Ship Development

I will assume that you have managed to convert your 36 individual pictures into a sprite grid and mask. If this is not the case, please tell me.
Now, this will be using ResEdit with NovaTools, as I can't convince MissionComputer to paste resources in from another file ( :mad:

1. Copy the sprite grid and mask into a new ResEdit file.

2. Create a shän. (Resource menu->Create New Resource, and select "shän" from the list- it's near the bottom.)

3. Enter the Resource ID of the sprite grid in the BaseImageID field (in the upper left-hand corner), and enter the RID of the mask in the BaseMaskID field.

4. In the FramesPerSet field, enter the number of frames in your sprite grid (from what you've said, this is 36). Put 1 in the BaseSetCount field.

5. In the BaseXSize and BaseYSize fields, put the horizontal and vertical dimensions of each frame of the sprite (this would be the size you rendered the ship at).

6. Now, close the shän editor window, and reopen it. The ship should appear in the large white box, and you can now check it visually to see if you entered all of the numbers correctly.

7. If the ship has running lights, engine flares, etc. enter the numbers for them in the appropriate fields (they should be fairly obvious).

8. Close the editor window again, and get info on the shän resource. Change the name to something other than a blank (this is very important, at least if you're using OSX). Then save the file, and quit ResEdit.

9. Drag the file you just created onto EnRle. A dialog box will appear, with a large number of settings. The defaults are fine, so just hit "Enter". A new window will appear, with your ship spinning in it. After two revolutions (one for rlë8, one for rlëD), EnRle will quit. There should now be two new files in the same place as the first one. They will be labeled "xxx.rlë8" and "xxx.rlëD", and they contain the rles. Use ResEdit to copy the rles into your plug, and you're done.

Edwards

Thanks Edwards, I got the rleD working, but I have another question. What resources besides shan,rleD,rle8 and ship do I need to make my ship flyable?

thanks,
Bird of War

Bird of War, on Jun 12 2005, 08:19 AM, said:

Thanks Edwards, I got the rleD working, but I have another question. What resources besides shan,rleD,rle8 and ship do I need to make my ship flyable?View Post

You'll be needing a purchase text and a hire text, and several more PICTs.

1. Purchase Text: A desc resource, with the RID 13000 + ship Idx. The ship index (Idx) is the number you get when you subtract 128 from the ship's RID. An easier formula might be: 12872 + ship RID.

2. Hire Text: A desc resource, with the RID 14000 + ship Idx (or 13872 + ship RID).

3. Target Image (for when you target the ship in-flight): A PICT resource, with the RID 3000 + Idx (or 2872 + RID). It should have the dimesions 128x64. A good program to generate these from shipyard picts is NovaTarget Generator (OSX version, Classic version).

4. Basic shipyard/comm picture: A PICT resource, with the RID 5000 + ship Idx (or 4872 + ship RID). This should have the dimensions 200x200.

5. (optional) Big fancy picture for the ship stats window (in the shipyard and hire area): The convention is 20000 + ship RID, but just giving the PICT this RID will not make it show up in the correct place. You also need to put this number in the Graphic field of both the Purchase and Hire dëscs. The dimensions for this pict should be 600x400.
   A couple of slightly more advanced points: The PICT does not need to use the ID formula I mentioned above, but using it ensures that you it will not conflict with existing resources. Also, it appears that you can have different pictures for the shipyard and bar.

Also, make sure that your ship's RID is less than 895, and that your shan has the same RID as your ship.

Edwards

MC can't (in its current public release) open RLEs, but it can copy them. Just use the "resource copier" utility.

That said, erm, soon you should need only Sprites and MC in order to do this.