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Tchos

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Friday, November 5th 2010, 1:11am

Patrician 3 Graphics modding (portraits, interiors, etc.)

This is not a tip or trick per se, but the International forum doesn't have a "General" area or otherwise appropriate area for this. I've been exploring the files on my own, since I can't find anyone else who has made graphic mods for this game, but I'm limited by a certain file format. First, see what I've done so far:


An example of the wife portrait replacement, which I think is more pleasing to the eye.


A replacement of the money lender.

I'm also working on a new version of the sea map.

The problem is that the original graphics are packaged inconsistently. Some of the animated graphics are simply a series of BMPs, and I can edit those fine (the priest, the ship captain, etc). But others are an unknown format called .aim, and I can't find any way to open or extract these files, which I'm sure is just a container for a simple series of images like what's used elsewhere.

So, has anyone else done anything about this, or knows how to handle this kind of file?

Falko

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Friday, November 5th 2010, 8:12am

i played with the graphics but never looked @ the aim files
at the moment i work fourP2G/P3 projects at the same time on of them is a system to set the towns to new positions on the map
e.g. move Groningen to helgoland, flensburg to kiel , ruegenwald to greifswald ...

Tchos

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Friday, November 5th 2010, 6:19pm

Well, I hope someone, somewhere knows what to do with these .ani files. I tried Dragon UnPACKer 5, but it couldn't recognise them.

Bayta

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Tuesday, November 16th 2010, 8:32pm

I did some research on this a long time ago. The .aim file is a proprietary format (Ascaron Image). I have not had any luck opening them with any utilities I have.

Good luck with your quest. If you find a solution, please post it here.

Brasileiro

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Wednesday, November 17th 2010, 12:57am

I also spent many hours on this format, but to no avail. I think it uses some type of compression but probably no encryption.

Tchos

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Wednesday, November 17th 2010, 11:30pm

Well, that is unfortunate, but it's good to hear from others who have tried to deal with it.

How about this -- If I can't edit the .aim files, can you suggest a way to disable them? I would be happier with an unmoving picture with more character than the moving Poser 2-looking 3D models of the original, in the cases such as the moneylender, where the animation is in .aim files instead of .bmp series.

I've already tried replacing those files with empty files of the same names, but apparently the game engine recognises them as invalid files and defaults to the ones in the .pak.

In the meantime I'll just experiment blindly and try to find an animation file that's small enough not to be noticed on the image, since the animation is only for whatever small areas in the overall pictures are moving (I assume done to save either space or processing power).

Tchos

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Friday, November 19th 2010, 6:33am

While I'm at it, where is a good place to post the mods I complete? For other games I mod, there are active databases where I can upload them. I can put together my mods in separate packages, like a "wife portrait mod", a "sea map mod", and a "misc non-animated interiors" mod.

billyplod

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Sunday, February 17th 2013, 9:14pm

Long time since this was posted but ......

The .AIM files are "Ascaron Image Format" - propritary imaging - I think they used it first in Darkstar One - the file header gives the image type and the image data is stored Pixcel by Pixcel - one byte - one pixcel but without a list of the colour codes - even trying to create an image using pixcel paint then translating it could (would) be a long job.

Falko

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Sunday, February 17th 2013, 9:22pm

hi billyplod
the german version was released approx. 2000 - don't know about the english version.
darkstar one was 2004
to bad there is no usable solution for Aim files atm. :(

Phantom

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Monday, February 18th 2013, 9:14am

can anybody post about how wife's mod ?
it could be quite interesting.