PlaneShift
Gameplay => General Discussion => Topic started by: Moogie on July 06, 2003, 03:15:03 pm
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Hiya all,
I felt a pressing need to do something helpful (or at least in the slightest bit interesting) for the PS community. I usually don\'t frequent the forums but I hope to alot more over the coming months (and maybe even years!).
With that little intro out of the way, I\'d like to write a simple guide to customising your client to it\'s fullest capacity. This guide is written with Molecular Blue in mind, but who knows, various things may still be possible in future releases depending on how much the file structure changes. I\'ll also rewrite this guide to incorporate changes and updates when Crystal Blue arrives.
1. Your Character.
You all know there isn\'t much variation at this point in time between character appearances. Basically, the only changes you can make for most species are those concerning clothing, hair and skin colouration.
However, you can change this completely. In the C:\\Program Files\\PlaneShift\\art\\textures\\races directory you will find folders for each of the currently implemented races in Planeshift, all containing the art files used for character appearances in-game. Note that the folders that start with an \'f\' denote female skins, whereas \'m\' denotes male. Obviously.
Edit them to your heart\'s content but remember one thing: you see characters according to your *own* files. Apply this to other people and you realise that they will not be able to see your custom skins. Sorry, but that\'s just the way it goes. Of course, you could always put your skins up for download...
[note: I highly recommend you use image editing software such as Paint Shop Pro 6 or Photoshop 7 for clean, natural looking images. There are many guides and tutorials on their use around the net if you need help.]
2. The GUI
Yes, you can change everything from the background of the chat box to the menu buttons, inventory, and even your health and MP bars. Files governing these appearances can be found in the C:\\Program Files\\PlaneShift\\art\\gui folder.
To properly skin the GUI you need to be aware of a couple of things at all times. There are two filetypes in this folder and you will be needing to alter both. TGA files are the hypothetical \'layer of skin\' that the game places over the other art file, the .png, which serves as a base or skeleton. The base file is used as a mask in-game, using pink as the colour of the invisible areas, whereas the skin layer is the image that will be visible to you.
.png files also manage the positioning of the GUI pieces. Try to make sure you keep your art in the same general position as the original art files- you may wish to make a backup of all the original files first and then compare the two.
3. Crystal Appearances.
Although I havn\'t tested this, my assumption is that the tga files found in C:\\Program Files\\PlaneShift\\art\\textures are the ones you need to edit. Ignore the jpg\'s. Also in this folder you can edit the appearance of raindrops, although seeing as the file extension is .png, I\'m wondering if this is merely a mask type image. Must experiment. :)
4. Weapon Appearances.
If you visited the last directory I pointed you to, you might be mistaken in thinking the subdirectory \'weapons\' in there contains the files you need. But it doesn\'t. What you\'re looking for is weapons.zip in C:\\Program Files\\PlaneShift\\art\\things.
The .spr files are the models of each weapon. I havn\'t been able to find a working editor for these files, so I can\'t be sure exactly what they are. However, I assume they\'re the actualy physical models.
When editing the .png files, be aware that the areas of black space outside the original weapon art will not be shown on the weapon model. You need to keep the basic shape and form or your skins may look distorted or worse.
5. Other art files/buttons/icons
For the most part, C:\\Program Files\\PlaneShift\\art\\buttons contains all other misc files that I havn\'t yet talked about. You should probably ignore any jpg files you come across here.
6. Keymapping.
People sometimes ask how to alter their key configurations. If you open up keys.xml (found in your root PS directory) you\'ll see a short list of all the currently assigned keys. You can edit this file in notepad, just make sure you save it as keys.xml.
7. Mouse Sensitivity.
To alter the speed of your mouse movement when using the mouselook mode, open up psclient.cfg found in your root PS directory. Scroll down to Part 3 and look at the line just above it.
The default value here is 1.0 but I think this is horribly low. You may change this value to whatever you please, but for guidance I suggest you first change it to 3.0 and then test the difference ingame.
Well right now that\'s all I can muster. In the end I had accidentally deleted this *entire* post at least five times. Luckily for me I was using notepad to backup the text ;).
Additions to this guide are greatly welcomed if you wish to post here your own customisation methods. Any questions or comments, feel free also. :)
Thanks for reading and I hope it was useful!
