Battle Chronicler Tutorial

Mushkilla wrote:

Mngwa wrote:

Still learning how to use this thing a little... what bothers me most in this that I have to remember where every unit was, where it moved and fired etc...
Figured out the basics though, thanks for this tutorial!

I have a little note pad that I use to sketch out the table every game, and do a quick sketch of each turn and take some notes. My opponents often find this quite disconcerting.

There is this new invention. I think it's called a photograph...

Vasara wrote:

Mushkilla wrote:

Mngwa wrote:

Still learning how to use this thing a little... what bothers me most in this that I have to remember where every unit was, where it moved and fired etc...
Figured out the basics though, thanks for this tutorial!

I have a little note pad that I use to sketch out the table every game, and do a quick sketch of each turn and take some notes. My opponents often find this quite disconcerting.

There is this new invention. I think it's called a photograph...

Good idea, and one I have thought of.
I probably want live pictures of the game anyways, so it can be used as reference too. But sketching the troop movement is good too, especially if no camera present, and you can draw the movement specifically, not adding too much info with a picture.

Okay, made my first peice of terrain for uploading. Not my favorite, but only one I had in my laptop from a top view (am on a train and bored). I have now uploaded a few in a row and think I have a feel for it.

Here is the very quick verson of how I did it. I will leave actions fairly generic so they can be translated to any standard photo editor (I am using an old photo impact pro, but have adobe photoshop so will try it there at some point). I did it with images I had shrunk to put on the net, so the quality is not the best from an image standpoint. Recommend using big high res images.

Before you get started create a folder in My Documents/battle chronicler/components/your file name, so you have somewhere to put the files so battle chronicler can find them without you having to direct it to a location different from all the other components. The other option is to just save them into the Components file and they will be mixed in with the others. The upside to that is that they will be located with their execution files and probably easier to copy to someone else later.

1)Take the picture from above.
2)Open in the editor.
3)I used the lasso tool to pick up the image and then dragged it into a new frame. For me that just means dragging it onto the workspace and a new image box auto appears.
4)Then zoom and use the erase tool to get rid of any unwanted areas around the terrain. I found it easier to just lasso as best I could and then use the erase tool to remove what I didn't want, rather than spend a ton of time trying to lasso it perfectly.
5)Once happy, export object to file (from the object file menu, not the export file from the file menu) not to image or you just get another copy on your workspace.
6)Export "image and and selection" as png file. This part took me a while to figure out. If you just do selection you get the background too, if you do image you get only the background, but if you select both you only get the image...very strange nomenclature. Make sure you save into the folder you created in the components folder.
7) Open Battle Chronicler then go to edit->components.
8. In the components screen select new
9) Skip down to the "Fill Type" secion and select image from the drop down menu.
10) Next, skip down to the image fill section at the bottom and click the "..." and select your folder and then your image. The image should come up in the screen. Keep the "keep proportions" tab checked. It will auto populate the name for you. Change it if you want or do the name etc first If you prefer, I just found this way easier.
11) Fill in the catagory.
12) In the theme drop down, your folder should be there as a choice.
13) Now go to the details section and make your selections. In the tutorial on the site, it discusses calculating the ratios to get the relative sizes of length and width, but in my version it did it automatically. I did the calculations manually and the program is doing it correctly. It will default to 6X6 but the first time you put a number in, it will correct it. In the program left to right is width and top to bottom is height.
14) Add an intellectual copy tag if you want. I like that there is a preselect for GW items among others.
15) Close the component screen.
16) The terrain will be available under whatever chatagory you put it in.

*****If you are still in the components screen and you look for your terrain it will be at the bottom, but after you close out it puts it into the alphabetical roster with all the rest.

*****I did not bother putting a border on any of mine, so left that out of the steps. If you want or need it, it is self-explanitory.

***** The execution files will be in the main component folder, not in the theme folder you created.

I will try it on adobe when I get home, as I don't have it on my laptop and come back with any differences.

Once I redo these with some higher quality images and have a large batch, I will try to figure out how to do it as an upload like off the battle chronicaller site. I anyone knows that peice I would love a quick how too.

