GalCiv Graphic Editing Suite ( release )

from Stardock Forums
First, I know this should be in the mods forum but I'm posting this here for pretty much the same reasons as the Star Wars mod is posted here : The forum's pretty dead (mods forum that is).

So, what is it? A lot of galciv files are in a special format specific to galciv and were impossible to edit except with Mutil, which is very hard to use and prone to random crashes. There's three tools in the suite that will allow you to faily easily modify all those graphic files you couldn't change before.

If you want to see an example of a modification along with screenshots of the tools, you can visit my website : http://www.freewebs.com/galcivedit/

Of course, there's a link to download it too.

I'm hoping we'll see a lot of new original mods created with this tool. I imagine I'm not the only one who's tired of "new" anomaly that use the same graphics as before and random events being the bulk of the mods created for galciv.

Ships will be much easier to create now, heck ships with idle animations will be easy too. Not only that, suns, interfaces, planets etc are all easy to modifiy now.
[Message Edited]
21,592 views 64 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
Can you post a link to some samples of images you have changed, sort of before and after to see the difference???
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top

Bravo! This is really really really really really cool.  I can't add enough reallys.  Well, not without it getting unreadable. :)

Can you please also post this on the mods forum? This could breathe new life into the modding community. 

Star Control: Origins
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
I download it, but I cannot open it. I am trying to open the files with winzip
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
Sorry but your program doesnot work at all, where do you obtain the files to modify them, I check the whole Galciv file, folder list and I can't find one single file that can be modified by your program. Nevertheless anyway to create a mod. You have to be more specific about where to get the files to modify and give a walkthru of how you can create a mod.
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top

He gives instructions on his site.

The files that you can edit are in the gfx and setup folders, .mtd and .mdl.

First you open a .mtd or .mdl file in WinPack.  Then you extract the files.  You can then edit the palettes and sprites in the palette and sprite editors. 

Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
Yes, I'm sorry if I didn't provide any tutorial with precise examples yet. I worked on this for quite and I was getting eager to release it. That and I have a deadline for two projects on thuesday and thursday, so it was now or not before around may 2th. I might've been able to do it before but it would've been hard.

Also, if you read the doc on the website and open some existing files, you should be able do something.

Ah yes, if you can't open the files with winzip, that's because you tried to download the installer with the documentation. Those files were zipped with winrar because it can break in many parts a "zip" file. I did this because my web host doesn't allow files over 750k.
[Message Edited]
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
Great, now I can get my hands on the dough!!!! LOL LOL
Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top
wow, i was just thinking about starting a thread (my first in months) asking for a better ship editor. and then here it is.

of course lets see if it works first (twice before i thought an easy way to make ships models had been found and twice before i wound up frustrated :D)...
Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top
Just for the record, while I was working on tutorials, I noticed two bugs :

-Import frames are flipped upside down
-The palette editor can only import jasc palettes and you have to rename the PspPalette files to .pal.

I've fixed the flipped frame problem and now you can import Microsoft .pal files along with JASC .PspPalette.

I'm going to upload the fixed .exe as soon as I finish the first tutorial.
Reply #10 from Stardock Forums Top
Ok, the first tutorial is uploaded along with version 1.01 fixing the flipping bug and the palette import problem.

Coming next is the export of sequence to image strips, a tutorial on creating a ship and then maybe movie import if I feel like it ^_^.
Reply #12 from Stardock Forums Top
thanks for the tutorial. can't wait for the ship one.
Reply #13 from Stardock Forums Top
Version 1.2 is up, I added the strip export.

Oh and on a side note, I'll probably have to change the website location. I have an allocation of 100mb a month and you guys have already used up 30mb of it I'm afraid.
[Message Edited]
Reply #14 from Stardock Forums Top
You want some (free) webspace???? Can you handle normal FTP etc? Something like graphix.galciv.org do???

Drop me an email with your preferred password. ( alex@alexrobertson.co.uk )

Alex

~SDC~
[Message Edited]
[Message Edited]
Reply #15 from Stardock Forums Top
Dark Rain - you have a website and email!

Congrats on the promotion to Veteran as well!

Alex

[Message Edited]
Reply #16 from Stardock Forums Top
Thanks

On a sidenote, I probably won't have time to create the ship tutorial before the 29th or the 30th. I'm in my finals right now and I have a program to hand in soon for my C++ course. It's simle but I still have to do it ^_^.
Reply #17 from Stardock Forums Top

Dark Rain that is one serious piece of kit you have created :HOT:

Just finished changing the Terran Logo to a new one. Was a bit harder than i thought it would be, but works great. I am submitting the new logo to the library today.

Thanks again for the programs. :D

Reply #18 from Stardock Forums Top
Hello, does anybody have an idea how to modify game fonts? Fonts are saved in SPR1 section in MDL files (same as other game graphics), however the graphics editing suite is not able to handle it properly (some difference there for sure)

Any help appreciated
.md
Reply #19 from Stardock Forums Top
Mmm took me a while to realise .fnt files were galciv archives. I just assumed they were the good ole .fnt font files.

Anyway, I tried it and you're right the sprite editor seems to be completly unable to load them. I'll look into it once my finals are over. If you really want to edit them in the meantime, you can try Mutil.
Reply #20 from Stardock Forums Top

Any chance of a addition that would allow you to swop file names?

Thinking behind this is to be able to swop the default terran ships with those of an AI without having to manually reconfigure each ship for both races.

Thanks for the great progress though :CONGRAT:

Reply #21 from Stardock Forums Top
I would like to try the Mutil (heard a lot of it)
I think I have sent to you an email asking for mutil (I found your description of arcive files on some webpage)
What is Mutil and where can I download it?

thanks
Reply #22 from Stardock Forums Top
I've managed to find some free time much to my surprise, so there's a new version out. It fixes all the bugs that were reported to me so far. I also have a new host provided by Alex Robertson aka Primipilus Alexus from galciv.org. The new url for the website is : http://graphix.galciv.org/.

Fixed :
-Save bug on new sprites
-Font editing now work
-WinPack has been updated. Minor display bug with archive files that happened only once. I suspect the file was corrupted in some way to start with but it's neat to handle ALL the possible case of mutil output if I can.

Reply #23 from Stardock Forums Top
I've been working a bit on a minor race gfx. The ships look really cool IMHO and it took me less than 10 mins to create my first ship. I'm guessing it'll be faster once I get the hang out of it. The ships 3d models come from a Total Conversion for Total Annihilation made by a friend of mine. There's a link to it on my website.

http://graphix.galciv.org/help/images/Minor%20Race/MinorRace1.jpg

Ah yes btw, how do you insert graphics in a post? I've seen some people do it, I just don't know how.
[Message Edited]
[Message Edited]