Arcen Games

General Category => A Valley Without Wind 1 & 2 => AVWW Mods & Maps => : nanostrike May 04, 2012, 02:11:01 AM

: Megaman X (And more) Character Pack
: nanostrike May 04, 2012, 02:11:01 AM
I got tired of there being no male Industrial Revolution characters...

I so gathered up some old Megaman X sprites and jury-rigged something up with GIMP.  It's a TAD bit awkward because Megaman X only had 16 walking frames instead of 22 like the AVWW chars do, but I think I made it work pretty well.

There are 2 normal ones and 2 pallet swaps.



http://dl.dropbox.com/u/71356504/MegamanXAVWW.rar





Like I said, it's not perfect (Far from it, actually!  If you look close, the images change size slightly during some animations!), but I made it in about an hour and it DOES work in-game without looking as awkward as I thought.

To install it, just overwrite the character folders in the Runtime/Images/Characters directory.  I suggest backing up the existing portraits.  I'll try to get some screenshots later.


EDIT: Uploaded a few screenshots to Steam Cloud

http://steamcommunity.com/id/Nanostrike/screenshot/559814960746385801?tab=public
http://steamcommunity.com/id/Nanostrike/screenshot/559814960746381949/?tab=public
http://steamcommunity.com/id/Nanostrike/screenshot/559814960746377883/?tab=public
: Re: Megaman X
: zebramatt May 04, 2012, 03:31:42 AM
You know you can install this as a texture pack, right?

Texture Pack Support

There is now a dropdown in the Graphics tab that allows you to select from any installed Texture Packs, if any are installed.

Here are the instructions for how to create texture packs if you have an interest in doing that:
To add a texture pack, simply add a folder here in the AVWW/RuntimeData/TexturePacks folder.
The name of the texture pack in the game will be the name of the folder. So if you make a folder called BobsTextures, that's what it will show up as in the game.

HOW TO REPLACE A TEXTURE USING THE TEXTURE PACK:
Inside your texture pack folder, simply duplicate the contents of the Images folder that you want to replace. Don't bother moving over images that you aren't doing custom versions of -- the game will first look into the active texture pack folder and then will look into the base images folder if nothing was found.
So, for instance, if you want to replace the keyboard cursor (normally located at AVWW/RuntimeData/Images/Misc/KeyboardCursor.png) you would add AVWW/RuntimeData/TexturePacks/BobsTextures/Images/Misc/KeyboardCursor.png.
That would alter the keyboard cursor, but no other parts of the game. You can do that for as many or as few images as you like.

HOW TO REPLACE A PARTICLE EFFECT USING THE TEXTURE PACK:
Inside your texture pack folder, make a Configuration folder. Then make a Particles.xml file that is a copy of the main Particles.xml file in AVWW/RuntimeData/Configuration/Particles.xml.
Simply make <g pattern="Fireball"></g> entries for particle effects that you wish to change. Don't worry about trying to do them all -- just do the ones you're actually making changes to. The others will load from the main Particles.xml file just fine, but your custom particle definitions will selectively override whatever you wish.
Did you know? When you have the game open, you can hit Ctrl+F4 to reload the Particles.xml files at will. That way you can make a small tweak, hit that key combo, and then test your change immediately without having to restart the application.

TIPS:
Generally speaking, you need to keep the images to the same size and dimensions as the original. Any wildly different image sizes won't look at all correct in-game, especially when it comes to sprite dictionaries (animations).
That said, when it comes to things in the Backdrops and Ground folders, those can be set to pretty much whatever size since they are repeating tiled graphics.
: Re: Megaman X
: nanostrike May 04, 2012, 10:14:36 AM
You know you can install this as a texture pack, right?

Texture Pack Support

There is now a dropdown in the Graphics tab that allows you to select from any installed Texture Packs, if any are installed.

Here are the instructions for how to create texture packs if you have an interest in doing that:
To add a texture pack, simply add a folder here in the AVWW/RuntimeData/TexturePacks folder.
The name of the texture pack in the game will be the name of the folder. So if you make a folder called BobsTextures, that's what it will show up as in the game.

