Hi EX-sirius.

I tested it with the file you gave me.
It works without any problems.

The quality is really perfect everywhere. I have nothing more to say.
I especially like the shutter closing during loading.
The details are reminiscent of arcade games, which is exciting.
I enjoyed it and it made me want to play IIDX for the first time in a long time lol.


Parts 2 and 3 are done. Really happy to see a design like this.

I will make a donation for part4, please check it out.

Thanks.

Hi NK3s I’m glad it works perfectly for you.
I’m also glad that it gives you the real arcade experience :)
Thank you making donation to the website too.
I will now begin to do the planning and set up for part004 select screen.
There is a lot of work to do so may be 1-3 days before I show the progress images because I will pla the design first and then also the coding for character slots.
Did you have a number of slots you would like?
I know you said at least as many as legacy screenpack, but if you have preferred number we can do it no problem.

Hmmm, so could you please make the number between 300-450 to match your design?

I'm using about 220 right now, but I'm already Full and would like to increase it.

NK3s wrote:Hmmm, so could you please make the number between 300-450 to match your design?

I'm using about 220 right now, but I'm already Full and would like to increase it.

Hi NK3s
No problem.
I will create the select screen slot templates based on that 300-450 range.
Depending on the design, I will aim for the highest number possible.
I’m confident we can have a high slot number and still have a good aesthetic design

Just a small progress update:
I am currently working still on the main slot template.
I am.testing a couple of different draft designs to determine the best option.
When i have decided on the design i think is the best, i will post some.progress images

Ex-Sirius wrote:Thanks as always guys. You guys are all doing some great work too.
Its really motivating to see everyone making so much content this consistent.
Screenpacks and palettes and edits, its all great stuff

I think that Part 002 and 003 is now happily done.
Here are some demos

Options Screen

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Vs screen

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I sent you the updated download link.
Just like last time, You may need to change your Mugen.cfg settings to your preferred settings.
Please try it out and let me know how you like it.

That looks amazing!
I cant wait to see what the select screen will look like

Thank you all and i'm glad you are all excited to see the final result.
I am still working on the various parts - The select screen is slightly more tedious than the other menu systems, but it is mainly because of the initial set up requirements and organising the screen space and positioning that is very time consuming.

For now, I wanted to quickly explain something about this select screen to you all.
Unlike the original Astral Heat Creepytarantino edition, which was going to use custom portraits and only 40 character select slots, NK3s has requested between 300-450 because he requires more slots.

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I have actually created a template based on 22 x 40 slot rows (meaning a total of 880 slots).
Of course, we won't be using that many slots because some of those slots need to be empty to allow space for the other important items on the screen such as large portraits and the stage select box
and name boxes and other things.

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But, it also means that there IS still a hidden maximum potential of
880 usable slots available if they were activated in the future. But be default they will not be visible or accessible.

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So what I have done, is slowly started to hide the unused character slots, and I have removed the first 2 rows, the last 2 bottom rows, and 2 columns from either side.
This has currently left me with a total of 648 slots, but I will be removing more until I have ideally 450 or as close as possible to that amount left.

Normally I don't bother to show these things as it isn't as interesting to see, but I wanted to share a little bot of the technical side of things to you in the meantime until you see the final product design

After quite a few trial and error this week and trying many things, I have finally managed to settle on the final Slot configuration.
I have managed to fit the entire total of 450 slots onto the screen perfectly.

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This is a preview of what the Character slot placement will look like.
The positions for the Characters slots will be the same as this test image.
Now I will begin to customize and modify the Astral heat design onto the Character slot configuration.

The available slots for each Row are as follows:

Row001: 20
Row002: 36
Row003: 36
Row004: 36
Row005: 32
Row006: 22
Row007: 22
Row008: 20

Row009: 20
Row010: 22
Row011: 22
Row012: 32
Row013: 36
Row014: 36
Row015: 36
Row016: 22

Total: 450

good！It is nicely symmetrical.

Looks like a dream come true, to me. Keep it up man.

Thanks guys.
Well I have now created the actual template now, and removed all of the grids and squares and slots that are not required.
I am currently applying the textures to the framework and then creating the spaces for the Stage select area, and design all of the fonts and name spaces.
Once these technical aspects are complete I can begin designing the Astral Theme animations and so on.
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This is going to look really smooth. I like the theme, it's very Flashy flash. Keep up the hard work, we look forward to seeing the next phase.

Thanks GRAYFOX
I know this step is moving a bit slower than the other parts of the screenpack, but I ended up deleting 2 other prototypes that I wasn't happy with until I came to this particular select slot configuration.

Here is another few small updates regarding the Select screen Fonts system.
I have imported a new Font that I am satisfied with, and I have scaled it to my liking.
Also, I have scaled the size of the Large character portraits down.