I have a test shot of the terrain on the field, but can't upload on the train, will have to wait until tonight.

Two Ways to make your terrain board your background.

First you have to be able to get a picture from above a 6X4 foot board.

I played with it for a bit and found that saving as a jpeg that is 72X48 inches worked the best.

1) Follow the how to import terrain above except make it's catagory and its placement level "background." This will put it in the background section and make it a true background peice that cannot be moved or changed and is treated just like the others. The only snag I have found with this is there is a green band on the top and bottom that I cannot figure out how to get rid of. If anyone knows I would love to hear it, as this is otherwise a much easier thing to deal with in the program as an object.

2) Do the same as #1 above, except in its placement level pick "ground." Doing this will leave it in the background section for picking purposes, but it will be treated as a ground level terrain peice that you can then put other terrain on top of. When you pick it, it may not be centered correctly, so you will have to move it around a bit to get it to the right spot, but then put all your other terrain on top of it, or if you took a picture of your board already set up with terrain, you are done.

#2 is probably the better way if you are taking a one time shot of a board with all its terrain on it, then once you are done and have exported your images everything you can just deleate the big picture file

The test png files were around 12 MB while the jpeg was around 3.

Nice find Nappen thanks for sharing!

You can change that bands colour by changing the board colour when you create the game/report. Set it to something less obvious like black (the default is green). At least that's the only fix I can think of at the moment.

Okay, was playing with the zipped files on the BC site. Getting them into my BC was as easy as copying the control file and the image into my components folder.

Anyone willing to let me send them a control file and image that they can copy into their component folder and see if it works?

I will just have to change the image path to pull it from the control file from the components folder and not a separate folder like I have it set up on my computer.

From test I did before it should work out just fine if you specify the right path. If you upload it to a file host I can download it and give it a go.

Is that the best way for all of us to share terrain?

I don't have a file host. How do you get one of those?

I did a search, and realize that Amtrack has all file hosting sites blocked, so can't up or download. Will work on it later on.

Okay, said example terrain. Not high quality, but it works

Hey,

I downloaded this program but I am stuck in getting the right symbols for units and to have some decent terrain.

Has anyone found some digital images of 40k troops and Terrain?

That would be a great help.

PS: maybe I could look at vasal, right?

easiest for terrain is to take pictures of the terrain you are using and put it in. I am not sure how to do troops.

Is Battle Chronicler still available as every time I go to the linked site it is a dead end...???

I've got a BatRep I wanted to do in video but the video quality is poor (I recorded on a phone and at times held it sideways like an idiot) so thought I'd give Chronicler a shot...

I just tried and get a dead end too. Not sure if they shut down or not. All the links to help and updates in the program are dead, too. It was a free program, so maybe they gave up or sold it?

Hi, just downloaded the battle chronicler and at the moment playing around with a test report.

I have made a table, deployed the armies, played through the first turn - and now I want to put a unit on the table that is coming in from reserves and another unit that had not deployed because it was supposed to be inside a transport.

Now I can't put those units on the table - any ideas?

@Mushkilla: how do you make those blood effects and craters? I also can't find any templates for e.g. Dark eldar, or any other armies.

Do you have a link?

Mushkilla wrote:

SirTainly wrote:

Mush, anymore of the terrain photos converted over yet? Gobs used a lot of my stuff in his photos so I'd be well chuffed to see them in the app!

I have finished doing the transparency for all the terrain, at the moment I'm sorting out making the installation program so setting it up is hassle free, should be done over the next week or two. Sorry about the wait been rather busy (who would have thought real life could be such an inconvenience to an archon as powerful as me).

hey did you ever finish the 40K terrain? if yes how do I get it?. if no could i have the images so i can try to finish what you started? thanks

Not wanting to necro post here, but I've just started using Battle Chronicler and would love to have some 40k components to go in there - I'm also willing to see if I can do the conversion from photos to components if either mushkilla or gobsmakked are able to send the photos over to me? PM me and I'll send an email address.