This is a really rough proof of concept for creating a 2d rpg in SC2. It currently only contains terrain and a few animated sprites. The sprites were done with text tags and the terrain was done with custom decals.
It went from an idea to what you see in the video over a two day period. It's incredibly easy once you understand how. I'm writing a tutorial right now.
Quote from DarkForce9999:
@ marine63: I'll try to create a quick little how to for you. You'll probably be surprised at how quickly and easily this can be done.
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This is awesome, I can't wait to see it too. How big is the file size so far?
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Just an addition to my earlier post, but please do try to make a MMO chrono trigger in Starcraft 2. It would be awesome to play this with around 8 players.
Okay, so here's how you do this! This may look like a lot of work at first, but once you've got it figured out you'll be doing it in no time.
First, you need some kind of image editing program that can save files with the .dds extension. I personally use GIMP with the gimp-dds plugin. I can't afford photoshop, so I won't be able to cover that.
Next, you find the image you want to use for your terrain. For this tutorial I'm going with a location from Chrono Trigger: The Ocean Palace! Open your image in whatever program you're using.
Before doing anything else, add an alpha channel. In GIMP, this is done by clicking the Layer drop down menu, transparency -> Add Alpha Channel.
After that, edit the canvas size of the image. Go to the Image drop down menu and click on "Canvas Size" Set the size to two pixels more on height and width and center your image. So if your image's dimensions are 256x768, you would set them to 258x770 and click on the "Center" Button. You should now see a checkered border around the edge of your image.
Now, click Layer -> Layer to image size.
Save your image. Name it whatever you want and give it the .dds extension.
Hit save. A little window with a few options for compression and format, etc. should pop up. Check "Generate mipmaps" and hit OK.
Open the SC2 editor and import your .dds file. Right click it, click "Move Files" and move it to the "Assets\Textures" directory.
Save your map.
Now, you can either create your own custom decal by editing the .m3 in notepad and changing the texture, or you can replace an existing one. I will cover replacing the existing one, because it's much quicker and easier.
Open your Data Editor (f7). Change Data type to "Textures" under "Art and Sound"
Choose whatever Decal you want to replace. I'm going with Aiur Brood (Protoss). Find the file name for the texture. In this example it's Assets\Textures\decal_protoss_0021_01.dds
Go back to your imports. Right click your .dds and rename it to the file name of the decal you're replacing.
Attached to this post is a .m3 file. Import it into your map and set the path to "Assets\Doodads\Decal"
Open your Data Editor and search for "Decal" in "Models"
Select "Decal" and change the "Model" field to the "TestDecal.m3" that I have attached to this post.
Scroll farther down and set the "Variation Count" field to "1"
Now find "Decal" in Actors and set the "Art - Scale" field to x: 30.0 y: 30.0 z: 1.0
Open up your Doodad Layer (D). Search for the "Decal" doodad and place it on your map. It should be a blue square. If it isn't, something went wrong.
Save your map and close your editor. Reopen the editor and load up your map.
Select your Decal doodad that you place on the map and hit Enter. Open up the "Textures" tab and select the texture you chose earlier (Aiur Brood Protoss in this example.)
You should now see your image on the map. If not, make sure your imported file is using the exact same path as the texture you're replacing. If the image you used was not symmetrical, it will probably be stretched and distorted. The image used in this example was 256x768, so I will set the scale of the placed doodad to 100, 300. You can set it to any amount as long as it's proportional (3, 9 / 25, 75). The doodad may disappear if you set the scale too high.
For any additional decals, you simply import the .dds and replace another Texture. Copy your first doodad and paste it elsewhere on the map. After that, just select the texture by selecting the doodad and hitting enter.
Congratulations! You have created your first 2d environment! You can now open the pathing layer (H) and set the bounds. For best results ingame, you should replace your map's base tile with one that is completely black and set your ingame camera's angle of attack to 90.
I won't cover the animated sprites part, because rrowland's engine probably does it better than mine.
I know I wasn't able to cover how that map was made step by step, but I'm sure most of you can figure it out from there. If you have any additional questions, just ask me and I'll try to respond to every one of them. I've attached the map that was created for this tutorial for reference.
The file size is the biggest issue. Because I'm using a lot of large imported images, I'm pretty close to the map size limit. I think it's at 8mb now with all the 1000 AD locations. Still, I think the playable map area is large enough to accomodate several players. And a single player campaign type map could exceed the size limit, right?
I would absolutely love to do that, but Square has a history of threatening fan games with lawsuits. I could totally try to make a 2d MMO for sc2, but it probably can't use any content from other games, for obvious reasons.
The file size is the biggest issue. Because I'm using a lot of large imported images, I'm pretty close to the map size limit. I think it's at 8mb now with all the 1000 AD locations. Still, I think the playable map area is large enough to accomodate several players. And a single player campaign type map could exceed the size limit, right?