HOW TO REPLACE A TEXTURE USING THE TEXTURE PACK:
Inside your texture pack folder, simply duplicate the contents of the Images folder that you want to replace. Don't bother moving over images that you aren't doing custom versions of -- the game will first look into the active texture pack folder and then will look into the base images folder if nothing was found.
So, for instance, if you want to replace the keyboard cursor (normally located at AVWW/RuntimeData/Images/Misc/KeyboardCursor.png) you would add AVWW/RuntimeData/TexturePacks/BobsTextures/Images/Misc/KeyboardCursor.png.
That would alter the keyboard cursor, but no other parts of the game. You can do that for as many or as few images as you like.

HOW TO REPLACE A PARTICLE EFFECT USING THE TEXTURE PACK:
Inside your texture pack folder, make a Configuration folder. Then make a Particles.xml file that is a copy of the main Particles.xml file in AVWW/RuntimeData/Configuration/Particles.xml.
Simply make <g pattern="Fireball"></g> entries for particle effects that you wish to change. Don't worry about trying to do them all -- just do the ones you're actually making changes to. The others will load from the main Particles.xml file just fine, but your custom particle definitions will selectively override whatever you wish.
Did you know? When you have the game open, you can hit Ctrl+F4 to reload the Particles.xml files at will. That way you can make a small tweak, hit that key combo, and then test your change immediately without having to restart the application.

TIPS:
Generally speaking, you need to keep the images to the same size and dimensions as the original. Any wildly different image sizes won't look at all correct in-game, especially when it comes to sprite dictionaries (animations).
That said, when it comes to things in the Backdrops and Ground folders, those can be set to pretty much whatever size since they are repeating tiled graphics.

Nope.  Had no idea.  I'll try to do something with that later.
: Re: Megaman X
: mrhanman May 04, 2012, 02:46:06 PM
That's actually pretty impressive!  8)

I really hope these sort of things take off.  Some mods are pretty incredible (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_Combat).
: Re: Megaman X
: nanostrike May 04, 2012, 03:06:54 PM
I was gonna do Zero (Probably still will at some point, actually!), but since most of the combat is shooting, I figured Megaman and his Blaster would be the logical choice.

The crazy thing is that I did it using nothing but a Megaman X 4 sprite sheet, and GIMP.  The Attack/Jump/Duck/Stand sprites aren't too bad.  But having to convert a 12-frame running animation into a 22-frame running animation manually is a royal pain!

I'm just damn glad I didn't have to mess with the Wall Jumping animations and such!
: Re: Megaman X
: nanostrike May 05, 2012, 02:59:42 PM
Okay, I stopped being lazy and put some more work into this.  And it's complete now.  Or at least as complete as I'm getting it.  Now in Texture Pack format.


TO INSTALL:
Download - http://dl.dropbox.com/u/71356504/MegamanFinal.rar

Extract the folder and place in steamapps\common\a valley without wind\RuntimeData\Texture Packs

Run the game.  Under Options-> Graphics, there will be a Texture Packs Option.  Select Megaman Final and click the Save button.


It replaces four different characters from the Industrial Revoltion (Mostly because I liked their stats best!)

Raya - Megaman X (From Megaman X 3)
Raya2 - Megaman Zero (From Megaman X 3)
Samantha - Megaman X in Upgrade Armor (From Megaman X 1)
Samantha2 - Sage Harpitula (From Megaman Zero 3 on GBA)
Samantha and Raya Ghosts - Cyber Elf (From Megaman Zero on GBA)

The animations aren't 100% perfect, but they're about the best I'm going to manage without pulling my hair out.  The hitboxes will be slightly off as the Megaman sprites are a decent bit bigger than the Raya and Samantha sprites are, but it doesn't affect gameplay all that much.  And yes, Harpitula flies instead of walking, like he does in the game.

I'll try to post some screenshots later.



PS: Thanks to Arturia for showing me a decent format to post this release in!



