The 2 Color palette BMPs

RedNifre

Hello,

While I'm waiting for my Hydra Kit to arrive I thought I could already plan some games and maybe draw some tiles/sprites. This would be easier if I had the two palette BMPs mentioned in the book fragments. Could someone upload them to this thread?
Those files have no value for someone who does not plan to buy a HYDRA, so uploading them should not reduce the value of the HYDRA Kit.

Thanks in advance.

AndreL

Sure, here they are.

Andre'

RedNifre

Thank you!

AndreL

This was all done visually, if you REALLY want to be correct then you simply should do the calculations for 16-phase shifts and the 5-6 luma values along with the transformation from angle and luma to RGB and then you can derive a mathematically correct color table. Of course, at the end of the day, what matters is what REALLY comes out of the hydra, so looking at 5-10 TVs in the neutral color position, then digitizing the video, comparing, averaging, the photoshoping the palette is more or less how we did this!

Andre'

RedNifre

Very interesting.

I think my first game will use an unmodified HEL engine. From what I got from the book fragments the engine is like this (correct me if I'm wrong):
- 16x16 tiles/sprites
- any combination of width and height (in full tiles). If the aspect ratio does not match the TV aspect ratio the image gets stretched (like 8x12 tiles would result in tiles/sprites that are two times as wide as high)
- 4 colors per tile
- 4 colors + 1 transparence per sprite
- sprite colors and tile colors are completely independend
- sprites/tiles with the same graphic can still have different color palettes
- it is possible to use a graphic both as tile and as sprite
- sprite/tile graphics can not be mirrored (sadly)
- sprites can be at any position
- 4 to 8 sprites simultaneously (what does "4-8" mean? 4=perfect, 8 slow, 9 too slow? Or what exactly?)

Is this all correct? And are there other things I should know when crafting my graphics?

Post Edited (RedNifre) : 4/29/2007 6:11:27 PM GMT

AndreL

The more sprites you have the less that can be drawn on the same line, so I think 4-5 work all the time, but 6 then cause problems if 2-3 overlap etc. its all in the docs and the comments.

And about crafting your graphics, just try and use the source palettes in your work, then convert your art to the palettes before you run any of my tools to convert them to spin, this way you don't get TWO conversions. In general, when doing game art you always want to work in a super palette that is very close to your target palette, so you dont' end up using colors that simply dont exist. Also, careful of the use of gradients, they may not convert well due to the lack of shades with the propeller graphics.

Andre'