How do I...?

Discussion area for user-created Allegiance models, textures, voicechats, music, and other ingame content.
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madpeople
Posts: 4787
Joined: Tue Dec 16, 2003 8:00 am
Location: England

Post by madpeople »

How Do I install mods?
Most mods come with a "README" file (Read me - it wants you to read it wink.gif ), or next to the download have a link to additional details (apply to most in the Everything Arty stickie) on how to install.
but in general;

Voice Chats
Extract these to your /Allegiance/artwork directory
High def sounds
Extract these to your /Allegiance/artwork directory
Ship texture packs
Extract these to your /Allegiance/artwork directory - if highres see below
Reticules
Extract these to your /Allegiance/artwork directory
UI mods
Extract these to your /Allegiance/artwork directory (see a pattern yet?) - some come with an installer to do the work for you.
Music packs
someone pm me the answer for this plz.

Quick note: before extracting your mod to the artwork directory, its often a good idea to see if the mod comes with backups of the original files it replaces, most do and have un-install instructions included; if they don't its a good idea to make copys of the files they replace so you can switch back if you don't like the mod.
Some sites have copys of the originals if you didn't make backups Mesial's site and the academy to name two.

How do I use highres packs in allegiance?
  1. First you need to choose the pack(s) you want to use, you can find highres packs in the everything arty stickie highres section or the Hirez files stickie or by looking through the artwork development forum.
  2. Once you have downloaded your chosen Highres pack(s), navigate to your allegiance/Artwork folder (default location C:\\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Allegiance\artwork ) in the artwork directory create a new folder called "Textures" (without the "" marks)
  3. Extract your highres packs to the Allegiance\artwork\Textures folder.
  4. In game press esc, under graphics options there is a option "max texture size (###)" change this to 2048, if you have problems playing at that size (need a good computer for that size of texture) try reducing it to 1024 or 512.
To un-install a highres pack, just delete the files it put in the"Textures" folder.


How do I make bmp.mdl files with MDLC?
  1. First download the original artwork tools and YP's front end for it from here.
  2. Now make a folder somewhere and extract the tools to that folder, this will be your working folder, so make sure its easily accessible.
  3. Copy the .bmp files you want to convert to your working folder containing the tools.
  4. Run mdlcMasterBat.exe, use it to select the .bmp files you want to convert that you just copied to that directory with the "select files" button.
  5. Then click "Run Batch".
bmp.mdl versions of the files you selected will now appear in the directory you are working in.
Last edited by madpeople on Tue Mar 13, 2007 9:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.
madpeople
Posts: 4787
Joined: Tue Dec 16, 2003 8:00 am
Location: England

Post by madpeople »

How do I use image formats other than bmp.mdl in allegiance?
KGJV wrote:
QUOTE (KGJV @ May 23 2007, 03:46 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Textures can be 16, 24 or 32 bits.

It's not a direct replacement of bmp.mdl format but an extension of the MDL syntax.

So in TEXT MDL files you can replace:

Code: Select all

somename = ImportImage("somebitmapbmp",true); // this load "somebitmapbmp.mdl"


with

Code: Select all

somename = ImportImageFromFile("somebitmap.png",true); // this load "somebitmap.png"


Oh cool but most bitmaps in alleg are not loaded thru TEXT MDL files but directly by their bmp.mdl name.

For instance, "fx09bmp.mdl" is hardcoded in allegiance.exe (it's the texture for shield damage effect).

So how will I replace fx09bmp.mdl with a different file format then ?

Well good thing with .mdl files, is that whatever their content, they are all loaded by the same MDL parser: a bmp.mdl can be a TEXT mdl file instead of a binary mdl, the parser will detect this.

So to change fx09bmp.mdl, you 'll be able to do like this:

delete fx09bmp.mdl (or move it elsewhere)

Create a text file named 'fx09bmp.mdl' (same name!) and put this in it:

Code: Select all

use "model"; 
fx09bmp = ImportImageFromFile("mycoolshieldfx.png", true); // be sure to keep same name 'fx09bmp'


and voila, Allegiance.exe will load "fx09bmp.mdl" but since it's a TEXT MDL file now, the parser will interpret it and will load "mycoolshieldfx.png".

It might seems a bit complicated to have this indirection thru a text file but it is required because binary bmp.mdl files define more than the actual bitmap bits. They also define the name of the bitmap ('fx09bmp' in that case) and the colorkey value (true or false). Since these are Alleg specific, they cannot be stored in standard formats (png,bmp,tga,...) so we need to keep this extra little TEXT MDL file for this.

Last thing, unlike ImportImage, ImportImageFromFile supports subdirs in the file name. So you can do things like:

Code: Select all

use "model"; 
fx09bmp = ImportImageFromFile("Textures/Effects/mycoolshieldfx.png", true);


this will load mycoolshieldfx.png located in the Effects subfolder of Textures subfolder of allegiance "artwork folder" (the usual one).

ps: dont try this now, it's a R4 feature only smile.gif
Last edited by madpeople on Thu Jun 07, 2007 8:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Shizoku
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Location: Ozzy's right nut.

Post by Shizoku »

How do I make alleg widescreen?
Image
apochboi
Posts: 1744
Joined: Sun May 28, 2006 7:00 am
Location: Dundee, Scotland

Post by apochboi »

Start --> Run --> Regedit --> Hkey_local_machine --> software --> microsoft --> microsoft games --> allegiance --> 1.0 --> combatfullscreenx double click, change to decimal, enter the Xvalue you want, then do the same for combatfullscreenY then close regedit

start allegiance play and enjoy
madpeople
Posts: 4787
Joined: Tue Dec 16, 2003 8:00 am
Location: England

Post by madpeople »

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