.TLB files

[Jadefang]

Is there a program for opening these type of files for editing, or some method of converting them to another type of file such as PCX or LBM?

[Olivier Leroux]

There are two options I know of (the 2nd one I recently learned thanks to hans!  ):

1) TLB2PCX (download here): Put the TLB file in the same folder as TLB2PCX and run the program to convert it.

2) Use SHOW to display the TLB images and press Ctrl+P to make a screenshot in .pcx file format. It will be saved to the same folder the TLB is in. You can download SHOW here but it is already incorporated into UAShell and Toolbox too, I think.

BTW, both tools were written by the great Dan Autery.

[hans]

There's also TLB Utilities by Itamar (who leaned heavily upon the early findings of our beloved pioneer Dan Autery).  It's actually a collection of several different TLB programs for different functions.  One of them, TLBview, allows you to look through TLBs, and another, TLBbreak, allows you to break a .tlb down into .pcx files. 

I rarely ever use these proggies, because Dan's programs are so much sleeker, with better options, and more user friendly. 

There are a couple of things I might go to Itamar's proggies for, still, like if I wanted to play around with enlarged pics.

[Kaz-Keith]

I used Itamar's (and continue to use) for all my animated .tlb creation needs, mostly because it was how I learned to create animating pics:

http://frua.rosedragon.org/pc/misc/tlbutil2.zip

You can use it to break down existing .tlb files, standard FRUA .tlb packed files, and reassemble a .tlb out of your own .pcx files.

Very handy.  I've just never used Dan Autery's to compile. 

[Jadefang]

Thanks, these will help me a lot.

Although AVG thinks TLB2PCX has a virus. Probably a false positive, but it gets a little annoying that it thinks most UA hack programs are viruses and prevents me from using them.

[Mordant]

Does anyone know if there is a way to get animations out of TLB (or DAX) files intact? I extracted animations using Gold Box Explorer and reassembled them into animated GIFs using Adobe Fireworks, but when I compare some of my GIFs to "in game" animations the delay between some frames seems to be longer than others (my files all use the same interval) or they repeat the same frame to achieve the same effect. I'd love to have the exact same animations as "in game."

Is there some data in the TLB (or DAX) file that describes the animation by what frame to use, or how long to delay between frames?

[hans]

Different UA animations use different settings, which is why some cycle thru continuously while others stop (as at the end of a transformation).  I thought somebody once gave all the equations used on the different animation, but it's been so long.  I don't know if the info might be out there in a UANL...

[hans]

Looking around, I found this from Dan Autery's ANIMATED.ZIP:

Greetings UA fans! 

  Enclosed within this archive are 5 animated pics, plus an extra pic
that I'll explain below. :>  Each of these images are in TLB format (UA's
native art form), so they can be used by simply placing them in a design
directory, starting UA, then viewing them from within the UA art gallery. :>

  The animated images were extracted directly from SSI's Dark Queen of Krynn
game. :]  All credit for the work goes to the artists at SSI.


  The images are as follows:

  PICB1135.TLB - Dwarf to Draconian*
  PICA1047.TLB - Fire demon (or Efreeti)
  PICA1016.TLB - Victory celebration, Scene 1 (big pic)
  PICF1230.TLB - Victory celebration, Scene 2 (big pic)
  PICA1041.TLB - Victory celebration, Scene 3 (big pic)
  PICE1224.TLB - Default Frame (see below).


  For best results, use the "Dwarf to Draconian" and "Fire Demon" sets
in either the Sea Dragon or Lyzian pic slots.  The "Victory" images
require some extra work, but they can be handled easily as shown below.

  *The Dwarf to Draconian set has already been uploaded by Rasnil@aol.com
(who deserves Kudos for doing so! , but I've included another version
within this archive in order to round out the DQK collection (the enclosed
file is also somewhat smaller than the one mentioned previously).


  TECH NOTES:

  The "Dwarf to Drac" and "Fire Demon" animations in this collection have
been modified slightly in order to give a bit more flexibility in their use.

  For both, although the actual number of images are unchanged, I've
added several pointers to the beginning of the files.  Effectively, this
fools UA into thinking that there are sufficient images in each animation
for them to have different effects if used in either the Sea Dragon
(PICC1148.TLB) or the Lyzian (PICD1180.TLB) pic slots.

  Neither of these can be used in place of the Earth Elemental or Drow to
Drider animations.  UA will crash if they used there.

  If used in any place but the 4 mentioned above, the images will loop
through a complete animation sequence and will then start over, forming a
continuously looping set.

  If they are used in the Sea Dragon or Lyzian slots, both animations will
stop after one loop. :>

  For the hackers among us, if you wish to modify the fire demon so that
it loops between the last two images, just change the 4-byte value at
offset 40 so that it matches the 4-byte value at offset 32, then rename
the image to PICC1148.TLB.  This replaces the Sea Dragon animation. :]

  All of the "Victory" animations are big pics, but I was forced to use
"Pic" slots for these because UA doesn't allow animations in Big Pics.
If UA thinks they're normal pics, they work just fine.

  One trouble is that UA doesn't automatically clean up the entire screen
after calling up a pic.  Except in rare cases, it just redraws the portion
of the screen where the pic would normally be located.  Events that this
type of pic can be used in without problem include "Combat", "Camp", and
"Pick One Combat" events.

  The following events don't allow animation at all (and have other annoying
problems when used with "large" pictures like the ones mentioned above):

    Damage event
    Enter Password
    NPC Says
    Question List
    Temple
    Text event
    Vault

  For these, you may wish to avoid using large animations.

  For All Other Events, the pictures work well during the event, but there
will be leftovers on the screen afterwards unless you add an extra event
that cleans up the leftover image.

  There are two ways to do this..  The first is to immediately follow the
event with one that uses a normal big pic (note that if you use a text
event, but don't use any text, the image will flash by too quickly for most
players to notice).  Another method is to load an image that looks just like
the default frame...  :]

  Which brings us to the "default frame" image..

  Basically, this image is a big pic that has been modified for use as a pic.
It was created by importing a copy of part of the normal UA screen (as a big
pic), then changing the filename (to pice1224.tlb) and adjusting two offsets
(710 & 712) to +16.  :::Note that this method can be used to change virtually
any big pic into a pic. :::

  Either method should work well, but loading the default frame image has the
advantage of being less obvious when used. ;>

  I hope the collection comes in handy! 

  Dan Autery 

If there's more info to be found out there, it's likely that it came from Dan.

[hans]

A couple of UANL articles of interest:

http://frua.rosedragon.org/pc/uanews/uanl21/tech07.htm 

http://frua.rosedragon.org/pc/uanews/uanl33/da-anims.htm 

Additionally, it seems that John Rudy and Nol Drek may have made some discoveries, but I've been unable to track down those leads.   

[Mordant]

I found uanl33 and 31, but not 21. I saw a mention to Nol Drek as well, maybe he'll pop in with suggestions.

None of these seem applicable at first glance, but I'll dig deeper. I'm less interested about getting them into UA as extracting them intact from Gold Box games with the correct stop, or loop animation.