EDIT: I'll have to do some touching up later on Harpitula.  I missed a few stray pixels.  And when he's flying up a slope, it looks like he's going face-first into the dirt!  Whoops!
: Re: Megaman X
: Tallgeese May 05, 2012, 09:36:07 PM
Hey, this is pretty cute. My compliments.

I wonder how using the Playstation-era X4 to X6 sprites would look?
: Re: Megaman X
: nanostrike May 06, 2012, 12:51:10 AM
Hey, this is pretty cute. My compliments.

I wonder how using the Playstation-era X4 to X6 sprites would look?

I was actually trying it with them a bit.  I have full X4, X5, and X6 sprite sheets.  They look great, but the trick is that they have a LOT more animation frames, so it's a bit harder to work them in.

The SNES-era Sprites typically have about 9 or 10 walking frames, max.  You can have 22 walking frames per character in AVWW.  So I just double up a couple of frames, loop the ends, and it's good to go.

But with the Playstation ones, they tend to have between 16 and 18 frames of animation for a walk.  You have to double up just a few frames instead of all of them.  And if you double up the wrong ones, it makes things look really awkward.  They're also more detailed and a lot harder to align.

Not sayin' they're impossible...and hell, I intend to do a few down the road.  But they're a good bit harder.  I've got plenty of other character models to replace, though, so down the road I'll definitely be doing that!



Any advice on a good graphics-editing program that might help align animations?  I've been using GIMP (Basically open-source Photoshop), but it's kinda tricky.
: Re: Megaman X
: Tallgeese May 06, 2012, 06:00:17 PM
Mmm... there's GIF Movie Gear, but that's about it. I tthink that's pay too though.

It seems most animation tools are strictly pay-to-use.

Did you ever get an answer to the question of whether "you have to use 22 frames" from the developers?

Also, about the X4-X6 sprites... have you considered using the Tween command on some frames? Does GIMP have it?

Make an animated GIF, tween between frames you think would look good, there's your extra frames.
: Re: Megaman X
: nanostrike May 07, 2012, 01:20:46 AM
Mmm... there's GIF Movie Gear, but that's about it. I tthink that's pay too though.

It seems most animation tools are strictly pay-to-use.

Did you ever get an answer to the question of whether "you have to use 22 frames" from the developers?

Also, about the X4-X6 sprites... have you considered using the Tween command on some frames? Does GIMP have it?

Make an animated GIF, tween between frames you think would look good, there's your extra frames.

I didn't get an answer from the devs about the frames, but I'm assuming that it is indeed hard-coded in.  Unfortunate.  But workable, I guess.


I'll see if GIMP has Tweens.  I believe it might.  The pain-in-the-ass part is getting it to put every frame in the proper spot on 128x128 spaces.  I'm not 100% sure how to get it to do that automatically.  I'm positive there's a way.  I just need to do some digging.



Also, I've really gone crazy on the sprite modding stuff.  I'm making all sorts of video game characters into playable characters on here.

So far, I've added Samus Aran from Metroid, a modded megaman sprite turned into Iron Man (Just saw the Avengers and was inspired!), and Sparkster from Rocket Knight Adventures.

I also turned those atrocious (No offense, devs!  I just personally hate their looks and animations!) Skelebot models into Gundams (For the big ones) and Front Mission Wanzers (For the little ones).  I'll probably keep adding more as I get bored.  It's more of an "I'm sick of seeing the default models" than anything else at this point.

I also gave each model a customized Ghost of a more intimidating look than the standard ones.  The standard ones are just grey and floating.  Mine use a frame from the death animation of the model, tinted black and dark red, with glowing crimson eyes.  They actually look out to get you!



EDIT: GIMP doesn't have that by default, but it has a downloadable animation package.  I'm gonna see what I can do with it.
: Re: Megaman X
: Tallgeese May 07, 2012, 04:27:09 AM
Wait, are you editing these dictionaries by hand? The devs provided a tool for arranging PNGs into dictionaries here: http://www.arcengames.com/forums/index.php?topic=8548.0
: Re: Megaman X
: nanostrike May 07, 2012, 11:35:27 AM
Wait, are you editing these dictionaries by hand? The devs provided a tool for arranging PNGs into dictionaries here: http://www.arcengames.com/forums/index.php?topic=8548.0

Yeah, I've been doing it by hand.

