Any time you like. I just thought I'd wait to see if you run into any problems.

Would it be possible to add an option to switch between texture packs so I don't have to add/remove when I want to use another set (Gambit, John, Quest)?

Would be nice. I'll have a think about that one, and maybe do something when the new format starts getting used.

I've recently reinstalled Windows XP on a fully reformatted drive, and stupidly I didn't back up my Glidos folder before doing so. I lost my texture mapping file I was working on.

I've tried recreating it, but can't seem to get it to load the replacement textures. I've tried it with and without trailing slashes. I also have TextureOverride: Yes. What have I missed?

1GLIDOS TEXTURE MAPPING
2
3ROOT: F:\Projects\Tomb Raider Xtra\Hi Res Replacements\Override Folders\
4
5// Title / main Menu
6
7BASE: title\
8
9E7504AFB7D3264410C74C2EA777AB1F3 E7504AFB7D3264410C74C2EA777AB1F3
10EFE6179F82CA4471725D4532BC8AA60D EFE6179F82CA4471725D4532BC8AA60D
1100AE19B7C0B2D045AE54A1683C076786 00AE19B7C0B2D045AE54A1683C076786
128F2FA7061AB2E84279F2292FDD537C46 8F2FA7061AB2E84279F2292FDD537C46
139DB0846B3F90F68744D01237BFCE59CB 9DB0846B3F90F68744D01237BFCE59CB
14474C2C91326153751CC40C34817E6800 474C2C91326153751CC40C34817E6800
156018E6431FA65017D0F703FC8E60D589 6018E6431FA65017D0F703FC8E60D589
168880FD9B651C257778549A7EE7A2E450 8880FD9B651C257778549A7EE7A2E450
17C1135A3AA842C8E3CDD2493E48CFAE7F C1135A3AA842C8E3CDD2493E48CFAE7F
18
19
20// Level 1: The Caves
21
22BASE: level01_Caves
23
24198EC2D38EF00FEA1653750E8B237D7F 198EC2D38EF00FEA1653750E8B237D7F
25203D6ED9632B742A2209637764C375F6 203D6ED9632B742A2209637764C375F6
2654637C4BF0304439B63F51D3A5EEA382 54637C4BF0304439B63F51D3A5EEA382
2760812F71A9287004111BA82EF2404371 60812F71A9287004111BA82EF2404371
28708171E626AA342A07B8567EA8A1A53D 708171E626AA342A07B8567EA8A1A53D
29C0B3E0125D1A1A0FF5DBBCA296F8AD4F C0B3E0125D1A1A0FF5DBBCA296F8AD4F
30F7EB7D4BB45372D13AF34500AD82B217 F7EB7D4BB45372D13AF34500AD82B217
316C7FE41E229619C7ACDED8A8538E3F4E 6C7FE41E229619C7ACDED8A8538E3F4E
328B4825478FAB43844E3D4CB077E97613 8B4825478FAB43844E3D4CB077E97613
3357A26AB453DED38FE830BB44A64A71F0 57A26AB453DED38FE830BB44A64A71F0

Here's my Tomb Raider Glidos settings:

1Name: Tomb Raider
2Executable: C:\Tombraid\Tomb.exe
3ExeSizes: 873739
4DosGraphics: Yes
5VESASupport: Yes
6ControlJudderFix: 1
7Resolution: 2
8FullScreen: No
9ForcedTextureSmoothing: Yes
10TextureOverride: Yes
11Mp3BackgroundSounds: Yes
12RedbookEmulation: Yes

Doh! Never mind - I'd put the mappings file in the Glidos folder, not the textures folder. It's fine now!

😁 Easily done.

How come you are sticking with the strange folder names, by the way? Is that just temporary?

Yes, purely temporary. It's easier during development I think -- I'll consolidate them all as I get further with the project -- and yes, it's not forgotten....

Messing a round with my texture management, I suddenly realised something that would make the whole thing a lot easier.

When you capture the textures using Glidos, it generates a file called complete.bmp. All the documentation on your site says to delete it as it's unused. However, isn't it possible to simply replace this texture with a high-res compound texture that's 1024x1024 and get Glidos to read bits and pieces of that instead? It would be sooooooooooooooooooooooo much easier to manage. We could forget about all the fiddly stuff and just make sure that every element gets updated on that one big tile....?

Here's hoping....!

Glad to hear you haven't forgotton about the project Gambit. I look forward to seeing more of your work 😀.

Did you see my post about the complete.bmp Paul?

I thought about this some more since I reordered my folders. I'm now using shared elements between each set of levels (Peru for example). This means that if you could somehow allow use of complete.bmp it would only really be useful for the sprite pages and not so much the wall/floor textures.

It would be difficult anyway. The texture override system sits between DOS Glidos and Windows Glide. Hence it can create textures no bigger than 256x256. I would have to break the 1024x1024 slab into 16 parts, and then if a texture straddled two, it would be quite nasty breaking some triangle renders into two parts. Not something I really fancy.

