Equity 4.0

[bernie]

Ok Terry. Go to my filefront account in my signature and download skeleton.act and skel.tga.
The tga file is 32bit and must remain 32bit when altered. The black bits are transparent.
The only program I know of that you can use to alter 32 bit tga correctly is Photoshop.
unfortunately I dont have that program. You can make 32 bit tga files from bmp files using
the texture image converter provided in the tools folder of RF (It's complicated but that is how
I make them ). What I am getting at here is, it would be nice if you could somehow
incorporate the texture image converter into Equity. That would make life easier prouducing
transparent .act files. I don't know if the source code is available for texture converter but if
it is I wonder if you would give that some thought later please.

Bernard.

[hgt_terry]

Thanks Bernard just download the files you are a TOP MAN.

I will look into geting the source code if i can i will add to Equity For the next Release

Thanks Again.

Your the man.

Terry

[scott]

fantastic to see things moving so quickly keep up the excelent work can not wait to see the next few versions.

[kiliman]

Nice work man¡¡

[hgt_terry]

Things Done :-Version Build 050408 05
Edit Vertices
Equity can now edit the actor vertices.

Load an Actor into Equity then click the edit button found by the mesh button then use the right
mouse button to select the vertice you wish to edit.
The vertice will go blue and a beep sound can be heard use the sliders to alter the x y z positions
of the vertice.
You can keep selecting vertices with the right mouse button. when you are happy with the edit
close the editor via the windows x in the top right hand corner or the Viewer Button.
Rebuild the actor from the menu bar (Build -> Rebuild Actor).
Thats it. (Need to start writing some tuturials)

New Project
As Equity starts to be able to do more things it will need a project so you can save you work and
restart where you left off. also copy the original actor in to the project folder and will allow changes
to be undone in a better way.
New Project is a work in progress.

Things To Be Done Next Version

Finish tga format:-Nearly Done (Bernie)

Edit UVs :Start work on the UV editing And UV Mapper.

Improve Vertice Editing

Download at http://hgtsoftware.com/software1.htm

Thanks
Terry

ps
Things need tiyding up a bit but its been 2 weeks since the last update but dident want people
thinking that i had gone to sleep. So layout will get better.

[bernie]

Nice one, Thanks a million Terry. One more thing I thought of - Import of *.mot,*.smd *.ms3d ,*.bdy , *.3ds and *.obj formats would be very useful at some point in the creation of Equity. I'm sure other folk will think of other formats along the line but I think the mot and bdy or ms3d formats are the most important ones and then we wouldn't have to use Astudio to create a new act file and Equity could then be the only prog we need beside milkshape to create animated actors.
I really like the Idea of UV mapping we desperatly need a good UV mapper.

cheers
Bernard

[bernie]

Terry,
When editing vertices I can only move them in one direction. That is if I move a vertex to the right using say the z slider I can only move it back to its original position and am unable to move it further left. In fact I can only move it to the right at all. If I select another vertex then go back to the first one I moved I can't move it back at all. I can still only move it in the original direction. That is the same for all the sliders. The + and - buttons don't seem to do anything. Am I doing something wrong?

[hgt_terry]

No Sorry bernie i have up-loaded the wrong version i will up-load
the proper version tomorow and post you when i have done that
Sorry Again.

I do appologise.

Thanks terry

[hgt_terry]

Ok sorry about the wrong version I have just replaced it with the correct one.

How it works the – and + plus alter the direction of the vertice if the slider reaches the end
And you wish to carry on hitting the – or + sign again will allow you to carry on.

At the moment the amount the vertice moves within the slider is fixed but the next version will allow You to decide the amount.

Also I think that I will add a mouse lock tick box so you can not select another vertice by accident unless You want to.

And a pan rotate zoom lock so if you are working on a detailed part the screen will not move until the check box is unchecked.

Again sorry about the wrong file.

Thanks
Terry

[bernie]

OK working fine now thanks.

[hgt_terry]

Hello

Equity update 4.1.7

Have spent some time on the texture side of things namely the tga format.
tga files can now be loaded in to equity and the actor rebuilt.

Multiple tga files can be loaded as in the case of dema.

Note when you first load an actor with tga files in to Equity the editor will not
Automatically go into transparency mode.

To over come this reload the tga texture this will trigger Equity into transparency mode.
The reason for this is there is no tga file extension in the actor but there are clues in the
Actor file format a normal texture in an actor is usually PIXELFORMAT_8BIT no alpha where as a tga stored In the actor is PIXELFORMAT_24BIT_BGR and has an alpha channel.

Over the next couple of releases I will over come this in 1 of 2 ways assume PIXELFORMAT_24BIT_BGR with alpha Is a tga file and set Equity to transparence automatically.

Or load the actor via the new project/open project load the tga files once and then Equity will display the tga parts of the actor correctly if you open via open project ( will do this anyway for the next release ).


In any case if the actor has a tga file in it Equity will rebuild it ok whether or not Equity is in
Transparency mode.


Also added a texture info button in the viewer which will tell you things about the texture stored
In the actor such as Height Width Format ect.

Tidyed a few things on the vertice side

Does not seem like I have done allot but the internal workings have changed radicaly concerning textures.
This will have benefits over the next couple of issues such as loading compressed tga jpg and png formats as Equity will convert them into the actor format.

I need spend time on the UV and motion editing side of things.

I would like to thank Suvi Aalto for kindly releasing the bmp2tga source and Bernie for all his help when I get round to the displaying credits part both will be mentioned.

Thanks
Terry

Please report any bugs new Reality Factory release due soon and want Equity as stable as I can get it while still developing it.

Download at http://hgtsoftware.com/software1.htm

[bernie]

Just done a quick trial .tga working fine. Great job Terry thanks a million.

[bernie]

Terry, when I decompile the actor with a tga file in it, it saves the texture as .bmp with no alpha channel.

[hgt_terry]

Ok Bernie
Got so wrapped up in getting the tga file into the actor that I
have not spent as much time getting the tga file out when the tga file is loaded into the
actor its not a tga file as souch any more but i have a 32 bit tga + Alpha writer code that i will use and reverse the actor texture file so the it can decompile it as a tga file and also save it to
edit in the replace texture dialog which will suffer from the same problem at the moment.

PS

Does the actor rebuild ok with other tga files i just had your skellington tga file also is it possible for you to send me a compresd tga file with its actor.

Sorry about the cheek.

Thanks
Terry

[bernie]

Ok Terry no problem. Other files re-build ok. Go to my filefront account http://hosted.filefront.com/bernieRF/ and download tree085.act contains a tga file, tree085.tga is a standard tga file and tree085Comp.tga is a compressed tga file. I haven't got an act file with a compressed tga in it and I don't even know if RF can handle comresssed tga files so you're on yer own with that one I'm afraid.
Cheers,
Bernie.