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oboe/doc/editor/Graphics.html
Celtic Minstrel 9d74f78df3 Implement all the missing parts of the Edit Sheets and Edit Sounds dialogs
- On load, the game now detects graphic sheets and sounds whose IDs are "discontinuous", as well as graphics intended to directly replace preset graphic sheets.
- Edit sheets dialog can now handle "discontinuous" graphics. (The edit sounds dialog already could.)
- Edit sheets dialog prompts user to create a new sheet if there are none already, and also if there are some but not ID 0 (in the latter case they can cancel and still edit the sheets).
- Edit sheets dialog prompts user to convert sheets if the scenario is legacy, rather than doing it silently
- Edit sheets dialog now has "new" and "delete" buttons
- Edit sounds dialog now has functioning "delete" button
2015-06-17 04:29:10 -04:00

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<h1>Section 12: Customizing Graphics</h1>
<p>One of the best ways to put your own personal spin on your scenario is to give it your
own graphics. You can provide your own graphics for monsters, items, terrain (animated or
not), dialog pictures (36 x 36), talk portraits (32 x 32), terrain map icons (12 x 12),
and missile animations (18 x 18).</p>
<p>To create your own graphics, you need to use a painting program. The basic dimension of
customized graphics is 28 x 36. The custom graphics must be arranged in image which are
180 pixels wide and 360 pixels tall. The images must be named sheetX.png where X is a
number starting from 0. Each image is called a "sheet". Each sheet contains up to 100
individual icons. For the game to recognize them, they must be placed inside your scenario
archive, in a subdirectory called "graphics". You can have up to 10 sheets without issues.
If you have more, certain types of graphics can't be placed on the additional sheets. Only
items, dialog pictures, and talk pictures can go on sheets after the tenth one.</p>
<p>Also, if you place files in the graphics directory with the same name as any of the
graphics sheets used by the game, they will override the default sheet by that name. This
is normally not a good idea, but might be useful if for example you want a completely new
look for all terrain types.</p>
<p>The custom graphics are arranged on the custom sheet in rows, 10 to each row. Each row
is considered to have 10 slots. The first ten slots are in the top row, the next 10 slots
are in the next row, and so on. The upper left graphic is considered slot 0. The top row
contains slots 0 to 9 (numbered left to right), the second row contains slots 11 to 20,
and so on. Each sheet contains 100 slots; thus, slots 0 to 99 are on sheet 0, slots 100 to
199 or on sheet 1, and so forth.</p>
<p>If you don't like having to do the calculations to figure out which graphic is in which
slot, select Classify Custom Graphics from the Scenario menu, and go through your custom
graphics, telling the editor what purpose each one is intended for. If you want to use a
single graphic for multiple purposes (eg, an item and a monster), you'll still have to
occasionally calculate a graphic number, but by classifying them here, they'll
automatically show up in all the usual Choose Graphic lists, after all the preset
graphics.</p>
<h2>How to Make Your Custom Sheets</h2>
<p>Make your graphic in a painting program, and save it as 8-bit PNG (both indexed and RGB
will work). For monster, item, and missile graphics, the slots must have a transparent
background.</p>
<p>Once you have your graphics sheet, the easiest way to get it into the scenario is to
select "Edit Custom Graphic Sheets" from the "Scenario" menu and either paste the image in
or click "Import" to load it in from a file. You may also need to click "New" first to
ensure the target sheet actually exists.</p>
<h2>Placing and Using Your Custom Graphics</h2>
<p>When you use custom graphics, you must arrange them properly on your custom sheet, and
then tell the editor to use them. These are the graphics you can customize, and how to use
them:</p>
<p></p>
<p><b>Terrain (not animated) - </b>Place the 28 x 36 custom terrain graphic in one of the
custom sheets slots. To give a terrain type this graphic, add 1000 to the number of the
slot the graphic is in, and put that number in the Terrain Picture field on the editing
terrain window.</p>
<p>To use this graphic as the dialog picture in a dialog (created by a special node),
select Display Dialog (Terrain pic) as the special node type. Add 1000 to the slot the
graphic is in, and put that number in the Pict spot.</p>
<p><b>Terrain (animated) -</b> Animated terrain has four different graphics. Put the 4
graphics in 4 consecutive custom sheet slots. To give a terrain type this graphic, add
2000 to the number of the slot the first of the four graphics is in, and put that number
in the Terrain Picture field on the editing terrain window.</p>
<p><b>Monster (1 x 1) - </b>There are 4 graphics needed: monster facing right, monster
facing left, monster attacking facing right, and monster attacking facing left. Put these
4 graphics in 4 consecutive custom sheet slots. To give a monster type this graphic, add
1000 to the number of the slot the first of the four graphics is in, and put that number
in the Monster Picture field on the editing monster window.</p>
<p>To use this graphic as the dialog picture in a dialog (created by a special node),
select Display Dialog (Monster pic) as the special node type. Add 1000 to the slot the
first of the 4 graphics is in, and put that number in the Pict spot.</p>
<p><b>Monster (2 x 1) -</b> There are 8 graphics needed: the left half and then the right
half of the monster facing right, the left half and then the right half of the monster
facing left, the 2 parts of the monster attacking facing right, and the 2 parts of the
monster attacking facing left. Put these 8 graphics in 8 consecutive custom sheet slots.
