Creating your own Portraits

[TicklishWasabi]

How would I import my own faces. Would I just draw something up on a program and put the file in the "Faces" folder. Or is there more to it? Does it have to be a certain size, file type, named specifically etc.

 

[Shaz]

Ace faces are 96x96 and are arranged in a block 4 wide and 2 high, and saved in the Graphics/Faces folder. Just export one of the RTP face sets and take a look at it.

Make sure you use a program that will let you have a transparent background (so not MS Paint).

 

[TicklishWasabi]

So, could I create a face at a higher resolution, then scale it down to 96x96 (pixels?)

 

[gstv87]

you can get faces larger than the standard, but you won't be able to fit them in the editor as the regular ones are.
they'll work.... they just won't fit in the editor.

the image has to be square, but I believe you can make it any size, provided you use a way to identify them as individual faces.
you will have to modify the function dealing with faces, to load them at the right size.

for transparency you need it to be paletted to 8 bits, with transparency, or 24bit RGBA

settle on one size, and make it standard for the project.
that way you'll need less editing.

 

[TheoAllen]

So, could I create a face at a higher resolution, then scale it down to 96x96 (pixels?)

This is what I normally do when drawing faceset

 

[Shaz]

you can get faces larger than the standard, but you won't be able to fit them in the editor as the regular ones are.

I'm pretty sure if you want larger faces, you need to do script mods. Character sprites will resize based on total size of the image and whether it's a single character or 8, but faces don't do that - the code very specifically looks for 96x96

 

[gstv87]

yes and no.
it's just a couple of lines to change, so you don't really need a full mod, and you can also set it to read the whole image the same way it reads characters, even the stock ones.
you do need to settle on one size though.

also, you can *resize* a larger image, to 96x96.
if you want to make the image larger because of detail, you can leave it at full size, and the engine will shrink it to fit.
same code.

 

[TicklishWasabi]

yes and no.
it's just a couple of lines to change, so you don't really need a full mod, and you can also set it to read the whole image the same way it reads characters, even the stock ones.
you do need to settle on one size though.

also, you can *resize* a larger image, to 96x96.
if you want to make the image larger because of detail, you can leave it at full size, and the engine will shrink it to fit.
same code.

What lines do I need to change?

 

[gstv87]

def draw_face(face_name, face_index, x, y, height = line_height, enabled = true)
  bitmap = Cache.face(face_name)
  maxH = height - 4
  width = (face_name.include?('$') ? 256 : 96)
  rect = Rect.new(face_index % 4 * 96, face_index / 4 * 96, width, width)
  contents.stretch_blt(Rect.new(x,y,maxH,maxH), bitmap, rect, enabled ? 255 : translucent_alpha)
  bitmap.dispose
end

compare with the standard draw_face... you'll see the changes.
I use both standard 96p images, and custom 256p images, with plans to go all 256 and above.
I mark the large ones with a $

 

[Shaz]

That only allows two sizes. Not as flexible as character sheets.

 

[gstv87]

you can make a full character sheet out of 256p images...... it'll give you a 1024p image, which would be massive for the editor, but will work all the same, because the editor just presents an index to that code and that code does all the converting

like I said, won't fit, but will work.