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

[Buster's Uncle]

I need to read back through what we've already got.  I never feel caught up since BE was announced.

[ete]

Did you come across http://www.graphicsgroups.com/5-graphics-algorithms/cf6d650baaf8850c.htm

Particularly:

>Hi again!
>There is this article about Animatek's new Caviar Technology in one issue
>of Game Developer.
>It's supposed to be some system that renders truly 3D pixel characters in
>realtime.
>It sounds a bit like voxels to me, but it's much faster.
>The demo they have on the Animatek website looked pretty impressive.
>Does anyone have any idea how it is done?i

I suppose, they store all voxels of the
surface in a array that looks something
like this:
struct Voxel {
   char Color;
   char nextVoxel;
   Normal normal;
  };
Voxel Surface[NumVoxels];
'nextVoxel' describes the relative position
of this voxel to the previous voxel. If
subsequent voxels are always neighboured, there
are only 26 possible values for nextVoxel
(i.e. nextVoxel ranges from 0 to 25).
To render a parallel projected surface, you
first create for each position of the viewer
an array that contains the values for the
relative positions of the neighboured voxels
in _screen_ coordinates:
 Vector relVoxelPosition[26];
Now, compute the screen position of the first
voxel, and you can compute the positions
of the subsequent voxel using only additions.
At each Voxel, compute the intensity using
the stored surface normal, and draw it as
a single pixel (or as a square of pixels).
Maybe it is a good idea, to render the
surface always at a constant size, and
sample it down before drawing it on the
screen.
Hidden Surface removal can be done either with
a z-Buffer, or by subdividing the surface into
smaller pieces, that are rendered back to front.
I suppose, this method should be fast enough
for realtime rendering, since it contains no
expensive operations (about four times
more expensive than bumpmapping).

[DrazharLn]

Glad that you managed to work out the cvr format. I emailed the company that bought the company that wrote the original software in 2010 and they said they'd make the editor available.

And then they never did QQ

Maybe I should bother them again.

[Buster's Uncle]

Yes.

[DrazharLn]

Done

[Buster's Uncle]

    That there's how things get done.

[Ford_Prefect]

Did you come across http://www.graphicsgroups.com/5-graphics-algorithms/cf6d650baaf8850c.htm

No I didn't.  I had to figure that out on my own.

[ete]

Okay. I did not know of it until just before I posted it. Was looking around on google (.cvr caviar) for things that may be helpful to you, but too late to be of much use, .

[Ford_Prefect]

Sooo.... anyone working on unit mods? 

[Geo]

 

[Buster's Uncle]

I'm working on the promotional story...

[Linamints]

@Ford_Prefect I have been off and on, sorry for dropping off for awhile.
It's been a lot of fun!

[Buster's Uncle]

Ford, submitted for your approval:  I did the story up as an interview - since we'll be putting it out over multiple platforms, I simplified the formatting as much as possible.  sisko will probably have some idea about how to format the list at the end, and will probably make other minor changes, but this should be basically it.  Feel free to make suggestions, or amplify your remarks.  Concise is good.

Sorry to have taken so long.





Ford_Prefect’s .cvr Editor Released: Interview with the Creator


One of the best features of Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri/Alien Crossfire is its wonderful modability - which, thanks to SMACer Ford_Prefect, has now been expanded.

SMACX, although a science fiction game, is a robust enough engine that modders have frequently want to do retro-mods.  There is a massive WWII scenario extant, and much work was done several years ago on a Middle-Earth TCM.

In such cases, the drawback of the SMACX platform was the proprietary., and obsolete, .cvr format units were in, which no one in the fan community could modify from their science fiction look, or alter into different science fiction looks.  Now, Ford_Prefect has created the first .cvr editor available to SMACers - and he’s looking for technical help to expand its modest capabilities.

AC2 interviewed Ford about his creation in April:

---

AC2:  How did you first take an interest in this project?

Ford_Prefect:  I wanted to try to make a smac clone.  So I googled around and found out no one knew how to read the calviar format(.cvr).  So I figured, what the heck... I'll give it a try.


AC2:  Why the .cvr part in particular, though?[/quote]

Ford_Prefect:  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.  )


AC2:  What can be done with your .cvr editor?

Ford_Prefect:  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.


AC2:  Could I turn the colony pod into a covered wagon with it?

Ford_Prefect:  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. 


AC2:  What do you think can be done in the future, assuming some breakthroughs?

Ford_Prefect:  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. 


AC2:  Okay, define normal for non-tech types to whom that last would make no sense.

Ford_Prefect:  A normal tells the software how light should reflect off of a surface.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_mapping
I made a wiki page to hold what I know about the caviar file specification.
Caviar (.cvr) specification. (WIP)


AC2:  What do you want people to know about the project?

Ford_Prefect: 

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

---

More information and a link to the editor can be found here:
http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=7866.0  Ford, and the rest of the SMACX modding community, would greatly appreciate your feedback and support.

[Ford_Prefect]

Looks good!

Sorry about being in-active but I've been busy with farm work.  In another month or two I should have more free time to work on side projects again. 

Hope this attracts some more modders to the forums!  (Or hopefully someone who can reverse engineer the cvr format the rest of the way.)

[Buster's Uncle]

No sweat.  Sorry about running out of steam about getting this done any sooner.