[blizzart]

I never cared about creating new ART-files, though I have massive problems with this. For testing purposes I downloaded some of the files posted in the Community Stockpile Thread.

Then I downloaded BastART, imported the Palette.DAT and created a new ART file (TILES020.ART) and imported some sprites. I saved it to TILES020.ART and copied the file over to my Duke folder.

When I now open Mapster and want to use my new tiles, TILES000.ART seems to be disappeared. A new map is completly black, becaus the default tile is missing. Also, the Tiles, I added to TILES020.ART don´t show up.

Did I do something wrog here or is the way working with BastART the wrong way? Which program should I use for creating custom ART files on a 32/64bit system instead?

Another question: I´m using Photoshop CS5 and want to convert some Hires textures to 8bit format to add them to a custom ART file. How do I load the palette data into Photoshop?

I hope someone can help me with this.

Thanks in advance.

[Kyanos]

i like art2bmp and bmp2art command line tools that work in dosbox

 art_tools.zip (33.76K)
Number of downloads: 312

and i got photoshop palettes

 Photoshop Palettes.zip (2.29K)
Number of downloads: 317

edit: you asked how to load them...

I do it like this

Image > mode > indexed > palette: custom > load > select the .act file you want.

I included 3, one is the Duke3d palette, one replaces transparent purple with true transparency (I use it a lot for editing tiles with alpha), the last has NO FULL BRIGHT colors, photoshop will just pick the closest color match when changing palettes, this palette ensures you don't get a fullbright pixel where you don't want one.

[blizzart]

Drek, on 06 January 2015 - 03:25 PM, said:

i like art2bmp and bmp2art command line tools that work in dosbox

art_tools.zip

and i got photoshop palettes

Photoshop Palettes.zip

edit: you asked how to load them...

I do it like this

Image > mode > indexed > palette: custom > load > select the .act file you want.

I included 3, one is the Duke3d palette, one replaces transparent purple with true transparency (I use it a lot for editing tiles with alpha), the last has NO FULL BRIGHT colors, photoshop will just pick the closest color match when changing palettes, this palette ensures you don't get a fullbright pixel where you don't want one.

Thanks for your reply. Isn´t there any way of using a 32bit program instead of that command line tool?

For the palettes:
As I´m using a German version of PS, I´m not sure what to do exactly with those .act files. Could you please show some screenshot which show where I have to load them?
Again, thank you in advance.

[Micky C]

Hendricks said something about writing some new art tools at some point, but then again he's got like a million other things on his todo list.

[Mark]

It would be great if we could convince Roma Loom into adding importing into .art files to his GRPviewer program. Right now you can open and view the tiles of an .art file and then just a click to export a tile or tiles. It would be great to be able to reverse that and just click to add a new tile back in. How hard can it be?

[Roma Loom]

Easy if the image already has duke palette. If it's some random image I need to recall how that all palette stuff works.

[blizzart]

Roma Loom, on 08 January 2015 - 03:39 AM, said:

Easy if the image already has duke palette. If it's some random image I need to recall how that all palette stuff works.

It would be great if you could implement something like this (creating new ART file / inserting images in Duke´s palette) into GRPViewer.

[Hank]

blizzart, on 06 January 2015 - 03:44 PM, said:

Thanks for your reply. Isn´t there any way of using a 32bit program instead of that command line tool?

For the palettes:
As I´m using a German version of PS, I´m not sure what to do exactly with those .act files. Could you please show some screenshot which show where I have to load them?
Again, thank you in advance.

DukeRes still works in 32 and 64 bit Windows
http://dukertcm.com/.../dukeresART.zip
The link is from the RTCM site.

Things to watch for
1. You need to mirror the image tile before importing.
2. Best image format is .pcx , not bitmaps
3. Size limit is 512x512
4. Any odd tile sizes like 153x212, import the tile with the regular EditArt (I think it still does work via DOSBox) program or the art tools listed above.
5. The Pink color does not work for transparency, again I use(d) EditArt for this to enforce the transparent color.