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Just a quite FYI tip- for aspiring artists or webmasters, the Planeshift fonts are located in C:\\Program Files\\PlaneShift\\data\\ttf :)
How handy. :D
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Thanks for the guide Mogura :)
I had a bit of a tweak and created some new textures for the female Enkidukai
(http://flare.slyip.com/images/newlook.jpg)
The textures are not as high quality as the originals but they add a little bit of variety (which is good of course). They have the 4 colours of clothing under, with a silkmesh armor layer, anklet boots and gloves.
May I just say that parts of the design process were hellish because I didn\'t have any of the proper tools... I had to download an image converter because Corel 6 can\'t handle .png or .tga. The part that caused me the most grief was the racelib.xml file that describes the clothing areas for the races (since I changed the shape of the mask I had to re-write it). I didn\'t have any idea what might create .xml files, so I created, from scratch, some software that took a .gif and converted it to the approrpiate code. I also had to create from scratch a program that drew the masks the .xml\'s described...
Having said that, it was fun and now all the kitties (for me at least) are dressed warmer :)
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I\'m one of the lucky people to have downloaded your skin pack Ayshe, and I must say you did a very good job! Although the skins\' textures may look rough, there\'s a good design behind it and I just love the gloves and boots. One I\'ll be keeping. :D
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Mogura, do you know how to edit the .DEF-files positioning the GUI? I\'m making a interface myself, but I need to edit iconbar.def to make it fit the custom GUI. Now, I\'ve tried a .DEF-edior and the standard txt-editor, but when re-zipping and launching the game, all goes to hell... :(
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Hmm, I \'accidentally\' experimented with this a little with a bit of customisation that I probably shouldn\'t talk about here. However, my changes affected the size and position of the Target window, so for actual non-moveable GUI components this might be an iffy solution.
Theres a configuration file in your root PS directory called Planeshift.cfg. If you open this in wordpad (not notepad- the formatting will be wierd and difficult to work with), at the end of the file you\'ll see dimensions of certain components such as the Player window (target window) specified.
The good thing is, you\'re not limited to just that. You can add your own and specify their PosX, PosY, Width and Height. So, here\'s what you do. With the prefix of \"Planeshift.GUI.\" and a suffix of either \".PosX\", \".PosY\", \".Width\" or \".Height\", you use the name of the .def file whos position and sizing you want to specify.
Now, I\'d like to quickly say that I havn\'t tested this, but I know from experience that it works on sizable windows. Infact, specifying the dimensions in this file not only gives you the results when you next load the game, but also actually \'locks\' the values. My target window ended up a small square block that I couldn\'t resize untill I removed the entries from Planeshift.cfg :)
Well, good luck, I think you should backup the file first before you start tinkering, I wouldn\'t like to be responsible for anything bad that might happen on your game!
Post back here after you\'ve tried it and tell me the results, I\'d love to hear if it worked. :)
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while this is up anyone any idea how i managed to delete my scroll options and the yellow bit from my chat, or any idea how to get it back :D
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Ooh err... not sure about that. What files have you altered? Maybe somebody could send you theirs.
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if i knew which files i wouldnt have a problem, ive altered pretty much everything I could just because i could :/
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This is an excellent guide Mogura. I am sure it took a lot of effort to figure all this out. Good luck extending it in the future.
People who do good texture mods may end up being contacted by the PS 2d team to help with the \"official\" mods also, so keep posting!
- Venge
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Well, that didn\'t work. Too bad. Anyway, through painful experimentation I\'ve discovered my alterations to certain files isn\'t at fault. Turns out, all I have to do to get everything to fall apart is to zip up and re-zip the DATA/GUI.ZIP file. So, now I turn to the Devs: what\'s up with that? Is there some kind of \"stamp\" or \"file-certificate\" that get lost when tampering with the zip-files?
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If you think this took a long time, you should look at my FAQ in the Newbie section. ;)
Thanks for the thumbs up everyone and good luck Poynter, that does seem very strange indeed.
Oh... Vengeance? Take a look at this, this is my character using a beautiful custom skin created by none other than the highly talented Ayshe! If you have time, tell us what you think. :)
(http://flare.slyip.com/moogie2.jpg)
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geez its hard to tel whats what for the textures.....
anyway, my question is do i have to edit the mask files if i wanna change the race skins?
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If you\'re planning on altering the actual shape of the clothes on the skin, then yes you will have to alter the mask file to coincide with this.
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Yes! It\'s working. Turns out the zip-function in Win XP does something to the archive which PS doesn\'t like to much. Anyway, by using WinRAR I\'ve manage to go around this and I\'ll start in my custom UI right away.
