Minecraft Forums

Quote from TriblePlays

Could I send the texture pack for u and u fix it for me plz. Cuz it's still not working

Sure. Send it to me via PM if you so desire. I'll take a look at it.

Quote from TriblePlays

This is the link for the pack

Do NOT include textures that are not entirely of your own making in any pack that you post on the forum. This includes the default textures, which are owned by Mojang, and anything taken from another pack without the express written permission of the original artist.

No assistance will be given to texture thieves.

PVP pack, a.k.a mixed packs of other peoples hard works. STOLEN textures with someone elses name slapped on them.
Your pack is illegal and copyright infringement.

Come back when you have real respect for the hard work and days of time it takes to make a real pack, to draw them out pixel by pixel, to plan and sort and work out errors. THEN you'll get help.

Quote from Alvoria

and that the file format is ANSI.

Why is it you keep recommending ANSI? It's a windows-specific thing, and as far as I can tell, all of the text files that Minecraft has are encoded with UTF-8, and I even know one of the files Notch made (the character definition file, not sure if it's even there anymore) even says that it NEEDS to be in UTF-8. I'm also pretty sure that it has caused issues in the past with the language files being in ANSI (nothing big, I think it was color codes not working?)

So I'm not sure if you're having some problem on your end with UTF-8 (I've not had any, and it's all I use for every text-based anything for Minecraft) or if you're trying to recommend against some other text encoder that you had issues with, or just are used to Windows-only lifestyle/work so it's what you always used.

EDIT: Also, with a shallow look at things, UTF-8 can represent more characters, is more open/standard (while ANSI seems more obsolete), and is just better overall. So I don't really see why you're recommending it when UTF-8 IS what is used and should be used.

Quote from insomniac_lemon

Why is it you keep recommending ANSI? It's a windows-specific thing, and as far as I can tell, all of the text files that Minecraft has are encoded with UTF-8, and I even know one of the files Notch made (the character definition file, not sure if it's even there anymore) even says that it NEEDS to be in UTF-8. I'm also pretty sure that it has caused issues in the past with the language files being in ANSI (nothing big, I think it was color codes not working?)

So I'm not sure if you're having some problem on your end with UTF-8 (I've not had any, and it's all I use for every text-based anything for Minecraft) or if you're trying to recommend against some other text encoder that you had issues with, or just are used to Windows-only lifestyle/work so it's what you always used.

That's interesting. The default Minecraft .mcmeta files show up as being ANSI for me. All of the text files are UTF-8 without BOM, however.

I wasn't aware that ANSI is a Windows-specific thing, and am wondering why all of the default files are encoded in it if it is. I can't think of a good reason that either Winrar or Notepad++ would convert them automatically, so this is puzzling to me.

And to answer your question, yes, I have had some problems with UTF-8. It puts extra characters at the beginning of the file which Notepad++ doesn't display, but Minecraft still reads causing errors. UTF-8 without BOM fixes this, however. Still, I'm going to recommend what the default files are until someone can give me a good reason not to since there doesn't seem to be any problems associated with doing so. At least none that I'm aware of.

Thanks for letting me know.

Edit: All of the .mcmeta files detect as ANSI in Notepad as well. Know of anything else I can check them with?

Quote from Alvoria

That's interesting. The default Minecraft .mcmeta files show up as being ANSI for me. All of the text files are UTF-8 without BOM, however.

I wasn't aware that ANSI is a Windows-specific thing, and am wondering why all of the default files are encoded in it if it is. I can't think of a good reason that either Winrar or Notepad++ would convert them automatically, so this is puzzling to me.

And to answer your question, yes, I have had some problems with UTF-8. It doesn't seem to save special characters. That's not really relevant for animation files, however. Still, I'm going to recommend what the default files are until someone can give me a good reason not to since there doesn't seem to be any problems associated with doing so. At least none that I'm aware of.

Thanks for letting me know.

As for being a Windows specific thing, ANSI is actually more of an "umbrella" term, there actually isn't a standardized ANSI encoding (so really, 2 "ANSI" files could have different encoding). A quick blurb I found:

The term "ANSI" as used to signify Windows code pages is a historical reference, but is nowadays a misnomer that continues to persist in the Windows community. The source of this comes from the fact that the Windows code page 1252 was originally based on an ANSI draft, which became ISO Standard 8859-1. However, in adding code points to the range reserved for control codes in the ISO standard, the Windows code page 1252 and subsequent Windows code pages originally based on the ISO 8859-x series deviated from ISO. To this day, it is not uncommon to have the development community, both within and outside of Microsoft, confuse the 8859-1 code page with Windows 1252, as well as see "ANSI" or "A" used to signify Windows code page support.

(there also doesn't seem to be any sort of wiki page for ANSI encoding)

I've not had any trouble with special characters in UTF-8 myself, although I've only really used the section sign '§', as far as I can remember. Which symbols were you having trouble with, how did you get them, and which editors have you tried? I make sure to copy it from web pages so I know I'm copying a UTF-8 character.

Also, how are you checking the file's encoding? If you're using the "save as" dialogue, it could be possible that your software uses what is previously default rather than what the encoding of the current file is.

