======================
TilesetPal Version 1.1
======================
Introduction
------------
TilesetPal is an application made for easing the process of color reduction
from a 24-bit image to an 8-bit palettized image, particularly for
Jazz Jackrabbit 2 tilesets. With proper use of TilesetPal, color reduction
becomes a breeze, and yields much better results than using the Remap
Colors
feature in JCS.
Requirements
------------
Microsoft .NET Framework Version 1.1
(See the Troubleshooting section if you do not have this.)
Installation
------------
TilesetPal.exe should be able to be run from anywhere, so long as the
computer you're running it on has the necessary requirements. All you need
to
do is run TilesetPal.exe
Files
-----
These are the files that were included in this release:
./TilesetPal.exe - The actual program.
./ReadMe.txt - This file.
./Palettes/Jazz2.pal - The standard Jazz Jackrabbit 2 palette header
./Palettes/Jazz2 Carrotus pole.pal - Standard colors used for the
Carrotus pole.
./Palettes/Jazz2 Diamondus pole.pal - Standard colors used for the
Diamondus pole.
./Palettes/Jazz2 Jungle pole.pal - Standard colors used for the Jungle
pole.
./Palettes/Jazz2 pinball.pal - Standard colors used for all the pinball
events.
./Palettes/Jazz2 Psych pole.pal - Standard colors used for the psych
pole.
./Palettes/Jazz2 small tree.pal - Standard colors used for the small
tree.
./Palettes/Jazz2 snow.pal - Standart colors used for snow.
./Palettes/Jazz2 water.pal - Standard colors used for water. (Also the
range of the textured background.)
Usage
-----
Here is an example overview of how to use TilesetPal.
Step 0: Run the program.
Find TilesetPal.exe and run it.
Step 1: Load an image.
This can either be done through the menu File->Load... or by pushing
the
Load Source button in the Toolbox. The image file you load must be
either
a bitmap or a PCX file. (If you believe that some other file format
would
be much more useful, contact me and I'll see if I can add support for
another image file format.)
Step 2: Get your initial colors.
TilesetPal was made primarily for the purpose of working on tilesets
for
the game Jazz Jackrabbit 2, so I will go with the assumption that you
are
working on such a tileset. All JJ2 tilesets have a set of specific
colors
at the beginning of the palette, so what we want to do is get that
standard JJ2 palette header into our palette. The way we do this most
easily is by using the Palette Merger.
Step 2.1: Using the Palette Merger.
Open up the Palette Merger Dialog box either through the menu
Palette->Merger... or by pushing the Palette Merger... button at the
bottom of the Palette panel. From here you want to use the menu
File->Load Palette... to load the external palette. You can load a
variety of different palette formats, including the palettes out of
indexed bitmaps or PCX files. You should have gotten a Jazz2.pal file
along with this program, so you can load that. To copy the colors from
the file (External Palette) to the palette that will be used (Internal
Palette), simply select all the colors in the External Palette by
clicking
on the first (upper left-hand corner) box and then dragging down and
across till all the colors are selected. This push the button labeled
"->" to copy those colors from the External Palette to the Internal
Palette. Finally, press the OK button to confirm the Internal Palette.
Step 2.2: (Optional) Advanced copying colors in the Palette Merger.
The Palette Merger is a powerful tool for copying colors back and forth
between palettes. Most likely you will be able to learn how the
interface
works by using it rather than me trying to explain it, however I will
still try to explain it for the sake of completeness.
With "Link selected position" checked:
This is the simplest way to operate the Palette Merger, because
basically
whatever range of color boxes you select in one palette, that same
range
will be selected for both palettes. This way you can copy colors from
one
palette to the same place in the other palette. Selecting ranges of
color
boxes is just a simple matter of clicking and dragging.
With "Link selected position" un-checked:
If you don't want to be restricted to copying colors to the same place
in
each palette, you can uncheck "Link selected position" and select
indepedant ranges on either palette. When you select a range of color
boxes in one palette, the same number of color boxes will be selected
in
both palettes, just like before, only the ranges might not be in the
same
place for each palette. The beginning of the last range you selected
will
remain the beginning of the range for that palette until you select a
new
range in that palette. If you didn't understand that, just go and play
around with the Palette Merger, and I'm sure you'll get it.
Step 3: Marking color availability.
Now that we have the standard JJ2 colors in our palette, we want to
mark
them so that they get used properly in the color reduction algorithm.
