Graphical Modifications.

[NRN_R_Sumo1]

Hey, I was wondering if anyone has done any graphical mod's and released them xD..

I know of course I can rename files and switch them around and such. (Already switched my troop inventory pic to the civilians one) but is there a way to make the Actual unit running around look like lets say.. a Megapol cop or a Cult Member? :o

If someone could manage to figure out the graphical system and POSSIBLY make an Application for it,

So many people would Heart them :3

I sadly suck with programming as many people do. :X

I do however understand most of it, Just not to the extent of making my own codes and decent programs..

 

[j'ordos]

It's probably possible, not sure if anyone knows how (perhaps it can even be done by switching some files around?), but to see the effects you'd have to run around without armour. So in a normal game you'd (almost) never see it.

[NRN_R_Sumo1]

Why not simply change the armour to an invisable texture?

Or like a single pixel..?..

Im fairly sure the graphics of all weapons and armour are turn layers, meaning that they simply stack onto the person in whatever way they are facing, giving them the appearance of being 3-dimensional

 

Well, if I knew the formats of all programs I could do this easily myself and save everyone some time.. Is there a list somewhere?

 

Edit: Well I figured out that the TAB's DAT's and PCK's files most likely contain the graphics.. havent yet tested these yet, but I would love to be able to find a program that could ATLEAST open them.. Grr.. Im thinking Dat contains the information for switching animations, Tab's most likely contain info on inventory settings, and Pck would be the actual Graphics..

Ill be testing the next few minutes by changing my troops into gangsters :X

Edited January 20, 2007 by NRN_R_Sumo1

[NRN_R_Sumo1]

Ehh.. didnt work I messed up.. xD

I ended up freezing the game.. although if someone else wants to try, Go for it! My version is fairly messed around with, so try a Vanilla copy

[[NKF]]

There is a program that can open them. XED - however I believe it may not be able to run too well on some of the more modern PCs.

 

Note, using the same conventions as the .tab and .pck files used in UFO and TFTD: the PCKs hold the actual animation images. It's basically one big bitmap with all the animation frames. The TAB files tell where each of the images in the bitmap begin. Tabs, see?

 

Note however that the PCK files aren't exactly the same format as the ones used by UFO/TFTD. I'm guessing it uses a 16-bit pixel format as opposed to UFO/TFTD's palette indexes. I'm just guessing here. What I'm getting at is that the pck viewers used by UFO/TFTD may not necessarily be compatible, unless someone can correct me on this.

 

- NKF

[NRN_R_Sumo1]

Nkf, please provide links D:

Kthx <3

 

edit: Well.. I managed to find a dead link somewheres on heres :X

http://www.dwcs.net/xcom3/index.html

not very useful though being Dead..

Edit: Found a useful one.. YAY GOOGLE

Edited January 23, 2007 by NRN_R_Sumo1

[[NKF]]

It might help to post the link for the benefit of those that don't have it, eh? Or maybe we could get it hosted in the file section. I hope it's the 1.4alpha or greater, as you could edit vehicle equipment with that. Very nice.

 

Anyway, if you manage to get it running, check out all the unused sprites. Especially check out the bruiser sprites that go with the cultists and gangsters. Looks like they were going to have some tough-uns, and the cultists seem to have a third high priest unit too. The android civilian (with its separate head) looked promising too.

 

Sad how there's just so much in there that's gone to waste.

 

- NKF

[NRN_R_Sumo1]

Oh.. I never got it to work.. :X

Turns out they werent for Apoc, but for Ufo x.x..

God DAMMIT!

I want to mess around with X-Com sooooooooooo Badlyyyyy.. but nopeee D:

Grr@X-Com's file formatting, Why couldnt they have used Gif's or Bmps?

..Actually.. Is there a way of CONVERTING the Pck files into Bmps? :O

Because that would be INSANELY Useful..

 

Edit: http://www.mpimf-heidelberg.mpg.de/~kabsch.../xds_files.html

Could it be X-Com was built on this program?? :O

Or mabye something Similar, because the Pck files here show about the same description.. I HEART GOOGLE ONCE AGAIN!

 

Edit: "Information exchange between processing steps of XDS

Files with the extension .pck are binary, compressed images"

 

Binary Images eh? :o

Binary sounds like Dos, X-Com is Dos.. Im seeing connections here.. :X

Now just to find out what this XDS program is, and Ill try messing around with it I suppose.

 

 

Edit: Well I found the XDS program, turns out its a COMPILER

So it is Very likely that X-Com uses something similer x3

http://www.excelsior-usa.com/xdsdl.html

And to OUR LUCK! The Whole product line is FREEEEEEEEEE

So even if you have moral issues, you can still get it :3

Just simply go to the bottom of the page, Just noticed its a little hard to find x_x..

 

I am currently unaware of the functions of the two seperate programs, and their add ons.. No harm in getting all 4 files I suppose? :X

 

Edit: So there was harm in getting both >.>...

Installation instructions

Rule of thumb: install the main package first, then install its TSCP add-on.

 

Windows

Launch the downloaded executable and follow the on-line prompts.

 

You may install Native XDS-x86 and XDS-C in the same directory and switch between them as follows:

 

Open the XDS IDE and select the Configure/Tools menu item.

In the XDS executable field, specify either the Native XDS-x86 compiler (xc.exe) or the XDS-C compiler (xm.exe).

Click OK.

 

.. God Im such a tool D:

Edited January 29, 2007 by NRN_R_Sumo1

[NRN_R_Sumo1]

Well, Im still clueless on it.. those programs I found didnt work at all.. D:

Its a shame though...

All I really need is a program to Convert these files into Jpg's Bmp's Gif's or somthing along those lines.. Grawrrrrrrrrrr..

