Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Custom Skins => Topic started by: Vraciu on September 16, 2020, 12:31:51 PM
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Well, I threw my version of GIMP onto my flash drive so I could put it on my laptop while on the road and as luck would have it the transfer was corrupted. I think I was using 2.06 but I don't recall.
Can someone point me to an easy location to find a version that will let me convert my PSP files to the proper bit count? I don't need it to do anything else so old iterations are fine with me. :salute
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In the "PaintShop Pro vs Photoshop CS5 advice and thoughts" thread Shuffler posted this link which includes all the Gimp 2.x versions:
https://download.gimp.org/pub/gimp/v2.0/
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In the "PaintShop Pro vs Photoshop CS5 advice and thoughts" thread Shuffler posted this link which includes all the Gimp 2.x versions:
https://download.gimp.org/pub/gimp/v2.0/
I tried that but I can't figure out how to install it.
Zip files used to be so straightforward. Unzip. Click setup. Done. I am totally lost on this one...
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I got Spikes to host a download of Gimp 2.6 on my squad forum.
I'll PM you the details.
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Received with my thanks. I had the version number wrong. Facepalm.
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2.6 is the version I use.
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2.6 is the version I use.
I believe that's the same with me because you told me to. :rofl
Thanks again.
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Okay, I got GIMP, thanks, D5, but it is not recognizing Paintshop Pro files. It wants a plugin.
I think when I reinstalled GIMP at home the software sought out the plugin automatically, so either it already existed on my system, I have a setting wrong for it to do the search, or I was using 2.6 and not 2.6.12.
On another note, what does Hitech have to do to get the headers to work right without us having to do this conversion? I'm afraid one of these days I'll wind up having to reinstall everything on my computer at home and it won't work any longer because something went missing.
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I've never had to open PSP files so I know nothing of how the pligin is supposed to work.
I know the Nvidia normal map plugin does not work in GIMP. I have to use Photoshop CS2 to convert grayscale maps into normal maps.
But that's the only issue I have when using GIMP. Everything else about 2.6 works perfectly with AH3.
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Okay, I got GIMP, thanks, D5, but it is not recognizing Paintshop Pro files. It wants a plugin.
I think when I reinstalled GIMP at home the software sought out the plugin automatically, so either it already existed on my system, I have a setting wrong for it to do the search, or I was using 2.6 and not 2.6.12.
On another note, what does Hitech have to do to get the headers to work right without us having to do this conversion? I'm afraid one of these days I'll wind up having to reinstall everything on my computer at home and it won't work any longer because something went missing.
I'm confused, why do you need to load PSP files into Gimp? I just save the file as a 24-bit bmp in PSP and then load this bmp into Gimp, add a transparency layer and then re-save it as a 32-bit bmp.
HT fixed the problem with the offline game and skin viewer not being able to read current Gimp bmps correctly some time ago. There may possibly still be an issue with the program that converts our files into a "res" file for online use but its a moot point as there is no way to submit a skin with the newer header size anyway. This is because the Skins Admin site rejects skins saved with any version of Gimp later than 2.06 for having some files with the wrong bit count. Apparently re-writing the page to accept files with a range of sizes is not a trivial task.
So currently we have to use 2.06. Or use a later version of Gimp to convert the bmp and then re-save this bmp with MS Paint, which restores the older header size.
For normal maps I've installed the Nvidia plug-in directly into PSP.
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I'm confused, why do you need to load PSP files into Gimp? I just save the file as a 24-bit bmp in PSP and then load this bmp into Gimp, add a transparency layer and then re-save it as a 32-bit bmp.
Because this method doesn't work for me on any version of GIMP or PSP.
I have to merge all my layers in PSP, add a transparent layer, save that as a PSP file, then open that in GIMP to convert into a 32-bit BMP.
Neither method above is working on my laptop. I even downloaded PSP5 to do it exactly as I do on my computer at home and I'm getting a distorted skin in the game--looks fine in the viewer. I've tried PSP7 as well. No dice.
HT fixed the problem with the offline game and skin viewer not being able to read current Gimp bmps correctly some time ago. There may possibly still be an issue with the program that converts our files into a "res" file for online use but its a moot point as there is no way to submit a skin with the newer header size anyway. This is because the Skins Admin site rejects skins saved with any version of Gimp later than 2.06 for having some files with the wrong bit count. Apparently re-writing the page to accept files with a range of sizes is not a trivial task.
