The COLORS in the BACKGROUND; a question.

[Exile]

Ok, what are the rules concerning the little 48 x 48 square on the Icons file that is the background color for many of the game windows?

I've tried at least a dozen, and if they look in any way good, whenever the AI communicates diplomatically, the color is VERY different, and in most cases makes reading the text too difficult to be practical.

And then, I tried a very "light" square from an old English Civil War scenario and there was NO CHANGE at all!

How and why does the diplomatic message alter/not alter the assigned color(s) in the little 48 x 48 square?

Anyone know this?

I should start a trivia contest.

[fairline]

The only restriction is the civ palette and those colours which are reserved for other things (the magenta and grey transparent colours for example). If you post the colour you're after, I'll fill the nearest equivalent civ palette colour in the icons slot.

BTW - I just sent e-mailed another 'final' units file....

[Exile]

Thanks, Gareth. Yeah, I got the latest 'final' unit gif, lol. Did you get my latest email about the one change I wanted?

On the files you've got, one of the acceptable 48x48's is on the icons file. Got it from Sengoku by DV. Try it yourself. Whenever the AI goes to diplo communication, the message comes up in a completely unexpected color, a deep blue, which totally obscures the message.

Yet this other 48x48, the one I got from the ECW scen didn't change 1 pixel when the AI talked.

The 48x48 that I WANT to use is on the file you've got, but I've removed it because of the problem and put it a typical grey one, borrowed from Cross n Crescent (which also doesn't change when the AI messages!)

[Exile]

BUMP!

Anyone else besides Gareth know anything about this particular little problem?

I'd like to fully customize this thing, but if this color thing can't be resolved, I'm back to putting a drab, dull grey thing in there once again, lol.

Koby? You know anything about this?

[Catfish]

That 32x32-pixel background icon uses the standard Civ2 palette (192 available colours) in the normal game window. In the diplomacy screen the graphics are taken from the mk.dll file. These use completely different palettes, some with as few as 32 colours. I suspect that one of these other palettes is being loaded and a different colour with the same index value is being applied to your new fancy background. If you stick with the grey colours (indices 0-31), you'll be safe (those colours are shared). Deviate and you may have problems.

[Harry Tuttle]

Catfish is correct, the Diplo screen uses a different palette than the standard Civ2 palette.

[Exile]

Yep. Only the greys will work.

[Boco]

I think this might be the palette (it should be attached as an image). Isn't this where I mention that it's good for making pics of oatmeal and martians?

[Catfish]

Edit: Don't worry, I answered my own question. I checked and confirmed that that's the palette used by the dialogue box in the diplomacy screen.