Making Item Images: a palette and some templates (expanding)

Edit some skill to include them as their loadout, or just try to get lucky.

 

Also, if the item is craftable, use debug mode. It has a new feature. When using crafting tools with debug mode on you can click the items needed as they are shown in the crafting tool and they appear in your inventory. This feature *NEEDS* to be documented for modders to utilize.

Anyone here want to document this on the following:
http://dredmod.com/wiki/Debug_Mode

I have been thinking of doing just that, but I am stuck on the wording. Test it yourself and see if you can decide what is best.

 

All I need is the game's official palette for items and monsters. That way I don't have to just rip colours from vanilla images. As of now, Titanium has the exact same colour palette as Aluminium in my mod.

 

There is no "official palette". Items use individual palettes created by indexing an image after drafting it in RGB colorspace.

 

So if I were to take an indexed 32px image, and add any colours I want, it shouldn't be a problem? That would be nice if each individual image had their own palette.

 

You just need to "de-index" it, change colours, and index it again. Not much of a bother.

 

I have 18 items finished in a top secret artifact pack I'm working on and so far I have a few ways to test these items in the game; all of which seem blasphemous to speedy beta testing. I'm a bit baffled there is no command line for the console in which to spawn things - or even to test certain situations to have the items spawn in their natural ways.

** One can make a spell or skill to spit out your items.
- I'm having problems with this method as I have a lot of items to test and don't want to spend more time editing XML spells every 10 minutes.
** One can make a custom room with all your items.
- I can't get this method to work in game properly. Even if I did, I still have to play the entire level to get to my room. I tried hacking the starting room to no avail. My room never showed up.
** Substitute candles with your items.
- OK, great. That is one or two items - I have over 50 I'm looking at here. More wasted time.
** HIt the "i" key in debug mode and empty your inventory and repeat 289 times.
- Not even going near this one.

There must be some kind of secret debugging feature we are missing out on because none of these methods seem even semi-efficient for testing purposes. As far as the art goes, I'm a fountain...

 

You can also make a recipe to produce your items from basically nothing (ie lutefisk ), or for that matter, anything else, since clicking on an ingredient in debug mode will give you it.

OR a recipe that uses your item as an ingredient. Then click it's picture and free items!

Also I've just stuck items to be tested in the loadout for a custom skill, as well (though that's mostly useful if you HAVE a custom skill to test. Then you start with them. Eg in my Fairy Princess mod for testing I just made you start with 100 of all the flowers. )

 

The problem with that is my artifact pack is just that; artifacts which are not to be showing up in the crafting list. I need to test there to ensure they don't show up in that list. I really need a test room which spawns every single time with slots for 50 items. I have no idea how to solve the problem that they are scattered up to level 10, but I can at least edit their spawn level to test. I can see some of the problems GL faces with this game just by two days of struggling with the workflow over here. I use Notepad++ with about 10 tabs open there and my trusty Grafx2 paint program, along with Foxit having another 5 tabs of reference docs - just to make an item pack.

At least with the skills, you can hit the level-up cheat in debug mode and start testing. With items, you have to wait in line with Lady Luck.

 

Try this method:

Make a rooms.xml for your mod. Put this in it.

Code:

<roomdb>
<room width="12" height="12" name="MASLECH ITEMTEST" > <!-- REPLACE "MASLECH" WITH SOME OTHER WORD TO PREVENT COLLISIONS WITH OTHER MODS -->
    <row text="############"/>
    <row text="#..........#"/>
    <row text="#..........#"/>
    <row text="#..........#"/>
    <row text="#..........#"/>
    <row text="#..........#"/>
    <row text="#..........#"/>
    <row text="#..........#"/>
    <row text="#..........#"/>
    <row text="#..........#"/>
    <row text="#..........#"/>
    <row text="############"/>
        <flags special="1" nomonsters="1" notraps="1" noblockers="1" notreasure="1" minLevel="40" maxLevel="40" />
       
