strange sprite/mask problem

Hi,
I'm new here and recently, i started developing a plugin for EV Nova and of course, i want to add a few new ships, too So i created a 3D model using Blender 2.37 and used m2s to create PICT sprites. Then, I used MissionComputer to convert the PICTs to RLE sprite ressources.
But when i tested it for the first time, i noticed a strange error: When there is no object under my new ship, it looks normal. But when any object (planet, ship, whatever) gets under my new ship, it isn't obscured by my ship's graphic. Instead, the outlines of the object under my ship's sprite is still visible and filled with white. I've compared my RLE ressorces with those of ships behaving normal and i can't find any difference. Same for the shan-ressource. And no matter whether i use 36 or 72 fps, the problem is the same. Next, i tried updating Nova from 1.0.8 to 1.0.9 but it didn't helped. I don't know what to do.

sincerly
Forty2

This post has been edited by Forty2 : 22 April 2006 - 01:24 PM

You probably didn't specify a mask. Along with the sprites, when you create rles you should also supply masks, which are simply the ship with the interesting portions (those that should be obscured when the ship is going over a planet or something) in white, and everything else in black (and only these two, no shades of grey as rles in Nova don't have any alpha channel, I should know). See this example, for instance (scroll down a little for the Pegasus). Granted, it isn't the best ship to show this, but this is enough to get the idea.

Hmm, that's strange, because i used MissionComputer 3.32 to encode the RLEs. And MissionComputer's RLE-encoder won't work until you specify a mask. So i thought maybe there are too many colors in my mask and opend it with GraphicConverter, switched colors to b/w, saved and tried again. But it didn't helped.
Is it possible, that i have to find a way how to remove keyframes from my animation files? Maybe, m2s has a problem with keyframes, but it seemed to work.

@forty2, on Apr 22 2006, 08:36 PM, said in strange sprite/mask problem:

Hmm, that's strange, because i used MissionComputer 3.32 to encode the RLEs. And MissionComputer's RLE-encoder won't work until you specify a mask. So i thought maybe there are too many colors in my mask and opend it with GraphicConverter, switched colors to b/w, saved and tried again. But it didn't helped.
Is it possible, that i have to find a way how to remove keyframes from my animation files? Maybe, m2s has a problem with keyframes, but it seemed to work.

I don't see how keyframes could affect this. If the resulting image out of m2s looks correct, all should be well.
It might be worthwhile to download EnRLEDeRLE. That will create RLE resources too. If there's still a problem at that point, we can probably assume something is wrong with the graphics themselves. Perhaps an incorrect bitdepth of the graphic itself? (I've heard that enRLE will automaticaly convert graphics to the proper format, though)

Try posting your plug here so we can take a look.

...or a screenshot so we can see what you're talking about. It's a lot easier to diagnose these things if we can see the symptoms ourselves. And welcome, by the way

I think i just post my plugin here. Maybe my sprites have a problem i just can't see, because of my lack of experience.
It still hasn't any pictures or descriptions in the shipyard dialog or additional lights for engine glow or running lights. I'll add all this later, when the base sprites are working
The ship's name is (maybe i'll change it later) "Refinery Frigate".

edit: sorry, i'm having some trouble with uploadig the file. So i've posted it on my webspace at the university: http://home.in.tum.d...berts/my_plugin

This post has been edited by Forty2 : 23 April 2006 - 07:59 AM

Forty2, I can't read that file. Just putting a Mac plug on your webspace isn't going to make it possible for us to download it as a coherent file.

The preferred thing to do, because it gives maximum compatibility with the greatest number of people, is to convert it into a ".bin" file and then put that in a ".zip" archive; in the utilities section of ASW's add-ons collection there's a program called "Plugin Archiver" that should do this for you. Other options are to "stuff" the plug into a .sit file, to put it directly into a .zip created with the Finder's "Create Archive" menu item, or to use MissionComputer to save it as a ".rez".

Or you can "Save As" then, once it's on your computer, remove ".txt" from the end, and force open directly with NovaTools, or MissionComputer, or stick it in the Nova Plug-ins folder and try to play it.

ok, i've created a .rez-version of the plug and packed it together with the mac file in a .zip-file. The new link is: http://www.in.tum.de...erts/upload.zip

The webboard gives me an error, saying, the file is too big. But its only 380k ...

You can't upload files that are more than 100 kb in the same post.

I investigated the thing. Aside from the fact the ship isn't spinning real right (I don't know around which point it does, and rotation slows down at the end, not to mention the first frame should be the ship pointing directly up), I couldn't notice any problem with the rlë8 and rlëD, they are fine by all accounts, no low-level problem in the rle format (ViewRLE would have noticed). I tried DeRLEing and EnRLEing, but it kept doing the same thing. Then I realised that it wasn't the rlës. It was the shän. More accurately, the -1 in the Transparency field. Case solved. Don't put -1 in Transparency.

Thank you very much!

hmm yes, i've noticed this spinning issue too. Got to rerender it with Blender. I'm working on it. Thanks a lot for evaulating my plugin.

Your spinning issue is probably because the IPO curve is being interpolated as a Bezier spline, instead of linearly. This is done by default so there's smooth motion in keyframed animations, but in this case it's not what you want. To fix it, select the curve (probably RotZ) in the IPO curve editor and set Curve > Interpolation Mode to Linear.