Celtic Minstrel
da00da261c
- This update is not comprehensive. It does not touch the appendices, and even in the parts it does touch, many details may still be out-of-date.
146 lines
8.9 KiB
HTML
146 lines
8.9 KiB
HTML
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<title>Custom Graphics - BoE Scenario Editor Guide</title>
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<h1>Section 12: Customizing Graphics</h1>
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<p>One of the best ways to put your own personal spin on your scenario is to give it your
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own graphics. You can provide your own graphics for monsters, items, terrain (animated or
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not), dialog pictures (36 x 36), talk portraits (32 x 32), terrain map icons (12 x 12),
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and missile animations (18 x 18).</p>
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<p>To create your own graphics, you need to use a painting program. The basic dimension of
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customized graphics is 28 x 36. The custom graphics must be arranged in image which are
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180 pixels wide and 360 pixels tall. The images must be named sheetX.png where X is a
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number starting from 0. Each image is called a "sheet". Each sheet contains up to 100
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individual icons. For the game to recognize them, they must be placed inside your scenario
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archive, in a subdirectory called "graphics". You can have up to 10 sheets without issues.
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If you have more, certain types of graphics can't be placed on the additional sheets. Only
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items, dialog pictures, and talk pictures can go on sheets after the tenth one.</p>
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<p>Also, if you place files in the graphics directory with the same name as any of the
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graphics sheets used by the game, they will override the default sheet by that name. This
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is normally not a good idea, but might be useful if for example you want a completely new
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look for all terrain types.</p>
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<p>The custom graphics are arranged on the custom sheet in rows, 10 to each row. Each row
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is considered to have 10 slots. The first ten slots are in the top row, the next 10 slots
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are in the next row, and so on. The upper left graphic is considered slot 0. The top row
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contains slots 0 to 9 (numbered left to right), the second row contains slots 11 to 20,
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and so on. Each sheet contains 100 slots; thus, slots 0 to 99 are on sheet 0, slots 100 to
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199 or on sheet 1, and so forth.</p>
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<h2>How to Make Your Custom Sheets</h2>
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<p>Make your graphic in a painting program, and save it as 8-bit PNG (both indexed and RGB
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will work). For monster, item, and missile graphics, the slots must have a transparent
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background.</p>
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<p>Once you have your graphics sheet, there are a few ways to get it into the
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scenario. A scenario generally consists of a archive file (specifically, a gzipped
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tarball) containing various resource files, so you could put the graphics into the archive
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yourself, either by decompressing it and recompressing it or by using a program that
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allows you to open an archive without uncompressing it.</p>
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<p>However, there's an easier way. Open your scenario in the scenario editor, then go to
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the OBoE temporary files folder, where you'll find an uncompressed copy of your scenario.
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(On the Mac, this can be found at "~/Library/Application Support/Blades of Exile"; on
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Windows, it will be at "%APPDATA%/Blades of Exile".) Simply drop the files into the
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graphics subdirectory within the scenario directory (if it doesn't exist, you can create
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it), then return to the scenario editor and save the scenario. The scenario will
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automatically add the new graphics to the archived copy of the scenario. You may need to
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reload the scenario in the editor before it notice them, however.</p>
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<h2>Placing and Using Your Custom Graphics</h2>
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<p>When you use custom graphics, you must arrange them properly on your custom sheet, and
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then tell the editor to use them. These are the graphics you can customize, and how to use
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them:</p>
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<p></p>
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<p><b>Terrain (not animated) - </b>Place the 28 x 36 custom terrain graphic in one of the
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custom sheets slots. To give a terrain type this graphic, add 1000 to the number of the
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slot the graphic is in, and put that number in the Terrain Picture field on the editing
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terrain window.</p>
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<p>To use this graphic as the dialog picture in a dialog (created by a special node),
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select Display Dialog (Terrain pic) as the special node type. Add 1000 to the slot the
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graphic is in, and put that number in the Pict spot.</p>
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<p><b>Terrain (animated) -</b> Animated terrain has four different graphics. Put the 4
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graphics in 4 consecutive custom sheet slots. To give a terrain type this graphic, add
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2000 to the number of the slot the first of the four graphics is in, and put that number
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in the Terrain Picture field on the editing terrain window.</p>
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<p><b>Monster (1 x 1) - </b>There are 4 graphics needed: monster facing right, monster
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facing left, monster attacking facing right, and monster attacking facing left. Put these
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4 graphics in 4 consecutive custom sheet slots. To give a monster type this graphic, add
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1000 to the number of the slot the first of the four graphics is in, and put that number
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in the Monster Picture field on the editing monster window.</p>
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<p>To use this graphic as the dialog picture in a dialog (created by a special node),
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select Display Dialog (Monster pic) as the special node type. Add 1000 to the slot the
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first of the 4 graphics is in, and put that number in the Pict spot.</p>
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<p><b>Monster (2 x 1) -</b> There are 8 graphics needed: the left half and then the right
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half of the monster facing right, the left half and then the right half of the monster
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facing left, the 2 parts of the monster attacking facing right, and the 2 parts of the
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monster attacking facing left. Put these 8 graphics in 8 consecutive custom sheet slots.
