Graphics Mod

[JJKettunen]

Ormand, have you had any CTDs when changing prehex sprites? It happens regularly to me - quite demoralising.

[Ormand]

Keke, Yes, many times. That is why the old desert, mud and snow are sitting under desert/mud/snow suburban and urban hexes. If I recall, this may also be true of some of the borders as well, but in this case it doesn't affect the look because they are drawn over by other terrains (fortunately the transitions are OK). Also, for some of the others where I may have had a problem, a work around is to put what you want in the sprite. This works if it doesn't have a transparent image that you want to put in. But, for the urban I can't do this. Oh, I guess I could put them on the terrain, but then I would need separate images for all three urban and four terrains. Or I guess I could even put the terrains in the sprite slot, and the cities in the optional graphic, which it is anyway. I also didn't want to use the optional graphic that is drawn over the sprite either. This is because it is drawn over lots of things. I did this with the lakes at first, and then discovered the lakes were on top of the roads!

Apparently, this is a problem when you clone a terrain, andt Vic says that if you save and exit to the menu and go back in, you can change the prehex sprite. It is supposed to be fixed in 2.09. I have tried every variation of this and seemingly cannot change these prehex sprites without a crash with the message "object reference not set to an instance of an object". If you try and change the prehex for snow urban, you should get this message.

[JJKettunen]

Thanks for the informative reply! I'll try Vic's workaround ASAP.

[JJKettunen]

Well it didn't work, but your workaround with sprites did. Cheers!

[AlanBernardo]

ORIGINAL: Ormand

I uploaded a new Part 1 file that includes the file ScenarioDesignNato.at2 that is set up to use Webizen's NATO counters, which must be installed to be used. This file just points the SFT types to those NATO counters.

Are we supposed to install all the parts of this mod? Is there a reason why the mod isn't just in one file, instead of seven or eight parts?


Alan

[Ormand]

Hi Alan,
Being mostly a LOT of png files, the whole thing is quite large ~ 70 MB (as are the default ATG graphics). That web site has an upload limit of 10MB per file, so I was forced to break it up into chunks to get it all uploaded. The first thing to do was the required parts 1-3, which are the "medium" graphics. If you have these, then ATG will automatically generate both the BIG and SMALL graphics files when you load the .at2 file the first time. You will find, however, that the quality of the BIG graphics will be a little worse because it is creating a larger image from a smaller one, which needs to put information in. So, parts 4-8 include the BIG image files. I actually created most of the terrains in the BIG format, and then scaled them down. The exception are the transition sprite sheets (not coasts and fields), which I made in medium format and I could have left out of the BIG directories and let ATG make them. This would have saved space and meant perhaps three parts for the BIG files. At any rate, parts 1-3 are required, but 4-8 will be better. And ATG will make the SMALL graphics for you.

I am in the process of fixing 6 coastal hexes that have some problems that I didn't really check before. I should put them up by midnight PDT. I will also look at making the minimum sized files by not including some sprite sheets for BIG. This will also include a work around for the prehex images for the urban terrains.

Erich

[AlanBernardo]

Thanks. Nice work. I'll wait for the new version before I grab all the parts.

Do we just load the files in successively, one after the other, or are we compiling beforehand and then loading the single file once inside the game?

Alan

[Ormand]

It looks like it will be tomorrow instead. I fixed the transitions, and I am also trying to satisfy the desire for light forests. Almost there.

Like most scenarios, the files are just zip files of the directories, so you just unpack them in the main ATG directory. You can do them in any order. The zip files have the directory structure in them, e.g., \graphics. When there is an update, all you would have to do is unpack the new file, not all of them (unless I do them all of course). Hopefully, the light forests won't be too large to force me to extend the first distribution to four files.

[AlanBernardo]

ORIGINAL: Ormand

It looks like it will be tomorrow instead. I fixed the transitions, and I am also trying to satisfy the desire for light forests. Almost there.

Like most scenarios, the files are just zip files of the directories, so you just unpack them in the main ATG directory. You can do them in any order. The zip files have the directory structure in them, e.g., \graphics. When there is an update, all you would have to do is unpack the new file, not all of them (unless I do them all of course). Hopefully, the light forests won't be too large to force me to extend the first distribution to four files.

I got that, figuring it when I downloaded the files. I just thought that the file would need to be compiled first into one big file and then either unzipped or installed through the game.


