Planet M.U.L.E.

Hello everyone, I was wondering if anyone else had tried skinning the game yet.  I decided to try it myself, modifying the original files for my own use.  And in doing so, I found some interesting issues.  I'm attaching a screenshot for feedback and also for noting one of the issues.

I know the game has a look and feel that corresponds with a planet with less water, but I wanted something a bit more lush.  This is what I came up with in a quick bit of editing.

This is awesome. Can you release the files in some way? even a unusable way, and how you did it.

Well, it's a start.  Makes me wish that more of the game could be easily skinned with the "theme pack" that I have seen.  Basically, I found the images inside the data.jar file, inside the "skins" directory.  Though it looks like it may be using an old images directory for part of it the game itself, which, at this time, doesn't appear to be skinnable.  I just modified those and dumped them into the regular "skins" directory in a new folder.

Unfortunately, that's part of the problem with doing this - the borders and the rest of the game really don't match up with with the theme.  It'd be a lot of fun if the entire game was more easily skinnable, so if someone wanted to, they could give a whole new look and feel.  But the dry, desert look currently remains.

I'd have to wait on answers from higher-up before I could release something.

Why is it that I don't see anything resembling an image or an attachment?

I have no idea, what I see is an attachment at the bottom of my first post called "screenshot.png."  And it has been viewed 29 times as of this post.

I See An Attachment too

Very cool.  And I couldn't see an attachment when I wasn't logged in, but logged in I could see it.

This thread inspired me to look into how to make a skin. Using my method you can recolor or completely change the art for the entire game. Just to test it out I did a simple recoloring. Here's how I did it:

1) Open MULE/data folder
2) Copy "data.jar" and rename it to "default_data.jar"
3) Open "data.jar" using WinRAR
4) Inside "data.jar" edit the image files within the Skins/default folder
5) Inside "data.jar" edit the image files within the Images folder (and it's many subfolders)
6) Start up the game and make sure default skin is chosen

Congratulations, you now have a custom skin (if you want to go back to the original skin just rename "default_data.jar" to "data.jar").  :D

As you can see in attached image mule_4.jpeg, there is still a tan colored border around the map, despite my having changed every tan color image to gray. This makes me think it cannot be changed without editing the game's code. Oh well. Also, I wish it was easier to customize skins for this game but hey, this is what it is I guess. :)

So.. we have a green planet, and a moon planet, now we need a skin that make the game looks like "on space" with the desert as space and the mountains as asteroids :-)

That's a great idea, I didn't think of that. But I suppose you would also have to add jetpacks to the characters or it would look funny. Yet, I don't think that would be hard to do.

The game is actually set up to allow skinning without replacing data.jar.  If you look in the install directory, there's a sub-directory called "skins."  Any skin can be placed in there in its own folder.  But it only includes images based on the "default" skin, sadly.

I do wish that we had a bit more information on skinning.  And that more images were in the actual "skin" directory.

Yeah i noticed that. But if you want to change anything like the characters, shop, into, etc. then you need to use my method.

What do you think? And thanks for the idea. All I need to add to this, and I doubt I will because I'm lazy, is jetpacks for the characters and MULEs. I guess it wouldn't be that hard to do, but I'm not feeling like it at the moment.

I wish there was some way to get rid of the border.  :-\

WooooooooooooooooooooooooW   :o

We need a Subtrade skin, since that Amiga MULE clone looked very nice:

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/02/SubtradeColony.png)

I love it!

I imagine there's still work to be done with skinning.  I think the devs probably have just put some of the base coding and file structure in for full skin support, but it's probably not yet complete.  After all, there's lots still to be done in actual gameplay tuning, and developers can only work on so much at a time.

Have patience - from reading other posts, I'm sure the devs are on the same page.  I think the original intent is that they would have the ability to have skins to make the game look like the original Atari 800 and C64 versions for all of us nostalgists and purists out there.  =)

I'm sure you're right, I'm just too impatient. ;)

It's all good!  Tinkering is at least fun - at least we'll be ready with plenty of new skins when the time comes for full skin support!  ;D

Skining have other uses, like help colorblind people, people with black and gray monitors (????) or other vision problems.

We can even make a "island" theme for these  "Settlers of Catan" fans to feel at home :-)

Great! Another good idea.  :)

I am waiting for skinning to be fully supported before I try :] I am very excited about it though.

Playing with this myself today, I'm getting some neat ideas, I like the rough draft on my first attempt (a little spin off the original green lush version created, and my crater features a crushed MULE in it.) 

Turned out pretty good, but first run on the server people trying to connect got skin errors, do you have to all have the same skin to run together?  Going to investigate this more, it appears that every1 has to run default, so I've moved the images out of the default skin folder in the jar folder and moved my custom skin into it to see how that works.  Will take a screen shot later.

