Making Gun Sights?

[SKJohn]

Not sure if this is the right area to post this or not, but will give it a try.

Is there a place where it describes in detail the process used to create a new gunsight?  I'd like modify or create some of my own, but have no idea how to go about it.  Tried it in paint, but as you might guess, failed miserably.

If anybody could describe the process or tell me where to find it, I'd be very grateful!

Thanks,
SKJohn

[boomerlu]

I use GIMP - it's probably in your best interest to use some kind of more advanced free image editing program such as GIMP.

Here's my basic process.

1) Create a black background layer. Leave it alone.
2) Create a "sight" layer which will contain the primary features of the gunsight.
3) Create a "center dot" layer which will contain the center dot. Go ahead and put in the center dot (for a 256x256 sight, it's at coordinate 127,127 or 128,128).
4) Put in whatever features I want into the "sight" layer.
5) Save this file.
6) Export to BMP.
7) Flatten the BMP image.
8) Convert the BMP mode to "indexed" (in GIMP, Image->Mode->Indexed). Default settings suffice. This puts the image into 256 color mode which is REQUIRED by AH.
9) Save the final image.

[SKJohn]

Thanks Boomerlu - I'll look up GIMP and give it a try!

[boomerlu]

No problem. Keeping the layers separate is not entirely necessary, but it makes the editing easier. Same with using GIMP - just makes your life easier. You will want the layers menu enabled in GIMP.

There's a bunch of stuff you can do to make a fancier sight, but these are the basics.

BTW, the paths tool is your friend for making straight lines. To make a gun circle (like on the default sight)

1. Use elliptical select.
2. Check "expand from center".
3. Check "fixed aspect ratio, 1:1".
4. Click on the center dot, make the circle.
5. Go to Selection->Select Boundary (1 pixel is good enough).
6. Fill in the circle.

P.S., if your sight is all one color and very harsh, it may come out completely white in the game. If it does, change back to RGB mode and do Filter->Blur->Gaussian Blur (I use 1 pixel). Then change it back to indexed.

[Ghosth]

Gimp works fine, as does most any good paint program. The tricky part is taking the time to learn how to drive in it.

For just modifying an existing site I use Irfanview. www.irfanview.com or google it.
Its free, opens almost every graphics file type known to man, saves as most of them including windows icon. (so you can make your own desktop icons)

As I said its free, its very simple, easy to learn.
If all you want to do is change a color or play or make a small change its what I'd recommend.

Now if you want to make a full from scratch with an alpha layer, then yes Gimp or similar would be best.
A lot depends on what your after.

[SKJohn]

Thanks again Ghost and Boomerlu.  I'm excited to give them a try.  Rather than try re-invent the wheel, I'll probably just combine the features of a couple of different sights that I like.

[GFShill]

Why buy a piece of software when you have MS Paint pre-loaded?

1) Find a picture you like and save it as 256-color .bmp
2) re-size it to 128x128
3) change the colors to black background with a different color for the drawing parts
4) save it to c:/program files/htc/AH/sights
5) start Aces High
6) bring up the clipboard and selection Options->Preferences->Sights-> and select the gunsight and the plane you want to use it in.

[AWwrgwy]

Why buy a piece of software when you have MS Paint pre-loaded?

IIRC Gimp is free

 


wrongway

[B4Buster]

Yup, Gimp is free.