Alan

[Ormand]

OK, I uploaded the new files that "repair" coastal transitions e1-e6. The changes are in Parts 3 for regular and parts 7 and 8 for BIG. Originally, these were both in part 8, but unfortunately, I had to move some files between parts 7 and 8, because while the file was 9.8 MB, the web site calculated it be > 10 MB, and wouldn't upload it. So, I had to move some directories between the two (they are are now 8.6 and 8.8 MB, respectively). The changes are only the Sea and SeaRain directories. These just replace the files, so there should be no need to do anything to the .at2 file. This fixes an issue that arose with a peninsula with two adjacent land hexes. The land was too small. So, if you had road going in and out, or put a city or resource in the hex, it would get covered by the sea. The terrain would still be there, just that it looked weird.

The light forest is going to take a bit more time. I thought I could get away with something that wouldn't need to be tiled, but in the end, that didn't look so good. I also had to figure out just how I made the forests, since I did those back in May. Tiling takes a bit more time, and it will be at least a day. Plus, I hope I can figure out how to fit them in the current files.

[AlanBernardo]

ORIGINAL: Ormand

OK, I uploaded the new files that "repair" coastal transitions e1-e6. The changes are in Parts 3 for regular and parts 7 and 8 for BIG. Originally, these were both in part 8, but unfortunately, I had to move some files between parts 7 and 8, because while the file was 9.8 MB, the web site calculated it be > 10 MB, and wouldn't upload it. So, I had to move some directories between the two (they are are now 8.6 and 8.8 MB, respectively). The changes are only the Sea and SeaRain directories. These just replace the files, so there should be no need to do anything to the .at2 file. This fixes an issue that arose with a peninsula with two adjacent land hexes. The land was too small. So, if you had road going in and out, or put a city or resource in the hex, it would get covered by the sea. The terrain would still be there, just that it looked weird.

The light forest is going to take a bit more time. I thought I could get away with something that wouldn't need to be tiled, but in the end, that didn't look so good. I also had to figure out just how I made the forests, since I did those back in May. Tiling takes a bit more time, and it will be at least a day. Plus, I hope I can figure out how to fit them in the current files.

Is this update or fix now at the community site? I don't see it, just the older or original files that were uploaded on 9/27.

Thanks,

Alan

[Ormand]

Paul,

When you view a scenario from the main web site, the original uploaded date is visible. But, when you go into the link for the scenario, it shows you the revision number and the date it was uploaded. I verified that part#3 has the correct sea files, so this is the corrected version.

I confess that I am working the less dense forest terrain, which will probably mean redoing all the forests since I can't match the colors very well with what I did last May. I would also like to improve the snow and jungle somewhat. These forests are actually pretty tricky, and there is something of an inconsistency in GIMP that is making one of the key steps difficult to reproduce. So, it looks like it will be awhile before I have them finished.

Erich

[JJKettunen]

ORIGINAL: Ormand
....These forests are actually pretty tricky, and there is something of an inconsistency in GIMP that is making one of the key steps difficult to reproduce...

I guess Paint.NET could work better. It's freeware too.

[budd]

I been using this graphics mod for my random games, but it hangs at around turn 7 in 2 games now. an error message pops up during calculations and gives me the option to continue, I hit continue and it hangs at miscellaneous calculations and i have to use task manager to quit game. I'm using 209 beta. this is a game with settings: stone age, 1 city start, map loop, roads, all season weather, crates, medium map, 3 ai's. It works fine for several turns and then the error strikes. Tried reloading saves but error still happens. thx for any help you can provide.
here is the error message.


See the end of this message for details on invoking
just-in-time (JIT) debugging instead of this dialog box.

************** Exception Text **************
System.IndexOutOfRangeException: Index was outside the bounds of the array.
at WindowsApplication1.CustomBitmapClass.DrawHex(Int32 cx, Int32 cy, Int32 cmap, Boolean InfoMode, Boolean NoShader, Boolean ispredrawing, Graphics tempg, Int32 tx, Int32 ty, Int32 counteralpha, Int32 Zoom, Boolean UseRegimeColoring, Boolean neverusehistory)
at WindowsApplication1.CustomBitmapClass.MakeMiniMap(Bitmap tempBmp, Int32 bwidth, Int32 bheight, Boolean alsounits, Boolean realhex, Boolean alsoshading, Boolean predrawn, Int32 humanplayer, Boolean showflag)
at WindowsApplication1.GameLoopMainWindowClass.handleTimer()
at WindowsApplication1.ScreenClass.HandleTimer()
at WindowsApplication1.Form1.Timer1_Tick(Object sender, EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Timer.OnTick(EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Timer.TimerNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)


