Sword mod - bumps in the road

[toolboi]

So Im in the process of creating my first mod ever for a game. It VERY simple, its takes the sprites used in creating the saber and turns them into sprites used to create a sword. Of course there will be some visual problems to work out (hell, I just started on it this morning) but Im sure that in the end Ill eaither be able to handle it or else give up completley.

 

To begin I took the files, as found in the flame saber mod, and opened them in photoshop (in order to keep the right settings for the image file). Then I edited them to create the desired effects that I want. There is a sword sprite that is hard edged going into a point (my hope is that JK will tile it in such a way that the point is only apparent at the top), and two blur pics, one of which was created with wind (the inside blur) and the other that is the same but blured (the blur pic). I made them, saved them with level 5 jpg compression (was this my mistake?) and then put them into a zip file (with the right folder names and all that), named it .pk3, and threw it into my base folder and started JK2.

 

Upon loading a level in MP I get the following eror: Requested feature was omited at compile time

WTF does this mean? Am I doing something wrong? help..?

[Prox Kolari]

I had a PITIFUL time getting my own skins to work without crashing like that. I think the key is the compression. If I save as JPG, sometimes I get lucky and it'll work, other times, no. I usually save as TGA.

 

Actually, if you want to keep JPGs, open the (unchanged) JPG in Photoshop, edit it all you want, flatten, and save. I don't think it'll ask for compression options, so it'll be whatever compression it was from Raven.

[toolboi]

Ahh, tgas eh? What if the original file was a jpg, will that cause a problem?

 

as for the whole saving bit, thats what I did and it still asks for compression. Next time Ill set it to 0.

[Tems]

this exists in quake3arena too. originally the q3a team had ALL of the graphics in tga format. when the project was nearing completion they realized itd take 2 cds to fit it so they converted a bunch of targas to jpegs. they then added a bit of code so the game would check for an alternate jpeg version for every targa image. the best thing to do is use jpeg images at 0 compression (most programs require some, in which use as little as possible). don't use targas if you can help it because they are bandwidth *****s and a lot of 56k-ers won't like you.

 

if there's any question whatsoever about compression, don't. don't use compressed tga's and dont use compressed jpegs if you can help it. the game does it's own texture compression internally.

 

-Tems

[toolboi]

thanks tem.

 

So I copied and pasted the file into a new doccument, saved it again with as little compression as possible (12 on the photoshop scale of quallity) and loaded it all up again. No luck, crashed with the same message.

I think Ill try TGAs... the jpegs dont see mot be working.

 

However, since I copied and pasted the file that SHOULD get rid of the compression in the file shouldnt it? It will still have the visual signs of compression in the image, but the actual file shouldnt be compressed should it?

 

Hmm... I guess Ill keep experimenting.

[toolboi]

While im here: You do use black as your invisible color right?If I were to place black (of the same value as I found in the original files) then that would show up as invisible right?

[Deboze]

I dont know if JK2 sabres are anything like JK1 sabres but in JK1, the Mat file, (skin/jpg file)moved in a contiunous upward motion and just circled back aorund. You might have some problems with this if jk2 is like that