A hefty request, A Massive Boon (Coder/Programmer Request)

[Screws]

First of all, this is not a mod pitch.

This is a request to make certain things easier, namely, species creation packs. On my multiplayer lewd stellaris server, I've made about two species portraits as a whole and found it to be somewhat... tedious in the process, but still... oddly fun upon completion?

However, there is one part, that isn't fun. That is the actual file aspect of the portrait process. What I mean is, the code for the sounds and placement of the species and its order and sorting the male and female categories and what not.

The request I would like to make, is perhaps some sort of of program could be developed that would allow the user to input many pictures at a time and have the files be generated and automatically sort the pictures.



Something akin to this idea? (Please don't judge my quick Paint chopshop concept image XD) I really don't know what all goes into the file creation aspects having just done cursory looks at them (Since I'm the person that generally cuts out the actual portraits from their backgrounds since we have someone on the server that does the actual filework/coding aspect of getting the pictures to work in game lol.)

However, I figured by creating a program that would allow the quick creation of the actual files themselves, might lead to more portraits coming out as a whole, more species packs. It also would probably make the current species pack creators here on LL have an easier time of updating their mods with more species portraits if they only have to worry about getting the actual pictures and having a program edit and generate the appropriate files.

Basically with this request I'm asking if someone can develop a program to make it more accessible to implement portraits for people who are... code/file inept (Like myself lol)

Please let me know what you think of this concept of an easy species creation tool? One that can help consistently manage your species mods and allow an easy method of injecting (And possibly even removing) portraits at the few clicks of a button? I do and don't understand programming, and I know that such a Tool is possible, I don't necessarily know how easy it would be, but looking at the required lines of code in the actual files (The ones I've seen from current portrait mods as well as my own) it wouldn't require that many lines that could be injected or removed.

Either way, I'm hoping someone could take inspiration from this and run with the idea. (A little credit towards me and the MP Stellaris server would be appreciated as well >.<)

Edited April 19, 2022 by Screws

[Zermelane]

Based on experience, none of the steps are hard, but each of them takes some work to figure out how to do at all, and then a bit more work to figure out how to usefully automate. I wrote some scripts to manage a couple of workflow steps for my own mod earlier, but I, uhh, threw them out when I decided I no longer wanted to work on that mod. I want to say it was no huge loss since most of it was specific to my workflow, but it wouldn't have particularly *hurt* either to still have access to stuff like the really wonky centering logic.

 

Anyway, I don't plan to spend more time on modding Stellaris, so I won't be of any help here, but... here's a random link to Automate the Boring Stuff with Python. Hint: If you want to do the resizing and conversion to DDS in the script (I did, because I wanted to keep the high-resolution originals in case I wanted to change their crops), and decide to use ImageMagick with subprocess/os.system, make sure to pass in "-define dds:compression=none" because otherwise you'll be spending a day trying to work out why all your portraits look like explosions at the pixel factory.

[Screws]

2 hours ago, Zermelane said:

Based on experience, none of the steps are hard, but each of them takes some work to figure out how to do at all, and then a bit more work to figure out how to usefully automate. I wrote some scripts to manage a couple of workflow steps for my own mod earlier, but I, uhh, threw them out when I decided I no longer wanted to work on that mod. I want to say it was no huge loss since most of it was specific to my workflow, but it wouldn't have particularly *hurt* either to still have access to stuff like the really wonky centering logic.

 

Anyway, I don't plan to spend more time on modding Stellaris, so I won't be of any help here, but... here's a random link to Automate the Boring Stuff with Python. Hint: If you want to do the resizing and conversion to DDS in the script (I did, because I wanted to keep the high-resolution originals in case I wanted to change their crops), and decide to use ImageMagick with subprocess/os.system, make sure to pass in "-define dds:compression=none" because otherwise you'll be spending a day trying to work out why all your portraits look like explosions at the pixel factory.

Gonna be honest, I'm an idiot when it comes to this sort of thing, hence why the hefty request. Even simple how-to guides I can mess up lol

[N1ghtshade]

This is an interesting technical challenge. I'm looking into it, but I don't guarantee anything will come of it.

[Screws]

15 minutes ago, N1ghtshade said:

This is an interesting technical challenge. I'm looking into it, but I don't guarantee anything will come of it.

I mean it would be neat if you could come up with something lol.

[Screws]

I mean the idea is a possibility, but not necessarily easy.