Palettes For Templates

[GoldBoxFan]

One of the biggest problems with making art in FRUA is where to put the colors in the palette. All FRUA templates use 256 colors (numbered 0-255). And most work within a specific color palette. Colors 0-15 are usually filled by default colors that can be used but not changed. Color 255 is always the transparency color. This color does not appear on screen, allowing what is behind it to be visible. Transparency is used by almost anything but smallpics and bigpics. They can use it to. The reason why some color slots are available in some templates and not others is because they are used together.

Always, Frames, Gens and Menus combine with Smallpics and Bigpics (actually they are used with everything). Sprites, Wallsets and Backgrounds are all combined. Combat Icons and Combat Sprites combine with Dungeons or Wildernesses. Titles only appear with titles, but they use the same palette from title 1.

Though templates often tell you just to use certain slots for your colors, they tend to forget to mention you need to add the colors from other templates for them to work together. If dungeons don't have the combat icon slots filled, icons will show up black or whatever default color is in those slots. Remember to combine the palettes of templates that functon together.

Go to CORHUB and look under Miscellaneous Program Hacks if you don't know what I'm referring to in this article. When adding art of any type to FRUA the most common program used is Toolbox.exe.

Always On My Screen

ALWAYS - the movement arrows, target icon, timer and special attribute buttons that appear on screen. The Always template uses all 256 colors, but only slots 0-15 may be changed. The other colors can be used but will change dependant upon what else is onscreen at the time. Always is the only template that can alter slots 0-15, suggesting it may be used by all other templates. Toolbox.exe, however, fills those slots with default colors, making it a moot point if that is what is being used. The default transparent color is html 67f79b.

FRAMES - these two templates are what surround the images, text and buttons that are seen in the game. Frames may use but not change the 0-15 colors from here, but may change colors 16-31. The default transparent color is html 67f79f.

MENU - this template is for the buttons used for questions. Colors 0-15 can be used but not changed from here. Colors 16-31 can be changed. Color 23 is used for the button faces. The default transparent color is html 67f79f.

GEN - the general pattern used with frames and menus. Colors 0-15 come from Always, colors 16-31 come from Frame. The default transparent color is html 67f79f.

Frames and Menu says colors 0-15 can be changed but not where. One assumes from Always. The default color (255) should probably be the same for all.


FONTS

There is no template for fonts, but the colors of the images can be changed by Colors!.zip.


Walking Around

BACKGROUNDS - what fills in the sky or ceiling. Color slots 0-15 can be used but not changed. Colors 144-175 and 255 can be changed and used. The default transparent color is html fc00fc.

SPRITES - images of creatures that move within the wallsets. Color slots 176-255 can be changed and used. The default transparent color is html 67f79f.

WALLSETS - the 3-D imagery of walls, trees, rocks, wells, etc. Color slots 32-68 and 255 can be changed and used. The default transparent color is html 67f79f.

It doesn't appear any of these palettes need to be combined. But the transparent color (255) should probably be the same on all.


Looking Around

SMALLPICS - images 88 x 88 pixels in size. Color slots 32-255 can be changed and used. The default transparent color is html ffff9f or ff57ff.

BIGPICS - images 304 x 120 pixels in size. Color slots 32-255 can be changed and used. The default transparent color is html ffff9f.

TITLES - images 320 x 200 pixels in size. For title 1 color slots 0-255 can be changed. For titles 2-6 color slots 32-255 can be changed and used. The default transparent color is html 00ffc3.


Standing Your Ground

COMBAT ICONS - images 24 x 24, 24 x 48, 48 x 24, 48 x 48 and possibly 68 x 48 pixels in size. Color slots 64-255 can be changed and used. The default transparent color is html 67f79f.

COMBAT SPRITES - images used for casting spells, shooting arrows or dropping dead. Color slots 64-95 are safe. The default transparent color is html 80ff80.

DUNGEONS - indoor combat sets that convert the wallset into a battlefifled. Color slots 32-63 can be changed and used. The default transparent color is html 000000.

WILDERNESSES - outdoor combat sets that are randomly determined each time. Color slots 32-63 can be changed and used. The default transparent color is html 000000.

Dungeons and WIlderness need to have the palette from combat sprites and combat icons included or the icons won't have the proper colors. Combat sprites and combat icons must have the same 64-95 colors.

