[Warhammer Dark Omen Forum]

Warhammer Dark Omen Forum | Modifications | 2D Sprites
SOTHR Sprites

[HarlotsEvisceration]

Have any of you had luck in decoding the .BOP or .FOL files in SOTHR? I'm assuming .BOP is where the sprite data is being held, but as these file extentions seemed to have been created before we discovered trees, I have no way with working with them.

Olly do you still have contact details for Jeff Gamon? He could mostlikely shed some light on it, if not he could get us in contact with Steve Leney who would know.

If I can get into these files, I can use them to effectively recreate and improve most of the SOTHR units, which would save me a hell of a headache drawing these units from scratch.

[olly]

Only Rob ever investigated decoding the SOTHR sprite files and could read the amount of frames per sprite (interestingly the Orc Biguns in SOTHR had more frames than the one in Dark Omen). However, it was deciphering the colour palettes that was the hardest part that sadly never progressed any further. We came to the conclusion that it was easier to take screenshots of them ingame and their quality probably wasn't upto Dark Omen standards.

In terms of producing new sprites, lets team up and get back into converting the Call of Warhamemr 3d models ->

http://forum.dark-omen.org/2d-sprites/call-of-warhammer-3d-models-to-dark-omen-2d-sprites-t805.0.html

[aqrit]

FOL files entries are header info for each image in the BOP file ( width, height, offset, etc. )
An 8-bit entry in a BOP file is an index to a 16-bit entry in the PAL file.
A 16-bit entry in the PAL file is TWO 8-bit indices into the palette.

So each 8-bit BOP entry eventually becomes two pixels.
 
Where the real palette comes from is unknown. ( I just dumped it from ram to a file... )
Some PAL files have more than one palette...
Some FOL files are not multiples of 16?


so someday... I might create a tool to convert BOP/FOL/PAL triples to bitmaps.

[olly]

Good progress and explanation and would be totally amazing to one day have such a convertor tool.

[aqrit]

so here is a WIP

it only does sprites type 1 & 2
which covers some ( ~740 ) images...

it doesn't handle any units yet...
I think type 4 is packed... something to do with the 'f' index.



have fun

[olly]

Excellent work, many thanks from all of us!

[Rob]

Iirc type 4 is just a simple run length encoding. If there is a 0, then it is followed by a run length (of zeroes).

[aqrit]

  That is exactly what it was, Thanks!

+8,000 images dumped...



it's 4am here ... so here is where I'm at.

:-)

[olly]

Wow this is amazing, a real dream come true to have all the sprites and graphics from Shadow of the Horned Rat!

Eternal thanks

[DMJC]

Thanks for extracting this Now we can get started on building another campaign

[orefinger]

Hi it's seems to be a great work. Unfortunaly it didn't work for me or i don't know what to do with the .exe to see and edit the images files.
I seek for the complete collection of "mugshot" from sothr, without the battle golden frame will be fantastic, 'cause i was just able to make screens capture. Specially the ennemies ones, there very rare, i dont know if thanquol himself have a battle portrait.

I was very enthusiastic when i saw the sheet edit by olly. Minor the fact its a jpg, a very good one but with little hint of pixel compressing. And a little confused, because the first portrait its unknow to me. this is otto hiln ?

i'll be nice able to edit a portrait sheet on my own so if you have advice, i'll check it. For information i use an oldgames.sk of the game on a win7.

thanks again

[aqrit]

download the "sothr_spr.zip" that does NOT understand how-to extract units.

extract the sothr_spr.exe program into the sothr folder that has all the *.BOP files in it..
for me that is: "e:\games\sothr\binary\"

download this batch script and extract it into that same directory...

double-click that batch file...

you should now have ~740 bitmaps in that folder...
switch explorer's view over to "Large Icons"
determine which pictures that you want and delete the rest.

---
currently we can only extract pictures from sothr we can't import edited pictures into sothr
( if that is what you're trying to do? )

---
and yes, Grey Seer Thanquol has a portrait

[aqrit]

here's the sothr "mugshots" with lossless png compression
http://bitpatch.com/downloads/sothr_protraits.zip
talking frames, banners, and backgrounds not included.

[orefinger]

IMPRESSIVE
yeah without the batch file it s much better thanks.
yes i would only to see and extract this pictures, i have no level to edit the game.

finally i can see all little secrets of the game, like that unused bmp dragon head, replace by a 3D kind in the game.

or the very ellusive and rare portrait of thanquol, who didnt show up on my play when i make the final battle ^^

if the name is good the first portrait of olly's sheet, is the artiller, another else that didnt show in my play.

lot of thanks

[olly]

Its so cool to have the SOTHR sprites in Dark Omen and doesn't take too much time to convert (copy and paste mainly).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTHslnQy2Yk&feature=share&list=UU8sdepsCtmpBUP4U9nVE3Qg