OMF:BG Message Board

DraconicSpeaker · Joined: 25 Jan 2019 Posts: 3

How the heck do I add in custom characters to play as in tournament mode? I have some character packs for tournament opponents, but I wanna convert them into playable pilots. Anyone know how? Or at least how to make a custom character entirely?

raptor · Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2019 4:10 pm Post subject:

The Tournament Compiler comes with a way to do that, and iirc by default came with a pre-made file to compile to make every character from the base game selectable as custom pilot.

Essentially all you'd have to do is replace one of the images for that, and compile it.

Just to note, the tournament compiler is an old MS-DOS command line program, and might seem pretty alien to most people now-a-days, but it comes with documentation and is pretty simple as such things goes.

Should be the 5th link on this page:

http://wiki.omf2097.com/doku.php?id=omf2097:download

I haven't really touched the thing in ...... who knows how many years now... but I'll try to offer what help I can if you have trouble with it. I haven't even tried it since I moved away from Windws9X which had native proper MS-DOS so I don't even know how it will work in the WinNT style command window, or if it will work in DosBox ?
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DraconicSpeaker · Joined: 25 Jan 2019 Posts: 3

raptor · Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2019 11:49 am Post subject:

Iirc, if you put it in a own sub directory of omf2097, unzip it there, it should have all the files it needs for itself, including the pictures.

Find one of the pictures, mspaint it, and paste the picture you want over the portrait and save (don't mess with the other stuff in the image). easiest to pick one of the 4 normal starting images.

Now iirc, there should be a bat file named "players.bat" if you just run that (and it doesn't spit out an error), all you should do afterwards is copy the file "players.pic" to the root folder.

You might have to start a command prompt, and manually go to the folder, and and activate the players.bat file from there, depends on, windows doesn't always handle command prompt stuff right.

This this goes more into the actual technical stuff inside the tournament files, but Robyrt made a guide for the tournament compiler:

http://wiki.omf2097.com/doku.php?id=omf2097:robyrt_tourn
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DraconicSpeaker · Joined: 25 Jan 2019 Posts: 3

I see no files for pictures or any sort of formats I can even modify. there's PCX files but I don't know how to screw with those.

raptor · Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2019 8:16 pm Post subject:

.PCX are image files, old standard format back when .bmp was horrible. Unfortunately it looks like newer versions of paint can't open it. I'm really not up to date on image editing software. Hmm.

Paint.NET didn't open it either, suspect you might have to grab something heavier like Gimp or PaintShop Pro or such to edit .PCX nowadays, I used to be able to just use paint back in older windows versions. As said, it has been quite a while since I did any of this stuff.

But if you want to actually edit pictures to add own pictures, you're going to have to find a graphical editor that can handle .PCX files. Since that is the only format the converter program understands.

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Regarding the actual converter, I just tested it, and it (PHOTOS.EXE) won't run in a 64bit windows system at all, nor in CMD prompt, it will however run in Dosbox, so I got it working. Tested and made a PLAYERS.PIC with all the portraits from in-game.

And just because, I uploaded it and put it for download here, 7th link from the top: http://wiki.omf2097.com/doku.php?id=omf2097:download

So even if you can't get anything else to work, just download the PLAYERS.RAR file, and unpack it into the omf2097 folder, overwrite the old one. Have all 42 in-game portraits.

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If you got more questions, might be easier to join the Discord, more people talking there. Link in my signature.
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raptor · Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2019 5:22 pm Post subject:

After reading a bit about the .PCX format, I think GIMP, PhotoShop Pro, and Photoshop should be able to do the job. There are also several other programs that is capable of converting to and from, but not sure if that would work or not.
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raptor · Posted: Sun Feb 03, 2019 8:50 pm Post subject:

Another update, I ended up downloading GIMP (free) to test out, and it works, but the user interface, while much better than it used to be, still isn't friendly to new users, and requires some getting used to.

I did however managed after messing about for a while, to create a new pilot by copy-pasting in my avatar onto an existing picture, save (in gimp format) and then export it to PCX.
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Raven · Joined: 14 Oct 2000 Posts: 6366 Location: Sriniskal

GIMP is significantly less terrible if you enable single window mode.
Windows -> Single-Window mode
The "new" 2.X interface is otherwise lousy but changing the theme to a lighter one and the icon theme to legacy fixes a lot of the problems.
Edit -> Preferences -> Interface ->Theme
Edit -> Preferences -> Interface ->Icon Theme
If that's not enough you can pull something from https://www.gnome-look.org/browse/cat/268/ to try and make it look more like photoshop.

GIMP and Blender have a lot in common: a powerful tool hidden behind an interface that makes you want to strangle somebody.
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Scorpion Navy Issue

raptor · Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2019 6:17 pm Post subject:

Hmm, is "Single Window Mode" when all the toolbars gets forced into the same window (it displays an X on single window in the menu, making me wonder if it is enabled or disabled).

Legacy icons helped a lot, kinda liked the dark theme, but haven't looked that hard at the changes yet. Set it to grey to see if it works any better.

Thanks Ravo :)

And yeah, Gimp been "that tool" that I've always shied away from using, just because it's been too darn complicated for its own good. It's like a look back in time to legacy Linux, back when you practically had to know how to program just to get it to install.
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- Jon Eirik * www.omf2097.com * www.omf2097.com/wiki * www.omf2097.com/chat - https://discord.gg/sT8YU2E <- OMF Discord