http://www.filehippo.com/download_imgburn/
Now once you have downloaded and installed ImgBurn, we can proceed...
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Rec Zone #2: How To Batch Burn ISOs/Disc Images using ImgBurn
First and foremost you will need enough blank media to burn all your images to, then you will obviously need a copy of ImgBurn;
http://www.filehippo.com/download_imgburn/
Now once you have downloaded and installed ImgBurn, we can proceed...
http://www.filehippo.com/download_imgburn/
Now once you have downloaded and installed ImgBurn, we can proceed...
Step 1: Load ImgBurn and choose "Write image file to disc"
Step 2: Next you are presented with this screen, click the little button with the 3 little disc logos
Step 3: On the next screen, click the folder icon to load your images
Step 4: Manually highlight, or Ctrl + A to select all the images. If you want to use images from multiple folders, just repeat this step to add your images.
Step 5: Once you have loaded all the images you want to burn, you should have something like this in front of you (Note: obviously with different image names and locations)
I'm using AWS (Automatic Write Speed) because my Kodak DVD-R's won't boot games unless they are burnt at Max speed.
Step 7: Once you are happy with the settings, click the mini "Write image file to disc" button
Step 8: Once the burn has started, make sure you check the box with Eject Tray so it will eject automatically after each burn. Also the Verify box may be checked by default for you, i have this unchecked to speed up the overall time it takes to burn a disc, and my DVD-R's were cheap as well, so they are disposable if the burn fails.
Step 9: Once the first burn has completed, the tray will eject, and you will be presented with this screen. Here you can now remove the disc from the tray, insert a new blank, and write the name from the "Previous" image on the disc. You will also get a preview of what the next image will be, you can optionally skip an image using the bottom left Skip Image button.
This is possibly the best part of the batch feature, and now all you need to do is remove the finished disc and put in a blank one, no buttons need to be pressed!
2012 Update
Well folks it sure has been a while since i last posted here, i had many tutorials in the works and my life was turned upside between now and the almost exact 2 years its been since i last posted.
I had no idea that this blog, the blog that i have rarely updated, was so much more popular than my game reviews blog. I think i will try to post more here than on my reviews site, as it is quite clear where the interest lies by the demographics of this blog.
I would like to hear from my readers what they are interested in knowing, as my tutorials are not limited to just technical tutorials or even computer based ones.
Make your requests in the comments and i will see about making a tutorial based on the suggestion.
I had no idea that this blog, the blog that i have rarely updated, was so much more popular than my game reviews blog. I think i will try to post more here than on my reviews site, as it is quite clear where the interest lies by the demographics of this blog.
I would like to hear from my readers what they are interested in knowing, as my tutorials are not limited to just technical tutorials or even computer based ones.
Make your requests in the comments and i will see about making a tutorial based on the suggestion.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Rec Zone #1: Using Regex to insert text at start of lines (Notepad++)
Alright i thought i would post this here for my reference as much as yours, because this sort of thing is not easy to search for...
This is straight forward but it's a fairly complex regex operation and only some of you would find this useful.
Ok now today i created a massive list of files, approx 11,000 lines...
There are some files i don't want to be included in the batch, but they are difficult to spot with my eye and i really didn't want to manually search them all 1 by 1 so here is what i did;
I will only use 3 lines as an example...
Now say i wanted to comment out the line that has ".zip" on it, for those 3 lines thats easy, just a matter of putting REM infront of the 3rd line, but when you have tens of thousands of lines, this can get ultra time consuming and you will probably miss a few of them aswell...
Here is how to achieve this using regex and a fairly simple command
In Notepad++, with the file open, press Ctrl + H
Find what: ^(.*zip")
Replace with: REM \1
Now, that should add REM (and a space) to the start of any line that has the text "zip"" in it, also note the quotation mark in the actual "Find what" line, that is important...
When i am creating huge batch files for converting things or extracting or whatever, even if the path has no spaces, i like to put "" quote marks around the pathname, that's why i have the quote in the "Find what" line.
If you don't have quotes around your filenames, then remove the quotemark
BUT BE WARNED:
If you do remove that single quote, the regex expression will now find all text with the letters "zip" in them,
e.g zippy_the_dog.jpg will be found by regex, which is an undesired result.
That is the main reason i add quotation marks around the path/filename
Now i'll explain the command a bit more;
^ means "start of line"
( ) is the logical grouping of part of the expression
. is kinda hard to explain, but it works like the "?" wildcard that some other programs support (single character wildcard NOT like * which is usually a multi-character wildcard)
* as above, * works like a multi-character wildcard
/1 in Notepad++ regex is the INPUT (FIND WHAT) result... i searched for a bloody long time to find this...
So to break down that command it's;
Find what: start of line(any character before and including zip")
Replace with: REM the result of above
So for those 3 lines;
using the regex commands would insert "REM " before every line with zip" at the end
Well i hope that's helped someone out there achieve something useful :)
Til the next tutorial,
Jenkins
This is straight forward but it's a fairly complex regex operation and only some of you would find this useful.
Ok now today i created a massive list of files, approx 11,000 lines...
There are some files i don't want to be included in the batch, but they are difficult to spot with my eye and i really didn't want to manually search them all 1 by 1 so here is what i did;
I will only use 3 lines as an example...
converter.exe image.png
converter.exe image.jpg
converter.exe image.zip
converter.exe image.jpg
converter.exe image.zip
Now say i wanted to comment out the line that has ".zip" on it, for those 3 lines thats easy, just a matter of putting REM infront of the 3rd line, but when you have tens of thousands of lines, this can get ultra time consuming and you will probably miss a few of them aswell...
Here is how to achieve this using regex and a fairly simple command
In Notepad++, with the file open, press Ctrl + H
Find what: ^(.*zip")
Replace with: REM \1
Now, that should add REM (and a space) to the start of any line that has the text "zip"" in it, also note the quotation mark in the actual "Find what" line, that is important...