I suppose Little Fighters 2 is a good example for the way these animations work according to J'ordos.

..if youre interested in finding out what I mean, just DL it.. xD..

I have it uploaded, along with a Leiro Sprite, both of them seem to demonstrate what J'ordos described. Just in slightl differant ways.

 

On a side note, here is a party

rudolf_0.bmp

[j'ordos]

Hehe, good old liero...

 

It seems you haven't tried XED yet? You can find a link for it here:

http://freelancer.ag.ru/gamearchive/download/index_eng.shtml (scroll down to see the apoc section)

Also has a mod that changes equip & tactical pic to the anthropod. From the description it looks like it can be done just by swapping files. Should be the same for organisations.

Yeah the animations work pretty much that way, but IIRC every there's a seperate image for each body part too.

 

edit: that site also has a program called 'PCK manipulator'. Never tried it, but it sounds good

Edited January 31, 2007 by j'ordos

[NRN_R_Sumo1]

XED doesnt Manipulate Pck files last I checked Jordos

Thanks for the site by the way, Looks very useful xD

Oh and it seems There IS a Graphics mod, but only for weapons apparently.. I dont wanna mess around with that right now though, I wanna dig into the Applictions xD

Hmm.. the play as aliens think looks Semi-interesting, Gonna have fun putting megapol armour on a skelitoid xD

 

Edit: ..it would seem XED doesnt work for some reason x_X

 

Pck Manipulator works great, Next post Is going to be a list of what all the things contain xD

 

Edit: To avoid feeling stupid.. I was thinking of the vehicle editor XED not the Pck appliction.

Edited February 2, 2007 by NRN_R_Sumo1

[NRN_R_Sumo1]

The Alien Folder has all the repsecting Alien animations inside.

The Unit folder has all of the tactical units in it, aside from the aliens who have thier own, Go figure.

The Civ folder doesnt appear important, but I checked it out anyhow.. Its all useless, I cant get into it x_X

 

The Animate file is all just Doors.

Descurs is not decodable as well..

Game objects is the view of weapons you dropped on the ground, such as Grenades xD Alot cant be decoded.

GFloor causes a crash, but for now Im assuming the obvious, its the floor. the program says it lacks a .Tab

But since its a Floor, does it really need an animation controller?..

Icon is non-decodable, although the Icon_m is partially

OShadow is Non-decodable.. wewt.. but its obviously the shadows xD..

PTANG causes a crash, Allocation error of sorts..

Statico, is the strategic map of course, This part seems Very friendly to me since I can access all of the little pentagonal shapes XD..

This project is slightly depressing :\..

Tacbut, Dude its the buttons, and Im loving it xD

Also contains the badges and rank images, its essentially the interfacing part of the interface xD

VS_Icon, contains some Very useless graphics, I have never seen these in the game and I am Glad xD..

Although, I think the one stick man is the one you see when units travel through tunnels

 

And that was the TacData folder.

and all of its Pck files.

 

Now for the UFOData Folder, Oh boy ..

agntico contains all of the tactical interface small images, this includes the mini for inventory and even the icon for selecting agents from your base.

Alien contains the Alien Terrain images.

Alien_s contains miniture versions.. Im starting to think you can zoom out insanely in Xcom.. O_o..

Armor contains INVENTORY Images of the armour for equipping.

Base contains the Corridor map, in which you can build facilities

BigVeh contains the side graphics of the equip vehicles screen.

SmallVeh appears to be the same images but turned into a north facing direction rather than east.

City contains the human cityscape graphics

Cityovr appears to be the same thing, but there must be a reason they are seperated.. Mabye these ones float some how? Support other colums?..

Contico has images of the aliens in containment. "Cont(ainment)ico(n)"

Descurs seems to be.. either invisable guidelines of sorts, or proof of a micropose map builder being removed at some point? :X

Icon_M seems to have low res icons for Xcom? ._. Odd.. part of mapbuilder? XD

Icon_S seems to be buttons .. Again mabye map builder..

Icons, more of those low res icons.. X_X

God I am SO Suspicious of there being a map builder.

Newbut, Cityscape interface button graphics... mabye this being Newbuttons the others are from the Beta version?..

Over-a is the torso of the overspawn

over-b is the legs

Cant decode Over-s, but I am guessing Shadows since they seem to be undecodable..

Ped-But, Alert buttons.

Pequip, the equiping images that appear in the stores container during agent equipping screens.

Photo, the large images on the left side of equip agents screens.

Ptang.. Explosions and warp gates, alien ship tubes also.

Saucer, of course! the SAUCERS WITH ANIMATIONS!! Oh Lordy lord.. ..

Oh, wait.. its ALL the vehicles during movement and combat xD

Shadow, more undecodable Shadows..

StratMap, more of the Strat map Pentagonals. Oh, and the images of the tops of the roofs used.

Vehequip Weapons and Engines for vehicles, sheilds and stuff too.

Vehicle LAND based Vehicles.

VS_Icon More interface graphics, including organisations

VS_Obs, no Tab. unviewable *shrugs*

 

The Maps folder contains Terrains associated with the file. Im getting bored of doing this so Im just summerizing the maps as what they are called

 

And sorry for any inconveniance reading, although I DID you just save an hour of searching.

If anyone wants to clean up this list and repost it, *COUGH* Jordos*COUGH* you very well can.

I totally think we should be able to figure out how to EXTRACT and EDIT the files from here :X

It appears that most of the Animation graphics work out by numbers being run off, turn left, file 34. right, 23. Just an example.

[NRN_R_Sumo1]

..man I just did an hour of that.. Im Pooped.