Outpost Universe Forums

Projects & Development => Outpost 2 Programming & Development => Topic started by: Cynex on April 30, 2005, 03:25:59 PM

Title: Color Black for Multiplayer
Post by: Cynex on April 30, 2005, 03:25:59 PM

Change the following locations in outpost2.exe to make black available as a color for multiplayer games:

Code: [Select]

5E551: 06 => 07 (bounds)
5F863: 90 => 94 (bounds)
60386: 06 => 07 (bounds)
8581A: FC => FB (playback)
D4490: 00000000 => 83030000

       M a g e n t a   C y a n   Y e l l o w   G r e e n   R e d   B l u e   B l a c k   
E3517: 4D6167656E7461004379616E0059656C6C6F7700477265656E0052656400426C756500426C61636B00

E7B40: 354D4E00 (Blue)
       314D4E00 (Red)
       2B4D4E00 (Green)
       244D4E00 (Yellow)
       1F4D4E00 (Cyan)
       174D4E00 (Magenta)

       p l a y b a c k    (Black)
E7EFB: 706C61796261636B00 3A4D4E00

It works as far as I tested.
However it might be a bit unfair since black is hardly visible on the map compared to other colors.

 

Title: Color Black for Multiplayer
Post by: Eddy-B on May 01, 2005, 05:03:05 AM

so this is a cheap cheat ?  :P

Title: Color Black for Multiplayer
Post by: Cynex on May 01, 2005, 11:28:45 AM

'Cheat' is a bit the wrong word for the work involved in this patch.
Better name it 'additional functionality'. It doesn't has to be used, but if someone wants to select black, it is available and everybody will know who is what color, so it'll be common consent and therefore not necessarily unfair.

Of course it's kind of contradictory when everybody wants to be black and only one can, so you'll probably end up with nobody black which makes this patch slightly useless.
 

Title: Color Black for Multiplayer
Post by: BlackBox on May 01, 2005, 01:40:16 PM

Does it sync across a multiplayer session fine? (Eg. if the host changes a color to black it changes on the other machines)

I might add it to 1.3.3. Good work! :)

Title: Color Black for Multiplayer
Post by: Cynex on May 01, 2005, 01:59:33 PM

It synchronizes perfectly.
In the connection dialog as well as in the game.

Title: Color Black for Multiplayer
Post by: Leviathan on May 01, 2005, 03:10:50 PM

Can it be selected from multi menu?

Title: Color Black for Multiplayer
Post by: BlackBox on May 01, 2005, 05:06:52 PM

Yeah, I think so.

I'm putting this into 1.3.3 (if you do this and not everyone else has the same patch you run the risk of desynching or crashing the game). So I'll add it to the next update.

Title: Color Black for Multiplayer
Post by: zigzagjoe on May 01, 2005, 08:03:56 PM

it works no matter what version you use ,ex, black on the patched ver is still black on the old. On the nonpatched ver you see magenta on the picker, but black ingame.

One problem i've noticed is that where it swaps the colors if you select one thats in use, does not work correctly.

Edit: It does work fine (the switching) when playing with same ver
 

Title: Color Black for Multiplayer
Post by: Leviathan on May 09, 2005, 04:18:39 AM

As nice as this is, i beleive its gonna get removed :s

Title: Color Black for Multiplayer
Post by: zigzagjoe on May 09, 2005, 08:15:15 AM

I rather think that is a good idea.

Title: Color Black for Multiplayer
Post by: BlackBox on May 09, 2005, 02:00:16 PM

Yes, I think it may be the source of some of the crash problems that are in the EXE.

However I don't know, as I haven't had it crash yet and no one's given us a crash report (yet).

It is the least tested "new thing" we've done to the EXE however, so it probably should be removed.
Besides the fact that it can be an unfair advantage to the person who selects it (and since the host selects colors, they could force themselves or someone else to be black).

Title: Color Black for Multiplayer
Post by: Harky on November 16, 2005, 02:23:03 PM

Would it be very hard to change the colour black to somehting liek orange? then the game would be fair again and you would have a new colour to play wiht.

Title: Color Black for Multiplayer
Post by: Sirbomber on November 16, 2005, 02:57:00 PM

Harky, this is a pretty old subject. Black's been removed because it supposedly crashed a lot of games.

But, now that I'm on the subject, a lot of new colors would be great.

Title: Color Black for Multiplayer
Post by: Hooman on November 16, 2005, 06:59:29 PM

I heard (from Hacker) there is a file with a palette that contains all the player colors. If you were to edit this file, it'd change the player colors. Granted, there is only so much space in the palette, so unless you were entering the colors in at run time, you'd be limited to a certain amount of colors. I'm not sure how many entries are needed per player, but you should be able to get at least 8 player colors in there. Of course, the game only supports using the first few of those, and the names of those colors are hardcoded into the exe.

But then, I doubt anyone has looked into those supposed crashes. So I doubt things will get patched again unless we can be sure the patch is safe.
 

Title: Color Black for Multiplayer
Post by: Leviathan on November 17, 2005, 02:18:27 AM

Yea you can edit the colors easy :D

We need to get a guide up on the wiki.

Title: Color Black for Multiplayer
Post by: CK9 on November 17, 2005, 03:38:08 PM

Quote

...the fact that it can be an unfair advantage to the person who selects it ...

WHAT!?  It's no more unfair than someone selecting cyan or yellow.  With cyan, a lone unit can easily disappear on the mini-map, and in a game with self-destruct (who almost always played as yellow), he would have up to 6 units in a group and I could only see them on the mini map when there was a significant ammount of displacement (they look like mining becons on the map!).

