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| Thread: Ripping Creatures from Might and Magic | |
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majaczek
Supreme Hero
Work at Magic Dimmension
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posted June 03, 2012 05:16 PM |
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Ripping Creatures from Might and Magic
I have MMarchive.exe and Might&Magic 6-8 and now want to rip some creatures from it. The problem is M&M doesn't use DEFs or similair things, only loose frames. It is hard for me to find order of these frames althought the names of frames seems to follow some common pattern. What frames and in which order I should use for each DEF animation according to the scheme?
Or please some FAQ or HOWTO for ripping creature from Might and Magic?
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Salamandre
Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Wog refugee
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posted June 03, 2012 05:21 PM |
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Ask OxFEA, he already ripped a lot of them from MM and uploaded in DF2.
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majaczek
Supreme Hero
Work at Magic Dimmension
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posted June 04, 2012 05:35 PM |
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Edited by majaczek at 17:39, 04 Jun 2012.
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Yeah but if I wanted to rip some myself? For example ones which 0xFEA didn't rip? Or me prefering another scaling of original M&M unit? (Not to mention graphics from mods for M&M - and yes they are some - I can count at least 3 popular ones).
Ripping of spells is trivial, but ripping of units aren't since monster DEF has several animations and only 3 angles, and M&M monsters have many angles and the way they sort graphics isn't so obvious which frame from M&M should be which frame of which animation in H3.5's creature DEF.
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Ghost
Undefeatable Hero
Therefore I am
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posted June 04, 2012 05:40 PM |
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Ask to Salamandre Hah Good job!
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Salamandre
Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Wog refugee
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posted June 04, 2012 07:11 PM |
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I mean ask him to upload what he did, so you don't waste time doing twice. In general it is simple, need a keen eye to identify frames pattern, then technically create the 450x400 frames using extracted MM sprites.
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OxFEA
Promising
Famous Hero
feanor on DF2.ru
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posted June 04, 2012 08:19 PM |
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Edited by OxFEA at 20:26, 04 Jun 2012.
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MM6 sprites doesn't fit (except droids and air/fire elementales) - they has no fitting attack frames.
Firstly, you need to extract sprites with MMArchive. Sometimes MMA doesn't apply palette correctly - so you need to unpack it from bitmaps.lod and apply it manually in Photoshop.
Secondly - resizing sprites. I use imagemagick and batch files for mass resizing
Quote:
d:
cd "D:\software_noins\ImageMagick-6.6.7-Q16-windows\ImageMagick-6.6.7-9\"
del e:\MMProcess\output\*.bmp
pause
for %%i in (E:\MMProcess\source\*.*) do (convert %%i -fuzz 5%% -transparent cyan e:\MMProcess\tmp.png & convert e:\MMProcess\tmp.png -filter LanczosSharp -resize 50%%x50%% -brightness-contrast 0x0 -channel alpha -threshold 50%% -background cyan -gravity center -extent 450x400 -alpha background -alpha off e:\MMProcess\output\1.bmp & del e:\MMProcess\tmp.png & rename e:\MMProcess\output\1.bmp %%~nxi)
E:\MMProcess\source\ - folder with MM-bitmaps
e:\MMProcess\output\ - output folder
-transparent cyan - color of MM sprite background. Sometimes it can be 'green', 'lime' or 'magenta'. Small differences (#00FEFE instead of #00FFFF) doesn't matter because of command -fuzz 5%
-resize 50%%x50%% - scale coefficient. For some monsters it can be 55%x55% (manticores), for some - 50%%x43%% (humanoids, see below)
At third time - pack result (bunch of files with names like m484Aa3.bmp) into def. Sequence of cadres (from hdl-file):
Quote:
...