I saw the tool and it's nice...but the problem is that I'm not using multiple individual images.  I'm usually cutting everything from Sprite Sheets and such.  And at that point, it's easier to just paste it into a template than save them to individual frames, then convert them.  At least so far.

I'm curious as to how their program would handle odd numbers of frames, though!  If I only had 7 frame images, how would it try to put that into the 22 frames of walking animation?
: Re: Megaman X
: Tallgeese May 07, 2012, 02:29:38 PM
Well, it obviously wouldn't be perfect, but you could do something like...

123456712345671234567

21 frames.  If ambitious, tween between 1 and 7 and stick it on the end! Or just dupe 1 there.
: Re: Megaman X
: nanostrike May 08, 2012, 01:39:58 AM
Well, it obviously wouldn't be perfect, but you could do something like...

123456712345671234567

21 frames.  If ambitious, tween between 1 and 7 and stick it on the end! Or just dupe 1 there.

I'm working in a similar way.  It's not too bad when you have only a few frames.  It starts to get messy when you have around 8 or so, though.

2 loops of 8 is only 16 frames, and a third loop would bring it to 24.  So you have to try and drop some frames without it looking strange.  It gets even worse with more detailed animations.

I generally have the best luck with animations that have 4 frames or 10 frames.

For 4, I use the pattern of

1112223334441112223334.  It makes it loop only twice, because having several loops of 4 animation frames gets some crazy Sonic The Hedgehog-looking running effects.

And 10 frames is easy because you literally just run the animation twice, then dupe the starting and ending frames.



Of course the most fun I've had are ones where I can "Cheat", by only using a single frame or two of animation by having characters hover or glide along the ground.  It usually looks pretty decent if I do it right.
: Re: Megaman X
: nanostrike May 08, 2012, 08:03:18 PM
I've actually gotten some of the Megaman 4-6 sprites in the game and working properly now.  I've got quite a few new characters in now.

Bronze Age: Sprites from Tales of Fantasia.  Male Swordsman and Thief, Female Cleric and Archer.
Pre-Industrial: Ironman, Sparkster (From Rocket Knight), and Samus Aran
Industrial Revolution: Zero, X, and Armored X (All from Megaman X 1-3), and Harpula (From Megaman Zero 2)
Contemporary: Generic Soldiers from Metal Slug (Wanted to give it a somewhat realistic-time period feel)
Ice Age: X, Zero, X in Falcon Armor, and X in Blade Armor.
Time After Humans: A Wanzer from Front Mission (Forgot which one), and Wing Gundam (Needed something bulky and tall)


I'm in the process of turning the Heat, Advanced Heat, and Frost suits into the Ride Armors from Megaman X.
: Re: Megaman X
: Tallgeese May 08, 2012, 08:18:17 PM
Wing Gundam? Not Tallgeese, which is the biggest and bulkiest (and best) suit in that series? For shame.

...Of course I may be slightly (but only slightly) biased.
: Re: Megaman X
: nanostrike May 08, 2012, 09:48:46 PM
Wing Gundam? Not Tallgeese, which is the biggest and bulkiest (and best) suit in that series? For shame.

...Of course I may be slightly (but only slightly) biased.

It was the first one I could find the proper sprites for, unfortunately.  You find me a good quality Talgeese sprite sheet and I'll definitely put it in instead.
: Re: Megaman X
: Tallgeese May 08, 2012, 10:34:24 PM
I see your point. Nobody's ripped Tallgeese from Endless Duel. Huh.

Or are you using Gundam Battle Assault or such?
: Re: Megaman X
: nanostrike May 08, 2012, 10:58:29 PM
I see your point. Nobody's ripped Tallgeese from Endless Duel. Huh.

Or are you using Gundam Battle Assault or such?

