Smoke graphics

[Sarge]

I toned down the burning wrecks “smoke plum” a bit , in amour engagements the numerous black plums looked a little wired and distracting.

This is for Eastern front, but may indeed work for others ( have not checked yet) .

PM me with Email if you would like the file

PS: its 24bit I upgraded all my graphics from 8bit to 24

[Sarge]

[;)]

[junk2drive]

Interesting idea. I didn't know you could use 24bit. ISTR trying 24bit with the TS versions and getting CTD.
 
No plumes at all might be nice too. If I get the ambition I'll try it. JSGME makes swapping easy.

[Sarge]

I haven’t had any issues, I did trying to go all the way to 32 but I got a black screen of death
So I backed it down to 24 bit.

I have pretty much all the effects re- done ,the originals are horrible

[Sarge]

[;)]

[Jason Petho]

Excellent effort, Sarge!!

Jason Petho

[junk2drive]

Can you zip these and put them in the Mods section?

[Sarge]

ORIGINAL: Jason Petho

Excellent effort, Sarge!!

Jason Petho

Thanks,

Ask D if Matrix will put up a HTTP for the 24 bit graphics and I will be happy to convert all graphics to 24bit for everyone.[;)]

PS: for all three titles [X(]

[Jason Petho]

I would be happy to host them for you!

Email them to me as a set for each game EF, RS, WF to jasonpetho [at ] hotmail (dot] com

Jason Petho

[Lionfish]

Sarge,

Did you ever upload the 24 bit graphics?
Is there a list of what you have redone?

[british exil]

Would be nice to see the armour go up in flames. Sarge/ Jason help us out here and get a download posted.

Mathew

[Sarge]

Hi,

Sorry guys I lost my HD and along with that my mod file

But if you right click the images and save as “bitmap” file they should work ,I had to convert them to JPG to up-load them to the thread . But as I said you can save as “Bitmap” by right clicking the image.

You will have to re-name the image to the corresponding name in the graphic files
These where for the Western Front


Remember BACK UP the original files FIRST !


Again sorry guys

[Lionfish]

Thanks...I will take a crack at it.
 
Do you have any guide or tips on how to create 24 bit graphics.
I have done graphic mods in the past (on other games .bmp format) - however I never changed them to different bits? So I am somewhat uninformed as to the process.
 
Regards....

[Sarge]

What program are you using for Paint, most have a option to for converting color depth

4,8,16,24,32 bit

But warning, do not go to 32 bit [:-]

[Lionfish]

Adobe Photoshop.
 
I just did it! Thanks.
I copied the above graphics into the folder.
I will play around a bit and review the results.
If you have any others - please let me know.
 
Do you think it will improve the looks of the tanks and other units? converting them up to 24 bit?

[Sarge]

ORIGINAL: Lionfish
Do you think it will improve the looks of the tanks and other units? converting them up to 24 bit?

Night and Day


PS: need anything just yell, Im happy to help [;)]

[Lionfish]

Sarge,

I uploaded a couple of the xxxx3d.bmps into Photo Shop CS and converted them to RGB / 16 bit (only 8, 16, or 32 - no 24 bit editor). Note I can SAVE into 24 bit, but in PhotoShop CS I can only edit in 8/16/32.

Anyway - Photoshop has some interesting effects - that clean up the image (in 16 bit) with a large color selection. I used some of the effects to clean-up and update some of the BMPs for a quick test. It would seem that when in RBG 16, rather than 8 bit - the PhotoShop affects can REALLY IMPROVE the graphics.  I will put some together and post a side-by-side comparison.

Maybe (in time - cause it is a DAUNTING task) I could give the CS series a fresh coat of paint - sort-a-speak.

Should I be saving them into 24 bit, even though I am only upgrading them from 8 to 16 bit in Photo Shop?

Any tips, thoughts, or suggestions.....

Thanks - you have inspired me.

I did this with another game I had (VGAP) and it improved the game so much (I forwarded the graphic update to tons of people)- a new clean look is always refreshing. Plus - the only thing I didn't like about the CS series that sometimes in 3d mode it was very hard to see units against the background without their bases on. Hopefully - I can improve that.

Sidenote: I was playing around and giving the backgroud (trees, grass, building, etc..) more of a watercolor look - less HARD edges, at the sametimebcrisping up the actual units. It really makes the units POP out.

I will show some examples this weekend...been very busy at work - so time is not what I would like....plus I am in my first H2H game over at Theblitz and my rusty tactics are getting the better of me...

[Sarge]

ORIGINAL: Lionfish



Anyway - Photoshop has some interesting effects - that clean up the image (in 16 bit) with a large color selection. I used some of the effects to clean-up and update some of the BMPs for a quick test. It would seem that when in RBG 16, rather than 8 bit - the PhotoShop affects can REALLY IMPROVE the graphics. I will put some together and post a side-by-side comparison.

OK,

This area of “Sharpening Images is tricky.

As You can see (My smoke graphics) as a example in a magnified view., sharpening a image may indeed look great to the naked eye but in-fact you end up mixing the transparent back ground (Pink) with the image graphics and the end result will be a pink outline around game on map graphics.


The first image is clean with out sharpening

The second image has been sharpened 10 %

[Sarge]

Sharpened 10 % [X(]

[simovitch]

Be careful with doing blanket mods like sharpen or blurring to the ground bitmap files. You can really mess up the night graphics shading. Learned that the hard way I did. yep.