Discussion: Announcing the City of Heroes Design a Loading Screen Contest!
By
Alexander_Drako,
Posted on: 2010-08-20 20:49 in News, Events and Announcement Discussion
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What about Puerto Rico? Sometimes some contests include us, sometimes it doesnt |
Originally Posted by Avatea
Believe me when I say I understand your frustration. A couple of years ago, I spent weeks trying to speak with various offices in order to pinpoint what I could do to get our Quebec based players to be eligible for our contests. The Régie des alcools, des courses et des jeux makes it very difficult for anybody outside of Quebec to include their residents in prize winning contests or games, which is a shame. Sorry about that! |
. It's frustrating for us as well.
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Yep. I'm getting the file is corrupt with the hero and hazard zones. No problem with the villain ones. CS2 here.
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Originally Posted by Avatea
Anybody else having problems with the Hero frames?
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--Virtue--
My 50s:
Tigra Swipe (BS/SR/Dark Scrapper)
Galena Storm (Emp/Ele/Ele Defender)
Master Tolarin (Psi/Fire/Force Blaster)
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Yup, exactly what I get here.|
Originally Posted by Canine
H_LoadingScreen_1.psd: Photoshop CS3 throws up an error about the file containing unknown data, then when you tell it to 'Keep layers', it throws up another error about the document having been damaged by a disk error. Push past that and The file loads up, but there's green corruption in the 'Frame' layer group, specifically in 'Layer 183'.
H_LoadingScreen_2.psd: No error about unknown data, but the same error about the file being damage by a disk error. This time, what appears to be a little corruption in the 'Layer 132' layer within the 'Frame' layer group. H_LoadingScreen_3.psd: Same as loading screen 2, blue corruption in the lower section of the 'Layer171 Copy 4' layer within the 'Frame' layer group. Hazard_LoadingScreen.psd: Again, 'damaged by disk error' message, green corruption within the 'Layer171 Copy 4' layer within the 'Frame' layer group. All three villain files work fine. ZOMG! Devs hate heroes! (sorry, couldn't resist  )This is all with the versions I grabbed the other day, I'll quickly regrab them and try again, in case it was a download error. |
And as for where to put them, I can see the correct layer, I just can't figure out how to put the screenshot on the layer....but that's more to do with me never having used PS before
Currently furiously reading multiple tutorials to figure it out
We built this city on Rock and Roll!
Avatea, from what I've read, the issues with the hero frames may be limited to a particular version of photoshop. Every time I've read someone with the issue, myself included, we've been using the CS series. I think that they may need to be re-uploaded with maximised compatability, unless that would cause issues with the art team being able to open them once they got back. I doubt it would, though.
Edited for further clarity for coin!
As for getting your screenshots into the frames:
- Open the frame in photoshop.
- Open your screenshots in photoshop. (city of heroes/screenshots by default, if you didn't know)
- With your screenshot in front of you, select the entire picture with ctrl+a or via the menu at the top.
- Copy!
- Go back to your frames, and select the layer that you want to paste into,
- and paste!
- If you open up the scaling tool, (edit/transform/scale), you can resize your screenshot, as well as move it around in the frame.
- Repeat!
I've really enjoyed snapping around for this contest already, even if I've been limited to the villain frames thus far. I didn't think I'd need the length of the entire contest, but based on how long I'm spending on my current ones, I might well do.
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Yes, there is something corrupt in all the hero templates.|
Originally Posted by Avatea
Anybody else having problems with the Hero frames?
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Originally Posted by StormSurvivor
Avatea, from what I've read, the issues with the hero frames may be limited to a particular version of photoshop. Every time I've read someone with the issue, myself included, we've been using the CS series. I think that they may need to be re-uploaded with maximised compatability, unless that would cause issues with the art team being able to open them once they got back. I doubt it would, though.
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Triumph: White Succubus: 50 Ill/Emp/PF Snow Globe: 50 Ice/FF/Ice Strobe: 50 PB Shi Otomi: 50 Ninja/Ninjistu/GW Stalker My other characters
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You, you right there....I think I love you |
Originally Posted by StormSurvivor
Edited for further clarity for coin!
As for getting your screenshots into the frames: |
Srsly, HUGE thanks, can't believe I couldn't work that out, now I can screenie grab to my hearts content
We built this city on Rock and Roll!
Downloaded and took a look at the .PSDs. I have to say, I do NOT like the layout of the Hero and Hazzard/Trial Zones load screen. It's just too much of a deviation from what I've been used to for all these years.
The Villain screens are fine, because they stick to the same format that's currently in the game.
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I use PaintShop Pro 9. Opening the .PSD files tells me that they are using unsupported features. Other than that, they open fine.
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Originally Posted by Avatea
Anybody else having problems with the Hero frames?
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[ ProTip: The banner is a link to art refs!! | The Khellection | The HBAS Repository | Brute Guides (4/16/10) | How To Post An Image - A Quick Guide ]
Biggest Troll on the forums? I'll give you a hint:
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You could get a friend to submit yours for you, and then they could send you the codes if you win.