OK, not to worry -- thought there might be some nasty restrictions like that...

Gambit, did you finish the weapons texture? I like the UZIs texture on your site. Also can we have a look on "new" Lara?

No. No. Not yet, anyway. 🤣

And please post feedback in the other feedback thread. This one was supposed to be about texture management, and things are getting all mixed up. Thanks.

I don't have the time right now to write a detailed "how to" post about the texture management that I'm using, but here's a quick break down.

1) Create a text file in C:\Program Files\Glidos\Textures called whatever you like. You don't even need any of the odd named folders in here, it can be empty except for the text file if you like

2) Edit your text file in Notepad. Here's the start of my one:

[code]
GLIDOS TEXTURE MAPPING

ROOT: F:\Projects\Tomb Raider Xtra\Hi Res Replacements\Override Folders\

// Title / main Menu

BASE: title\

00AE19B7C0B2D045AE54A1683C076786 bottom_left_corner
474C2C91326153751CC40C34817E6800 passport_01
6018E6431FA65017D0F703FC8E60D589 passport_02+mansion+menuring
8880FD9B651C257778549A7EE7A2E450 top_left_corner
8F2FA7061AB2E84279F2292FDD537C46 top_right_corner
9DB0846B3F90F68744D01237BFCE59CB bottom_middle
C1135A3AA842C8E3CDD2493E48CFAE7F bottom_right_corner
E7504AFB7D3264410C74C2EA777AB1F3 top_middle
EFE6179F82CA4471725D4532BC8AA60D letters_01


// Level 1: The Caves

BASE: 01_Peru\level01_Caves\

198EC2D38EF00FEA1653750E8B237D7F surface_01(snow,rock,foliage)
203D6ED9632B742A2209637764C375F6 surface_02(calendar,skulls,foliage)
54637C4BF0304439B63F51D3A5EEA382 objects_01+lara
57A26AB453DED38FE830BB44A64A71F0 sprites_01+letters_01
60812F71A9287004111BA82EF2404371 surface_03(snow,brokenwalls,slot,switch)
6C7FE41E229619C7ACDED8A8538E3F4E objects_02+lara+pasport
708171E626AA342A07B8567EA8A1A53D objects_03+lara+bear+wolf
8B4825478FAB43844E3D4CB077E97613 objects_04+lara+passport
C0B3E0125D1A1A0FF5DBBCA296F8AD4F sprites_02+wolf+bear+brokenwall+letters_02
F7EB7D4BB45372D13AF34500AD82B217 surface_04(maya,brick,switch,rock)
[/code]

3) This file controls where Glidos looks for the data. It builds paths based on values used ROOT + BASE + ODD NAMED FOLDER MAPPING.

ROOT and BASE are pretty self explanatory. The ODD NAMED FOLDER MAPPING is simply the weird named folder that Glidos creates during capturing follwed by a space followed by a folder name of your choice (something sensible that matches its contents, for example)

So, if we take as our example, one of the passport images used on the main title screen:

ROOT: F:\Projects\Tomb Raider Xtra\Hi Res Replacements\Override Folders\
BASE: title\
ODD NAMED FOLDER MAPPING: 474C2C91326153751CC40C34817E6800 passport_01

Anytime Glidos expects to find an image in folder 474C2C91326153751CC40C34817E6800, it will instead look in F:\Projects\Tomb Raider Xtra\Hi Res Replacements\Override Folders\title\passport_01.

There's one caveat: each time you redeclare BASE, relative paths will operate from the new path. In this way you can collect all data for a level together in one subfolder.

taking it a step further, you can collect mutiple levels together, as I have done (Peru for example).

And a further step beyond that, is to use link files to point to other folders where data common to all levels can be stored.

E.G, in my passport example above, I don't have any image files in that passport_01 folder, I use a linking text file, for example: (72--144)(0--96).PassportPhoto.txt. The contents of this file are:

TLNK: common\passport\passport-photo.png

The path in this file is relative to the ROOT path, it ignores the BASE path. So I put all the passport images in one place, and can link to them using TLNK files from *any* folder I choose. Same goes for any other common data. See the attached screenshot of my folder layout for this to make sense.

Additionally, for wall data, some of it is duplicated between levels. Usually I'll leave the PNG images in the mapped folders, but if the data is common to a numbed of levels, I'll put it in a shared folder outside the level folders. This helps reduce the amount of images needed and is one reason why I'm very keen to release levels in themed packs, all of Peru for example.

I hope that gives you some ideas of how to go about this...

Did that help at all, JC?

Yes - thanks Gambit! I've got it working and I have been busy re-organising my stuff in a "JC" folder that I put in the Glidos\Textures folder.

*Cough*

Would it be possible to change Glidos so that it looks in any part of the filename of a texture or mapping file for the coordinates? At the moment, you can add comments in the filename by putting it after the last bracket, but you can't put a comment before the first bracket.

It would be a lot easier to manage if the comments were viewable first, so that one can re-order an explorer window by name, rather than coordinates.

Is this possible at all?