PALETTE experimenting

[RSSwizard]

So I pulled out my hex editor and consulted the wiki about how the palettes are arranged. And after a couple hours I churned out a modified palette. That pesky red range was the first thing to be changed but I took a bunch of creative license with it so you may not like it as-is (there are some color glitches, but it overall takes on a different kind of style).

To use it, go in your UFO/GEODATA folder, rename your PALETTES.dat to a backup, and unzip this in there. The only palette modified is battlescape.

If anyone has any wishes for custom changes I can take the stock palette and make some modifications (this takes some effort, and I tend to want to edit only the 4 colors on the light/dark ends of the range). I expect everyone is going to want the Red colors changed to include some more saturation. However I am particularly fond of the TFTD silvered/patina color range which has a yellowish-gray appearance.

The screenshots are from x-piratez, the palette image was used as a basis to sample colors from to input in hex so its almost equal to the palette in the .dat.

[Solarius Scorch]

Interesting, but the palette you presented in the picture seems to be the Geoscape palette, whereas the screens are from Battlescape. Can you please clarify?

[Meridian]

Interesting, but the palette you presented in the picture seems to be the Geoscape palette, whereas the screens are from Battlescape. Can you please clarify?

You mean "newxcomcolors.png" ? That's clearly NOT a geoscape palette.

[Solarius Scorch]

You mean "newxcomcolors.png" ? That's clearly NOT a geoscape palette.

Well, I assumed it was a modified Geoscape, since it doesn't have the bottom blacks... But admittedly I don't understand much.

[Meridian]

Well, I assumed it was a modified Geoscape, since it doesn't have the bottom blacks... But admittedly I don't understand much.

As far as I know, the palette with pink/purple bottom line is what modders decided to use instead of the BATTLEPEDIA palette (which is similar to BATTLESCAPE palette, with last row changed to support ufopedia text and cursor colors)... so that the colors from the last row are not used at all and thus work both in battlescape and ufopedia.

See attached.

[Solarius Scorch]

Yes, that is precisely what I meant.

Of course this is pretty much meaningless, since it can be used for anything that fits... But my initial question remains: what is this palette meant for? It just doesn't make sense to me...

[Meridian]

But my initial question remains: what is this palette meant for? It just doesn't make sense to me...

Not sure I understand the question.
It's meant to replace the original battlescape palette...

[Solarius Scorch]

Not sure I understand the question.
It's meant to replace the original battlescape palette...

Then why so much pink? What would it be used for? And what about the grayscale?
I just don't understand how this palette is useful, not to mention better.

(And I wouldn't accept a palette which breaks the 1 colour per row rule... It would make it useless for automated recolour. Yes, I know TFTD is like that.)

[SupSuper]

Then why so much pink? What would it be used for? And what about the grayscale?
I just don't understand how this palette is useful, not to mention better.

(And I wouldn't accept a palette which breaks the 1 colour per row rule... It would make it useless for automated recolour. Yes, I know TFTD is like that.)

The palette is the exact same as the original, just with different hue/saturation for some colors, for players that would prefer stronger colors.
The "magenta row" is just a dummy, as it's replaced with greyscale by the game.

Here's a more accurate comparison:

[Solarius Scorch]

Thanks! That explains it.

[RSSwizard]

The last row is indeed a dummy to make sure those colors aren't used, or would only be used for things like projectiles and explosions that wont be displayed in the pedia.

I made a modified version of the palette and stuck it in vanilla UFO setting (on my android phone, so I have no screenshots of that) and it worked pretty well... this version is a little nicer I guess, it jives real well with piratez because IMO it gives things a "rustic" look.

Changes include preserving the top red colors at vanilla levels so they're not too intense, though the stun bar over the health bar is still hard to make out. Turned the last row of blues (range 14?) into the same kind of teal from tftd (I find 3 ranges of blues to be highly redundant). And as I originally did there is no flat gray anymore... the first range is slightly blued, the peach gray in the middle is silver-patina yellow, the Alien Alloys gray range is a stronger blue-gray.

I think im going to leave it as it is. If I tweak anything else about it ill be modifying other game palettes (I intend on editing that geoscape blue range for the ocean to look more aqua and darker).

[Dioxine]

This palette simply rocks. The one color I am not fully happy with is the turqoise. I'd prefer a little deeper and a little more blue hue. This one just looks a tad too chemical IMO. I will really need that deep blue/greenish. However, the first green can be made more turqoise to compensate!

Keep tweaking man! This is really awesome work, kudos to you!

I'll bother Meridian some more for an ability to easily replace palettes by ruleset

[Meridian]

I'll bother Meridian some more for an ability to easily replace palettes by ruleset

Implemented a year ago: https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,4935.msg72065.html#msg72065

Already on my to-be-removed list, since no one's interested...

[Dioxine]

Hell I never knew you actually implemented it... :/
Lack of documentation is a bitch.

[clownagent]

Implemented a year ago: https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,4935.msg72065.html#msg72065

Already on my to-be-removed list, since no one's interested...

It is a nice feature. I used it to give the geoscape some more red colors for interception images.

The old geoscape palette had 6 times the same red, and changing these colors does not seem to break anything.