Instructions for Custom Paintings in Bibliocraft

[Shawn Avery]

I know this has been covered previously but there was a question about how to add custom paintings using Bibliocraft. I use it to add a list of rules to my world, themed paintings related to whatever is being covered in the world, or even photo galleries of student work or students working. 

Paintings can either be added directly through Bibliocraft or through a resource pack. You'll have to have some sort of unzipping tool like WinRAR or 7zip. I use WinRAR. 

I take a few steps before adding into Minecraft. I use Photoshop (you can also use GIMP, Paint.net or something else that can crop photos to a certain size). I determine the aspect ratio I want for the picture and then create a new artboard based upon that:

1:1 (1200px by 1200px)

2:1 (1200px by 600px)

3:1 (1200px by 400px)

and so on....

Once I've fit the photo, painting, etc. onto that, I save it as a PNG. I then use CompressPNG (http://compresspng.com/) to shrink down the file size.  I download all the compressed images into a folder labeled "custompaintings."  

After that, I go to my Bibliocraft mod file and right click on it. I select "Open with WINRAR." Once open, you should see the following....

I then click on ASSETS --> BIBLIOCRAFT --> TEXTURES

I click "ADD" and navigate to the "custompaintings" folder to add it in. Once done, you'll have to make sure this version of Bibliocraft is installed on the server and all client computers. You'll then be able to add the paintings from the custom section when using the painting press.

If I get a chance, I'll try to create a video and add it at some point. If not, just feel free to ask any questions you may have! 

[Rob]

Nice guide Shawn, thanks for posting. I'm a big fan of Bibliocraft, but I haven't used it's custom paintings feature before. I like the idea of a rule sign, I'll definitely have a play.
Regards
Rob

[Don Ellis]

Mr Avery,

I've been trying to add images to the custompaintings folder without success. After reading your instructions, I tried using Gimp as you suggested, but I get the same results. My 128x128 PNG shows as a magenta/black checkerboard. Is there some other characteristic of the PNG that I'm not getting? I've tried adding the default images from custompaintings and they work without a problem. I tried adding the JuJu's Signs resourcepack and, after adjusting pack_format from 1 to 3 and moving the images out of the folder they came in, they appear normal. My own images seem to be the only ones not working as expected.

[Note: I'm not a teacher, but I am in a position where I might be asked to help teachers with their systems, and have done so in the past. This specific task is to help my wife with her Minecraft world, but I will mention the feature to my associates in the school system; they might be interested. Or they might already be doing it.]

[Mr. Avery]

Hi Don,

If it's a multiplayer world, just make sure that you have the mod with the images you created/added in both the server folder and the client. I would assume that's the most likely reason why you're getting the checkerboard images. The world isn't able to render the image if it can't find the file in both locations. Other than that, I'm not sure as to why they wouldn't be. If you want to zip them up and attach them here, I can try it out on my computer and see what I can do to help out!

[Don Ellis]

Thanks for the quick reply! Been feeling frustrated that things aren't working.

I'm trying this on a single-player world. My understanding was that in a multiplayer world, the requirement was that all clients had to have the same images, not that anything was required on the server. Further research needed, since eventual goal is a multiplayer world I share with my wife. She wants photos of me and my new granddaughter to hang on walls of the house she's building.

Of course, I'm curious what is supposed to happen when an image isn't a power of 2 -- does the app scale proportionally or crop, or just reject it with a checkerboard?

To skip the scaling issue for now, I've adjusted an image to powers of 2 (square format), and downloaded some from online. 

I've attached some of my problem images, two are square, the other two are screenshots (not square). All show as checkerboards. Also attached one of JuJu's signs (Creepers caution sign), which does work.

[Should I call you Shawn?]

Thanks for your assistance. Hope you're not in the NorthEast today...

--Don

[Mr. Avery]

I'll take a look. And just so happen to be in the Northeast. Good ol' Cape Cod. No school. It was mostly rain but now switching over to snow. Winds have been nasty though. I'll definitely be out shoveling late tonight. Too dangerous to do it now. 

And Shawn works. 

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[Don Ellis]

Ok, I got a reply from juju with a list of probable problems. He mentioned special characters (but I think underscores are ok), square images, subfolders, and uppercase letters in file names. As you may have noticed, my wife gave me files with uppercase letters and I saved my screenshots with uppercase letters. Switching them to lowercase fixed the problem!

Need to have a checklist in the Bibliocraft custompaintings instructions including the absolute need for lowercase only, precise limits on special characters, and requirements for square images.

Next, I'll check if square images that aren't power of 2 work at all. I expect the scaling issue to rule.

[Don Ellis]

And one more detail. I tried running on the server, and the resource pack on my workstation applied. Looks like no need for this on the server. Makes sense, since the pack only applies a change to the appearance experienced by the user, and would make no changes to the server, once the server has the required blocks defined in Bibliocraft (painting press, canvas, frames, whatever).

Thanks again!

--Don

[Don Ellis]

One more thing [Do I sound like Steve Jobs?]

Had my wife copy my pack to her system. I was surprised that the non-square images showed up just fine; when we transferred them to the prss, a tiny image with text (something like "custom image" ) appeared on the canvas. Applied that print to a frame and it shows up just fine. Tried it on my installation and it works fine there too.

Adding an image to the pack while game is running: the new image appears ok, while other images show as checkerboards, on the custom tab and on frames where already applied. Quitting the game and restarting, all appear ok in the tab and in frames.

She's really happy that she can do paintings now!

Note: I zipped the pack for easy transfer, [I think] as described in generally available instructions. The zipped pack wasn't recognized by MC. Unzipped and it showed up in the menu and loaded just fine. I'd been testing unzipped folders for my convenience, rather than following instructions to zip it up and add to zipped archive, etc. May or may not bother to try zipping the pack -- not sure what advantages, other than reducing likelihood of accidental modifications and faster transfer (and loading?).

The proportional images scale nicely when not precisely square multiples, if not too far from correct proportions. Fun to have a painting stretch past wall surface, producing opaque screen, transparent from other side. Could use to hide secret passageways (I've seen this mentioned in Vanilla).

Would be nice to have all this added to your summary above.

--Don

[Kevin W]

Hi, I've been having the checkerboard problem, and I changed uppercase letters in the file names to lowercase, and they show up in the painting press GUI. However, when I transfer the image to a canvas, it shows a checkerboard pattern, and I can't place it. I made my graphic with Photoshop Elements 2018 and it's in a .png format. 

NOTE: I'm not a teacher, I'm a student going into seventh grade who wants to do roleplays with a friend.