New mod notice: The Avatar Pack

Post by **marzo** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 8:46 pm

I just made another mod available in my website: the Avatar Pack. This is a graphic pack (using new Exult capabilities -- you'll likely have to compile from source or wait for the next snapshot when you read this [edit] The necessary snapshot is available now) to add new portraits to BG and/or SI. Here are the new portraits:

By construction, the mod prevents you from selecting the old portraits -- but that can be changed if enough people prefer the old ones (but why install the mod then? :-p). As you can see from the screenshot above, the portraits are much better than the old ones (IMHO).

This mod has also been included in the latest version of the Keyring mod available in my website too, so you can enjoy both of them. SI Fixes, on the other hand, can be used without any difficulty with the Avatar Pack, so I haven't made the inclusion. But this can change if there is enough demand...

[edit: added link to my website]

SB-X · Post by **SB-X** » Sun Mar 18, 2007 2:25 am

That's great. Those look really cool, well except for the creepy guy at the top right who looks like he's trying to hypnotize you. Good job!
For anyone who wants to know, you can find the list of people used in these portraits in the mod archive. Marzo's website, Seven Towers, can be gotten to from the Links page.

Post by **marzo** » Sun Mar 18, 2007 4:50 am

well except for the creepy guy at the top right who looks like he's trying to hypnotize you.

Hehe, his eyes do draw too much attention

And yeah, I forgot to plug my website; thanks for the reminder.

TdI · Post by **TdI** » Sun Mar 18, 2007 5:08 am

Kewl.

I'm only missing the "long-black-haired-one"

Post by **marzo** » Sun Mar 18, 2007 5:17 am

I'm only missing the "long-black-haired-one"

I'll see if I can find a good model for that (as hard to find as good male asian models... so hard that I was going with *Jet Li* until I found one).

Post by **Dominus** » Sun Mar 18, 2007 5:25 am

Very nicely done, I noticed that you got rid of the generated files, too, in CVS. I really got to find the time and take a closer look at what you've done now

TdI · Post by **TdI** » Sun Mar 18, 2007 9:06 am

> I'll see if I can find a good model for that (as hard to find as good male asian models...

You can use me if you like

http://www.fivefootfreak.de/gfx/tris.png

T'would be an honor

Post by **marzo** » Sun Mar 18, 2007 10:12 am

How does that look?

TdI · Post by **TdI** » Sun Mar 18, 2007 11:23 am

Wow, I look sexy in an Avatar costume. Looks great!

But somehow the expression seems mean. Like really angry. But maybe it's some kind of effect because of the high res of my screen.

Post by **marzo** » Sun Mar 18, 2007 11:26 am

I edited your expression a bit for the 'angry' effect you mention; although I am thinking of softening it up a bit again.

Achile · Post by **Achile** » Sun Mar 18, 2007 12:32 pm

Something wrong. When I begin SI with the new Avatar Pak, it shows the Usecode container on the paperdoll

Post by **marzo** » Sun Mar 18, 2007 1:27 pm

Ack. I know what is happening, but is unrelated to the mod. Will not happen in the next snapshot.

Bak · Post by **Bak** » Sun Mar 18, 2007 10:35 pm

Love what you're doing with this, really appreciate the work you are putting in, but have you tested this mod on SI?

The redhead males and females dont show their heads in the paperdoll and are unavailible to chose from the start.
Also the blond male and female have brownish hair in the dolls as well.
The asian guy has long hair in the doll as well.
I'm not sure if it was intended.

I'm using ur SI fixes mod with the latest 1.4 snapshot by the way.

Thanks.

keldorn · Post by **keldorn** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 3:51 am

The top left and top 3rd from left girl looks great.

Post by **marzo** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 6:30 am

Bak: the problems you report are due to a couple dumb mistakes on my part. I have released a fixed version; sorry for that.

Bak · Post by **Bak** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 8:33 am

Cheers Marzo its working fine now.
Really appreciate your great work.

Post by **drcode** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 9:27 am

Yes, those look great! I'll try them out in the game I just started playing with the Keyring mod.

My first thought was that those were friends of yours ("Wow, Marzo knows some good-looking women."), but then I saw the "Who_is_who" list:-)

Crysta the Elf · Post by **Crysta the Elf** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 6:18 am

The shading on the hair for the two blond avatars looks too unnatural.

Great aside from that tho.

Crysta the Elf · Post by **Crysta the Elf** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 6:38 am

Actually.. I just tried them in game...

