Importing high res 8bb PNGs for textures/flats.

[solarsnowfall]

I've been trying to use 256x256 PNGs for textures and flats. I use Load (rad data) to insert them between TX_START and TX_END. To make them show up in the game, I have to specify an x and y value. In doing so, XWE converts the image to the doom pallet. How can this be circumvented?

[Csabo]

PNG files need special chunks to set the X,Y offset. I have the specs for it (from Randy himself), and for the longest time I've been meaning to add this, but it's not in yet. So XWE at the moment is not capable of doing this.

[solarsnowfall]

Well when adding textures XWE does have the x and y fields in the top of the display window, and that gets them to display in game. It's just when setting them to pngs that aren't formatted to the doom pallet, they get converted. Unless I'm missunderstanding your last post.

[Csabo]

I probably wasn't clear enough. The X,Y boxes work only for the regular Doom patches. Editing X,Y and saving it will convert the image from PNG (or whatever else it was) and save it as the doom image format.

PNGs need special treatment, which is not in XWE yet.

[chaoscentral]

so any idea when they will be implemented... srry just anxious so i can make some good stuff for gzdoom

[Zeg-Vok]

chaoscentral said:

so any idea when they will be implemented... srry just anxious so i can make some good stuff for gzdoom

Ditto

[Csabo]

Okay, you've persuaded me to sit down and finally get this working. It's really difficult to find the time for XWE these days, but the core is there. So: grab the beta http://ca.geocities.com/xwe@rogers.com/xwe_beta.zip. Load a PNG, adjust the offsets and click Image|Apply alignment. It should work...

Things to do:
- when you (re)load a PNG, it does not yet read the current offset.
- If you apply the alignment more than once, it will create multiple chunks, which will probably screw things up.
- Make it "easier", ie. if one would Save right now (because the offsets are modified) it will still save the image as the doom format (so avoid doing this for now).

Anyway, those are easy to do, if someone can confirm that the modified PNGs are actually good.

[Mancubus II]

Based on what I THINK you want to do, you might want to keep a couple of things in mind. Since you are using PNGs I'm going to assume this is for zdoom. If this is not then other rules may apple.

#1 - Apparently you cannot scale textures that are in between tx_start and tx_end. So, when you use one of those textures on a wall, they'll just be full size 256x256 in the same quality as other doom stuff. If this is what you want to achieve then don't worry about it.

#2 - Even though you're bringing in PNGs with their own palette, zdoom must still adhere to the global palette. This means on startup it'll adjust your textures so that colors are matched to their nearest equivalent in the doom palette. This may or may not lead to undesired effects.

[Zeg-Vok]

I think were going with the GZDoom approach, rather than the normal ZDoom 256 color approach. And there still needs to be a little work with the PNG shenanagins. Like the auto-aligning and it not saving it as a Doom image after you click off of it, and it asking you if you want to save it, then clicking yes. If the PNG's get "Seamlessly" integrated, that would be tits

[Csabo]

That's exactly what I was trying to say with my 3rd todo point. It's easy to implement once I know that the modded PNG images actually work in ZDoom. So did anyone try this yet?

[Zeg-Vok]

It didnt show any 8-Bit PNGs for me in GZDoom

[Csabo]

That's good to know. But did the alignment actually work?

[Zeg-Vok]

Alignment as in it saves the Alignment numbers after you set them and then use Image\Apply Alignment? Short answer, No

[Graf Zahl]

Mancubus II said:

#2 - Even though you're bringing in PNGs with their own palette, zdoom must still adhere to the global palette. This means on startup it'll adjust your textures so that colors are matched to their nearest equivalent in the doom palette. This may or may not lead to undesired effects.

It's still better to leave the original palette so that ports that can handle it aren't needlessly restricted by the global palette.

[Graf Zahl]

Exporting PNGs is a little problematic.

When you import a PNG as raw data exporting it properly is only possible when you set the viewer to Raw mode. Otherwise you get a BMP with a mutilated palette but not the original.

[Csabo]

I guess I could add a Save as (Raw) command to the menu. Once you've imported and adjusted the image, why would you export it though? Just wondering.

[Graf Zahl]

Csabo said:

I guess I could add a Save as (Raw) command to the menu. Once you've imported and adjusted the image, why would you export it though? Just wondering.

I tried to export it to verify whether it is correct.

But you really shouln't convert PNGs to BMPs when exporting - and even if you converted them you shouldn't destroy the palette. Just export them as they are and preserve all the information they contain. After all they are already a known image format unlike Doom patches.

[Csabo]

You're right.

The original idea was that people will be using Save As to save doom images, which have their own format. In that case, converting to BMP makes sense. Also, when you rip stuff from other games, there are many formats that XWE reads, but you don't want them in their original format.

I can probably put in a check to save "as is" if the image format is PNG.

[Csabo]

Fixed. When you use Save As on PNG file, it saves it as a PNG instead of exporting it as a BMP. Grab the beta from http://ca.geocities.com/xwe@rogers.com/xwe_beta.zip if you need it.