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Thread: Need help to make .Bif and .Lbm Unit Icons for my last Project.

  1. #1

    Icon5 Need help to make .Bif and .Lbm Unit Icons for my last Project.

    I honestly forgot how to make .Lbm Unit icons and .Bif Review panel Icons.
    And I have a ton of new units to make icons for.

    Reviewed old threads on the subject but all of them offer different solutions and I really don't know which one is the right one.
    So, I would appreciate some up to date tutorial, or else I will just use Axalon's redux icons and he will get angry.
    Other option is to "hire" someone, but I'm not rich at all.

    Thank you very much.

  2. #2
    Daminios's Avatar Civis
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    Default Re: Need help to make .Bif and .Lbm Unit Icons for my last Project.

    great news Tyberius ...
    What Era are your new Units ?
    Can you post a few pictures ....
    cheers

  3. #3

    Default Re: Need help to make .Bif and .Lbm Unit Icons for my last Project.

    or else I will just use Axalon's redux icons and he will get angry
    Don't do that lol. Last time your patch was taken down.

  4. #4

    Default Re: Need help to make .Bif and .Lbm Unit Icons for my last Project.

    Quote Originally Posted by Yan View Post
    Don't do that lol. Last time your patch was taken down.
    It wasn't "taken Down" they just delayed the inevitable.


    Scholarii


    Boyars



    Spatharioi tou Vasileos



    Aspet Bodyguards



    Athanatoi



    Ruthenian Archers



    Lithuanian Knights

  5. #5
    Daminios's Avatar Civis
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    Default Re: Need help to make .Bif and .Lbm Unit Icons for my last Project.

    Quote Originally Posted by Tyberius View Post
    It wasn't "taken Down" they just delayed the inevitable.
    thats the way Tyberius ! ..and yr new troops look great too .

  6. #6

    Default Re: Need help to make .Bif and .Lbm Unit Icons for my last Project.

    Do you have the graphics for the icons? My bifs also have the black pixels on transparency issue. One solution is to fill the whole frame with background beige colour but it's noticeable when you drag the review_panel icons.
    For lbm there is a tool called purpgrab, get it from here: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/downl...o=file&id=4239

  7. #7
    Libertus
    Join Date
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    Default Re: Need help to make .Bif and .Lbm Unit Icons for my last Project.

    PurpGrab is the EASY way, and it has some advantages, but also two major drawbacks. It will make both BIFs and LBMs.

    To use PurpGrab you need a good graphics editor (Photoshop is good, other brands are available ....)

    1. Make your image, and scale it to 50 x 50 pixels
    2. You need to save TWO copies. One needs the background colour to be #CFCFC7 - call this something like 'unit_LBM'; the other should have background/transparancy colour #FF00FF and save it with a name like 'unit_BIF'.
    3. Save both files as TGA format, 24-bit colour depth. You will have 'unit_LBM.tga' and 'unit_BIF.tga' side by side, identical except for their background colours.
    4. Navigate to the directory where these files are saved and select them both
    5. Now open PurpGrab and drag the two highlighted files into the PurpGrab window - if all is well, you will see four NEW files appear in the directory.
    6. These four files will be called: unit_LBM.lbm, unit_LBM.bif, unit_BIF.lbm and unit_BIF.bif - delete the BIF.lbm and LBM.bif files - these are not needed. The other two are your battle and review panel icons. Rename as appropriate and install into the correct part of the game.
    7. Look at your BIFs - hey presto, no black spots ....

    THAT is the good bit, now for the downside:
    a) It will not render faction colours properly, so it's best to avoid icons that use them - this is because it does not maintain the colour table/indexing. If you have pink and green in your image, you will get pink and green in your icon. If you want to include faction colouring you will have to use a different method (I use Photoshop to make BMPs of the desired icons, with the correct index/colour table, then convert to BIFs using ReadBIF, and to LBMs using ProMotion). Although ReadBIF gets faction colours working, it can introduce black spots, especially where you have small areas of transparancy (ie lone pixels, or a strip 1 pixel wide etc)
    b) Purpgrap will crop the BIFs to the outermost non-transparent pixels, so you can end up with some odd sized icons. The usual work-around for this is to put a single pixel of beige (or somesuch parchmenty colour) into the corners or edges that the actual image doesn't reach.
    Last edited by Macsen Rufus; January 29, 2019 at 07:55 AM.

  8. #8

    Default Re: Need help to make .Bif and .Lbm Unit Icons for my last Project.

    Greetings, everyone, Tyberius!

    I can help you in more ways than you might expect. Just Private message me and we will see. Sorry for the late response but this is my first visit to this website in a long time. Looking forward to hear from you.

    Best

  9. #9

    Default Re: Need help to make .Bif and .Lbm Unit Icons for my last Project.

    Sorry for posting the screens without a permission due to the fact that I have no idea when I will be able to post next. Electricity and internet access are rare commodities in this part of the world. These two screens show you the kind of skins I have finished so far. The first screen shows the boyars and the seconds shows Heavy Cavalry

    [IMG][/IMG]

    [IMG][/IMG]

  10. #10

    Default Re: Need help to make .Bif and .Lbm Unit Icons for my last Project.

    Your textures look amazing, I'm glad you found a good use for my shields, Since I've always said that my work is open source for this community, keep the good work.

  11. #11

    Default Re: Need help to make .Bif and .Lbm Unit Icons for my last Project.

    It has been two years. Hope you are well and still working on your mod.

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