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How do some modders make custom palette? [SOLVED]
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PussyPus
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 08, 2017 11:20 am    Post subject:  How do some modders make custom palette? [SOLVED] Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

I am not sure if this is the right place, but i wanted to know how do some modders (for example nooze, some of his MO buildings like the blast furnace's buildup anim is corrupt when i load the official building palette) make custom palette for buildings? i noticed that few building SHPs had different palettes, because for some of them when i load unittem or unitsno palettes, the colors are partially corrupt?

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Last edited by PussyPus on Sun Dec 10, 2017 10:26 pm; edited 1 time in total

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Fryone
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Joined: 30 Mar 2015
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 08, 2017 11:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Maybe it's cuz Ares gives you ability to use custom palettes on buildings and cameos?

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PillBox20
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 08, 2017 12:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

As far as I remember you go into the SHP Builder and open a file that you want
to make a palette for. Then you extract it as .pcx and then go to the Mixer and
right click on the .pcx file. There you copy it as .pal



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NucleiSplitter
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 08, 2017 12:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Make a custom palette? Have you ever heard of OS Palette Editor? Laughing

Hehe, anyway, if that's not what you meant, I can't help. -_-

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E1 Elite
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 08, 2017 12:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

NucleiSplitter wrote:
Have you ever heard of OS Palette Editor? Laughing

The images used in the building should have max 256 colors inclusive of
background, shadow and remap etc.. Some color quantizer software are
available to reduce the number of colors from 16 bit, 24 bit colors. But
those who make 3D buildings might be using limited number of colors,
so that damage, buildup etc. all have same set of colors, so that all of those
can use same custom palette.

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Mig Eater
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Joined: 13 Nov 2003
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 08, 2017 1:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

I use Photoshop to create & edit pal files (they're under "Indexed Color" in PS BTW), it will auto-generate the pal based on the image(s) you are working on. You generally only have to manually fix the index for the background transparent colour. If you making a pal for a unit/building tho you have to manually fix the remap & "bright" index colours but that isn't much work once you know what to do.

@PillBox20: XCC Mixer can convert SHP files to PCX too so there is no need for SHP Builder.

Edit: Topic moved from SHP forum.

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4StarGeneral
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 08, 2017 3:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Damn, and I always made my palettes by hand in OS Palette Editor...

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PussyPus
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 08, 2017 3:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Mig Eater wrote:
I use Photoshop to create & edit pal files (they're under "Indexed Color" in PS BTW), it will auto-generate the pal based on the image(s) you are working on. You generally only have to manually fix the index for the background transparent colour. If you making a pal for a unit/building tho you have to manually fix the remap & "bright" index colours but that isn't much work once you know what to do.

@PillBox20: XCC Mixer can convert SHP files to PCX too so there is no need for SHP Builder.

Edit: Topic moved from SHP forum.


Game engine's buildings can't be PCX, this is only on misc and cameos

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Mig Eater
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Joined: 13 Nov 2003
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 08, 2017 6:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Umm... you make PCX files with PS & then convert them to SHP with XCC Mixer.

I kinda feel like since the introduction of SHP Builder to the community knowledge of other more advanced methods for editing SHPs has been lost. Which is a shame as you can do a whole lot more with Photoshop/GIMP & XCC Mixer.

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OmegaBolt
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 08, 2017 11:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

I put all, or a good overall selection of, frames in one image, reduce it to 256 colours using photoshop and set the first index to be the background color. Then the palette produced has a nice selection of colours from everything in the SHP / whatever it is you're making.

If you specifically want to make it for a building though then the remap positions in the palette are hardcoded as well as the ones unaffected by lighting, so keep that in mind. You would need to use a palette editor to ensure they are in the right place.

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Graion Dilach
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PostPosted: Sat Dec 09, 2017 12:36 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

GIMP is better in this case, because unlike Photoshop, GIMP does not flatten the image before indexing it thereby all frames will have an effect on the result palette and not just what's visible at the moment of the operation. Basically you just throw all the frames of your asset into it, tell it to index, and then fix/work around the issues caused by remap and unlight if necessary.

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Mig Eater
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PostPosted: Sat Dec 09, 2017 8:56 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

For editing the remap & glowing colours in PS I use the "Forced" setting to load a custom pal with those colours pre-added or disabled (all pink etc). You still need to manually move them to the correct index but it means that PS will auto-generate the pal with the correct number & most efficient colours.

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kenosis
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PostPosted: Sat Dec 09, 2017 11:53 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread


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4StarGeneral
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PostPosted: Sat Dec 09, 2017 3:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

I just picked the frame with the brightest colors and one with the darkest, scanned for the darkest/brightest with the color picker and made a gradient of each color for 8 to 32 different colors depending on usage in the entire SHP. Then I would check over the reds if the image has reds that aren't supposed to be remapped and make sure none of the remap has the same colors; finishing with making the glows. Has never failed me to be accurate so far, but I'm sure not everyone has their Windows colors and monitor in a good gamut to eyeball it.

I just like it to be a nice gradient instead of the mess the other ways make it, like the anim palettes.

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PussyPus
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 10, 2017 10:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

[PROBLEM SOLVED]

Further Investigation on donutarnold's bio reactor's SHP and BLEND resulted me to solve the problem, best solution is below:

-For unittem.pal, just extract it from the original game and then remove all color palettes from 2 to 15 and from 204 to 255, those deleted colors are misc colors, however it's not recommended to remove the custom shadow color (the black color from unittem.pal, not unitsno.pal, because in the snow palette it's purple) before-convertion from PNG2SHP in SHP Builder.

-This is the easiest solution to do, however, donutarnold's palette for his bio reactor's deleted colors were all replaced with high cyan color of the same RGB.

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cxtian39
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Joined: 11 Feb 2016

PostPosted: Sat Jan 20, 2018 10:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Sorry to bump this but what colors need to be reserved in a palette?
0             - background
1             - shadow
16~31     - remap
240~255 - glowing
and what else for what use?

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Starkku
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 20, 2018 10:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

cxtian39 wrote:
Sorry to bump this but what colors need to be reserved in a palette?
0             - background
1             - shadow
16~31     - remap
240~255 - glowing
and what else for what use?


Just these, albeit it's 240-254 for glowing. The last slot does not glow.

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cxtian39
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 20, 2018 10:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

That's funny.

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