HighResEaser - retexture backgrounds in a wink

Name: HighResEaser
Type: Photoshop Script
Licence: GPL 2.0
Targeted: Retexture artists
Function: Takes over the donkey-work at retexturing backgrounds, logos, skyboxes and similar things.
Supported Plugins: All
Requirements: Photoshop with scripting support (minimum Photoshop 7)



Download: HighResEaser v1.4 * UPDATE 7! *

Changes:

• added explicit support for skyboxes (v1.4)
• added hints for the options (v1.4)
• optimized autosize feature for texture marking (v1.3.5)
• fixed bug reported by Mollymutt concerning wrong resizing if actual graphic is smaller than the texture (v1.3.5)
  
• added option to select where the texture id will be placed (v1.3)
• original textures (without ids) can be loaded instead of the marked ones (v1.3)
• added feature to load selected textures in separate Photoshop documents (v1.3)

Installation:

1. Place the script HighResEaser_v1.4.js in your folder Photoshop/Presets/Scripts .
   Afterwards you can select it from the File/Scripts menu .
2. You can then even assign a keyboard shortcut for starting the script through menu Edit/Keyboard Shortcuts.
   There you browse to File>>Scripts>>HighResEaser_v1.4 and assign the key you like (e.g. F1-key).

HowTo: Basically it is supposed to do exactly what you can read on the screenshot.

1. marks texture tiles of a background/logo with an id
2. arranges the tiles corresponding to the id order as layers in a photoshop document
3. splits up the highres background/logo, which has been painted into a layer over the tiles into
   the corresponding tiles and saves them under the proper name in a folder

First you start the script in Photoshop
Then you select option 1 in the menu. The following dialog will be displayed



Font size allows you to determine the size of the id that will be added to the textures.
By activating the automatic option, the script will automatically determine the font size in respect to the actual texture size (after resizing).
Maxium id size is restricted to 99px in automatic mode.
The resize factor determines how large the image will be resized. 1x (no resizing), 2x, 4x, 8x and 16x are possible.
Font color allows you to change the color of the ids. That is helpful with relatively homogeneous backgrounds (e.g. very dark or very light)
ID position allows you to select where the id will be placed onto the texture. (left or center)

When you press RUN, the script asks you for path of the folder containing the dumped textures of the background/logo.
Afterwards it asks you for a folder to which the marked textures will be exported. Then it marks the textures with ids.

Now you start your game with the marked textures. Do you see your background/skybox/logo with the ids at the textures?
Great. Now note somewhere the order of the ids (from left to right, from top to bottom)

Now go back to Photoshop and start the script again. Select option 2.

The following dialog appears:


You first have to specify the Type of the image you want to assemble. You have the choice between background/logo or skybox.
In the field "Tiles per row" you enter how many textures are displayed in one row of the background etc.
Indent is an option that is only necessary for skyboxes. Here you define how many tiles the skybox is indented at the edges.

In the field "Tile order" you enter the comma-separated texture ids, you have noted before. You can add a line break
after every row but this is optional. After pressing the Run-Button, the tool asks you for the folder where the tiles are located.
You can either choose the folder with the original textures if you don't like to have an id on them or the folder with the marked
textures. But keep in mind that just the marked textures have already been resized.

Now the tiled Photoshop document is generated and a highres-layer is added. You paint your high-res background/logo/etc. onto this layer

When your creative part is completed you restart the script and select option 3.
The script asks you for a folder to export the highres-textures. After you have choosen an export folder,
your highres-layer will automatically be sliced into the different tiles. These highres tiles will be saved under the valid texture names.

You reached this line? Congratulation! You created your highres-background/logo/skybox.

Additional gadget:

You can also use the tool to mark all textures of a scene. This is not restricted to backgrounds. After you did so,
you might want to only retexture some of these (e.g. if you just want to retexture characters of the game or not
all marked textures are actually displayed within the game)

Then you might want to use the "Load selected textures" feature:



This feature allows you to - similar to the arrange textures part - load a list of textures. But these textures
will be opened as separate Photoshop documents instead of arranging them as layers in one document.
Resize factor allows you to automatically resize the texture after loading.
Add highres layer automatically adds a layer to each texture in which you can paint your highres image.
Please do not forget to merge layers when saving. Otherwise the texture won't be loaded by the emulator.
Under Textures to load you provide a comma separated list of the ids of the textures that should be loaded
for modification. The order is unimportant.

Bug-reports & feedback concerning usability are appreciated. Feature requests are possible.

Important: In case of a bug report or feature request, please provide samples. Otherwise it will be hard to develop a satisfying solution.
Whenever you tend to create a bug report/feature request, please test the latest release of HighResEaser first. If this still not fulfils your
needs you are more than welcome to post em here.

Special thanks goes to mode7 for providing the idea, photoshop documentation and texture examples. Without him, this tool would never exist.
I also like to thank Datadayne for playing guinea pic and helping me to make HighResEaser compatible to PS CS3

Let me be the first to thank you and congratulate you for creating this.
This will not only make my life so much easier, but that of anyone who retextures N64 games.
I thought of a simple script when I began looking for something like that, but THIS has gone beyond my wildest expectations.
This is not a script anymore but a developer tool!
Can't wait to test the arange script!

Yeah, I thank you for this, it really will make my life easier for the skybox etc.
I already rearranged a lot textures with my tools and that make my life easier.

This look great. This will help not only in making backgrounds, but just by marking the textures, it will save the time of doing this for any area. Now, the only question is, where do you put this to get it to work?

Originally Posted by Mollymutt

Now, the only question is, where do you put this to get it to work?

Thanks. I added this information to the first post. You will find it under "Installation".

Time to get working.

Sounds good muddy it works great.

Originally Posted by Mollymutt

This will help not only in making backgrounds, but just by marking the textures, it will save the time of doing this for any area.

If there is a need, I can add a functionality to load any number of textures,
corresponding to their ids into a own Photoshop document for each texture.
This would save the time of searching the texture name in the MetaData file,
which is automatically generated by HighResEaser.

So, is this functionality needed?

No, what I was talking about was, when you dump textures for any area you are doing, you may need to number them to see where each individual texture goes. If you could whip something up to do that, it would save a ton of time for all of us.

Cool. This should be stickied on this forum. It's a tool that'll help out all the other modders!