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Batch Conversion of the Blazing Blades BoA graphics


Ishad Nha

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Blazing Blades BoA graphics are well regarded and are used a fair bit. They are also just the thing for porting BoE scenarios to the BoA world. Currently they are .png format, which is no use in BoA scenarios, hence I have done a batch conversion of all the BB graphics.

Here is the batch conversion of the Blazing Blades BoA graphics. They were in png format, I converted them to 8bit bmp format, then I changed them to 24 Bit format:

http://www.freewebs....Conversions.zip

 

(8 bit graphics are about a third of the size of 24 bit versions, original BB pngs seemed to have 8 bit color depth.)

 

Jewels backed up the site at:

http://www.truesite4...azingblade.html

 

Here I used IrfanView, by Skiljan Irfan, it is just the thing for someone who is not an expert on file formats.

It can be found at:

http://frua.rosedrag...sc/iview295.zip

Online Readme:

http://frua.rosedrag...sc/iview295.txt

 

Batch Conversion, this function is found in the File menu, its hotkey is B.

In the lower right of the Batch Conversion dialog box, choose Advanced Options. This brings up the "Set for all images:" dialog box. In the "Change color depth:" part find

"256 Colors (8 BPP)" and click on its radio button.

Conversion can turn 24 bit Bitmaps into 8 bit varieties.

(Resize function can apparently create Editor icons at will.)

 

In the short term I will get all floor/terrain/item graphics collated into rows of ten when that is not currently the case.

Long term goal is that the .bmp graphics will be given G### names. Then they can be permamently added to the relevant Graphics folders in the Data directory. Scenario designers will be able to use them in datascripts just like official BoA graphics.

Pre-existing scenarios will need new data scripts if they use graphics from the Blazing Blades collection, but they already come with their own graphics anyway.

Then we can bring in a few other graphics, from the first Avernum Trilogy and the two versions of Nethergate.

 

Edit:

Items, Terrain - Walls and Terrain - Buildings are done.

Creatures and Splash Screen graphics only need to be renumbered.

Graphics from the first Avernum Trilogy and the two versions of Nethergate have been done.

Doing Terrain - Furniture now.

Still need to do Terrain - Climb and Floors.

.

Edited by Ishad Nha
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I have uploaded a new version that is found at the link in the post above. Floors and Terrain - Climb are still not done.

Edit:

Floors done, now I am starting on Terrain - Climb.

 

Edit:

Terrain - Climb is done. I will need to see what happens with the graphics having the G5##.bmp names, do they need to be renumbered? Will they conflict with the graphics found in scenarios?

 

Edit:

It has to be 24-bit or there are horrible masking problems.

New 24 Bit version has been uploaded.

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Automap is formed from the Editor icons, if you want a useful and appealling automap you must have good Editor icons.

 

In the Geneforge graphics, there is a problem with the "snowfall" of non-transparent pixels outside the area of the image proper. It is unsightly, no two ways about that.

I found that it comes from translating a JPG picture into a 24 Bit Bitmap. Translating from JPG to 8 Bit Bitmap removes the snowfall. You then have transparencies inside the image proper, but that only affects a handful of pixels. It is not always easy to see which pixel is actually transparent rather than just near-white.

Solution seems to be translate from JPG to PNG, then to 8 Bit Bitmap.

 

Edit:

Now at line 4 in the second graphic there is a massive problem with a sudden loss of quality in using 8 Bit color. So I will have to use 24 Bit and a mask to remove the snowfall. Mask will be a solid color that can be altered to RGB = 255,255,255.

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Floor types are easy to do. I found that there was stray snowfall outside of the diamond-shaped image proper. Annoyingly, the snowfall was of various similar colors, so a straight color swap would not work. But then I created a mask that turns all snowfall pixels into a uniform color, here it is RGB = 255,0,255. Paste in the masks, open in GIMP, exchange the masking color with transparency (RGB = 255,255,255), then Export back to a BMP format.

24 Bit color has 256^3 = 16 million possible colors. Hence masking color is not likely to occur in the image proper. If it does occur it can be restored easily enough with the Paint pencil, there won't be too many affected pixels.

Also easy to do are the terrain types that are triangle shaped, they are all the same size so a mask was easy to create.

 

General terrain types occur in a wide variety of sizes, hence standard masks won't be possible. One approach is to remove the pixels one at a time. They are normally invisible but they will show up if you use Fill Color. Deleting everything in a part of the graphic removes all snowfall immediately in that part.

 

Edit:

I can always take the graphics straight from the Geneforge games, if they are the right size. The snowfall seems to come from the initial Geneforge BMP to JPG conversion.

 

This approach is actually working, hooray.

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I have just uploaded a new version, using the link found in the first post of this topic.

 

There are serious masking issues with the Geneforge graphics...

A draft version has been uploaded, it has fixed a lot of the transparency issues found in Geneforged's graphics. It contains FTGoodEvil.bas, a scenario which displays all 256 floor types and all 512 terrain types.

Editor icons frequently have not been done.

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I thought the scenario folder graphics would override the official BoA graphics in all cases. If not, then the scenario designers would use graphics numbers in the range from 500 to 599. Then in Frostbite I saw repeated use of graphics numbers from 200 through 401 inclusive...

Then the graphics in the scenario folder were overridden by the Conversions graphics I had placed in the Terrain Graphics folder.

 

Solutions:

(1) Manually alter all the scripts concerned. Crimson Editor has a Find in Files function that enables you to look for culprits like "set_char_dialogue_pic" and "draw_pic_dialog".

(2) Copy the entire Blades of Avernum directory to another part of the C:\ drive. The new BoA installation has only official Spiderweb graphics in its Terrain Graphics folder. Scenario is played from the new installation.

(3) Have two separate Terrain Graphics folders, at any given time, one is in use and the other is not. Folder not in use has its name altered, you can add "AA" or "BB" or whatever to the start of the name.

 

Edit:

A new version was uploaded today, it is still missing an awful lot of editor icons.

Edited by Ishad Nha
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