RHW-2 Textures

[Nique]

Hello there,
Today i tried to make a start with replacing the RHW2 textures (nam v3.0) with dutch (autoweg met nieuwe markering) textures. (dutch).
I installed all the programs i needed and started with the first texture. So far so good..

C:\Users\%USER%\Documents\SimCity 4\Plugins\zz_NAM\textures\nl.dat

Who wants to join me?

I cannot use FiSHman to extract the bitmap / alpha so i tried using Dolphin from NBAk2006 or something.. but with this program, i can NOT export alpha channels.

So here we go, the first problem arrived. I cant do anything, i need that alpha channel or else the sidewalks are just white in the game.

I'm a little surprised that nobody but a few are using Windows Vista. I have no idea how to make FiSHman work on Vista so my request here is: please fix it! 

As i can NOT find any (but one very obsolete) European texture replacement.. i toke action to make a new one.. and yet then i cant make a new one because these programs are never been updated since 2003!

How am i suppose to contribute ?

[Jonathan]

Dolphin will not extract the alpha file as a seperate image file, it will export a png with the alpha included, so you can't open it in paint(if you are) because it doesn't support alphas. (there is then a way which you can export the alpha from the png using the GIMP)

I'd use the GIMP, it's free and supports alphas also has massive improvements over paint.

There is a recent Euro textures mod here: http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=1302

Also if you do want to import textures back into the game either seperate the alpha from the png using GIMP and use the SC4Tool to create textures. or use dolphin, by clicking import(note the texture being imported must be the same size as the texture you are replacing) and thn closing without clicking save (There will then be a file called fshname.bak.fsh this is the old one so you can delete it, and the fshname.fsh will be your modified fsh)

Vista and textures don't mix at the moment, we just need someone like Wouanagaine to find time to make a new Tool (unless the X-tool has texture creation abilities) that works

Hopefully I've helped

Jonathan

[Nique]

Thank you for your reply..

I use Photoshop is it possible in there?

[Jonathan]

I'd say yes!
For me I use dolphin (when I really need textures, else I just get others on xp to export) and I get the alphas out inside the png, so I don't know why you aren't.

Now it is out of my league and you'll need someone else to answer questions about photoshop

Jonathan

[sithlrd98]

As far as the Euro Textures Mod , Andreas is presently working on updating it , so unless you are attempting to do the RHW , I would wait a little longer.

Jayson

[Nique]

As far as the Euro Textures Mod , Andreas is presently working on updating it , so unless you are attempting to do the RHW , I would wait a little longer.

Jayson

Haha.. pfeeeuww.. thanks man! 

But i will try the RHW then,

this might be strange to ask, but is there a sort of PSD file these guys are using to texture? In photoshop u can use slices so it would be easier to design a whole bunch @ once.

[cogeo]

Why you can't use FishMan to extract both colour and alpha? I have done this a lot of times.
First you save the textures (as .FSH) using iLive. Then you can open these in FishMan, and export the colour and alpha, preferably as .BMP or .PNG (.JPG is not recommended because of its "lossy" compression).

The only problem I have met, is that the exported image isn't of as high quality (it's somewhat distorted/blurred/pixelated). But I'm not sure which conversion causes this, BMP->FSH in FishMan, BMP->FSH in SC4Tool, or FSH->BMP ?

[Nique]

Why you can't use FishMan to extract both colour and alpha? I have done this a lot of times.
First you save the textures (as .FSH) using iLive. Then you can open these in FishMan, and export the colour and alpha, preferably as .BMP or .PNG (.JPG is not recommended because of its "lossy" compression).

The only problem I have met, is that the exported image isn't of as high quality (it's somewhat distorted/blurred/pixelated). But I'm not sure which conversion causes this, BMP->FSH in FishMan, BMP->FSH in SC4Tool, or FSH->BMP ?

I bet you are on Windows XP..

I'm using Vista. FishMan doesn't work on Vista.

[dedgren]

I have used screen capture from the level 5 (usually IIDs ending in 4 or e) FSH file pic in Ilive's Reader for years.  You can select the image without the alpha or the alpha by itself.





It can be pretty efficient, at least in Paint Shop Pro, because the crop tool setting and placement is persistent from crop to crop, and once set and positioned, you have a cookie-cutter ability to just click and save.

There's a little post-processing in your graphics program that is required using this technique, though.  Because the Reader cuts off the leftmost and topmost pixel rows of the image, you wind up with a 127x127 pixel texture square.  For some that are non-critical in terms of where things are, you can address this by doing a 128x128 pixel resize.  For the rest (certainly all transport textures) you have to do a canvas resize to 128x128 (remember to tell the program to position the pic at the lower-right!) and then cut and paste or paint in the missing pixels.  If this sounds laborious- well, different strokes for different folks, but I've probably created over 1,000 game textures to date, and never viewed this as much of a chore.

Good luck!


David

[daeley]

The only problem I have met, is that the exported image isn't of as high quality (it's somewhat distorted/blurred/pixelated). But I'm not sure which conversion causes this, BMP->FSH in FishMan, BMP->FSH in SC4Tool, or FSH->BMP ?

this is because FSH stores its pixel data in DXT1 or DXT3 (lossy) compression format. For most transit textures this should not be that noticable though, you should only see it on textures with very sharp color transitions.

You can read up on DXTn compression here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DXT3

[Nique]

To bad there is no export feature in the reader 


And, while making a road texture. I'm aware of the possibility in Adobe Illustrator that you can let your pattern fallow a drawn path. So this would make making corners etc much much easier to do. I'll post a update with a tutorial (maybe) if I'll be able to find this tool.

[Andreas]

As mentioned above, I'm already working on an update of the SFBT Euro Road Textures Mod, and as far as I know, Shadow Aasassin also wants to do an upgrade of his RHW Euro textures.

[nerdly_dood]

I'm reasonably certain that Shadow Assassin is still working on his textures for RHW v.3 - he mentioned it in the ST Live Chat recently(ish)

[Nique]

Okay, but i still want to change the RHW-2 to my local 'provincial road', But i have this as a problem, it says its a invalid ID i gave, but as you can see.. it is Not invalid at all...

Also, is there a main pattern file without marks on it? i want to keep the asphalt intact, i want to change the marks on it.

[Nique]

As i can not save the 0x5.. ID, i go on as far i can..

[Yoder7652]

that is not the valid ID...you need to drop the 4 at the end and put a 0 on it....remember you pulled the closest zoom to work with, hence the 4...but you need to creat zooms 0-4 with your new texture. It'll create all 5 for you when you nix the 4 at the end.

[Nique]

Omg, oh !! 

I was stupid   

thank you for waking me up

[sithlrd98]

Not sure if you've figured this out yet , but since these are NAM numbers (I believe that they're not the original ANT numbers), what you will need to do , is create the .PNG files ,(I would open reader and save blank.dat as a new .dat for the next step) then you will have to run them through SC4tool so you can not only convert them int FSH , but it will give all zoom levels. Then you will have to manually change each .FSH to the same instances that the original are . I haven't found an easier way of doing this , and apologize in advance if I'm wrong or if this is info you already know. Now also , if you are going to attempt the puzzle pieces , well its a little more work.

Jayson

[Jonathan]

The original ANT IIDs are in the NAM range as the NAM team seperated the ANT from the road tool.So that IID is correct.

Btw, the same basic shape of the textures must stay the same all the time, else you'll have to RUL new textures.

Jonathan

[Nique]

I managed it to got it work well. I post screen soon. I just use the add texture tool

Who has those basic shapes?

Im improvising but this takes a lot of work