I think.. i'm going to try touching them up... a lot...

SB-X · Post by **SB-X** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 6:52 am

I don't know about that, but I thought the "Raven-haired Female" would actually have black hair. I have made this so by lowering the hair color saturation until it matches "Raven-haired Male's" color.

Crysta the Elf · Post by **Crysta the Elf** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 9:14 am

And i'm not having any luck trying to touch them up. I guess messing with portraits just really isnt my thing. ^_^;

Post by **marzo** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 9:25 am

Crysta: I will look into the blonde avatars. The problem is not the shading per se, but the high contrast.

SB-X: Will do.

Here is something (or someone) I'll be adding in the next version: straight from U8 & U9, the Avatar With A Bucket In The Head (TM):

In male & female versions. Of the sprites/gumps, of course, as there isn't much to change in the face... With a brand-new fully-armored paperdoll body too.

Post by **Dominus** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 10:21 am

Post by **marzo** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 10:34 am

TdI: what name should I place in the credits for your portrait?

Post by **marzo** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 12:02 pm

Here is the comparison of new (top) and old (bottom) versions of raven-haired female and the blonde avatars:

I think the new ones are winners.

Crysta the Elf · Post by **Crysta the Elf** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 12:10 pm

The only difference I notice is the black hair.

The navy blue backgrounds are annoying... every other SI portrait uses the black.

TdI · Post by **TdI** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 12:22 pm

>TdI: what name should I place in the credits for your portrait?

Tristan de Ines - Exult fan and forum junkie

or something like that

LinkDragon · Post by **LinkDragon** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 10:04 am

This is odd..
My name is Triston, and you look quite a bit like me.

mjohnston · Post by **mjohnston** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 10:51 am

those look pretty nice.. the two versions of the "raven haired females" - I actually like the browner one more, range of colors/values seems more natural. something seems odd about the highlights in the newer one...compare to the tristan one - I think think his hair looks much more natural somehow.

the blonds I think look a little too straw colored... too much yellow, too little brown, and not enough white... and the male redheads hair looks a little off too.. but they're all much better than I could do with graphics programs (paint I play with comes in tubes and jars) and most of them are very nicely done.

Post by **marzo** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 3:10 pm

Bumping this up to announce that there has been an update to the Avatar Pack (and to the Keyring mod as well). The screenshot at the top has been updated.

Achile · Post by **Achile** » Sun Apr 01, 2007 8:39 am

The Zip files of Keyring and Sifixes are corrupt. Can you check it out ?

Post by **marzo** » Sun Apr 01, 2007 12:09 pm

Strange, they work for me here. In any case, I uploaded new ones which should be working. Can you check to see if they do indeed work?

Achile · Post by **Achile** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 7:36 am

It work, thank you

Nicodemus · Post by **Nicodemus** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 3:49 pm

Marzo, I keep getting CTD after I downloaded and installed the Avatar Pack and the latest Keyring...as per instructions, I am also using the latest snapshot. What is the best way to go about trouble shooting this? Everything had been working fine up until those installations.

Post by **marzo** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 4:44 pm

Nicodemus: can you post your stdout/stderr files?

Nicodemus · Post by **Nicodemus** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 5:56 pm

Here you go bud...thanks for looking at it.

Error while listing files: The system cannot find the file specified.

Line #5 has the wrong section name: bodyshapes != version
Line #7 has the wrong section name: characters != version
Shape num out of range: 1107
Shape num out of range: 1107

Exult version 1.4.03cvs
Built at: Apr 3 2007 10:19:15
Compile-time options: USE_FMOPL_MIDI, USE_EXULTSTUDIO, HAVE_ZIP_SUPPORT
Compiler: gcc, version: 3.4.5 (mingw special)

Platform: Windows XP Service Pack 2 Version 5.1 Build 2600
Exult path settings:
Data : data
Digital music : data\music

Black Gate : found
exult_bg.flx : found
Serpent Isle : found
exult_si.flx : found
OGG Vorbis Digital Music: Enabled
Trying: `Windows'
1 Midi Devices Detected
Listing midi devices:
-1: Microsoft MIDI Mapper
0: Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth
Using device -1: Microsoft MIDI Mapper
Success!
Midi Output: Enabled
Starting a BLACK GATE game
Game path settings:
Static : c:\ultima7\static
Gamedat : c:\ultima7\gamedat
Savegame: c:\ultima7
Patch : c:\ultima7\patch

Gamedat identity FORGE
Reading usecode file.
Support for SI Paperdolls is enabled.
Support for SI Multiracial Avatars is enabled.
Loading /exult_bg.flx...
Loading default keybindings

Post by **marzo** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 6:49 pm

Try disabling the midi music and see if it still crashes.

