1440x900 resolution

International board Development
#1

UPDATE: Final version of 1440x900 resolution has been attached to this post. See also screenshot:

i4.photobucket.com/albums/y104/Zamolxis/VCMI%202009/th_2009-09-05_1440x900.jpg

You can ignore the content of my initial post below, as now I’ve learned how to use GIMP and configure the settings. :slight_smile:

The only issue remaining - but that’s valid for all resolutions - is to find a way to adjust the View Surface button.

UPDATE2: Minor corrections applied - file updated September 19th.

UPDATE3: FYI - The filenames in the archive attached to this post are not compatible anymore with VCMI 0.74 or later. Also small adjustments have been performed in the meantime. The latest version of this resolution can be found in the new resolution pack made ready for the 0.74 release in THIS TOPIC.

O.P.: [size=75]…] this is just a work in progress.

Although initially I thought something like this would be impossible for me to achieve (my programming & image editing skills are close to none), I looked at the files Ivan used for his 1280x960 resolution and I thought of giving it a try, just for fun. :stuck_out_tongue:

Surprisingly it (partially) worked. VCMI didn’t crash! :blush: :slight_smile:

After spending a couple of hours copy-pasting .pcx pieces and editing the settings file, I manage to get the right resolution, however I failed to get the player color for some parts of the screen. It works for the menu buttons and frame gems, but it doesn’t for the resource bar, mini-map and a couple of other details. Another problem is that the in-game hero/town lists are different than those in the AdvMap6.pcx file (most obvious being the fact that the bottom arrows are missing).

If someone more knowledgeable would have a bit of time to load the attachment and see what’s wrong, it’d be great. No need to fix anything,… I just need to know where the problem is: clumsy use of the image editor, or inaccurate values in the settings file? Thanks in advance! :->[/size]
1440x900-vcmi.zip (113 KB)
1440x900-wip.zip (243 KB)

New resolutions
#2

I looked at…
and advmap pcx looks great
resbar pcx is somewhat destroyed by the editor which unwisely used some antyaliasing and thus damage the colors and/or changed pallette color set (it has 88 colors so it’s possible that editor you use shifted colors down in the pallette)
the message bar is nothing i know about

you need to redone resbar pcx in some RAW graphics editor (ie. not doing any effects during copy/paste/resize - some do to upgrade picture quality, which is killer to pixmaps which use specific pallette as heroes ones)

PS: I didn’t look at your config file so somebody other has to

EDIT: LOL 15 heroes and 15 castles :mrgreen: :unamused:

#3

Wow. How many resolutions will have VCMI in 2010?
[joking] there is still a lot of work to do :smiley: [/joking]

Best way is to take an existing resolution and do not touch palette (indexed palette should be used but not 24\32-bits). Works for me (on gimp). First 8 colors in H3 graphics are used for transparency and the last 32 - for player colors.
Most of details on AdvMap.pcx are actually not used: hero\town lists, resource bar, buttons (except empty ones). All of them are placed in game separately. In your config you have:
HeroList: size=16 …
should be 15 - arrow and 1 item are below infobox. Same with TownList

Just found this thread.
Look at the pic posted by Tow - this is how working palette looks like.

#4

majaczek, Ivan - Thanks to both! :slight_smile:

I actually figured out about the town/hero list this morning (last night at 5 AM I was too tired to think anymore) :stuck_out_tongue:

I installed GIMP 'cause the editor I used before was an annoying joke. It’s the first time I’m using it, but I’m slowly getting the hang of it. I restarted everything from scratch and I’ll update the original post when I’m ready. I hope it’ll work out. :stuck_out_tongue:

One thing still bothers me, is the “Show Surface” button. We have this problem for all resolutions above x600. Does anyone have an idea how to fix this? Is there something we can do in the settings.txt file, or would we really need to edit the .def file?

#5

I give advise to download some simply editor (simplified or technical), because in gimp there are tons of options and only you need is copy/paste with not changing format (8bit palette). GIMP is great tool but it has so many options so you can do something by mistake.

try search something like:

tiny graphics editor

in your browser search

@down
try this /\

#6

:frowning:

For some reason it looks like messing up the color palette is unavoidable for me. How do you open a new project in GIMP and keep the H3 palette? If I start with New, give the desired resolution, then paste in there an existing (smaller) resolution, it seems already too late. When I save it it’s already in a different format.

How else can I take an existing resolution without altering the palette? Or is there a way to apply the palette of an existing resolution, on my already created .pcx (though I fear once saved, it may be too late to fix anything)?

EDIT: Is there a program with that name - “tiny graphics editor”? For some reason Google doesn’t find an exact match. The only one with “tiny” seems to be Tiny Vector Graphics… but that looks like sth else.

