CVR Editor v1 (4/2/2014) is now available.

[Ford_Prefect]

Is this indicating a current lack of interest in promoting it?  I'd point out that promoting would tend to help bring in those people who might make the breakthroughs you hope for. 

No.  I'm interested in promoting it.  I've reached the limit of what I can figure out about the caviar file format without help.  It will probably take someone who knows assembly or knows how to de-compile a program looking at the caviar player and/or SMAC to figure out the rest of the specification involving normals and colors.

[Ford_Prefect]

Why the .cvr part in particular, though?

It was the only major graphics component that no one could read.  I could use any of the other images for the terrain, faces, gui, etc, but the actual units were in the cvr file format.  I thought it would be quicker and easier to figure out the .cvr format than it would be to recreate the units from scratch in blender. (I was wrong.  )

[Buster's Uncle]

What can be done with your .cvr editor?

[Ford_Prefect]

What can be done with your .cvr editor?

The editor allows one to re-texture any unit found in Alpha Centauri in its native cvr format.  Each part of the unit can be viewed independently for painting. The editor also can export what it knows about the current cvr file into a human readable text format. 

[Buster's Uncle]

Could I turn the colony pod into a covered wagon with it?

[Ford_Prefect]

Could I turn the colony pod into a covered wagon with it?

No.   Currently, the tool only allows you to change the colors of the units, not their shape.  It is a paint tool, not a modeler. 

[Buster's Uncle]

What do you think can be done in the future, assuming some breakthroughs?

[Ford_Prefect]

What do you think can be done in the future, assuming some breakthroughs?

Currently, there is enough known about caviar (cvr) to create a 3d version of the editor.  I might try to create this after I've improved my 3d programing skills.

One breakthrough would be if someone figured out where the rest of the color values are stored in the file.  Right now the last 10-20 colors are unknown for each model.  If someone figured it out, I could quickly fix the color palette to display the colors correctly.

A major breakthrough would be if someone figured out the values for normals... then almost anything would be possible.   Normals would allow us to truly modify the units to appear however we wanted them to be.  Knowing the normals would also allow us to export the units to blender and other games. 

[Buster's Uncle]

Okay, define normal for non-tech types to whom that last would make no sense.

...

If you want to make up your own questions and answer them, that's great, too.  This stage of making a promotion news item has no rules.  Write bits for the first draft if anything occurs to you, and you want.  Whatever.  We'll pretty it all up, so no pressure.

[Ford_Prefect]

Okay, define normal for non-tech types to whom that last would make no sense.

A normal tells the software how light should reflect off of a surface.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_mapping

[Ford_Prefect]

What would be great is if someone posted some pictures of modified units to show off what can be done.

[Buster's Uncle]

I'd thought the same thing.  An advantage this definitely has over the Yitzi patch story is we have pics.  A few good ones already posted.


Anything you'd care to relate about yourself as a fan, forumite, gamer, modder, tech guy or whatever?

Maybe talk about AC and you a little?

[Ford_Prefect]

I made a wiki page to hold what I know about the caviar file specification.
Caviar (.cvr) specification. (WIP)

[Buster's Uncle]

What have I not asked about yet that I should have, and what answer.  What do you want people to know about the project?

Do you think we're getting anywhere near covering things adequately for an article?

[Ford_Prefect]

What do you want people to know about the project?

• Modders can now give the SMAC units a paint job.
• Help is needed to figure out the rest if the caviar file format.
• The units in SMAC are a voxel based 3d (like minecraft)

Do you think we're getting anywhere near covering things adequately for an article?

Probably.  I can't really think of anything more to say.