Brentt... A million thanks, but, my God, I feel a though I've just been round-housed.
I am going to print your reply and refer to it continually. I am not at all up to your level of skill (will never be) and don't know anything about a script, except that they used to be used in plays. I do have a decent hankering to complete a set of nice, active counters for that ridiculous game and will keep on getting politely hammered by you guys until I get it done (I hope). Thanks to you, at least I know that I don't want .bmps--that is a BIG piece of knowledge. So, what I want, then, is a program that can handle lossy files, like jpeg? (I thought .gif preserved the attributes.) Anyway, you can see that I'm really swimming in circles about now. Brent, could you (or anyone--Gary?) possibly check this link and determine if this program could help me (I need a program that would do some things for me--don't think I could handle the GIMP\Photoshop route)? http://www.lincolnbeach.com/justbuttons.asp I have an outstanding question to tech support (they replied kind of non-responsivley, prob. due to my confusing them) about whether I can create counters w/ complete freedom to add, delete, and change elements. Thanks so much for your time, and I'll continue to chip away at this. All Regards, Whit --- In [email protected], "Brent Easton" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Hi Whit, > > >I do have another question, though. Suppose I wind up layering text > >and such in another program. First, does Vassal require .bmp images > >(that's what I want to use anyway)?; > > I do not believe you can use .bmp images in VASSAL, and you would not want to anyway. .bmp images are uncompressed and result in files many, many times larger than identical images saved in the .png file format. If you are using 256 colors, you can also use .gif. > > However, there is absolutely nothing wrong with developing and maintaining your artwork as .bmp images, and then converting them at the last moment to .png files. This is how I work with original artwork supplied from a game developer. After cutting up the counter sheers with 'SplitImage', I end up with a bunch of, say, 188x188 pixel .bmp counter images and create a batch script using the 'ImageMagick' package to resize and reformat the images. > > I love imagemagick: > > convert counter.bmp convert.png > > converts a counter from .bmp format to .png > > convert .\Orig\fin-7f.bmp -shave 2x2 +repage -resize 75x75 -raise 2x2 +dither -colors 96 -strip .\Small\fin-7f-a.png > > converts from .bmp to .png, first removing the outer 2 pixels of the counter, then resizing it to 75x75 pixels, then creating a 2 pixel 3-D raised border, turning off dithering, reducing the number of colors from 16 million to 96 and removing any comments and unneeded information. > > Halfway through a project, I need to change all my counters from 65x65 to 75x75, I just edit my DOS script, change the size, rerun it and copy all the new images into my module in 1 go. 10 minutes work and it's done. > > > >second, once I save the layers in > >the graphics program, Vassal cannot activate them, can it? What I > >mean is that, for ex. the Blitzkrieg mod conveniently allows one to > >change the text w/ a right click. (This helps w/ substitute counters > >in that particular game.) It seems that to allow such an option, one > >must use the default text editing features within Vassal. The idea > >that I had for the counters is an up-tempo graphics scheme w/ much > >easier to read counters that "jump" a bit. I guess, without knowing > >more, that I'll just have to supply a ton of individual counters > >through cloning, or soemthing. > > One way or another, you need to create a base image for each counter. You can use an external editor, or use the Game Piece Image Definitions facilitity within VASSAL. > > Then, you will have a variety of text and images to layer over the top. You can do Text with a 'Text Label' trait, images again, will probably need to be done as an external layer. > > I am just finishing a module now for a game that has two complete counter sets, 'Standard' and 'Alternate'. Each counter can optionally have a reduced 'Step' side. I have a button on the toolbar that flips all counters between the standard image and the alternate image. I have one .png image for each side for counter for each counter set (i.e. 4 complete images for each counter). Each counter is separately defined with 2 'Layer' traits - one with 2 images for the Standard size, which is permanently activated. The second Layer trait is for the Alternate counter set and is Activated by a key command on the counter. > > > (I.e., one won't be able to amend them on the fly during a game.) > > There are a couple of ways to do this: > > 1. Use Text Labels > 2. Use Dynamic Properties (with text labels to displa the property values). > > These allow you to change the text that is displayed on counters during a game. > > Cheers, > Brent. > > >That is just one issue I've got--I've thought of a thousand more but > >will wait until I can put up or shut up about those. > > > >Thanks so much, > > > >Whit > > ____________________________________________________________ > Brent Easton > Analyst/Programmer > University of Western Sydney > Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vassalengine/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
