Portal Theming

[X7123M3-256]

Half the reason it looks so bad is because it isn't dithered, so you've got severe banding artifacts. I would also double check the lighting angle - it looks off to me, and ensure you're rendering with an orthographic camera. The easiest way to tell if your camera is correct is to render a cube - horizontal lines should appear on screen with a 2:1 gradient, and all vertical lines should remain vertical. Also, your first image is rendered from the wrong angle, and is a duplicate of the last.

1 hour ago, Tune said:

ObjectEditor won't ruin it by compressing it.

RCT2 compression is lossless. If the object editor appears to be doing anything to your image, you're probably feeding it a true color image or one with an incorrect palette (the RCT2 palette is not the same as the one used for GIFs, so make sure you supply the correct one. You can obtain it from the OpenRCT2 source or from a screenshot).

[Tune]

Well I can easily edit the light source in the HLMV. But where is the light supposed to come from? Directly from the top, or maybe from an angle?

I also found a way to display the hitboxes in HLMV. So I can use that to make sure the angle is correct. Yay.

18 hours ago, X7123M3-256 said:

RCT2 compression is lossless. If the object editor appears to be doing anything to your image, you're probably feeding it a true color image or one with an incorrect palette (the RCT2 palette is not the same as the one used for GIFs, so make sure you supply the correct one. You can obtain it from the OpenRCT2 source or from a screenshot).

Yeah I'm not blaming the object editor. That's kinda what I meant when I said I needed to find a way to safe it in the correct way in Photoshop. I think I can find and make a custom color palette in Photoshop and have it only use those colors. I'll look into that. 

Another thing I was wondering about was the pixel size of the images. It would make sense to already scale it down in Photoshop and see if it looks right, but I'm not sure what size that should be. It's kinda difficult to find any info on that. 

[X7123M3-256]

41 minutes ago, Tune said:

But where is the light supposed to come from? Directly from the top, or maybe from an angle?

The light comes from the right of the screen, at a farily shallow angle (somewhere around 30 degrees). The shadow cast by an object on the ground should be longer than the object is tall, and dead horizontal. I suggest taking a close look at this image to get an idea where the light should be coming from:

 

 

45 minutes ago, Tune said:

Another thing I was wondering about was the pixel size of the images. It would make sense to already scale it down in Photoshop and see if it looks right, but I'm not sure what size that should be. It's kinda difficult to find any info on that. 

One tile is 3.67 metres to a side. 16 vertical pixels amounts to 1.5m. This is the value given by the height marks in game and roughly matches the scale of the existing sprites. However, the game does not use a consistent scale everywhere. If you find a different scale works better, then you may prefer to use that instead.

[Tune]

I kind of feel like I might be re-inventing the wheel here. But if anyone want it: I made a swatch and color table for Photoshop only using the 216 colors from RCT, based on the palette from the ObjectEditor. 

So now if I have an image in Photoshop I can choose image>mode>indexed color, pick the custom rct color table and convert the image to only use the right colors. This way I can edit the image in Photoshop, while still staying true to the colors from in RCT. 

Probably gonna try making objects again tomorrow. 

rct_color_table.act

rct_swatch.aco

[YoloSweggLord]

Hate to burst your bubble but they already exist:

https://github.com/OpenRCT2/OpenRCT2/wiki/Dithering-Images-using-Photoshop

The ones linked here are in .pal format, which I believe is supported more widely than .aco or .act files.

 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OtTAytgtecqW7bbN8K6lb6dw4LYUMiXXBb7ZLGyk__U/edit#gid=0

There's also this spreadsheet linked on the front page of the Github wiki. This one contains the OpenRCT2 recolorable remap (F:245-256) which I believe is only used in G2.DAT. If you're making sprites for G2.DAT you'll need those colors.

[Tune]

No worries. I don't mind figuring stuff like this out on my own anyway.

I did actually check the dithering images page, I just never noticed the link to the one for Photoshop. 😅

The only thing I can't figure out right now is how to make glass. I even opened glass walls from the game in the object editor, but still couldn't find how it's done.

Also sometimes I get a stream read error when trying to load images into the Object Editor, not sure what causes that.

Edited January 30, 2017 by Tune

[YoloSweggLord]

4 minutes ago, Tune said:

The only thing I can't figure out right now is how to make glass. I even opened glass walls from the game in the object editor, but still couldn't find how it's done.

The glass objects have 2 sprites for each rotation.

This first sprite is the opaque part of the object:

The second sprite is the translucent part of the object:

Note the position of the scroll bars next to the images to see how to switch between sprites with the object editor.

[Tune]

Ah right. That makes so much sense. I did notice you could have different sprites, but only thought they were for animating. 