@DarkForce9999: Go
I would absolutely love to do that, but Square has a history of threatening fan games with lawsuits. I could totally try to make a 2d MMO for sc2, but it probably can't use any content from other games, for obvious reasons.
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Thanks for the reply. Wouldn't a good technique to solve both file size and law suit is to chop the image into reusable 1x1 tiles to create your own location? And obviously your own sprites.
It would cut down on the file size, but if I had to create an entire game with small tiles, I'd probably go insane. That's something that requires teams of people and possibly years of development. I'd be better off just drawing my own locations by hand. It'd probably look a lot more awesome, too.
It would cut down on the file size, but if I had to create an entire game with small tiles, I'd probably go insane. That's something that requires teams of people and possibly years of development. I'd be better off just drawing my own locations by hand. It'd probably look a lot more awesome, too.
----
If you're ever planning to recruit, I'd apply for a position. I am a average photoshopper, a better than average trigger editor, and a less-than-average data editor.
My first and only project atm is Harvest Earth: The Next Generation which is a sc2 spinoff of harvest moon, securing 3rd page position on bnet. However after seeing this I was planning to turn it into 2D, but I don't really know where I am going with it anymore cause my team bailed on me due to RL issues.
The map boasts a good save/load system, with a not-so-terrible encryption system that can go up to value 99999. It's also 8mb due to custom sound track (4mb worth of them after compression) and loading screen (2mb)
This is a really rough proof of concept for creating a 2d rpg in SC2. It currently only contains terrain and a few animated sprites. The sprites were done with text tags and the terrain was done with custom decals.
Youtube:
Obligatory Editor shot:
@Mappiato:
Nice! I would say the walking sprite seems a bit choppy, but everything else looks very nice!
@Ash4meD: Go
Yeah, it could definitely be better. The sprite animations were a last minute addition so they're a little rough.
@Mappiato: Go
absolutly amazing!
By custom decals, you mean doodads?
haha Awesome. I think I'll release my sprite engine since I don't think I'll ever really make much use of it.
Ohh, epic! Very well executed :)
I hope you're willing to show how you did it :) tutorials please?
@ Pfaeff: Yeah, doodads. I exported one of the ingame decals, changed the texture path to a custom texture and reimported it.
@ rrowland: I'd love to get my hands on that. I'm sure it's much better than the way I set mine up.
@ marine63: I'll try to create a quick little how to for you. You'll probably be surprised at how quickly and easily this can be done.
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Curse PremiumSo how long did this take you to make? Is it realatively easy or is hard? If its easy...we will be seeing ALOT of these =]
@zeldarules28: Go
It went from an idea to what you see in the video over a two day period. It's incredibly easy once you understand how. I'm writing a tutorial right now.
@Mappiato: Go
My hero :P
@ marine63: I'll try to create a quick little how to for you. You'll probably be surprised at how quickly and easily this can be done.
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This is awesome, I can't wait to see it too. How big is the file size so far?
This awesome. I love Chrono Trigger, I both have the SNES and the DS versions of them (used to own the PSX version, but sold it). Great job! :D
Quote from DarkForce9999:
@ marine63: I'll try to create a quick little how to for you. You'll probably be surprised at how quickly and easily this can be done.
----
This is awesome, I can't wait to see it too. How big is the file size so far?
----
Just an addition to my earlier post, but please do try to make a MMO chrono trigger in Starcraft 2. It would be awesome to play this with around 8 players.
Okay, so here's how you do this! This may look like a lot of work at first, but once you've got it figured out you'll be doing it in no time.
First, you need some kind of image editing program that can save files with the .dds extension. I personally use GIMP with the gimp-dds plugin. I can't afford photoshop, so I won't be able to cover that.
Download GIMP: http://www.gimp.org/downloads/ Download gimp-dds: http://code.google.com/p/gimp-dds/downloads/list
Next, you find the image you want to use for your terrain. For this tutorial I'm going with a location from Chrono Trigger: The Ocean Palace! Open your image in whatever program you're using.
Before doing anything else, add an alpha channel. In GIMP, this is done by clicking the Layer drop down menu, transparency -> Add Alpha Channel.
After that, edit the canvas size of the image. Go to the Image drop down menu and click on "Canvas Size" Set the size to two pixels more on height and width and center your image. So if your image's dimensions are 256x768, you would set them to 258x770 and click on the "Center" Button. You should now see a checkered border around the edge of your image.
Now, click Layer -> Layer to image size.
Save your image. Name it whatever you want and give it the .dds extension.
Hit save. A little window with a few options for compression and format, etc. should pop up. Check "Generate mipmaps" and hit OK.