Quote from insomniac_lemon

As for being a Windows specific thing, ANSI is actually more of an "umbrella" term, there actually isn't a standardized ANSI encoding (so really, 2 "ANSI" files could have different encoding). A quick blurb I found:

(there also doesn't seem to be any sort of wiki page for ANSI encoding)

Yea, I was just reading up on it since you brought it up. What a weird way to store data.

I've not had any trouble with special characters in UTF-8 myself, although I've only really used the section sign '§', as far as I can remember. Which symbols were you having trouble with, how did you get them, and which editors have you tried? I make sure to copy it from web pages so I know I'm copying a UTF-8 character.

I actually changed that paragraph slightly as I was thinking of the wrong thing. (Sorry, sick today). The problem with UTF-8 is that it puts characters at the beginning of the file which don't show up in the editor but will cause Minecraft to missread the file. UTF-8 without BOM fixes this problem, though.

Also, how are you checking the file's encoding? If you're using the "save as" dialogue, it could be possible that your software uses what is previously default rather than what the encoding of the current file is.

I'm using Notepad++. It shows what the current encoding is in the "Encoding" menu, and in the information in the status bar at the bottom.

I'm curious now. What operating system are you running? If it's not a Windows OS, would you mind Downloading Sanity and seeing if the animations all work? I'm a little concerned now that my pack isn't functioning properly on all platforms and that nobody has ever bothered to tell me about it.

Quote from Alvoria

Yea, I was just reading up on it since you brought it up. What a weird way to store data.


I actually changed that paragraph slightly as I was thinking of the wrong thing. (Sorry, sick today). The problem with UTF-8 is that it puts characters at the beginning of the file which don't show up in the editor but will cause Minecraft to missread the file. UTF-8 without BOM fixes this problem, though.


I'm using Notepad++. It shows what the current encoding is in the "Encoding" menu, and in the information in the status bar at the bottom.

I'm curious now. What operating system are you running? If it's not a Windows OS, would you mind Downloading Sanity and seeing if the animations all work? I'm a little concerned now that my pack isn't functioning properly on all platforms and that nobody has ever bothered to tell me about it.

I use Linux (specifically Arch Linux), however it seems you're already using UTF-8 for pretty much all of your plain text files, as far as I could see

Note that the only non UTF-8 file I found in either of your packs was your readme.txt in Mint Flavor, which is western ISO-wholebunchofnumbers with some characters not displaying properly (copy-pasting in Chrome's omnibox gave a >> character, while opening it in Chrome turned them to dashes, other programs used error fillers like a number box or question mark diamond).

So I'm confused what's going on here, as you recommend against it while it seems like it's mostly what you use. You also never answered me on what characters were not saving properly, or how you got them in your document. It seems to be working perfectly fine in your packs with the section sign for text formatting, and UTF-8 should be able to handle every character you throw at it unless you do not have the font to display it (relevant for other language characters).

Quote from insomniac_lemon

I use Linux (specifically Arch Linux), however it seems you're already using UTF-8 for all of your plain text files, as far as I could see

Note that the only non UTF-8 file I found in either of your packs was your readme.txt in Mint Flavor, which is western ISO-wholebunchofnumbers with some characters not displaying properly (copy-pasting in Chrome's omnibox gave a >> character, while opening it in Chrome turned them to dashes, other programs used error fillers like a number box or question mark diamond).

So I'm confused what's going on here, as you recommend against it while it seems like it's mostly what you use.

And I'm confused as to why Notepad++ isn't telling me what format it's actually using. The long and short appears to be that my software is lying to me. I'll start recommending UTF-8 without BOM then. I'll also reformat my ReadMe files to that format. Would you mind testing them when I post the updated version in the next couple of days?

Quote from insomniac_lemon

You also never answered me on what characters were not saving properly, or how you got them in your document. It seems to be working perfectly fine in your packs with the section sign for text formatting, and UTF-8 should be able to handle every character you throw at it unless you do not have the font to display it (relevent for other language characters).

Yes I did. I told you I was mistaken. That problem was with something else completely irrelevant to this conversation. Forget about it.

I also explained what the real problem is: That UTF-8 puts characters at the beginning of the file that aren't visible in the editor, but that Minecraft does see and causes it not to read the files due to improper formatting. Again, "UTF-8 without BOM" solves this issue. I'll be recommending that from now on.

Thank you Lemon. I appreciate all your help and insight on this matter. It wasn't my intention to mislead people... I was simply being mislead myself.

Edit: I'll fix this issue in the OP a little later. Right now editing that post just causes Minecraft Forum to have a seizure and wreck everything. I haven't the patience to deal with the forum being cognitively challenged at one in the morning, so I'll try to do it tomorrow.

The good news is that I tested the Rollback feature and it works perfectly!

Quote from Alvoria

-snip-

Ok, sorry, me brain had read about your issue with BOM, but for some reason still wanted answers. I had even read about BOM issues when comparing UTF-8 vs. "ANSI" (ISO variants) but it hadn't crossed my mind that Notepad++ would have it as a (default) choice. I use a text editor called Gedit which doesn't seem to even bother with BOM.