Edit Art commands
http://dukertcm.com/...art-guide+.html

[Corvin]

That's crazy people are still having problems when Usurper's document has been around forever.

This question belongs on Steam or GOG where they don't do research.

@Hank, was there a reason you linked his old Art Guide over version 2.5?
Is there more to it than the newer one?
Just wondering cause the old one is pending for removal...eventually.

[Hank]

Corvin, on 09 January 2015 - 07:09 PM, said:

@Hank, was there a reason you linked his old Art Guide over version 2.5?
Is there more to it than the newer one?
Just wondering cause the old one is pending for removal...eventually.

No reason! The link posted was in my bookmarks, did not know Usurper expanded on it even further. Anything done by him is solid, no need to check.

[Usurper]

Hank, on 09 January 2015 - 07:35 PM, said:

No reason! The link posted was in my bookmarks, did not know Usurper expanded on it even further. Anything done by him is solid, no need to check.

That made me feel all warm and fuzzy, thanks!

[Roma Loom]

blizzart, on 09 January 2015 - 02:22 PM, said:

It would be great if you could implement something like this (creating new ART file / inserting images in Duke´s palette) into GRPViewer.

I've just updated GRPViewer (see the link in the sig and the help picture near the archive), now it can replace ART tile with 8bit PNG image (with Duke/Blood/etc palette applied in Photoshop or whatever). I have not tested it enough and I'm sure haven't put enough workarounds against potential flaws. But following strictly all the needed png 2 art workflow steps should be more than enough to be safe. I'll probably make a separate app for work with ART files because GRPV became a mess by 12 years of its existence. As for now here is a brief tutorial:
1. Open ART file via menu File|Open (opening ART within GRP file won't work)
2. Select a tile in ART you want to replace
3. Select a PNG image in the list of files, if PNG is 8bit the button '<ART' will become active
4. Press '<ART' button and you should see how the old tile has now new size and image, you can replace another tile then and you must worry not - all these operations are virtual unless you go to menu File|Save ART
5. Go to menu File|Save ART and select proper file name, selecting the same ART you've opened to overwrite it probably won't work, you should give it another name or save to another dir

What's missing:
creating new (empty) ART files is not supported, should I add it?
deleting ART entries
animation flags of the original tile are ignored during replacement
saving changes to the same ART file (You are working with virtual copy of it)

[LeoD]

Roma Loom, on 16 January 2015 - 11:28 AM, said:

I've just updated GRPViewer

Nice!
I do have questions/issues, though:
How does the HRP support work?
What should the name and contents of the "JFDuke [DEF] file" be? (Working GViewer.ini example appreciated)
The WorkPath is always displayed as D:\Temp. (Doesn't exist here.)
If EDuke32 or Mapster32 are already running, GViewer starts with an access violation message and can't open DUKE3D.GRP.
The 2010 version could, and that's a very convenient feature to me.

[Roma Loom]

LeoD, on 16 January 2015 - 12:08 PM, said:

Nice!
I do have questions/issues, though:
How does the HRP support work?
What should the name and contents of the "JFDuke [DEF] file" be? (Working GViewer.ini example appreciated)
The WorkPath is always displayed as D:\Temp. (Doesn't exist here.)
If EDuke32 or Mapster32 are already running, GViewer starts with an access violation message and can't open DUKE3D.GRP.
The 2010 version could, and that's a very convenient feature to me.

1. Browse through the right dirs/files panel to Your Duke3D (with HRP) dir and then go to menu Edit|Set JFD Path, if HRP is unzipped and you have duke3d.def in proper place some HRP tools will become available. HRP tool is just for viewing/comparing, editing was never finished. There were also misc error checking HRP tools but I don't remember where the hell are they.
2. Once You start browsing dirs in the right dirs/files panel the 'WorkPath' should change
3. duke3d.grp access violation is fixed now, zip file is updated

[Jimmy]

Here's my repackaging of EditArt with the latest versions of everything. I've always preferred EditArt to everything else.

EditArt Version 2.2
EditArt Version 2.2 with DOSBox emulation for newer computers