By
default, all the colors are marked as Available. This means when the
color reduction algorithm runs, it can change any of the Available
colors
to whatever it decides is most useful. Since we just copied in the
standard JJ2 colors, we don't want the color reduction algorithm to
overwrite those. What you want to do is select those first six rows of
colors, and then check the radio button to mark those selected colors
as
"Don't Change". This way, when the color reduction algorithm runs, it
will not change any of these colors, but it can still use those colors
should they match anything in the image. As for the first row of
colors,
you shouldn't really use those at all, so mark all of those (except the
blue/purple background color) as "Don't Use". The background color is
the
only color in the first row you want to keep as "Don't Change". A
small
note on the background color: it is possible that the background color
you
used does not exactly match that second color in the palette. You
might
want to look at the "Picking Colors" topic below to make sure you pick
the
actual background color you used from your source image.
Step 4: Running the color reduction algorithm.
Everything should be set up for the color reduction algorithm now, so
all
we need to do is run that. You can run the color reduction algorithm
through the menu Actions->Reduce Colors... or by pushing the Reduce
Colors
button in the Toolbox. That will run, and once it is done, push the
Done
button, and you should now see a final bitmap will the available colors
in
the palette filled up.
Step 5: Save the final image.
So save the final indexed image, simply either use the menu
File->Save...
or push the Save Final... button. You can choose to save the final
image
as either an 8-bit bitmap or PCX file.
And you're done!
Here are a couple other things you can do that I didn't mention in the
above
process, because I'm not sure if you'll actually need it.
Changing Colors
As you select colors in the Palette panel, you will see them
represented
below in the Color panel. In the color panel, you can change the red,
green, and blue values for the color at the current index. You can
also
change the color by double-clicking on the color preview box.
Picking Colors
You can pick colors from either the source or the final images using
the
color picker. To use the color picker, push down the Picker button in
the
Color panel. That button will stay down so long as the color picker is
active. To deactivate the color picker, simply push the Picker button
again. With the color picker enabled, you can click anywhere in the
either the source image or the final image and it will pick that color.
If you click in the final image, it will also pick the index of that
color. This may be handy if you want to try to find or change a
particular color. If you click in the source image, it will take the
color values, and change them for the color at the current index. You
need to be careful with the color picker and the clicking in the source
image so that you don't accidentally overwrite an important color in
your
palette. That being said, this feature can be useful in picking out
important colors, such as the background color, from the source image
so
you can specify that they shouldn't be changed during the color
reduction
algorithm.
Troubleshooting
---------------
The program won't start:
"Application Error - The application failed to initialize properly
(0xc0000135). Click OK to terminate the application"
or
"Unable to Locate DLL - The Dynamic Link Library mscoree.dll could
not
be found in the specified path."
If you get one of these error messages when you try to start the
program,
then you are probably missing the .NET Framework. The .NET Framework
(Version 1.1) is required for this program to run. You can download
the
.NET Framework from Windows Update (http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com)
or
from this URL:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=262D25E3-F589-4842
-8157-034D1E7CF3A3&displaylang=en
Distribution
------------
TilesetPal is to be distributed only through the website(s) that I (the
author) make this (package of TilesetPal) available on, so long as those
websites exist. Otherwise this is to be distributed unmodified and with
all the files that it originally came with for no charge or anything.
Blah blah blah, usual EULA stuff. This is basically freeware unless
otherwise
stated on the originating website. Use common sense. Send email to
tilesetpal@madskills.org for more permission.
Version History
---------------
1.1 - 2006-02-21
Fixes:
Distorted 24-bit PCX loading bug.
Distortion and color counting problems with odd sized images.
Improvements:
Color reduction algorithm. Hopefully it'll do a better job of
picking
colors.
1.0 - 2005-05-30
First release. Dedicated to the grand tileset maker and my internet
twin
Disguise for his 21st birthday.
Feedback
--------
Questions, comments, suggestions, offers of money or jobs can be emailed to
me
(Jeffrey Lindsey/Monolith) through the address:
tilesetpal@madskills.org
Website
-------
Updates and stuff (should) be available at:
http://monolith.madskills.org/tilesetpal/
Or wherever you originally got this.
Copyright
---------
TilesetPal is Copyright (c) 2005 by Jeffrey Lindsey (Monolith)
=== END OF FILE ===
