hatwood.net

[hatwood]

Hey all,

Just wondering what you want to see more of from hatwood.net. I can't make promises, but I'd like to hear from you.

Also, as a shameless plug, I've added a donation button. For those who have asked: it costs 2.9% + $.30 per transaction on my end (no monthly fee).

 

Best,

Hat

 

Edit:

When requesting spawns, please include this info:
1. Creature name

2. Map they/it occur(s)

3. General idea of how many exist on this map

3.1 Especially within a contained area of that map

Edited September 10, 2020 by hatwood

[Aislinn]

Suggestions:

1. More spawns

2. Customs/GIMP tutorials next steps beyond the one you helped with in these forums.  Ideas such as: how to make an image appropriate to "paste" on to a cape (for example), how to stop it from stretching, how to make it have "folds", and some basic GIMP for Dummies type of stuff.

[hatwood]

3 minutes ago, Aislinn said:

1. More spawns

 

What type? I'll take specific suggestions.

Helpful information:
1. Creature name

2. Map they/it occur(s)

3. General idea of how many exist on this map

3.1 Especially within a contained area of that map

[Diealot]

Not that the (I think Olivine) maps you use as backgrounds aren't good. But these days only Burn's maps aren't terribly out of date. Updating your squares (and circles) to be on those maps would leave less room for interpretation.

 

Edit: your own set of maps are also nice for the ones you have. Would also be neat to see more of those.

 

As far as specific spawns... IP would be a good challenge.

Edited September 10, 2020 by Diealot

[TirunCollimdus]

On 9/10/2020 at 7:35 AM, Aislinn said:

Suggestions:

1. More spawns

2. Customs/GIMP tutorials next steps beyond the one you helped with in these forums.  Ideas such as: how to make an image appropriate to "paste" on to a cape (for example), how to stop it from stretching, how to make it have "folds", and some basic GIMP for Dummies type of stuff.

Aislinn did you ever find anyone to create instructions on how to make capes not have stretched images and how to add folds?  Llynara wants to make custom capes but doesn't know how to stop the images from stretching.  I am asking because she lost her password for the forum.   hatwood was last seen online 180 Days 19 Hours 22 Minutes 51 Seconds  ago]   This is why I am asking you instead of hatwood.  Any help you can provide we would be grateful for, thank you.

[Aislinn]

I'll preface the little I can offer with this: I know nothing of photoshop.  I use GIMP in Linux, and my knowledge is pretty rudimentary, at best.  There is a steep learning curve and I don't find it very intuitive for newbies or infrequent/casual users, of which I am both.  Also, she is going to have to do a LOT of online searches.  Youtube videos will help a lot.  The problem I ran into is what I thought was a good key word to use for search, the digital artistic world didn't and used different words.  Meh.  The entire thing will be very labor intensive and time intensive.  So no, I never did find any instructions.  I had to find my own way and did not do that great of a job of it.

 

As to stretching, the original capes themselves intentionally were made to stretch as to create the shape and pattern of the folds.  No way around that.  I found three ways to handle it:

1. Avoid any images that would go into the center of the cape and just do images/designs that border the cape using the edges and bottom.

2. Make the image approximately twice as wide as it is long.  This will take a ton of trial and error to get the proportions right.

3. Pick an image that still looks good when it's stretched.

 

Making folds on the image:  (again, all of this will require a lot of trial and error practice and is very time consuming)

1. Make a layer to go on top of the cape that is semi-opaque so you can still see the folds through it.

2. Use shading options: the higher ridges of the folds highlighted in a lighter color than the main cape color, and the deeper valleys a darker shade. 

 

Some basic instructions for GIMP customs:

 

Open Gimp and then open with the item you want to make a custom (I suggest you make a copy of it with a different name so you don't ruin the original)

 

Gimp will ask you if you want to open mipmaps as well.

Do NOT open mipmaps!!!

 

You need to create a new layer to add your image.  This layer is where you will work on your new image.

 

Make sure you MERGE all layers (new and original file) before saving.

 

Once you have merged all your layers into 1 single layer, make sure you right click the layer in the layers window, and select 'Layer to image size.' This will crop any part of the layer that extends past the image dimensions to the right size. If you have part of the layer extending past the image edge, the custom will appear blank white.

 

When you are done, it is time to save it.
However, you have to choose EXPORT file (NOT "save"), to your Documents/Eternal Lands/custom/player/your_toon_name/meshes/ folder

 

First it will ask you if you want to overwrite, you choose yes.
Than another panel appears where you set compression: none.
Next, on the same panel you HAVE TO choose to generate mipmaps; this is important since not all people have latest graphic card, or they use Poor Man settings, and in this case EL will use those generated mipmaps.

 

Now you can make a folder to see this locally (which means only the person doing this can see it for now).  You will need to create a path, no idea what the windows path would be but mine in Linux is ~/.elc/updates/1_9_6/custom/player/your_player-name/meshes/name_of_item.dds

*Note* you need to make sure you use the same exact name as the original item you are customizing, and rename the original item to something like original_cape1_green.dds

 

 

Final result should be approximately 25kb in size, dxt1, and mipmap 1:8

 

 

 

 

I found this link helpful as well:

From: https://journalxtra.com/gimp/how-to-make-a-semi-transparent-image-using-gimp/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Aislinn]

Some more notes of mine that I found:
 

Quote

 

Make cape skin -

Open cape dds (no mipmaps)

Layers - New Layer

Name Layer

Fill with transparency

Add stuff to layer

Save layer as its own image (see below)

Merge all layers

Follow regular instructions

 

To save a layer as its own image:

Select layer (has white frame around it)

Ctrl C

 

Open a new empty gimp frame

Ctrl V (ctrl shift v ?)

save as xef or export as png, jpeg, etc.

 

 

 

Quote

 

Semi-transparent images:

-- Windows -> Dockable dialogues -> Layers

-- Opacity slider to desired transparency

-- Merge image (research "flatten image")

-- Save image as

 

Note:

Transparency is entirely see-through (based on color) without background color

Opacity is making entire image variably see-througyh.

 

 

These two posts are really off-topic to this thread but I'll hunt around to find a better spot for this conversation.

[Llynara]

Thank you so much for your help, Aislinn, both in getting back on here and the info on the stretch issue. 

Looks like I'll just have to work around it. And that's okay. 

And after 25+ years in Photoshop, GIMP is painful, lol. Not impossible, just challenging. 

Llyn

[dopee]

Hey there, i noticed the domain seems to have sold. Is there a way to obtain the current spawn project so i can host it myself? Would be a shame to let it waste

[caladina]

On 8/7/2023 at 6:05 PM, dopee said:

Hey there, i noticed the domain seems to have sold. Is there a way to obtain the current spawn project so i can host it myself? Would be a shame to let it waste

its a shame to see them go for sure, they were a great help early on,
its not too hard to chase the spawns down and pin point them, bit more work involved on the bigger maps with more spawns though