[Guide] Adding 2D Species Portraits

[dskod1]

@Keanon
For 3d as far as I know.

 

[LarasFreezer]

@LarasFreezer
You can still do that without the clothing. Very easily with 2d portraits. Manually just make all the different variations in 2d portraits and you are good to go

Needs some polishing, but it's promising, no? She even breathes properly.

 

[dskod1]

@LarasFreezer
Looking good, keep up the good work

 

[Rozy]

I've been trying to get the portrait groups working for multiple 2d images divided by pop and leader type... Is there any more detailed documentation on how the portrait_groups system works or is the first post in this topic all there really is on the subject?

 

[dskod1]

@Rozy
No more documentation really, but you can check the wiki on portrait modding.

Dividing by leader type is really easy though, if you give me a snippet of your portrait_group code, along with tell me what you are trying to do, I can walk you through it.

 

[Rozy]

Well, I was trying to hash it out by using the first post and the human entry, plus a workshop mod with a smaller portraitgroup than what I'm aiming for.

I attached my uh... Incredibly messy attempt at aping what I saw. I was trying to divide a few different sets of images across the different classes of leader and stuff, but I'm pretty sure I've terribly messed it up somewhere.

When I try to call the portraitgroup in the species classes file or directly within the portrait file, I just get a blank button. Though I can call any individual portrait fine...

 

[dskod1]

@Rozy
The actual stuff you set up looks good, but I see a problem. Is your species defined as "cutes" or "Cutes"... the species name is case sensitive

cutes = {
texturefile = "gfx/custom/cuteportraits/governer1.dds"
}

Get rid of the above code

In your portraits_groups make sure this line:

Cutes = {

is case sensitive correct.

See if that works for you.

 

[Rozy]

Oh wow it was the case sensitivity all along... It applys for the individual portrait files too!

But it's working now!

http://images.akamai.steamuserconte...520/93BB89AFE67800A59E975918D50EF83446600459/

Thanks a lot dskod1!

 

[dskod1]

WHAT HAVE I DONE?!?!

Here come the anime mods. @Rozy

Have fun

 

[MrBou]

A slider for more portraits in the portrait choice is on the todo list ?

 

[dpfarce]

Oh wow it was the case sensitivity all along... It applys for the individual portrait files too!

But it's working now!

http://images.akamai.steamuserconte...520/93BB89AFE67800A59E975918D50EF83446600459/

Thanks a lot dskod1!

Beat me to it.

We'll, I guess I'll just get back to playing stellaris and I'll leave you to do the hard work...er...modding

 

[dskod1]

@MrBou
I think what you speak of is already in. You are speaking about the ruler customisation in species editor, right?

You can make 2d portraits easily selectable by just having more than 1 choice in the appropriate area.

 

[MrBou]

Sorry for my bad english, I speak about the number of portraits (18 max without arrow/slider...) in each catégory (mamalian, reptilian...)

 

[Rozy]

@dskod1
I think @MrBou is asking if there's a way to add a scrollbar so you could scroll and see more added portrait groups. I don't think this is currently possible...

Also while my mod is working now it seems that I can't figure out how to define specific portraits for specific leader types. Is that even possible anymore or is it broken? All I get is the one I set as the "Generic" version as leaders besides the ruler.

All the specific pop ones appear though.

 

[Baalshazar]

I'll keep testing it out to see if I get a different result.

Can anyone translate this to gimpanese? I keep getting stuck on 7 at the channel part as alpha is always on no matter what I do and it always comes out as a picture with just black.

5. You want to ensure the area you want the players to see is already cut out so you have what you want people to see on only 1 layer.
6. CTRL+Left click the thumbnail of the layer, this should create a marquee area around every object on that layer.
7. Open the "channels" window.
8. Left click the "alpha 1" channel so that you activate that channel.
9. Fill your, already selected, marquee area with white
10. Inverse your selection.
11. Fill this new area with black
12. Select your "RGB" channel (the Alpha 1 channel should now no longer be active in any way)

Does 5 mean to merge layers together or just have a layer visible to make it seem like they are together?

For gimp users I don't have the option for these exact save settings.

I've got several types of DXT5, ABGR8

But not exactly

DTX5 ARGB 8 BPP | Interpolated alpha
2D Texture
No MIP Maps
MIP Map Filtering --> Filter Type: Point

 

[dskod1]

@Rozy
I noticed with your files you had none set for the male gender. This means with every male gender of your species it has to go back and use the default portrait. If that was not what you were talking about can you please give me an example?

@Baalshazar
Unfortunately these instructions were made with photoshop in mind. I have used photoshop for so long now that when I tried Gimp I found it extremely confusing. So in this respect I can't really help you. instruction 5 just means to have what you want the players to see already cut out, it depends on the image your using and how much of it you want the players to see. There should be a way to turn the visibility of the alpha channel off.

I can't help you with the .dds save either, you will just need to test until you get a working one. The most important part of the DDS save is the first line.

Also, if you send me your .dds file, I can look it over and get it done for you and send it back. This way you might be able to see how it should look in the end.

 

[Rozy]

@dskod1
Yeah I was thinking it would just generate female characters if I excluded. Which I was aiming for. And I got things sorta working now by just throwing out all my old defines and making a new one based off the human portrait selector thing. I still couldn't get the leader_class trigger working either.

@Baalshazar
Just pick DTX5, and make sure you're using the DDS plugin hosted on that google docs site, the one from the seemingly "Official" gimp page always saved broken dds files for me.

If you can get the file saved with transparency that's as good as alpha, that's what I did.

 

[dskod1]

@Rozy
The leader_class trigger does work, though only for the leader scope.

 

[Rozy]

Hmm... I gave it a try @dskod1 but it seemed like it would work for a bit, then the moment I added another section it just blew up and I got nothing but default images. Even for the sections that worked before.

 

[Baalshazar]

Unfortunately these instructions were made with photoshop in mind. I have used photoshop for so long now that when I tried Gimp I found it extremely confusing. So in this respect I can't really help you. instruction 5 just means to have what you want the players to see already cut out, it depends on the image your using and how much of it you want the players to see. There should be a way to turn the visibility of the alpha channel off.

I can't help you with the .dds save either, you will just need to test until you get a working one. The most important part of the DDS save is the first line.

Also, if you send me your .dds file, I can look it over and get it done for you and send it back. This way you might be able to see how it should look in the end.

Thanks for being willing to help me out I appreciate it.

@Baalshazar
Just pick DTX5, and make sure you're using the DDS plugin hosted on that google docs site, the one from the seemingly "Official" gimp page always saved broken dds files for me.

If you can get the file saved with transparency that's as good as alpha, that's what I did.

Alright, I used alpha exponent and it worked! Thanks for giving me some gimpenese lessons! Now all I need to do is get the orientation so the portrait isn't missing part of her head!