Custom marbles
by Ron Lachapelle · in Marble Blast · 04/20/2006 (5:56 pm) · 19 replies
I'm new here, my kids asked me to get some user designed custom levels and marbles. I found Bobs marbles and dropped the .png and the ds store into the shapes/balls files and I got a watery looking marble. Fine. I tried to put another one in and no go. Same watery one. I sucessfully put the orig marble back in. I tried another texture, but it was the watery one agin. What am I missing here? Thanks from my kids and I!
#2
04/21/2006 (12:48 pm)
I DL'd a version for my PC, its a HP w/ athlon 2800 w/ 512 RAM, nvidia 5100 64 mB vid card. Custom levels were no problem, as well as skies. But that danged water globe, is the only one I can get. But I'll tell you, that cats eye one looks cool, at least the jpeg does, anyway :)
#3
05/01/2006 (12:39 am)
Running windows XP - Service Pack 2. Downloaded Bob's Custom Marbles but had same problem as others who have posted here with the balls looking like a watery globe that would not spin...looked like it was floating. Too bad also, because the custom marbles look like a lot of fun. Please post if there is a fix. My kids and I would really appreciate the help :-)
#4
05/01/2006 (2:55 am)
I also have the same problem... How disappointing! :-[ 
#5
Edit: I visit Tristan's site and can no longer bring up the skins.
05/01/2006 (12:49 pm)
I wonder if the opacity of the image were to be changed if that would affect how MBG renders the to the marble. Does anyone have any info on how this works. Tristan's skins work perfect btw.Edit: I visit Tristan's site and can no longer bring up the skins.
#6
05/02/2006 (4:40 am)
What's happening is that MBG doesn't seem to recognize the image - the "watery blue marble" is in fact a reflection of the sky.
#9
I got your marbles working. I brought the files(PNG) into PhotoShop and took a look at them.
There are several problems:
1.) Some have no alpha-channel at all. Alpha channels are required for the skins to work.
2.) Some have an alpha-channel, but the channel is 'white' which means the image is 'blocked'
by the channel. The solution is to delete that 'white' alpha channel and create a new alpha channel.
I believe the default channel is black and that's what you want. Black allows all the image information to pass through the alpha layer.
3.) Also, you must preserve transparency. I think this is what allows the alpha channel to work. The PNG file stores this information, so make sure the save alpha option is checked when you save it to that format. Note: You can only preserve transparency on a duplicated copy and not the original background(image/layer). Once you save your PNG file(Save Copy As) it will 'flatten', but should preserve all necessary information to work as a marbleskin.
Bob, I am going to correct your sets(collections) tonight and would like your permission to host the files on my iDisk.
Thx,
solo.
Update: you can download the skins(marbles) at this Click here for Bob's marbles when Bob give me permission. I will then post the password here. Pls be patient.
05/03/2006 (12:30 am)
Bob, I got your marbles working. I brought the files(PNG) into PhotoShop and took a look at them.
There are several problems:
1.) Some have no alpha-channel at all. Alpha channels are required for the skins to work.
2.) Some have an alpha-channel, but the channel is 'white' which means the image is 'blocked'
by the channel. The solution is to delete that 'white' alpha channel and create a new alpha channel.
I believe the default channel is black and that's what you want. Black allows all the image information to pass through the alpha layer.
3.) Also, you must preserve transparency. I think this is what allows the alpha channel to work. The PNG file stores this information, so make sure the save alpha option is checked when you save it to that format. Note: You can only preserve transparency on a duplicated copy and not the original background(image/layer). Once you save your PNG file(Save Copy As) it will 'flatten', but should preserve all necessary information to work as a marbleskin.
Bob, I am going to correct your sets(collections) tonight and would like your permission to host the files on my iDisk.
Thx,
solo.
Update: you can download the skins(marbles) at this Click here for Bob's marbles when Bob give me permission. I will then post the password here. Pls be patient.
#10
05/03/2006 (4:53 am)
I'm very happy to see the discussion this prompted. Thanks to everyone for looking at this. And yes, I'm patiently waiting....tho my kids are not. ahhahahaha But they love the game. I'm just happy they don't like shoot 'em up games. Go MBG!!!!! 
#13
@Bob, You're welcome and thanks for letting me release the marbles. Hope all is well with you.
@Matan, Thanks for certifying that the marbles work with PC Windows systems.
@All, download marbles at your leisure.
05/04/2006 (1:20 am)
@Ron, You're welcome and welcome to download now. Use the above link and password: skincat. Glad you're enjoying the forums. And, hope you kids enjoy Bob's unique collection of marbles. They're great! I like catseye, Alex marble and the tri-colored one.@Bob, You're welcome and thanks for letting me release the marbles. Hope all is well with you.
@Matan, Thanks for certifying that the marbles work with PC Windows systems.
@All, download marbles at your leisure.
#14
Roll On!
05/04/2006 (4:56 am)
Thanks to everyone for their work on this, the 'Marbleheads' at home, and I, appreciate it!Roll On!
#15
05/04/2006 (11:24 am)
I added a pdf file with index sheet of Bob's marbles to download page.
#16
05/30/2006 (5:44 pm)
Sadly my skins were just fooling with color effects in photoshop, but I do know one thing: It has to do with opacity. and the watery marble is really what makes the reflection in the marble, marbleskins just go over it.
#17
04/13/2008 (5:27 pm)
Gave me the message "The account you requested doesn't exist or is currently inactive" when I clicked on the link. How disappointing.
#18
04/14/2008 (5:48 am)
Don't bump old topics; please create a new one if you have a problem.
#19
04/14/2008 (1:49 pm)
That wasn't a post that required a new thread at all... personally I question the problem with most bumps, in this case it was much more efficient to post in a thread that had a broken link then to clutter the board with a new thread over an identical problem. The link should be fixed, that's a problem to post in the original thread, not in a new one. Ethan didn't do anything wrong in posting here. And I think his problem was fixed in another thread anyway, but I can't remember...
Torque Owner Bob