Happy customer & a few questions

[Q-dad]

Hi DT,

Yup, it's just an old (1999) silly shooter game, and nothing productive about it at all, unless you decide to try making tools for modding it etc... I mod it more than I play it these days, but what I do like about playing it, is that it's a fairly simple game, i.e. nothing too complex like you have in many of the modern games. Besides, DF2 has 7 different multiplayer modes, and in my favorite (Search & Destroy), it's not just a kill or get killed type of game, but you need to be able to both guard and attack, be sneaky, be patient, use the terrain to your advantage, use team tactics, etc., in order to win each battle. Longest battle I've been in lasted 7 hours or so...

Fun bit about modding it, is that most modders have moved on to newer games, so the few of us left have got it all for ourselves. Downside about DF2, is the low graphics quality, as well as some irritating bugs & glitches, but we might be able to do something about that in the future. DF2 is very modding un-friendly, but that only makes the challenge more interesting & fun.

There are a few things in DF2 we're not able to mod perfectly yet; one is adding new 3d models to the game (less than 5% of the 3di file format remains to be figured out now), another is making all the terrain files in an easy way and with full control (that's why I came here in the first place).

[Q-dad]

Hi Aaron,

Thx for the PCX imp/exp addition. Will try it out when it's ready for download.

[DeathTwister]

OK,
now I see /smiles, thought maybe something I needed /winks. WOW cool that you can use L3DT to edit and make new lvls in DF2, very cool.

DT

[Aaron]

Hi Q-dad,

You can get the PCX plugin from here:

http://www.bundysoft.com/L3DT/downloads/zeolite/L3DTio_PCX.zip

The plugin DLL should be dumped in the '[L3DT path]\Extensions' directory. To load this in L3DT, click 'Extensions->Extension manager' in the menu, click 'load', select the plugin, and click 'OK' a couple of times until L3DT restarts itself.

This plugin currently only handles elevation maps, but the DF2 detail map and texture elevation maps will come after a bit more work is done. The plugin can load the PCX elevation file from the demo map you sent, and when it saves the file again it comes out as the same size as the original. I'd like to think that means I've got the format options OK. Let me know how it goes.

Cheers,
Aaron.

[Q-dad]

Hi Aaron,

Thx again for the PCX plugin! I've only tested the export part of it so far, and it works, i.e. I can export the 1024x1024 heightmap of a dessert terrain I've started working on, to PCX. I also exported its 1024x1024 texture map to JPG.

However, the DF2 engine seems to be quite picky about the formats, and when trying out those two files, it didn't accept them. When testing last night, I didn't think of changing only one of them at the time, but did the same changes to both of them...:

If I change the Resolution value (pixels per inch) for both of them to 72,000 and keep the overall size 1024x1024, then DF2 will accept them. I do this inside Paintshop Pro, and the Resolution value is grouped together with Width and Height values inside a Print size section. (When i change the resolution value to 72,000, the width & height values stay the same, but the overall size value changes to something different than 1024x1024. I then have to change the overall size value back to 1024x1024, and when I do that, the resolution value stays as 72,000, but the width and height values change to something else.)

I don't really understand this resolution value. I guess it's stored inside both the JPG and PCX formats, and for some reason DF2 cares about it, and not only the overall 1024x1024 size...

I don't know if L3DT always exports JPG and PCX files with the same resolution, width and height values each time, and/or if it's possible to add an option to change them within the export plugin.

Btw, before I corrected the resolution values, I believe it was 200,000 for the JPG, and... hmm - can't remember the value for the PCX right now, at work...

[Q-dad]

Well, I've tested changing the resolution value for only one file at the time now, and so far it seems like DF2 will accept the PCX file ( elevation map) even if its resolution value is not 72,000. DF2 won't accept the JPG file (color map), though, unless I change its resolution value to 72,000... Weird stuff...

Btw, I had a look at both PCX and JPG files inside a hex editor. For the PCX file, I could spot the size and resolution values in the header. I didn't see similar values inside the JPG file, though, so not sure how they're represented in there.

[Aaron]

Hi Q-dad,

Hmm...I must admit I've never even thought about setting the image resolution. However, I expect it can be done in the FreeImage library, so when I get a spare moment I'll add a resolution option to the relevant plugin.

Cheers,
Aaron.

[Q-dad]

Any chance of a spare moment yet, Aaron...? Np, though - I know you're busy and that other things will have higher priority. I haven't looked into these things lately myself, either, but it's still on my long to-do list...

[Aaron]

Hi Q-dad,

Sorry for the delay in this. I've looked into the options of the FreeImage library, and I can set a pixels-per-metre resolution figure (no DPI, sorry). If this sounds about right, let me know and I'll send you a revised plugin to test.

Cheers,
Aaron.

[Q-dad]

Yes, please try that when you've got the time, Aaron. I'm not 100% sure if it will help, but it can't hurt to try... It's still no rush for me, though, so if you're very busy atm, you can postpone it until you've got that spare moment...

[Aaron]

Hi Q-dad,

The updated plugin is located here:

http://www.bundysoft.com/L3DT/downloads/plugins/bin/L3DTio_FI-bin.zip

To use this, unzip the file and copy the 'L3DTio_FI.zeo' file to the following directory:

C:\Program files\Bundysoft\[L3DT version you're using]\Extensions

Then, you need to open the extension manager in L3DT, and remove the 'L3DTio_FI' plugin, then load it again. This process is required to nuke some of the file formation options associated with the plugin, which are reset when it's reloaded.

Okay, now when you're exporting the texture, you'll notice that when you select the jpeg/bmp/etc image format and click on the 'options' button, there is an entry called 'PixelsPerMetre'. To set this value, double-click on it, and enter the desired resolution.

Best of luck!

Cheers,
Aaron.

[Q-dad]

Thx! I'll try it out this weekend, hopefully.

[Q-dad]

That did the trick - Thx!

I can now export the texture map to a .JPG file, with a 'PixelsPerMetre' value of 2834,6 (well, it seems only to accept whole numbers as input), equaling 72,000 pixels per inch. Delta Force 2 accepts this .JPG file.

Delta Force 2 already accepts the exported .PCX heightmap, even if it's not 72,000 pixels per inch, but would it be possible to get the plug-in to work for .PCX files as well...?

[Aaron]

Hi Q-dad,

Great, I'm glad that worked. I'll do the same for the PCX format, and include the updated plugins in the next dev build, which should be 2.5.0.35.

Cheers,
Aaron.

Edit: I've uploaded v2.5.0.35, which includes both the updated FreeImage (BMP, PNG, JPG, TGA) and CxImage (PCX) plugins. The PCX option is DPI (not PixelsPerMetre), since that's the resolution option exported by CxImage.

[Q-dad]

Hi Aaron,

Thx for the update - it works great! I'll read through this complete topic again later tonight and afterwards try to sum up any future wishes I might have.