Working with doom palettes

[Danlex]

I started working on a Boom Compatible wad and I want to use a sky with stars and red/blue details...

Something similar to this:

As you might guess, when I convert it to doom palette, it looks horrible.

So, I need help with this, please...

Edited April 22, 2018 by DanielAlexander

[Gez]

A sky can be at most 1024-wide. And it needs to tile horizontally, so if you do the simplest approach by mirroring it, you need to reduce from 1600 wide to 512 wide so that once doubled by its mirror you get 1024. That'll give you an image that's 512x288, which is acceptable (the Doom engine doesn't need texture heights to be a power of 2). Because of Doom's aspect ratio you could actually scale it down to 512x256, because the image will be stretched up when projected, but I didn't bother.

 

 

Then you grayscale it.

 

 

Import into SLADE 3 and convert to Doom format.

 

 

Work out a nice translation for the blue part. In my case I got "80:103=192:207", "104:111=240:247", "3:3=241:241", "5:8=246:247". Translate the image. That's your blue star sky.

 

 

Now import again the grayscale, and do the same thing but for red this time. "80:111=16:47", "104:111=40:47", "3:3=41:41", "5:8=46:47" worked for me. Now you've got your red sky.

 

 

Now export them both as PNGs, and import them in an image editing program. Import the Doom palette, too (you can export it from SLADE; archive->new->PLAYPAL, select Doom palette, then click on it and select Palette->Export as, so you can get a palette usable by GIMP or PaintShopPro).

 

Now the hard part is trying to combine them both in an aesthetically pleasing manner. The major issue here is that the Doom palette doesn't have much in the ways of purple -- crucially, it doesn't have the kind of dark purple that would work for a smooth transition from its dark blues to its dark red. You might try some dither patterns or something. I'll admit I don't have the patience to get a non-ugly result here. And the reds don't get dark enough to allow a transition through the black color. This is why you should probably tweak the palette first to change the blues and reds; conveniently you can do that in SLADE 3 too.

 

 

Anyway, the next steps are to split it in two pictures that are 256x288, then make mirrored copies, and finally assemble all four in a TEXTURE1 lump to get a big 1024x288 sky made out of four patches. Good luck!

 

 

 

 

 

[Kappes Buur]

To retain the colors you have to use a port which can render png images, eg GZDOOM.

Furthermore you must be concerned about tiling.  The first thing to do is to double the image,

eg left as is and right mirrored. I use the name RBSKY. Then resize to 512 x 160 like so

 

 

Then you have two options:

 

1. import the image between P_ markers,

 

 

generate the TEXTURE1/PNAMES lumps and edit SKY1 in  TEXTURE1

 

 

and save.

 

2. For this you do not need the TEXTURE1 and PNAMES lumps.

Import the image between TX_ markers and include a MAPINFO lump to specify the sky, eg

 

Quote

map MAP01 "RBSKY"
{
   sky1 = "RBSKY", 0

   next = "map02"
}

 

 

and save.

 

In either case, this is the result

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Danlex]

Thanks for the information, but I want to make a boom compatible wad, so the sky needs to be doom format.

I want to know if theres a way I can make a decent looking version of this sky in doom format.

[Empyre]

You might be able to make or find (and obtain permission to use) a custom palette with the blues that shade.

[Danlex]

45 minutes ago, Empyre said:

You might be able to make or find (and obtain permission to use) a custom palette with the blues that shade.

and what I need to do when I find the palette?

I put it in Slade, and then?

[Dexiaz]

1 hour ago, DanielAlexander said:

I put it in Slade, and then?

Nothing. You will just install it into WAD. It will be an already working element.

[Danlex]

Well, if somebody knows where I can find a palette with red/blue shades, please let me know. :)

[Dexiaz]

1 hour ago, DanielAlexander said:

Well, if somebody knows where I can find a palette with red/blue shades, please let me know. :)

 

I'll advice to create it by yourself instead of searching for it.

 

It's not hard to do. Copy PLAYPAL file from Doom/Doom2.wad into your wad and edit it in Slade. Left Mouse click to select color in table, Right Mouse click to select RGB parameters. After editing just press "save"

[Danlex]

If I create a new palette, this one will affect all the textures in the wad, right?

[Dexiaz]

10 minutes ago, DanielAlexander said:

If I create a new palette, this one will affect all the textures in the wad, right?

Right

[Gez]

Yes, of course. So if you don't want to have to update all sprites, flats, textures, and interface graphics, you'll have to tweak slightly the existing ranges instead of making drastic changes.

 

Here's an old post about some of the palette editing features in SLADE -- you don't have to change each color index separately!

 

[Danlex]

well, I tried to make a new palette but I can't get this sky to work

[Nine Inch Heels]

1 hour ago, DanielAlexander said:

well, I tried to make a new palette but I can't get this sky to work

On a cursory glance the sky seems to have a few shades too many, which will make it such that SLADE will turn any colours it can't "identify" based on the palette you use into shades from the white-black range upon conversion. It might be feasible to "simplify" the sky texture with an external program and then try to adjust the palette so it fits better overall. This will still be quite a fiddly sort of work if you're not experienced with this. I remember mechadon was pretty good at making skies that fit doom's palette, perhaps he can help you getting this on the road proper.

[Danlex]

So, I tried something different:

I just edited a red sky and added some blue details without changing the palette...

It looks a bit strange but this is the only solution I have by now.