Correcting ingame colors of these SHPs

umairazfar · Post by **umairazfar** » Mon Sep 22, 2014 8:53 am

I came across 2 SHPs while browsing this forum. They are very well made but have a slight problem. When I use them, their colors come out to be as blue for any team color I choose. Can someone fix them for me? The links for the two SHPs are given below:

3tnk

and

4tnk

I tried this guide online but found myself to be total hopeless while trying to change colors.

BaronOfStuff · Post by **BaronOfStuff** » Mon Sep 22, 2014 1:47 pm

They're using the Tiberian Dawn palette, so the colour index is all wrong for Red Alert.

I can convert them later today, unless there's some easier method exclusive to OpenRA (such as being able to reference palettes on a per-unit basis? Damned if I know).

umairazfar · Post by **umairazfar** » Mon Sep 22, 2014 5:15 pm

You will be awesome if you do this

I will also gather all the SHP files that I gathered (good ones) and put them in one zip and share them here for anyone to use. Many more can be found within my mod's bits folder.

BaronOfStuff · Post by **BaronOfStuff** » Thu Oct 02, 2014 12:22 pm

Done. They should also work without a problem in RA95, should anyone else looking in want to use them.

umairazfar · Post by **umairazfar** » Thu Oct 02, 2014 2:59 pm

You are awesome! Do you take more requests? this time I need a few models to show team colors.

BaronOfStuff · Post by **BaronOfStuff** » Thu Oct 02, 2014 3:21 pm

Hmmm, these SHP files seem to be in the TS/RA2 format. Shouldn't be too much of an issue though, I'll work something out.

EDIT:
Yep, they're definitely that format. Will take a bit more work, but it's nothing that will bring about the end of civilisation (just have to adapt all frames to use the same dimensions).

umairazfar · Post by **umairazfar** » Thu Oct 02, 2014 3:43 pm

The size is not an issue though, I can always re-scale them in code. They do not show the team colors however. Having team colors just makes them better... they do not look bad in game though. I would also like to give you credit by adding your name in the developers. how should I refer to you?

BaronOfStuff · Post by **BaronOfStuff** » Thu Oct 02, 2014 8:01 pm

Oh credit is no problem, just use my forum name (I use it across various forums/sites). As for image size, it's not so much scaling that's the problem, but each individual frame uses different dimensions -- I'll have to paste them all onto a blank image and resave them all one-by-one in order for XCC to recognise them as a sequence.

It's not difficult, it's just tedious! But ho-hum, such is RA modding. Done it before, I'll do it now, and I dare say I'll do it again!

I'll try to get it done by the weekend, however. I haven't actually tried your mod yet, but from what I've seen it does look promising; might have to 'borrow' a few things for a private load of nonsense over LAN!

umairazfar · Post by **umairazfar** » Fri Oct 03, 2014 6:13 am

Alright, added your name in mod.yaml (which will be updated as I publish the next build of the mod).

Borrow whatever you feel like.

I have tried to make every unit feel important but I do not know how the balance is for multiplayer games.

The best experience that you can have is I believe from the first single player campaign mission.

for Skirmish games try to play against 2 opponents and they should give a challenge. I have yet to change the AI to make use of the new units though.

be wary of cruisers and missile subs as they have insane range. Shoot down any light aircraft you see as it provides a lot of vision and helps in attacking your enemy from afar.

umairazfar · Post by **umairazfar** » Fri Oct 03, 2014 6:23 am

One more thing, if its not much problem, can you write a small tutorial about how to create your own effects? Or direct me to tutorials that you know of. I have been updating the wiki from time to time but this is one place I am totally hopeless.

For example the smokey effect in the smokey.shp file (Only 7 frames). I wanted to change the effects and tried to make my own, but it did not work. I could see all the frames of the animation being rendered rather than 1 by 1.

with modern tools I think that the many effects can be enhanced quite a lot or replaced, which I will do slowly if only I knew the right way of doing it.