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Hey folks,
Let's be honest, creating liveries for R07 (and many other racing games, I'd say) isn't exactly the most straight-forward thing, and I think that's what keeps many people away from it or drives (no pun intended) them towards 3rd party skins. So I was thinking, there should be something in between handling those layers, alpha values, dds compressions and ini files on one side and using pre-made skins on the other.
While this is technically 1.0 and the successor to CooperColours, it's not feature-complete - windows cannot be designed yet (though I'm unsure whether this will be implemented, honestly) and there are "only" three cars, though more will follow, along with an editor to create your own templates.
So, without further ado, here's the download link. Play around with it, use the presets, unleash your creative self and have fun! Also, shoot me some feedback if you want to
Let's be honest, creating liveries for R07 (and many other racing games, I'd say) isn't exactly the most straight-forward thing, and I think that's what keeps many people away from it or drives (no pun intended) them towards 3rd party skins. So I was thinking, there should be something in between handling those layers, alpha values, dds compressions and ini files on one side and using pre-made skins on the other.
Enter Simplivery.
With this tool, you can now create basic liveries in only a few clicks - enter your info, select some colors and add some other graphical elements from those available and color them. Hit export, wait a moment and start your engine
While this is technically 1.0 and the successor to CooperColours, it's not feature-complete - windows cannot be designed yet (though I'm unsure whether this will be implemented, honestly) and there are "only" three cars, though more will follow, along with an editor to create your own templates.
So, without further ado, here's the download link. Play around with it, use the presets, unleash your creative self and have fun! Also, shoot me some feedback if you want to
How to use (click to expand)
Let's go through the basic usage, shall we?
Confusing, eh? Don't let it scare you off, I'll guide you a bit:
Up at the top, it starts fairly obvious - select a car, select a preset (a predefined set of layers) for the car. Ignore the next three buttons for now as both importing a car and the editor aren't implemented yet, and deleting a template isn't that tempting, as well
To the very right, you may open up the settings, allowing you to enable info/text/color saving, auto-update and zip creation (this will create a zip file to share with others), as well as giving you the opportunity to specify a different default export folder.
The main area's pretty easy, as well - this is the place to enter your info, set up some text options and predefine three colors to use in presets.
On the bottom left, we got buttons to reset the current template to its default preset, to save your current configuration for later use (or for sharing) and to load said configuration saves.
To the very right, you should see the most important button - "Export livery"
In the middle, there's another button, "Preview" - what's this?
This will generate a basic preview of what your basic settings are going to produce graphically, using all colors, fonts and your name.
A short note: Some fonts might not work for the driver number as there are countless typefaces out there - some narrow, some wide, some with margins to top or bottom and so on - just fool around a bit, and if everything else fails, some of the vanilla fonts like Arial, Impact, Tahoma or even Calibri should work fairly nice
Enough with the basic blah-blah, on to the "Chassis"-tab! Also, let's change the car to the IFM, because that's way more exciting - and we're gonna select the preset "Airbox'n'Sides" (what a silly name)
This time, we'll do it left-to-right, okay? On the far left, we got the list of layers currently applied to the car. Loading up the preset has added a fair bit and magically, those have already been colored in the colors we've defined before - that's what presets do
As you can see, there are 6 categories you're able to add - Shading, Parts and Number Plate are pretty self-explanatory while detail layers add certain highlights to the car, like a highlighted or darkened area. Clicking those four buttons won't do anything for you right now, though, as there aren't any details configured in this template and the other three categories only feature one layer which has already been added
Both decals and colorable decals are much more interesting - decals add pre-designed static layers to the car, while the latter adds elements that can be colored.
So, let's add the colorable decal "colored front wing", shall we?
Apart from the actual layer choice, you'll see the name and a description roughly telling you what's going to happen as the 2D images of textures aren't always that obvious.
You can also choose to use "your" base, accent or third color - or simply specify a custom color. Keep in mind: using a custom color can be both desirable (using black or white for separator layers, so it stays consistent when you change colors in the basic options) or undesirable (changed third color to pink? now your separator might be pink, as well!), so choose wisely. Or change it accordingly later on
Hit add, and we'll also add in the "RD Logos" decal (noncolorable) for good measure.
Let's update the preview:
What a beauty!
But what's the stuff to the right, you ask? Over here, you can add text onto your car, like the team's name or (mild) insults to those being left behind by you
Furthermore, you have the option to add images (Sponsors!) - both elements are placed by defining an area where they should appear - simply drag and drop a box or use the weird number controls at the bottom. Since we're going to place an image to the IFM's nose, we'll also need a 270° rotation which is defined here, as well:
For text areas, you can now specify your text, its color and its font on the second tab. If working with images, you can simply open up a file (transparent PNGs is the best choice for this!) or you could curiously click that "Online" button:
This is incredibly... experimental. Seriously, it's more of a proof-of-concept because it's pretty slow since Simplivery has to download the images first - but if you don't have sponsor images at hand and/or don't want to hunt them down yourself, this might be worth a shot.
Also, this searches for PNG images only, so the "risk" of non-transparent images is reduced a fair bit
Select an image, hit "Add" (this one will be kept and thus be accessible via "Open" the next time you want to add an image!), confirm the element configuration and update the preview:
Here we are, time to hit "Export Livery", isn't it? Specify a folder, wait a few seconds and fire up Race07 once it confirms:
Any questions left? Don't be afraid to ask!
Questions (click to expand)
It doesn't start! Why?
In order to run, Simplivery is gonna need Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5, available via Windows Update or here. In a default Windows 7/8 install, it should already be present via automatic updates, though
Another requirement is Microsoft's "Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2012" as its required by Magick.Net, the imaging library I'm using. If you have installed some games and software, chances are you already have this installed on your computer as quite a few products require it, as well.
If that's not the case, you can download it from Microsoft, choosing the x86 version when prompted.
Will this run on Windows XP?
Errr.. well, kind of? Microsoft's .NET Framework 4.5 is not available for XP, but I've compiled Simplivery for .NET 4.0 (which is available for XP SP3), available over here.
The downsides: Automatic zipping won't work right now and future features like importing cars will never work because the zipping component in .NET 4.0 and below is atrocious
Also, consider upgrading your OS at some point, as running XP is not that great of an idea anymore
Can I make further modifications to the created skin?
Well, yes and no - of course, you can load up the generated DDS file in Paint.Net and the like, but bear in mind, the livery's already "baked", with all shading, parts, etc. in place. Adding a sponsor on top of everything might look out of place.
Exporting a layered, easily editable file is not possible (for now, at least)
Can I use custom colors in the color chooser?
Definitely! Just hit "Define custom colors" or whatever the button's labeled in your local Windows system.
The quality's not the best post-export. Is there a way to improve it?
You might wanna try to select the other graphics engine available. It will then be used to compose the final image and might deliver slightly different results.
However, please keep in mind that DDS is a compressed image format, so a slight decrease in quality is to be expected (plus ImageMagick, which does the final DDS export, is just not quite up to par with Paint.Net and the like - but it's pretty damn close
I found a bug, what to do?
Whoopsies. I've self-taught myself programming, can I use that as an excuse?
I got a great feature idea, what to do?
Even better, tell me!
What language did you use? What's ImageMagick? Can I see the source code? [other development-related questions]
The tool was created using Visual Studio/Microsoft's .NET - VB.NET to be specific.
ImageMagick is an open-source imaging toolkit available under the Apache 2.0 license, available here. I've used Magick.NET, a wrapper around said library, available here.
You said you'll opensource this once done!
Yes, yes I did
Other questions? Just send post 'em or send me a PM
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