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Originally Posted by Ozmosis
Again.... another cool contest, another chance to have my stuff in the game, and I'm looked over because of where I live... I've been taking screenshots all over the place ever since NS mentioned this contest back in closed beta... I don't even care about the prizes, I just want to see my stuff in game! I decided I'm going to submit my stuff anyway... disqualification be damned! at least my stuff will be seen! |
[CENTER]Euro side: [B]@Orion Star[/B] & [B]@Orions Star[/B][/CENTER]
I'll ask about the maximized compatibility. Will update asap.
As for Puerto Rico, it is a similar issue from what I understand, sorry :S
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Originally Posted by Orion_Star_EU
You could get a friend to submit yours for you, and then they could send you the codes if you win.
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Tought of that already... not only can I get disqualified for trying to enter under someone else (and get said person in trouble to boot), but it's considered falsifying documents, thus illegal.
Besides... what's the point? I dont want to sneak in here to get my art to win so I can get the loot. I already said I could care less about that. I want my art/photos to be in the game, thus I want recognition... something a price pack cant offer...
"You wear a mask to hide who you are, I wear a mask to show who I am"
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CLICK THE ABOVE LINK TO HELP DO YOUR PART TO SAVE C.O.H!!!!!
The Hero files have been updated with maximized compatibility. Please let me know if there is any further issue with them.
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Thanks, Avatea. I'll have a gander and pipe up in a bit.
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Originally Posted by Avatea
The Hero files have been updated with maximized compatibility. Please let me know if there is any further issue with them.
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They're still coming up as corrupt for me.|
Originally Posted by Avatea
The Hero files have been updated with maximized compatibility. Please let me know if there is any further issue with them.
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Photoshop CS3, for what it's worth.
Hero 1 is just showing as generically corrupt, but I can't see any obvious visible image corruption.
Hero 2 borks on the location font, and loses the Location Font layer effects. There may be other glitches, but that's all that I can see at a quick glance.
Hero 3 just shows as generically corrupt, but has blue corruption, again on the frame element, in 'Layer 171 Copy 4'
To be honest, if you can't get this sorted, it's probably still workable, just by skipping the errors, copying any missing elements (like the type effects missing from hero 2) from the other versions and carrying on regardless since as has been said a few times, this is a photography competition, not a photoshoppery competition.
However, that sort of faffing round in .psd files is not 'complete noob' skill level, and may end up excluding people who'd otherwise like to compete.
I don't know. But I hope you can get it sorted out.
:Edit: forgot to try the Hazard zone file, too.
It's corrupt. And since I may as well, have a link to a .jpg of what I see when I load up the file (notice the pink/orange/reddish oddness happening in the middle of the image) :
:edit 2: OK, that's very very odd. Irfanview opens the .psd's perfectly. no errors or glitches. Photoshop chokes. Umm.... I pass on that one. <idle speculation> I wonder if I can re-export it from irfanview to fix whatever the issue is?</idle speculation>.... Nope, just tried it, I can't re-export and preserve the layers.
Warning:
The above post may contain Cynicism, sarcasm and/or pessimism. If you object to the quantities contained, then tough.
Interesting to see that Canine is getting different, yet similar corruption to myself. I have been testing this using Photoshop CS4. I will be testing it out on the trial provided in the announcement, along with Paint Shop Pro 7 in a while to see if my results differ.
I'm afraid I can't say there's been an improvement since the re-upload. However, I've downloaded each frame several times, and can say that it seems that the error message I get when trying to open the file seems fairly random. Some of the time, I will get:
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Opening these documents anyway indeed does often result in corrupted pixels, that appear green in colour. Working with these, while plausible, would be a headache to the art team when sent back. The pixels in question are in horizontal rows on the layer containing the actual artwork for the 'windowframes' (layer 183 on H_LoadingScreen_1 for example). Disabling layer blending effects does not affect the corrupted pixels.| This document has been damaged by a disk error. The most likely causes of this error are: a defective disk drive, a defective disk drive cable, or incorrect peripheral cable termination. Some of the pixels in this document may be invalid. Open anyway? |
Other times, I get this: (Whilst opening H_LoadingScreen_2 in this case)
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A problem was encountered reading layer "Layer 132" because of program error. Continue? |
The third error message I'm sometimes getting is:
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| Could not complete your request because the file is not compatible with this version of photoshop. |
Other times I am able to save and open the file without a problem, although this is around 5% of the time. Sometimes these 'working' files will later switch to one of the above error messages, and cannot be used. I have backed up the 'working' files to try out later. However, all of these files have a perfect-looking preview in the Bridge Browser, including those that produce any of the above errors.
I think that these files were either corrupted before the were uploaded, or part of the uploading/downloading process is messing up that one particular layer. Canine's results would imply to me that it is an issue with our versions of Photoshop, as we're getting different errors. As I said at the beginning of my post, I'll be trying this out on different software to compare.
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Redownloaded and I'm still getting the same error for 1 and 2.|
Originally Posted by Avatea
The Hero files have been updated with maximized compatibility. Please let me know if there is any further issue with them.
