Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Custom Skins => Topic started by: Greebo on December 06, 2019, 08:44:52 AM
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I just tested Gimp 2.10.12 with the latest version of AH and can confirm that HT has fixed the issue the game was having with its bmps. Both the 24-bit and 32-bit bmps output from 2.10 now view correctly, without the "shifted a few pixels to the right" problem.
Paint.Net's 24-bit bmps also view correctly but its 32-bit bmps are still offset. Hopefully that will get sorted next time, even though no one is currently using this program for skinning. I tested it because its the only other free editor I could find that can output a 32-bit bmp. The offset seems to be caused by the various formats of bmp header produced by different editor programs. So although other editors out there may also have similar problems, for future AH skinning the above two editors should be the only ones we need to worry about.
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Awesome. But I’m not a GIMP fan so it would be nice if PSPro could save in a compatible 32-bit format. :bhead
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At least it's 32bit png format works for the reticles I've created in another game. I never needed 32bit for AH gunsights or terrains so I only recently discovered paint.net had added 32bit support. I suppose paint.net could be used for skins now.
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Awesome. But I’m not a GIMP fan so it would be nice if PSPro could save in a compatible 32-bit format. :bhead
I recently posted in the Wish List for PSP 2021 (https://forum.corel.com/EN/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=65824&start=15) thread in Corel's PSP forum with my suggestions for the next version, one of which was for 32-bit bmp output. The problem is that since Corel took over from JASC the development of PSP has focused almost exclusively around digital photograph editing and I guess bmp image output is not a priority for that. Still, if you were to add another request for 32-bit bmps it couldn't hurt.
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I recently posted in the Wish List for PSP 2021 (https://forum.corel.com/EN/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=65824&start=15) thread in Corel's PSP forum with my suggestions for the next version, one of which was for 32-bit bmp output. The problem is that since Corel took over from JASC the development of PSP has focused almost exclusively around digital photograph editing and I guess bmp image output is not a priority for that. Still, if you were to add another request for 32-bit bmps it couldn't hurt.
Do you have a link you recommend? I'll throw my vote in.
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The link is in my previous post, just click on "Wish List for PSP 2021". Whether anyone in Corel's development team bothers to read that thread is another issue, but if you don't ask, you don't get.
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True.
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It seems there may still be a problem with using the latest version of Gimp for 32-bit conversions. Files generated this way look fine in the offline game and the viewer. However it seems that the program HTC uses to convert our submitted bmp files into their compressed res format reintroduces this offset issue to the skin. So for now I suggest sticking with the old version of Gimp for conversion to 32-bit format.
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I've downloaded all my P-38 skins currently in the game and can confirm that only the ones I converted to 32-bit with Gimp 2.10 have the offset issue. The game displays them correctly offline when viewed as 32-bit bmps but after submission the process of converting them to res format makes the offset bug reappear as below. The skins affected are my 8th FG/80th FS P-38L and my 18th FG/12th FS P-38J. I'll let HT know about the issue and then reconvert these two skins with Gimp 2.06 and re-submit them for the next batch.
(https://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=398613.0;attach=32051)
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OOPS! :bhead
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Good info, BTW. I've been using the old one because I am very slow to change. Still using PSP5 even though I have 7 on my computer because I don't want to learn the new one. I wonder if I am hurting myself in terms of image quality by not moving up. :headscratch:
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I'm like you and only upgrade something if there's a reason to do so. PSP I've only upgraded a couple of times over the years and am currently on version X9, I can't see anything I need in the 2020 version. Its been a long time since I used V5 but I don't recall any major changes to the way the program works so it shouldn't be too hard to upgrade. You'll need to migrate your program settings (colour palette, normal mapper links etc.) across. However the only really useful feature for skinning I can think of in X9 and later that your version lacks is a much larger tool size of 3,000 pixels. Pretty much all the other improvements to the program since Corel took over have been targeted at editing digital photographs.
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Ah, okay. So I'm not losing anything in terms of drawing capability or resolution between the versions?
Guess I'll stay put for now. I have run into my layers limit on 5. Don't know if 7 allows more or not.
