Sprite Generator... CA ?

[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?

[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 ).

[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.

(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.

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.