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DS development > 16 color palette tool

#173673 - Thajocoth - Fri Apr 23, 2010 6:07 am

Hey, I'm trying to load in a group of 16 color sprites that share a palette. Unfortunately, nothing I export in 16 color seems to work right. I need one of the following:

* A tool that will allow me to deal with 16 color sprites and backgrounds (exporting 16 color png and pcx files), preferably with the ability to select the order of the colors in the palette (to ensure that the color I wish to be transparent is, in fact, transparent, and to allow me to ensure that various sprites and backgrounds share palettes.)

* Enough knowledge about the internals of these files that I'm importing (via grit) to do it myself at runtime. I've done enough DS work to know what the DS-side wants. I just don't really know so well what I have, making conversion difficult.

#173674 - Dwedit - Fri Apr 23, 2010 6:33 am

Ulead Photoimpact is very good with indexed color images, you can re-order the palette any way you like. The only problem is that it automatically reorders the colors to an 'optimized palette' when you save the image as a GIF or PNG file. Keep to BMP, PCX, etc, and there will be no problems.
You can probably still get trial versions of that program, or just buy the ancient Version 5 (from 1999) for 7 bucks off of Amazon.

I haven't tired out Paint Shop Pro.

The Gimp is terrible with indexed color images, so is Paint.net.
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#173675 - Thajocoth - Fri Apr 23, 2010 6:37 am

Thanks a lot. I'll try out a trial of PhotoImpact. If this works, 30 days should be more than I need to complete this project.

#173676 - dantheman - Fri Apr 23, 2010 6:42 am

Usenti might also work, as it's specially made to export for the GBA (and thus might work fine for the DS as well). I know it's got some palette functions at least.

#173677 - coreyh2 - Fri Apr 23, 2010 6:51 am

http://www.cosmigo.com/promotion/index.php

Pro Motion is also works well for limited palettes.

http://www.cosmigo.com/promotion/index.php?Documentation/Video+Tutorials

#173679 - Thajocoth - Fri Apr 23, 2010 7:28 am

Just a bit of an update, I have a sprite loading properly. I'll convert the others tomorrow. PhotoImpact worked. Thanks a lot for your help, and also thanks for the other suggestions. I might try them in the future if I eventually have further need.