I'm planning to make one that is almost real looking with actual photo art, replace mountains with tree covered peaks, plains covered with farm fields (obviously with 64 sq. pixel area it won't be to detailed, but could be neat and a river bed with actual water art, looking a little tricky, but we'll get there, lol)

I'll post that to, if it works out right.  Also have ideas for a game skin that kicks back to TRON.  :)

My test skin, it's not perfect, but a great fast draft.  Favorite feature is the damaged mule in the crater.  I will keep this feature in new skins.

love it chuck, keep up the good work

A little more busy than I hoped, probably will change this some, but who knows.... :)

I've started working on a skin based on my fanart, but I've been on a rather large break. I really should get back to working on it as I would very much like to have it finished.

I'll post pictures of what I have so far when I get home.

Large bitmap experiment, using a 640x480 photo, just random for the test, ended up as a puzzle, but gives me ideas.

Here's what I've done so far for my full art conversion. I plan on getting back to work on this very soon, as I still have a lot more to do.

The art I still need to replace is:
1) Characters (large and small versions)
2) Animations
3) Text
4) Special events (i.e. bugs)
5) other miscellaneous things...

Greetings, I'm not online often, just in case it takes a lot to get an answer. I'm sure I'm not the only one who is too used to the classic MULE icons and sometimes gets confused with those factory icons. So, I made a few changes to make a simple skin recovering the classic icons in a (more or less) modern style.

Keep in mind that this is a really simple skin: only factories, goods and energy shortage icons have been altered, the rest is the same. No changes in highlighted factories icons, water spots and other (unused?) graphics. However, plots like 4 energy or 3 food have been done.

Just unzip the directory into your MULE > DATA > SKINS directory. Next time you run the game you should see it in menu Settings > Visual : Map skin.

If you just want to look at this photo on your own computer (because you said you didnt need to use it) all you have to do is right click on the .png and click save link as... This will let you download the .png image file.

Dave you need to make this skin publicly available.

Just open the data file and replace any images you would like to change.  very simple.

Some really good stuff guys.
 
I have to say I really like the idea of using the old icons, although after so many years it might take me some time to get used to recognising them quickly again. 

I'm not too sure about changing the background though. It makes it harder (at least for me) to see which square belongs to whom.

You'll get used to them again, simple icons are much easier to recognize than those factories, and you never forget old stuff.

As for the background, what about having it with dotted plots? For assays, you know.

I can't wait to get started on skinning!
I want to make a couple of versions:  a Sonic the Hedgehog and a Super Mario set...!

What do you think?  If there's interest in this, then let me know.

Thanks.

~Aryu

Can anyone tell me how to do this on a mac?

I don't see any png files or any image files really, just .jar and some weird looking files. I don't want to mess up the game so it doesn't work.

Thanks,
Chauncey

I'll try to make a simple and detailed step-by-step guide for easy skinning.

All files are located inside the "data.jar" file, you have to open it with WinZip, WinRar or any program that can handle ZIP files. Once open, search for the "skins" folder (again, it's inside the JAR file). The only directory inside it will be "default". So, you should be at data.jar > skins > default.

Next step, extract or copy that "default" folder into your MULE > skins directory. In this case the "MULE" directory is wherever you installed Planet MULE. So, you should have MULE > skins > default now. No need to say it, but the original "default" directory must be into the data.jar file too. That means, DO NOT DELETE IT FROM THE ORIGINAL FILE WHEN EXTRACTING IT.

Last part, rename that "default" directory you just extracted inside the "skins" directory, give it your custom name for your skins (Example: "Chauncey's custom skin v.1") and do all changes you want to the images. When you are happy with your changes, and all of them have been saved, load the game and go to settings > map skins, this can be done in local gameplay, so no need for connecting for testing it. Once there, you should see the directory you extracted and renamed (with the example it would be "Chauncey's custom skin v.1") inside the "skins" directory. Select it, and you'll see your custom skins after restarting.

A few notes:
- Your custom skins will not work in multiplayer mode unless all of the players in the same game have that skin activated in their settings. Not sure if expectators count, but if they do, they should have it too in order to make it appear. In order to make them work, you should send that directory and all its content to said players, so they can activate it and play with your same skin. If any of them fails to have it activated, the program will use the default skin instead, and your custom skin will be ignored for that match.
- In case your custom image has different size than the original image (example: 64x64 pixels), you'll have to modify the "skin.txt" file to make them fit the right image size and position. THIS REQUIRES MODERATED KNOWLEDGE ON SCRIPTING. If you just want to change the art, but not the size, there will be no need to modify the "skin.txt" file.
- These instructions were intended for the customizable skinning the game allows, that is, the one used in settings > map skins. You can customize any image inside the data.jar file, but keep in mind that:
** Before doing any changes to the data.jar file, you should make a copy of the original file. In case you want to restore it or you did a bad change to it.
** No other player will see those changes except yourself.
** If you modify the scripts for the game, (example: for making your char move faster than usual in river tiles) the game will desync when playing. (Same example: your char would move faster and would place the MULE across the river, but in the other players' screen, it would release the MULE while walking the river plot, as it would have not reached the right plot, due to moving at "normal" speed.)
** The game has no official support yet (27th March 2012), for customizing any other files than the "skins" ones. If you don't feel comfy browsing directories and such, should you avoid messing into advanced stuff.

I guess that's all.