To give a monster type this graphic (and make it a 2 x 1 monster), add 2000 to the number
of the slot the first of the four graphics is in, and put that number in the Monster
Picture field on the editing monster window.</p>
<p><b>Monster (1 x 2), Monster (2 x 2) -</b> These 2 graphics require 8 and 16 custom
sheet slots. Put the parts of the monster facing right, then facing left, then attacking
right, then attacking left, with the parts arranged left to right and top to bottom. To
give a monster type this graphic, add 3000 (if 1 x 2) or 4000 (if 2 x 2) to the number of
the slot the first of the four graphics is in, and put that number in the Monster Picture
field on the editing monster window.</p>
<p><b>Dialog Picture -</b> You can put a custom 36 x 36 graphic in the upper left corner
of a dialog box. Split the graphic into 2 18 x 36 halves, and put the 2 graphics in 2
consecutive custom sheet slots (pushed into the upper left corner).</p>
<p>To use this graphic as the dialog picture in a dialog (created by a special node),
select Display Dialog (Dialog pic) as the special node type. Add 1000 to the slot the left
half is in, and put that number in the Pict spot.</p>
<p><b>Item - </b>An item graphic takes up one 28 x 36 slot. Add 1000 to the slot the
graphic is in, and put that number in the Item Picture field on the editing items window.</p>
<p><b>Face in Dialogue - </b>You can customize the face of a character the party is
talking to. A dialogue face is a 32x32 graphic. Split the graphic into 2 16x32 halves, and
put them in two adjacent slots (left half in one slot, and then the right half in the next
slot). Add 1000 to the slot the left half is in, and put that number in the Facial Graphic
space in the Editing a Townsperson/Monster window.</p>
<p><b>Missile Animation - </b>You can assign custom missile animations for missile weapons
and monster abilities. A missile animation consists of 8 separate 18x18 graphics, one for
each of the cardinal directions. The animation will take up 4 slots in your custom
graphics sheets. Place the north icon in the first slot, aligned to the left and top.
Similarly, the northeast graphic goes in the second slot, the east graphic in the third
slot, and the southeast graphic in the fourth slot. The remaining four graphics go in the
same slot as the opposite direction, but aligned to the left and bottom. Add 1000 to the
slot the north and south graphics are in, and put that number in the text field where a
missile graphic is requested.</p>
<p><b>Explosion - </b>You can play custom explosion animations using the Do Sfx Burst
special node type. An explosion animation consists of 8 full-sized frames with transparent
backgrounds, which must be present in order in the graphics sheet. Add 1000 to the slot of the first frame, and put that number in the text field where the explosion type is
required.</p>
<p><b>Terrain Map Icons - </b>A terrain map icon is 12x12 pixels, and each slot on the
custom graphic sheet can hold six of them. Within a single slot, the terrain map icons are
numbered 1 through 6, from top to bottom, left to right. Multiply that number by 1000,
then add it to the number of the slot the icons are in. Put the resulting number in the
map icon text field in the Editing Terrain window. Example: Suppose you have map icons in
the slot at row 5, column 3 of sheet 2, and you want to use the left middle icon in that
slot for a terrain. The number you put in the map icon text field would be 2253.</p>
<p></p>
<p>For examples of using custom graphics, look at the scenarios that came with Blades of
Exile. The three Blades of Exile scenarios, between them, contain examples of Custom
Sheets with all of the different sorts of custom graphics.</p>
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