When i am creating huge batch files for converting things or extracting or whatever, even if the path has no spaces, i like to put "" quote marks around the pathname, that's why i have the quote in the "Find what" line.
If you don't have quotes around your filenames, then remove the quotemark
BUT BE WARNED:
If you do remove that single quote, the regex expression will now find all text with the letters "zip" in them,
e.g zippy_the_dog.jpg will be found by regex, which is an undesired result.
That is the main reason i add quotation marks around the path/filename
Now i'll explain the command a bit more;
^ means "start of line"
( ) is the logical grouping of part of the expression
. is kinda hard to explain, but it works like the "?" wildcard that some other programs support (single character wildcard NOT like * which is usually a multi-character wildcard)
* as above, * works like a multi-character wildcard
/1 in Notepad++ regex is the INPUT (FIND WHAT) result... i searched for a bloody long time to find this...
So to break down that command it's;
Find what: ^(.*zip")
Replace with: REM \1
Replace with: REM \1
Find what: start of line(any character before and including zip")
Replace with: REM the result of above
So for those 3 lines;
converter.exe image.png
converter.exe image.jpg
converter.exe image.zip
converter.exe image.jpg
converter.exe image.zip
using the regex commands would insert "REM " before every line with zip" at the end
converter.exe image.png
converter.exe image.jpg
REM converter.exe image.zip
converter.exe image.jpg
REM converter.exe image.zip
Well i hope that's helped someone out there achieve something useful :)
Til the next tutorial,
Jenkins
Monday, September 6, 2010
Pro Series #1: How To Make Decals From Non Power of 2 Images
This tutorial is divided into 8 parts;
------------------------------------
--Introduction--
------------------------------------
For the following tutorial, you will need several things that make this quicker and easier than doing some things manually.
------------------------------------
--PART I--
--Setting Up--
------------------------------------
1. Make sure you make a backup of the source images because they may be needed later!
2. Convert desired images to PNG using ImageConverter Plus ( Preferably in a new folder, e.g "PNG\" )
3. Make a new folder called "4 Textures" or something similar
4. Convert source images to PNG into the "4 Textures" folder using DirectX SDK Converter tool !! with CONSTRAIN PROPORTIONS CHECKED !!
This will convert the source images to a power of 2 texture size, this will stretch the images but do not worry, we wont be using them apart from their dimensions.
5. Navigate to the "4 Textures" folder, and choose the Details view, then right click the title bar (Where it says Name | Type | Size) and choose "Dimensions".
If it is not in the list, click "More" then check the Dimensions box and then OK.
6. Click the Dimensions title in the title-bar to sort the images by their dimensions.
7. Create folders for each different dimensions (e.g 1024x1024, 512x1024, 2048x2048 etc etc)
8. Move all the images into their respective dimensions folders.
9. Now this step may take some time, depending on how many images you are processing.
Go back to your Original PNG images that were converted using ImageConverter Plus, and move/replace them into the new dimensions folders.
For my first time i had around 223 images, took me about 15mins to do this step.
------------------------------------
--PART II--
--Creating & Using Photoshop Actions--
------------------------------------
10. In Photoshop, create an Action for the following:
10a. New Action
10b. Right click "Background" layer and chose "Layer From Background" (Make sure you are recording the action first)
10c. Go to Image menu > Canvas Size > choose your desired dimensions as per the folders you have just created.
Note: For each different dimensions, you will need to create a new action, i have 5 common canvas size actions, 1024x2048, 1024x1024, 1024x512, 512x1024 & 512x512
All 5 actions begin with the "Set Background" action, which is vital to this tutorial.
11. Run the actions by choosing File > Automate > Batch and choose the action you want to run
Note: Easiest way is to highlight the action in the Actions tab and then Automate, it will automatically select that action
The Automations settings i used were;
Set: & Action: should be already set (see above Note)
Source: Folder
[Choose] One of your dimensions folder (e.g 512x512)
Uncheck all 4 boxes
Destination: Save & Close
Uncheck 'Override Action "Save As" Commands'
Errors: Stop for errors
------------------------------------
--PART III--
--Creating a txt list using Windows batch files--
------------------------------------
12. After running all the action sets, you should now have PNG images in your dimensions folders that are power of 2 but not stretched. Check this to make sure you have done everything right.
13. Now you will need to create a list of your new images for further processing;
Create a new text document in the root folder ("4 Textures") of all your dimensions folders, for example;
C:\
TexTemp\
4 Textures\
512x512\
1024x1024\
create the text file here
13a. rename the text file "dir.bat". Windows should ask if you want to change the file extension, click yes.
13b. Right click the .bat file and click Edit
13c. In notepad, paste the following and save/close notepad;
13d. Now run this batch file, it should create a new text file called "files.txt" which contains a raw list of your images.
------------------------------------
--PART IV--
--Creating an Extract Alpha batch using ImageMagick & txt list from Part III--
------------------------------------
13e. Create another new text document in the root folder ("4 Textures"), rename it to "extract_png_alpha.bat". Windows should ask if you want to change the file extension, click yes.
13f. Right click the .bat file and click Edit
13g. In notepad, paste the following;
13h. Now where i have put !YOUR CODE HERE! you will need to put your batch code based on the usage above.
For example;
14. Save and close the unfinished "extract_png_alpha.bat"
15. Open "extract_png_alpha.bat" and "files.txt" in Notepad++
Note: For the purposes of this tutorial DO NOT save "files.txt" after editing in Notepad++ (It will be needed again in Part V)
16. Highlight the first line from C:\ to 4 Textures
For example;
C:\TexTemp\4 Textures\
(note the backslash at the end, that is important)
16a. Now with part of that line highlighted, press Ctrl + H
16b. "Find What" should be auto filled in, "Replace With" this:
16c. Click [Replace All]
(The reason for this step is ImageMagick doesn't understand Full paths for some reason, only relative paths to where the batch is being run from [this is why we created it in the "4 Textures" folder])
Now you should have all of the files in "files.txt" beginning with something like this;
"Find What" png
"Replace With" png"
NOTE THE QUOTE AT THE END OF PNG!