So currently we have to use 2.06. Or use a later version of Gimp to convert the bmp and then re-save this bmp with MS Paint, which restores the older header size.
For normal maps I've installed the Nvidia plug-in directly into PSP.
The MS Paint step is an extra one for me. I don't have to do this at home using PSP5 with GIMP as described above. I will try Paint on the laptop, though, and see if it fixes the problem. If not then I'm hosed on finalizing skins until I get back home.
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To be clear. I use GIMP 2.6, not 2.06.
2.6 has no issue with files being saved as 32bit in GIMP and being submitted to HTC.
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To be clear. I use GIMP 2.6, not 2.06.
2.6 has no issue with files being saved as 32bit in GIMP and being submitted to HTC.
Well, it's not working on this machine.
I'm wondering if it's the game install causing it and not the conversion.
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When you save as BMP you should see this window pop up.
(https://i.postimg.cc/Sjbn6rWM/Gimp-1.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
Make sure you do indeed have "Merge Visible Layers" selected and you are pressing "Export"
You should then get this window. Click on the "Advanced Options" to get see which bit rate and encryption you are using.
(https://i.postimg.cc/h4f5hqpm/Gimp-2.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
You want 32 bits A8 R8 G8 B8
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Yup. That's what I'm doing. No dice.
I may email you my file and have you open it in the game. That would tell me if it's the game or the process.
It's wrapping the skin in the most bizarre manner. Viewer looks okay though.
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Sure. Send it.
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Oh, wait. I still can't get GIMP to open he PSP file in order to convert it... So I'm basically stuck.
Gonna' try one more technique. I think I ultimately need a PSP plugin though.
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I figured it out--for now. I created a BMP in PSP7, then opened it in GIMP. I added the transparent layer and saved it as 32-bit. I did go ahead and open it in PAINT then saved it again. I had the problem the same as before until I went into graphics settings and changed the texture size from 512 to 4096.
I'm confused, why do you need to load PSP files into Gimp? I just save the file as a 24-bit bmp in PSP and then load this bmp into Gimp, add a transparency layer and then re-save it as a 32-bit bmp.
HT fixed the problem with the offline game and skin viewer not being able to read current Gimp bmps correctly some time ago. There may possibly still be an issue with the program that converts our files into a "res" file for online use but its a moot point as there is no way to submit a skin with the newer header size anyway. This is because the Skins Admin site rejects skins saved with any version of Gimp later than 2.06 for having some files with the wrong bit count. Apparently re-writing the page to accept files with a range of sizes is not a trivial task.
So currently we have to use 2.06. Or use a later version of Gimp to convert the bmp and then re-save this bmp with MS Paint, which restores the older header size.
For normal maps I've installed the Nvidia plug-in directly into PSP.
So, as long as I open and SAVE versus SAVE AS (which doesn't give me a 32-bit option, only 24) then it remains 32-bit?
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Devil's Gimp 2.6 and my 2.06 are the same thing, I just got used to phrasing it that way in BBS threads so it was obvious it is a prior version to Gimp 2.10. I'll stop doing it now as its just confusing people.
My method is to save the 24-bit bmp in PSP, open this bmp in Gimp, then "Layer/New Layer", check the "Transparency" button is selected, then hit "OK". Then with 2.6 I hit "File/Save as" (with 2.10 its changed to "Export as"), then click on the various windows' buttons that come up to save it. With 2.10 I then open this file in MS Paint and hit the save icon.
I just did a test with 2.6 and 2.10 plus Paint on both a 1024 res and 2048 res file. Having re-saved the file using Gimp I right clicked on its desktop icon and selected "Properties" in order to check the "Size" stat in bytes. These are the results:-
Gimp 2.6 32-bit 1024 res file:- 4,194,360 bytes
Gimp 2.10 32-bit 1024 res file:- 4,194,442 bytes
Gimp 2.6 32-bit 2048 res file:- 16,777,270 bytes
Gimp 2.10 32-bit 2048 res file:- 16,777,354 bytes
In both cases opening the 2.10 file in MS Paint and hitting the "Save" icon restored the size to the same as the 2.6 file. So if you want to make sure your 32-bit files are OK to submit just make sure their size matches the 2.6 results above.
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Good stuff. Thank you for the data.