't have their own dmb entry (there is no model reference in descr_mount for them) you might not be able to get a sprite for them. Not sure if anyone else has managed to..?

[Monkwarrior]

you can probably just get the sprite for the crew separately using the
mercader mercenary
part on its own, the automated sprite script writes mercenary units as
mercader no_faction
but both probably work.

Sticking the mount name on the end never actually gave you a sprite for the mount, you just got the sprite for the rider, and the sprite for the mount was generated separately from
horse_light slave
or whatever, for the horses dmb entry. As chariots don't have their own dmb entry (there is no model reference in descr_mount for them) you might not be able to get a sprite for them. Not sure if anyone else has managed to..?
Perhaps it will work. I'll give tray. However, I was doing the same as done with the rest of mounted units, putting the mount at the end. :juggle2:

Regarding the chariot, you are right that it has no entry in dmb, but I think that the game uses always the model as sprite. I say that because I can see the chariot irrespective of the camera distance, but as you say the sprites are not generated.

One correction. The chariot model is referenced in descr_mount:

lods 1
lod carro_mercancias_nuevo2.cas, 50
The original chariots have three lods and probably the game uses the low lod as sprite.

[satanea juda]

Why do I get

Generic error

unable to find skeleton ''indivi_range'' 40

(not enough positive vibes?..)

[Makanyane]

think you might have a typo somewhere

descr_model_battle entries should read


type merc_veteranii
skeleton fs_javelinman
indiv_range 40
texture....

type thing....
so you seem to be missing a skeleton name for one of the entries, or have some sort of odd formatting making it not read it, hence making it attempt to read the next line down as the skeleton ?!?!?!

do all the units load in game?

[satanea juda]

Yeh they work in game..

I have;


type ARCADIAN
;--------------------------------------
skeleton fs_swordsman
indiv_range 40
texture macedon, alexander/300WOS/data/models_unit/textures/300_ARCHDIAN.TGA
model_flexi alexander/300WOS/data/models_unit/300_ARCADIAN.cas, 15
model_flexi alexander/300WOS/data/models_unit/300_ARCADIAN.cas, 30
model_flexi alexander/300WOS/data/models_unit/300_ARCADIAN.cas, 40
model_flexi alexander/300WOS/data/models_unit/300_ARCADIAN.cas, max
model_sprite macedon, 60.0, alexander/300WOS/data/sprites/macedon_ALEX_hypaspists_sprite.spr
model_tri 400, 0.5f, 0.5f, 0.5f

[satanea juda]

So .. after some discussion with Mak I finally got it working, as can be seen from the above bit of code I was making these through the Alex exec'..Not sure if it's Alex specific (or graphic card, mines an Nvidia something or other) but having -ne on the target line gave me 1000' (yes 1000's) of yellow tga's (about 300-400 per unit) .. Using the preferences on page 2 this thread, and removing -ne worked..

If it doesn't work for you odds are you have a mistake in your DMB, look out for spaces, it doesn't like them apperently (even though your entry works getting the unit in game) use ''Tab'' instead.