Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Topics - Wedge

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 [6] 7 8 9 10
76
Gallery / Blockscapes - A Collection of Landscapes
« on: August 10, 2008, 09:31:15 PM »














Each section is a different landscape. I can't exactly remember who all built what, when I save things I generally name it something like save3 or test5 and don't keep any notes, so this is basically to the best of my memory.
World 1 was originally constructed by Badspot, and expanded on by Ephialtes and myself. It's possible Kaje and Nitramj helped on it too and I just forgot about them.
World 2 was constructed by myself.
World 3 was constructed by Rotondo, entrepreneur in, Nitrmaj, Badspot, Kaje and myself.
World 4 was constructed by myself.

77
Gallery / BiplaneTank
« on: August 10, 2008, 03:33:07 PM »


 :cookieMonster:

78
Faces, Decals, Prints / How to package decals
« on: August 08, 2008, 11:06:30 PM »
Introduction

v9 has a new add-ons system, as most of you know. In the new add-ons system, all custom content is treated as an add-on. Maps, decals, and everything else that wasn't treated as an add-on before now is.

Prints


In order to release your print, you will need to make it an add-on. You probably won't want to go through the trouble to do this for each individual print, so you should start releasing your prints in packs.

First, create a new folder. It doesn't matter what you name it.

Inside of this folder, create two files. Name one Description.txt and the other Server.cs.

Leave Server.cs blank. Prints are automatically executed so you do not need to execute anything or add any other code code. Server.cs just tells the game "Hey, this zip is an add-on, so stick it on the add-on list please!"

In description list, type:

Code: [Select]
Title: My Prints
Author: Me
Print textures for (bricktype) bricks.

Now create two more folders inside of the first. Name one icons and one prints.

Your folder should now look like this:


Copy and paste all of your printss into the prints folder. Copy and paste all of your print icons into the icons folder.

Create a new zip file. Put the icons folder, the prints folder, description.txt and server.cs into it. Now you need to name the zip file.

The naming convention is as follows Print_brick_name.zip. You always begin the file with Print_. The brick is whatever brick these prints are supposed to appear on. Here are the possible brick names for standard print bricks:

1x1 - (includes 1x1 and 4x1x4)
1x1f - (includes 1x1 tiles only)
2x2f - (includes 2x2 tiles only)
2x2r - (includes 2x2 sloped prints only)

End the file with whatever the name of your print pack is. This keeps two different print packs from overwriting eachother.

Here are some example files:

Print_2x2f_Default.zip (default 2x2f prints, you shouldn't name a file this)
Print_1x1f_ornamental_tiles.z ip (ornamental tiles for 1x1 tiles)
Print_2x2r_computers.zip (different computer screens for a 2x2 sloped brick)
Print_1x1_doorbells.zip (doorbells for 1x1 print bricks. Note you will be able to place the doorbells on 4x1x4 bricks too.
Print_1x1_posters.zip (posters for a 4x1x4 brick. You will be able to place them on 1x1 bricks too)

Upload them to a site and you are done. All people need to do to install them is drop them in their add-ons folder.

Faces and Body Decals


You probably won't want to go through the trouble to do this for each individual decal, so you should start releasing your decals in packs.

Create your decals. Create thumbnails for every decal, and put them inside of a folder called thumbs.

Select all of your decals/faces and your thumbs folder, then zip them together.

You don't need a server.cs or a desription.txt file for faces and decals. I don't know why.

The naming convention for decals is Decal_name.zip
The naming convention for faces is Face_name.zip

Here are some example files:
Decal_Default.zip (default player decals, you shouldn't name a file this)
Face_Default.zip (default face decals, you shouldn't name a file this)
Decal_Suit.zip (a suit decal)
Face_Pirate.zip (a pirate face)
Decal_Town_And_City.zip (decals from around the town, you can use underscores to seperate words in file names.

Upload them to a site and you are done. All people need to do to install them is drop them in their add-ons folder.

Troubleshooting


Q: Help, my decals/faces don't work!

A: Make sure you toggle them on in the add-ons section on the start server menu. It's easy to forget since you didn't have to do it on previous versions.

Q: They still don't work!

A: Make a folder on your desktop. Put your zipped texture pack inside the folder. Open the folder. Now extract your zipped texture pack. If it creates a new folder inside of your first filled with your textures, you packed them wrong! Blockland treats zips as folders, and if your server.cs (or in the event of face/decal packs, your texture) isn't inside of the first folder, it assumes you are trying to pull some addons/addons/addons/lol.dts crap and ignores your addon. If you extract it and your do see server.cs and your folders or your faces/decals, make sure that:

(a) Your textures are all in .png format.
(b) You didn't export them as progressive pngs.
(c) Your prints or decals are 512x512.
(d) Your icons are 64x64.
(e) Your icons and prints have the same name.