Now you list should have;
17. Select All from the "files.txt" and paste in a new document (click the New icon top left in notepad++)
18. Highlight "%IMDIR%\APP%" (With the quotes) and press Ctrl + H.
18a. "Find What" "%IMDIR%\%APP%"
"Replace With" %OPTS%
Notice there are no quotes in %OPTS%
Now you list should have;
"Find What" .png"
"Replace With" _alpha.png"
NOTE THE QUOTE AT THE END OF PNG!
Now you list should have;
19. Now this next part is a bit of a secret usage of Notepad++ that has saved me countless hours over the years:
I call it "Text Paint" because highlighting doesn't follow conventional Line by Line rules, instead it acts like a paint brush!
19a. In the new document you just edited, scroll to the bottom of the list.
19b. HOLD ALT AND THEN CLICK AND DRAG FROM THE VERY LEFT OF THE BOTTOM LINE ALL THE WAY UP TO THE TOP RIGHT
(NOTE THAT SOME LINES ARE LONGER THAN OTHERS, YOU _MUST_ LEAVE ENOUGH SPACE ON THE RIGHT FOR ALL LINES TO BE SELECTED)
TIP: Visually find the longest line and click at the end of it, note the "Col:" number in the bottom details bar.
19c. Now press Ctrl + C (Depending on the amount of lines in the file your computer might lag)
19d. Now go back to your files.txt file (while still in Notepad++)
19dd. Select the end of the FIRST LINE and hold space until you reach sufficient space for the modded list to be pasted
(Alternatively hold space until you reach the "Col:" number of the longest line - but it is best to add 1 or 2 spaces after this column for safety)
19e. Now immediately press Ctrl + V (paste) and the modded list should be pasted like paint down the right side (Depending on the amount of lines in the file your computer might lag again)
Note: However, after doing this, Notepad++ creates many many spaces between the pasted list and the original on the left, but i'll cover this in the next step.
20. Highlight any double space in the list, (" ") and press Ctrl + H, and Replace with a single space (" ")
20a. Press [Replace All] (Depending on the amount of lines in the file your computer might lag again)
20b. You will notice this hasn't fixed it completely, keep pressing [Replace All] Until the amount of replacements reaches zero.
21. Now you list should look something like this;
22. Now copy the list into the "extract_png_alpha.bat" where i have (You can remove the text)
23. Now save the batch file & if you are satisfied with it, close the files.txt file (DONT SAVE THIS LIST)
24. I would also usually add a PAUSE after the first file in the "extract_png_alpha.bat" to see if it has worked.
For example;
Note: the code above is word wrapped on ModDB (each line has a different colored background here, white and grey).
25. Now save & run the batch file.
Remember that we put the PAUSE after the first file, so no matter what the size of the image is it should display "Press Any Key To Continue..." almost immediately
DONT press any key until you have checked it has worked.
Note: Unfortunately ImageMagick doesn't display anything while processing the images so if my list is very large, i normally put a few ECHO's somewhere in the list,
like for each third of the list i'll put ECHO 33% Complete, ECHO 66% Complete, etc etc. Doesn't have to be exact just a rough guess
------------------------------------
--PART V--
--Creating an Embed Alpha batch using--
--ImageMagick & txt list from Part III--
------------------------------------
This part is similar to Part IV, this time we will need to use both the extract_alpha batch and the original files.txt.
26. Make a copy of "extract_png_alpha.bat" and rename it to "embed_alpha.bat"
27. Open "embed_alpha.bat" and "files.txt" in Notepad++
27a. In "embed_alpha.bat" highlight and replace this;
"Find What" SET OPTS=-alpha extract
"Replace With" SET OPT1=-alpha off
27b. Add the following line directly under the SET OPT1=-alpha off
SET OPT2=-compose copyopacity -composite
So the top of your "embed_alpha.bat" should now look like this;
27c. Highlight %OPTS% in any line and replace with %OPT1%
28. Now go to the files.txt list
28a. Once again highlight C:\TexTemp\4 Textures\ and press Ctrl + H, This time replace with: %OPT2% "
Note: the space and the quote after %OPT2%
- this is important and i always get caught with it
28b. Now go to the end of any line (still in the files.txt list) and replace .png with .tga"
Note: the " after .tga
28c. Now just like in step 19b, Hold Alt and drag from the very bottom left dragging to the top right to highlight the list
(Remembering about seeking the longest line and taking note of the Col: number)
28d. Press copy, then go back to the "embed_alpha.bat" file and once again seek out the longest line,
select the first line of the list (not of the whole batch file) and hold space until you reach the Col: number (or 1 or 2 spaces after)
28e. Press Paste (Depending on the amount of lines in the file your computer might lag)
28f. Repeat step 20:
20. Highlight any double space in the list, (" ") and press Ctrl + H, and Replace with a single space (" ")
20a. Press [Replace All] (Depending on the amount of lines in the file your computer might lag again)
20b. You will notice this hasn't fixed it completely, keep pressing [Replace All] Until the amount of replacements reaches zero.
29. Now you list should look something like this;
30. Now save the batch file & if you are satisfied with it, close the files.txt file
31. Again, add a PAUSE after the first file in the "embed_alpha.bat" to see if it has worked.
(The output is now TGA so you will need to load the file into Photoshop or something similar [I use Paint.NET to preview because it loads faster than Photoshop and also parses alphas])
32. Now save & run the batch file.
(Repeated from step 25)
Remember that we put the PAUSE after the first file, so no matter what the size of the image is it should display "Press Any Key To Continue..." almost immediately
DONT press any key until you have checked it has worked.
