Any decent sprite editor around for Fallout-BOS?

J

jrosnell

First time out of the vault
Hi all!
I've just found (yeah, few years too late I guess) how wonderful game BOS is (played JA2 before so I quite knew what to expect though).
I got this idea of modding this kind of game into ALIENS-world (based on Aliens -movie) and BOS would be just what I want. But...
I've discovered that editing sprites is almost impossible!
Been roaming this forum (and Google also) to find some info about sprite editors for BOS but without results. Found editor called SPRAY but it doesnt accept .spr-files (they should be converted to .RAW format but dunno how).

No ALIEN/MARINE-sprites -> no ALIENS mod. :(


Any help here?
Any decent sprite-editor around?

Sorry if this has been discussed here before but I didnt fint it with search-function at all...

J
 
Try looking under Fallout Tactics or FOT, they pretty much dropped the BOS bit by time of release. Searching for Fallout BOS would garner you results about the console game (excuse for). But anyway no, spray is the only sprite editor available and it can only handle inventory or scenary sprites not characters, critters or vehicles.

The official sprite editors have never been released, MF say they can't without Interplay's permission and we've got fat hope of that happening. On the otherhand graphics aren't that important, there's a couple of sprites of the M41 around and if the WW2 mod can get away without little GI's and Germans running around so can you. Besides you'd probably run the risk of infringing copyright laws so you'd be better off doing an Aliens inspired campaign rather anyway.
 
Thx for fast answer!
Yes, term "Foxed" is familiar to me what comes to different mods/TC's considering Aliens. :)
It's a shame 20th C FOX is doing that because they cant do a shit nowadays what comes games (do they even own any game-making department anymore? ). Quite stupid to prevent Alien-series living in game world! My mod wouldnt be straight copy of alien-world, of course, no copyrighted material used in it but I sure would like to have decent sprites in it....

Thanks anyway!
 
requiem_for_a_starfury said:
The official sprite editors have never been released, MF say they can't without Interplay's permission and we've got fat hope of that happening.
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Yea, thats what they told me last year (maybe 8 to 10 months ago)

I basicaly emailed everyone in MicroForte that I could find an email address for :)

You could always try emailing them again because by now they might figure that interplay is basicaly dead.
 
I know that they changed the format of the tile header slightly so if you wanted to used hotwheels tiles in FOT you'd need to hex edit them but I have no idea about the sprites, but presumably even if they had changed them at least having the editor you could maybe produce something that could be adjusted to work with FOT. :?:
 
cool, I'll take a hunt around the net for something. What were some of the other games they made that might possibly use the same format?
 
Just to let you guys know, I am in talks with Micro-Forté about the sprite/tile editors. They are willing to release them, but as you might suspect IPLY has to approve it since they own the rights (or co-own or whatever).

So I'm currently talking to Herve about it, that and the sourcecode for Fallout 2. I'm afraid that nothing will come of this, but it worth a try. I'll let you know when I know more, but in the meantime do look for other tools.
 
Odin said:
So I'm currently talking to Herve about it, that and the sourcecode for Fallout 2. I'm afraid that nothing will come of this, but it worth a try. I'll let you know when I know more, but in the meantime do look for other tools.
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OMG ... please grovel .... :lol: If Herve gave us the source for FO2 I'd have some respect for the guy. The source isn't of any value for him and to let it go to waste is just wrong. Very cool Odin, thanks for trying. I did the same with Bethesda only to find that they don't have the rights to FO2.
 
when Herve releases the source code for fallout 2 what will we be able to do with it ? i know it will make the modding allot easier but want can done what wasn't do able before ?
 
