Fun with DATech

All things related to Ace's news sections, opts, missions or files.

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Fun with DATech

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Ace Antilles
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Post by Ace Antilles » Sun Dec 23, 2001 12:10 am

You all know that you can make new Skirmish pictures for custom Opts in DATech. I hope you do! :D <B>BUT</B> you don't <B>have</B> to use the Opt pictures.<P>Here's something I made earlier ;)<BR> Image <BR>Rebel Pilot!<P> Image <BR>Imperial Pilot.<P> Image <BR>Zero G Stormtrooper<P> Image <BR>Civilian Pilot. :)<P>Certainly an improvement over the Opt pics anyway.<BR>Just part of something I am working on for the future. Make sure you use DATech to add all those custom opt pics you've got. <I>*cough*v-38*cough*</I> :D<BR>DATech is a brilliant program I can't recommend it enough. Well done Patrick! :)<P>------------------<BR>Flight Officer ACE on watch!<BR><A HREF="http://www.antilles100.freeserve.co.uk" TARGET=_blank>Ace Antilles X-wing Outpost</A><BR>Home of The Batlle of Yavin and Endor projects.
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Post by Freelancer_MSE » Sun Dec 23, 2001 12:17 am

Great Work Ace Antilles Image<P>------------------<BR>Heres my web page: <A HREF="http://www.freewebz.com/freelancermse" TARGET=_blank>www.freewebz.com/freelancermse</A> it's not much but i'm still building it.
When a cat is dropped, it always lands on its feet, and when toast is dropped, it always lands with the buttered side facing down. I propose to strap buttered toast to the back of a cat; the two will hover, spinning inches above the ground. With a giant buttered cat array, a high-speed monorail could easily link New York with Chicago.

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Post by ACE » Sun Dec 23, 2001 12:55 am

great job again, are you ever gonna put this stuff up for dl? and if you have where?<P>------------------<BR>Aaron<BR>Bout Deputy Project Leader<BR><A HREF="http://www.freewebz.com/twilightskies/coruscant" TARGET=_blank>Imperial City Project</A>

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Post by General Edor Crespin » Sun Dec 23, 2001 1:02 am

Ooh, looks fun! Image<P>Now, all I need is more RAM, 'cause the computer only has 64mb and if I'm in missions with over 1 squadron of XWAUP craft, it'll move jerkily Image<P>------------------<BR>"There are few problems that can't be solved with high explosives."
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Post by Darksaber » Sun Dec 23, 2001 1:19 am

thats really nice work Ace
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Post by Oldcode » Sun Dec 23, 2001 2:36 am

Hi Ace,<P>That does look great, but to be honest no, I didn't know you could do that. Image<P>I've got DATech 0.72b and when I bring up the skirmish pictures, it says read only. I can export but can't find a way to import new ones.<P>Anybody know what I'm doing wrong? Image<P>Thanks in advance for your help, and everybody have a wonderful holiday! Image<P>TC: Knight of the Old Code<BR>

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Post by JM » Sun Dec 23, 2001 11:59 am

Of course you don't have to use the OPT pictures, a bitmap is a bitmap however it is made, though I would say that in most cases you should for two reasons- (1) A lot of the ships are not available in any other format (be they custom ships, TG designs, or even some of the others) and (2) Mixing and matching OPT pictures and high-facecount rendered pictures would cause a jarring change of style.<P>The pictures do look good and doing it that way is is probably by far the best option in those particular cases (I still think a Zero-G stormtrooper looks like the design from The Rebel Opposition though Image).<P>As to Oldcodes query you have to create a new DAT file of the appropriate type (an entry for this DAT file will be added by DATech to resdata.txt so remember to click the save button on that window). <BR>You can then add your pictures to this and since the entry for the DAT file is before the TG ones the picture in your DAT file will be used instead of the one in the TG file.
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Post by Oldcode » Sun Dec 23, 2001 5:45 pm

Thanks JM! Image<P>I just got finished adding six new ship images for the skirmish section. I added the Colonial Viper, Colonial Battlestar, Colonial Mover, Cylon Raider, Cylon Tanker, and the Tie Advanced TX1!!! Image<P>I took the images from screen shots and imported them into a simple editor. Didn't even need to use anything fance like Photoshop. Image<P>Thanks also to PalPatrick for creating this woderful tool!<P>Hope everybody has a good holiday.<P><BR>TC: Knight of the Old Code

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Post by 13th_Warrior » Sun Dec 23, 2001 7:07 pm

That is awsome Ace

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Post by Ace Antilles » Wed Dec 26, 2001 6:26 pm

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by ACE:<BR><B>great job again, are you ever gonna put this stuff up for dl? and if you have where?<P></B><HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>I'm thinking of uploading DAT stuff in the future but <B>you can</B> all do it for yourselves! Image<BR>If anyone wants to post their favourite Ship Skirmish picture I would be interested. So I can compare the quality! Image<P>------------------<BR>Flight Officer ACE on watch!<BR><A HREF="http://www.antilles100.freeserve.co.uk" TARGET=_blank>Ace Antilles X-wing Outpost</A><BR>Home of The Batlle of Yavin and Endor projects.
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Post by Executor32 » Wed Dec 26, 2001 8:19 pm