The First 16 Colors

ALWAYS, GEN and FRAME has slots 0-15 filled by html definitions: 000000, 0000ab, 00ab00, 00abab, ab0000, ab00ab, ab5700, ababab, 575757, 5757ff, 57ff57, 57ffff, ff5757, ff57ff, ffff57 and ffffff.

MENU has slots 0-15 filled by html definitions: 000000, 0000bb, 00bb00, 00bbbb, bb0000, bb00bb, bb6700, bbbbbb, 676767, 6767ff, 6767ff, 67ff67, 67ffff, ff6767, ffff67 and ffffff.

BACKGROUND and COMBAT SPRITES has slots 0-15 filled by html definitions: 000000, 0000a8, 00a800, a80000, 00a8a8, a800a8, a85400, a8a8a8, 545454, 5454fc, 54fc54, 54fcfc, fc5454, fc54fc, fcfc54 and fcfcfc.

WILDERNESS has slots 0-15 filled by html definitions: 000000, 0000a4, 00a400, 00a4a4, a40000, a400a4, a40000, a4a4a4, 505050, 5050f8, 50f850, 50f8f8, f85050, f850f8, f8f850 and f8f8f8.

These are basically different shades of the same colors.


Converting Images

When converting images for use with toolbox or ua256, the palette should be reduced to the number of colors you are allowed to change. Title 1 has 256 colors. Titles 2-6, bigpics and smallpics have 224 colors. Combat icons have 192 colors. Sprites have 80 colors. Wallsets have 38 colors. Backgrounds have 33 colors. Combat sprites, dungeons, wildernesses, always, frames, gens and menus have 32 colors.

[GoldBoxFan]

If there is anything incorrect about the above, or something should be added, let me know. This article is going into UANL45 with images of the palette colormap. 

EDIT: If titles have a transparency color at 255, don't bigpics and smallpics? And if so, shouldn't titles be saved as 223 colors instead of 224? The 224th color becomes the transparency and doesn't show up. It would also explain the weird look of my titles after being sorted by toolkit, it is removing the transparency part of the image.

[hans]

Combat Icons and Combat Sprites have no palettes of their own. 

See my UANL article:
http://frua.rosedragon.org/pc/uanews/uanl25/as-hans.htm  

[hans]

EDIT: If titles have a transparency color at 255, don't bigpics and smallpics? And if so, shouldn't titles be saved as 223 colors instead of 224? The 224th color becomes the transparency and doesn't show up. It would also explain the weird look of my titles after being sorted by toolkit, it is removing the transparency part of the image.

 

No transparency for pics, unless you're creating an animation.

[GoldBoxFan]

EDIT: If titles have a transparency color at 255, don't bigpics and smallpics? And if so, shouldn't titles be saved as 223 colors instead of 224? The 224th color becomes the transparency and doesn't show up. It would also explain the weird look of my titles after being sorted by toolkit, it is removing the transparency part of the image.

 

No transparency for pics, unless you're creating an animation.

So EVERYTHING has a transparency?

BTW, finally figured out how to get transparencies and titles to work. You use only 32 colors for title 1 and then make everything you write on it a transparency. Below is an example of changes to my winter contest entry:

[hans]

So EVERYTHING has a transparency?

 

No.  Pics (except animated Pics), BigPics, Maps, and Backdrops don't.  Titles don't have to. 

All art that use transparency will always use color slot 255 for that effect, regardless of what color settings the art has for 255.  It's the slot, not the color.   

[Nol Drek]

The First 16 Colors

ALWAYS, GEN and FRAME has slots 0-15 filled by html definitions: 000000, 0000ab, 00ab00, 00abab, ab0000, ab00ab, ab5700, ababab, 575757, 5757ff, 5757ff, 57ff57, 57ffff, ff5757, ffff57 and ffffff.

Title pic 1 has the ability to change the first 16 colors, but it should not ever be used to do so.

The First 16 Colors as defined by ALWAYS.TLB should be used for Title pic 1 as well.

The reason is that if you press 'ESC' during the title sequence, then the First 16 Colors from Title Pic 1 will be used for frame and menu art, instead of the expected First 16 Colors.

This particular graphics error is so common in released designs, that I am tempted to say that it is a user error to press 'ESC' during the title sequence. 

[GoldBoxFan]

Yep, I used this technique for my updated titles for Haptooth Tower. I just checked and pressing escape alters the frame colors. I tried again using enter and everything looked normal.

