Modding - Quick questions
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You want to use DXT5 > Interpolated Alpha (making sure you've got an alpha channel).
That's a lot lower color depth than Paradox uses though, so I wouldn't recommend it.
For anything that needs transparency I use 8.8.8.8. It's about 10-20% larger than vanilla; I'm not entirely sure how Paradox saves their DDS files, but 8.8.8.8 is pretty close.
It's one of the reasons why I use .tga. Generally .tga is smaller or comparable to 8.8.8.8, and so you're actually negating the "benefits" of using the .dds format over .tga by using that setting, considering .tga is even less lossy in my experience.
Of course, this is based on old modding experiences with much more highly detailed textures and meshes from several years ago, might be different now I never bothered checking.
Only if you compress the .TGA file. If you don't then you're either sacrificing quality (24-bit) or you get the same quality and size as 8.8.8.8 (32-bit).
But with compression you can save quite a bit of space, yeah.
Just for reference, here's the difference between Paradox' original combat_tactics_strip file and the same file saved with DXT5:
As you can see, it makes quite a big difference in quality.
Only if you compress the .TGA file. If you don't then you're either sacrificing quality (24-bit) or you get the same quality and size as 8.8.8.8 (32-bit).
But with compression you can save quite a bit of space, yeah.
Just for reference, here's the difference between Paradox' original combat_tactics_strip file and the same file saved with DXT5:
As you can see, it makes quite a big difference in quality.
Negative.
In Elder Kings for example, the religious icon strips are saved in uncompressed 32-bit .tga (before I forget, 24bit .tga doesn't support alphas) and yield a filesize of 313kb. Saving in 8.8.8.8 unsigned 32bit yields a filesize of 417kb.
In terms of quality, they're basically equal.
Edit: If you strip away mipmaps (which is one of the benefits of .dds...) you end up with an equal filesize of 313kb.
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I know some of the words you are using but I have no idea what you are talking about. How do I make this silly thing work 
I made an alpha channel and it is still black, do I have to trace an outline similar to those images?
I made an alpha channel and it is still black, do I have to trace an outline similar to those images?
Paradox doesn't use mipmaps either (which is what was causing some of my DDS files to be larger than vanilla; I've now fixed that for the bigger ones), so TGA gives no advantage.
But if you turn on compression on the TGAs (I'm relatively sure it is lossless) then you should save quite a bit of space. I did a batch script on all the flags in PB once; reduced the size of the flag folder by about half.
Of course, compression won't really affect the download itself as less compression will then be done by 7-zip. It will reduce the install size a bit though.
Yeah, you've got to color in the parts you want visible as white.I know some of the words you are using but I have no idea what you are talking about. How do I make this silly thing work
Save as a 32-bit .tga file or as a 8.8.8.8 .dds file without mitmaps.
Indeed, it seems .dds 8.8.8.8/.tga are equal (although if you want to go down to bytesizes, tga is a few bytes smaller lol). I'll have to try out the compression on .tga, I always avoided it just in case.
@Arumba: View attachment 83827
Quick question - what exactly is the point of immediate? If it is used, does that basically mean the effects within immediate are executed before the event even fires, or does it mean the effect will happen the moment the event fires?
immediate effects will fire at the moment the event fires.
We use it in several places for AI only events and events that the player shouldn't really be seeing.
The moment it fires, so you can have the options be based on what happens in the immediate (using IFs and such in there can give good results).
It can also be important for multiplayer, as there events don't pause the game. So if there's something that should happen instantly when the event triggers, use immediate.
Do note that there's also hide_window = yes, in case you didn't already know of it.
It's pretty great.
Wow, can you please tell me how you did that? I spent the last hour screwing with it and it looks no where near as good, and you did like 6 different examples of it. How did you get the alpha layer so clean yet fuzzy?
I used the magic selection tool set to a tolerance of 26 and copied the icons to a new layer (to seperate them from the black background). I then selected the objects in the new layer (the icons) and using that selection I painted onto the alpha channel. I then took the blur tool set to 50% strength and simply brushed once across the alpha layer.
To create the stroked examples I simply applied a 1-pixel stroke in layer style, rasterise layer style and then repeated the above.
There's really only 2 examples though, I just saved them in different formats so you can either create your own from the .psd, or use .tga or .dds, whatever your preference
This is probably some really basic stuff but I can't find an answer for it.
So I want to make few changes to defines.lua without editing the file itself. Is it possible to make a mod that changes only few lines of that file and leaves the rest untouched?
So I want to make few changes to defines.lua without editing the file itself. Is it possible to make a mod that changes only few lines of that file and leaves the rest untouched?
There might be a better way but the simplest way is probably just backup the original defines.lua and change the lines you want. If you want the original settings back the replace the modified defines.lua with the original one.
Does anyone know how to mod the ruler designer so you can have more than one battle traits(e.g. tricker, inspiring leaders, etc)?
Thanks.
Thanks.