xzvf Documentation
This document is the documentation file for the xzvf editor released by deufeufeu (me! sic)
1 - Installation instructions
I've summed up this instructions in this list of basic steps :
For those asking : Why is it so big ? This editor has been wrote using python and some big extensions like wxWindows, so in fact it's not so big, it's just that I wasn't wanting to tell all of you to install Python+Numeric+PIL+pyopengl+wxPython... I think you prefer a bigger file but fewer steps in installation.
2 - Basic usage
In order to show the basic usage of xzvf I'm going to guide you with screenshots as it's not a direct click-edit prog at the moment.
2.a - The interface
When starting xzvf you could see two windows (cf Figure 1). The first one is the main editor window, the menu belongs to it, ect. It is here that you'll control all the parameters, load/save files or play the animation. The second window is the preview window, it show you what the sprite will look ingame (although it's made with OpenGL, the result are very close to what you'll get with DirectX based games, like RO). In this window you can zoom in and out using your mouse wheel.
Figure 1 - Starting xzvf
2.b - Loading a sprite
For the moment you can't do a thing, you first have to load a sprite to work on. For doing so you have a lot of options :
Figure 2 - Importing a sprite
The behaviour of this kind of plugin should be really straightforward. For example, with the grf opener, it'll let you choose a grf file and after having loaded it, choose a spr or act file from it. Warning As sprites are stored in two files in RO, all the combined plugins will load automatically the other file. So, if you choosed to open banana.spr it will also open banana.act, and don't load anything if this file is non existent.
2.c - Playing with the sprite
In the Figure 3, You could see the editor after having imported a sprite. A new window has appeared, it's the image list window, it'll help you a lot in referencing individual images from spr file. Warning Images in spr are different from final frames. If you makes one image for each frame, your file will be too big and you'll have some difficulties to make special effects (like shaking sprite for heavy walk).
Figure 3 - xzvf with a loaded sprite
After having loaded the sprite, the editor makes the first frame of the first animation the current frame. You can use the toolbar to change the current animation, and the current frame, you can also play the animation (cf. Figure 4).
Figure 4 - The toolbar
2.d - Basic Editing
To edit a parameter click on his value in the list one time and you'll be able to type another value to replace it. If the new value is invalid (like a negative color) it'll not be used.
I'll use a sprite example to show you the meaning of each parameters. We'll start editing the first subframe (the skeleton, not the smoke). Initial values are shown in Figure 5.
Figure 5 - Initial values
I - PosX, PosY
It represents the position of the subframe in the frame. You can modify these by dragging in the Display window.
PosX = -60, PosY = 25
II - ImageNum
The index of the image in the sprites library shown in the image list window. You can choose directly the right image Num by clicking in the right bitmap in the image list window. A -1 imageNum will make a non showing subframe, useful when editing existing sprites.
ImageNum = 42
III - Direction
If non zero, the image we'll be shown as in the image list window, otherwise it'll be reversed on the X axis. You can reverse all subframes in a whole animation by using Edit->Change direction for all Images in all frames
Direction = 1
IV - Red, Green, Blue, Alpha
The base color of the texture.
Red = 200, Green = 25, Blue = 150, Alpha = 100
V - ScaleX, ScaleY
The scale factor on the X and on the Y axis of the subframe. You can modify it by dragging the mouse in the display window while holding Ctrl.
ScaleX = 1.5, ScaleY = 0.75
VI - Rgba
Choose from which image set the image has to be taken, if non zero it'll be taken from rgba images. WarningDon't use it at the moment if your not a 1337.
2.e - Exporting the file
As you imported it, you can export the sprite to an act file.
4 - Specific plugins documentation
4.1 - Create spr from a list of images
This plugin can create a spr from a bunch of images, it will let you select at first the indexed images and after the rgba images. If you don't want to load any of these type of file just click cancel in the open file dialog. It will then let you choose where to save your spr file. After this it will convert files and pack it in a new spr, the palette will be the palette of the first indexed image.
3 - Tutorials