The Dune 2K tileset converted into a theatre for Red Alert 1 [V1.1]

[Messiah]

> d2k-theatre-for-ra11.zip <

 

Well, another theater.

I think about making a theatre out of the dune 2k tileset. :d2k:

 

But there are some difficulties so far:

The D2k cell size is 32 px, while RA cell size is only 24 px. So I have to do alot of gimping to create fitting tiles for RA.

The RA and the D2K palettes are very different, so converted tiles will look ugly, so I have to create a new palette suitable for both RA units and D2k templates.

 

Finally it might look like this:

Edited September 20, 2017 by Messiah

[Nyerguds]

So, what, you just replaced water by sand or something, and set it to Beach type to make it unbuildable?

 

It's funny that that actually works in RA, with the terrain type being coded in the tileset files instead of the tileset definition in the exe :laugh:

 

...does ore grow on beach?

[Messiah]

LOL, what you see is just a gimpage - I made some cliffs with Shai-Hulud (the D2k map editor), made a screenshot and pasted RA stuff into it

 

D2k uses a totally different tileset format - obviously all tiles are put into 4 or 5 big .bmp images and dune exe reads the specific tile out of this. I have to copy all tiles I want to use by hand, cut/resize them to a multiple of 24x24 and name them to the slots of the RA theatre files, e.g. S01... for the cliff set, convert them into RA's .rtm and specify the terrain types for all tiles.

As there is no water and no rivers in dune, but 2 cliff sets, already existing temperate/whatever maps probably won't be convertible into a hypothetical RA-dune theatre.

 

Does ore grow on beach? no.

I don't know if it's possible to make a tile in RA, which can ore but can't be buildable as both is controlled by the buildable= tag in rules.ini

 

 

[X3M]

May I suggest, trying to make everything movable/buildable on water. Then replace the water with the Dune "buildable" terrain. Structures should not be buildable on normal land. Which is in its turn replaced by the Dune sand. But ore still grows on the sand.

 

I love it, that someone is attempting this.

[Messiah]

Making water movable to units make tanks instantly die when entering water - it's hardcoded... I tried this when I was creating the amphibious tanks.

 

but wait... this is probably only hardcoded to [Water] (or to the 2 water .tems in the game), not to [beach]. So if I set the water tiles to be beach by rtmtype and make the [beach] entry of rules.ini moveable to both ships and units, so the tanks probably won't explode enymore if entering the modified water.

So there is a real chance to get working amphibious vehicles in RA!

(In a third, worst case this thing is hardcoded to all tiles passable for both ships and vehicles so amphibious would be impossible that way)

 

Nevertheless, you're a genius, man!  :yo:

 

So you mean:

 

[Water]

Buildable=yes

Track=100%

Wheel=100%

Foot=100%

Float=0%

 

...rename the dune red terrain files to W1 and W2

and also set

 

[Clear]

Buildable=no

[X3M]

Didn't know about the tanks dying by hard code.

Just let us know, if it worked.

[Messiah]

The tileset is done so far!

 

Cliffs will need more adjustment and I'm still working on a palette, so final result will look more natural. More screenshots when I managed this!

 

[Allen262]

Nice!

[TaxOwlbear]

The RA units and structures look so wrong, but I love it. Well done.  :laugh:

[Nyerguds]

Ya, all the bibs are missing in the mock screenie

[Messiah]

And it WORKS!

Some work is still to do. Some cliffs don't fit together and terrain properties are not set yet. Palette is done!

Edited April 25, 2017 by Messiah

[X3M]

Awesome!
Does it work like you mentioned before? Or did you have to try something else?

[Lightning Hunter]

Hey Messiah, nice job.

If you get this out in time and are able to update the modded .exe file you gave me last month, I might use the tileset for a few of the missions in the Mega Compilation (especially some of the missions that are just converted skirmish maps).

[Messiah]

Converting existing maps into the dune theatre won't be possible, sadly, for some reasons:

- there are no shore/water and no rivers and roads too in D2k theatre.

- tile size of cliffs is different

- for technical reasons D2k theatre just will replace the existing desert theatre at the moment.

Adding the new theatre to the .exe (and to the editors too of course!) is something I don't understand, but maybe Iran or FunkyFresh can do this.

[Lightning Hunter]

Ah.  No big deal then! There are plenty of other tile sets.  It's still a fun idea though to have the Dune tile set in Red Alert.

[Messiah]

And there is a public version now!

.png rawdata is attached too!

 

d2k-theatre-rawdata.zip

d2k-theatre-for-ra11.zip

Edited September 20, 2017 by Messiah

[Tschokky]

I see my stalagmites go well with your Dune2k tileset

You can use the interior tile codes (FLOR/WALL/etc.) to fill in for the missing tiles, that's how I did it for the CAVE tileset (using tem/sno tiles), maybe you should study it.

[Messiah]

There are missing tiles because there is no artwork for them. Except ore and terrain objects I took from your cave theater and TS I didn't include new tiles.

 

Tschokky, I replaced your stalagnites by something else now.

Edited September 20, 2017 by Messiah