resolution_fixed type_patch (an actual patch, not a request for one) | by Forgon

The Jammer was hard to tell apart from the Counter Battery (see attached screenshots [raw-attachment:cb_and_jammer_distance_5000_old.png], [raw-attachment:cb_and_jammer_distance_2500_old.png], [raw-attachment:cb_and_jammer_distance_500_old.png]).

Its blurring effect also obscured unit outlines too much, making it difficult to distinguish units from a distance (see attached screenshot [raw-attachment:jammer_vision_blur_old.png]).

Therefore, I have repainted the Jammer to the same colour as the Radar Detector (compare [raw-attachment:jammer_model_old.png] to [raw-attachment:jammer_model_new.png]).
This makes it much easier to tell CB and Jammer apart (see attached screenshots [raw-attachment:cb_and_jammer_distance_5000_new.png], [raw-attachment:cb_and_jammer_distance_2500_new.png], [raw-attachment:cb_and_jammer_distance_500_new.png]).

The blurring effect is now far less intense, but more frequent (see attached screenshot [raw-attachment:jammer_vision_blur_new.png]).

Documentation for PIE format

I have made a few changes to the file './doc/PIE.md' to better explain the different coordinate notations used by PIE 2 and PIE 3. Two topics puzzled me especially and my explanations of them could surely be improved:

• Why do helicopter models use some negative coordinates? Are their PIE3 UV values not supposed to range from 0 to 1?
• What is the purpose of texture flag 4200? It is used in a few PIE 2 and PIE 3 models.

Overall the PIE format is now better documented, since I

• included PIE 2 (rather than only PIE 3)
• explained different coordinate systems used by PIE 2 and PIE 3
• explained more polygon flags
• mentioned materials directive
• added tabs for examples when needed

Repositioning textures in texture page

The textures used by the Jammer were shared by CB, Commander, Heavy Rocket Bastion and Missile Fortress. Therefore, I had to copy them to a new location in the texture page './data/base/texpages/page-17-droid-weapons.png'.

A lack of space required shifting textures on that page and recalculating coordinates. For that purpose, I wrote an AWK script that allows moving a rectangular area for a given texture page by correcting the coordinates for each PIE files using it (see attached script [raw-attachment:'move_textures']). It is far from perfect, and must fail if only a part of one texture is chosen.

I carefully tested each texture I moved. Besides using my script, I found it useful to temporarily repaint textures in pure red, blue and green (whose hexadecimal values are #f00, !#00f, !#0f0). This makes it easy to remember where to look for unintended changes. Some files with repainted textures are attached.

After repositioning an emplacement foundations texture in GIMP, I executed

./move_textures 716 480 120 24 684 1000 page-17-droid-weapons.png

A texture used by Flashlight and EMP Missile Launcher overlapped with the Bunker Buster texture.
To correct this, I ran

for f in data/base/components/weapons/{gnmr,cy_}las.pie
do
    printf '%s\n' ',s/219/218/g' w | ed -s $f
done

I also removed a few unused pixels beneath the texture.
To ensure they were really not needed, I checked the result of ./move_textures 796 480 76 4 0 0 page-17-droid-weapons.png.

Finally, I moved the texture in GIMP and shifted all required PIE coordinates by executing:

./move_textures 796 428 76 52 796 388 page-17-droid-weapons.png

A texture showing a red dot was unused. I moved it in GIMP and verified that nothing required it by checking the result of

./move_textures 792 504 56 56 368 304 page-17-droid-weapons.png

After repositioning a texture used for the left upper arm of heavy cyborgs in GIMP, I executed

./move_textures 488 392 28 52 432 304 page-17-droid-weapons.png

Finally there was enough free space on the texture page to copy the textures needed by the Jammer model. I copied them in GIMP and then executed:

• for the mast:

git checkout $(./move_textures 892 196 52 200 820 440 page-17-droid-weapons.png | grep -vFx ./data/base/components/weapons/gnmecm1.pie)

• for the dishes:

git checkout $(./move_textures 864 912 64 64 460 392 page-17-droid-weapons.png | grep -vFx ./data/base/components/weapons/gnmecm1.pie)

Repainting the Jammer

To use exactly the same golden colour as the Radar Detector, I first removed grey areas from its texture page
(see attached image [raw-attachment:page-59-more-weapons_rendered.png]).

GIMP's "Sample Colourise" tool did all the rest for me (see attached image [raw-attachment:gimp_sample_colourise.png]). It can be accessed via 'Colours->Map' in the menubar.

I tried to further improve colouring, e.g. by using the "Colourise Tool" and setting the "Hue" value to 38 and the "Lightness" value to -35 (see attached image [raw-attachment:jammer_model_alternative.png]). Yet overall I could not make the model much prettier, and since I am no artist and my colour vision might be poor I'll leave that task to others.

To preserve the red spot in the center of radar dishes, I copied it into a new GIMP layer, and, using the "Colour to Alpha" tool (found via 'Colours->Colour to Alpha' in the menubar) removed the colour !#8d8d8d from it. I then merged the layer down.

I hope my patch does not cause too much trouble for real artists, like the makers of Art Revolution.

Issue migrated from trac:4769 at 2022-04-16 13:04:54 -0700