Note: Unfortunately ImageMagick doesn't display anything while processing the images so if my list is very large, i normally put a few ECHO's somewhere in the list,
like for each third of the list i'll put ECHO 33% Complete, ECHO 66% Complete, etc etc. Doesn't have to be exact just a rough guess
------------------------------------
--PART VI--
--Summary & Cleanup--
------------------------------------
Ok so now you should have a folder with both tga files, _alpha png's and the canvas sized pngs which with alot of files can get messy, i can also help in that deptartment :)
Create 2 new text files;
copy_tga.bat
copy_png_n_alphas.bat
1a. Open them in Notepad++
1b. In "copy_tga.bat" paste the following;
1c. In "copy_png_n_alphas.bat" paste the following;
2. Save & Close both files, then run them.
These 2 batch files will "grab" all of the images from all subdirectories using the EXT1/EXT2 mask set in the batch file.
So for the copy_tga.bat file, it will only grab all of the .tga files and wont touch anything else.
It will also "Restore folder structure" in the new temp folder that is created.
This file also deletes all the files that are "grabbed". If you don't want this to happen, put REM infront of the lines starting with DEL (e.g REM DEL /s %EXT1%)
It will then move the temp folder back into the current folder. Once again if you don't want this to happen, put REM infront of the lines starting with MOVE (e.g REM MOVE "
%DIR1%" "%~dp0")
Congratulations!
------------------------------------
--Credits--
------------------------------------
Thanks to the users at imagemagick forum for the extract alpha stuff
which has intern helped me to create this tutorial
I pretty much figured the rest out for myself lol.
This tutorial took me 2 and a half hours to write, so it should take you at least half that time to actually use (if your experienced enough).
Also lots of this tutorial can be used for many other things.
- Introduction
- Part I: Setting Up
- Part II: Creating & Using Photoshop Actions
- Part III: Creating a txt list using Windows batch files
- Part IV: Creating an Extract Alpha batch using ImageMagick & txt list from Part III
- Part V: Creating an Embed Alpha batch using ImageMagick & txt list from Part III
- Part VI: Summary & Cleanup
- Credits
------------------------------------
--Introduction--
------------------------------------
For the following tutorial, you will need several things that make this quicker and easier than doing some things manually.
- ImageConverter Plus (i have v7.1)
- DirectX SDK (i have Aug2008)
- Adobe Photoshop (i have CS4)
- ImageMagick (i have v6.5.3-Q16)
- Notepad++ (i have v5.5)
- Knowledge of Photoshop actions
- Knowledge of creating and running batch files
- Knowledge of using "Text paint mode" in Notepad++
------------------------------------
--PART I--
--Setting Up--
------------------------------------
1. Make sure you make a backup of the source images because they may be needed later!
2. Convert desired images to PNG using ImageConverter Plus ( Preferably in a new folder, e.g "PNG\" )
3. Make a new folder called "4 Textures" or something similar
4. Convert source images to PNG into the "4 Textures" folder using DirectX SDK Converter tool !! with CONSTRAIN PROPORTIONS CHECKED !!
This will convert the source images to a power of 2 texture size, this will stretch the images but do not worry, we wont be using them apart from their dimensions.
5. Navigate to the "4 Textures" folder, and choose the Details view, then right click the title bar (Where it says Name | Type | Size) and choose "Dimensions".
If it is not in the list, click "More" then check the Dimensions box and then OK.
6. Click the Dimensions title in the title-bar to sort the images by their dimensions.
7. Create folders for each different dimensions (e.g 1024x1024, 512x1024, 2048x2048 etc etc)
8. Move all the images into their respective dimensions folders.
9. Now this step may take some time, depending on how many images you are processing.
Go back to your Original PNG images that were converted using ImageConverter Plus, and move/replace them into the new dimensions folders.
For my first time i had around 223 images, took me about 15mins to do this step.
------------------------------------
--PART II--
--Creating & Using Photoshop Actions--
------------------------------------
10. In Photoshop, create an Action for the following:
10a. New Action
10b. Right click "Background" layer and chose "Layer From Background" (Make sure you are recording the action first)
10c. Go to Image menu > Canvas Size > choose your desired dimensions as per the folders you have just created.
Note: For each different dimensions, you will need to create a new action, i have 5 common canvas size actions, 1024x2048, 1024x1024, 1024x512, 512x1024 & 512x512
All 5 actions begin with the "Set Background" action, which is vital to this tutorial.
11. Run the actions by choosing File > Automate > Batch and choose the action you want to run
Note: Easiest way is to highlight the action in the Actions tab and then Automate, it will automatically select that action
The Automations settings i used were;
Set: & Action: should be already set (see above Note)
Source: Folder
[Choose] One of your dimensions folder (e.g 512x512)
Uncheck all 4 boxes
Destination: Save & Close
Uncheck 'Override Action "Save As" Commands'
Errors: Stop for errors
------------------------------------
--PART III--
--Creating a txt list using Windows batch files--
------------------------------------
12. After running all the action sets, you should now have PNG images in your dimensions folders that are power of 2 but not stretched. Check this to make sure you have done everything right.
13. Now you will need to create a list of your new images for further processing;
Create a new text document in the root folder ("4 Textures") of all your dimensions folders, for example;
C:\
TexTemp\
4 Textures\
512x512\
1024x1024\
create the text file here
13a. rename the text file "dir.bat". Windows should ask if you want to change the file extension, click yes.
13b. Right click the .bat file and click Edit
13c. In notepad, paste the following and save/close notepad;
winbatch code:
@ECHO OFF
DIR /s /b /a:-d /o:n *.png > files.txt
PAUSE
DIR /s /b /a:-d /o:n *.png > files.txt
PAUSE
13d. Now run this batch file, it should create a new text file called "files.txt" which contains a raw list of your images.
------------------------------------
--PART IV--
--Creating an Extract Alpha batch using ImageMagick & txt list from Part III--
------------------------------------
13e. Create another new text document in the root folder ("4 Textures"), rename it to "extract_png_alpha.bat". Windows should ask if you want to change the file extension, click yes.
13f. Right click the .bat file and click Edit
13g. In notepad, paste the following;
winbatch code:
@ECHO OFF
SET IMDIR=C:\Program Files\ImageMagick-6.5.3-Q16
SET APP=convert.exe
SET OPTS=-alpha extract
REM Usage:
REM "%IMDIR%\%APP%" "input.png" %OPTS% "output_alpha.png"
!YOUR CODE HERE!
