BIF Files.. what is up with these suckers?????

[Khan7]

Ok, I was just playing around with these (inspired by the idea of headless sprites), and it seems that there are some... issues.

After summarily beheading an entire frame of Ashi spearmen, I went off to eat. I returned, and opened the file, only to be greeted by 255 times 8 individual little error pop-ups (in sequence thank GOD) followed by an ultimate error message which I missed because I was at this point hitting BOTH enter keys as fast and furious as I very well could.

Something about "BIF error at [some hex number] Frame 5 line 1" (then "Frame 5 line 2" "3" "4" etc up to 255, then "Frame 6" etc etc etc).

To clarify, all I had been doing with these Ashis was filling in green background where their heads would be.


To test, I then went and opened the No-Dachi sprite file, and put a single green backround pixel in the middle of his flag. No problem opening that back up. I then totally beheaded him (one of them). No problems there.

I then opened up the Monk sprites and converted one of their nagis' blades into a cross. Tried to open it back up. "ERROR ERROR ERROR" same as before.. gahhhh.....

Anyway, does anyone have any enlightenment on this? I will be continuing my own tests.. but anyway, it would seem that modifying Shogun sprites may indeed be impossible, not only due to the lack of the proper tools posessed by the developers, but sheer weirdness of this BIF format.

Obviously was using RSW's BIF editor 2.0 for these attempts.

Matt

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Shogun 2 now available for download! Comes with a nifty version-switching program, so never have to break a sweat! Click here (http://stw2.polarisun.net/stw2.zip) NOW!!

To read all about it, click here (http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/Forum5/HTML/000398.html).

[RSW]

Sorry for the inconvenience...
I must say I can't ensure that the encoding function of the editor can work correctly because I didn't have much time or data to test it.Besides, I didn't write many error handling or checking functions to make the program robust. I would say it's better to re-execute the program to load another file after you have loaded a BIF file and saved your changes.

Give me a reason, if you want me to make the editor better. :-)

[Kraellin]

RSW,

i'm not sure i noticed before that you're from taiwan. lovely place. i spent a week in taipei and outlying areas once. a most interesting country, where east and west mix. one of my favorite places in the world. thank you.

and before i get this thread closed by being so horribly off-topic, let me just say that any understanding you can bring to how the bif's work is most appreciated. your editor opened the door. any further work you might wish to contribute on the subject shld be heartily appreciated by those who still have dreams of making mods. i've seen two recent threads about these, so perhaps there is still some hope of making a fantasy mod or some other.

K.


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The only absolute is that there are no absolutes.

[RSW]

Kraellin, Your words inspired me a lot. Thanks.

IMHO, it's never easy to make new sprites by such simple tool with hand-making methods. It will not be easy even in the future. Due to my limited programming skills, I think I can add some features for the editor.

1)Import a BMP file (8 bits) into one frame. Maybe you need to import the series of them one by one. The palette of the first imported bmp will be used for the color table of the BIF.

2)Export one frame of the BIF, and save it as
a 8 bits bmp file. Then you can use other tools to modify easily.

3)Fix the bugs that I have found.

I don't have any good or new ideas for the further work. Show me your ideas, and we will know if the ideas could be realized.

[Kraellin]

ah, that might work. you wouldnt have to try and directly edit the .bif then and make a whole editing thing program. just convert it, edit it in a standard paint program and then convert it back. nice. i like it.

are the .bifs then just a series animation frames in some sort of compressed file?

K.


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The only absolute is that there are no absolutes.

[Khan7]

Well, the way the BIFs were originally created is the developers made 3D models of the units and then BIFed them into sprites. So if people wanted to do anything more than cursory changes, they would need that kind of a tool.

Also, RSW, I tested my "error"-ridden BIF file, and it actually does work, and you actually can see the lack of a face on the Ashis once ever 12 frames. But your BIF editor still gives me the same lecture on errors every time I try to open it, no matter the circumstances http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/rolleyes.gif

So yeah, at first I thought it was just the nature of the BIF files, but it would appear your editor has some issues. Don't get me wrong, it's fantastic what you've done, but as you said it has some bugs, and it's really not gonna be easy to do any editing at all the way it is. You're pretty much limited to one session to do ALL of what you want.. quit and come back and too bad.

Anyway, any improvements would be most appreciated. I'll e-mail you the BIF file in question as an example.

Matt

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Shogun 2 now available for download! Comes with a nifty version-switching program, so never have to break a sweat! Click here (http://stw2.polarisun.net/stw2.zip) NOW!!

To read all about it, click here (http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/Forum5/HTML/000398.html).

[This message has been edited by Khan7 (edited 06-04-2002).]

[Omegamann]

Hi,
great to see that you are still with us RSW.
Sorry that I couldnt help with the programming but real life (and some other games I have to admit) kept me from being a real help.
But I am glad you are still working on these ideas and be sure that when you get them done a lot of mods will be possible because of your hard work.
Just look at the threats for the Star Wars Mod or the Fantasy Mod.
And then think about the possibillitys when MTW is out, I am sure they still work with biffs, maybe only more animation sequences and 16bit color.

[RSW]

I have sent the bug-fixed version to TosaInu.
I think the bug Khan7 reported will not occur again under this version. But the wrong data in the BIF generated by the old program can't be fixed by the new one automatically. You need to re-do the changes, sorry.

The new one is still under developing. So, it's very appreciated to report what do you think and bugs here.

ps: You can fix the wrong data by hand. If you need to know how, give me a sign.

[TosaInu]

Konnichiwa,

Domo arigato gozaimasu RSW san.



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Ja mata
Toda MizuTosaInu
Daimyo Takiyama Shi

http://www.takiyama.cjb.net