Ask ZT1 design questions here

[fern]

And if it is too big for me either cricket or john can bring it over.

[Cricket]

We sure can.  That should not be a problem. 

[maximum411]

Thanks- all of you! I'll send it to Fern at Tek. I love these sites- everyone is so helpful.

[maximum411]

Alright- I posted the file here:

http://zootekphoenix.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=8905

[johnrn1]

I will upload the ztd in zip form for you Jay.

[Jay]

Thanks, johnrn1, for getting the file to me.

maximum411, the problem is in the ".ani" files. If you look inside animals\0bdbde28\m\walk\walk.ani, you will see the line "dir2 =y". That is telling ZT to find the graphics files in the young's (animals\0bdbde28\y) folders instead of the male's (animals\0bdbde28\m) folders. That line should be "dir2=m". You would also need to make the same change to all of the other animals\0bdbde28\m\...\....ani files.

Also, if this is to be available to others, you need to use a different APE ID, because 0bdbde28 is already being used for Ghirin's African Wildcat.

Good luck with your creating.

[maximum411]

Thanks for taking a look at it Jay, and thanks for sending it over John! Jay- I thought it was set to Y on purpose by Ghirin (since this is based on her/his African wildcat) so that the animal would use the graphics for the young clouded leopard instead of the adult. The graphics I am working on are clouded leopard cub graphics recolored to look like an African wildcat.

I was mostly just making some modifications to the wildcat for myself, but if I do distribute the final version I will make sure to change the ID.

Thanks! 

[maximum411]

Whoops- inappropriate emoticon there haha. That was meant to be a smiley.

[Jay]

Ghirin's African wildcat is an early animal that was created before the Uca Editing Guide and the animal configuration checkers were created. We know a lot more now about ZT configuring than was known back then. So she has a lot of inefficiencies in her file, both the ".ztd" and the ".uca". Since she used the young graphics for both the young and adults, she should have changed the "f = animals/0BDBDE28/m" and "m = animals/0BDBDE28/m" lines in the ".uca" to "f = animals/0BDBDE28/y" and "m = animals/0BDBDE28/y". That would have had the female and male adults use the young graphics. Then the entire "m" folder could have been removed, making the ".ztd" about half its current size. Instead, she just copied the subfolders in the "y" folder to the "m" folder, not realizing that the ".ani" files that were copied would actually cause ZT to use the graphics in the "y" subfolders instead.

Continued good luck with your creating.

[maximum411]

Ahh okay- so I was editing the male animations, while the file is telling the animal to use the young animations. I had no idea she did it this way- I had figured she just referred the file to the young animations and only used those. I'll make the change you recommended and see if that fixes it!

Thanks- you really do seem to know everything!   

Just out of curiosity, what kind of programming background do you have?

[Jay]

I wish I knew everything. Even with ZT, we are still learning things. As for programming, I have used a lot of languages: C, C++, FORTRAN, Basic, sh, HTML, Java, PHP, COBOL, Pascal, APL, Python, Perl, various Assemblers, among others. I also have experience with a number of operating systems.

[maximum411]

Cool- so you must do programming for a living, then?

I am taking my first programming class this fall- it's supposed to be pretty intensive so hopefully I'll learn a lot. It may even help with ZT!

[Jay]

I am currently unemployed, but when I worked, yes, programming was how I made a living.

I consider most ZT work to be graphics and configuring, rather than programming. But programming has helped with some ZT related projects. I used C to create the animal configuration checking and zoo object list programs, among a number of other programs to help with ZT work. I used C and sh to create the ZT Spreadsheet Subset file. I used Java to enhance the Zoot program.

[maximum411]

Well good luck finding a new job (if you are looking for one)! -not that that's very easy right now.

And even so, I am sure that your programming experienced must have helped give you the familiarity with computers that lets you work with ZT editing so easily.

Also, I have another question: if I am okay with adult and young wildcats having the same animations, can I just leave the male .ani files as-is and edit the young's graphics? To be honest, I do not have much experience editing animal graphics and did not even realize there was a second set in the y folder, so I just edited the graphics in the m folder assuming these would apply to the whole animal.

[Jay]

Yes, you can edit the young graphics instead of changing the male ".ani" files. And since you are not using the male graphics, you can set "f = animals/0BDBDE28/y" and "m = animals/0BDBDE28/y" in the ".uca" and delete the "m" folder, making the ".ztd" about half the size.