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Author Topic: Space Empires 5 - Graphics improved somewhat  (Read 6803 times)

Captain Mayday

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Space Empires 5 - Graphics improved somewhat
« on: March 10, 2011, 01:06:18 pm »

Hello and welcome to the thread about my graphics pack for Space Empires 5 - "Captain Mayday's Beautiful Universe Graphics Pack".

Or, more specifically, a graphics pack for the only SEV mod still updating, Captain Kwok's Balance Mod. Most currently confirmed fully working with version 1.19h.

If, for some reason, you've entered this thread not knowing what this game is, this is the game's website. It is effectively a somewhat dated 4X TBS Sci-Fi game.
The AI, however, is completely retarded (which is the reason Balance Mod exists), and the graphics look as though they never left beta (which is why my graphics pack exists), with many of the planet textures looking like they were drawn by a highly distractible cat.

So as not to seem ungracious, this is an example of the original texturing rendered as a world, chosen completely at random.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

And this is what I replaced it with (and it's not even one of the better ones). This is, specifically, the replacement file for the one listed above. I should note that this one actually reflects what atmosphere is found on the planet, being oxygen. I am not certain what was going on with the colour scheme in the original, as planet colouring often seems wholly unrelated to the atmosphere.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I have managed to increase the resolution of textures while simultaneously massively reducing the amount of memory actually being used. This was done largely by converting files that did not need to be in bmp into jpg. You see, for some reason the creator of this game decided to use black, in the bmp format, as the transparency colour, and made most files in bmp format despite them not actually needing transparency, and despite the game's support of jpg.

I did use this to my advantage to create glittering rings for planets rather than flat, horrid textures with big black outlines, however.

Please feel free to download my graphics pack here. You will need to copy the contents into the mod's directory (\gametypes\Balance Mod v115+) and overwrite.
Please let me know what you think of my work.

« Last Edit: April 17, 2011, 03:48:43 am by Captain Mayday »
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Tellemurius

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Re: Space Empires 5 - Graphics improved somewhat
« Reply #1 on: March 10, 2011, 01:07:00 pm »

O_O must download again....

SeaBee

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Re: Space Empires 5 - Graphics improved somewhat
« Reply #2 on: March 10, 2011, 01:15:28 pm »

O_O must download again....
You and I both. Looks like an amazing improvement in planetary textures.
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Deon

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Re: Space Empires 5 - Graphics improved somewhat
« Reply #3 on: March 10, 2011, 03:06:39 pm »

I'm going to check it. It looks great :).
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Anticheese

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Re: Space Empires 5 - Graphics improved somewhat
« Reply #4 on: March 12, 2011, 03:12:16 am »

It is my professional opinion that this mod does a hell of a lot to revitalise Space Empires V and bring the series out of the 90's.
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Rex_Nex

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Re: Space Empires 5 - Graphics improved somewhat
« Reply #5 on: March 12, 2011, 03:28:30 am »

Agh. I wish the developers would just release this for free after all these years, I would love to try.
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Soadreqm

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Re: Space Empires 5 - Graphics improved somewhat
« Reply #6 on: April 10, 2011, 02:26:55 pm »

After a month of stalling, I finally downloaded this. The planets are so much prettier.
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Cheese

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Re: Space Empires 5 - Graphics improved somewhat
« Reply #7 on: April 10, 2011, 03:12:00 pm »

Is the nova mod replacing the balance mod?
« Last Edit: April 10, 2011, 03:22:38 pm by Cheese »
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Stworca

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Re: Space Empires 5 - Graphics improved somewhat
« Reply #8 on: April 10, 2011, 05:51:17 pm »

Ah, Captain Kwok! Priceless website for any Space Empires fan! Great graphics pack as always.

For any new person i'd recommend SE 4 however, not 5.
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ZeroGravitas

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Re: Space Empires 5 - Graphics improved somewhat
« Reply #9 on: April 10, 2011, 08:32:53 pm »

While I don't play SEV anymore, this is really beautiful work. Well done.
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Captain Mayday

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Re: Space Empires 5 - Graphics improved somewhat
« Reply #10 on: April 10, 2011, 11:34:36 pm »

Ah, Captain Kwok! Priceless website for any Space Empires fan! Great graphics pack as always.

For any new person i'd recommend SE 4 however, not 5.

I'd agree with that, SE4 is definitely the easier game to get the hang of.

Also, not sure what you meant by "Great graphics pack as always" since this is the only one I've ever done.
I am neither Captain Kwok or Mayday Green/Mike Mayday (same person).
I just play BM almost exclusively, and since it's impossible for me to avoid developing a graphics pack for all mods at once, I'm forced to develop a graphics pack for a specific one. Since I and others play BM a lot, I developed for that. I'm not planning to port to other mods, so if anybody wanted to create substitute data files for another mod, they'd be welcome to do so. Hell, I'd even include it in the zip file, if you sent them to me.
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Captain Mayday

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Re: Space Empires 5 - Graphics improved somewhat
« Reply #11 on: April 17, 2011, 03:22:07 am »

Had to fix a small graphical problem. Nevertheless, it required a new upload of the pack, and I took the time to bring the default starfield in line with the jpg versions.
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