SS2 Object Palette

[6668763d29c4bMaususAtlas]

Hi all,

I am making some new textures for walls and it is very easy with the Bright program, created by "Erik de Neve", to make your own new textures compatible with the original palette ones using the "full.pcx" file contained in the current directiry.

But, yesterday, I tried to modify an object texture in the "OBJ/txt" directory and not in "FAM/...". My first surprise was to not find the "full.pcx" file ! The second was the crash of the game if I modified any pcx file here.

I am sure that it is a palette problem, but I did not found a way to make my new textures compatible with the others here ... As you can see, as usual, I need help once again

[6668763d2a0a2ZylonBane]

I am sure that it is a palette problem

It's not. You probably saved the PCX file in the wrong format.

[6668763d2a25eNameless Voice]

Any modified textures should go in Obj/txt16 - not Obj/txt - otherwise it won't use the correct palette.

[6668763d2a470MaususAtlas]

Oups, you are right : it is in the "OBJ/txt16" directory

But that does not solve the problem. My game crashes when I load the "Command" map. Then my questions are :

 - Who had to change object texture in the past ?
 - How did he do it to avoid crashes ?
 - What was the file he used to make its pcx files compartible ?

I really do not understand why it is always happens to me ?

[6668763d2a60dKolya]

Try to search shockgen for "command" in threadtitles.
Or maybe ZB can explain this, he fixed this bug in SHTUP. It's an image that's named "comn" or something like that and windows sometimes crashes when it's accessed. Maybe have a look into SHTUP and see how he did it?

[6668763d2a734ZylonBane]

There's a door on the Command deck that uses a texture named "COM8.PCX". This crashes Windows 2000 and above because it thinks you're trying to access COM port 8. SS2 was developed under Windows 95/98, which only supports COM1 and COM2 (I think), so this error never would have occured back then.

On a default install of SS2 the request for COM8.PCX goes directly to the CRF file. But on a mod-ready install SS2 looks for assets in the local file system first, triggering the crash.

[6668763d2a8fcMaususAtlas]

Hmmm,

I really do not understand the "com8" explaination ... Were is the link between an image file and the com 8 port ? ... No matter ... All, I know is that : The game never crashes if I do not modify any textrure in the "Obj/txt16" directory. Otherwise, the game crashes during the command level loading. Once again, I'm sure that I missed something important

I also had a look to the SHTUP site and forum but I did not see any trouble about the texture modification in the "OBJ/txt16" directory. It's seems that I am the only one who have this problem

Thanks for replies, if you have any new suggestions, you are welcome

[6668763d2ab03Nameless Voice]

*Sigh*

System Shock 2 is trying to access a file named Com8.pcx.
Any attempt to access a file named Com#, where # is a number, will instead try to directly access a com port rather than a file.
Windows 95/98, under which SS2 was created, did not support com ports numbered as high as 8, so the problem did not occur there - though it would have, if they had named the file Com2.pcx.

When the game is not mod-ready, the file is read straight from the .crf, and since that is a zipfile, it doesn't use the standard Windows file system and causes no problems.
IIRC, SSHTUP fixed this by changing the name of the texture used by the model in question.
Do a search for Com8.pcx on TTLG.
Or read this thread: SS2 crashes while loading deck6.

[6668763d2ac9cMaususAtlas]

Hmmm, sorry for the "sigh" I made, but I am a new SShock2 modder and I do not understand all the first time. Peraph slepping more than four hours by night can help me ...

Otherwise, I now understand the "Com6-8.pcx" file explaination by reading the "TTLG" link you gave to me : Thanks a lot for this. Now, I'll try to see how "SSHTUP" creators have bypass the problem to make my game be more stable.

If I found a way to do it, I'll write it here latter ... That's can be usefull for the other modders

Thanks all for your help ...

[6668763d2ae2dMaususAtlas]

Ok, as I just told you this morning, I made a "zip" file that contains only the files to fix the "Deck 6 bug".

I send it to "Nameless Voice" and "Kolya" to see if all is right with this patch ... I hope that all is right because it can be usefull for all the modders

And now, I am happy because my game does not crash when I load the command map with my new textures ... great

Thanks all for your help. I appreciate it !