Oh, nice skin btw. Keep it up!
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Originally posted by Iamthom
geez its hard to tel whats what for the textures.....
anyway, my question is do i have to edit the mask files if i wanna change the race skins?
The mask file is actually racelib.xml, the mask.png is a guide only.
In order to change the mask ingame you will need to alter the sections for your chosen race. Each race has 4 sections - nose (clothing) eyes, chin (skin textures) and hair. When Planeshift initialises it reads this file and uses it to mask areas so the four texture files can be mix n matched to give 16 different combinations of skin and clothing per model, plus the eyes variation.
Each relevant line in the file has an x1 co-ordinate, x2 co-ordinate and y co-ordinate of a horizontal line that is part of the mask. I didn\'t know how to produce these files so I created some throwaway software to take the mask file and spit out lines of xml code. I\'d love to make it available but it\'s horrible chop n slash.... not the most user friendly software, but if you can get the proper tools, that is so much better.
Incidentally all the above I figured out unaided, it\'s not as complicated as it looks. Persist in your effort, it\'s a wonderful feeling to see your own modified textures running around in game :)
I might add that the texture pack I created anyone can have if they like (god bless the open community spirit) but there are three issues - firstly my hosting is a mite too slow to reliably make the 1.03 meg zip file available, so it\'s on a pm-me-and-I-email basis, secondly it does have an installer, but it is not foolproof, relying on batch files to rename the originals and copy substitutes. If you are unsure of how to make your own backups in case it turns to custard, then I\'d not reccommend getting them just yet. I\'d hate to be responsible for nuking your install. Thirdly, this is not original art, it is modified from the excellent textures provided with the release. That basically means it still falls under the user license, which I\'m sure you\'ve all read. Not a serious issue, unless you were planning to use it anywhere other than in PS hehe...
Linux users will have to copy and backup themselves, as the installer is a windows batch file but if someone knows how to work Linux then chances are they don\'t need to be told how to do it :D
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Send me your batch file and I\'ll send you the script for Linux that matches :)
my mail: vendiria@mailme.org
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~
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Originally posted by Vendiria
Send me your batch file and I\'ll send you the script for Linux that matches :)
my mail: vendiria@mailme.org
This is my point about linux users in general... they don\'t need to have their hands held for them.
I imagine the script would look something like this:
Listing of skinmod
#!/bin/sh
# This is a short script to symlink files in place of
# the originals. Use at your own risk, naturally
#
# This file, along with racelib.xml and the modified
# fenkidukai directory beling in a directory of their
# own in the my_planeshift dir.
#
# See how we were called
case \"$1\" in
# Create symlinks and such
install)
if ls ../art/textures/races/fenkidukai_orig
then
echo \"Skins already installed? - exiting\"
exit 1
fi
mv ../art/textures/races/fenkidukai ../art/textures/races/fenkidukai_orig
ln -s ./fenkidukai ../art/textures/races/fenkidukai
if ls ../art/racelib_orig.xml
then
echo \"Racelib already installed? - exiting\"
exit 1
fi
mv ../art/racelib.xml ../art/racelib_orig.xml
ln -s ./racelib.xml ../art/racelib.xml
;;
# Restore originals
remove)
if ls ../art/textures/races/fenkidukai_orig
then
rm ../art/textures/races/fenkidukai
mv ../art/textures/races/fenkidukai_orig ../art/textures/races/fenkidukai
else
echo \"Textures not installed? - exiting\"
exit 1
fi
if ls ../art/racelib_orig.xml
then
rm ../art/racelib.xml
mv ../art/racelib_orig.xml ../art/racelib.xml
else
echo \"Racelib not installed? - exiting\"
exit 1
fi
;;
# Anything else
*)
echo \"Usage: skinmod (install|remove)\"
exit 1
esac
exit 0
End list
Note, I haven\'t tested or checked this script at all, it\'s posted as a guide only since I would be willing to bet money on there being errors of some kind in it. :D
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man I wish I hadnt slept through all my computer classes... wait a minute... I didn\'t sleep I installed counterstrike on all the computers and played counterstrike with the guys up and down the hall on the school network... well until the principle realized there was a \'terrorist group\' in his school. I told them not to name their computer game club that...