If it still doesn't work your problems are beyond the scope of this tutorial.

79
Faces, Decals, Prints / v9 Button Decals
« on: August 08, 2008, 11:03:43 PM »
:DECAL PACK

This decal pack is designed for use as buttons. Buttons are fully paintable (well, the backplates are anyway). The buttons include:
0-9
Equals
Plus
Minus
Times
Divide
Question Mark
Arm
Fire
Reset
Go
Stop
Push
:D
Left Arrow
Right Arrow
Up Arrow
Down Arrow
Self-Destruct

And a bonus Code Block so you don't forget where you put your binary to numeral converters and your infinite loop blocks. The buttons work on the following bricks:

1x1f print
1x1 print
1x4x4 print
2x2f print

:DETAILS




:Directions

Decals by Wedge, special thanks to Digmaster for suggesting that I rename the decals so that they sort in the decal viewer, and for suggesting the arrow button. Thanks to captain blue for suggesting a  self-destruct button.

Step one: Download.
Step two: Put zips in add-ons folder.
Step three: Activate add-ons on add-ons menu.

Note: Bricks that go on a 1x1 brick or a 1x4x4 brick are denoted by a special print icon. This means that they are the proper aspect ratio for that brick. If you use the other shape you will get a stretched decal.

:DOWNLOADS

You need both of these.

http://www.box.net/shared/mlc0g8b9q1
http://www.box.net/shared/d6qhbvni7x

80
Off Topic / Who are you people?
« on: July 21, 2008, 08:46:18 AM »
-

81
Drama / Looking for BL ID 934 so I can kick them in the face
« on: July 10, 2008, 07:49:02 PM »
BL ID 934, aka "Theif" and "Iron, Man!", IP address 76.174.42.24, probably lives in Virginia/Maryland/West Virginia/Deleware/Pennsylvania area, General Jake or Laremere banned them from their server once for having a dumb name.

I got a Blockland password reset from them sometime in May.

82
Off Topic / A custom wallpaper I made for my brother's computer...
« on: July 03, 2008, 03:23:53 AM »


You're probably wondering why I care so much about the way my brother's computer is set up.

1. I use it occasionally.
2. It's the local file sharing server, all of my family's computers dump stuff on it when they want to transfer it somewhere else.
3. It's not running very well at the moment. No spyware or viruses, just screwed up entires in the registry from deleting program folders instead of running the uninstaller and tons of processes running that don't need to be.
4. All of my really old stuff is on there. I found 5 copies of AoT, 3 of which were AoTv3. It has 5 copies of Fort Mod for Blockland, a copy of RTB, SBL, Zombie Mod, 3-4 games Rotondo never finished, screenshots from BLM, and stuff from before I even discovered that there were things on the Internet called forums where you could type on them and it would appear on your screen and other people could actually read what you said and type stuff back to you. I've also got lots of old chat logs on this computer, some of which may still be of interest. It's too bad I lost the text-based Counterstrike game we had on #rtb when my hard drive died. All of those logs are on my computer now, so I shouldn't have to switch back to my brother's for them anymore.

Anyway I thought the background was funny enough that I'd share it. And if it isn't funny, it's 4:00 in the morning and you can't blame me.

83
It's right below the headline 'Oh god the sky is falling' and right above the featured story 'We're all going to die'

But seriously when I saw the headline I thought I was reading the Onion, and was surprised to see it on a news site.

84
Drama / No one plays any cool games on the playground anymore
« on: June 06, 2008, 03:32:18 PM »
Let's take a look at Timmy.

It's recess and Timmy wants to play a game. James and Will are playing Hide and Seek. Lame, everyone stopped playing that centuries ago. Bob, Jerry, Don and Lou are playing Kick the Can. Seriously, who plays that anymore? They don't even have a real can, they are kicking around a paper ball! Red Rover, Red Light/Green Light, Red Hands... Oh, they're playing Cops and Robbers over there! Sadly, Timmy can't join, there are too many people. Hey, there's some people playing Capture the Flag over there! But he can't play with those kids. What would people think of him?

He spends recess sulking. Poor Timmy. :(

After school he posts on his myspace about how no one plays cool games on the playground anymore.

Timmy's problem is that he is too picky about what game to play and who to play with. He could have joined in any other of the games. He could have tried playing with other kids. He could have just skipped recess, and played Oregon Trail in the computer lab.

Furthermore, he complained that no one plays any fun games on the playground anymore, despite the fact that there were lots of other kids having fun. Even if he wasn't having fun, he can't really support the argument that there were no fun games left.