Oracle said:
when Herve releases the source code for fallout 2 what will we be able to do with it ? i know it will make the modding allot easier but want can done what wasn't do able before ?
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We run into roadblocks all of time due to hardcoded things and limitations of the engine. A few examples:

- Perks are hardcoded so we can't easily add or change them
- We can't add new weapon animation types (example crossbow)
- We can't access critter and item (instance) proto data in scripts
- We can't add new damage types
- We can't make ammo with for example poison damage
- We have the 13 year limit issue

That's just few, there are many more, having the source would allow for many fixes/additions. There are also many things that are unknown, like exactly how the combat rolls are done, that could be easily figured out from source. We could possibly make the engine more robust so it doesn't crash when a script attempts to do something silly (probably the cause of most crashes).
 
Odin said:
Just to let you guys know, I am in talks with Micro-Forté about the sprite/tile editors. They are willing to release them, but as you might suspect IPLY has to approve it since they own the rights (or co-own or whatever).
Click to expand...

However, this does not give them proprietary rights to deny the release of the Hot Wheels sprite editors. As Interplay had nothing to do with that title, and since the utility will not wholly edit into the specific file format for Fallout Tactics, then Interplay could have nothing to say about this. MicroForté could also release a generic utility that would generally have the file format of the sprites/tiles system, but with a different file header.

Herve only looks bad if he denies this, because there are other venues we could go through.

All we need to find out is if the editors could be released for the Hot Wheels utilities, and this could be made known to him if he decides to not cooperate. I doubt that those who handle Hot Wheels' property could be so stupid as to deny a fun aspect of racing - making your car look how you want it to. Considering that HotWheels.com no longer holds the title, THQ's links going to online retailers that don't seem to offer the title anymore, then likely permission would be given by that publisher (THQ) as it is not a part of their in-house assets.

As for the source code, this would be an asset for the modders, indeed, but just try to convince Herve that he should do so to one of the few games Interplay does have still selling. Even if it is for only $5.99 a two game pack. ;)
 
Roshambo said:
However, this does not give them proprietary rights to deny the release of the Hot Wheels sprite editors. As Interplay had nothing to do with that title, and since the utility will not wholly edit into the specific file format for Fallout Tactics, then Interplay could have nothing to say about this. MicroForté could also release a generic utility that would generally have the file format of the sprites/tiles system, but with a different file header.

Herve only looks bad if he denies this, because there are other venues we could go through.

All we need to find out is if the editors could be released for the Hot Wheels utilities, and this could be made known to him if he decides to not cooperate. I doubt that those who handle Hot Wheels' property could be so stupid as to deny a fun aspect of racing - making your car look how you want it to. Considering that HotWheels.com no longer holds the title, THQ's links going to online retailers that don't seem to offer the title anymore, then likely permission would be given by that publisher (THQ) as it is not a part of their in-house assets.
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I was actually just thinking about that, I'll have to check around and see that they actually did use those tools on that game.
 
Roshambo said:
As for the source code, this would be an asset for the modders, indeed, but just try to convince Herve that he should do so to one of the few games Interplay does have still selling. Even if it is for only $5.99 a two game pack. ;)
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Releasing the source shouldn't hinder sales, since its useless without the DAT files. The built engine is freely available inside the official patch downloads anyways, that would be no different than compiling the source (but still useless). If anything releasing the source would increase sales because it would eventually lead to more and better mods for the game.
 
dude_obj said:
Releasing the source shouldn't hinder sales, since its useless without the DAT files. The built engine is freely available inside the official patch downloads anyways, that would be no different than compiling the source (but still useless). If anything releasing the source would increase sales because it would eventually lead to more and better mods for the game.
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I know that and you know that. In fact, everyone here probably knows that. We are, however, talking about someone who has the understanding of game development that would have been long outsourced by a brick if he had anyone over him in the company with a clue - and a misproportional pride to match.
 
Progress update, I've asked my contact in Micro-Forté about releasing the Hot Wheels editors waiting for a respons from him now.

And Herve is actually willing and eager to talk to me, which is a good sign. I'll let you all know what happens in the end, as I have to sign a confidentiality agreement (which is also a good sign for us).
 
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