Flag help

I'm making custom flags in PSP7. Every time I try them in-game they look like crap. I'm new to the whole paletizing bullshit. Which palette do I use?

Use the palette that makes it look best O_o

Thanks, that really helps! </sarcasm> Every time I see it in game the colors are seriously fucked up.

After you done editing in PS7. Go to:
Image/Mode/Indexed Color/

from there you have to use skin tools palletes. and if you have those it should come with 3 palletes, i recommend the 1st one.

if you have all thats above ^, Save it as a .bmp 8bit color. Then using MakeSkin.exe, you have to "convert" for use in Tribes.

If you dont know any of the shit above, give me a link to the flags that you wanna "convert" and ill do them for you.

Use the palette that makes it look best O_o

That is entirely accurate and not sarcasm, you can almost load up any palette on a skin .bmp as long as you don't use *World palettes and the such.

So, of course, you will want to look for the most suitable palette to use. Since you are using Paintshop Pro 7, applying palettes is handled with shift + o. Then, you just have to browse to where you extracted your palettes.

The 3 palettes from Skin Tools bosketaru is talking about are human1, skins and Entities.pal if I remember correctly. They are pretty similar in color range and will be suitable for most skins if they are not too detailed. If you need specific or different palettes, you will have to download these :

Maniacal's palettes (http://hosted.tribalwar.com/conversion/files/palettes.zip)

Now that we are settled for this, we can clear up something else.

The easy way to apply palettes is to use Paintshop Pro, you get a few more options and the effect is visible immediately. This is done by pressing shift + o and browsing to your palettes.

If you must use Photoshop, you can still apply palettes. It is done by going in Image > Mode > Indexed color and picking Custom... then, you can browse to your palette.

Here is the tricky part, Photoshop doesn't handle the palettes as well as Paintshop Pro, if you know what you are doing, and are sure that the palette you apply is okay to use, there is no problem. But for people that are experimenting, Photoshop sometimes messes up colors and doesn't accurately show what the skin .bmp looks like once palettized. Some problems might occur once in-game.

You can also use Picanew from the Tribes Tools the development team released, but it's a more complex process.

Now that we are done with the Paintshop Pro vs. Photoshop thing, we'll move on to making your 8bit .bmp into a Phoenix BMP that is ready for Tribes.

You will need LabRat's TribesTools (http://hosted.tribalwar.com/conversion/files/TribesTools.zip). Open it up, and in the Tools menu, use MakeSkin+

Browse to your 8bit palettized .bmp, in the Conversion Options, you will have to select the palette you have applied earlier in Paintshop Pro or Photoshop.

Weapon, player, flag skins and the such do not need any Advanced Options, leave it to None. Start the process and copy that newly produced .bmp to your skins folder.

Weapon explosions, if they are translucent, need the Additive Palette option. I forgot what effect the Subtractive Palette option did :P

The Translucent Image and Transparent Background options are useful when making your GUI. Translucent means a see-through color, much like the gray background part of your HUDs if they haven't been modified. The Translucent Image option will remove the pure black from your .bmp and the rest will be translucent.

The Transparent Background (RGB 0,0,0) option will get rid of the pure black parts of your .bmp and the rest will remain the same, but opaque. This option can also be useful when making weapon explosions with words.

I think I got it covered, PM me in IRC or post here if you need more help.

;)

That could deserve a sticky.

So what's the process with using PicaNew?

So what's the process with using PicaNew?
create pals and quantize stuffz and i dunno what else

Okay, they work. Thanks bliss.

oshit