Author Topic: Confession ( more like questions) from a newbie ZT designer. (Read 2709 times)

MarineManiac · « **on:** January 27, 2007, 08:24:00 AM »

Okay I've looked up these looked up these questions to make sure they weren't already answered, and I did not find them.

okay to start off i'm going to try my hand at ZT designing (because I couldn't figure out ZT2 designing:laughing: )

I basically kind of know way around APE already but I have extra questions.

- How can you edit other animals and objects not in APE? I want to recolor some plants and other animals but they aren't in APE. How can I get them?

- How can you resize animals and objects?

- How can you edit the animal icon and the picture for the zoopedia?

- How can you make RCT objects for ZT?

- Is there a way to recolor things all at one time without doing it frame by frame?

I think that's it. Any help would be much appreciated! Please.

MarineManiac · « **Reply #1 on:** January 27, 2007, 10:50:48 AM »

Oh and one more thing. When you actually make pixilation adjustments to the animations is there a way to copy what you did a similar animation without starting over?

JohnZTMaster · « **Reply #2 on:** January 27, 2007, 12:19:42 PM »

I'll answer some:

- The plaque and icon cannot be 'edited' but you can make new ones and load them in.

- You can't resize in zt1.

- There is a recoloring guide available somwhere, but it's a very long process, and no offense meant, but It would take me half-an-hour to type it all up. Plus it doesn't always work

- Editing things not in APE - There's an ape enhancement for dinos and aquatic beasts, but I don't know about objects.

That's all I can really supply, hope it helps.

MarineManiac · « **Reply #3 on:** January 27, 2007, 12:26:37 PM »

Thanks for the help. I have the APE enhancement but it has no plants at all and is missing quite a bit of animals. What I meant is, is there any way to get ZT foliage and objects that aren't on APE onto APE. Put simply how can I edit plants and other objects? Don't worry about typing the re-coloring guide, if you could find a link, whenever, that'd work too.

Any extra help anyone can provide would be great. The more info the better.

MarineManiac · « **Reply #4 on:** January 29, 2007, 06:37:08 AM »

I have a question. I've seen that people have edited animals like the Bowhead Whale, Mermaids, and other animals that weren't in APE. How do you edit those animals. For example I would like to edit the Orca but its not in APE how do I edit it? Also I want to edit the Cherry Tree, Globe Willow, and Snowbell but they aren't in APE, so how would I edit those?

MarineManiac · « **Reply #5 on:** January 30, 2007, 09:04:00 AM »

Does anyone know how to extract files from ZT for use in editing? Where can I find other animals besides the ones in APE. I would like to edit the Orca and some plants, so where are they located and how can can I edit them?? Thanks.

csleesburg · « **Reply #6 on:** January 30, 2007, 09:15:50 AM »

The original entities are in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Zoo Tycoon 2\entities.
The ES files are in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Zoo Tycoon 2\x100_000
The AA files are in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Zoo Tycoon 2\x110_000
The MM files are in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Zoo Tycoon 2\x200_000

You'll need WinZip or WinRar to extract those files.

MarineManiac · « **Reply #7 on:** January 30, 2007, 11:04:03 AM »

Thanks csleesburg! I was talking about about for ZT1 though, but these will help because I thinking about doing ZT2 designing recently!

Yellowrose · « **Reply #8 on:** January 30, 2007, 12:34:30 PM »

To do plants etc that don't show in ape you would need to open the other ztd files in zoot. Make sure you download the bets version with the b in it as it fixed an error in the earlier version.

You may also want to visit Zoo Tycoon ABC and download the APEXP version as it includes more of the game items and animals.

You rename the ztd extension to zip extension. Then extract the file making sure you check the use folder names box in winzip. once the file is extracted open zoot and navigate to the main folder you put the extracted file in when you extract a ztd that has multiple items in it you would navigate in zoot to the folder with the ape generated ID number for each of the items you want to save images from( example 12345678) then open the idle folder. In zoot click on the little pic icon and the image should show in the right hand window. you will then notice the menu buttons at the top of the zoot window will not be highlighted and ready to use. can't remember which one off hand but one of them will let you save the zt image you see to your comupter in png format. You then use a graphics program to edit the png files. You will have to edit each image as there is now way that I am aware of to edit all images at once.

