Beginning from zero

H

HOLDPERSON

Member
Hi there. I´ve just discovered Openbor like a month ago. Since then I have been downloading and playing mods like crazy, as beat em ups are my favorite video games genre, and I thought it was dead long time ago. Finding about Openbor and the Chrono Crash community has been like finding a group of freedom fighting rebels in a world dominated by a AAA blockbusters tiranny.
Well, thing is, I want to join this movement. I would like to learn how to use this wonderful engine and being able to give something back to the community.
I have been reading some manuals at the openbor wiki but I must admit I haven´t almost anything. So, there are somethings I need to know. This they are:
- Is there any beginner´s manual I can download? I don´t know a word about scripting, so I must learn the very, very basics from the beginnin
- What tools do I need and where can I download them?
- What others prograsm would I need in order to create things like sprites, backgrounds, music, etc...?
Thank you very much for your help. As you can see I am very, very new. But I believe the first step to learning is to be aware of your own ignorance. So please, give some tips as to where can I begin.
 
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HOLDPERSON said:
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For imaging I always say go big and go Photoshop, but if you don't have access to that GIMP is a great tool that will fill the bill. Anything that can produce a clean 8bit mode .png image (the individual images are 8bit, as in 256 color each - NOT the engine, don't confuse them). For making modules themselves the edit pack is about the only required tool - you need that to open up modules and to repack them when you are read for final release. Beyond that a good text editor is all you really need.

One of the best things to do is open up a pre-existing module and see what's inside. Then you can start reverse engineering it and of you go. Try to make your questions as specific as you can - this let's us give you more useful answers. Welcome to the forum!

DC
 
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Thanks a lot for your replies. Already donwloaded Openborstats and begun reading tutorials. I am a little bit overwhelmed and lost with all this information, so I´ll try to assimilate it slowly and with care :)
 
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Best way to start is open a mod, check a player txt file and créate/add your own player character for that mod, as a practice. After that do the same with an enemy.
Then create an stage.

When trying your own mod: (wrote these some time ago)

1. Create a video.txt file and change the "colourdepth" to 16bit or 32bit, with this setting, every entity on the mod can have his own palette, that means no colour limitation and no .pal files.

2. Change the HUD, change the fonts. The quicker the better, it will make your project to look unique. Also if possible, change the default sounds (the "get", "attacks" "hits" "jump" etc).

3. Never use "anim jumpattack" for enemies, or they will ignore other attacks even having the same range.
It's better to use an anim attack and use "jumpframe" to get the same effect.

4. Try not to use "anim throw". It's better to use "anim grabbackward" instead, and play with the fall animation of the enemy being thrown away. If you are aiming for a standard throw and want things quick, then go with anim throw, however maybe you'll switch later.

About programs I use paint to edit sprites, gimp to edit palette, notepad for coding and obeditor to see the "boxes" and check animations.
 
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I´m very sorry to keep asking for help but please, can you explain to me how to unpack a pak file? I´ve tried many times but I must be doing something wrong, as I am unable to do it yet. I downloaded openbor stats, the pakexplode file and Obeditor (which I still don´t know what does). Do I need something else?
 
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if you look around the forum there are like 10 topics on this its just to save you time.. You can download paxplode and unpakker drag and drop the pak file on to the exe of it and it will unpak
 
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