        <loot type="armour" subtype="Little Black Book" x="1" y="2" /> <!-- REPLACE type= WITH THE TYPE OF YOUR ITEM TO TEST, AND subtype= WITH THE NAME OF THE ITEM. DUPLICATE THIS LINE FOR EACH ITEM, PREFERABLY GIVING NEW COORDINATES SO THEY DON'T ALL SPAWN ON TOP OF EACH OTHER -->
 
    </room>
 
</roomdb>

Then, right-click your DoD .exe and make a shortcut (or right click the library entry in Steam and choose Launch Options). Rename the shortcut something like "DEBUG MODE" or "TEST ROOM". Change the "Target" line to say this:

Code:

"\\[PATH TO STEAM]\Steam\steamapps\common\dungeons of dredmor\Dungeons of Dredmor.exe" -debug-flag -testroom "MASLECH ITEMTEST" -x 5 -y 5

replacing the name of the room with whatever will match the room in your rooms.xml. Run the game with the shortcut.

If you're using the Steam method, just put the following in the launch options box:

Code:

-debug-flag -testroom "MASLECH ITEMTEST" -x 5 -y 5

 

FaxCelestis: ThankYouThankYouThankYouThankYouThankYouThankYouThankYou!!!

I knew I was missing some command line parameter that I must have missed even on the DredMod and Wiki sites somehow! I followed instructions to the letter, zipped up my mod, ran the game with params and there I am in your special room with what I put in the xml. Fantastic! Now I can get back to work as I have a series of 24 items in a theme to pixelate. A very big PDF cap of this to go with my DoD Mod Reference doc.

Thanks to all other for the ideas, suggestions and workflow ideas, as well.

 

Oh no you make debug functions which you remove before release (or remove hidden="1" from your recipes to test them)

Anything you do to make the items easier to find probably should be deleted or commented out for release though, obviously.

 

Ahh, Ok. I just have items and a spell list for effects so far and haven't gotten that far. I do have a series of 24 items which I will need to dig into crafting for and I'm pretty excited about it. I feel it's a great theme for the game which fits - I just hope I hold out in the process.

Here's a little taste of one of my artifacts which is suited for a level 8 spawn. Everything is subject to change, of course. The art I created in Grafx2, the words from my demented mind, and the knowledge is slowly coming to me in pieces. Thanks for the help, folks.

 

If you have extra time... Could you please make a tutorial for de-indexing/indexing and RGB colors? I want to start creating some items but I do not know where to start. I tried with Photoshop but it is not self explanatory. Is GIMP more user friendly?

 

It is (in my opinion, at least, but it could very well be that I just got used to it), but GIMP has problem with indexing so it's out.

Generally speaking, you should have a "colours" menu somewhere, or one that was similarly named. There, you should find the commands you seek; it's usually something like "Convert to indexed" and "Convert to RGB".

 

Use mtPaint. Go to the Image menu, choose "Convert to RGB" to deindex, "Convert to Indexed" to index. The default settings + exact conversion are perfectly fine. You will, however, lose partial transparency (as that resides entirely in full RGB colorspace).

 

Thanks a lot for all the suggestions I tried most of them (I am not shy about downloading haha) but I still have problems with modding items. The index to RGB is quite simple now that I know what to look for. My main problem comes when I need to use different shades of the same color to create deep and light/shadows... is there an easy way to do it or I just need more practice?

Fax, if you have the time (and muse) I will really appreciate a Leprechaun outfit (hat, jacket and maybe shoes). The dead animation for the Lucky provides a good image for a hat but I do not know how to extract it :/ and of course I tried to edit some of the other hats (like the ones that comes with the last expansion) but I failed terrible.

 

Earlier in this thread I linked a youtube video where I make a knight's helm. Watch that, and take note of how I use the burn/dodge tools.

EDIT: here:

Starts at around the 13:15 mark.

 

Thanks Fax, it is a great tutorial