OK. So I'm just a cut-and-paste programmer, which is to say - a hack , and I wanted to add a custom expansions to a Talisman4R plugin in Strange Eons. I know that any changes I'll make won't be compatibile with a future expansions but writing my own plugin is beyond me at the moment. Coding is not a problem anyway. I'm sure I can add a few lines to diy-adventure.js file and it will work.

Problem is the graphics. I wanted to keep as close to original cards as possible so modifying an existing templates would be the best solution. Unfortunately GIMP 2.6 I'm using does not support .jp2 files. I was unable to find any open-source progam that would convert .jp2 to something more user-friendly like .png.

Would anyone had some suggestions of what free programs could I use (I can't afford PhotoShop, I'm affraid)? Or, if that fails, would someone be kind enough to convert a few files I need to .png format?

Files I need are located in the [templates] folder within Talisman4R.seext file (which is just a .zip file with different extension) and are as follows:

• adventure-back.jp2
• adventure-front-a.jp2
• adventure-front-b.jp2
• adventure-jewel.jp2
• cardback-template.jp2
• dungeon-front-a.jp2
• dungeon-front-b.jp2
• dungeon-jewel.jp2

I'll be grateful for any help.

I am not sure about this, but isn´t there any "lite" version of Photoshop ? I do not have experience with Jp2 format to be honest, but as I have Photoshop I could convert any of pictures you want from jp2 to png or jpg if you want (and if Photoshop is able of this)

If you want the templates in another format, then just use the additional assets in the Downloads section at Talisman Island.

Wow, these are great. Higher resolution than I expected. I managed to convert .jp2 files with Gwenviev from KDE package but the process is still buggy. I lost all the transparency and got some strange artifacts but at least I have something to compare my work with. It appears that SE plug-in files are exactly half the size of the templates from additional assets.

Which brings me to my next question. Does SE have some sort of anti-aliasing build in? The quality of the cards made in it is much higher than 245*375 template resolution would suggest. Or maybe it's just the buggy convertion that gave me so small templates?

Anyway, with the templates from Talisman Island I have something to work with. Thanks a lot

And if, by a chance, I will actually manage to do something with those I'll let you all know.

SE takes a 150dpi template and renders it as a 300dpi file. When printed, you will be hard pressed to tell much difference unless you play using the Hubble Space Telescope.

talismanisland said:

Jon is absolutely correct. I used Strange Eons to create some new 2nd & 3rd edition cards & the quality of the cards after printing was astounding. The colour & detail was exceptional. I thoroughly recommend it.

Perhaps the easiest way is to let SE do the conversion. Right click on any image in a project and use the Convert To item to change the image format between PNG, JPEG, and JPEG2000. I would suggest that the most sensible approach is to choose Add New Task and the Import Plug-in task type, then choose the Talisman extension (.seext) file. This will unpack a copy of the extension (including images) that you can edit, rebuild, and test from within SE.

JPEG2000 is a complex standard, and many programs with .jp2 format support are incomplete or buggy. As such, it is can be a gamble trying to convert to and from the format between programs. If you use SE to convert the image, you can be sure that what you see is what you will get.

Another advantage for casual users is that SE collapses the myriad JPEG2000 format options into a simple quality slider. Many of the features of JPEG2000 are fairly opaque unless you have a background in computing science or a related domain.

Having said all that, you might wonder why SE uses JPEG2000 images at all. There are three main reasons:

1. unlike JPEG, JPEG2000 supports transparency
2. it can produce smaller images than JPEG while still retaining more image detail
3. it can often produce a significantly smaller lossless image than PNG (depends on the size and general type of the original)

As to the question about rendering in SE, there is an old thread in this subforum that describes many of the details somewhere, but suffice it to say that SE works hard to produce the best result it can from what is available.

Cheers,
Chris