XWE colors =\ 256

[Hellbent]

XWE has been working fine - but now it's saving the images in what appears to be like 16 colors instead of 256. Any possible reason for this?

[Csabo]

I haven't seen or heard of this, strange indeed. What color depth is your desktop? Does it happen to every image, or just one particular WAD? (e.g. if you exported an image from let's say the original DOOM2.WAD, does it end up 16 colors?)

[Hellbent]

Csabo said:

I haven't seen or heard of this, strange indeed. What color depth is your desktop? Does it happen to every image, or just one particular WAD? (e.g. if you exported an image from let's say the original DOOM2.WAD, does it end up 16 colors?)

You know what, I think that perhaps I was mistaken. I think certain images just look better than others. I was expecting more color detail... but I have no way of proving that the colors were less than 256. They were certainly not 16... so I prolly just mistaken.

[Nitus]

XWE will convert to 256 colors - but not 256 per texture. 256, period.

It uses the original 256-color doom2 palette, which means that any color will be converted to the closest doom2 palette analog.

This means this if you have a texture with a variety of colors, it can easy be reduced to a mere five or six, to match the palette.

[toxicfluff]

It's best to do the palette conversion in PSP or something similar before inserting new graphics via XWE or Wintex.

[LexiMax]

Nitus said:

XWE will convert to 256 colors - but not 256 per texture. 256, period.

It uses the original 256-color doom2 palette, which means that any color will be converted to the closest doom2 palette analog.

This means this if you have a texture with a variety of colors, it can easy be reduced to a mere five or six, to match the palette.

Weird, when I do a pallete swap with LView using "Nearest Color" method, which is what it sounds like XWE does, it doesn't look bad at all.

[deep]

Hellbent said:

You know what, I think that perhaps I was mistaken. I think certain images just look better than others. I was expecting more color detail... but I have no way of proving that the colors were less than 256. They were certainly not 16... so I prolly just mistaken.

Sure you can prove that 1 way or the other. Duck simple. For example, export the image then load it in PSP and tell PSP to do a color count.

You will never get 256 colors though. At the most 255 since 1 is reserved for getting "transparency". Interestingly if index 255 is used you will get some strange results in DOOM - so technically only 254. Even the ports will hiccup here (although I haven't re-checked this in the last year). IIRC the reason was the translation from "transparency" to actual image generation/display.

Because of 7 duplicated colors, the actual maximum number is 247 colors (assuming we don't use 255 and the transparent color).

The main translation issue you can run into is if an image uses a wide range of a certain color or if the color does not exist at all. What some programs do is "dither" which makes up for this and thus you can get a nicer looking image. This is a tradeoff since dithering all the time is also not a good idea. PSP (and others) let you play with various methods showing that you have to change to suit the image/your taste.

[Bucket]

I don't suggest using dithering in Doom because not many of the original graphics do that, to avoid looking incredibly grainy. Just take a look at those painful Counter-Strike weapon replacements. Of course, if you're replacing ALL the graphics, then you can go to town...