.PCX:
You want the .pcx files for mission loading screens to be as small as possible. I suggest a maximum size of 800×600, but use 640×480 if you can get away with it.
Depending on your image enhancement program, find out how to index the color palette. Reduce the color index to at least 8-bit, 256 colors.
These methods can reduce a 1024×768 screenshot to a 800×600 loading screen that's 30-35% the file size of the original.
.CIN and .END:
The main things to know about .cin and .end content:
• Fairly certain there are 60 ticks (but possibly 64 ticks) in one second
• Height values are absolute Z, not height above terrain
• Inexplicably, the compass for .cin/.end files is mirrored on the 45°-225° axis. Chart attempt below:
Code:
MED COMPASS 0 45 90 135 180 225 270 315
.CIN/.END COMPASS 90 45 0 315 270 225 180 135
Basically, I have a piece of paper here that I drew four intersecting lines on, making an eight-pointed star. In a small circle I wrote the MED compass headings on each axis in clockwise increments of 45 with 0 at the top. In a larger circle I wrote the .cin/.end compass headings on each axis in counter-clockwise increments of 45 with 0 at the right.
All this means that if you want your camera pointed exactly northeast or exactly southwest, the MED compass values are fine, but you'll have to do some thinking and some math to get your cameras aimed correctly in any other direction. Good luck!
.AIN:
It infuriates me that no one has yet released an .ain editor for DFBHD(TS). AIs cannot navigate convincingly without an .ain file, and this hobbles the single player mission maker so very badly.
From what I understand with my experience using mission editors from other games, I'll just pull this explanation out of my [REDACTED BODY ORIFICE]:
Upon completing the creation of a new mission, with all buildings, decorations, foliage, and objects in their absolute final positions, NeverLogic's mappers would use a proprietary program to analyze the .trn, .3di, and .mis files, creating a network of AI navigable secondary waypoints over, around, and through terrain, buildings, decorations, and foliage. All this information would then be saved in an .ain file.
In 2003, it probably took a long time for this analysis program to run and complete an .ain file, prompting NeverLogic's decision to not release it. Or possibly, the pira... *ahem*
proprietary .ain creator had, um,
other issues making a public release a bad idea. Who can say?
Hypotheoretically, you could use campaign .bms and .ain files extracted from the .pffs, convert the .bms files to .mis files, and use these as bases for new missions. Adding, repostioning, or deleting items could invalidate .ain information, however. A highly creative mapper could very well work wonders under such constraints, possibly.
Not me, though. I'm tired.