Can't wait to try some of this out when I get home again.

Also sorry if I seem to be hijacking this topic.

This is the first time I've ever tried making sprites in RCT, thanks for all the help guys. 

[Tune]

Alright. I've tried to make a Companion Cube this time.

I made it 1/4th of a tile, cause in the game they're not bigger than the player character anyway.

Here are four of the different results:

Personally I think the third actually looks decent.

Here's some of them together with an Aperture Science test subject:

 

[X7123M3-256]

Your rightmost sprite has a black border - it looks like the image has been anti-aliased prior to conversion to indexed color. The software doing the conversion will not recognize that the black is a special color that shouldn't be changed. Perhaps try using a transparent background before converting to the RCT palette, and then filling in the transparent areas with the correct background color after the conversion. Or you could just erase the problem pixels manually. The other angles look good.

Edited January 31, 2017 by X7123M3-256

[Tune]

The rightmost sprite has a black border because I gave it one. Same with the left one having a bright border, the second no border and the third one a dark gray one. 

6 minutes ago, X7123M3-256 said:

The other angles look good.

They're not different angles, they're different sprites altogether. I posted four of em so they can be compared. Sorry for the confusion. 

[imlegos]

3rd could use some cleaning, but otherwise it looks nearly perfect.

Wish I could get something going.

[Tune]

Look! Colours. 

[imlegos]

Neat.

This also saves up space, as now we don't need 2 objects to display the different status (On/Off button).

Although, a centered version would be nice.

 

Looking at it again, the heart is a little too undefined, making it look more like a weighted storage cube then a weighted companion cube. Though, as pink is the main defining thing about the P2 companion cube, this isn't much of a downside. (Pink = Companion, Icy Blue/light water = Storage, Yellow = On button)

Edited January 31, 2017 by imlegos

[Tune]

A centered version would make sense if we also make a button object yeah.

If you need help to get (screenshots of) Portal objects I'd be glad to help you out.

Here's the DAT object of the cube, the original full size it's based on in PSD and the BMP made out of that for anyone that's interested. 

And a little bonus:

P2_CCUBE.DAT

P2_CCUBE.psd

P2_CCUBE.bmp

 

Edited January 31, 2017 by Tune

[imlegos]

What program are you using to view the Source objects? I'd guess either Hammer or SFM (Maybe even the Perpetual Testing Initiative in P2)

Also, would have personally prefered it named as "Weighted Companion Cube", which is the objects full name in Portal. (Like wise, the button is called a "Heavy Duty Super Colliding Super Button")

Edited January 31, 2017 by imlegos

[Tune]

2 minutes ago, imlegos said:

What program are you using to view the Source objects? I'd guess either Hammer or SFM (Maybe even the Perpetual Testing Initiative in P2)

Neither. Although I did try both. SFM would be pretty good actually. But it's not that easy to pick up and I didn't feel like spending multiple hours watching tutorials. 

On 1/28/2017 at 15:29, Tune said:

I used the Half-Life Model Viewer

Or more specifically:

The model viewer found in the Portal 2 Authoring Tools - Beta. You can find this in your library under tools (if you have Portal2)

[imlegos]

Oh, that seems pretty dang helpful, I'll check that out.

_{I still need to figure out how to get an object editor thing working on Win10.}

[imlegos]

Also, new object idea I just thought of; "Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device Pedestal" (2 variants, a straight and diagonal version)

Additionally, a wall tile with the brackets that show where a automated portal would appear.

[Tune]

I also got a small turret and a button now. And made a centered version of the cube. 

23 hours ago, imlegos said:

I still need to figure out how to get an object editor thing working on Win10.

What's wrong? I'm using Win10 and the ObjectEditor @Broxzier sent here works fine. 

P2_CCUB2.DAT

P2_CCUBE.DAT

P2_SBUTT.DAT

P2_STURR.DAT

[imlegos]

When I get home today, I'll probably look into trying to start something with this.

(Also, another minor addition; the "Pillars" located in the central core chamber's entry from P1 as a half tile item (Back half of a tile, maybe even a quarter tile))

[imlegos]

Also, minor thing, but the buttons also change color based on the presence of a cube (Or Edgeless Safety Cube)

[Tune]

This is shaping up pretty nicely. I might re-do the turrets on a later stage though.

This'll be the last update for a bit: I'm going skiing next week!

Feel free to take the objects and improve/use them:

Portal_RCT2_Tune.zip

Edited February 2, 2017 by Tune

[imlegos]

The wires look really off, probably because they're circles. They should be ovals.

May look into making a tab soon.

[Tune]

Redid the indicator lights. Very happy with the improvement.