A small selection of Blockland players, sadly, also suffer the same problems as Timmy. Please spare us your complaints about how there are no more fun servers, Blockland is going to die if it doesn't shape up, and how everyone who disagrees with you obviously doesn't know what fun is. Maybe you should try playing a different game that might be more appropriate for you. You could try hosting your own server and play anything you want. Or, if you are desperate, go play Pac-Man on the Atari 2600. After that you should find anything fun.

NOTE: I'm not trying to pick on anyone in particular who may have currently posted a topic or made one in the past. But I am rather tired of seeing them. We've had lots of them. The bottom line is, if you don't find a game fun, don't play.

85
Gallery / Desert Outpost
« on: May 16, 2008, 05:29:33 PM »
Just a small build I made in Bisjac's server.




86
Drama / masterchef1337- spammer
« on: May 16, 2008, 04:30:28 PM »
I joined a server and found him in it. I used the wrench and found out the blocks belonged to him.

I managed to nab his ID - 2154.

87
Mapping Help / Kitchen map
« on: April 25, 2008, 02:13:04 PM »
Some of you may recall the kitchen I posted a picture of in off-topic a while ago.

I've been attempting to turn it into a map file so I can load it and quark and make a map out of it.

So I started with a .plan file (Chief Architect's save format). I exported it as a .dwg (autocad drawing) file. I converted to a .dxf (autocad drawing exchange format) file. I opened this in blender and it looked exactly like my kitchen. So I exported it as a .map file, and ended up with this wonderful jumble of intersecting blocks.



I put down the project for a bit, and did a bit of research. I found a few other ways to get it to a .map file, such as going from .dxf to .vmf then to .map, but I don't think any number of conversions is going to make it look better, I'll probably end up with just some other jumble of blocks.

I've got some idea of what the problem is. I'm pretty sure it's something to do with the model and not the exporter. I've imported sketchup files into quark before. I'm thinking that for one reason or another, while the model renders how I think it should look, it isn't actually solid, just a bunch of faces or something like that. The pieces aren't stuck together. I've never used blender before so I don't really have a clue what I'm doing or what I'm talking about. In fact, I haven't used anything that wasn't a brush based editor before.

If anyone has some insight into the issue or would like to take a look at the file for themselves, I can send you a copy of the dwg or dxf files.

I haven't seriously considered making a map out of this (if I can't get it to work, then I won't worry about it), but if either I or someone else can get it working, I'll definitely texture and release it. Due to the nature of chief architect I won't even need to make secret areas, the cabinets and stove will already be hollowed out. All I'll need to do is take off the cabinet door knobs that use 300 polys and put a cylinder or something there instead.

88
Gallery / Picture frame
« on: April 22, 2008, 05:31:53 PM »
 

89
Gallery / Spiral Ramps
« on: March 21, 2008, 01:47:55 PM »
Manually archived by Wedge. If you have a question or think the topic should be unlocked, PM me, and I'll probably unlock it.

It's a big ramp I made in quark. Not really that amazing, but potentially useful.

I can't really get the random hill out of the middle. The hill is there because two different slopes are necessary to get the ramp to meet up with the next block. You can walk up it fine, if you want to ski down it or drive up it you need to make it a bit bigger.

The bottom isn't smooth because it would double the amount of stuff being rendered. It also makes it more functional because you can flip it over and use it as a spiral staircase.


Normal ramp, scaled 4x.


2 huge ramps, normal scale.

Download: http://www.mediafire.com/?j2m7sy0ylde

90
This is the expanded edition of my tutorial here. I decided to turn it into a complete topic at the recommendation of Afkpuz. New features include information on dithering, random facts, a list of some free image editing software and instructions on how to upload images. I feel that this topic would probably be more appropriate pinned to the top of the gallery, but it is here for now for review. I would have posted it in off-topic but it would have probably disappeared quickly.

It's an interesting read and you'll probably learn something. Feel free to skip the short section about uploading images.


How to Upload Pictures and Put them on the Forums


1. Go to www.imageshack.us
2. Click browse.
3. Upload a file.
ex: C:\Documents and Settings\My Documents\paintguy.png
4. Click "Host It!"
5. A bunch of links will appear, if your image is large enough a preview and thumbnail links may appear too.
6. Select the text next to the box labeled "Direct Link to Image"
7. Copy and paste it into your post.
ex: http://img375.imageshack.us/img375/8023/paintguywm9.png
8. Now put image tags around it. Select the text, and click the img button towards the top of your reply box.
ex:


How to Decrease Image File Size


There are a lot of ways you can shave off excess file size.
Code: [Select]
Tip:
These boxes indicates interesting notes, facts, and tips for working with images. You should probably read these.

