BlazeHedgehog
Member
Once upon a time (read: yesterday), I wanted to try an experiment. Mystic told me it had been suggested before, but: The DooM palette is limited. However, one plus of the DooM engine, at least modern ones, is the ability to replace DooM's palette with different colors. So, I figured, hey - DooM might have like 32 shades of brown, but does SRB2 need 32 shades of brown? No. An old program of mine, MGI Photosuite 95, has, what I consider, a great, robust, 256 color palette. So, I set out to replace SRB2's palette with the palette from MGI.
On the left, the default DooM palette. As you can see, there is a LOT of red and a LOT of brown. On the right, is the palette I wanted to replace it with. It contains tons of colors - which, if I was successful, would give SRB2 a much, much broader range of colors to work with.
So, I crack open srb2.srb in XWE. PLAYPAL is what I'm looking for. I had hoped XWE would let me simply import a .pal file, but unfortunately, I quickly learn it uses a different format. Not knowing what the format is, I do the smart thing: I export SRB2's PLAYPAL to my HDD. It exports to PLAYPAL.act
Immediately I reckognize the file format. .ACT is what Mugen sprites use for their palettes! Using PrjPalEdit.exe from my Mugen tools, I open the ACT file. SRB2's palette loads! Even better, PrjPalEdit.exe opens .pal files! I convert my Palette to a .ACT and load it into palette.wad.
Now for the hard part. For this to work properly, I need to export _every single graphic_ SRB2 uses, and re-import them. See, when you export graphics to .BMP, they keep their original palettes. Once you re-import them, most DooM editors will reckognize the fact you have a new palette installed and will adjust your graphics to fit the new palette. Thus, if I export all of SRB2's graphics and import them into palette.wad, XWE will automatically try and convert the graphics to my new palette! It's not perfect - but this is just an experiment; a quick test, if you will, to see how it might look. If the export and import is successful, I planned on running them through a better graphics converter that would match the colors much better.
The process takes awhile. SRB2 contains over 1300 sprites, and 1000 floor/wall textures. Exporting them roughly takes 3-5 minutes, whereas importing them takes twice that long.
And the end result? Shield your eyes, children.
As you can see, it did not quite go as planned. Some aspects look fine - Crawlas, the sky. The grass is kind of green. The color on Sonic's sprite is supposed to be borked; I didn't replace his colors, as that would likely require hex editing, and I am not good at hex editing. However, it is now I learn the disturbing fact: While PrjPalEdit.exe opens and edits the .ACT files XWE gave me, it is not 100% compatible.
I primarily learn this fact after I give up and try to edit the palette simply: Another thing that's bugged me about SRB2's palette is the fact that the green is kind of washed out. So, using the .ACT editor, I tried to change the palette to be a more natural shade of green - and it accidentally shifted all of SRB2's colors down one notch, making everything a slightly darker color. (Unfortunately I don't have a screenshot of that)
Eventually I settled for XWE's palette editor to change the green. However, I was still determined to give SRB2 the new, fancy palette. I would have to face my worst enemy. The DooM editor I always avoid. I would have to open DeepSea.
Disturbingly, it was easy to import a new palette into DeepSea; but it raised my awareness of the DooM palette: There's more than one. XWE only lets you import one palette at a time, whereas DooM has multiple palettes it switches to whenever you pick up an item or get hit by an enemy. It also forced me to learn about Color Maps: as in, the other shades of color DooM uses for darker environments and whatever else. Quite simply put? For the time being, I have abandoned giving SRB2 a new palette. However, all is not lost.
Here, you can download a WAD with a new palette for SRB2. It changes one thing: The greens. It makes them a much more natural shade of green, rather than the dull, washed out green DooM uses by default. It makes the grass look... greener.
You can download this tiny enhancement here. I haven't noticed many anomolies using it, although I have a feeling it might mess up the Armegeddon Shield. (I haven't tested it with that, yet)
On the left, the default DooM palette. As you can see, there is a LOT of red and a LOT of brown. On the right, is the palette I wanted to replace it with. It contains tons of colors - which, if I was successful, would give SRB2 a much, much broader range of colors to work with.
So, I crack open srb2.srb in XWE. PLAYPAL is what I'm looking for. I had hoped XWE would let me simply import a .pal file, but unfortunately, I quickly learn it uses a different format. Not knowing what the format is, I do the smart thing: I export SRB2's PLAYPAL to my HDD. It exports to PLAYPAL.act
Immediately I reckognize the file format. .ACT is what Mugen sprites use for their palettes! Using PrjPalEdit.exe from my Mugen tools, I open the ACT file. SRB2's palette loads! Even better, PrjPalEdit.exe opens .pal files! I convert my Palette to a .ACT and load it into palette.wad.
Now for the hard part. For this to work properly, I need to export _every single graphic_ SRB2 uses, and re-import them. See, when you export graphics to .BMP, they keep their original palettes. Once you re-import them, most DooM editors will reckognize the fact you have a new palette installed and will adjust your graphics to fit the new palette. Thus, if I export all of SRB2's graphics and import them into palette.wad, XWE will automatically try and convert the graphics to my new palette! It's not perfect - but this is just an experiment; a quick test, if you will, to see how it might look. If the export and import is successful, I planned on running them through a better graphics converter that would match the colors much better.
The process takes awhile. SRB2 contains over 1300 sprites, and 1000 floor/wall textures. Exporting them roughly takes 3-5 minutes, whereas importing them takes twice that long.
And the end result? Shield your eyes, children.
As you can see, it did not quite go as planned. Some aspects look fine - Crawlas, the sky. The grass is kind of green. The color on Sonic's sprite is supposed to be borked; I didn't replace his colors, as that would likely require hex editing, and I am not good at hex editing. However, it is now I learn the disturbing fact: While PrjPalEdit.exe opens and edits the .ACT files XWE gave me, it is not 100% compatible.
I primarily learn this fact after I give up and try to edit the palette simply: Another thing that's bugged me about SRB2's palette is the fact that the green is kind of washed out. So, using the .ACT editor, I tried to change the palette to be a more natural shade of green - and it accidentally shifted all of SRB2's colors down one notch, making everything a slightly darker color. (Unfortunately I don't have a screenshot of that)
Eventually I settled for XWE's palette editor to change the green. However, I was still determined to give SRB2 the new, fancy palette. I would have to face my worst enemy. The DooM editor I always avoid. I would have to open DeepSea.
Disturbingly, it was easy to import a new palette into DeepSea; but it raised my awareness of the DooM palette: There's more than one. XWE only lets you import one palette at a time, whereas DooM has multiple palettes it switches to whenever you pick up an item or get hit by an enemy. It also forced me to learn about Color Maps: as in, the other shades of color DooM uses for darker environments and whatever else. Quite simply put? For the time being, I have abandoned giving SRB2 a new palette. However, all is not lost.
Here, you can download a WAD with a new palette for SRB2. It changes one thing: The greens. It makes them a much more natural shade of green, rather than the dull, washed out green DooM uses by default. It makes the grass look... greener.
You can download this tiny enhancement here. I haven't noticed many anomolies using it, although I have a feeling it might mess up the Armegeddon Shield. (I haven't tested it with that, yet)