ECHO DONE!
PAUSE
EXIT
SET IMDIR=C:\Program Files\ImageMagick-6.5.3-Q16
SET APP=convert.exe
SET OPTS=-alpha extract
REM Usage:
REM "%IMDIR%\%APP%" "input.png" %OPTS% "output_alpha.png"
!YOUR CODE HERE!
ECHO DONE!
PAUSE
EXIT
13h. Now where i have put !YOUR CODE HERE! you will need to put your batch code based on the usage above.
For example;
winbatch code:
"%IMDIR%\%APP%" "512x512\poster.png" %OPTS% "512x512\poster_alpha.png"
Note: This is when the "files.txt" list comes in handy.14. Save and close the unfinished "extract_png_alpha.bat"
15. Open "extract_png_alpha.bat" and "files.txt" in Notepad++
Note: For the purposes of this tutorial DO NOT save "files.txt" after editing in Notepad++ (It will be needed again in Part V)
16. Highlight the first line from C:\ to 4 Textures
For example;
C:\TexTemp\4 Textures\
(note the backslash at the end, that is important)
16a. Now with part of that line highlighted, press Ctrl + H
16b. "Find What" should be auto filled in, "Replace With" this:
winbatch code:
"%IMDIR%\%APP%" "
(note the space & quote at the end, that is important)16c. Click [Replace All]
(The reason for this step is ImageMagick doesn't understand Full paths for some reason, only relative paths to where the batch is being run from [this is why we created it in the "4 Textures" folder])
Now you should have all of the files in "files.txt" beginning with something like this;
winbatch code:
"%IMDIR%\%APP%" "512x512\my_texture.png
16d. Now highlight the png in any line, and press Ctrl + H again, this time;"Find What" png
"Replace With" png"
NOTE THE QUOTE AT THE END OF PNG!
Now you list should have;
winbatch code:
"%IMDIR%\%APP%" "512x512\my_texture.png"
With the quotes on the end of the files17. Select All from the "files.txt" and paste in a new document (click the New icon top left in notepad++)
18. Highlight "%IMDIR%\APP%" (With the quotes) and press Ctrl + H.
18a. "Find What" "%IMDIR%\%APP%"
"Replace With" %OPTS%
Notice there are no quotes in %OPTS%
Now you list should have;
winbatch code:
%OPTS% "512x512\my_texture.png"
18b. Now highlight the .png in any line, and press Ctrl + H yet again, this time;"Find What" .png"
"Replace With" _alpha.png"
NOTE THE QUOTE AT THE END OF PNG!
Now you list should have;
winbatch code:
"%OPTS%" "512x512\my_texture_alpha.png"
19. Now this next part is a bit of a secret usage of Notepad++ that has saved me countless hours over the years:
I call it "Text Paint" because highlighting doesn't follow conventional Line by Line rules, instead it acts like a paint brush!
19a. In the new document you just edited, scroll to the bottom of the list.
19b. HOLD ALT AND THEN CLICK AND DRAG FROM THE VERY LEFT OF THE BOTTOM LINE ALL THE WAY UP TO THE TOP RIGHT
(NOTE THAT SOME LINES ARE LONGER THAN OTHERS, YOU _MUST_ LEAVE ENOUGH SPACE ON THE RIGHT FOR ALL LINES TO BE SELECTED)
TIP: Visually find the longest line and click at the end of it, note the "Col:" number in the bottom details bar.
19c. Now press Ctrl + C (Depending on the amount of lines in the file your computer might lag)
19d. Now go back to your files.txt file (while still in Notepad++)
19dd. Select the end of the FIRST LINE and hold space until you reach sufficient space for the modded list to be pasted
(Alternatively hold space until you reach the "Col:" number of the longest line - but it is best to add 1 or 2 spaces after this column for safety)
19e. Now immediately press Ctrl + V (paste) and the modded list should be pasted like paint down the right side (Depending on the amount of lines in the file your computer might lag again)
Note: However, after doing this, Notepad++ creates many many spaces between the pasted list and the original on the left, but i'll cover this in the next step.
20. Highlight any double space in the list, (" ") and press Ctrl + H, and Replace with a single space (" ")
20a. Press [Replace All] (Depending on the amount of lines in the file your computer might lag again)
20b. You will notice this hasn't fixed it completely, keep pressing [Replace All] Until the amount of replacements reaches zero.
21. Now you list should look something like this;
winbatch code:
"%IMDIR%\%APP%" "512x512\my_texture.png" %OPTS% "512x512\my_texture_alpha.png"
22. Now copy the list into the "extract_png_alpha.bat" where i have (You can remove the text)
23. Now save the batch file & if you are satisfied with it, close the files.txt file (DONT SAVE THIS LIST)
24. I would also usually add a PAUSE after the first file in the "extract_png_alpha.bat" to see if it has worked.
For example;
winbatch code:
"%IMDIR%\%APP%" "512x512\my_texture.png" %OPTS% "512x512\my_texture_alpha.png"
PAUSE
"%IMDIR%\%APP%" "512x512\my_texture2.png" %OPTS% "512x512\my_texture2_alpha.png"
"%IMDIR%\%APP%" "512x512\my_texture3.png" %OPTS% "512x512\my_texture3_alpha.png"
"%IMDIR%\%APP%" "512x512\my_texture4.png" %OPTS% "512x512\my_texture4_alpha.png"
PAUSE
"%IMDIR%\%APP%" "512x512\my_texture2.png" %OPTS% "512x512\my_texture2_alpha.png"
"%IMDIR%\%APP%" "512x512\my_texture3.png" %OPTS% "512x512\my_texture3_alpha.png"
"%IMDIR%\%APP%" "512x512\my_texture4.png" %OPTS% "512x512\my_texture4_alpha.png"
Note: the code above is word wrapped on ModDB (each line has a different colored background here, white and grey).
