So I've decided to start a ToEE game, haven't played in a while, and decided to edit some custom portraits for my new game. I did it back then but couldn't find my old portraits and decided to create new ones. Followed the guides on this, remplaced the portraits, but I'm running into a problem when I see the portraits in-game. Seems something is wrong because they are very bright (as if I've set the gamma/brightness to huge values) and I have to reduce the in-game gamma to 0 to even be able to see something. I've been thinking maybe I did something wrong with alpha channels (I'm not that great at photoshop, I can follow guides but finding what went wrong is another thing) but it seemed quite simple and I didn't have that error a few years back when I did it. Anyway, so the question is, does anyone know what could cause this problem and how to fix it? Also, I've noticed that in the most recend Co8 beta mod, theres a few empty slots for portraits in the character creation, but I can't seem to find which portraits numbers they are in portraits.mes. Is there a list somewhere? I've been replacing existing ones with mine but I'd like to just add them. Thanks!
Here's a suggestion - instead of creating a completely new portrait file, edit an existing one, just put the stuff you want in a new layer. This way all the necessary settings will be there when you save it (to a different name, of course).
Yea that's what I thought at first but it didn't do anything different :\ And yea, any pointers for those empty slots that can be used?
Never heard of anything like the brightness problem you describe. You may want to wait until we put out the 'portraits made easy' thing, which will probably be sometime after the next modpack release (April 25). It will detail exactly how to make custom portraits for use with the latest modpack, and it may even include templates for use in Photoshop. It hasn't been released yet because of certain inconsistencies with the 'easy' part of it all.
Well I'm currently working around that using lowest gamma setting ingame/monitor, it's just a bit annoying in the darkest parts of the game. But yea, I'll wait for that tool to fix it then, thanks
It's basically done. I think we're going to have to resign ourselves to it being a moderate competency level thing though, particularly if you wnat to make your own portraits (as opposed to just slipping in existing portraits). That will basically require Photoshop, no way around it. There will be Photoshop templates included in the package. Also, btw, the BG and IWD packs need to be updated for 5.8. There were a couple portrait additions that need to be taken into account.
I only use IrfanView to edit portraits. I don't need layers and I don't mess with alpha channels. Works like a charm for me, maybe you should try to reduce the saturation instead of messing with colors when you make a gray portrait. I experienced problems there, but when I used the shift-g settings in IrfanView all was good.
If "original" portraits are used* they should conform to Chris Glenn's specifications, which include alpha channel specs. Mine work for me when I don't forget any steps, but give white arrowheads or black squares when I do. The original file was ToEE_CustomPortraits.zip. I try to get source photos that have good contrast and facial features that look good at the sizes the game uses. The originals are good examples of that, I just like my hotties to outnumber the orcs. *(I use photos or artwork found online, so I can't claim originality; most sources are also copyrighted and I dunno if there is a Co8 policy on posting those)
I forget how I did it, but I've made own portraits before, was pretty easy with photoshop. I only did it a few times, a bit bothersome, but necessary for the "anime" party of mine.
