SS2 "tech" texture families

[6740afeb2682cZylonBane]

Does anyone know why, in SS2, the animated monitor textures are split into three different families (st_tech, hyd_tech, tech)? There's a huge degree of redundancy between these three folders. There are 491 textures in all three of them individually, but once combined, there are only 240 unique textures.

So, is there some technical DromEd reason why they'd split them up like that?

[6740afeb269ffNameless Voice]

The hyd_tech variants seem to be used on some Hydro maps.  They have no properties applied, which means that they will not make collision sounds, nor will they be fully illuminated like the normal tech screens.  Most normal tech screens also have animation flags of 200ms/wrap, which the hyd_ variants don't have.

But that looks more like an oversight than actual design, I have no idea why there are variants.

[6740afeb26ae6ZylonBane]

Okay, cool. So if someone were to, say, pack them all into a single FAM, it wouldn't exceed any DromEd limitations, yes?

[6740afeb26be3Nameless Voice]

Assuming they all use the same palette, no.
But the original missions would still be referencing them from their original families.

Unless there's a limit to the number of textures that can be in a family which I'm not aware of.

[6740afeb26d27ZylonBane]

I've sorted through all the combined "monitor" textures, and once the animation frames are factored out, it seems there are only about 70 unique monitor textures in the entire game.

Good. That's manageable.

[6740afeb26e0bMarvin]

Does this mean we're finally getting updated monitor textures with the next SHTUP update? Hooray!

[6740afeb26ed7ZylonBane]

No, it doesn't. And it never, ever will.

[6740afeb26fe5ZylonBane]

Okay, so far so good...

Image: http://img393.imageshack.us/img393/237/shempalphakf8.th.png

[6740afeb270adNameless Voice]

Indeed.

[6740afeb271d9ZylonBane]

While it's true that SHTUP can't include resolution-enhanced terrain textures (since, as some folks aren't aware, modifiying the MIS files is the only way to increase the resolution of terrain textures), what I'm working on now is an enhanced monitor texture package, free for use by anyone whose mod already includes modified MIS files.

Given the tightly constrained scope of this project, I should be finished with it inside a month. I will need some 3D assistance. Just a couple of spinning logos and some globes.

[6740afeb272d2Nameless Voice]

If Timeslip ever gets the high-resolution texture wrapper to support SS2, then these would be even more useful.

[6740afeb2758aChristine]

Looks great 

Makes me think about replacing the old tech textures with your new ones in my levels. 

[6740afeb277d6ZylonBane]

If Timeslip ever gets the high-resolution texture wrapper to support SS2, then these would be even more useful.

Hasn't he abandoned DDFix?

[6740afeb278cfNameless Voice]

Probably, I honestly don't know.

We do have the source code, though, so maybe someone else might get it to work some day.

[6740afeb27a10ZylonBane]

Before:
Image: http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/2476/p0023ce8.gif

After:
Image: http://img516.imageshack.us/img516/2429/poo23xrn6.gif

This texture took me a freaking week to get right. Argh... I hate organic textures. At least this one is anatomically correct now.

[6740afeb27b3cKolya]

Wow! Good work ZB.

[6740afeb27c23Christine]

awesome, great work, ZylonBane 

[6740afeb27cf8Nameless Voice]

That texture is really most excellent.
Great work, ZB!

[6740afeb27dc5leaf]

WOW. Very nice work! I hope to see it in-game soon.

[6740afeb27eceZylonBane]

Thanks. I should reiterate that these can only be seen in-game with map files that have been modified to use them. And some maps, we don't have the editable versions.

[6740afeb27fb5Nameless Voice]

I'm going to see about getting TF to implement these into SecMod once you're done with them.
ADaOB also already modifies all the levels, so maybe they should be added to that, too?

[6740afeb2827dThiefsieFool]

i wonder if i'd have to adjust some parameters or something, right now I boost the animation speed of almost every tech texture by x2 to make it animate smoothly (looks good for 99% of the textures), and that one seems like it's already smoothed


and that 'putting in' thing had better amount to some kind of replace_texture dromed command

[6740afeb28381ZylonBane]

Yeah, for textures where it makes sense I'm providing alternate versions with twice as many frames. The example above is the "fast" version of that particular texture, designed for a 100ms frame interval.

[6740afeb2844dThiefsieFool]

nice