[NightFright]

To all pixel artists out there!

For my EDuke32 addon compilation project, I am currently trying to make a small (optional) widescreen patch for some HUD graphics from Nuclear Showdown. I found three which require attention:
- Scuba gear (already turned into widescreen version by myself, was easy)
- Space suit
- Blood diving suit (probably used for jump boots of something, unsure)

I am looking for talented pixel artists who can turn the two missing tiles into widescreen versions while maintaining their low-resolution look (similar to what has been done with the widescreen weapons for Duke3D Megaton Edition). Find the two tiles below.

Requirements:
- Target resolution: 480x200 (so you just need to add 80 pixels to the left and right - if you can add even more width, it's OK, but it would probably never show on any common monitor)
- Source image must remain centered (even though I think it's obvious)
- Sides need to be completely covered (no transparent parts)
- If you are able to maintain the Duke3D palette (e.g. with Gimp), it would be great, but it's not a must

Anyone who can help me with this will be properly credited in the readme of the addon pack when it's getting released. Thanks in advance, and have fun with those pixels!

[Kyanos]

 5180_Drek.bmp (79.18K)
Number of downloads: 134
I did one really quick, someone else can do better

[Kyanos]

And the other one
 5181_Drek.bmp (79.18K)
Number of downloads: 111

[NightFright]

Well, mirroring the edges is an idea I already had before... it's certainly fast, but actually a continuation would look nicer. It's a lot more work ofc since you cannot use existing parts of the image. It's a start, though! Let's see, maybe others will also come up with something. ^^

[TerminX]

Just find where these are drawn with rotatesprite in the CONs and add the appropriate bit to stretch the graphic to the full width of the screen.

[NightFright]

rotatesprite indeed works for most of these tiles.

I found two exceptions, however:
1) Scubagear gets mirrored, and I didn't find a way to stretch/align it without using an external replacement tile.
2) minitext (ON/OFF/AUTO messages for inventory items, e.g. HoloDuke or scuba) doesn't seem to have an orientation flag.

[NightFright]

(double post)

[Hendricks266]

You can promote minitext to screentext as displayed here: http://wiki.eduke32....entext#minitext

You're probably best off applying the regex find/replace directly, because you might make a mistake with the detailed instructions.

Post again when you have a result and/or need help. Good luck.

[NightFright]

Thanks for your help so far!

Good news is I got it working. That minitext now has the same alignment as the corresponding other text/graphics parts.

What works now:
- All custom HUDs work in widescreen (mostly by realigning, Duke64 HUD had to be stretched since left/right part was in one tile)
- Scuba gear has widescreen support (with external image), spacesuit too (via tile stretching) - the other tile doesn't seem to be needed
- Bonus: all previous EDuke32 warnings eliminated

Remaining widescreen issues:
- Provided I want to make a custom devastator weapon as it appears in "Duke Extreme" widescreen (because it gets cut at the left/right edges), is that possible?
- Scuba gear (I think I need to stick to the solution with the tilefromtexture image)
- If you activate the (optional) HUD stats (with time, kills, secrets), that display would be on top of some of the HUDs. It can be moved?
- Two digitalnumbers need minor realignment: "4" (#2476) must move to the right by one pixel, "9" (#2481) has to move 2 pixels down. Cannot find it in the code. It's not a problem with tiles009.art - removing it changed nothing.

Feel free to take a look at the full con the way it looks like after my edits so far and check if you are maybe able to find a way to solve one (or several) of the problems above. Thx in advance (again)!

[t800]

Sorry for derailing thread, but after I saw mention of Nuclear Showdown in text, I had to react.

NightFright, I find your effort of compiling all new and old classic mods made for Duke3D in pack and even fixing some of more broken ones very praiseworthy. Cant wait for it!

So I would like to ask, do you also intend to fix Nuclear Showdown? Stock .CON files of last version 1.1 arent compatible with newer Eduke32 builds. Supergoofy released fixed .CONs for it, but some things are still broken and dont work correctly. For example you cant use new added inventory items, visa keycards cant be used, when you throw proximity bombs it also throws one pipebomb at same time with it and some switches in added Fallout Tour episode seems disfunctional. For example in Demonstration map you cant open pressure room with space suit leading to space or you cant acces room with arcade machines. I would be very grateful if those glitches could be sorted out, as Nuclear Showdown is one of my mainstays mods. Whenever I am in mood of playing classic renderer with gameplay enhanctments, I pick it up.

This way I also thank you, Jblade, for such great mod, I surely wouldnt mind if you ever decided to return to it and do bit of improvements here and there.

