Getting Started in Modding (guide)

CRxTRDude

CRxTRDude

Member
Here's a little thing I've been working on. This is for beginner OpenBOR modders and stuff.

http://www.caskeys.com/arc/games/openbor/wiki/index.php?title=Getting_Started_in_Modding

I know it's not something to be ashamed, asking questions on getting started modding for OpenBOR, but to make things even more clearer and simpler, I decided to make this little thing to answer how to make OpenBOR stuff. It's a bit on the working stages, but I want you guys to check it up and give your thoughts about it. I'm still need to improve it though.

I'm also going to maul the the wiki more also to make it a complete, comprehensive and somehow authoritative source for OpenBOR modding, updating it on everything that we discovered in the docu project as well as new commands and features coming in.



Oh yeah, I almost forgot, I also placed the documentation project status over at the wiki as well a year back.

http://www.caskeys.com/arc/games/openbor/wiki/index.php?title=Documentation_Project
 
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Maybe better to just not mention those other formats.    .PNG is the ONLY one we should be using for images.  I think support for other formats is being removed anyway.

 
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BMP makes file sizes bigger. PCX is almost bigger to BMP I think? PNG is the smallest but quite useful. Though GIF is okay, its file size is a little bigger than PNG. They are optional to use, yes. Indeed I agree with Beastie for PNG should be used and it's recommended to use. (Dunno 'bout TGA file size though.)

 
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To quote there:

It is recommended to use PNG on your mod, although the PNG should be 256 colors and should have the same palette per entity. This means your Ryu character could have his own palette independent to say the box entity. This can be done though using 16 bit color depth.
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The reason why I still placed the others there is because it's still supported by the engine and people would be shocked why some people are using BMPs if PNG is the only one it supported. I want to cover 'all' bases.

But when ChronoCrash would be released, it might be sure that PNG would only be the one supported, which I hope so more.

EDIT: Changed the wording for the PNG and put the other stuff as 'legacy support'. Pardon for this one, but unfortunately I've not gotten good enough sleep due to work last night. I slept for merely three hours.
 
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Unfortunately, I needed some inspiration, so I've checked some codes from ZDoom's wiki and made a splash page of sorts for the Wiki Manual, which I need to tweak on to fit the OpenBOR color scheme (for color scheme, I meant the mod menu)

Wiki Manual Splash Page

I've based the table of contents from the DCEmu manual and make it easy to navigate. It would need more pages of course to complete it, adding pages piece by piece, maybe improving the template by adding those things in Wikipedia at the bottom (known as a navbox), a crude one in fact. What do you think about this guys? What other things should I place in this splash page?
 
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O Ilusionista said:
...
Click to expand...

Damon Caskey said:
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Click to expand...

Yeah, finally. ;D

BTW, I might need some help on terminologies, like definitions of things for concepts like entities and such. I might need to make a list of sorts for this one.

I might also need to make a new thread for the wiki manual whereas to make this thread solely for the Getting Started on Modding article.
 
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Hey guys, I'm new here and though an experienced software programmer and fighting games nerd, I'm kinda new to game development and I was really hopeful when I clicked on this topic. Too bad every single link CRxTRDude posted is now offline.

Is there any chance that anyone has got a backup of this "Getting Started" material?

If not, then, especially those of you who have already published some project, what are your recommendations for a total beginner in OpenBOR?

Muchas gracias!
 
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Mr.Rocha,

Welcome to the community! I'm not sure which starting guide you refer to, but honestly whatever it is, the information is probably so out of date it has negative value.

If you're already a developer the engine is pretty easy to figure out. You'll naturally pick up on things because you know how to abstract. So the first thing I would recommend you start with is learning how to handle the sprites. Also, so I don't need to say it over and over, everything from here forward refers to default behavior. Nearly anything the engine does has multiple options and alternatives.

In OpenBOR each model (think character, like Ryu) has a 256 color palette you can swap on the fly. This means all of Ryu's sprites need to be 8bit .png images with the exact same color palette. The special effects like Hadouken and whatnot are their own models. They'll have their own palettes. By this point you should be realizing you have a LOT of color freedom.

Anyway, you'll want to cut the sprites with a uniform size because it will save you time on offsets. OpenBOR auto trims sprites on load, so manually trimming them individually is a massive waste of time.

O Ilusionista can give you some good spriting tips and point you in the right direction.

From there, just figure out what you want your game to do and try to ask us specific questions. We'll do whatever we can from there. You'll discover very quickly there is no "if", just "how".  :)

DC
 
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Bem-vindo, Mr. Rocha.

As Damon said, if you a developer already, things will be very fast for you - OpenBOR learning curve is very smooth.

Here are some useful informations:

Blank Mod - As the name says, its a blank module to start with, compiled by Bloodbane, one of our good names.
Blank Mod 2D - The same as above, but for 2D games.
NeoEditPack - this is the original BOR content, if you wanna see how things were made. You can learn a bit from it, but please ignore the documentation and the executable on it, because both are pretty old.

DOCUMENTATION :

OpenBoR Manual (Current, maintained by O Ilusionista) -
http://dcemulation.org/index.php?title=OpenBORManual

OpenBoR Wiki
http://www.caskeys.com/arc/games/openbor/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

For tools, tutorials and other stuff, go here http://www.chronocrash.com/forum/index.php?topic=13.0

You'll discover very quickly there is no "if", just "how". 
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That is it :)
 
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Thanks for your welcoming and for this whole ton of information, it will surely be very useful!

By the way, is the wiki working for any of you guys? I've seen mentions in some other topics, but all links seem to be broken.

Anyway, I really appreciate all your support and, well, it seems there is a whole lot of stuff for me to study.

OpenBORManual and tutorials, here I go!  :)
 
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Mr.Rocha I've a non-official*, portuguese only, Facebook study group, where the focus is solely to study the engine.
Join us if you want :)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/openborbrasil

*While is non-official, all rules from this forum are applied there.
 
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