Nah.  Endless Duel.  This is the sprite sheet I used:

http://sdb.drshnaps.com/display.php?object=11602



They only have 4 complete sheets ripped that I've seen with my searches.  Epyon, Sandrock, Wing Gundam, and Heavy Arms.  Wing Gundam was the first one I stumbled across, so it was the one I did.  I might go back and use Epyon or Heavy Arms instead as I think they're cooler than Wing Gundam.

Unfortunately, the only Tallgeese sprite sheet I can find are the Chibi-style abominations from Super Robot Wars.  And I really don't want something looking like this in my game:

http://sdb.drshnaps.com/display.php?object=1735




EDIT: After a bit more digging, I think I found one.  This look about right?
http://www.majhost.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=647749
: Re: Megaman X
: Tallgeese May 08, 2012, 11:21:42 PM
Here's something for you that might be a bit better. Some person ripped the sprites into individual frames for MUGEN. Just magic wand the pink background off.

Here you go.
: Re: Megaman X
: nanostrike May 09, 2012, 03:47:23 AM
I'll see what I can do with those tomorrow
: Re: Megaman X
: nanostrike May 09, 2012, 01:50:08 PM
Done.  I'm a lot happier with how Tallgeese turned out than Wing Gundam.


http://dl.dropbox.com/u/71356504/TallGeese.rar


It replaces the Neutral Skelebot (Which is, oddly enough, the tall one.  At least in the game files).  Unfortunately, the skelebot sprites' large size means it had to be sized at 256x256 instead of the normal 128x128...so unless you manually halve the size, you won't be able to use it for anything but the Neutral Skelebot.
: Re: Megaman X
: Tallgeese May 09, 2012, 01:55:18 PM
That is pretty cool.

What is your resizing process anyway?
: Re: Megaman X
: nanostrike May 09, 2012, 06:20:51 PM
That is pretty cool.

What is your resizing process anyway?

It's very rare that I see a sprite larger than 64x64, so I select as close to the sprite as I can and paste it fully within in a 128x128 frame (Or 256x256, in the case of the Skelebot).

Then I select the entire frame and resize it to double it's size.  Then I crop around the sprite and center it.  So long as it's not bigger than 64x64, doubling it will still let it fit within a 128x128 frame.


If a sprite is too big (155x110, for example) to fit in the frame, I'll scale down the larger side enough for it to fit in the frame, but make sure to keep the aspect ration.  This can make some sprites look too awkward to actually put in (As long sprites will tend to be super-short due to this!), so I tend to have to look for the right sized ones.

I've been doing most of this manually because I'm really bad at GIMP scripting (My last 2 scripts crashed it!), but it could easily be scripted.  I'm guessing Photoshop probably has such scripts integrated.
: Re: Megaman X (And more) Character Pack
: nanostrike May 09, 2012, 08:08:10 PM
Okay.  I've got it more-or-less finished because messing with sprites more than I already have is gonna make my head spin.  Some of the animations aren't perfect, but hell, they're the best I could do in about a day or so with an open source picture editor and google image search.  So, without further delay....

My improved character megapack.  If you're wondering why it's "Improved"...lets just say you haven't seen some of the atrocious walking animations in my old version.

Ever wanted to prowl the frozen wastes as a mutant crab?  No?  Well...now you can.


TO INSTALL:
Download - http://dl.dropbox.com/u/71356504/A%20Valley%20Without%20Wind/Improved%20Megapack.rar

Extract the folder and place in steamapps\common\a valley without wind\RuntimeData\Texture Packs

Run the game.  Under Options-> Graphics, there will be a Texture Packs Option.  Select Improved Megapack from the list and click the Save button.


It replaces quite a few different characters.  If you want to replace a different one with a different image, you can just rename them.  But the the ones I've done are:


BRONZE AGE:
Boris1 - Male Swordsman (Tales of The World 3)
Boris2 - Male Thief (Tales of the World 3)
Valeria1 - Female Cleric (Tales of the World 3)
Valeria2 - Female Archer (Tales of the World 3)

PRE-INDUSTRIAL AGE:
Justin1 - Iron Man (Altered Megaman X Sprite)
Justin2 - War Machine (Altered Megaman X Sprite)
Melody1 - Sparkster (Rocket Knight Adventures)
Melody2 - Samus Aran in Gravity Suit (Super Metroid) ((I had more Samus sprites, but I accidentally saved over them!))