The reason is this screenpack is an HD screenpack that uses 2560x1440p sprites and is made to work in 2160p, but NK3s requires the default Mugen spriteno 9000,1 portraits that are low res 120x140px.
This is so he doesn't have to spend lots of time making HD portrait artwork for 450 characters.
So to maintain the good quality so it matches the rest of the select screen I have reduced the scale factor on them, also it will give more room for the effects and styles I will be adding.

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I am experimenting with the Slot framework at the moment, and also planning the display boxes for the Character names and portraits.
Once I have positioned all of those things, I can start removing all the graphics and animations that relate to the old legacy screenpack and start building the new Astral Heat style.

So I have updated the font sizing and positioning for the names, and I have created the placeholder frame for the portraits.
Of course, the final design will not be a poring square shape, I will add the details and designed borders so it matches the rest of the Astral heat design, but positioning is very important.

The reason is because, unlike custom portraits, where you can create the character names as images,
By default you do not have any control over how long the character name may be and look on the screen when you use the default mugen system.
So it is important to test and use long text for the default portrait font name system so that no matter what characters are added to the screenpack, the name will fit.

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As you can see I now need to make some more adjustments to the character slots to make sure there is good spacing and a professional looking layout.
So I will continue working on these details.

Looking good, like what your doing carefully building it up. Layer after layer, piece by piece. It will be sweet to see it all, in full action.

Thanks GRAYFOX.
generally that is the idea. layer by layer is a good way to put it.
In which case, I have finished organising all of the slots and Name ino field spacing.
I have made sure that the Name field can support extra long names as you can see.
I am confident that most existing Mugen character names even the longest ones will fit in the name boxes with no problem.

Also, I am beginning to create the theme for the screen based on the original Multiverse Vs Capcom theme than CreepyTarantino had before we upgraded the design to the Astral Heat EX theme (Based on Phantom Ds logo and Creepytarantinos design requirements)
So this means that just like the lifebars, the purple and green theme will be a prominent feature of this select screen.
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Nice Flav man, it's really coming together. Looking forward to seeing the next phase.

I've never been a fan of big rosters and I hate regular sized non-custom portraits on anything, but this changes my mind.
The layout doesnt even seem like its over 300 slots, at face value I would have only guessed 150=200ish lol.
Most epic screenpack of 2022 so far bro! keen to see where you take this next with the freaky designs.
keep it up and I cant wait to thrash this

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Thanks alot guys. I really appreciate it.
I want it to look as good as the original custom portrait was going to be.
You lose some of the visual impact when you have select screens with big rosters so I totally understand what you mean.
I am working on the Cursors at the moment which are animated.
I have to make the active cursor and also the confirmation cursor for after you confirm your characters.

As you can see it will use a arrow overlay on surrounding char slots and the arrows are animated.
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The theme will be in line with the green and purple theme

I like what your working with. Thats pretty neat, I look forward to the next phase.

GRAYFOX wrote:I like what your working with. Thats pretty neat, I look forward to the next phase.

Thanks GRAYFOX. same to you and your Battlecry project. I like the new hitspark design you guys are working on.
Character related things are a bit out of my league so i appreciate the hard work you guys are doing.

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I have made some major updates to the character slots and BIG portrait boxes.
There will now be 2 extra features.

- All the character portraits including the lard one will now be inside a monitor type screen, similar to what I did with the custom portraits on
CreepyTarantino lifebar version (thanks phantom D for the glass textures as always).

- As a secret hidden easter egg, If you donot specify a "randomselect" or a character inside all of the slots, a secret hidden space background will be visible as a nice little hidden extra.

- Also, the character select slots have the Space wormhole astral effect reflecting on them like the main menu screen does.
It is only ever so feint but enough to make the select screen a bit more interesting. here is a small demo of it.



It is slowly starting to take form.
I have quite a bit of work still to do on the character portrait design areas, and the team mode select system because I need to remove the old legacy screenpack version alltogether.

this selection screen promises to be great, the project is progressing really well, all that and magnificent, I really can't wait to see the next phases my friend.

lunalucard55 wrote:this selection screen promises to be great, the project is progressing really well, all that and magnificent, I really can't wait to see the next phases my friend.

Thank you friend, well this is the final phase of the project and it is close to finished, but the select screen will have many extra details because it is a screen where the player will spend much time looking at it so it must be more than perfect.

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I have made 2 more updates.
1. There is now a glass screen over the player name boxes (it will have some animation i think)
2. There is now a Stage select box at the bottom of the screen ( i think it should be big enough for most stage names).
3. There is now a special animation for when the player cursor has chosen characters, and it says "OK". It is animated.

Your really on fire with the style, that your going for. The vibrant colors, blend very well it captures the theme. I wonder if, we can contribute to play with this masterpiece. I will be sharing my stuff, as long as it helps the cause. Keep up the awesome detailed work my friend.

It looks very good.
It's going well. Thanks for the great job.