Nicodemus · Post by **Nicodemus** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 8:52 pm

Marzo I think I got it mostly all squared away...BG is now working perfectly with AVatar Pack, keyring and all, just need to get SI Fixes working with the Avatar Pack. I basically just wiped out everything and started over...seems to have fixed the problem.

I'm having trouble figuring out how to get the AP to work in SI fixes...I've got the part about creating a new folder "patch" but I can't seem to place it in the right spot....at this point I have it under (C:)-->Serpent--->mods--->sifixes--->patch--->AvatarPack. I have read and reread at least 5 times the documentation but no dice.

Thanks again for your help.

Post by **marzo** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 4:20 am

Oops... sorry, that is actually my fault. I switched SI Fixes's 'patch' dir to a 'data' dir to standardize my mods but forgot to update the installation instructions of the Avatar Pack. I updated the instructions in the website.

Philipp · Post by **Philipp** » Sat Apr 07, 2007 2:25 pm

Thank you, Marzo Junior, I enjoy your contributions very much.
Speaking of these contributions, has anyone yet thought about removing dominus' "feature request" from 2001-12-11 05:06, when he wished for the possibility to read the codex in Exult?

Post by **marzo** » Sat Apr 07, 2007 5:47 pm

Strange, I could swear I had done that already. Well, it is done now in any case.

Thara · Post by **Thara** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 1:24 am

First of all Marzo, great work you have done! I like it very much!

To the point: I'm having some issues with the Avatar pack and SI-Fixes. (2007-04-03 and 2007-04-01 on the 2007-04-06 snapshot). The cycling loading screen palette is messed up (purely cosmetic) and after starting a new game, the front of the boat is cycling through the various shapes and the avatar is trapped in the front part of the boat.

Thanks for your help!

Thara

Post by **Dominus** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 3:07 am

I love that my ages old feature requests get closed by Marzo

Especially since most of them didn't seem like they would ever be possible to be implemented (cleaning of Loch Lake, viewing the codex...)

Post by **marzo** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 6:36 am

Thara: ack. OK, good news is that I know what it is causing both problems. The bad news is that I'll have to split the avatar pack into separate BG and SI versions to fix one of them...

As a workaround for ship problem (which is just the one you noticed out of a huge list of similar problems...): in the SI Fixes' data dir, delete all *.dat files EXCEPT FOR initgame.dat. I will be releasing an updated version of the Avatar Pack shortly, and will post the notice here.

As for the other problem, the fix will have to wait for the next snapshot of Exult. As a workaround, You can rename the mainshp.flx file in SI Fixes' data dir (this will turn off the new title screen).

Post by **marzo** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 7:08 am

The new version is up now. Please note that I strongly recommended that you remove the old version from SI/SI Fixes before installing the new version (or that you follow the first optional step in the new installation instructions for the Avatar Pack).

Thara · Post by **Thara** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 8:06 am

Well done, it seems to work now

Will test it a litte more!

Greetings,

Thara

Skutarth · Post by **Skutarth** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 2:50 pm

I'm working on an Avatar that is more true to Ultima 8's.
It's probably going to be male only, but would you add it anyway when I'm finished? Besides, we need a fully armored one that's not just for comic effect!
I'll have it finished tonight, hopefully. Then I'll have something to show.

Skutarth · Post by **Skutarth** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 3:12 pm

Here's a preview of the new avatar sprite I made:

Hopefully I didn't mess up that image tag.

Post by **marzo** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 3:18 pm

I'm working on an Avatar that is more true to Ultima 8's.

Besides, we need a fully armored one that's not just for comic effect!

Those two statements aren't exactly compatible, you know

(The comic effect is not merely the fact that the avatar has a bucket in the head, you know; it is actually in the mockery of the lack of choice in U8 and U9: the Avatar Pack is all about player choice, and even for the bucket-headed avatar you have a choice -- male and female versions -- which is more than U8 and U9 allowed)

Skutarth · Post by **Skutarth** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 3:24 pm

Yes, but I'm trying to make something that looks drastically different than the other avatars.
Look at the picture in my above post. Even if you think it's funny, you can at least agree that it's very different than the other normal avatars.
That, and it fits perfectly into the series for obvious reasons.