[Tchos]

Okay, so the first thing I did when I got the Pool of Radiance conversion working with UAShell hacks was to try to change the interface colours away from the bland grey marble.  I used the information in this thread and one of the other ones to focus on which files needed to be changed, but when I tried making my own palettes I had no good results.  I ended up picking a couple of files out of other modules and placing them into the appropriate folders, and ended up with a result I'm pretty happy with, even though it's not what I had in mind originally.  Oh, and I also changed the font to something more readable than the original one.

If someone here could explain in more detail how to make my own palette in, for instance, Photoshop, and get it into the game, I'd very much appreciate it.

I also managed to get the cursors changed to an arrow and pointing hand instead of the shield and sword set, which I didn't like, but the position of the arrow doesn't quite match up with where it should be when it changes to a hand, so I'd also like to know how to edit that.

Attached is how it looks now.

[hans]

...If someone here could explain in more detail how to make my own palette in, for instance, Photoshop, and get it into the game, I'd very much appreciate it.

I also managed to get the cursors changed to an arrow and pointing hand instead of the shield and sword set, which I didn't like, but the position of the arrow doesn't quite match up with where it should be when it changes to a hand, so I'd also like to know how to edit that...

I use PaintShopPro, not Photoshop, so someone else will have give tips on how to arrange palettes through that program. 

I don't believe that the two cursor boxes in the Always Icons template are set identically by UA in the same place in relation to the screen display.  That's why there can seem to be a unintended slight jump from one position to another on the screen when it switches from one cursor to the other. 

I don't know exactly how many pixels this discrepancy is.  I have used trial and error, in the past, to get the switch to work the way I like, with my own art.  If I were more ambitious, I might put an identical shape in both boxes, differentiated only by color, and then experiment in UA to see how many pixels, and in which direction the shape jumps during changes.

[GoldBoxFan]

I use PAINT.net and GIMP. But there are lots of uanl articles on various art products. And many uanl articles on how to make wallsets and such are described using specific tools.

On the other hand, there are many photo shop tutorials. The one about Visualizing the Atom looks like it is totally art and not involving photographs.

[Tchos]

Ah, that seems to be why I couldn't find the information on Google.  Those newsletters don't appear to be Google-indexed.  I just tried some site-specific searches on that hub, and couldn't get any results.  I'll try downloading them all and searching locally.

Hans -- it's good to know that it's possible to align them, at least.  The main problem with the one I have is that the tip of the arrow looks like it should be in the right spot to tick a box, but you actually have to move it off to the side of the box where the actual hotspot is, and it turns into a hand pointing in the right spot on the box.  I'll fix it if I can.

[Adam]

Color slots xx-xx and 255 can be changed and used

As mentioned in another thread, I have problems with changing the interface colors while maintaining the EGA palette. I've decided to relocate the EGA palette (changing the interface colors could lead to merging some colors, thus losing palette slots - a simple color cycling would not work). It would be nice if it were possible to place them into one definite position for all the art - a second always set if you like.

Now my problem is I'm not sure what happens if an art uses a palette slot which cannot be "changed and used". Will it be displayed correctly if all other art contains the same fixed "2nd always" palette?

Nevermind. It's done. Colors can naturaly be used, but you must be aware of the fact that images palettes can affect other images (this fact can be used for some nice effects too).
I've used palette entries 16-31 for my new always set and it works almost perfectly.

[hans]

As mentioned in another thread, I have problems with changing the interface colors while maintaining the EGA palette. I've decided to relocate the EGA palette (changing the interface colors could lead to merging some colors, thus losing palette slots - a simple color cycling would not work). It would be nice if it were possible to place them into one definite position for all the art - a second always set if you like.

Now my problem is I'm not sure what happens if an art uses a palette slot which cannot be "changed and used". Will it be displayed correctly if all other art contains the same fixed "2nd always" palette?

 

I would change the Frame Palette, the 2nd row of colors (slots 16-31) into your set EGA palette. 

The exceptions would then be:

The Always Palette, which although it would also adhere to basic EGA colors, you would change their order for the sake of your Font colors.

The Wallsets (I believe), because UA rearranges the color slots for those depending on which Walls are chosen for which of the 3 sets used in each dungeon. 

You would need to make sure: 

That the first Title screen uses the correct colors in the Always & Frame slots (0-31), in order to avoid the aforementioned "ESC"-key bug. 

That your Always Icons use the colors you intended (since you are changing the Always Palette for the sake of your Fonts). 

[EDIT] Oh, I see you've already solved your problem while I was composing the above...