1. Make it smaller. A 1280x1200 screenshot would work just as well as a 800x600 screenshot, although it starts to become more difficult to read text. However, there is little harm in making game screenshots 800x600, 640x480, or even smaller. A good program for resizing images is Microsoft Office Picture Manager. If you don't have a copy of Office, you can try using GIMP or Photoshop.

2. Crop it. You can even do this in Paint and still get excellent results. The idea behind cropping is to take out the bit of an image you don't want to show. For example, if I were to post a picture of someone holding a Dr. Pepper, and I only wanted to show the can, I would crop out the person, the background, and everything else besides the can.

Cropping Tutorials:
Paint
Photoshop
GIMP

3. Don't save as a .BMP file. They are not compressed. Export it in either .PNG or .JPG formats. You can use .GIF format too, but they can only be exported in indexed color mode. See number 4 for more details.

4. Export your picture using indexed colors rather than RGB. Pictures are usually exported in 24-bit color mode. Indexed mode is 8-bit color or 256 colors. You may recall running programs in 256 color mode before, and noticed how it distorts your desktop. However, you can tweak the color palette, so if you take a picture of a blueberry, the palette will use 200 shades of blue, and not 8 shades of blue because it's palette also contains 8 shades of red and green that you aren't using. This is called an adaptive palette.

Code: [Select]
Tip:
You can also force even lower color modes, such as 6-bit (64 colors) and 3-bit (8 colors). Again, you can tweak the color set (some programs will do it automatically for you). You'll be amazed at how many images can be drastically reduced in size while still maintaining color quality, even with few colors.

Color Indexing Tutorial for GIMP

Here is a lovely comparison for your viewing pleasure.

24-bit (13.6kb)


8-bit (5.70kb)


6-bit (3.91kb)


3-bit (2.18kb)


Dithering

Dithering uses clusters of pixels to approximate colors that are not in the palette. Use it if you want to retain more color information at the cost of detail. Below are examples of Dithering and Non-Dithering 3-bit images.



See the difference? Ok, here is a quick test, which uses dithering and which doesn't?



The one on the right uses dithering. You can tell because the one on the left forms into bands. This effect is called banding. Banding isn't always bad, a post-processing effect called Posterization utilizes this.

File Size and Color Number Relationship

Here is a graph showing the relationship between the palette size and the image size. The Y axis is the size in kb, the X axis is the number of colors. The X axis is a logarithmic scale, so the value 7.224719896 should be read as 107.224719896 or 16777216.00248981664792046490 4922 colors. It's actually 16777216, the crazy decimal places are caused by rounding errors.



Code: [Select]
Fun Fact:
This graph shows proper cropping, resizing, and color optimization. It is only 3.88kb.

As you can see, the drop from 24-bit Truecolor to 8-bit 256 color is the most dramatic. After that, the decrease in file size, while present, is much dramatic. You may recognize this as the law of diminishing returns if you've ever taken an elementary economics course.

In other words, you have the most to gain by using 256 colors in any image that either maintains good color quality when it is indexed or does not require much quality. Further reductions are only necessary on huge images (the return for removing colors in a 50MB 8-bit image are large enough to make it worth doing). The difference between a 2kb 64 color icon and a 3kb 256 color icon are negligible, and it's probably worth your time to just not worry about making it that much smaller. However, since it takes the same amount of time to make an image 8-bit as it does to make it 3-bit, if you already know you only need 4 colors, you might as well export it as a 3-bit image and save someone .0003 seconds downloading it.

Random Facts


  • A picture really is worth a thousand words. A low-resolution picture is roughly equal in size to 50 pages of typed text.
  • In the file size limit on the Blockland forums, you can fit approximately 52428 words, 256 pages of text, 50 encyclopedia pages, half of a short novel, a half-minute mp3, or 3 seconds of video. 
  • Dithering comes from the Middle English verb 'didderen,' meaning 'to tremble.'
  • You can calculate the number of colors on a display by taking 2 and raising it to the power of it's bit depth. For example, a 3-bit image uses 23 or 8 colors. 16-bit images use 216 or 65536 colors.
  • Textures used in Blockland should not be indexed or interlaced.

Free Image Editing Software

Remember, just because you have $800 image editing software you pirated doesn't mean you downloaded artistic talent too.

Raster Graphics:
Paint.NET - http://www.getpaint.net/
GIMP - http://www.gimp.org/

Vector Graphics:
Inkscape - http://www.inkscape.org/

Have fun and stop trying to upload 50MB images.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 [6] 7 8 9 10