Artist Needed - GRF Graphics Request

[richk67]

Hi. MeusH created these very useful (to me) signs on poles as a .grf for my speed signs patch. I am now working on extending this patch to 15 different sign colours, and need someone more graphically able than me to paint the signs the right colours.

The sign shape I want to use is the green ones - sprites 0-3. The colours are the company colours as shown in the screenie at bottom (provided for ease of colour selection).

Note: This is not a company colour, so dont say "use colour remapping", because its not relevant. A single company could be using all 15 colours at the same time. Just so I dont have to field 1000 posts about this...

Many thanks in advance... all credits will be accorded appropriately.

[DaleStan]

Note: This is not a company colour, so dont say "use colour remapping", because its not relevant.

Oh yes it is. Perform any one of step 1?, and step 2. 1c is probably the least appropriate solution, but it's still quite possible.

Step 1a: Manually recolor the green signs to use the "company color" blues (which would more properly called "remappable blues")
Step 1b: As 1a, but use the remappable greens instead (aka "Patch company 2")
Step 1c: Generate the 16 recolor maps that will recolor the sprites appropriately.[0]

Step 2: Instruct the game to draw sprites using the correct color translation sprite. Translation sprite selection can proceed completely independent of company color, as evidenced by:
1) un-owned things (especially houses and industries) use recolor maps even in TTD (possibly TTO too)
2) NFO provides for per-object, if not per-sprite, color-map selection for many owned and un-owned objects, including vehicles, stations, houses, and industries.

[0] Color maps are not hard to generate; they're just a 0 byte followed by a 256-byte translation table. The only potential issue is the mismatch between the DOS and Win palettes, which might necessitate 32 maps instead of just 16. I don't remember where it is (or was), but patchman will probably show you the perl script he used to generate the 512 2CC color maps if you ask.

[richk67]

Trust Dalestan to pick the complex way (that I have already decided is an overcomplex waste of my time), rather than comment on my actual request.

Stick to my request. I just want some graphics recolouring. For an accomplished artist, probably a couple of hours tops. Heck, I can do it, but I wont make as good a job as a true GRF artist.

I like to keep it simple. Simple works. Simple can be debugged by a normal human - me.

Colour remapping has its place. This is not it. I want clean and simple here.

[DaleStan]

"Clean and simple" he says. Clean and simple and sixty-four sprites that must all be properly checked for size and alignment, instead of just four.

You have to have figure out what colour to use anyway, so why is "DrawSpriteWithRemap(SIGN_BASE + direction % 2, GET_REMAP_SPRITE(color));" any more complex than "DrawSprite(SIGN_BASE + direction % 2 + color * 4);"? Is the order of the colours somehow massively important? Or is it for some reason massively important that there are only fifteen colours for the speed signs, as opposed to the sixteen company colours?

[peter1138]

Yes, use the "company colour" remaps. You don't need to bother about creating new maps, as they are already there.

Let's see the difficulty...

DrawSprite(foo + colour * 4, PAL_NONE, x, y)
or
DrawSprite(foo, PALETTE_RECOLOR_START + colour, x, y)

[richk67]

OK - thanks Peter. So if I dont need to create some complex colour remapping layer, but just repaint it with the blue company colour shades, then I'll do it myself. Dalestan's info seemed over the top.

[edit] Job done. I'll create the .grf tonight, and see if it works.

[bobingabout]

"DarkBlue" is the company colour remaps

[richk67]

Its OK... I now understand enough to make use of this. Ive redrawn the sign using the company blue colours, that should get colour mapped when I use the right DrawSprite command.

[Darkvater]

@richK I would at least apologise to Dalestan for being so rude when he pointed you in the right direction.

[richk67]

His comments did not convince me it was the right way to go. Nor his follow up. Peter's comment did.

Was it rude? Perhaps - I was annoyed that a simple request was going to get dragged into a long winded "NFO is the way to go" debate, as it has in the past. Been burnt too many times for that. So, sorry Dalestan. OTOH, I found his post a blend of brash, condescending and rude... two way street.

It would have helped to give a clearer example; your post did not clarify, or negate, my misunderstanding of OTTD colour remapping.

My OP was a misunderstanding of colour remapping. In *every* other instance of the phrase I have come across, it is a global remapping, so everything in the "company colour" onscreen would be changed to the new colour. And in that case, it was not relevant.

I now understand (from Peter's code pointers) that it is a local remapping of the colours per sprite as it is painted. There is no global changing of colours, that will happen whenever the underlying global variable changes. (which would have made it pointless).

And yes, it is important that I only use 15 of the colours. I am using 4 bits to represent the sign in the map array - which gives 1 for "None", and 15 colours. This may drop to only 7 colours in future too (some colours are nigh on invisible).

[DaleStan]

In *every* other instance of the phrase I have come across, it is a global remapping, so everything in the "company colour" onscreen would be changed to the new colour.

Can you cite a couple such instances, please? I've never seen anything I thought implied that.

The closest I can come is the fadeouts that happen (at least in TTD) before and after displaying the high-score screen, and I've never heard anyone reference recolor maps in conjunction with that process.

[richk67]

In *every* other instance of the phrase I have come across, it is a global remapping, so everything in the "company colour" onscreen would be changed to the new colour.

Can you cite a couple such instances, please? I've never seen anything I thought implied that.

Damn the English language...

What Im saying is that the TTDP/OTTD concept of colour remapping is different to the concept I have seen and understood in all other computer games. Often the colour remapping made use of hardware remapping - hence a global effect. So when I say "every other instance", Im was trying to refer outside of the OTTD world.

There are times I wish the system would just open up and swallow a thread This one's gone bad... over such a trivial thing, that is now resolved.

[DaleStan]

Ah. Yes, TTD's recoloring is different from most other programs.

Consider this thread duly swallowed up.