Race Style

Race Style Pictures

We've heard numerous requests for the specifications on how to create an SE4 ship style. Well, here it is. But in SE4, its more than just a ship style, its a race style. It includes all of the pictures to define your ships and your race.

All pictures are 24bit bitmaps. Each ship size has 2 pictures. One is a 36x36 top down view like in SE3. The other picture is a 128x128 portrait view of the ship. The portrait should have the ship facing forward and skewed towards the bottom left corner of the portrait.

All of the ships within a style should have a common theme. It is intended that they are all from the same race, so they should have a common color and layout. Also, the 36x36 picture is the picture most commonly seen by the player. Each of the smaller pictures needs to be distinct from the others in the style.

Style Tester

To help in testing your new race style pictures, we've created a program called SE4 Style Tester. This program should be placed in a directory with your race style pictures. When run, it will display each of the portraits next to its mini picture and the name of the size. At the very bottom of the list is the race picture and the Main style. The primary use of this program is the small checkbox at the bottom which says Mask Pictures. When you select this is will change the background color from black to blue. This way you can tell if your pictures are masking correctly. Remember that the masking color is pure black (RGB 0, 0, 0). Any place that is pure black will show the background, anything that is not will display as shown. If you want something to trully show as black on your picture, you should set it to just off black (RGB 0, 0, 1 for example).

Download the SE4 Style Tester Here: Download (156K).

Race Vehicle Pictures

Vehicle Size (Description)	Filename	Mini 36x36 (Picture Viewpoint)	Portrait 128x128
escort	escort	(Top Down)
frigate	frigate	(Top Down)
destroyer	destroyer	(Top Down)
light cruiser	lightcruiser	(Top Down)
cruiser	cruiser	(Top Down)
battlecruiser	battlecruiser	(Top Down)
battleship	battleship	(Top Down)
dreadnought	dreadnought	(Top Down)
light carrier	carrierlight	(Top Down)
carrier	carrier	(Top Down)
heavy carrier	carrierheavy	(Top Down)
space station	spacestation	(Same as Portrait)
battlestation	battlestation	(Same as Portrait)
starbase	starbase	(Same as Portrait)
colony ship	colonyship	(Top Down)
small Freighter / transport	transportsmall	(Top Down)
medium Freighter / transport	transportmedium	(Top Down)
large Freighter / transport	transportlarge	(Top Down)
small fighter	Fightsmall	(Top Down)
medium fighter	fightermedium	(Top Down)
large fighter	fighterlarge	(Top Down)
satellite (Like a fighter but without engines, can be dropped like mines)	satellite	(Same as Portrait)
mine	mine	(Same as Portrait)
small troop (Used in ground combat)	troopsmall	(Same as Portrait)
medium troop	troopmedium	(Same as Portrait)
large troop	trooplarge	(Same as Portrait)
small weapons platform (Sits on a planet and fires weapons into space)	weapplatformsmall	(Same as Portrait)
medium weapons platform	weapplatformmedium	(Same as Portrait)
large weapons platform	weapplatformlarge	(Same as Portrait)
drone (weapon launched from a planet like a Planetary missile)	drone	(Top Down)
fleet (Standard layout: 2 battlecruisers, 2 battleships, 1 dreadnought)	fleet	(Same as Portrait)
mine group (Standard layout: 6-8 mines)	minegroup	(Same as Portrait)
satellite group (Standard layout: 6-8 satellites)	satellitegroup	(Same as Portrait)
fighter group (Standard layout: 3 small, 2 medium, and 1 large fighter)	fightergroup	(Same as Portrait)

Naming Conventions:
The 36x36 picture should be named:
[Race Name]_mini_[Vehicle Size Filename].bmp
The 128x128 picture should be named:
[Race Name]_portrait_[Vehicle Size Filename].bmp

Notes: Some of the Mini pictures are labeled as "Top Down" or "Same as Portrait". The "Top Down" pictures are for vehicles which can actually have a facing as they move. These will be rotated by the game to the correct facing. They should always be drawn facing straight up. The "Same as Portrait" pictures are for vehicles which do not have a specific facing.

Other Race Pictures

Description	Filename	Sample
Main Empire Style Layout: small Picture 1 (26x18) - large Empire Flag small Picture 2 (14x10) - small Empire Flag small Picture 3 (below # 2 14x10) - Empire Color small Picture 4 (20x20) - Seeker Picture small Picture 5 (20x20) - Capital ship Missile Picture small Picture 6 (20x20) - Plasma Torpedo Picture	Main
Race Portrait	Race_Portrait
Population Portrait	Pop_Portrait
Population Tiny Portrait	Pop_Mini
Explosion Animation	BigExplosion	8 frames of 72x72 pixels

Shield Animation	Shields	8 frames of 36x36 pixels

Naming Conventions:
The main picture should be named:
[Race Name]_Main.bmp
The race portrait picture should be named:
[Race Name]_Race_Portrait.bmp