And yeah, it was just bothering me a bit, I'm glad we got to a solution.

As for notepad++ lying to you, maybe you thought saving it once as western ISO would keep it default, and then opening the default files (being UTF-8) changed it on you? Or maybe you tried to set it in a file with a section sign, but western ISO not being able to encode that character, it defaulted to UTF-8?

Either way, can you at least permanently switch off BOM?

Quote from insomniac_lemon

Ok, sorry, me brain had read about your issue with BOM, but for some reason still wanted answers. I had even read about BOM issues when comparing UTF-8 vs. "ANSI" (ISO variants) but it hadn't crossed my mind that Notepad++ would have it as a (default) choice. I use a text editor called Gedit which doesn't seem to even bother with BOM.

From what I can tell this is an intelligent choice. From what I've read BOM isn't at all necessary, so it seems like it causes more problems than it solves.

Quote from insomniac_lemon

And yeah, it was just bothering me a bit, I'm glad we got to a solution.

Yea.

Quote from insomniac_lemon

As for notepad++ lying to you, maybe you thought saving it once as western ISO would keep it default, and then opening the default files (being UTF-8) changed it on you? Or maybe you tried to set it in a file with a section sign, but western ISO not being able to encode that character, it defaulted to UTF-8?

No.. I thought that since on of it's features is to show what it's encoding is under the "Encoding" menu that it was actually, you know, working.

Quote from insomniac_lemon

Either way, can you at least permanently switch off BOM?

Here's something really weird. This statement caused me to check around in the preferences. Under the "New Document" section in Notepad++, there's an option to choose the default format. Oddly under "UTF-8 without BOM" there's also a check box that says "Apply to opened ANSI files". Once checked, everything that formerly said ANSI when opened now detects as UTF-8 w/o BOM.

What I think is happening is that Notepad++ automatically assumes that any file without a header is an ANSI file and displays that encoding. With that option checked, it changes this behavior to more correctly assume that a file without BOM is actually a a UTF-8 file. The default behavior is unbelievably stupid since while it says it's encoding in ANSI it's apparently encoding in UTF-8 w/o BOM simply so that it doesn't have to actually assign a character set to it.

OK, so now that we've got THAT sorted, I'll try to edit the OP a little later.

Thank you SO much Lemon! I greatly appreciate your educating me on this matter!

Quote from CommanderNebula9»

How do you convert your animated textures into gifs like in the original post? I think I could use them in my own thread page.

For example, this:

Kind of off-topic, but OK.

For starters, there are absolutely no .gif files in the OP. None. I don't use the .gif format at all anymore if I can help it.

Those are animated .png files.

But to answer your question, I have all of mine saved as layers so it's a simple matter of saving them out as individual images since I have to do that to organize them into strips with irfanView anyway. Instead of dropping them into irfanview, I just dump them into APNG Maker, change a few settings, and save out the finished animated .png.

For your example, unless you have them saved out as frames you'll need to take the time to cut them apart and go from there.

Quote from Goodlyay»

Animated png files are cool and all, but you do realize that only Safari and Firefox support them, right?

Ever since Internet Explorer started supporting them the limitation had escaped my notice.

Honestly, every modern internet browser supports the APNG format now. The stripped-down version of Opera that runs on my Nintendo 3DS supports them for goodness sake! Scratch that... apparently the stripped-down version of Opera does NOT support APNGs. Oh well. Regular Opera still does according to Wikipedia, though. Honestly I don't think that this is a big deal anymore. Five years ago maybe... but even then IE was the odd man out with everyone else supporting them.

Quote from OzzyKP»

Hey Alvoria, I'm finally looking into fixing the animations in my pack, but your great tutorial doesn't say anything about animated paintings. What file name do I use? Where do I put the files? Any other complications with animated paintings? My mcdata file looks perfect, but it doesn't work as is.

This tutorial doesn't say anything about animated paintings because you can't animate paintings in vanilla Minecraft, and this tutorial is specifically for vanilla Minecraft animations.

I'm not sure where to direct you since almost nothing MCPatcher-related is up to date, unfortunately. Sorry.

Quote from Reitrahc»

I'm trying to modify the oCd texture pack because I don't like how the water and lava and portals still look like Vanilla. The flowing water and lava didn't quite look right and I read in your post that those must be tiled 4x4 for each frame. I'm worried tiling the frames in such a way might mess up the look that I am going for. If I tile it out 4x4, will it DEFINITELY appear in the game like exactly 1 of those tiles, or will it look like something in the middle of the 4 tiles? If the latter is the case, is there a way I can just have a blank/empty blue/red space to fill in the parts of the texture that won't be rendered?

Can I have the animation skip any frames?

You need to tile it out 2x2. The center of the polygon for the flowing water will be from the center of the 2x2 area. If you're looking to get an exact border, that's impossible since the frame rotates on that center point.

As to whether you can just leave empty space... sure. Just make sure that you realize that this is one of the rare times in Minecraft where the texture is effectively a circle 16 pixels in diameter centered on the center of the frame. In other words, I wouldn't recommend it.

And yes, you can have your animation skip frames. Just specify the frame order as covered in the tutorial.