I say, as long as it doesn't cause crashes, you guys should add the black in the next update!

Title: Color Black for Multiplayer
Post by: BlackBox on November 17, 2005, 05:06:55 PM

Well, I see them as cyan, yellow, etc when I play.

I guess yellow doesn't show as good on the tactical view though.

It probably depends on your monitor and video settings, whether you can see them or not.

I would have to say, black could hide on either view! (on the lava terrain by the volcanos, its black either way)

Editing colors: If you're interested, extract color.bmp from maps.vol and look at its palette.

The colors repeat in multiples of 24 colors each. If you want to change them, just change the correct 24 consecutive indexes.

Then save color.bmp in your game dir, and play with the new colors :)

Title: Color Black for Multiplayer
Post by: Harky on November 29, 2005, 09:49:59 PM

How do you view and change the pallet in photoshop cs2?
i looked but it cant seem to find it.. grr oh well i'll wait till someone responds :) thanks guys :)

Title: Color Black for Multiplayer
Post by: HaXtOr on November 29, 2005, 10:08:02 PM

I found all this information a really long time ago. When i first joined here I blieve...
I was going to make a mod but forgot about it actualy... lol
 

Title: Color Black for Multiplayer
Post by: zigzagjoe on November 29, 2005, 10:44:43 PM

blue is probly one of the most dangerous colors; it blends right in. on most monitors its next to impossible to see it; and ive got a good many ppls that way  :) .  

Title: Color Black for Multiplayer
Post by: HaXtOr on November 30, 2005, 01:32:59 AM

Quote

blue is probly one of the most dangerous colors; it blends right in. on most monitors its next to impossible to see it; and ive got a good many ppls that way  :) .

I thought hot pink was lol or purple...

brown would be evil
 

Title: Color Black for Multiplayer
Post by: Hooman on November 30, 2005, 02:48:27 AM

I don't suppose transparency works on player colors?  :whistle:  

Title: Color Black for Multiplayer
Post by: Freeza-CII on November 30, 2005, 02:48:28 AM

Brown is easy to easy to see go edit a mini map image to see.

http://www.freeza.outpostuniverse.net/images/Gray_eden.JPG (http://www.freeza.outpostuniverse.net/images/Gray_eden.JPG)

Gray is the easiest to see :) and i made it a 8th player color editing the color.bmp and using a modded dll

i have done the same with brown but for some reason it showed up as black or white on the minimap.  Gray also showed up as black or white on the minimap but worked great with white so not much mattered

http://www.freeza.outpostuniverse.net/ima...mouth_brown.JPG (http://www.freeza.outpostuniverse.net/images/plymouth_brown.JPG)

Title: Color Black for Multiplayer
Post by: HaXtOr on November 30, 2005, 06:33:00 AM

Quote

Brown is easy to easy to see go edit a mini map image to see.



i have done the same with brown but for some reason it showed up as black or white on the minimap.

then you didnt fully hack the color in now did you?
 you have to modify one of the pre existing colors.
I chose megenta

Title: Color Black for Multiplayer
Post by: Freeza-CII on November 30, 2005, 11:47:14 AM

No I didnt mod a exsiting color there is space after the black color for atleast 4 more colors.  AS I SAID A 8th player color.  The DLL has a set player color 7 (8th color in the color.bmp) in it. And presto a 8th player color.  But for some reason it doesnt work the same in the mini map.  All i did was run in debug mode with my dll to see the color so i wouldnt have to try to add any thing to the drop down menu lol.

Title: Color Black for Multiplayer
Post by: HaXtOr on November 30, 2005, 12:07:08 PM

If  I remember right the color on the mini map needs to be edited seperately. I with i took a screen shot
 

Title: Color Black for Multiplayer
Post by: Harky on December 01, 2005, 12:14:31 PM

I recreated the Exe Hack myself.. and edited the colour pallet...  I made it so you have all of the original colours but i added orance instead of black and i also changed this in the exe. I have been playing wiht it alot and i havent had a single game bug.. i played wiht highlander today, one lr map and the survivor maps and it worked flawlessly.  I am not very good at hex editing at all and i dont understand it.. is it possible to add more than one colour to the list.. maybe so you can have 9 colours.. and of course leave the last 24 colours in the pallet black and unselectable for ai players.

 

Title: Color Black for Multiplayer
Post by: Freeza-CII on December 01, 2005, 12:18:30 PM

still comes down to the problem with the mini map it would be nice to see orange there instead of there color you either swapped out or added.

The first 24 black tiles are the AI you have to leave them alone add after those 24 black tiles

Now the Real question is How do you edit the colors in the mini map so they work properly.

Title: Color Black for Multiplayer
Post by: HaXtOr on December 01, 2005, 05:10:00 PM

Quote

Now the Real question is How do you edit the colors in the mini map so they work properly.

I took notes on how i did this... They are burried under computer parts somewhere in my lab lol

Title: Color Black for Multiplayer
Post by: Harky on December 01, 2005, 11:59:51 PM

I changed the first 24 pblack tiles.. and i dotn see any problems at all.. the minimap comes up as yellow.. so its not a bad problem.. i think the game calculates the minimap colour.. so when u replace the player colour.. the minimap colourstill isnt black.. just orange and yellow have the same minimap colour which shouldent be too hard to fix and so far doesnt tend to be a huge problem.. usually people knows where they sent thier units