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To give a monster type this graphic (and make it a 2 x 1 monster), add 2000 to the number
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of the slot the first of the four graphics is in, and put that number in the Monster
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Picture field on the editing monster window.</p>
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<p><b>Monster (1 x 2), Monster (2 x 2) -</b> These 2 graphics require 8 and 16 custom
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sheet slots. Put the parts of the monster facing right, then facing left, then attacking
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right, then attacking left, with the parts arranged left to right and top to bottom. To
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give a monster type this graphic, add 3000 (if 1 x 2) or 4000 (if 2 x 2) to the number of
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the slot the first of the four graphics is in, and put that number in the Monster Picture
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field on the editing monster window.</p>
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<p><b>Dialog Picture -</b> You can put a custom 36 x 36 graphic in the upper left corner
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of a dialog box. Split the graphic into 2 18 x 36 halves, and put the 2 graphics in 2
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consecutive custom sheet slots (pushed into the upper left corner).</p>
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<p>To use this graphic as the dialog picture in a dialog (created by a special node),
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select Display Dialog (Dialog pic) as the special node type. Add 1000 to the slot the left
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half is in, and put that number in the Pict spot.</p>
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<p><b>Item - </b>An item graphic takes up one 28 x 36 slot. Add 1000 to the slot the
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graphic is in, and put that number in the Item Picture field on the editing items window.</p>
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<p><b>Face in Dialogue - </b>You can customize the face of a character the party is
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talking to. A dialogue face is a 32x32 graphic. Split the graphic into 2 16x32 halves, and
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put them in two adjacent slots (left half in one slot, and then the right half in the next
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slot). Add 1000 to the slot the left half is in, and put that number in the Facial Graphic
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space in the Editing a Townsperson/Monster window.</p>
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<p><b>Missile Animation - </b>You can assign custom missile animations for missile weapons
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and monster abilities. A missile animation consists of 8 separate 18x18 graphics, one for
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each of the cardinal directions. The animation will take up 4 slots in your custom
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graphics sheets. Place the north icon in the first slot, aligned to the left and top.
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Similarly, the northeast graphic goes in the second slot, the east graphic in the third
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slot, and the southeast graphic in the fourth slot. The remaining four graphics go in the
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same slot as the opposite direction, but aligned to the left and bottom. Add 1000 to the
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slot the north and south graphics are in, and put that number in the text field where a
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missile graphic is requested.</p>
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<p><b>Terrain Map Icons - </b>A terrain map icon is 12x12 pixels, and each slot on the
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custom graphic sheet can hold six of them. Within a single slot, the terrain map icons are
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numbered 1 through 6, from left to right, top to bottom. Multiply that number by 1000,
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then add it to the number of the slot the icons are in. Put the resulting number in the
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map icon text field in the Editing Terrain window. Example: Suppose you have map icons in
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the slot at row 5, column 3 of sheet 2, and you want to use the left middle icon in that
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slot for a terrain. The number you put in the map icon text field would be 3253.</p>
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<p></p>
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<p>For examples of using custom graphics, look at the scenarios that came with Blades of
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Exile. The three Blades of Exile scenarios, between them, contain examples of Custom
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Sheets with all of the different sorts of custom graphics.</p>
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