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where to change font size of writings in chat
looked for it but didnt find anythin
the letters kinda big
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Hehe, I dug up my own thread. :D
You know, I did a little poking around trying to find the font settings myself. For some reason, after the last update, the font size as I typed into the chat box was unusually large and ugly.
I did find the file that governs fonts and sizes... I think. The thing is, I havn\'t tested it yet.
In the data/config folder you will find freetype.cfg- open this up in Notepad and look at the very first line that is not preceeded by a semicolon. This is, obviously, the value you should change to alter text sizes. I\'m going to set it to 10 and see what happens. I\'ll post back here if it works. :)
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oh good a thread about skin mods gooood i must have been lazy and missed this..........
anyway just wondering if anyone knows how to edit the mask i whant to try different hair styles for the \"humans\" amongst other things
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how can we tell what skin we\'re using via the files? i\'m using a skin that looks a LOT like the other ones of the set, i\'m not too sure which one is which.
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man I wish I hadnt slept through all my computer classes... wait a minute... I didn\'t sleep I installed counterstrike on all the computers and played counterstrike with the guys up and down the hall on the school network... well until the principle realized there was a \'terrorist group\' in his school. I told them not to name their computer game club that...
lol thats what im doing now... Got to love highschool
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Originally posted by jcterminal
how can we tell what skin we\'re using via the files? i\'m using a skin that looks a LOT like the other ones of the set, i\'m not too sure which one is which.
I\'m not sure. You seem to primarily use the Ynnwn skins, and I know they look pretty similar compared to the other races. I guess the simplest (but probably not the easiest) way is to backup all of the skin files and modify them differently to see which ones you\'re using.
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I was just woundering if i can use my skins for the sims and freedom force as race skins?
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LOL... maybe... who knows? If you have the skill and knowledge to convert skins from other games to be used in PlaneShift, by all means, go ahead.
And write a walkthrough to tell the rest of us how. :P
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sigh ... the good days ... \'s0b\' misuseing school property for the love of it ...
once me and my friends did a big one on the schools lan network :P
screwed the ol network so good that we ended up with a new one, A NEW AND real fast network so we used the coms to dl stuff, write it into a zip and bring it back home so we dont have to wait on our slower 512ks oh and we played lots counter strike and some times a bit of C&C
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Just wanted to share this thought. But does every know that all the configuration files will be in xml and will be very easy to edit.
Also the rain is made by 2d pictures \"falling down\" each time fasing you the same in a angle of 90o so you see the full pitcture, this is why there are no \"rain moddels\" each \"drop\" is randomly spawned and probably dies when it hits the floor, something that\'s also interesting is that the rain is only localy around you, just walk in the taveren and go to another exit without going out the building, you see that there is no rain, but when you look towards the entererance you notice that it\'s raining there.
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horah THESE SKINS ARE AWESOME!!! exelent job we need some one here to help make new races for the next version of ps
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Originally posted by Link hero of hyrule
horah THESE SKINS ARE AWESOME!!! exelent job we need some one here to help make new races for the next version of ps
The official word is that there will never be any new races or Gods in the game, except those already planned by the devs themselves.
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Of course, if the players get together and decide to worship say, toast, then we can\'t really stop them can we...
- Vengeance
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And so it begins...
(http://upl.silentwhisper.net/uplfolders/upload0/holytoast.jpg)
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Originally posted by Wedge
And so it begins...
(http://upl.silentwhisper.net/uplfolders/upload0/holytoast.jpg)
*bows*
I am faithful to ye, o\' Great Buttered Toasty One. I will bend mineself to ye will.
I am faithful to ye, o\' Great Buttered Toasty One. I will bend mineself to ye will.
I am faithful to ye, o\' Great Buttered Toasty One. I will bend mineself to ye will..................
:P
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The Rangers Guild; proud worshippers of Toast the god of buttery goodness.
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Originally posted by seperot
oh good a thread about skin mods gooood i must have been lazy and missed this..........
anyway just wondering if anyone knows how to edit the mask i whant to try different hair styles for the \"humans\" amongst other things
Email me the altered mask and I will send back the XML code for it
ayshe@flare.slyip.com
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thats nice of ya ayshe but if you look at when i posted that
20.08.2003, 12:24
i\'ve long since become bored with the whole client fiddle thingy :P
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*dreams about a way for other players to see your custom skins* ... maybe i will make a thread of my dreams :D ... naah to lazy ;)
and yes i know it\'s a stupid post :P
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hey ayshe where can download your skins? the ones ive seen are really cool!