The 1024x768 Project

Since some members have expressed interest in this, I've decided to go ahead and make a project of it. Without further ado, the BotF 1024x768 Project!

Background

MPR, the Microprose graphics library that BotF relies on, is capable of supporting multiple resolutions, including 1024x768. However, to make use of this, we'll need to modify some of the graphics and WDF files in BotF. That's what this project is about.

The Trek.exe Patch

I ended up patching about 200 locations in Trek.exe to get this to work. You can find a tool which automatically patches Trek.exe here:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/botfrespatch/files/

1024x768 STBOF.RES

Coming soon! In the meantime, maybe you want to try out...

The WDF Editor

Is exactly what it sounds like.

Get it here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/botfwdftools/files/wdfedit/

[anjel]

well, if you tell me what i have to do, i´ll do it, always speaking in the graphic area, all what i need it´s the pixel sizes, width and height and i´ll do the buttons, screen or whatever. And in wich format do you need it.

I hope that I can do this for the tos mod but having just done the feds GUI I'm not sure I wanna do it again lol

this is certainly a worth project and looks very promising;

one thing that may be of note is that the solarsystem display seems to be an internal ie hard coded overlay; are there others? certainly the variable controling the size of the galaxy map overlay need to be considered.

@Anjel all GUI files are in 16bit .tga format and the great news is UE will convert most files into this

[anjel]

@Anjel all GUI files are in 16bit .tga format and the great news is UE will convert most files into this

Perfect !!! i´ll start to investigate, not today i´m afraid, but tomorrow i´ll have more time

Thanks

[thunderchero]

well not sure how much this will help but here is every tga file resized by 128%. I know many files may not be used depending on the layout but here they are; (4864 tga's)

1024x768.rar (file removed)

I agree it might be a good idea just to create a vanilla 1024x768 version then allow modders to edit as they want.

thunderchero

Thanks TC, I'll check it out tomorrow. This should come in handy for the moment. We'll still have to redo the WDF's to match.

My ultimate plan was not to simply resize all the graphics, but keep most graphics like buttons the same size as before, but we enlarge the backgrounds without resizing. It would create more screen space for the galactic map, the taskforces list, and the new energy screen structures. It would also create screen space for future mods, e.g. allowing space for more planets to be drawn for star systems, a bigger build queue, etc. I might be jumping the gun here, of course those things will require new Trek.exe patches.

[Tethys]

I love your optimism QD

I thought you'd appreciate it. It was your idea to extend the build queue and planets list.

[thunderchero]

one thing that may be of note is that the solarsystem display seems to be an internal ie hard coded overlay; are there others? certainly the variable controling the size of the galaxy map overlay need to be considered.

if you look in UE the "alignment multiplier" would control the size of the galaxy (full and small) so these values would need to be recalculated to the new area assigned in the wdf or the allowed pink area of the tga?

thunderchero

[thunderchero]

Thanks TC, I'll check it out tomorrow. This should come in handy for the moment. We'll still have to redo the WDF's to match.

My ultimate plan was not to simply resize all the graphics, but keep most graphics like buttons the same size as before, but we enlarge the backgrounds without resizing. It would create more screen space for the galactic map, the taskforces list, and the new energy screen structures. It would also create screen space for future mods, e.g. allowing space for more planets to be drawn for star systems, a bigger build queue, etc. I might be jumping the gun here, of course those things will require new Trek.exe patches.

I agree all these patches would be great, but most screen would not need editing; research, diplomacy, intelligence, start screen, option screen, save screen, load screen ect. there is no need for improvements in most of these screens (other than better images). so I propose just create a complete vanilla style update and when a patch is created for any thing work it in. so start with the screens (wdf files) that will be unedited. But I agree while I did resize all the buttons and building/ship images they would just not be used on new/edited screens and smaller ones used to create more space when needed. Although I found just by using new names the edited screens could have smaller buttons. Yes this would create more files but it would be better than 4864 new images

thunderchero

Yeah it's not a bad idea to just simply stretch all the screens, at least starting out. A benefit is that I'll be able to write a program that can stretch the WDF's to 1024x768 automatically (as part of my wdfview program, I have code capable of reading/writing WDFs). That would be a much smarter way to go for now. We could be finished this project in no time if we use scripts/programs to do all the donkey work.

I too agree with TC a vanilla patch with new resolution is the best way to work this. This way whoever decides to make a mod can edit whatever screens he/she wants to edit. I'm sorry to chime in on this but since I am working on some new screens for my mod (it is a slow painstaking process for me but I'm getting better lol) I will help with whatever vanilla tga files I can. If someone wants to give me a homework assignment I'll tell you I always finished my work in school . In any sense you can count me in on any help needed.

[thunderchero]

I just had a thought

here is an example of how to rename some of the building/ship tga

large resized (normal names)
i_kl1170.tga
i_kl1120.tga
i_kl160.tga
i_kl130.tga
i_kl1w.tga (I think these are only used in build screen)

small images (renamed)
i_kl117s.tga
i_kl112s.tga
i_kl16s.tga
i_kl13s.tga
i_kl1s.tga (I think these are only used in build screen)

this way when the trek.exe calls these images

unedited screen would use
%170.tga

edited srceen (smaller images)
%17s.tga

It should work this could be done when all smaller images (buttons)are used by wdf (as long as we never reused same name)

thunderchero

Thanks xDx, I'll be able to tell exactly what I need after I start fixing the WDF's. As I said, I'll just write a program to do that. Since we're just stretching all the vanilla graphics up, I'll be able write a script using ImageMagick to resample all the graphics, and convert to 16-bit TGA.

I think it's decided then. The first version of the 1024x768 Project will be simply a stretched up version of the vanilla 800x600. So it shouldn't look any different, but will allow for higher res graphics.

I think I'll make the patch as a set of tools. One for patching trek.exe with the code in the first post, one for stretching up the WDF's, and a script for stretching the graphics. With any luck, we can convert all existing mods to 1024x768 without any manual work

Edit: whoops, missed your post, thunder. That's a fine solution for when we need to mix the different resolution graphics. Although there's no reason we couldn't give the files totally random names like weeman.tga

when you say QD 'random names' some parts of the file called require specific formating; owner race initial letter and last couple of characters. f.e. h_blah20.tga may need a h at the start and 20 at the end.