Official forums for BZFlag.org

Posted: **Sat Nov 01, 2008 7:25 pm**

Ok, so you want to get some textures into your map, here's what you do.

step 0) Make sure you own the images, or have rights to distribute them.
This means that you did one of the following things to get the image;
a) made the artwork or took the photo yourself
b) are using a image that has a license that SPECIFICALLY allows you to redistribute the image.
c) you made a modification of an existing image that SPECIFICALLY allows you to modify AND redistribute the image.

If you did something else, like did a google image search and just grabbed something that looked good, or saved a picture from a web page, then you probably do not have rights to use the image and it can NOT be hosted. Saying that you are not charging for it does not matter. Saying that they had no license posted does not matter. The image must have a specific license before we can rehost it for you.

Step 1) Got to http://images.bzflag.org/submitimages/ and hit the LOG IN link at the top.

Step 2) Log in with your fourm username and password.

Step 3) Click the UPLOAD IMAGES link at the top.

Step 4) Click the browse button to pick an image file on your hard drive. It must be in PNG format. If it is not then you must use some image editor to convert it. Changing the file name alone will not convert it.

Step 5) Fill in all the information for the image, including license.

Step 6) Read the terms of service and check the box to say you have read them.

Step 7) Fill your user information at the bottom. Use your REAL name in case there is any question of copyright issues.

Step 8) Check the 2 checkboxes to tell us that everything is correct, and then Click the Upload images button.

Step 9) Wait. Your images will be looked at by a moderator and ether approved or denied. You will get an email that will tell you how it went. If the images were approved you will get an e-mail with the URL to use in your map file. If they were denied, then you will get a message about why they were denied.

That's it, once your images are approved you can use the URLs in your map file and every BZFlag player will automaticly download them when they connect to a server running your map.

If you need a temporary place for your images while you develop your map, you can place them in your data dir with the standard bzflag images and use them from there with just the file name.

Posted: **Thu Nov 06, 2008 1:16 am**

Jeff left out one thing.. exactly what the data directory is.
The data directory is where BZFlag looks for images (and sounds and fonts).
If you add your image to this directory, you can use it in a material to test your map.
No other players will see this image. It's only for test-mapping.

It's default location is here.
Windows : C:\Program Files\BZFlag<version>\data
Linux : /usr/share/bzflag/data
Macintosh : /Applications/BZFlag-2.0.10.app/Contents/Resources
using mac, you may need to option-click on the bzflag application to see the MacOS/resources folder

Let's pretend you have put an image named redwall.png into your data folder. This will use the image as a texture.

Code: Select all

material
  name sample_material
  texture  redwall.png 
  # can also use the full local path to the image.
end

meshbox
  size 8 16 8
  position 10 10 0
  matref sample_material
end

Now let's pretend that you have uploaded your image via the BZFlag uploader, and it has been accepted. You have been sent a message with the link. Simply insert the URL link into the material. All players joining the server will see the image.

Code: Select all

material
name sample_material
texture http://images.bzflag.org/your_name/redwall.png
end

Now I'm gonna go one step further, and a little bit off-topic for this thread.
The reason my sample box is 8-by-16-by-8, is because BZFlag tiles textures in squares 8 by 8. Textures will "fit" perfecly on a face sized units on a side. A face 16 units on a side will tile the texture twice. If your box is not this size, and you want the texture to look right, use a textureMatrix with fixedsacale to stretch or shrink it. If you use a calculator, you can figure out these numbers quickly.

Code: Select all

textureMatrix
 name example_texmat
 fixedscale 1.5 1.5
end 

material
 name sample_material
  texture  redwall.png 
  texmat example_texmat
end

meshbox
  size 12 12 12
  position 10 10 0
  matref sample_material
end

To go even further, you'd use texcoords, but I'm not gonna even try to explain that.

Posted: **Sat Aug 28, 2010 9:16 am**

I guess the textures which come with bzflag are in Public Domain?

Posted: **Sat Aug 28, 2010 9:36 am**

Our license is LGPL

Posted: **Sat Aug 28, 2010 10:03 am**

so if one modifies them the result should be licensed as LGPL?

Anyway, who should be marked as author for such images? Especially if the modification of standard texture was rather trivial.

Posted: **Sat Aug 28, 2010 2:38 pm**

Tim Riker owns the copyright on all of the BZFlag code and resources.

Official forums for BZFlag.org

How to get texutres into a map ( Image Uploads )

How to get texutres into a map ( Image Uploads )

Data Directory.

Re: How to get texutres into a map ( Image Uploads )

Re: How to get texutres into a map ( Image Uploads )

Re: How to get texutres into a map ( Image Uploads )

Re: How to get texutres into a map ( Image Uploads )