Once you have all the images edited you then use ape to make a new object making sure it is based of of something that has the approximate same footprint.

To edit other areas for animal stats etc you will need to edit the file ucs/ucs/ai files. You can find a lot of useful editing guides for this at ZKL. Jay has done some awesome stuff there that is very useful for creating. Also check the directory site. Both Jay and Fern have posted some great design info there as well.

Hope this helps.

You will find a lot of the game stuff not in ape by looking in the different ingame ztd files like scenery.ztd animals.ztd some of them may have numbers in the filename as well for the different expansions added like animals5.ztd etc.

Don't work directly with the ztds in the game folder always use copy and paste to give you a working file located in another place on your system like a new folder on your desktop. This will help prevent you messing up the game.

the ztd files can be found in the updates and dupdates folder and some I think even in the main zt folder.

MarineManiac · « **Reply #9 on:** January 30, 2007, 01:15:34 PM »

Thanks Yellowrose! But what is zoot?

Yellowrose · « **Reply #10 on:** January 30, 2007, 06:05:20 PM »

it's a nice little program that lets you easily do rotation fixes on objects you make along with extracting images from ztd files after they are renamed to zip files and extracted. It will also let you replace images if you have to edit them further when you look at them in zoot and see something wrong. It does a lot but has it's times when it's not perfect as well. But for the most part is a great companion to ape for making your own things. I have been using it for over a year and find it easy once you know how the program works.

MarineManiac · « **Reply #11 on:** January 31, 2007, 06:50:18 AM »

Okay thanks! Here's my latest problem. I finished my first project, its a plant but it has this weird background. How do you get rid of it? ( See attachement)

RedNotDead · « **Reply #12 on:** January 31, 2007, 07:19:15 AM »

to get rid of the background you have to make the backgroud of the item a very bright colur (or so i have found) i useually use a bright neon green or purple. this makes it so the program will not pick up the background as its all one solid colour.

MarineManiac · « **Reply #13 on:** January 31, 2007, 09:07:54 AM »

Thanks! But how would you change the background? I have Adobe Photoshop.

RedNotDead · « **Reply #14 on:** January 31, 2007, 09:17:26 AM »

from what i can remember (its been ages since i did any zt1 stuff) you use the fill brush and fill in all the background. you have to cut away all the image you do not want to show up (use a background that has the clour you want then you cut away the parts of the image you dont want to show which should leave the colur in the background i usually use the majic brush icon and enlarge the image so i can delte pixel by pixel for fiddly stuff.

MarineManiac · « **Reply #15 on:** January 31, 2007, 09:19:43 AM »

I'll try that, thanks!

MarineManiac · « **Reply #16 on:** January 31, 2007, 11:48:36 AM »

Ok I tried it and still can't figure it out. I couldn't find any of the tools you mentioned except for the magic wand tool, which won't cover all of my pixels it leaves a lot out that need to be in there. I have version 2.0 would that make a difference? I think I need a extrememly detailed instructions, I might never figure this out, LOL!

Edit: I tried using the magic wand and made it a bright purple, but when I tested it, the black was gone, but the purple replaced it.

Yellowrose · « **Reply #17 on:** January 31, 2007, 01:31:47 PM »

Make sure the top most left pixel is the same background color, that is the pixel APE uses to decide transparency, also your image must be saved in png or bmp format.

After you use the magic wand to color the background zoom in on the image and check the top left corner of the image in the zoomed view and make sure it is colored the same color as your background color if not then color it the same and then save and try in ape again.

the C in the represents the top corner pixel
the x your background color
the i to represent part of an image

Cxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxiiiiixxxxxxxxx

MarineManiac · « **Reply #18 on:** January 31, 2007, 03:21:34 PM »

Ok I'll try that too, thanks!

casey · « **Reply #19 on:** February 02, 2007, 08:33:43 PM »

Zoot is program that you can download from the download section. It lets you change the format of the images from the type that ZT requires to the type that you can edit (.png) and back to the ZT type again.

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Author Topic: Confession ( more like questions) from a newbie ZT designer. (Read 2709 times)