The Big Giant Icon Thread

[Xenos]

Why do these things get done when I  am nowhere near my computer!!! I will try the mac fix later and report back.

I think the question should rather be, why are you away from your computer, when these things get fixed!  ;)

I hope it works for you too...

[TinFoil]

Thanks to everyone who has worked on this project to get it to the point it is! It's a bitter sweet feeling to put time working on awesome character design (and tweaking unplayed power sets) only to hit that 'Next' button to realize City of Heroes is still gone.

[Captain Redwing]

YOU, my good sir, are absolutely brilliant!!

I just tried it (with the Beta client) and it worked perfectly. Not sure how you figured it out, but I am eternally grateful. Thank you very much.

Thank you! I was just trying different things, with preferences, with the Info.plst file, with the cider files, the launcher, trying every little thing I could think of. Then it just sort of hit me. What if it's still looking for that cider_noui file but also needs that version to be the regular cider file to get around the NC Soft launcher. So I tried it and lo and behold, it worked. Sometimes it's just all about trial and error.

[Tardigrade]

mwytrykus, thank you so much! I can confirm that with your steps, I can run both the i23 and i24 clients.

Codeweaver, if you can, please edit the Mac instructions in the first post in the thread. Just change step 9 to this:

9. Right-click on cider_noui and choose "Duplicate". Click slowly on the name "cider_noui copy" to rename it.  Change that name to just "cider".

[Tardigrade]

DeathToPoetry, thanks for the texture files. The gray is quite useful. They can be used on Macs:

Right click on the City of Heroes application and select Show Package Contents.
Go to Contents > Resources > transgaming > c_drive > coh.
If you don't see a folder called "data", create it.
Put the unzipped texture_library folder in the data folder.
Rename the files as in the original instructions.

How did you create the texture files? I've never been able to find details about the file format for City of Heroes texture files.

[Codewalker]

TL:DR - Mac users need to duplicate the file "cider_noui" and rename the copy to "cider", keeping both files. I hope this helps everyone.

9. Right-click on cider_noui and choose "Duplicate". Click slowly on the name "cider_noui copy" to rename it.  Change that name to just "cider".

Excellent, thanks! I'll update the steps to include that.

[Codewalker]

How did you create the texture files? I've never been able to find details about the file format for City of Heroes texture files.

They're mostly Microsoft DDS files prefixed with a small proprietary header that are either uncompressed RGBA for icons/UI elements or DXT1, 3, or 5 compressed (aka S3TC) for regular textures.

The header has a flag that can optionally indicate it wraps a plain JPEG file instead -- for loading screens.

struct texhdr {
        int32_t hdrsize;    // Also the offset of the start of image data
        int32_t imgsize;    // length of image data
        int32_t width;
        int32_t height;
        uint32_t flags;      // 0x20000 = JPEG
        uint32_t unknown[2];
        unsigned char alpha;    // Either 00 or 01
        unsigned char magic[3];    // "TX2"
        char filename[];     // null-terminated pathname of original source file. MUST MATCH WHAT THE GAME IS EXPECTING (except for file extension which is ignored)
};

Sandwiched after the name but before the image data you'll sometimes find cached copies of the mipmaps from the DDS; these are embedded for quick loading of low-quality textures during zone in to give you something to look at while the full versions are being loaded.

It's important to respect the width and height of the actual texture header. DDS files mandate a power-of-2 sizing, but the .texture header can shave off some of those. That's why the old PiggViewer program extracts some badge images incorrectly, because it ignores the texture header and just uses the values in the DDS file, so it gets some extra junk from the non-power-of-2 sized textures.

Which, incidentally, is the reason that I delved into the format to write my own tools in the first place. :)

[pmoyer]

TL:DR - Mac users need to duplicate the file "cider_noui" and rename the copy to "cider", keeping both files. I hope this helps everyone.

Just tried it here, on both my original I23 and the downloaded I24... it WORKS.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, HURRAH! :) ^_^

Thank you so much!

--- Philip

.... now, all we need to do is to figure out how to run it in NPC mode... ;)

[Xenos]

.... now, all we need to do is to figure out how to run it in NPC mode... ;)

NPC mode for the Mac turned out to be surprisingly simple. Meet my Pole Dancing Cop (just as proof that it works, of course):

https://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l235/xenos_cox/COH%20Icons/Screenshot2013-01-04at110845AM_zpsc964d938.png

All you need is one additional change in the info.plist file you place in Step 12:

Change:

Code Select Expand

<key>CiderGameOptions</key>
<string>-- icon.exe</string>


to:

Code Select Expand

<key>CiderGameOptions</key>
<string>-- icon.exe -n</string>


You simply add "-n".

Codewalker, maybe this step is something else you can add up front for the Mac user. Thanks.

