Soooo....any real reason to own a PCFX other than collector braging rights?

[OldMan]

Simply put, each color (R,G,B) can only have one of the values found below to be pc engine compatible, right ?

0,36,72,108,144,180,216,252

That looks right. I don't remember the exact values, you'd have to ask arkhan about that. I do know he gets frustrated sometimes when the color he wants doesn't exist on the pce....

I know that the pc engine can have 16 palettes of 15colors + one transparent (which makes 240 colors)for the BGs, and the same for the sprites.

Yeah, that's the way its always explained, but it isn't like you can just pick any color. Each background block is limited to 1 palette slot (but blocks can share a palette slot). So while you could use colors 16-31 for a block, you can't use color #43 - it will show up as color 11 (43%16) in palette #1, Assuming you use palette #1 (colors 16-31).

I understand -how- it works, I'm just not good at explaining it. It's really better to think of it as 16 separate palettes, and you can use any 1 palette in a given 8x8 pixel block.

And, to complicate it even further, sprites have a separate set of 16 palettes. Still same limit on drawing, though.
With a 32x32 sprite you could -potentially- use 16 palettes for 256 colors; in reality, though, most of the colors would be the same, with just one or two different for a special highlight or something.

So when you do something like the block in your upper-left corner, you have to be careful. You would need 1 palette slot for the brown/green  8x8 area, and a separate one for the green/grey area. In your case, it might be okay; I counted 8 unique colors In the brown/green block, and 7 in the green/grey block, so they could 'share' a palette slot. But you might find yourself duplicating colors just to have them available elsewhere in the picture.

And as arkhan keeps saying, it sure would be nice to have a graphics editor that understood these things :-)

[Arm]

Thanks for the explanation
Using graphicsgale and photoshop, I've converted all the colors which should be compatible with the pce palette. There remains only 42 colors now. I didn't try to refine or put additional details but just to remain faithful to the first version of the picture and reducing the number of colors.

/lunartss1pcecolor.png

[Arkhan Asylum]

dont forget, its 16 palettes... but they all share 1 common color.

[Arm]

I see. But what would be the problem, here ? With only 42 colors, I guess I could reuse the same colors in several color palettes ?

[OldMan]

You're down to 42 unique colors now, right ? So you should understand why people complain about doing graphics on the pce :-) And why they look 'off' sometimes, compared to other systems.

In any case, the next step is to chop the image up into unique 8x8 tiles, create a 256x whatever image, import it into mappy, and see if you can re-create the image there, using just your tiles. Trust me, it's harder than you think.
Start with a 32x32 map (using 8x8 tiles), and post a screen shot of your results when you have it like you want, so we can see how it worked out.

If you are really serious about this, keep notes on what you did so you don't have to figure it all out again. When you post the mappy screen-shot, I'll dig through my old code, and find the map-display test from pp, so you can at least see how your maps look in an emulator. And maybe, if arkhan says yes, we will get your sprite walking around on them. It's a start.

And we should probably move this to a new topic, since we are wayyy off-topic here :-)

[Arm]

Ok, I'll give it a shot. But, is it possible to use tile studio instead of mappy ? Am I supposed to divide into 8x8 tiles manually in photoshop ? Or is there a more proper way in tiles studio or Mappy to do that ?

[OldMan]

Probably. Most any tile program will do.
BUT, we have tools to convert mappy files to directly importable pce BAT tables :-)

IF we can find out how tile studio saves files, it might be possible to fix the tools to do the same thing. For now, I wouldn't worry too much about it. Just make sure your tiles look right when you put them together into a screen.

[Arkhan Asylum]

Where the crap are we getting 42 colors from? lol

You can have 512 different shades of stuff (2^9).

16 palettes of 15 colors = 240 + Common Color = 241 colors for the backgrounds.

oh wait I shouldn't read after just waking up.

The PICTURE you gave has 41 colors. 

Yes, you can reuse colors in each palette.

Cause lets say for example you have a nice water palette of 15 blue/tealish colors, and then you are like oooo I need to make a building!

...thats say.... gray stone, with blue windows.

You probably wont manage to get the windows onto their own tile sections in order to use the same blue palette as the water unless you're REALLY clever...

so you can make a new palette for the building that has grays and blues, and you wont have to worry about it.  Even if the blues are duplicated. 

I don't think of it as OMG, I CAN MAKE SUCH HIGH COLOR BACKGROUNDS! 16 PALETTES!   

I think of it more like "Hey I can have 16 of these, so I can use them to tailor to specific sections/things on screen without worrying"

Plus, if you're reallllllly batshit insane, you can do alot with 16 colors



pardon the small ass image.  I cant find a good one.   That's Fray for MSX.  It's 16 colors INCLUDING sprites.   lol.  the background and sprites share one 16 color palette because its a bitmapped screen mode game.

Insane.  i wish I could art like that.

[Arm]

Fray is a nice game, as a lot of other games from Micro Cabin
I'll need to reread your message later, until then don't worry about art ;)

/lunasyscardpceversion2.png

PS : this is the syscard error image I've drawn (maybe not final)

[Arkhan Asylum]

Fray is a nice game, as lots of games from Micro Cabin
I'll need to reread your message later, until then don't worry about art ;)

/lunasyscardpceversion2.png

PS : this is the syscard error image I've drawn (maybe not final)

that may be the best system card error image I have ever seen in my life.

[Arm]

Thanks for the compliment. Following TheOldman's advice, I recreated the screenshot in mapwin.
Doing this was tedious. The number of tiles was important and some tiles seemed identical, but they're not. Fortunately there was the original picture for reference. Anyway, I sent it via PM to you and to theoldman.

[nat]

This is a great conversation, but can we start a new thread in the Dev area of the forums? The topic has wandered clear out of sight of the initial topic.

[Arm]

Sorry, I'll create a separate topic in the dev forum.

[nat]

No problem.