PCX -> BMP -> PCX converter?

[AgentBif]

Anyone know where I can get a free utility for converting Apocalypse PCX images to BMP and back?

 

Thanks!

 

bif

[NKF]

Check https://www.tucows.com/

 

It has a lot of image viewers/converters to choose from.

 

My favourite one at the moment is Irfanview, it'll convert images between a huge number of image formats formats.

 

https://www.irfanview.com/

 

 

Doesn't handle PCK's though.

 

- NKF

[AgentBif]

My favourite one at the moment is Irfanview, it'll convert images between a huge number of image formats formats.

You know, I just tried this one (irfanview) and it screws up the palette.

 

I use it to convert the PCX to BMP. I use paint to edit the image. Then I use irfanview to turn the BMP back into a PCX. Then I stick the PCX back into the PCK.

 

But in the game it comes out all psychadelic because somewhere in there the palette was dropped. I'm pretty sure the problem is irfanview because I've used paint to edit apocalypse images before without a palette problem. But back then I was using XED to do the PCX conversion (but XED no longer even runs).

 

Do you know how I can preserve the palette through this process?

 

Have you used this util to edit images in Apocalypse? Anyone?

 

Thanks!

 

bif

[AgentBif]

Does anyone understand how palettes are used in pcx files, pck files, and in apocalypse?

 

Does each pcx carry it's own palette?

 

Do all the Apocalypse images use the same palette? If so, is that palette stored as a file?

 

I'm wondering if I can force a paint program to convert my image to the Apocalypse palette, assuming I can find that file...

 

bif

[NKF]

Irfanview shouldn't change the palette when converting between indexed palette files. Just to be sure, you can check the source image's palette against the bitmap you modified in paint. You can examine an indexed image's palette by going to image\palette\edit palette

 

By the way, MS Paint can open .pcx files (though you need to list 'all files (*.*)' to select a .pcx file), so you can skip your first step. Paint just doesn't seem to know how to save back to a .pcx file (though it did back in the old Windows 3.1 days).

 

---

 

A Zsoft .pcx file is similar to a 256 colour .bmp file, in that it contains an information header, its own palette and then raw image data. Most of the image formats in UFO and TFTD (.scr, .pck, some .dat files) were just raw image data, while the palettes were stored in different files. But I'm not entirely sure if that's the same case with Apocalypse. (the .pcx files will have their own palettes)

 

If I'm not mistaken, Apocalypse uses a 16-bit colour svga mode, so it won't have a fixed palette for all the images. So I'm guessing that each sprite set (the .pck files) may have their own unique palettes. But as I'm unfamiliar with the actual format, I'll leave the professionals to bring further light to this subject.

 

- NKF

[AgentBif]

So I have this (very cool) SMG that I made that comes out all psychadelic in the game. I tried stripping the palette off the default SMG and converting the image to use this one but there is no change. I've tried stripping palettes off of all kinds of game images and this never fixes my custom weapons.

 

This implies that Apoc is not using the palettes from the images themselves... somewhere there is a master palette that all the images conform to. I need to find this master palette as a .pal file.

 

Any ideas anyone?

 

bif