Automatic Sprite Rendering

[(Designer)HENDRIX]

I finally figured out how to export GPL palettes from gimp. Using PALs I'd generated gave errors in ZT studio and some funky pixels in APE. It looks like ZT Studio shortened the palettes...

 

Also, any reason why you recommend naming the images "E_" instead of "E"? I had to remove the underscore to match the original... Is the caudipteryx an exception?

 

Is ZT Studio supposed to be able to write ani files? At least when there were none, it would not create them. And what are the x0, x1, y0, y1 values? The maximum dimensions?

 

Lastly, is there a way to set the FPS for all batch-processed anims? I rendered everything at 25 FPS, ie. 40 ms per frame, but ZT Studio's default is 125 ms. It appears that the first 4 bytes of every ZT1 graphic code for frame duration. I'll write a short batch post-processor for now but you know that the average user is not likely to do that :P

[(Professor Emeritus)Professor Paul]

In theory, does this new development mean that you could take a static image, sucg as RdingFTs new statues, and animate them to be new animals using existing animations for ZT animals;ie animate any of his tigers using the in game tiger animations?

[(Designer)HENDRIX]

The end result would be what you describe, but the way there is different. ;)

There is no way to automatically animate static images.

 

RdingFT used 3D models and textures from ZT2, but only captured one frame for each view.

 

With this new tool, you can take the same 3D models and textures he used, and additionally import animations from ZT2, and then render out all the frames for all animations at once. This produces animated sequences instead of still images, which can then be fed into ZT1.

[Rinding FT]

@Professor Paul : I use the 3D model, and only export 4 direction images for the statue, sometimes I re-edit the images so it will be a little different looking from the original zt2 models.

 

@HENDRIX: Is the tool only used for zt2 to zt1 animal animations (8 directions)? Because I still don't know the Blender skill of the animations.. ha ha, I need to learn that. :p

 

As I know, zt2 animals use some behavior animations different from the zt1's, so if we want to import zt2 to zt1 animals, we need to check the behavior I think.

 

btw, most zt1 animals only use one model for the male and female, and not like zt2, they only has one skin color.. so there still some limits.. and we can't change the terrain skin.. ><

[(Designer)HENDRIX]

 

Just how do I change the location from Jurassic to Cretaceous? Other than that, everything seems to be working. And man, they are tiiiiiny haha

[Rinding FT]

I remember that the way is, you need to go into the uca or uci file to code, set the icon info from Jurassic to Cretaceous, also you can change the foliage icon for your user made animals. You can ask Fern or Jay about the location map icon info, I don't remember if there's one here in animal tutorial. :p

[(Designer)HENDRIX]

Right found it thanks!

And it's released - you can find it in my signature!


So what have I done to create this? Open the spoiler to find out...

I would never have expected that, but I dug out an old CD with "APE" written on it, and it contained the original and APExp both in German and English. I also ripped the ZT1 CDs so I could install them on my notebook without CD drive.

I tried to run APExp, but it wouldn't load any entity. I tried the vanilla APE, that worked. Not a big deal as APE is buggy anyway and I only really need it to play back anims.

So I built a Caudipterx base I could load into APE. It is basically just the "caudipt.ai" renamed to "caudipt.uca" and both "caudipt" folders from "animals5.ztd" and "animals6.ztd" in the "XPACK1" folder. This is put in an "animals" folder, which is then zipped and renamed to "caudipteryx.ZTD". Done!

Then I loaded this ZTD into APE so I could preview the existing anims. I just wanted to mirror the existing anim layout exactly so I wouldn't have to change the behaviors.
So I went over all the anims and noted their shortcodes. At the same time, I would import suitable animation candidates into blender and see which came closest to what I saw in APE.

In the end I came up with this list of corresponding pairs:
Stand_Bite > bite
Stand_Screech > display
Eat_Idle > eat
Stand_TestFenceShocked > fencezap
Stand_2Eat > headgrnd
Stand_Sneeze > jerk
Stand_KickRight > kick
Stand_LookLeft > lookl
Stand_LookRight > lookr
WalkObject_Ahead > march
Stand_Sniff > necksway
Run_Ahead > run
Stand_ScratchFaceA > shake
Stand_2Lie > sit
Lie_Idle > sitidle
Lie_2Sleep > sitlie
Sleep_Idle > sleep
Stand_Idle > stand
Stand_ScratchBodyB > stretch
Stand_Snarl > tailbob
Walk_Ahead > walk
StandObject_InvestigateObject > wave

Once I had this list, I opened a fresh and clean blend file, imported my Incisivo model and each of the animations from the above list. I then renamed each to its desired ZT1 name in the Action Editor.

Then I scaled the armature so the model is in scale with the grid. In this case, the Incisivo is roughly one grid square = meter long.

I turned off forward movement manually for the walk anims. I didn't use the muting tools because some of the sleep stuff also moved around a little.

I enabled the console (Window > Toggle System Console) so I could trace the progress. Finally, I let it render using the "Render ZT1 Sprites" button.

Once the render was done (about 5 minutes total - 6.660 frames altogether for one life stage), it was time to palettize everything to 255 colors.

Turns out you can only save a GPL file if you import it into gimp. Very counter-intuitive.
1) palettize an image [i used a high-res render of the animal to make sure I had really every color I would need] to 255 colors
2) go to the palette dialog, right click Import palette. This will save your palette to GPL format, and you can find it in "C:\Users\USERNAME\.gimp-2.8\palettes".
3) Batch process as usual (no dithering)
4) put the GPL file in the output folder

I put all the output into "C:/temp/output" for ZT Studio.
This then contained the folder structure:
animals
animals/incisivo
animals/incisivo/m
animals/incisivo/m/m.gpl
animals/incisivo/m/[ANIM FOLDERS...]
animals/incisivo/y
animals/incisivo/y/y.gpl
animals/incisivo/y/[ANIM FOLDERS...]
animals/incisivo/[iCON; PLAQUE; LISTICON]

Before I ran the batch conversion, I added the content of the base code I'd prepared earlier, most importantly all the ANI files. These need to be edited by ZT Studio during the conversion process.


For coding, well, I edited the original ai file into an uca file. I'm sure there are tutorials for that out there?

 

[santimamut]

Wow this will change the zt modding for ever O-o also there isnt a way we could get that incisivosaurus right?

[(Designer)HENDRIX]

 

And it's released - you can find it in my signature!

 

 

Just working on MM surf and usurf support and stuff...

[(Designer)HENDRIX]

I'm getting an error when processing larger amounts of larger frames at once: Not enough RAM. But zoot takes up only 35 MB of RAM? Very strange, is that maybe a memory leak?

I'll do some more testing to narrow it down...