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I've downloaded all my P-38 skins currently in the game and can confirm that only the ones I converted to 32-bit with Gimp 2.10 have the offset issue. The game displays them correctly offline when viewed as 32-bit bmps but after submission the process of converting them to res format makes the offset bug reappear as below. The skins affected are my 8th FG/80th FS P-38L and my 18th FG/12th FS P-38J. I'll let HT know about the issue and then reconvert these two skins with Gimp 2.06 and re-submit them for the next batch.
(https://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=398613.0;attach=32051)
Well, this is less than ideal.
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Ah, okay. So I'm not losing anything in terms of drawing capability or resolution between the versions?
Guess I'll stay put for now. I have run into my layers limit on 5. Don't know if 7 allows more or not.
The P-38L skin I am working on currently has 178 layers, although a fair few of those are layers I used to create other layers and could be deleted now if needed. I've never run into a layer limit with X9 and can't see one listed in the help file. One other advantage of X9 is that it is 64-bit rather than IIRC 32-bit for v5. This means it can handle very large files a lot better as it can address a lot more of your PC's memory without resorting to a swap file. This is much more of an advantage with some of the later 2048 by 2048 or 4096 by 2048 res AH skins as these use four or eight times the resources of a 1024 res skin.
Corel have a "Try free for 30 days" offer on PSP 2020 and you can run it alongside your current version rather than overwriting it. If you do try this make sure you test it with a copy of one of your skin files rather than the original, as there is no way of reverting that psp file back to v5 spec once it has been converted to run on 2020.
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Well, this is less than ideal.
I'm sure HT will sort it out after the holidays are over. If I am right he just has to apply his BMP fix for the game and viewer to the BMP to RES file converter. This is just a heads up in case anyone was about to submit a skin and had used 2.10 to convert it.
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The P-38L skin I am working on currently has 178 layers, although a fair few of those are layers I used to create other layers and could be deleted now if needed. I've never run into a layer limit with X9 and can't see one listed in the help file. One other advantage of X9 is that it is 64-bit rather than IIRC 32-bit for v5. This means it can handle very large files a lot better as it can address a lot more of your PC's memory without resorting to a swap file. This is much more of an advantage with some of the later 2048 by 2048 or 4096 by 2048 res AH skins as these use four or eight times the resources of a 1024 res skin.
Corel have a "Try free for 30 days" offer on PSP 2020 and you can run it alongside your current version rather than overwriting it. If you do try this make sure you test it with a copy of one of your skin files rather than the original, as there is no way of reverting that psp file back to v5 spec once it has been converted to run on 2020.
178 layers????????????????????? :O
Yeah this could explain why I occasionally crash my program while working on a skin... Maybe once I finish this one I'll try switching to something else.
Thanks for the heads up on that psp format change. :salute
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Well about 40 of those layers I could delete now. I also use some layers like masks multiple times, so probably another 30 of those layers are duplicates. Then there are separate layers for things like spoked and covered wheels, so I can just turn these layers on and off as needed. I'm just being a bit lazy here, on a 4096 by 2048 res skin I would be more careful about layer management and delete the unused layers as the file can get so big it makes PSP chug towards the end of the build even on a fast PC with lots of memory.
There is one thing that I don't like with X9 compared to v5; on the earlier version the mouse wheel zoom worked much better. It would zoom down to precisely where the mouse cursor was, while on the newer version it zooms to a point somewhere near the cursor and won't zoom into a corner at all. I find this a constant irritation even years later. Having said that the much larger tool size and superior memory handling more than makes up for this drawback and I wouldn't go back now even if I could.
The only time I have had X9 crash is if I try to use the mouse wheel zoom at the same time as I am dragging an object. Now that I have trained myself not to do this it works fine.
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This is the exact opposite reaction I get when I zoom with PSP 5. When I scroll in with the mouse it just randomly zooms in on some other point. I can't figure out why. PSP 7 zooms perfectly. At least I think so (haven't messed with it in awhile).
I wonder if I have a setting dorked up somewhere.
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I may be mis-remembering, perhaps it was v7 that zoomed this way. I used v7 for a few years after v5.
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Yeah, I think it is 7. It's the one thing that makes me want to go to 7 from 5. I'll do it one of these days.
Of course Devil keeps trying to get me to use GIMP. I should just do that and be done with it. LOL
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I like Gimp, but it's by no means perfect.
I still have to use PS CS2 to make normal maps because I could never get the Nvidia normal map plug in to work in Gimp.