Info Pics

[Raz]

I'm not sure if the creators of this mod are still around here, but I'd like to ask, you got your info pics from dbaol.com, right?

Well, how exactly did you implement them into the game? As in, did you greyscale it etc. before you turned it into a bif? What was the magic procedure you used?

[macsen rufus]

Hi Raz,

A few members of the team pop by once in a while, but mostly its just us diehard HTW fans left around here now

Now, I don't know exactly how the HTW team did their info pics, but I've done a few of my own, so can give you a brief rundown (I'm sure it's been covered somewhere in the Alchemists Guild, too)

I'll assume you've already got the tools and are familiar with them if you're asking questions like this A good starting point is to find in your MTW install a copy of the blank parchment (called something like 366x448_scroll_parchment.bif) and use BIFReader to export it to BMP. Keep your BMP copy handy as it will be the main ingredient in all your future info pics. If you want to go for monochrome infopics, open this BMP in Photoshop (or your graphics editor of choice) and save a copy of its colour table (palette). This is the second most important thing to have.

Next find the image you want to use for your infopic. Personally I prefer monochrome, so I desaturate it, then recolour it using the hue control. This colourises again, and makes it a general match for the parchment colour. I try to cut out the image as much as possible so it's surrounded by transparency.

Then I open a copy of the parchment BMP, convert to RGB and add a new layer and paste the colourised image into the new layer. I generally fiddle with the opacity and contrast of this layer til I get the right result, and obviously move it around to suit (eg to avoid clashes with the text entries which over-write it in-game). When all is well, I re-index it and reload the colour table I saved earlier. Obviously this gives you an image of the whole parchment - this is not necessary - you can cut out around your image and fill the 'unused' area with "bif transparent green" (008000 in hex, 0,128,0 in RGB) to reduce the filesize. Then save your BMP to a new name (unit.bmp is always a good one ), making sure it is still 256 colour, 8-bit depth. Then convert it back to BIF using BIFReader.

Other tips - try to keep your transparent (green) areas solid and sharp edged, or you risk the little black dots that plague many remade infopics (this is why I use a parchment background rather than maximising all the possible transparency).

IF you want to use more colours for your infopics (I know some HTW ones have a brown/grey palette, for instance) then you need to accommodate for this before you save the colour palette of the parchment BMP - but there are some things to watch out for first. The transparent colour 008000 MUST be index 0 (ie the first position in the colour table - you may need to edit the palette later). Convert your parchment BMP to RGB, paste in a sample of the colours you want to use (I find using the gradient-fill tool quite handy for this, in a little box in the image), and then convert back to indexed. However if you are doing this you will need to redefine your colour table, you cannot use the original one. Select 256 colour option, and local (perceptual) palette. There will probably be no transparent green showing in the image (unless you remember to put some in of course and have it defined as background colour). Then once it's indexed check the colour table straight away - if you need to, edit index 0 to 008000 now. I also find it's handy to set index 1 (2nd position) to something outrageous like bright pink - I haven't found out all the functions of this index position in all BIF applications, but generally you don't want to use it, so select a colour that will not appear in any image you intend to create. Now you should have your colour table set up okay, and can save it for future use. Then the process is the same as above, paste in your new image in RGB mode, index it with your new colour table and save to BMP, then BIF it.

Oh dear, did I say "brief"?

Hope that helps

[Raz]

. . ... Brief.

Right, yes, anyway. That helps a bunch. Thanks for that.
Edit: That post belongs more on the Repository. =D

[macsen rufus]

Edit: That post belongs more on the Repository. =D

I like to think of it as a treasure hunt, leave little trinkets lying around for the persistent seeker to stumble across

[dimitrios the samian]

Hi Mac .... Another great run through on Info Pics ...
I agree with Raz .. move it over the the Engineers or Repository & stickie it !!

***Perhaps you can do the same type of guide for importing RTW images into MTW !! and stickie that one too . Im sure Raz would like that too for his Mod .

No point in them sinking thru the pages .. to much valuable info & sweat .
cheers fellas must resume painting .
DTS

[flip]

I'm back!!

Could'nt resist to play again HTW. What's up?.

>>I'm not sure if the creators of this mod are still around here, but I'd like to ask, you got your info pics from dbaol.com, right?<<

Raz, you're right, but I have to put my hands on the stuff to recall it.

Komninos, are you there?

Flip

[Raz]

Glad you turned up...
Have you been keeping in touch with the guild and all of it's newer mods? *Points towards macsen*

[macsen rufus]

Welcome back, Flip

Komninos' account is still open, I've exchanged a few PMs with him about re-using some of the HTW content, so a PM may raise him, else a mod may be able to forward a message for you

[Lord Zimoa of Flanders]

Hi Flip,

It feels like ages the last time I was here. Would be cool to chat again with you, Komninos or Antalis.

Time flies...

Cheers,

Tim aka LZ

[komninos]

Hi all,

That was a loooong delay ... sorry but other matters took presidence over HTW. Given that I had a catastrophic disk failure witch resulted in me loosing all work done, all tools, all records and so on.

Any way I was able to get some of the last stuff I had for RTW then started a silent slow posses for BATW. I have some good stuff not perfect but really good. Alas the M2TW is totaly incompatible to most areas (graphics) with RTW so back to 0.