Topic: Making a usable Walkable area mask

[Dimithio]

Hi all...I'm sorry to ask this, but is there anyway someone can help me make this image into a usable mask? I'm using paint shop pro 9, and for some reason, I just cant get it to work--Ive tried everything I can think of and just can't get it to come out right.  The image is 784 x 144.  To make it the correct size, I used the canvas tool to make it 784 x 200.  As I mentioned earlier, I just can't seem to get it right.  I've tried decreasing the color depth and even messed with the palette...nothing seems to work...I can't get the correct colors to come through.

The image, is here: http://www.geocities.com/chaos026/WoodtickUnEdited.bmp

I really need to mask this image, because the walkable areas are very small and it's a real hassle to make the walkable areas right without zooming in.  Can anyone please walk me through the procedure?

[Wretched]

To add to this, if in photoshop, you select swatches and set to windows palette, starting in the bottom right corner, the colours correspond to the AGS hotspot numbers. At least for the first 8 or so.

[monkey_05_06]

Or, you can view the AGS Palette here.  That's just a simple image I made a long time back that I've used a few times...

[Dimithio]

Thanks for the Palette...any idea how to load it into Paint Shop Pro 9 or is there an easier program I can use? Sorry to be such a pain...just don't have enough experience using it.

[Ashen]

Wrong forum - this is really a question about using PSP9, not AGS. Which Is why I've split/moved it.

The simplest way to make a mask is to add a new raster layer (either from the 'Layers' menu, or by pasting something in as a new layer - Ctrl-L in PSP8) and draw the walkable areas on that. Or, use the line tool to draw the areas on a vector layer, then convert it into a raster layer. Then fill everything that isn't a walkable area with black. Decrease the colour depth to 256 ('Image' -> 'Decrease Colour Depth', or Ctrl-Shift-3 in PSP8). Don't worry too much about the colours matching the AGS palette - it loads the areas from the first 16 palette slots, regardless of their colour.
Then, when you're done, use 'Canvas Size' to add the extra pixels to the bottom, save it & it should work fine.

[Dimithio]

Sorry to make you move the thread Ashen.  Thank you all for the advice though, I think I'm finally on the right path.  Since, I'm so new to Paint Shop Pro, I decided to create a mask in MS Paint.  I saved the image in a 256 color bitmap, and then created the walkable areas (I needed 7) off that.  I guess I was making it harder than it was.  For those of you who are new to masks (like me), let me give you one piece of advice.  When importing masks, make sure you distinguish between hotspots , regions, walkable areas & walk-behinds.  You can import a mask for each one.

[GoToHellDave]

Could I have more details on using this within photoshop? it seems a bit hit and miss, one way I was trying is by making the picture in photoshop then exporting it to paint and then exporting it from paint, sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't. Could I get more details on how to just do it in photoshop

[Eric]

I always run into some issues with this myself, but the first step is (and someone will correct me if I'm wrong) to go to Image>Mode>Indexed Color.

[Khris]

The crucial thing is the file format, to quote the manual:

To use the feature, click the "Import Mask" button (in the toolbar) in the relevant mode of the Areas editor. There are some restrictions to how this file must be drawn: it must be the exact same size as the background scene, and it must be in 16-colour (4-bit) or 256-colour (8-bit). Then, colour 0 on the bitmap signifies transparency and colours 1-15 are used as the respective hotspot/walk-behind/walkable area numbers.

IMPORTANT: Do NOT use any colour numbers above 15 on the mask bitmap. Use only palette indexes 0 to 15.

[GoToHellDave]

made this for you lot, http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=46829.0