Having issues extracting the bitmaps from Keen 4 Ultimate

[Gagster]

I have more recently extracted the bitmaps from Keen 1-6 (I redid the graphics in Keen 4-6 for Commander Genius in a MS-DOS VGA 256 color palette as seen here), but I'm now having issues trying to extract the bitmaps from the mod Keen 4 Ultimate, using ModKeen in DOSBox. I had no issues extracting the bitmaps from the Keen 4 mod Eight Accumulators yesterday.



This is what ModKeen tells me in DOSBox once I try to extract the bitmaps. I have done the necessary steps of dragging the Keen4e.exe file onto the UNLZEXE.exe file, having CWSDPMI.exe installed in the same folder and made a graphic folder inside before doing this through DOSBox.

I downloaded Keen 4 Ultimate through the mod launcher in Commander Genius.

[K1n9_Duk3]

I can't say what's going wrong on your end, but you could try using a different tool to extract the graphics. My level viewer should be able to load the graphics of most mods. Once the levels have been loaded into that program, you can press F4 to export all the graphics (tilesets, sprites etc.) as PNG images.

I tested it on a copy of UCK4 I had on my harddisk and it worked, but I might have hacked my version of the mod so that I can use my tools on it.

Edit: It would be a lot easier if Gommander Genius had an option to export the tileset graphics for you. If CG supports the game/mod, it is obviously able to load the (modded) graphics from the EGAGRAPH file. It would only require a few lines of code to make the CG export the graphics in a format that can be edited with somewhat modern tools.

[Gagster]

Thanks; that actually worked. The file structure for the extracted files are a bit different from what ModKeen produces, but this tool sure has some nice features. I can play and have some fun with this tool as well.

I agree that it could be easier is CGenius had the ability to extract the graphics by itself; an artist that's not familiar with DOSBox at all could have issues just getting the required tilemaps extracted from the gamefiles using ModKeen, and thereby give up before deciding to either change- or improve on existing graphics in either official Keen games or in one of the many provided mods.

I had to ask on the CGenius forums myself for how to extract the tilemaps; I got the help I needed to do so and other than the mod Keen 4 Ultimate, ModKeen worked fine for me using DOSBox.

Maybe having such a feature in CGenius would inspire more people to do their own take on adding more colors to existing graphics in Keen games?

[gerstrong]

Thanks; that actually worked. The file structure for the extracted files are a bit different from what ModKeen produces, but this tool sure has some nice features. I can play and have some fun with this tool as well.

I agree that it could be easier is CGenius had the ability to extract the graphics by itself; an artist that's not familiar with DOSBox at all could have issues just getting the required tilemaps extracted from the gamefiles using ModKeen, and thereby give up before deciding to either change- or improve on existing graphics in either official Keen games or in one of the many provided mods.

I had to ask on the CGenius forums myself for how to extract the tilemaps; I got the help I needed to do so and other than the mod Keen 4 Ultimate, ModKeen worked fine for me using DOSBox.

Maybe having such a feature in CGenius would inspire more people to do their own take on adding more colors to existing graphics in Keen games?

Just read your lines. In fact I have a hardcoded exporter for smaller tests. It is not enabled by default though. I can change that, if you want, so using some command line parameter would export the graphics.

[Gagster]

That would be nice

[gerstrong]

That would be nice

Created a ticket for that: https://gitlab.com/Dringgstein/Commande ... issues/431

[gerstrong]

Alright guys, since commit a4735ca2 it is now possible to extract all the graphics of Keen 1-6. Just use this commit or later here:

https://gitlab.com/Dringgstein/Commande ... /pipelines

and pass as command parameter "exportGfx=on". Now every game or mod you start will get all the graphics extracted. Have fun!

This feature will be included in CG version 2.4.6 or later.