25. Now save & run the batch file.
Remember that we put the PAUSE after the first file, so no matter what the size of the image is it should display "Press Any Key To Continue..." almost immediately
DONT press any key until you have checked it has worked.
Note: Unfortunately ImageMagick doesn't display anything while processing the images so if my list is very large, i normally put a few ECHO's somewhere in the list,
like for each third of the list i'll put ECHO 33% Complete, ECHO 66% Complete, etc etc. Doesn't have to be exact just a rough guess
------------------------------------
--PART V--
--Creating an Embed Alpha batch using--
--ImageMagick & txt list from Part III--
------------------------------------
This part is similar to Part IV, this time we will need to use both the extract_alpha batch and the original files.txt.
26. Make a copy of "extract_png_alpha.bat" and rename it to "embed_alpha.bat"
27. Open "embed_alpha.bat" and "files.txt" in Notepad++
27a. In "embed_alpha.bat" highlight and replace this;
"Find What" SET OPTS=-alpha extract
"Replace With" SET OPT1=-alpha off
27b. Add the following line directly under the SET OPT1=-alpha off
SET OPT2=-compose copyopacity -composite
So the top of your "embed_alpha.bat" should now look like this;
winbatch code:
@ECHO OFF
SET IMDIR=C:\Program Files\ImageMagick-6.5.3-Q16
SET APP=convert.exe
SET OPT1=-alpha off
SET OPT2=-compose copyopacity -composite
SET IMDIR=C:\Program Files\ImageMagick-6.5.3-Q16
SET APP=convert.exe
SET OPT1=-alpha off
SET OPT2=-compose copyopacity -composite
27c. Highlight %OPTS% in any line and replace with %OPT1%
28. Now go to the files.txt list
28a. Once again highlight C:\TexTemp\4 Textures\ and press Ctrl + H, This time replace with: %OPT2% "
Note: the space and the quote after %OPT2%
- this is important and i always get caught with it
28b. Now go to the end of any line (still in the files.txt list) and replace .png with .tga"
Note: the " after .tga
28c. Now just like in step 19b, Hold Alt and drag from the very bottom left dragging to the top right to highlight the list
(Remembering about seeking the longest line and taking note of the Col: number)
28d. Press copy, then go back to the "embed_alpha.bat" file and once again seek out the longest line,
select the first line of the list (not of the whole batch file) and hold space until you reach the Col: number (or 1 or 2 spaces after)
28e. Press Paste (Depending on the amount of lines in the file your computer might lag)
28f. Repeat step 20:
20. Highlight any double space in the list, (" ") and press Ctrl + H, and Replace with a single space (" ")
20a. Press [Replace All] (Depending on the amount of lines in the file your computer might lag again)
20b. You will notice this hasn't fixed it completely, keep pressing [Replace All] Until the amount of replacements reaches zero.
29. Now you list should look something like this;
winbatch code:
"%IMDIR%\%APP%" "512x512\my_texture.png" %OPT1% "512x512\my_texture_alpha.png" %OPT2% "512x512\my_texture.tga"
Note: the code above is ONE line30. Now save the batch file & if you are satisfied with it, close the files.txt file
31. Again, add a PAUSE after the first file in the "embed_alpha.bat" to see if it has worked.
(The output is now TGA so you will need to load the file into Photoshop or something similar [I use Paint.NET to preview because it loads faster than Photoshop and also parses alphas])
32. Now save & run the batch file.
(Repeated from step 25)
Remember that we put the PAUSE after the first file, so no matter what the size of the image is it should display "Press Any Key To Continue..." almost immediately
DONT press any key until you have checked it has worked.
Note: Unfortunately ImageMagick doesn't display anything while processing the images so if my list is very large, i normally put a few ECHO's somewhere in the list,
like for each third of the list i'll put ECHO 33% Complete, ECHO 66% Complete, etc etc. Doesn't have to be exact just a rough guess
------------------------------------
--PART VI--
--Summary & Cleanup--
------------------------------------
Ok so now you should have a folder with both tga files, _alpha png's and the canvas sized pngs which with alot of files can get messy, i can also help in that deptartment :)
Create 2 new text files;
copy_tga.bat
copy_png_n_alphas.bat
1a. Open them in Notepad++
1b. In "copy_tga.bat" paste the following;
winbatch code:
@ECHO OFF
REM Frequently changed
SET TYP=TGA
SET EXT1=*.tga
REM Perma
SET TTL=Copy Utility [%TYP%]
SET DIR=..\%TYP%_TEMP
SET CPR=© 2008-2010 Jenkins. All Rights Reserved.
SET CPR2=(xer2k8@gmail.com - steam username: jenkins_08)
TITLE %TTL%
REM Make the Target directory
MKDIR %DIR%
REM Do the (x)copy
XCOPY "%EXT1%" %DIR% /S
REM Delete source files (CAUTION! - READ BELOW)
DEL /s %EXT1%
REM Move Target dir back to Source dir (MUST COME AFTER DEL COMMAND !!!)
MOVE "%DIR%" "%~dp0"
REM Done
ECHO ------------------------
ECHO %TTL% %CPR%
ECHO %CPR2%
ECHO ------------------------
ECHO Grab Completed at %TIME% - %DATE%
PAUSE
EXIT
REM Frequently changed
SET TYP=TGA
SET EXT1=*.tga
REM Perma
SET TTL=Copy Utility [%TYP%]
SET DIR=..\%TYP%_TEMP
SET CPR=© 2008-2010 Jenkins. All Rights Reserved.
SET CPR2=(xer2k8@gmail.com - steam username: jenkins_08)
TITLE %TTL%
REM Make the Target directory
MKDIR %DIR%
REM Do the (x)copy
XCOPY "%EXT1%" %DIR% /S
REM Delete source files (CAUTION! - READ BELOW)
DEL /s %EXT1%
REM Move Target dir back to Source dir (MUST COME AFTER DEL COMMAND !!!)
