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**Mizaq** · March 30, 2002, 21:10

I don't understand why you aren't calling this by its name. Its a palette changer so call it that. False advertising.

What palettes need to have civ colors for the first 96 colors? Everything I have worked on (terrain, wonder splashes, menu screen, buttons, title screen, city view screen) all needed 1-3 colors at the end of the palette and possibly one at the beginning, but otherwise they could be anything.

**jimmyh** · March 30, 2002, 21:17

It will soon become a scenario editor...

Here's a quote from Moeniir(writer of FLICster) as I asked him about the palettes for units.

"The 256 colors that make up a Civ3UnitFlc's palette are not all equal. If you open a FLC in FLICster and go to Palette View, you will see the palette arranged in 16 rows of 16 colors each - the same way that the PaintShopPro palette editor shows the palette. The first 64 colors, or 4 rows, are civ-specific colors, and can change for each civ. Change the Civ Color in the drop down to see this. You should NEVER change the colors in the first 4 rows. Doing so shouldn't break anything, but the effort is futile, since Civ3 will replace the first 4 rows in your unit's palette with a set of Civ-Specific colors anyway.

The last 32 colors (last two rows) are also special - these are the Alpha Blending palette entries. Note that I called them palette entries, not colors. This is because the colors appearing in these positions are just place holders. Each palette position in this range specifies a certain level of Alpha Belending. The last position, which is normally magenta, is used to indicate full transparency. The other 15 colors in the last row form a transparency ramp, down to fully opaque black. These varying levels of transparency are used to create shadow effects. The 16 positions in the next-to-last line seem to form a ramp from transparent to fully opaque white, and are used to form smoke and haze effects. These palette entries are used in animations like BattleshipAttackA.flc to create the smoke from the big guns. Please note that the gray values I use when simulating alpha blending are my best guesses - I haven't been able to get any info about how the game ramps everything. Again, you should not edit these colors unless you know what you are doing.

The rest of the palette is yours to edit. Just be sure you NEVER perform an operation like Increase colors or Decrease colors - this will totaly screw up your palette. When creating your animation, remember that if you use any colors in the first 4 rows, they will be subject to change with each civ, and if you use any colors in the last two rows, you will get shadow or haze in game."

James.

**Mizaq** · March 30, 2002, 23:39

oh alright, it is for unit editing. A palette utility that help with unit graphic editing is a far cry from a scenario editor.

**abcman** · March 31, 2002, 07:49

Great job!

Yeah. Haha. It's called a scenario editor but the only thing you can do in it is change that palette thing! That is an awesome function (at least for me), but you really should advertise it as a "palette editor" too!

I'm sure many has run into this problem excpet for us two.

I understand that you mean to upgrade it to a scenario editor soon. Maybe you can call it a scenario/palette editor?

**abcman** · March 31, 2002, 08:04

Hmm. Are you really sure the editor works as it should?

Maybe it's just me that can't use it.

First I loaded my 16 million color picture. Then I resaved it as a PCX file and changed the number of colors to 160.
Then I used your program on it.

But when I opened the picture the colors were all messed up.
It seems like even though the colors had been moven "forward" on the palette list 4 rows the picture was still using the same palette "numbers". (like where it used palette entry 76 it still uses palette entry 76.)
So let's say I had a gray color on number 76. And 4 rows before on the same place (about number 12) I had green.

Then the place which actually should be grey was green.

**jimmyh** · March 31, 2002, 08:14

It won't rearange the image so that it uses the correct index, you'll need to save out the palette in Paint Shop Pro and then load in back in to your original image(the 256 image before you used my editor) and that should rearrange it properly. I will put in functionality so that it arranges the colours in the image also.

James.

**abcman** · March 31, 2002, 08:32

Sorry. I've read what you wrote several times, but I don't really understand what you mean... Could you explain it again?
Like, should I first change the number of colors to 256, and then save the palette as a file? And then...??

**abcman** · March 31, 2002, 14:53

Please remember to answer my question. Thanks. :-)

**jimmyh** · March 31, 2002, 18:55

Ok, let's try and make this as painless as possible.

Let's say you have your image which was taken from another game, reduce it to 256 colours ( I take it you are using Paint Shop Pro ), now save this out as a PCX file, call it mypcx.pcx.

Now load up my editor and select the save palette option, select the PCX file which you have just saved out(mypcx.pcx), choice a civ colour to go with it and press OK. Close the editor.

James.

**abcman** · April 1, 2002, 07:29

Ahh. Thank you for the help.
Now that I've got your palette editor (and knows how to use it) I can start putting those units into CIV3!

(btw. my units are not rippoffs from computer games! It's just that I make them in 16 million colors. That's the only way you can use for example the darken lightness tool. I don't really enjoy the picking of colors you have to do when drawing with a palette)

Anyway. Thanks again for your awesome program!

**jimmyh** · April 1, 2002, 07:49

Originally posted by abcman
Ahh. Thank you for the help.
Now that I've got your palette editor (and knows how to use it) I can start putting those units into CIV3!

(btw. my units are not rippoffs from computer games! It's just that I make them in 16 million colors. That's the only way you can use for example the darken lightness tool. I don't really enjoy the picking of colors you have to do when drawing with a palette)

Anyway. Thanks again for your awesome program!

Don't forget to post your units here at apolyton!

I was just just using the ripoff from another game as an example, btw all of my work would be ripoffs from other games, cos I can't draw to save my life, hehe

In the next release I should be able to get it sort the palette out instead of having to save the palette out in Paint Shop Pro, and once I get the loading PCX files you should be able to import save games and view the map, up until now I've been converting the graphics to BMP files and then loading those in.

Cheers.
James.

**jimmyh** · April 1, 2002, 15:10

The next update is avaliable, check the first post for the attachment and a list of features.

Cheers.
James.

**heardie** · April 3, 2002, 22:00

Aghhh, doesn't work for me

It freezes my mouse. Then when I try and open a save file I get an illegal operation.

Using a AMD K-6 400 with 196mg ram, 32mgbit Video card

**jimmyh** · April 4, 2002, 02:32

Originally posted by heardie
Aghhh, doesn't work for me

It freezes my mouse. Then when I try and open a save file I get an illegal operation.

Using a AMD K-6 400 with 196mg ram, 32mgbit Video card

Actually if you could attach the save game file you are trying to load and I'll have a look to see what the problem is.

I know there is one problem when loading, but it doesn't happen all of the time, I think it could be a memory leak some where, will be giving it a good going over this weekend.

Also being able to move units around on the map will be in on the next version.

Cheers.
James.

Announcement

UTILITY: UnOfficial Civ3 Scenario Editor

UTILITY: UnOfficial Civ3 Scenario Editor

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