Tileset Building trouble >O

[Puffie40]

I have been playing with modifying a tileset.

I used Neobeo's tileset extractor, which extracted the files into .PNG . I now want to (re)compile the tileset, but I ran into several problems

1: JCS only takes .BMP, .LBM, .ANM, and .PCX files.

2: Anything I try to load up, it gives me a "Cannot open file!" error.

It likes it (And will compile) if I save the tileset as a "256 color BMP file" in MSPaint, but you probably know how poor the quality is if anything get saved on that.

so far, the only other file type I have tried is the .PCX files, but it does not like them one bit either. I tried GIMP and "IRFanveiw" to try and convert it to PCX. Any other applications you guys can recommend to convert this picture?

The picture (.PNG) is 320x2304 pixels, with 24 Bits/Pixel. Because I have not modified the mask for it, I have the making option set to "Automask".

Thanks!

[Unhit]

I'm not an expert, but afaik JJ2 only takes 256 colour images, so you'd have to safe it as that 256 bmp. I'm not sure, though.

[cooba]

Converting png to pcx with Irfanview works fine here. What's your trouble with Irfanview exactly?

[Puffie40]

I get a "Cannot open file" error from JCS when compiling a PCX from Irfanveiw or GIMP. (Just tried it again as I wrote this message. No luck)

Seems strange. I'm pretty sure I used all of the same colors that were already on the tileset. Could there perhaps be something wrong with my JCS?

[cooba]

Getting a "cannot open" error when <em>saving</em> does seem weird.

Where did you save the .png in any other editor before trying to pcx it? The tileset extractor definitely shouldn't output a 24bit png (JCS won't accept image files with their depths different than 8bit = 256 colors).

Also, the Automask option will make all pixels that don't use a transparent color masked, which I suppose is not what you're looking for. You'll need to use the original mask image, and afaik you'll need to set its depth into 8bit rather than 2 colors.

[Puffie40]

I made a mistake in that last post. When I said saving, I meant in compiling the tileset with JCS. Sorry :(

Edit: Reworded it...

I guess my problem is with the colors. Is there a way to convert it to 8bit without altering the image quality?

[EvilMike]

Use tilesetpal

[Saphir]

Probably the amount of colors, yes. If you used any special effects while creating the tileset, the amount of colors may have been auto-increased (I know PSPX does that for me).

[Puffie40]

tilesetpal does the 8bit conversion fine, and I can now compile the stuff onto JCS

BUT-

Tilesetpal gives me an error when saving to PCX.


************** Exception Text **************
System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
at tilesetpal.bitmap.save_as_pcx(bitmap* , basic_ofstream<char,std::char_traits<char> >* p_pcxFile)
at ?save@bitmap@tilesetpal@@$$FQAEXABV?$basic_string@ DU?$char_traits@D@std@@V?$allocator@D@2@@std@@W4Fi leType@12@@Z(bitmap* , basic_string<char,std::char_traits<char>,std::allocator<char> >* p_bitmapFileName, Int32 p_fileType)
at tilesetpal_win.Form1.save_dialog()
at tilesetpal_win.Form1.i_saveButton_Click(Object sender, EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.(-)(EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Button.(-)(EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Button.(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(-)(MouseEventAr gs mevent)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmMouseUp(Message& m, MouseButtons button, Int32 clicks)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.ButtonBase.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Button.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage (Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(M essage& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)

I can save it as a BMP, but the colors are still screwed up in JCS, although not as bad as with MSPaint.

Basically, the background color is a different shade, and anything I shaded black is transparent (Even though it's supposed to be the same shade of black as the rest...)

[blurredd]

You'll probably find this (http://www.jazz2online.com/tilesets/compiling.htm) somewhat useful (see 24-bit Tileset Nightmare), and the rest of DTR (http://www.jazz2online.com/tilesets/) for that matter. If you don't have anything else, you can use TilesetPal to replace black with something slightly black, though it's somewhat complicated. You'll have to make sure the black entries in the first row of the palette remain unchanged and unused.

[Nonomu198]

Really, is this thing (DTR or wutever you call it) even linked anywere on J2O? It really should be. Really.

[Puffie40]

I managed to fix the problem with the colors. I changed the transparent colors to bright red and green, and used it for a reference to change them (In MSPaint no less!) Now I got a tileset that compiles fine with no color loss.

Thanks guys. The learning curve was a little steep (Mainly because I had to download two 20mb applications to play with the images. --Dialup. ) But now it looks like clear sailing here.

Iconguy, there is a direct link to DTR in the JCS section of J2O, so it's just two clicks away.

[Stijn]

IconGuy's question is justified. J2O's navigation is far from perfect.