MOVE "%DIR%" "%~dp0"
REM Done
ECHO ------------------------
ECHO %TTL% %CPR%
ECHO %CPR2%
ECHO ------------------------
ECHO Grab Completed at %TIME% - %DATE%
PAUSE
EXIT
1c. In "copy_png_n_alphas.bat" paste the following;
winbatch code:
@ECHO OFF
REM Frequently changed
SET TYP1=PNG_ALPHA
SET TYP1=PNG
SET EXT1=*_alpha.png
SET EXT2=*.png
REM Perma
SET TTL=Copy Utility [PNG & PNG Alphas]
SET DIR1=..\%TYP1%_TEMP
SET DIR2=..\%TYP2%_TEMP
SET CPR=© 2008-2010 Jenkins. All Rights Reserved.
SET CPR2=(xer2k8@gmail.com - steam username: jenkins_08)
TITLE %TTL%
REM Make the Target directory
MKDIR %DIR1%
MKDIR %DIR2%
REM Do the (x)copy
XCOPY "%EXT1%" %DIR1% /S
XCOPY "%EXT2%" %DIR2% /S
REM Delete source files (CAUTION! - READ BELOW)
DEL /s %EXT1%
DEL /s %EXT2%
REM Move Target dir back to Source dir (MUST COME AFTER DEL COMMAND !!!)
MOVE "%DIR1%" "%~dp0"
MOVE "%DIR2%" "%~dp0"
REM Done
ECHO ------------------------
ECHO %TTL% %CPR%
ECHO %CPR2%
ECHO ------------------------
ECHO Grab Completed at %TIME% - %DATE%
PAUSE
EXIT
REM Frequently changed
SET TYP1=PNG_ALPHA
SET TYP1=PNG
SET EXT1=*_alpha.png
SET EXT2=*.png
REM Perma
SET TTL=Copy Utility [PNG & PNG Alphas]
SET DIR1=..\%TYP1%_TEMP
SET DIR2=..\%TYP2%_TEMP
SET CPR=© 2008-2010 Jenkins. All Rights Reserved.
SET CPR2=(xer2k8@gmail.com - steam username: jenkins_08)
TITLE %TTL%
REM Make the Target directory
MKDIR %DIR1%
MKDIR %DIR2%
REM Do the (x)copy
XCOPY "%EXT1%" %DIR1% /S
XCOPY "%EXT2%" %DIR2% /S
REM Delete source files (CAUTION! - READ BELOW)
DEL /s %EXT1%
DEL /s %EXT2%
REM Move Target dir back to Source dir (MUST COME AFTER DEL COMMAND !!!)
MOVE "%DIR1%" "%~dp0"
MOVE "%DIR2%" "%~dp0"
REM Done
ECHO ------------------------
ECHO %TTL% %CPR%
ECHO %CPR2%
ECHO ------------------------
ECHO Grab Completed at %TIME% - %DATE%
PAUSE
EXIT
2. Save & Close both files, then run them.
These 2 batch files will "grab" all of the images from all subdirectories using the EXT1/EXT2 mask set in the batch file.
So for the copy_tga.bat file, it will only grab all of the .tga files and wont touch anything else.
It will also "Restore folder structure" in the new temp folder that is created.
This file also deletes all the files that are "grabbed". If you don't want this to happen, put REM infront of the lines starting with DEL (e.g REM DEL /s %EXT1%)
It will then move the temp folder back into the current folder. Once again if you don't want this to happen, put REM infront of the lines starting with MOVE (e.g REM MOVE "
%DIR1%" "%~dp0")
Congratulations!
You have now completed this tutorial.
------------------------------------
--Credits--
------------------------------------
Thanks to the users at imagemagick forum for the extract alpha stuff
which has intern helped me to create this tutorial
I pretty much figured the rest out for myself lol.
This tutorial took me 2 and a half hours to write, so it should take you at least half that time to actually use (if your experienced enough).
Also lots of this tutorial can be used for many other things.
Friday, September 3, 2010
Recommended Resources #1: Game Developer Setup
Alrighty folks new segment to post some tips about game development and some of the avalaible resources you can get for free!.
This is what i install when i setup a new computer that i am going to use with game development:
Tip: To download files with FileHippo, click the links below, and choose the
Download Latest Version button
Windows Essentials for Developers:
For Designers:
For Programmers/Scripters:
Well that's about all i really install that is critical to game development in some way or another. Some of you may prefer alternative programs thats fine :)
Enjoy!
This is what i install when i setup a new computer that i am going to use with game development:
Tip: To download files with FileHippo, click the links below, and choose the
Download Latest Version buttonWindows Essentials for Developers:
- 7zip (32-bit) (64-bit)
- WinRar (32-bit) (64-bit)
- CCleaner
- AntiVirus (I use AVG)
- AntiMalware... (i recommend both Spybot S&D and MalwareBytes AntiMalware)
- Java Runtime Environment (JRE) (32-bit) (64-bit)
- (Optional) Zone Alarm Firewall (very good for blocking internet access to unknown programs -- easy to use)
- Auslogics Disk Defrag
- CPU-Z
- GPU-Z
- Notepad++
- Unlocker
- FileMenu Tools
- FileZilla Client
- JDownloader
- Firefox (With AdBlocker, Video DownloadHelper & DownloadStatusbar)
- Adobe AIR & Acrobat Reader
- Microsoft Silverlight
- ImgBurn
- Any Video Converter
- Any Audio Converter
- Crafty Viewer & GCF Scape (Source Engine modding only)
- Empty Folder Nuker (Portable)
- DupFinder (Portable) (mirror)
- OpenOffice
- Recuva
For Designers:
- Paint.NET
- InkScape
- ImageMagick+ (32bit) (64bit) (Portable 64bit)
- NVIDIA Texture Tools (DDS Plugin will NOT work on CS4/5 64bit -- use 32bit PS version instead)
- Terragen Classic (Great for creating fractal noise heightfeilds!)