Open the SC2 editor and import your .dds file. Right click it, click "Move Files" and move it to the "Assets\Textures" directory.
Save your map.
Now, you can either create your own custom decal by editing the .m3 in notepad and changing the texture, or you can replace an existing one. I will cover replacing the existing one, because it's much quicker and easier.
Open your Data Editor (f7). Change Data type to "Textures" under "
Art and Sound"Choose whatever Decal you want to replace. I'm going with Aiur Brood (Protoss). Find the file name for the texture. In this example it's Assets\Textures\decal_protoss_0021_01.dds
Go back to your imports. Right click your .dds and rename it to the file name of the decal you're replacing.
Attached to this post is a .m3 file. Import it into your map and set the path to "Assets\Doodads\Decal"
Open your Data Editor and search for "Decal" in "Models"
Select "Decal" and change the "Model" field to the "TestDecal.m3" that I have attached to this post.
Scroll farther down and set the "Variation Count" field to "1"
Now find "Decal" in Actors and set the "Art - Scale" field to x: 30.0 y: 30.0 z: 1.0
Open up your Doodad Layer (D). Search for the "Decal" doodad and place it on your map. It should be a blue square. If it isn't, something went wrong.
Save your map and close your editor. Reopen the editor and load up your map.
Select your Decal doodad that you place on the map and hit Enter. Open up the "Textures" tab and select the texture you chose earlier (Aiur Brood Protoss in this example.)
You should now see your image on the map. If not, make sure your imported file is using the exact same path as the texture you're replacing. If the image you used was not symmetrical, it will probably be stretched and distorted. The image used in this example was 256x768, so I will set the scale of the placed doodad to 100, 300. You can set it to any amount as long as it's proportional (3, 9 / 25, 75). The doodad may disappear if you set the scale too high.
For any additional decals, you simply import the .dds and replace another Texture. Copy your first doodad and paste it elsewhere on the map. After that, just select the texture by selecting the doodad and hitting enter.
Congratulations! You have created your first 2d environment! You can now open the pathing layer (H) and set the bounds. For best results ingame, you should replace your map's base tile with one that is completely black and set your ingame camera's angle of attack to 90.
I won't cover the animated sprites part, because rrowland's engine probably does it better than mine.
I know I wasn't able to cover how that map was made step by step, but I'm sure most of you can figure it out from there. If you have any additional questions, just ask me and I'll try to respond to every one of them. I've attached the map that was created for this tutorial for reference.
@DarkForce9999: Go
The file size is the biggest issue. Because I'm using a lot of large imported images, I'm pretty close to the map size limit. I think it's at 8mb now with all the 1000 AD locations. Still, I think the playable map area is large enough to accomodate several players. And a single player campaign type map could exceed the size limit, right?
@DarkForce9999: Go
I would absolutely love to do that, but Square has a history of threatening fan games with lawsuits. I could totally try to make a 2d MMO for sc2, but it probably can't use any content from other games, for obvious reasons.
Quote from Mappiato:
@DarkForce9999: Go
The file size is the biggest issue. Because I'm using a lot of large imported images, I'm pretty close to the map size limit. I think it's at 8mb now with all the 1000 AD locations. Still, I think the playable map area is large enough to accomodate several players. And a single player campaign type map could exceed the size limit, right?
@DarkForce9999: Go
I would absolutely love to do that, but Square has a history of threatening fan games with lawsuits. I could totally try to make a 2d MMO for sc2, but it probably can't use any content from other games, for obvious reasons.
----
Thanks for the reply. Wouldn't a good technique to solve both file size and law suit is to chop the image into reusable 1x1 tiles to create your own location? And obviously your own sprites.
@DarkForce9999: Go
It would cut down on the file size, but if I had to create an entire game with small tiles, I'd probably go insane. That's something that requires teams of people and possibly years of development. I'd be better off just drawing my own locations by hand. It'd probably look a lot more awesome, too.
Quote from Mappiato:
@DarkForce9999: Go
It would cut down on the file size, but if I had to create an entire game with small tiles, I'd probably go insane. That's something that requires teams of people and possibly years of development. I'd be better off just drawing my own locations by hand. It'd probably look a lot more awesome, too.
----
If you're ever planning to recruit, I'd apply for a position. I am a average photoshopper, a better than average trigger editor, and a less-than-average data editor.
My first and only project atm is Harvest Earth: The Next Generation which is a sc2 spinoff of harvest moon, securing 3rd page position on bnet. However after seeing this I was planning to turn it into 2D, but I don't really know where I am going with it anymore cause my team bailed on me due to RL issues.
The map boasts a good save/load system, with a not-so-terrible encryption system that can go up to value 99999. It's also 8mb due to custom sound track (4mb worth of them after compression) and loading screen (2mb)