************** Loaded Assemblies **************
mscorlib
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.5448 (Win7SP1GDR.050727-5400)
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.NET/Framework/v2.0.50727/mscorlib.dll
----------------------------------------
WindowsApplication1
Assembly Version: 1.0.4287.26311
Win32 Version: 1.0.4287.26311
CodeBase: file:///C:/Matrix%20Games/Advanced%20Tactics%20Gold/AdvancedTacticsGold.exe
----------------------------------------
System.Windows.Forms
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.5446 (Win7SP1GDR.050727-5400)
CodeBase: file:///C:/windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Windows.Forms/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Windows.Forms.dll
----------------------------------------
System
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.5447 (Win7SP1GDR.050727-5400)
CodeBase: file:///C:/windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Drawing
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.5420 (Win7SP1.050727-5400)
CodeBase: file:///C:/windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Drawing/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Drawing.dll
----------------------------------------
Microsoft.VisualBasic
Assembly Version: 8.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 8.0.50727.5420 (Win7SP1.050727-5400)
CodeBase: file:///C:/windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/Microsoft.VisualBasic/8.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/Microsoft.VisualBasic.dll
----------------------------------------
ICSharpCode.SharpZipLib
Assembly Version: 0.84.0.0
Win32 Version: 0.84.0.0
CodeBase: file:///C:/windows/assembly/GAC/ICSharpCode.SharpZipLib/0.84.0.0__1b03e6acf1164f73/ICSharpCode.SharpZipLib.dll
----------------------------------------
irrKlang.NET
Assembly Version: 1.3.0.0
Win32 Version: 1, 1, 0, 0
CodeBase: file:///C:/Matrix%20Games/Advanced%20Tactics%20Gold/irrKlang.NET.DLL
----------------------------------------

************** JIT Debugging **************
To enable just-in-time (JIT) debugging, the .config file for this
application or computer (machine.config) must have the
jitDebugging value set in the system.windows.forms section.
The application must also be compiled with debugging
enabled.

For example:

<configuration>
<system.windows.forms jitDebugging="true" />
</configuration>

When JIT debugging is enabled, any unhandled exception
will be sent to the JIT debugger registered on the computer
rather than be handled by this dialog box.

[Ormand]

budd: WTF?!?! Indeed! This happened to me as well (albeit with 2.08). I think it must come from a change in seasons, most likely transitioning from winter to mud (spring). I don't know if anyone else had this problem. I confess I didn't test this part very much as I assumed that just changing the sprites would work, and I wanted to get it out.

Anyway, the last week I was focused on satisfying the request for less-dense forests. This meant going back and trying to figure out exactly how I made the forests in the first place. After a week of trial and error, I more or less came across it (it is fairly complicated involving gimpressionist and a bump map). Since it was essentially impossible to color match what I already had, I had to make them all again. I think the result is better, especially the jungle.

I reckon the best path forward is to restart with the 2.08 generic.at2 file, and slowly replace the sprites. I will also refrain from adding the new terrains, and making a generic replacement, followed by an extended version. To some degree, the question is what part of the mapping causes the out of bounds error? Which, without access to debugging is anyone's guess.

[Ormand]

By the way, this is what the new forest, jungle, light forest, and mangrove swamp look like:

[budd]

Thx for the reply, the error does seem weather related. I believe my error was always in January, but not positive on that. I went back to original graphics for now. Your new graphics look great, hope you get it all sorted out because I'd rather play with your graphics. Thanks for all your work on this.
Budd

[british exil]

ORIGINAL: Ormand

By the way, this is what the new forest, jungle, light forest, and mangrove swamp look like:

Hate to have to fight my way through that dense terrain, I get the feeling I could lose armies in those jungles and mangrove swamps.
But sure looks great!!

Mat

[Josh]

My thoughts too; looks great but what an awful terrain to fight in. Unless you massively outnumber your opponent you can't outmanoeuvre him, so it's gonna be a slugfest WWI style. Involving way too many troops you need elsewhere and massive support of artillery.

[Ormand]

Thanks for the encouragement guys (sorry for no responses, I had to replace my cable modem, and there was a delay getting it registered. My goodness a whole day without internet!).

Anyway, I started over with 2.09 generic.at2, and so far, so good. All I did was a straight replacement of existing images (there was also some removal in terms of the optional graphics drawn over the sprite. Now, there are no issues with changing any of the pre-hex sprites. With this I went through almost two years with no crashes, although oddly November was clear, December was mud, and Jan-March were snow. Anyway, that worked. Now, I am working on the "transitions". Several of the terrains, didn't have them, such as mountains, etc. This is pretty tedious work because you have to into each terrain and specify the graphic overrides. This may also involve changing some of the z-order overrides as well in order to get things to look right. After that, I will then test a game out through a season or two. Then, I'll make an extended version that has the new terrains. Then, there are the NATO counters! The fun part (making the images) is over.