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"Could not complete your request because the file is not compatible with this version of Photoshop."
3 does it, but then gives me an additional error and opens.... for some reason. Still, it's clear there is a problem here. I have CS4, newly installed on my machine and everything. Unless you saved it as a CS5 version psd, I don't see why I'm not able to open it. And if they *did* save it as a CS5 version psd... shame on them. That's a rookie mistake. You should have hired me instead.
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Well, it ain't a CS5 issue. Just tried opening the new versions of H_LoadingScreen 2 and 3 (the one's I had problems with) in CS5. #3 opened up fine (though it shows the same green color issue that others have mentioned), but #2 is still a no go. |
Originally Posted by Rock_Crag
Unless you saved it as a CS5 version psd, I don't see why I'm not able to open it. And if they *did* save it as a CS5 version psd... shame on them. That's a rookie mistake. You should have hired me instead.
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Maybe it's worthwhile to try to flatten everything that is in the Frame and Border folders. That would cut out a lot of layers that could be corrupting things. We don't really need access to those layers, as we are only inserting pictures into the 3 panels, and they still could manipulate our shots on their end.
Plus it would cut down on the file size a good bit. H_LoadingScreen 3 went from 9.7MB to 4.6MB when I flattened all but the layers that we need.
Worth a shot I'd say.
Photoshop Elements 8, while very pretty, is throwing me the same issues as I reported on CS4 in my earlier post. It is opening the 'working' backups okay for now.
Paint Shop Pro 7 didn't open any of them, but it didn't open any of my other photoshop files either, so it would appear I was mistaken in thinking that PSP'd open them.
I can't think of a suggestion to make to the art team, but I can suggest that players having issues attempt to download the files a couple more times. You may get lucky and find that they open without a hitch on the sixth or seventh download. This did happen to me the first time they were uploaded, though, and they refused to open the following day.
If anyone can't run in ultra mode and would like me to take some screenshots for them, feel free to PM me. I can run on pretty high settings.
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Not as much of a disadvantage as not being able to enter the contest because you are either not in America or Europe. Apparently...it seems that the Asia Pacific region is never eligible to enter a contest (damn legal reasons I am guessing). And this time around the prizes are not even physical objects or money. Sad face.
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Originally Posted by Haggard4Life
The "highest Ultra Mode setting" part makes me wonder... Will those of us that have non-UM compliant computers be at a big disadvantage because our screenshots won't have UM stuff, like shadows, in them?
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If you guys are also looking for someone that can take screenshots in the Freedom Server, I'm also eligible. I run this game all on ultra, and settings maxed out as high as they can go. Everything that can be tuned to 200% is at 200%.
For folks worried about UM, please note this part of the guidelines
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Take the best shot that your computer allows you to take and have fun.
| Please use the highest Ultra Mode settings that your computer allows in order to take screenshots for the photo layer(e.g.: shadows, water, ambient occlusion, texture quality, anti-aliasing have to be turned up; environment reflections must be turned up where applicable) |
Are the hero frames being looked into, or am I going to have to try and find someone with a working copy to get them from? I don't mean to sound like I'm pestering, nor am I assuming that nothing is being done. I'm just curious about whether I should wait for an update, or seek out help myself.
Also, are some people able to open them all; first try, no problems? It would be nice to identify this as either a problem with the files, or a problem with some peoples' connections or systems.
Ultimately, I don't see how the corruption of the frames themselves matters much... it is the things under the frame that are being judged. As long as you can get them open (and it seems most can... they just look crappy) then I dunno that there really IS a problem.
What you guys should test, is whether saving the file with your screens in it and then re-opening it will have any adverse effects on the actual screenshots or not. If it doesn't, aren't you still golden? Just a thought.
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You may well be right here. If they can open the files fine at the other end, then there shouldn't be a problem. I will admit, this is partially just paranoia that I'll do some wonderful work, and then whoever opens it gets a 'this file is corrupt' message, therefore throwing my work out before it's even considered.|
Originally Posted by Thirty-Seven
Ultimately, I don't see how the corruption of the frames themselves matters much... it is the things under the frame that are being judged. As long as you can get them open (and it seems most can... they just look crappy) then I dunno that there really IS a problem.
What you guys should test, is whether saving the file with your screens in it and then re-opening it will have any adverse effects on the actual screenshots or not. If it doesn't, aren't you still golden? Just a thought. |
However, this doesn't ring as true with the two frames I've been unable to open at all. If I were to submit my entries at this point, I would be unable to submit anything at all with the third hero frames, or with the hazard frames.
In any case, I haven't let it stop me getting on with things. I've been going around and snapping shots of the world, and storing them away. I don't really need the frames until towards the end, but I just want to make sure I know where the frames stand before it comes to the time where I want to submit.
There are no words for what this community, and the friends I have made here mean to me. Please know that I care for all of you, yes, even you. If you Twitter, I'm MrThan. If you're Unleashed, I'm dumps. I'll try and get registered on the Titan Forums as well. Peace, and thanks for the best nine years anyone could ever ask for.