Still Lost As Ever...

[Dracoceros 33]

I can't seem to figure out and put the pieces together... I've been battling with the textures and IIDs for quite a while now. I probably need step-by-step guidance with pictures telling me exactly how to do this.

1. Convert PNG files into FSH

2. Put the textures into the lot editor successfully.

 

Please make or link me to a tutorial on how to do this. I've attached a few example files for you to use as a tutorial.
 

I've also posted my IID.

0xF8B80000 to 0xF8BBFFFF

[rsc204 21,808]

There are plenty of tutorials already out there. For example, here is some instructions I gave out recently:

Is it a PNG or a BMP file? Any other format and you are making life harder for yourself. Assuming you already have IDs to use here.

All SC4 Textures include the largest texture (commonly 128x128px in size, but you can use larger ones). The last digit of the instance ID will determine one of three groupings,  0-4 / 5-9 or A-E. The reason each texture needs five IDs is to cover the MipMaps. I.e. smaller versions of your full size texture. But both methods here will make them automatically for you.

Working out which ID's to use can create problems for some users. It's really not as complicated as it first looks though. A couple rules is all you need to know.

Hex just means you have 16 possibilities instead of 10 (Decimal) for each number. So 0-9 are the first ten. After that 11=A, 12=B, 13=C, 14=D, 15=E & 16=F.

See here for instructions for turning PNG or BMP files into FSH:

PNG Files (using PNGtoFSH Batch):

• Name the file with the instance ID of the texture. i.e. 0xXXXXXXX4.png. Don't forget to use the preceding 0x before your 8-digit ID.
• Drag the texture onto the desktop icon for PNGtoFSH.
• Ensure Compress dat and Fshwrite Compression are selected.
• Make sure the Group is set to 0986135E. (see readme.html in install directory for more info).
• Also check Normal Mipmaps is selected.
• Lastly, hit Save to create a new DAT containing your texture/(s).

BMP Files (using GoFSH):
Alternately, you can use PNGs, GoFSH includes tools to batch-convert to BMPs for use with this application.

• Name the texture pair as follows:
  BMP 7AB50E44-0986135E-XXXXXXX4-C0.bmp & 7AB50E44-0986135E-XXXXXXX4-A0.bmp (Alpha Channel).
• Click on the ... (file dialog) in the top left. Find and select your C0 Texture and click Open.
• Make sure Encode is selected. You can choose DXT options and you should select "Make a scaled set of 5" to produce the MipMaps.
• Also ensure Reader InList is selected.
• Click GoFSH - i.e. RUN.
• This creates the FSH files. You can then use the FSHxDAT function / Create .dat from LoadList. The Reader InList should populate here automatically. Open it and select a name/location for your new dat.

Rather that working out the IDs, you could use the attached spreadsheet, which covers the first 750-ish IDs in your range. Now you can just take the IDs from this reference sheet as you need them.

GondracornTextureIDs.xls

[Dracoceros 33]

So, I named the instance range of the four textures F8B80001 through F8B80004, but the lot editor only shows one texture when converted to .dat: F8B80000.

I did all the check marks, the Normal Minimaps, the Group ID, and saved as DAT.

 

[rsc204 21,808]

It should also be noted, for the 5th digit of the ID, you should never use 0-3, hence in the example below I'm starting from 4 here.

Take the first ID from your range, 0xF8B84004. You can't use 5 ID's here, because using that ID will create a group as follows:

• 8x8 Texture
  0xF8B84000
• 16x16 Texture
  0xF8B84001
• 32x32 Texture
  0xF8B84002
• 64x64 Texture
  0xF8B84003
• 128x128 Texture
  0xF8B84004

So the first ID to use is 0xF8B84004. The next ID is 0xF8B84009 then 0xF8B8400E. Textures ending in 9 and E use groupings 5-9 and A-E respectively. Each SC4 Texture must contain these smaller textures (MipMaps), one texture is used for each of the 5 zoom settings in game. These groupings much use 0-4, 5-9 and A-E, otherwise the textures won't work as expected.

If you look at the spreadsheet I posted before, you'll see many IDs ready to be copy/pasted. If you just use a new ID from this list for each texture, you don't have to worry about it.

[Dracoceros 33]

How do I open an XLS file in internet explorer/google chrome/firefox? I don't exactly have any microsoft products, so I cannot open this excel file.

[rsc204 21,808]

.xls is the defacto format for a spreadsheet. You don't need MS software, literally every spreadsheet application should open the file.

You can download from MS a program called Excel Viewer, which allows you to open but not modify Excel files. Otherwise, I'd recommend using either Google Drive or MS OneDrive online apps to open the file. Opening such a file with one of the Online apps, requires that you first upload the file to your online storage. See here for complete details of how to do this with Google.

[APSMS 1,892]

Libre Office and WPS Office are also good free tools, that work locally (not via a browser) and have a similar experience to Microsoft products as well. They can also open and save the latest microsoft file formats, in case someone feels compelled to save their stuff in .xlsx formats instead of just .xls (Google and other online apps will open .xlsx files just fine, too, so that's not a problem; I just find it easier to not have to always open a WebApp to read files that are supposed to be based locally on my machine).