Ship's Graphic Editing Tutorials?

[kinorunner]

Hi all,
is there a tutorial to edit the ships appearance? I mean graphic only, not the layout of rooms or what.
I tried editing the .png files with photoshop, but my custom ship doesn't show up; tried packing the data with that python utility but to no avail.
Searched this forum and the wiki, still no clear path.
Anyone?
Thanks

[Kieve]

1) When you say it "doesn't show up," what exactly happens? Is it a black square / warning triangle, or do no changes take place at all?

2) Did you extract the files from the resource.dat first, or attempt to edit / save them directly from the .dat package itself?

There aren't any tutorials just yet, but I will say the process is:

• Extract resource.dat with FTLDat utility. This creates a subfolder in your resources directory, "resource.dat-unpacked"
• Make whatever changes you desire to the extracted files. Be sure to back up your original resource.dat file!
• When you've completed your edits, use FTLDat to re-pack the files. This will overwrite the existing resource.dat so as above it's critical you back up the original first. Otherwise you'll need to reinstall the game from scratch if you want to revert.

The thing to note here is, FTLDat is a command-line resource for modding work. Grognak's Mod Manager is simply for installing mods that (should) already function.

[thashepherd]

1) When you say it "doesn't show up," what exactly happens? Is it a black square / warning triangle, or do no changes take place at all?

2) Did you extract the files from the resource.dat first, or attempt to edit / save them directly from the .dat package itself?

There aren't any tutorials just yet, but I will say the process is:

• Extract resource.dat with FTLDat utility. This creates a subfolder in your resources directory, "resource.dat-unpacked"
• Make whatever changes you desire to the extracted files. Be sure to back up your original resource.dat file!
• When you've completed your edits, use FTLDat to re-pack the files. This will overwrite the existing resource.dat so as above it's critical you back up the original first. Otherwise you'll need to reinstall the game from scratch if you want to revert.

The thing to note here is, FTLDat is a command-line resource for modding work. Grognak's Mod Manager is simply for installing mods that (should) already function.

TBH, I've never used anything but GMM for modding Sonata. Sometimes it's easier just to use GMM to test your mod.

[kinorunner]

Hi all,
two days search about the argument, finding nothing clear...
It's easy to modify the appearance of the ships (.png) with a Photoshop, but I can't find a way to make the mods appear in the game.
You can't simply substitute the modded .png to the original ones, the game always reverts to the the latter.
Maybe it's something about packing the new stuff in the right way at the right place; but i'm no expert at this, thus requesting assistance.
Thanks!

[kinorunner]

1) When you say it "doesn't show up," what exactly happens? Is it a black square / warning triangle, or do no changes take place at all?

2) Did you extract the files from the resource.dat first, or attempt to edit / save them directly from the .dat package itself?

There aren't any tutorials just yet, but I will say the process is:

• Extract resource.dat with FTLDat utility. This creates a subfolder in your resources directory, "resource.dat-unpacked"
• Make whatever changes you desire to the extracted files. Be sure to back up your original resource.dat file!
• When you've completed your edits, use FTLDat to re-pack the files. This will overwrite the existing resource.dat so as above it's critical you back up the original first. Otherwise you'll need to reinstall the game from scratch if you want to revert.

The thing to note here is, FTLDat is a command-line resource for modding work. Grognak's Mod Manager is simply for installing mods that (should) already function.

Thank You for the quick reply!
Now, to the point: this is, step by step, what I do. ( wrong, as it seems. )

- enter the resource.dat-unpacked folder
- enter the img folder
- modify the ship .png with Photoshop as I see fit
- put the modded .png to replace the original one ( bkup original on desktop, obviously )
- go back two steps, to resource.dat-unpacked folder
- shift\right click on it, choose "open command window"
- type "ftldat pack data.dat."
- now the .png should be packed back in place , right?

no, it is not: run the game and find no trace of the modded ship ( game reverts to the original one, even though the original .png is not even present in the folder anymore- it seems the game picks its .pngs from other locations than this...).
That's what; by the way I think it's evident I'm no expert at all, so forgive my ignorance!

[DCChuckles]

I think you have to type 'ftldat pack resource.dat', but I'm not sure.

[kinorunner]

I think you have to type 'ftldat pack resource.dat', but I'm not sure.

Tried this one, but no, same result. Ship's appearance is still the original. Thanks.

[DCChuckles]

What about repack instead of just pack?

[Kieve]

- go back two steps, to resource.dat-unpacked folder
- shift\right click on it, choose "open command window"
- type "ftldat pack data.dat."
- now the .png should be packed back in place , right?

That's where you're going wrong.
Go to your original ftl\resources folder, not the -unpacked subfolders.
For graphics, you should be packing resource.dat, not data.dat

thashepard does have a point, in that for testing it might be easier to try applying your changes via GMM, if FTLDat just isn't cooperating for you. If you'd rather try that instead, go to your ...\Faster than Light\mods\ folder (if you don't have a 'mods' folder yet, create one), then create two more folders like so:
\ img \ ships
Place your altered ship PNG in the new 'ships' folder.
Go back up two levels and right-click on the 'img' folder, choose 'Send to -> Compressed (Zipped) folder' or similar.
-That's what it says for WinXP, yours might be a little different but the principle is the same.
You should get a new file when it's done packing, img.zip. Rename this to something like "ShipMod-Test.ftl" and when it asks if you wish to change the filename, say yes.
-You've just created a GMM mod file Run GMM and install your mod (it should already be located in \mods\ so GMM ought to have no trouble finding it.)

[kinorunner]

- go back two steps, to resource.dat-unpacked folder
- shift\right click on it, choose "open command window"
- type "ftldat pack data.dat."
- now the .png should be packed back in place , right?

That's where you're going wrong.
Go to your original ftl\resources folder, not the -unpacked subfolders.
For graphics, you should be packing resource.dat, not data.dat

thashepard does have a point, in that for testing it might be easier to try applying your changes via GMM, if FTLDat just isn't cooperating for you. If you'd rather try that instead, go to your ...\Faster than Light\mods\ folder (if you don't have a 'mods' folder yet, create one), then create two more folders like so:
\ img \ ships
Place your altered ship PNG in the new 'ships' folder.
Go back up two levels and right-click on the 'img' folder, choose 'Send to -> Compressed (Zipped) folder' or similar.
-That's what it says for WinXP, yours might be a little different but the principle is the same.
You should get a new file when it's done packing, img.zip. Rename this to something like "ShipMod-Test.ftl" and when it asks if you wish to change the filename, say yes.
-You've just created a GMM mod file Run GMM and install your mod (it should already be located in \mods\ so GMM ought to have no trouble finding it.)

Exactly! I've got it by myself (after THREE re-installations due to the mistakes I did in the process ) about ten minutes ago... now I'm finally working on the ships, confident that the mods will actually appear in game...by the way FTLDAT works perfectly for me at this point, and there's no need to use GMM... I wonder if it would be useful posting a STEP-BY-STEP PROCEDURE for basic graphic modding, to help those who need it ( and as a reminder for me- this is intricate if you're not into modding, like I'm not )...
Thank You very much anyway! This will be helpful.