Palettes for XCOM in GIMP/Paintshop format

[Solarius Scorch]

i use bomb bloke's tools

Is there any other tool to use? Bomb Bloke's converter doesn't work for me, as it has issues with 64 bit Windows (it can't find the Java).
I also tried Ben Ratzlaff's PckView, but it wouldn't open anything for me (it's 10 years old after all).

[moriarty]

there are several versions of pckview out there... look for the one that comes with mapview, that one works for me

(luke's mod site should have them: https://openxcommods.weebly.com, try this one: https://openxcommods.weebly.com/mapview.html)

[Solarius Scorch]

Many thanks, Moriarty! I can't say it works perfectly, as I'm getting weird critical exceptions, but it's a big progress.
Now let's make some stuff.

EDIT

Now I have another question - sorry if it's silly, but it's my first time modding X-Com. I'm making a custom minigun for fun now and it works fine... However, the palette is broken in Ufopedia while in the battlescape inventory picture it is not.

Battlescape pic (correct):



Ufopedia pic (broken):



Seeing as it's the same picture that is used in both places, I don't know why this happens. Help, please?

[Warboy1982]

don't use the last 16 colours of the battlescape palette for the bigobs. this section of the palette is different in the ufopaedia.

[SupSuper]

Yeah the issue is explained here: https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,1598.msg14891.html#msg14891
I better edit it into my post.

[xracer]

Could a ASE or ACT Swatch be created so that it can be used in Fireworks?

[Solarius Scorch]

Thanks to the "X-Com graphics in 30 Minutes" guide provided by Moriarty and SubSuper, I am now master of palettes! Thanks guys.

I guess I'll post the mod soon. It's nothing big, but maybe someone will use it.

[SupSuper]

Could a ASE or ACT Swatch be created so that it can be used in Fireworks?

Sure, here you go.

[xracer]

Thank you very much kind sir, I will test to see if i can just use Fireworks and not jump back and forth to photoshop. Also i have not tested but this uses no alpha transparency right?

[yrizoud]

OpenXcom uses a 256-color graphic mode, like the original (or emulates it - the library SDL can even do it behind the scene).
This means that each pixel contains only one piece of information: a 0-255 number, which indicates a color index in the graphic mode's "current palette". This is why the same graphic, displayed in different palettes (battlescape and ufopedia) looks different. In this mode, Alpha is meaningless : there is just no way to blend colors.
And even if two colors look identical in a palette, they ARE different.

[Warboy1982]

just an FYI folks: it seems that OSX really doesn't like transparency in png, recommend replacing colour 0 with magenta or supergreen in your palettes

[civilian]

A very good (freeware) tool to edit those pallete indexed icons: https://www.aseprite.org/ It is looking a bit crude but is one of the best and most perfect tools i know of.

[volutar]

Pros:
+] ASEPRITE has better palette view (variable width and possibility to fit more).
+] Better overall UI experience (MMB drag, alt colorpicker, etc)
Cons:
-] ASEPRITE doesn't like unicode paths (squares instead of non EU chars).
-] 2x2 pixelated UI looks stylish, but inpractical, unnecessary, and annoying.
-] It screws loaded images (making vertical resolution - look at screenshot).
-] No palette manipulation like export/import/load from another image.

After those [-] are fixed - ASEPRITE might be better. But not at the moment.

[volutar]

Just for the record.

I've made a palette sheet (for both ufo1 and tftd all 4 palettes).

You can see for yourself how ambiguous they are. Every "highlighted" color from palette in 99% of cases will be screwed, if you will use Photoshop or GIMP, just because they are unable to use color indexes, only RGB values (which are used by multiple indexes). These RGB values will simply refer (or will be converted) to the first index in the list, which most probably is wrong...

Thus I hightly not recommend you to use neither photoshop or gimp for xcom modding use (and paintshop too).

Colorgroup #7 is the most disturbing in tftd palette. It's just black color in terrain (no matter how bright it is), but falling into the blue in the water, when going "dark black".
I extremely doubt it can be emulated for 24bit colors.

Suggestion - is to change these colors to make them not ambiguous. I.e. Change game resources (or just use replacements). Visually they could stay the same but at least oxc modding will be less confusing.

[yrizoud]

paintshop... pro ? I haven't used it for ages, but I thought it allowed a real indexed color mode.