Help with TGA files

[mike_espo]

How do you create TGA files? I am making a few missions in the mission editor and I like the map graphic for the mission briefing, but, after doing searches, still have not figured this one out...

Can anyone help??

thanks

[ichso]

http://www.gimp.org

tga is no more than a graphics format and many applications are capable of saving any image as an tga file.

[mike_espo]

So, its not something that is made when a mission is created?

[peabody]

Originally Posted by mike_espo

So, its not something that is made when a mission is created?

No it is not created by the mission, you need to add it. Shown in larger text and bold:

Central Pacific
4th of June, 1942
#SM01 Battle of Midway.tga#0,0,400,256

BRIEFING
The chance to turn the tide of the war in the Pacific is with us. Using decoded Japanese transmissions, we have turned a trap intended for our carriers into one for the Japs.

********************************
You could do a print screen to copy the map to the clipboard and then paste into Gimp or Photshop or any program that handles .tga format.
Resize to 400,256 and rename to the name of the mission and put it on it's own line in the mission briefing screen, formatted like above.
In gimp you can add anything you would like to shown, such as the target location, direction of travel or even the actual path it will be taking. Or you could use a screen capture from the game showing the star for where the mission will take place. Anything you want.
Use the format #Missionname.tga#0,0,400,256 on a line by itself, do not include any other info on the same line.

On this example, for some reason in version 1.4 the line spacing was single, but in 1.5 (Uboat Addon) it is double spaced, so any info you add above the picture will move the picture down quite a bit if you use more than one line of info.

Notice two things as shown by the red arrows. One, the double spacing on the right. Second, if you don't put something in the 'Mission Title" box it will just say "Mission title" on the left and you will not know which mission is which. So in the 'Language Localization" section make sure to add the Mission title as well as the mission briefing. You will notice the last entry on the left is the "Battle of Midway" which is the one that is actually the one that is selected and shows on the right.



Peabody

[mike_espo]

Thanks Peabody. Little too much work for eyecandy. I thought there was an easier way to do it in the mission editor.

Originally Posted by mike_espo

Thanks Peabody. Little too much work for eyecandy. I thought there was an easier way to do it in the mission editor.

its easy to do.

just open the game to the area your mission is for and size the map how you like it to look. then take a screen shot (printscreen) of it.

now you have your image and you save it to desktop or wherever. now use a photo editing tool to open it and resize it to the size used for the mission images which is 512 wide x 256 high pixel size or 5x3 inches then save it as a tga image.

now you name the tga image file exactly the same as your mission name and add it to the mission folder. to get the picture to "show" on the mission screen you need to add the name for it to the TSR file after the mission name and date and before the mission briefing info so open it with windows notepad and add in the tga file name for it to be used.

as an example take this mission:

SM102 Mindoro Straits

(TSR file)

[Text]
MissionBriefing=Philippines|Mindoro Straits|April, 1943||||CDR, ONI has been tracking a Japanese convoy which left Japan two weeks ago and has docked in Manila Bay.

now after you add your picture info it should look like this:

[Text]
MissionBriefing=Philippines|Mindoro Straits|April, 1943||SM102 Mindoro Straits.tga||CDR, ONI has been tracking a Japanese convoy which left Japan two weeks ago and has docked in Manila Bay.

those " | " are line breaks to seperate things so you need at least one of them before and after the file name you add. i just copy and paste one in on the end if needed.

the stock pictures have those #0,0,400,256 numbers but you dont need those when adding in your own pictures.


i use paint.net for my photo editing stuff.