TGA to BIF via Purpgrab

[Turbo]

I have been trying to convert the .lbm in the battle unit directory called Feudalbows. It is apparently an orphan unit from the original game. I have been trying to make a BIF from it without success.

I loaded it into Ultimate paint then saved it as a .TGA Following the directions of the purpgrab, I dragged the TGA to the purp grab dos window but nothing happens(). I tried reasoning with purpgrab via the command line but I still can't get the damn thing to produce a BIF file.

What am missing?

[Myrddraal]

Use the bif reader (converts .bmp to .bif)

[Duke John]

The TGA image has to be converted correctly to be accepted by PurpGrab. I believe that Purp stands for purple and after reading the stuff below I think you understand why:


Quote[/b] ]********* BIFs with black dots ***********************
It's bifreader the problem. It doesn't save bif icons in a correct format. The animations are fine, icons display black dots instead that the transparent color.

Here is the solution I found after hours of "trial and error". You must download the CA image tools available at the org site, the program you need is called Purplegrab.exe.

I made a save of the screen and I examined the image in the review panel. The dots are where there are just 1 or 2 pixels of the transparent color. They're correctly displayed in readbif though but I guess the game doesn't use exactly the same conversion routine that the program uses and reads those pixels as "non transparent" and thereby they're displayed with color the stored in the position 0 of the palette (black for the bif created with readbif).

I then exported the bif to bmp, loaded it in a paint proggy, corrected the position 0 of the palette to pink (255 0 255), convert the image to 24 bit color, save as uncompressed 24 bit tga, drag the tga file into CA's purplegrab to create a bif. That bif displays in the game without black dots.

I converted all the bifs I made in this way, I think you can use any other paint program if it can save the image in uncompressed 24 bit color tga and provided you have fill all the transparent areas of your image with pink color.

I had problems with making the uniticon using readbif as the factioncolours wouldn't replace the purple and green.

Cheers, Duke John

[Turbo]

Quote[/b] (Duke John @ May 04 2004,15:15)]The TGA image has to be converted correctly to be accepted by PurpGrab. I believe that Purp stands for purple and after reading the stuff below I think you understand why:


Quote[/b] ]********* BIFs with black dots ***********************
It's bifreader the problem. It doesn't save bif icons in a correct format. The animations are fine, icons display black dots instead that the transparent color.

Here is the solution I found after hours of "trial and error". You must download the CA image tools available at the org site, the program you need is called Purplegrab.exe.

I made a save of the screen and I examined the image in the review panel. The dots are where there are just 1 or 2 pixels of the transparent color. They're correctly displayed in readbif though but I guess the game doesn't use exactly the same conversion routine that the program uses and reads those pixels as "non transparent" and thereby they're displayed with color the stored in the position 0 of the palette (black for the bif created with readbif).

I then exported the bif to bmp, loaded it in a paint proggy, corrected the position 0 of the palette to pink (255 0 255), convert the image to 24 bit color, save as uncompressed 24 bit tga, drag the tga file into CA's purplegrab to create a bif. That bif displays in the game without black dots.

I converted all the bifs I made in this way, I think you can use any other paint program if it can save the image in uncompressed 24 bit color tga and provided you have fill all the transparent areas of your image with pink color.

I had problems with making the uniticon using readbif as the factioncolours wouldn't replace the purple and green.

Cheers, Duke John
Thanks for your reply.

Is Ultimate Paint the problem? I am loading the Lbm, then saving to TGA. I thought UP handled the LBM correctly.

I am pretty confused.