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AGE:
Raya1 - X (Megaman X1)
Raya2 - Zero (Megaman X1)
Samantha1 - X in Armor (Megaman X1)
Samantha2 - Sage Harpula (Megaman Zero 2)

CONTEMPORARY AGE:
Jack1 - Special Ops Trooper (Metal Slug 5)
Jack2 - Special Ops Trooper recolor (Metal Slug 5)
Lawrie1 - Rifle Soldier (Metal Slug 1)
Lawrie2 - Rifle Soldier recolor (Metal Slug 1)

ICE AGE:
Darrell1 - Zero (Megaman X4)
Darrell2 - X in Blade Armor (Megaman X5)
Dave1 - X (Megaman X4)
Dave2 - Enemy Crab (Metal Slug 3.  See my profile pic!)
Richard1 - X in Falcon Armor (Megaman X5)
Richard2 - X in Shadow Armor (Megaman X5)

POST-HUMAN AGE:
SkelebotMale - Power Loader (From the Aliens arcade game)
SkelebotNeutral - Tallgeese (From Gundam Wing: Endless Duel)

OTHER:
Snowsuit (Male and Female) - Hawk Ride Armor (Megaman X4)
Heatsuit (Male and Female) - Kangaroo Ride Armor (Megaman X4)
Heatsuit Advanced (Male and Female) - Vile's Custom Ride Armor (Megaman X4)
Snowsuit, Heatsuit, and Heatsuit Advanced Icons are changed to their Ride Armors, as noted above.

GHOSTS:
Most characters I added in have a new, unique ghost for their model.  I forgot it for some characters (Like the crab!), but most have them.  And they're a bit more intimidating-looking than the Obi-Wan-Kenobi style Ghosts the game came with.



WHEW.  I think that's everything.  I probably left some temp files and assorted junk in there somewhere because I wasn't paying attention, so there might be some alternate sprites and whatnot.  Anyway, all credit for the sprites goes to the original designers of their respective games and whatever graphically-inclined folks ripped them out of those games.  Feel free to use 'em.  It really does give a different feel to the game.
: Re: Megaman X (And more) Character Pack
: Tallgeese May 09, 2012, 09:26:22 PM
Just a tip: when you exactly double or quadruple sprite size, you want to use nearest neighbor resizing for best result. For some mad reason, that is basically the only time nearest neighbor is any good!
: Re: Megaman X (And more) Character Pack
: nanostrike May 10, 2012, 12:08:49 AM
Yeah, I usually do.

Ugh.  Just fired the game  up and realized I uploaded the version where I had my Megaman X sprites crossed over.  The Megaman X4 model gets smaller when he's not walking due to a frame mix-up!  Whoops.  Most people probably wouldn't even notice, but I do and it drives me nuts!
: Re: Megaman X (And more) Character Pack
: Tallgeese May 10, 2012, 12:48:30 AM
That has to stink... good luck fixing it.

Also, aren't the ride armors from X3, not 4?
: Re: Megaman X (And more) Character Pack
: nanostrike May 10, 2012, 02:18:15 AM
That has to stink... good luck fixing it.

Also, aren't the ride armors from X3, not 4?

Probably.  I get all my numbers mixed up.  It was an easy fix.  I just had to scale up the non-walking frames.  The non-walking stuff is super simple.  It's the walking animations that are a royal pain in the rear.

A lot of walking animations aren't that great to begin with and when you try and stretch them out for 22 frames, they look atrocious.  In general, I've found that it's usually best to extend it into one really long animation loop rather than have a couple of little loops, though.  Otherwise it gets the "Spinning feet" effect of sonic the hedgehog and generally looks like the character is unsable and about to explode.


Oddly enough, I think I'm happiest with that Crab model from Metal Slug.  I dunno why, but it just fits.  It'd be really awesome to have an official crab-person Survivor you could play as, with natural Acid Gills.