

EDITART HELP (Version 1.1 - 3rd June 1996.)
By Ian Jones.

E-Mail to: 100346,272 (or 100346.272@compuserve.com)


This help file is split into two chapters. The first is a brief description of how I created my MP5K patch, the second is much more detailed and explains how you can create your own graphics for Duke 3D.


Contents:-

Chapter 1 

    THE MAKING OF MP5K
                   
    1, INTRODUCTION
    2, MP5K GRAPHICS
    3, MP5K SOUND
    4, MP5K PROPERTIES
    5, MP5K FILES



Chapter 2

    MAKE YOUR OWN TEXTURES

    1, INTRODUCTION
    2, EDITART SETUP
    3, SELECTING A TEXTURE
    4, EDITING ARTWORK
    5, INCORPORATING NEW GRAPHICS
    6, RESETING DUKE3D`S ORIGINAL GRAPHICS



Chapter 1

THE MAKING OF MP5K

1, INTRODUCTION
   ____________


I have recently created an MP5K patch for Duke Nukem 3D, which replaces the pistol, with a rather cool sub machine gun.  This patch is now available from CompuServe, so feel free to download it, if you haven`t already.  The following is a brief list of what I did.


2, MP5K GRAPHICS
   _____________


First I "Kextracted" the ART Files, then using EDITART, I found and captured the textures for the Pistol.

I then created a 3D mesh of a MP5K in a 3D computer modeling package, working of films and still pictures for reference.

Then I rendered the odject in the correct poses and used Dpaint to highlight the edges, add nuzzle flash and the players hand, which was cut out of the original textures I captured.

I then reincorporated the new picture files into the game.


3, MP5K SOUND
   __________


I used a Windows Sampling package to sample a 5 shots burst of a machine.  I then saved this as a voc file in the Duke3D directory and assigned it to the PISTOL_FIRE action in the user.con file.


4, MP5K PROPERTIES
   _______________


Because I was unable to change the rate of fire of the Pistol, I multiplied it`s weapon strength by five, so that each shot that is fired has the strength of five.  This was done by increasing the PISTOL_STRENGTH from 6 to 30 in the user.con file.

The increased weapon strength, along with the five shot sound effect, gives the impression that the weapon has a faster rate of fire.


5, MP5K FILES
   __________


When uploading my patch to CompuServe, I sent:-

     The "TILE009.ART" file which contained the replacement tertures;  
     The original user.con file, called "USER.OLD
     The replacement user.con file, called "USER.MP5"
     And the "MP5.VOC" file containing the new sound effect.

        
The tile file contains not only my new textures, but also all the other textures in that file.  This means that the tile file is quite large and, apart from pkzipping it, I have found no other way of decreasing the files size.  If you find a way, please contact me.




Chapter 2

MAKE YOUR OWN TEXTURES

1, Introduction
   ____________



When Duke Nukem 3D boots up, it looks to see if there are any Tiles00*.art files in its directory,  if there are it will use these instead of the textures in its Group file.

All the texture in Duke3d can be extracted into fourteen separate Art files, each one of these Art files contain hundreds of separate textures, and these textures can be edited using a program called EDITART.EXE 

NO ALTERATIONS YOU MAKE TO THE GRAPHICS WILL CHANGE THE DUKE3D.GRP FILE AND SO CAN BE REMOVED LATER.


2, EDITART SETUP
   _____________


1, Copy all the contents of "(CD):\GOODIES\BUILD\" into your Duke3d directory on your hardDisk.  (You no longer need to access your Duke3d CD-ROM)

2. Extract all the ART files from the Duke3d group file by typing "KEXTRACT DUKE3D.GRP *.ART" in your Duke3d directory.  Fourteen TILES00*.ART files will appear.

3. Run the "EDITART" program. (you should see a wall texture in the middle of the screen)



3, Selecting a Texture
   ___________________



When creating your own graphics for Duke3d, it is best to edit the existing artwork rather than start from scratch, as all the textures have to have the correct ID numbers and animation frames.  

So first use the "Page Up", "Page Down" or "V" buttons to cycle through and identify the texture(s) you want the edit. 

Textures such as the Pistol have several animation frames, with details such as muzzle flash and hand poses. These details should be recreated as closely as possible when the individual frames are being edited.  

It is possible for you to use the EditArt tools to change the artwork, but these are somewhat limiting and so I highly recommend using a separate art package.

If you make any changes to a texture and then try to move  to another, you will be asked if you want to save these changes  Y/N. 

FINDING TEXTURES

PAGE UP / PAGE DOWN         Cycle through the different textures
                  V         Display all textures
                  G         Goto texture number
                F12         Capture displayed Texture as PCX

If you are planning to use a separate art package to edit the artwork you should use the F12 button to capture the selected texture as a pcx file. You can then load this pcx file into an the art package and use it as a reference for the Palette, Scale and Basic Detail.



4, Editing Artwork
   _______________


For details on how to use the Editart tools to edit the textures, please refer to the BUILDHLP file on your hard disk.

If you are using a separate Art package to edit the textures, load in one of your captured pcx files (see above) to give you the correct Duke3d Palette and remember, the background (transparent) colour should be the last colour in the 256 palette and should appear as bright PINK.

Your new Artwork files should be saved as 320 x 200 pcx or bmp pictures.
The pictures can be cropped later in EDITART.

Now you are ready to incorporate the new artwork into the Duke3d Texture Tiles.



5, Incorporating New Graphics 
   __________________________


Run EDITART.EXE

Use "Page Up", "Page Down" or "V" to find the texture you wish to override, then press "U".

A file tree will appear displaying pcx and bmp files, find and load  your replacement picture.

By clicking (Left mouse button) and dragging with the mouse, stretch a rectangle over the exact area of the picture that you want to use as the new texture. ( Try to make each side of the rectangle touch each extreme of the texture map )  Then Press RETURN.

Any last minute Changes can be done from within EDITART with the tools. (see BUILDHLP for Details)

That is it, now press PAGE UP and the you will be asked if you wish to save changes Y/N, 
Press "Y"
The computer will then say " updating TILES00 (something) .ART " make a note of this, because this is the file your new texture(s) has been saved to and file that you can give your friend and say "Look what I`ve done, isn`t it cool".

Try not to change too many sets of tiles if you intend to distribute your patch, as you will end up with a huge patch file.

6, Reseting to Duke3d`s Original Graphics
   ______________________________________

Simply move all the tiles00*.art files from the Duke3d Directory into another directory where Duke3d won`t look when booting up. (Not finding these files, it will automatically use the preset Graphics and Textures from its DUKE3D.GRP file and everything will be back to normal)


Hope this answers some of your questions, and I look foreward to seeing what you come up with.


Ian Jones.