Here are the three I've made so far:<P>A-Wing<BR> Image <P>Hernan's StarViper<BR> Image <P>And last but not least, the XWAU-quality TIE Executor I mentioned in Desert_Fox's thread. Image<BR> Image <P>------------------<BR>There is no peace, there is anger. <BR>There is no fear, there is power. <BR>There is no death, there is immortality. <BR>There is no weakness, there is the Dark Side.<BR>-Dark Side Code<P><A HREF="http://executor32.homestead.com" TARGET=_blank>Executor32's X-Wing Alliance Depot</A>
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Post by Oldcode » Mon Jan 07, 2002 9:23 pm

Hi everybody,<P>I've got some good skirmish ship pictures that I'd like to share but I can't seem to figure out how to post them on this forum. Can anybody help?<P>TC: Knight of the Old Code

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Post by Face » Tue Jan 08, 2002 6:07 pm

Hello everybody.<BR>I think everyone should send OPT pictures to Ace Antilles so he can choose the best one and everybody can download them from his page. PalPatrick said that you(Ace Antilles) would host all the DATech stuff and so when someone has map or hull_icons for XWA this would be nice for hosting.<BR>And perhaps a lot of people have the NCA patch and the including missions and so somebody can make pictures for the battle and the missions.<P>@Ace Antilles: I send you my OPT pics Image<P>------------------<BR>Commander of T/A squadron Phantom
Commander of Phantom squadron<P>Pilot of Grandadmiral Thrawns 3.Fleet on ISD I Prodigium

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Post by Ace Antilles » Sat Jan 12, 2002 12:13 am

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Face:<BR><B>Hello everybody.<BR>I think everyone should send OPT pictures to Ace Antilles so he can choose the best one and everybody can download them from his page. PalPatrick said that you(Ace Antilles) would host all the DATech stuff and so when someone has map or hull_icons for XWA this would be nice for hosting.<BR>And perhaps a lot of people have the NCA patch and the including missions and so somebody can make pictures for the battle and the missions.<P>@Ace Antilles: I send you my OPT pics Image<P></B><HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>Please <B>DO NOT</B> send me lots of Pics!!<BR>I don't want my email clogged up with items I didn't ask for.<BR>I have <B>not</B> agreed to host items for DATech. The only items I "may" host are the things I am currently working on. Maybe things will change in the future but right now I've got too much to do. Image<BR>I appreciate the excitement but ask in future before telling everyone to send me stuff.<P>------------------<BR><I>You ain't seen me right!</I><BR><A HREF="http://www.antilles100.freeserve.co.uk" TARGET=_blank>Ace Antilles X-wing Outpost</A><BR>Home of The Batlle of Yavin and Endor projects.
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Post by General Edor Crespin » Sat Jan 12, 2002 1:18 am

Hm, if someone wants to send something to me, go ahead and I'll stick it on the SSD Shadowkeeper. Keep in mind that I have a 2mb limit, and you can send to marajade21e@hotmail.com Image<P>------------------<BR>Visit the <I><A HREF="http://pub65.ezboard.com/bssdflamingshadow" TARGET=_blank>SSD Flaming Shadow</A></I> for a real, fair battle! <BR>Head over for <B>The Battle for Omicron 34m9</B>!<P>AIM me @ <B>MIDI Master Jade</B>
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Post by Oldcode » Sun Jan 13, 2002 1:56 am

Image Opps! Sorry Ace. Image

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Post by emupiett » Mon Jan 21, 2002 10:44 pm

I would like to make my own skirmish pictures, but can't figure out how to separate the background from the foregroud. I've been using Corel Photopaint 10, and whenever I make the ship and background into two different objects, I get a colored outline around my ship.<P>Also, how does one take screenshots of the CONCOURSE.<P>------------------<BR>"Intensify foreward firepower!"
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Post by Oldcode » Mon Jan 21, 2002 11:25 pm

Hi everybody,<P>If you want to make a skirmish picture where the background is invisible, you need to use the correct color, which is pure black. XWA will interpret this color the same way the movies use blue or green screens. <P>What you need to do is go into your color wheel and set green, blue, and red all to zero, set the Hue to 160, the Sat and the Lum both to zero. Because there are a lot of shades of black are so close, you can't tell them apart. <P>Use your fill or paint tool and color all the pixels a different color, such as a bright green, but any color will do. This will make it easier set all of the background to the exact same color. Then when every pixel that is not being used for the ship is the same color, fill in the background with the pure black. <P>If you want to take a screen shot, just hold down the CTRL key, and hit the print screen key. The image will be copied to the XWA folder, and will be the size of whatever resolution you have the game set at. E.g. 640 X 480.<P>Hope this helps,<P>TC: Knight of the Old Code

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Post by Ace Antilles » Mon Jan 21, 2002 11:38 pm

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by emupiett:<BR><B>I would like to make my own skirmish pictures, but can't figure out how to separate the background from the foregroud.<P>Also, how does one take screenshots of the CONCOURSE.<P></B><HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>Actually I think you will have to use ALT + O for the concourse.<P>You don't have to use pure black but any pure colour. So you can make the background bright red for example. Probably easier than the way Oldcode described.<P>------------------<BR><I>Going in full throttle!</I><BR><A HREF="http://www.antilles100.freeserve.co.uk" TARGET=_blank>Ace Antilles X-wing Outpost</A><BR>Home of The Batlle of Yavin and Endor projects.
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Post by JM » Wed Jan 23, 2002 9:50 pm

To amplify what Ace Antilles said I think PalPatrick did state that whatever colour value the pixel at 0,0 was would be regarded as being the transparent background.<P>And if you use black then you risk dark features and shadows becoming trasparent, whereas bright green (as Executor32 used) or red (like I used) is much less likely to be found on the actual picture.
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