Theater Label help needed

[Sherlock]

I am trying to create a new theater label for the Iran theater but I have hit a snag with the file format (this is for Allied Force). It shows up in the UI as garbled and colors are all screwed up.

I unpacked the existing Balkans file (using the perl scripts) and found it had the following specs:

99x35 pixels
72 pixels per inch
1 layer
24 bit/ 16 million colors
tga file

When I go to save the original it says it is uncompressed 24 bit.

Are these the correct file formats for the theater label file in the theaterlabel.rsc file? (the actual file name inside the theaterlabel.rsc resource file is "VICTORY_LABEL_BLU.tga").

Do I have to add a transparency layer to get it to show up correctly in the UI?

Or am I doing something wrong? The ultimate tutorial doesn't address remaking this label and I did a search and found nothing specific to this topic.

thanks.

[T_Rex]

What program are you using to make/convert the tga?

For F4, it also needs to be "indexed" as opposed to RGB. That's in PhotoShop terminology - other apps may call it something else.

What I had to do for the F4 UI, also, is to index it once (using a color table, or color profile, depending on the app), then change the last color (or first, depending on the app) to some color that isn't actually in the pic. Otherwise, it'll show as transparent.

But, not all of the graphics use transparency, so that second issue might not be a problem for you.

In my experience though, the strange corruption you see is from having the tga in RGB mode instead of indexed.

I think.

Edit - in the re-reading, I'm not sure that makes sense, so if you have questions, let me know.

[Snake Man]

I moved this topic to Terrain theater creation since this is not general F4 topic.

I unpacked the existing Balkans file (using the perl scripts)

Thats strange, I took I think ODSAF theaterlabel.rsc and just edited the tga in there, works fine.

The ultimate tutorial doesn't address remaking this label

Heh there is a good reason for this, ultimate theater tutorial was written when F4AF wasn't even born yet

[Sherlock]

What program are you using to make/convert the tga?

For F4, it also needs to be "indexed" as opposed to RGB. That's in PhotoShop terminology - other apps may call it something else.

What I had to do for the F4 UI, also, is to index it once (using a color table, or color profile, depending on the app), then change the last color (or first, depending on the app) to some color that isn't actually in the pic. Otherwise, it'll show as transparent.

But, not all of the graphics use transparency, so that second issue might not be a problem for you.

In my experience though, the strange corruption you see is from having the tga in RGB mode instead of indexed.

I think.

Edit - in the re-reading, I'm not sure that makes sense, so if you have questions, let me know.

I am using Paint Shop Pro 7 to do my graphics work (Never could figure out Photoshop--too complex ! )

The only difference between the original and the one I made that I can see is something called "bits per plane". In the original it is 15 bits and in the one I made it is 24 bits per plane. I don't know what that means.

I tried changing the image back to an indexed image (i.e., have to add transparency in PSP7 in order to do this) but when I go to save it it converts it back to the other kind (non-indexed image), whatever that is called. I don't know why. I can create indexed images at 8bit/256 colors no problem. Maybe it's a limitation of PSP7.

I'm going to load up Photoshop CS and see if I can have any luck with that.

[T_Rex]

I have an older version of PS, but I think the same idea would work in PSP.

Also, I think I had to drop down to 256 colors, using a filter (selective or perceptual or something like that) which really retained most of the colors anyway. Then save that as indexed.

[Sherlock]

Well, interesting...I did what you suggested and it worked:



it's now a 8 bit/ 256 color image but I think it looks fine. Comments?

[Snake Man]

Looks okay, can you please send me the idx/rsc so it will be included in the next release?

[Sherlock]

Looks okay, can you please send me the idx/rsc so it will be included in the next release?

Sure. Here's the download link:

http://www.mediafire.com/?9aynmmhzcjd

[T_Rex]

Looks pretty cool (for AF).