[Jblade]

Glad you enjoyed it my plate's pretty full with AMC TC at the moment so I don't really have time to update all the code and stuff - I'd suggest going back and using a much earlier snapshot or something in the meantime since many changes over the years have broken various things in the TC (it's all old spaghetti code)

[NightFright]

Someone with proper CON coding skills would have to take a look at it. What I am doing now is merely enough to fix warning messages and barely figuring out how to add rudimentary widescreen support where possible.

If it helps at all - my edits are based on M210's version, so at least some fixes are included.

In case anyone is willing to assist in restoring full functionality of "Nuclear Showdown", I can post whatever fixes I have created so far for it here so you guys can take a look in order to see what's wrong. I'd like to release this stuff in its most functional state, working with latest EDuke32 snapshots (hopefully also with future ones).

Other than this rather major issue, I am still trying to figure out why two digital numbers (4 and 9) are a bit out of alignment in all the NSD HUDs.

[NightFright]

Hope nobody kills me for bumping/double posting, but since I have run into an obstacle during my work on the addon compilation and it's a topic that fits in here still, I will post it here:

There are addons replacing a weapon with custom graphics, let's say the pistol. These tile replacements are made so that they are cut off at the right side in widescreen modes. If I want those to be aligned to the right side of the screen in all resolutions (similar e.g. to the RPG in EDuke32), is there a way to pull that off? Examples would be nice since me --> noob and stuff! ^^

[Hendricks266]

Do you have an example of such a mod? It's hard to explain without any material to reference.

[Danukem]

Jblade, on 13 September 2014 - 01:07 PM, said:

Glad you enjoyed it my plate's pretty full with AMC TC at the moment so I don't really have time to update all the code and stuff - I'd suggest going back and using a much earlier snapshot or something in the meantime since many changes over the years have broken various things in the TC (it's all old spaghetti code)

I hope you guys are seeing Jblade's larger point here. There's a lot of stuff that's changed over the years, and many things may be broken in the mod if you play it with a recent snapshot. Unless you have done thorough playtesting and know what to look for, it will be difficult to assess what needs to be fixed. It's also the case that the latest snapshot may itself be broken in various ways, some that we don't even know about right now. That's why when a mod is released, it comes with a known working binary that it has been tested with.

Personally I wouldn't be comfortable with someone tinkering with one of my older mods (say, DNWMD) and then releasing it. There's a million things that could be broken and (liike Jblade) I wouldn't have the time to help anyone who came to me with bug reports.

[Kyanos]

Apiai, on 11 December 2013 - 01:10 AM, said:

Hi guys,

when installing Knee_Deep, it overwrites eduke32 (version r1836 to r3262), and then i'm having an issue in WGR2 with shotgun aiming while zooming.

aiming.png

(When i play with eduke32 r1836, there's no issue anymore.)

It's strange that zooming is good in Knee Deep but not in WGR2 ?!

Case and point. If ever I update renaming the executable is on my to-do list, I regret that, sorry Trooper Dan.

[NightFright]

Hendricks266, on 08 November 2015 - 11:45 AM, said:

Do you have an example of such a mod? It's hard to explain without any material to reference.

Different weapons are affected, depending on the addon. In total, about 15 of the addon compilation need this treatment. In some cases, it's kinda easy to create widescreen graphics, but others would require a pixel artist which I am not. Therefore, it would be easier to just change weapon alignment to stick to the right side of the screen.

As an example, see how the pistol replacement looks in "Platoon TC" in 1024x600 resolution on the screenshot below. You can see the gap on the right side (marked with yellow square).
In this specific case, it would be kinda easy to create widescreen graphics since the black area of the weapon basically just needs to be continued. However, there are cases which are more difficult (such as the AK-47 in "WGRealms", and the cut part of the weapon only shows if you are walking), so a coded solution would be better there. Unless somebody pops up willing to create those missing graphics, ofc.

What I am looking for is basically a coding template for ANY weapon slot in the game that allows you to change alignment. The original Duke3D pistol for example didn't require realignment since it didn't touch the right edge of the screen at all. I know that EDuke32 uses the method I am looking for to place e.g. the RPG properly to prevent it from showing the part where it's cut off.

You also posted a file in this thread that contained a weapons.con which allowed weapon realignment, maybe it can be something like that. It just wouldn't be needed for all the weapons at the same time, just specific ones depending on the addon.

*EDIT Nov 10*
Really cool would be to enhance the tilefromtexture command with additional alignment options besides xoff and yoff (align to left screen side, center, align to right screen side), but I know you coding guys are careful regarding such stuff. Dunno if that makes sense for general purposes.