MCD Edit by volutar

[volutar]

background/foreground experiments

It's not very intuitive, and i'm kinda stuck with how to display it.

[volutar]

Ok, I think I'm gonna settle with this


Blue frame is drawn around CURRENT editable PCK, red/orange frame represents foreground graphics (current is rendered UNDER it). Dots in the center are "underlying" pixels (not seen in the sprite, but still exists, being overlapped).

[kkmic]

So you can now get a preview of the whole stuff, not only the bit you're editing? Niiiice!

[volutar]

Yes, basically it becomes able to show neighbour graphics, with slight help of what's drawn behind.
Made "q" shortcut key switching that. If you will turn ON that mode with mouse (this button at left of the palette dropdown), "q" will disable that mode (when pressed), and vice versa. I found it quite helpful.
Can edit 4,4,1 map area, save it, and load. No "map" import yet (it's quite difficult, considering it's in MCD-IDs, while this preview is in PCK-IDs and limited with single MCD set).

Undo is still limited with current tile, after switching it's reset (it will require lots of work to make it all around).
Still not able to work with preview area of size other than 4,4,1 (in todo).
Still no preview cursor of currently selected tile (in long todo, no really need of that).

[volutar]

Ok.. MAP import now works. After importing need to adjust MCD Offset to convert it into PCK# properly. Pretty easy thing.
Scrolling in the preview also works.. Just need to adjust Z level changing, and preview map resize/clear functions, and it will be... almost ready.

[volutar]

Todo:
DONE: showing contours of visible tiles in the zoomed view, so you'll see how they are joined together, and easily switch to the neighbour tile.
DONE: selecting neighbour tile with some "shortcut" button, by pointing into its pixel in the zoomed view.
--- another button to switch back (switch to previous) --- decided that it doesn't needed, since switching back and forth is really easy even without.

I wonder, if any other graphics editor capable of doing all this stuff I ALREADY  made?

[volutar]

v1.17 has been released. The URL as always https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=MCDEdit

[volutar]

Unexpected application.
Using PCK editor preview area with surroundings as "unit combiner".
How to edit PCKs? just make dummie MCD file for unit PCK, and put it into /terrain.
There are plans of making advanced PCK editor without MCD part though.

[Yankes]

This is more and more powerful editor for Xcom. I'm impressed by work you do there. I you have time you could steal drawing offsets form OXC to allow testing animations too.

[bladum]

@volutar

Could you add feature to move color group / color light for ALL tiles at the same time ? Just add a check box with label "global". Thanks.

Tom

[volutar]

I'm affraid "batch" operations are not supported by engine and concept. You can't make selection through the PCK list.
Only one per time. And UNDO is working for current sprite (cleared when switching), and I can't make it work between sprites.

And besides, it's not the way how sprite graphics should be handled by the artist. You should see each sprite, see what you're selecting, see what you gonna change, see each change and control each side effect you action could cause. It's manual action. It's not batchable.

[bladum]

ok thanks for explanation still we can use Falko site to convert sprite and then import

[jackstraw2323]

Am I correct that there's no way to do an export of one MCD's pck files as an image and then import that set into a custom file? I'm mainly looking at mash ups using TFTD and xcom graphics, selecting certain mcd's and combine and export for color correction is what I'm trying to do.

I can import the png file to the pck screen but don't see a way to assign them to the MCD section? I add a new MCD frame and it's just a duplicate of the first one.

[volutar]

You can freely import png in the pckedit. And to use them correctly in mcd, just choose proper sprite in animation stripe or by number editing. It's pretty obvious.

[jackstraw2323]

I see, I didn't understand that I needed to type the number of the PCK frame into the mcd window below the section that displays the row of frames in different lighting conditions.