- Blender and Milkshape 3D (Probably the best free 3D CAD programs around)
- SSBump Generator (Source Engine only)
- Photoshop VTF Plugins (Source Engine only -- will NOT work on CS4/5 64bit -- use 32bit PS version instead)
For Programmers/Scripters:
Well that's about all i really install that is critical to game development in some way or another. Some of you may prefer alternative programs thats fine :)
Enjoy!
Thursday, September 2, 2010
The Lounge #2: Firefox IMG Tooltips
Howdy readers!
I wanted to share with you all a quick tip about displaying Tooltips for image HTML in Firefox.
This is an overlooked feature that some people think is broken in Firefox, i myself thought it was broken until i looked into it and it turns out that IE is actually at fault here, well to be more precise people have been taught the wrong way to create tooltips in IE.
Normally a tooltip is displayed in IE using the "Alt" tag;
<img src="http://mysite.com/images/myimage.jpg" />
would display myimage.jpg on the page with no formatting
<img src="http://mysite.com/images/myimage.jpg" alt="This is my image" />
would display a tooltip saying "This is my image" but would only work in IE because the "alt" tag was actually designed for something else. IE has a sort of bug where it displays the "alt" tag as the tooltip.
This is actually not the correct way to code this, instead you should use "title" e.g;
<img src="http://mysite.com/images/myimage.jpg" title="This is my image" />
This will now display the tooltip in both Firefox and IE and probably other browsers like Chrome, Opera and Safari.
I hope this has been useful to someone :)
See you next time!
I wanted to share with you all a quick tip about displaying Tooltips for image HTML in Firefox.
This is an overlooked feature that some people think is broken in Firefox, i myself thought it was broken until i looked into it and it turns out that IE is actually at fault here, well to be more precise people have been taught the wrong way to create tooltips in IE.
Normally a tooltip is displayed in IE using the "Alt" tag;
<img src="http://mysite.com/images/myimage.jpg" />
would display myimage.jpg on the page with no formatting
<img src="http://mysite.com/images/myimage.jpg" alt="This is my image" />
would display a tooltip saying "This is my image" but would only work in IE because the "alt" tag was actually designed for something else. IE has a sort of bug where it displays the "alt" tag as the tooltip.
This is actually not the correct way to code this, instead you should use "title" e.g;
<img src="http://mysite.com/images/myimage.jpg" title="This is my image" />
This will now display the tooltip in both Firefox and IE and probably other browsers like Chrome, Opera and Safari.
I hope this has been useful to someone :)
See you next time!
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
The Lounge #1: Windows Shortcuts
As this is the first post here, i thought i should post some easy stuff.
Some of you may know these shortcuts, others may not. All my tutorials will be categorised into 3 different sections, "The Lounge" for beginner, "Rec Zone" for intermediate and "Pro Series" for advanced tutorials.
Alrighty a quick run-down of all the hidden key combination shortcuts i know of in Windows;
And finally i wanted to share another little shortcut that i discovered a while ago;
In Windows Vista and Windows 7, you can add your own folder shortcuts to the left hand pane in Windows Explorer by simply dragging the folder into the "Favorites" section. At the moment because i have just recently installed Windows 7, i've only got steamapps because i access that folder daily and its much quicker than opening Program files, then steam, then steamapps...
Well that's all i'll be posting on The Lounge for this week, stay tuned :)
Some of you may know these shortcuts, others may not. All my tutorials will be categorised into 3 different sections, "The Lounge" for beginner, "Rec Zone" for intermediate and "Pro Series" for advanced tutorials.
Alrighty a quick run-down of all the hidden key combination shortcuts i know of in Windows;
- Winkey + Pause|Break = Brings up system properties window. Especially useful when you want to find your system specs or access things like Environment variables or other advanced system properties.
- WinKey + D = Shows the desktop by minimising every window.
- WinKey + E = Opens Windows Explorer. (Opened folder by default is My Computer)
- WinKey + F = Opens a new search window.
- WinKey + G = Brings any desktop gadgets into view (Windows 7 only)
- WinKey + L = Locks the computer (Unknown effect if user has no password)
- WinKey + P = Opens the Multi-monitor switch window. (Windows 7 Only)
- WinKey + U = Opens "Ease of Access Center" for things like magnifier, OnScreen Keyboard etc.
- WinKey + R = Opens the "Run" dialogue. (Note: This is very useful if explorer.exe crashes and you have no way of getting your desktop and taskbar back. Just press WinKey + R then type "explorer.exe" without the quotes and it should reload your desktop and your taskbar)
- WinKey + TAB = Brings up the flipbook alternative to "Alt + TAB" (Windows Vista and 7 only)
- WinKey + M = Similar to WinKey + D. (Actually i can't find the difference)
- PrintScreen|SysRq (Also abbreviated to "PrntScrn" on some keyboards) = Takes a screenshot of what is displayed on your screen at the time of pressing the key. Note: It will only copy a screenshot to your clipboard, so you will have to open an image program like Paint or Photoshop to paste the captured screenshot. Also note; It does not capture your mouse pointer and may not work at all in some programs/games.
- Double clicking a word in a text document or anywhere where text is selectable will select the full word (any characters like _ and . and , etc will also be inlcuded in the word if they dont have a space before/after them. Go ahead try it on one of these words. Try_it_on_this and you will see it selects all of the "Try_it_on_this" because there are no space. (Note: Some text editors like the one i'm using to write this post work differently and don't select any special characters when double clicking the words)
- Related to the above, Triple clicking a word will select the entire paragraph or section of text where the word is located. In the editor i'm using now, it's smart enough to know that when i triple click, it selects only the current paragraph. Again some text editors may act differently.
And finally i wanted to share another little shortcut that i discovered a while ago;
In Windows Vista and Windows 7, you can add your own folder shortcuts to the left hand pane in Windows Explorer by simply dragging the folder into the "Favorites" section. At the moment because i have just recently installed Windows 7, i've only got steamapps because i access that folder daily and its much quicker than opening Program files, then steam, then steamapps...
Well that's all i'll be posting on The Lounge for this week, stay tuned :)
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