Converted unit/structure SHPs (TD -> RA)

BaronOfStuff · Post by **BaronOfStuff** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 7:16 am

Greetings to all!

I've recently been going through the motions of converting many TD units to the RA palette for use in a test mod I'm creating (mainly to understand how SHP files behave and with it how the sequences in OpenRA work too, before I attempt to make something even remotely advanced), and discovered one thing:

It is INCREDIBLY tedious to do.

It's not the longest task in the world, but it ranks right up there alongside watching paint dry for how dull and monotonous it is. So rather than let anyone here who wants to use TD units in an RA mod go through the motions themselves and spend silly amounts of time in Paint Shop Pro and XCC Mixer converting and importing literally several hundred images, I'll be uploading what I finish as attachments as they come along. I won't be posting the Sequences text for them, or my definitions as to how they work, nor will I be posting infantry (except maybe the Commando), because they take an eternity to convert between palettes.

Enough babble; here's a few SHP's to go:
(NOTE: All units come with relevant cameo/icon SHPs, but the conventional TD tanks use new cameo/icon SHP's too; these aren't the best in the world, but I rushed these just so I could tell the damn difference in the build menu between each type of Light/Medium/Mammoth tank without reading the text.)

Petrenko · Post by **Petrenko** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 8:17 am

Great work!

Isn't there a mod for the old Ra which converts RA to TD?

Maybe you could safe time by finding it on http://ra.afraid.org/html/downloads/mods.html

BaronOfStuff · Post by **BaronOfStuff** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 8:33 am

There are a few mods out there ('Red Dawn' quite possibly being the best of the bunch, so much so it uses a new .exe!), but due to limitations within the original RA many of the SHP's aren't their original dimensions or have a bunch of frames missing; the GDI Medium Tank in Red Dawn is a particular example of the former - the turret's gun barrel is somewhat sawn-off when the unit's facing East or West due to being resized to the Light Tank's smaller dimensions. The Flame Tank also has only 8 facings, which can look a bit sloppy when everything else has the full 32.

I could probably save some time on a few units (Infantry!) though by checking these old RA mods out, so thanks for reminding me about that. RA could do with a few Chem Warriors!

Edit: updated to include three more units!

Post by **Sleipnir** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 9:22 am

You can save a lot of time by using the OpenRA.Utility.exe that we ship as a part of OpenRA. It has --shp and --png options that allow you to convert between shp and (a single) png. Join us on IRC sometime if you want instructions on how to use it.

Proteus · Post by **Proteus** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 11:00 am

You can export SHP into multiple PNGs with XCC Mixer, then, switching to the RA palette, then converting -all- the PNGs back into a SHP with the RA palette

BaronOfStuff · Post by **BaronOfStuff** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 11:17 am

I've been using Nyerguds' "Purple Palette Pack" method (load purple TD palette in XCC, extract TD SHP as PCX, convert to purple RA palette, load purple RA palette in XCC, import PCX as RA SHP, load temperate RA palette) for all of these.

A direct conversion to nearest colour between TD and RA palettes can cause all sorts of artifacts and/or unwanted colour matching on SHP images, and can result in patches on units that won't apply the player's colour due to being out of the remap range.

Can ORA Utilities convert SHP's between the two palettes as cleanly as the above method? It would save me so much time!

Post by **Sleipnir** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 1:21 pm

the OpenRA.Utility will convert the shp into a single combined png, which you can then convert the palette of in one go using whatever method you desire (instead of having to do each frame one by one) before converting it back to shp.