Author Topic: Redesigned Hybrid Alien Soldiers  (Read 4620 times)

Offline Zerra

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Redesigned Hybrid Alien Soldiers
« on: October 08, 2017, 03:42:51 pm »
So recently I downloaded the "Alien Hybrid Soldiers" mod, alongside a couple other mods to sort off add-in what could be seen as cut content for UFO (Men in Black, Alien Reproduction, Waspite Alien, etc).

While I really enjoyed all the stuff in those other mods and the extra content they brought in, I wasn't a huge fan of the sprite-work in the Hybrid mod. So, for fun, I decided to try to make my own that would be satisfactory for what I envisioned. Primarily by taking the Hybrid sprite used in X-Piratez and the armor the default X-COM soldiers wear, and mix-and-matching the stuff until I got something I thought looked good.

After that, I made a new game and went into debug to see how it looked before going any further-- but rather than the sprite I cobbled together, I received a mess of pixels that I myself cannot really explain. I will say that I have no experience with modding, and the only thing I changed from the original mod was the replacement of this sprite.

If anyone has any idea as to where/what I messed up and a possible solution, I'd appreciate the help.

(Something worth noting-- this is just for personal use at the moment, since I'm just changing something inside someone else's mod. If I decide to try something more ambitious and put the finished product up for download, I'll definitely be giving out the proper credits to both the original mod author and the one who created the original Hybrid sprite from X-Piratez that I used for this.)

Offline Solarius Scorch

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Re: Redesigned Hybrid Alien Soldiers
« Reply #1 on: October 08, 2017, 04:13:33 pm »
Nice work. I plan to make better sprites for Hybrids at some point.

As for the file, your problem is wrong palette - in fact it's something weird. Attaching a fixed version.

Offline Zerra

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Re: Redesigned Hybrid Alien Soldiers
« Reply #2 on: October 08, 2017, 04:33:40 pm »
Tried out the fixed one you included, and lo and behold, it's showing up perfectly. Thanks a lot! Like I said, I really appreciate the help. :)

I didn't know I was using a wrong palette. If I may be so bold, might I ask what you did to fix it? I definitely want to finish the spritework that I've already started, but I also don't want take up any more of your time in fixing them for me.

Offline Roxis231

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Re: Redesigned Hybrid Alien Soldiers
« Reply #3 on: October 08, 2017, 09:50:40 pm »
This is one way of doing it.

Useing a program like photoshop or Paintshop Pro, load a image you know works (ie Solarius Scorch's one), save a copy of the palette, load your file, change it to the palette you just saved, then save a fixed copy.

It might cause some colour changes though.

Offline Zerra

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Re: Redesigned Hybrid Alien Soldiers
« Reply #4 on: October 09, 2017, 08:04:07 am »
You are right in that it cause color changes-- Primarily in that doing so creates the glitched sprites seen in game. But now that I have the proper sprites, I can recreate what sprites I did make just fine. Thanks for the advice.

EDIT: For fun, I'll attach the other two sprites that I had before. I think they're fixed now, but I've yet to go into the game and make sure.
« Last Edit: October 09, 2017, 10:09:00 am by Zerra »

Offline Dr.Crowley

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Re: Redesigned Hybrid Alien Soldiers
« Reply #5 on: November 06, 2017, 01:40:56 pm »
This is one way of doing it.

Useing a program like photoshop or Paintshop Pro, load a image you know works (ie Solarius Scorch's one), save a copy of the palette, load your file, change it to the palette you just saved, then save a fixed copy.

It might cause some colour changes though.
Hmmm, I wonder if Graphics Gale can hadle it.

Offline tkzv

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Re: Redesigned Hybrid Alien Soldiers
« Reply #6 on: November 08, 2017, 09:13:20 pm »
This is one way of doing it.

Useing a program like photoshop or Paintshop Pro, load a image you know works (ie Solarius Scorch's one), save a copy of the palette, load your file, change it to the palette you just saved, then save a fixed copy.

It might cause some colour changes though.
Here is how I did it. Load a file with incorrect palette, convert it to 24-bit colour image, convert it to the correct palette. If the image uses only a small subset of the palette (most do), and those colours are present in both palettes, they won't change.

Also, GIMP allows applying a palette from another image, without saving it. Probably, other programs can do it too.

UPDATE: There is a bug in GIMP, at least in versions 2.9.4-2.9.8. It messes up palettes during import and export, at least in 8-bit PNGs with transparent colour. Until it's fixed, avoid GIMP, unless you know what you're doing.
« Last Edit: December 13, 2017, 08:45:34 pm by tkzv »