Group0=M484Wa1.bmp|M484Wb1.bmp|M484Wc1.bmp|M484Wd1.bmp|M484We1.bmp|M484Wf1.bmp|M484Wg1.bmp|M484Wh1.bmp|
Group1=M484Sa0.bmp|M484Fa0.bmp|M484Fb0.bmp|M484Fc0.bmp|M484Fd0.bmp|M484Fd0.bmp|M484Fc0.bmp|M484Fb0.bmp|M484Fa0.bmp|M484Sa0.bmp|
Group2=M484Sa1.bmp|
Group3=M484Sa1.bmp|M484Na1.bmp|M484Nb1.bmp|M484Nc1.bmp|M484Nd1.bmp|M484Ne1.bmp|
Group4=M484Na1.bmp|M484Nb1.bmp|M484Nc1.bmp|M484Nd1.bmp|M484Ne1.bmp|
Group5=M484Na1.bmp|M484Nb1.bmp|M484Da0.bmp|M484Db0.bmp|M484Dc0.bmp|M484Xa0.bmp|
Group6=M484Xa0.bmp|
Group7=M484Sa1.bmp|M484Sa0.bmp|
Group8=M484Sa0.bmp|M484Sa1.bmp|
Group9=M484Sa1.bmp|M484Sa0.bmp|
Group10=M484Sa0.bmp|M484Sa1.bmp|
Group11=M484Sa1.bmp|M484Aa2.bmp|M484Ab2.bmp|M484Ac3.bmp|M484Ad3.bmp|M484Ae3.bmp|M484Af3.bmp|M484Ag3.bmp|M484Ah3.bmp|M484Sa3.bmp|
Group12=M484Sa1.bmp|M484Aa1.bmp|M484Ab1.bmp|M484Ac2.bmp|M484Ad2.bmp|M484Ae2.bmp|M484Af2.bmp|M484Ag2.bmp|M484Ah2.bmp|M484Sa2.bmp|
Group13=M484Sa1.bmp|M484Aa1.bmp|M484Ab1.bmp|M484Ac1.bmp|M484Ad1.bmp|M484Ae1.bmp|M484Af1.bmp|M484Ag1.bmp|M484Ah1.bmp|M484Sa1.bmp|
Group14=M484Sa1.bmp|M484Aa2.bmp|M484Ab2.bmp|M484Ac3.bmp|M484Ad3.bmp|M484Ae3.bmp|M484Af3.bmp|M484Ag3.bmp|M484Ah3.bmp|M484Sa3.bmp|
Group15=M484Sa1.bmp|M484Aa1.bmp|M484Ab1.bmp|M484Ac2.bmp|M484Ad2.bmp|M484Ae2.bmp|M484Af2.bmp|M484Ag2.bmp|M484Ah2.bmp|M484Sa2.bmp|
Group16=M484Sa1.bmp|M484Aa1.bmp|M484Ab1.bmp|M484Ac1.bmp|M484Ad1.bmp|M484Ae1.bmp|M484Af1.bmp|M484Ag1.bmp|M484Ah1.bmp|M484Sa1.bmp|
Group17=M484Sa1.bmp|M484Aa2.bmp|M484Ab2.bmp|M484Ac3.bmp|M484Ad3.bmp|M484Ae3.bmp|M484Af3.bmp|M484Ag3.bmp|M484Ah3.bmp|M484Sa3.bmp|
Group18=M484Sa1.bmp|M484Aa1.bmp|M484Ab1.bmp|M484Ac2.bmp|M484Ad2.bmp|M484Ae2.bmp|M484Af2.bmp|M484Ag2.bmp|M484Ah2.bmp|M484Sa2.bmp|
Group19=M484Sa1.bmp|M484Aa1.bmp|M484Ab1.bmp|M484Ac1.bmp|M484Ad1.bmp|M484Ae1.bmp|M484Af1.bmp|M484Ag1.bmp|M484Ah1.bmp|M484Sa1.bmp|
Group20=M484Sa1.bmp|
Group21=M484Sa1.bmp|
Just replace 484 with creature id by notepad, shift your creature to the right hex and assemble def.
Notes:
1. Humandoids in HoMM and MM looks different. MM sprites use naturalisitic propotions, HoMM creatures looks like Dmitriy Medvedev a bit childish - unnaturally big head.
Sometimes it can cause a problems. Look at MM7 nosferatu:
Looks bad, isn't it?
This can be solved by unproportional scaling (50%*43%), but this also can look unkindly because of smashing details.
Ether knight.
But, sometimes it doesn't matter.
Cleric of moon (50%*50%)
2. Some creatures (especially cave monsters) use different-from-HoMM lightning. So, they look very dark.
Beholders, original and from MM7:
3. Sometimes creature hasn't some frames (esp. M****h1.bmp). Just remove it from hdl.
4. Never, never use cadres like M*****2 for "standing".
Format of MM cadres names:
M[id][group][cadre number][angle]
id - creature id. 3 digits.
group - one letter. a - attack, d - death, f - fidget, n - getting damage, s - standing, w - walking, x - dead
cadre number - number of cadre in group. One letter, from a to h.
angle - from 0 to 5: 0 - 0°, face,; 1 - 45°, looks like H3 angle; 2 - 90° - profile; 3 - 135°; 4° - 180°, ass back.
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majaczek
Supreme Hero
Work at Magic Dimmension
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posted June 05, 2012 12:02 AM |
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Thanks! I want to do it with free software (No Photoshop), but the rest seems really helpful, especially the hdl scheme and frame name format description (these were the ones I intended to ask).
Thanks alos for suggestions - your mummy looks well, but if I use the beholder it seriously need recolor to fix shading problem. Anyway - you made my ripping work easier... Thanks!
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kegolo
Promising
Famous Hero
of infamy
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posted June 05, 2012 07:38 PM |
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so 0xFEA can you upload the ones you already have done? Or link to df2 location?
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