I know the PC users went through this phase already...but it's great to have at least this part of the game back. And I just love the (limited) emotes we get in NPC mode.

[Arachnion]

You could have your characters do *any emote* if you rigged them into a demorecord properly.

I advise going over the Demo Recording sub-forum in Multimedia if you've never messed with demos before.

Though I'm not quite sure how/if demorecords work on Macs....  :P

http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Demo_Editing/List_of_MOVs#Valid_MOVs_for_the_player_skeleton

EMOTE_AIR_GUITAR_CYCLE is the first line for 'motes and where they start in the above list.

[blackjak]

Finally got time to check it out and.......IT WORKS!  ;D ;D ;D ;D
I am on OSX Lion and the double cider file fix worked like a charm. Now to do the NPC version up...
Thanks a million for the find!

[ThePhlebotomist]

Thank you so much!  I was surprised at how powerful a reaction I had interacting my characters again with the music in the background!

[MisterMagpie]

Yay! Thanks, Codewalker! You're the best.

[no hero]

My main is in his signature costume and practicing attacks for my enjoyment.
While I have always planned on seeing my Reg again, I never believed it would be so soon.
The first words out of my mouth were, "Hello, old friend." I'm literally crying from joy right now.
Thank you, Codewalker.

In your debt and currently in my tears, @no hero.

[Mouse-Man]

https://images.weserv.nl/?url=img841.imageshack.us%2Fimg841%2F2452%2Fmetallicpattern001.jpg  https://images.weserv.nl/?url=img839.imageshack.us%2Fimg839%2F685%2Fsimplestripes001.jpg

A couple of pattern edits I have done on my end. The metallic pattern replaces the "checkers" pattern and the simple stripe pattern replaces "stars 1". This is really where I would like to be able to add to the choices rather than replace them. I love classic spandex options and if I could, I'd keep adding to the patterns as an idea came up. I really do not like replacing existing options.

[Attache]

I just found out about this and I couldn't be more pleased. If CoH HAD to go away, getting an offline creator was the one thing I'd hoped to see. Thanks to everyone who worked on it. You're all awesome.

I have to admit, though, it is somewhat tough to make your costume and then not be able to get into the city. And don't think I didn't try.  ;)

[Golden Ace]

I just found out about this and I couldn't be more pleased. If CoH HAD to go away, getting an offline creator was the one thing I'd hoped to see. Thanks to everyone who worked on it. You're all awesome.

I have to admit, though, it is somewhat tough to make your costume and then not be able to get into the city. And don't think I didn't try.  ;)

I think we all did...

:(

[Starhammer]

https://images.weserv.nl/?url=img841.imageshack.us%2Fimg841%2F2452%2Fmetallicpattern001.jpg 

A couple of pattern edits I have done on my end. The metallic pattern replaces the "checkers" pattern and the simple stripe pattern replaces "stars 1". This is really where I would like to be able to add to the choices rather than replace them. I love classic spandex options and if I could, I'd keep adding to the patterns as an idea came up. I really do not like replacing existing options.

That metallic pattern is a beautiful effect. Wish I could have had that back in the day...

[hurple]

OK, I just built a new PC (Win 7), so I don't have CoX on it.  However, I still have my old files on my old PC (Win XP)

So, if I install the game using the old installer, the copy the last code-base over it from the old machine, should that give me access?  Or, is all that too much work, and all I have to do is copy the code from the XP machine to the Win 7 machine?  I mean I don't *need* the link from the desktop to my game code, right?  Is that all I would lose by just doing a straight copy rather than the install/copy over thing...

Oh, and BTW... If anybody is interested or cares, when looking through my saved install files to decide what to put on my new PC, I found the standalone character creator from the failed overseas launch.  Does anybody want it?   ;D

[Arachnion]

OK, I just built a new PC (Win 7), so I don't have CoX on it.  However, I still have my old files on my old PC (Win XP)

So, if I install the game using the old installer, the copy the last code-base over it from the old machine, should that give me access?  Or, is all that too much work, and all I have to do is copy the code from the XP machine to the Win 7 machine?  I mean I don't *need* the link from the desktop to my game code, right?  Is that all I would lose by just doing a straight copy rather than the install/copy over thing...

Oh, and BTW... If anybody is interested or cares, when looking through my saved install files to decide what to put on my new PC, I found the standalone character creator from the failed overseas launch.  Does anybody want it?   ;D

Here you go. Beta client will give you all Live server had, and more. Plus it works with Icon and all demos.

http://www.savecoh.com/p/download-issue-24-beta.html

>Standalone character creator

Dude, that is OLD. As in, we don't need it *at all*. As in, 2006/2007 old. It's not even good for memories/investigation.

Titan Icon is *the* character creator we need, and none other.