Picture

A picture is a simple PNG images. Pictures are used as backgrounds in the game’s interface, in mission briefings, and in prologues and epilogues. They are not used in-game and are never animated; sprites are used for that.

Example

1   Do I need it?

Maybe.

If you’re adding new ships, you’ll probably want to add pictures for them so that you can show them in mission briefings. Also, if you’re adding levels, you may want to add pictures to show in prologues and epilogues.

If none of that applies, you don’t need to add any pictures.

2   Naming

Pictures are in the pictures directory and have a .png file extension.

There are two special pictures used directly by Antares, the splash and starmap pictures:

  • splash (shown during game startup)
  • starmap (shown during mission briefings)

Additionally, any picture which which is used as the portrait for an object has the same name as that object. Finally, the factory scenario uses three directories for other pictures:

  • brf/..., for pictures shown during mission briefings, but not corresponding to any object.
  • log/..., for pictures shown during prologues and epilogues.
  • gui/..., for pictures used in the game interface.

3   Definition

Antares supports PNG image files.

4   Special pictures

4.1   splash

A picture to show while the game is launching. It will be shown centered in the screen, possibly cropped, without being scaled up or down. The image should be at least 640×480.

If the plugin does not have a picture named splash, the factory scenario’s splash screen is used instead.

4.2   starmap

The image that is shown at the beginning of mission briefings. It should be sized to match the mission briefing box (533×361) and will be cropped if it’s too large.

In the factory scenario, the indicator drawn around the current star system is a 32×24 box. If you provide your own star map, you may prefer to use similarly-sized stars.

If the plugin does not have a picture named starmap, the factory scenario’s starmap is used instead.