EDIT2: Can’t find the “tiny…” thing, but I may have found out how to handle it in GiMP… will keep you posted. :wink:

#7

its only a pattern to search :mrgreen: :unamused:
tiny editors shouldn’t do anything weird automaticaly and should support only basic functions
search with this pattern on google.com or sf.net and try first logical answer

PS: for programs seeking in google there’s a magic world for filter your answers :mrgreen: it’s “download” :mrgreen:

#8

I already did a 1440x900 interface, jyi…

#9

launch gimp and just move file to gimp main window (without creating anything) or
right click ->open with…->select gimp

for searching some programs I usually use… wikipedia. There is a lot comparison lists like this.
For H3 you need support 1)windows 2).pcx format

Google is fine but I usually get a lot info about 2-3 programs when there is 10-20 of them

#10

wow I didn’t know that wikipedia is so wise !!!
but sf.net is good place to find Open-Source programs :slight_smile:

so if you have gimp - use gimp - it has all needed abilities by looking at the table and pcx support is somewhat rare but gimp supports it

nice to know that exists something like gimpshop :slight_smile:

#11

It’s done! :slight_smile: - see new attachment in the original post.

Thanks **Ivan **for the inspiration and the important info about the palette (including the link Tow’s post). And thanks **majaczek **as well, for testing and feedback. Feel free to let me know what you think about the final version as well. :wink:

Sorry if I seem a bit too enthusiastic over sth that is a piece of cake for those of you who are into programming, but this is really sth I never thought I’d manage to pull it off. :stuck_out_tongue:

@mots: any other resolutions you’re keeping hidden? :wink: Feel free to share them with us. :wink:

@Tow/TowDragon: If you consider adding this resolution to the next release, let me know if there are any further small adjustments you’d like me to do. Particularly, see if you’re fine with the VCMI ‘logo’, or you’d prefer that I remove it. Also, if you’re planning to include this and Ivan’s 1280x960, perhaps we could reorganize the files so that their names match the digit we select in the console. If you have too many things on the agenda, I could take care of it, including editing the settings.txt file, and send them all in a package to you.

#12

There was a small graphic detail that needed to be corrected in the “FINAL VERSION” (in the lower left edge of the interface). I’ve made the adjustment and updated the zip archive in the original post. Those of you who downloaded it before this post, may want to re-download it.

#13

Zamolxis: forum.vcmi.eu/t/hero-placeholder/34/1 … f75806d2e4

Not 100% done yet, but maybe it helps :>

#14

@mots: yes, I remember that thread now. Being 4 months old, I kinda forgot about it (and especially the resolution discussed). If I would have known from the beginning, I would have picked another resolution of course. But I was already like 70% done and very motivated to finish it before the end of the day so it was too late to back down. Plus I really wanted this resolution as it fits best on my wide-screen monitor.

Sorry for overlapping with your effort. I guess best thing for the future is to have a separate thread here in the Development section for each custom resolution developed, with the resolution value in the Topic title. Like this we’ll only need to throw an eye at the list of dev. topics to know if sb else is already busy with it.

As for your version of 1440x900, I guess both can be included in the package (e.g.: mine could have “-vcmi” and yours “-alt.resource” or sth in their name).

#15

Well done! :slight_smile:
The one thing I’d consider, is adding mithril to resource bar. The WoG way of checking mithril stockiple (r-click on Kingdom button) is not convenient.
(Now it’s not possible to force VCMI to display amount of mithril in resourcebar but I can add such option easily, it’s matter of trival moving one hard-coded constant to the settings file)

It was an engine bug, it’s now fixed in SVN. Sorry for trouble.

Great, I would be very grateful :slight_smile:

#16

I thought about it (I think I even asked for it once), but I’m now wondering how exactly should it be implemented, considering that we need to keep also the standard game? Two ZResBar files for each resolution (sth like ZResBar5.pcx and ZResBar5m.pcx), and then somehow programmed to pick one or the other depending on the game version we’re playing?

Also, perhaps we can discuss this here:

  • Where do we want to put the Mithril? Before or after Gold?
  • If we rearrange the resource bar, would it make sense (and worth the effort) to switch the place of Ore and Mercury? I always wondered if there was some logic behind placing Mercury there and not together with the other precious resources. :question:

Glad to hear it was not a big deal to fix it. Thx. :slight_smile:

Done! :slight_smile:

I’m attaching it here if anyone is interested to have it before the next dev version. I’ve made a correction on the latest 1280x960 (Next Hero button was displayed twice) and also made minor updates to 1440x900 (few pixels edited on the VCMI ‘logo’ + buttons on the side panel moved 1 pixel to the left).

UPDATE: I’ve made further adjustments to the files in the archive. The new package can be found as part of the new archive prepared for the 0.74 release in THIS TOPIC (dedicated for further discussions regarding new resolutions)
ResPack.7z (179 KB)

#17

IMO

  • Mithril should be between gems and gold. It is important to leave gold as a first from the right side.
  • Mercury and Ore shouldn’t be switched. Maybe it is a little bit strange but Heroes fans used to it and shouldn’t be forced to change their habits. And second thing that some original heroes files use this order i.e. random map generator templates.
#18

True. I didn’t think of the order coded in some original game files, which may be used by VCMI, w/o being part of the VCMI recoded files. However, based on the same logic, shouldn’t we have then an issue with placing Mithril between Gems and Gold (even though I agree the best place for it may indeed be before Gold)?

#19

so maybe mithril resbox should be last as mithril is the last resource? even with divider between classic resources and mithril resource box, huh?
anyway I think it’s good to place it last, and placing it before gold isn’t the worst

#20

If it’s placed last, we may indeed need some sort of divider. It probably won’t look nice to gold as just another resource between two others.