Deluxe Paint II

[JuggernautGames]

Does anyone know how to use gradients in DPII (non-enhanced)? I'm trying to make backgrounds similar to "Last Crusade," but I can't figure out how to do what I need. Bassicly, I'm using the "Crown of Solomon" tutorial. The only problem is that I don't have the enhaced version. I mannaged to find a copy of it, but it wasn't able to open any saved files. Can someone help me with this?

[Nacho]

Maybe downloading pro-motion 4.0 is an option... It' s a clone of the old deluxe paint, but moden, and it supports that nice gradients. I am not an expert of this program, but ProgZMax, moderator of Critics Lounge, is, i think. You can PM him if he does not reply here.

[abstauber]

Hmm.. I wasn't even aware, that there's a non enhanced version of DP2 for PC.

I suggest to find you a new DP2e - the web is full of it Before I switched to ProMotion, I've used "DeluxePaint II Enhanced (v3.0)" with Dosbox.

Btw. here's also a great tutorial on SCUMM art with DP2e
http://www.amberfisharts.com/files/foa2_deluxe_paint_tutorial.pdf

[cat]

Has anyone of you experience with Allegro Sprite Editor? I've tried it and it seems quite useful, although the look and feel is rather ...antique  On the other hand it has great shortcuts for making animations.

I would be interested if pro motion is better/easier to handle.

[abstauber]

Nice! Didn't know the ASE before too
But telling from the screenshots, it doesn't seem to look very user friendly.
Well, Promotion's layersystem isn't very selfexplaining either

You might check it for youself as PM offers a 30 day trial.
Or if you really love Dpaint, it has an animation package too.
Oh... and GraphicsGale is free and good but has nothing to do with Dpaint.

[cat]

Well, I do think it is rather userfriendly and simple to use. You can use left and right arrow keys to navigate from frame to frame and up and downkey for the layers. And with enter you start the animation preview.
Sadly, I had some problems that the program crashed when I was using another fullscreen application. Maybe I will try the linux version. Usually if there is a Linux and a Windows version of the same software the Linux one is more stable (it's the same with Synfig, a vector animation program).

But thanks for the info about the trial version. I'll check it out!

[JuggernautGames]

Keep them comming guys  . Also, if anyone has a copy of DPIIe, can you tell me where to get a copy? That would probably work best, because I'm not only was it the actual program that Lucasarts used, I'm not wanting to buy Pro-Motion.

[abstauber]

Come on, google: "deluxe paint 2"   :
it's in the first three entries

[JuggernautGames]

Come on, google: "deluxe paint 2"   :
it's in the first three entries

I'm having the same problem I had the first time I owned the deluxe version. It downloads and runs, but I can't open any saved file. When I use the convert program that comes with it, it creates the file, but it's file size always turns out to be 0kb. If I use another converter that I found, it still won't read it. The strange thing is that I never had this problem with DP2 (non-enhanced). I just couldn't figure out how to use gradients with it. Can someone possibly explain how to do this?

[abstauber]

If you'd send me a file, I could try to open and save it over here.
Also you might try this one http://www.graphics-converter-pro.com There's also a trial available.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

There are a few decent (and one really excellent) alternatives to DPaint, the best one already mentioned being Pro Motion, which does all DPaint ever could (aside from a few 3d tiling tricks) and more.  I've never used the pc version of DPaint since my experience goes way back to the Amiga versions, but I suspect you have a disabled/shareware version if you're unable to save files.  If you're intent on using DPaint (and I would not dissuade you since I'm a great fan myself), you might want to try downloading winUAE (an amiga emulator) and DPaint IV, which should be pretty easy to find.  Going that route should let you do whatever you want, though it is a bit time consuming to do so.

If you'd like to try some alternatives, though, you can find a lot of them here:

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=32234.0

Several of them are entirely free, so you're out nothing but time if one isn't to your liking.  Also, even though Pro Motion is not free, I can personally vouch for its usefulness for sprite work as I use it on a daily basis and almost never have it closed.  I'm also on the beta team and regularly submit suggestions, and Jan Zimmerman is very open to implementing the suggestions of his customers, providing feedback, and fixing bugs, which puts him well above companies like Adobe who very rarely respond to individual issues or address them.

Anyway, hopefully the list of paint programs there will give you something you can use.

[JuggernautGames]

I've finally figured out how to use gradients in DP2 (non-enhanced). Thanks for all the help everyone. You have no idea how long I've been trying to figure it out. Anyway, just because I know how to do it with DP@ (non-enhanced), I'd still like to figure out what my problem is with DP2e. As I stated earlier, it won't read any of the files that are converted to .pcx, .iff. lbm, or anything of the sort. Using DP2e would be much easier, because I'm following tutorials (such as those found at AmberfishArts) for DP2e, and can't find any of the sort for (non-enhanced).

[Trent R]

I've never used DP, but I usually find that once I get good enough with a program I can watch tutorials of related programs and figure out the rest myself.

~Trent

[Lt. Smash]

I've finally figured out how to use gradients in DP2 (non-enhanced). Thanks for all the help everyone. You have no idea how long I've been trying to figure it out. Anyway, just because I know how to do it with DP@ (non-enhanced), I'd still like to figure out what my problem is with DP2e. As I stated earlier, it won't read any of the files that are converted to .pcx, .iff. lbm, or anything of the sort. Using DP2e would be much easier, because I'm following tutorials (such as those found at AmberfishArts) for DP2e, and can't find any of the sort for (non-enhanced).

When you export .pcx files for DP2e you must check 8bit colour. DP can't handle images with more than 256 colors.

[abstauber]

Or if nothing helps, take a screenshot, re-convert it 256 colors and export it to .pcx 

[JuggernautGames]

When you export .pcx files for DP2e you must check 8bit colour. DP can't handle images with more than 256 colors.

You misunderstand. I'm trying to convert .png to .pcx to work with DP2e. I successfully mannaged to convert it to .iff with XnView (google it), and made it so that it would work with DP2 (non-enhanced). To do this, I put the .png into Photoshop and set the settings to "indexed color." I then converted it with XnView to .iff, and it worked fine with DP2 (non-enhanced). However, if I try and do the same, except convert the picture to .pcx or .lbm, and then try and open it with DP2e, it says "Can't open file." Even if I convert the orrigional .iff from DP2 (non-enhanced), it still won't work. Any suggestions?

By the way, I followed ProgZmax's advise and checked out the other thread about paint programs. Sure enough, DP4 was listed there, along with a download link. I experience the same exact problems with that as I did with DP2e.

EDIT: quoted it properly!

[Gilbert]

For LBMs there're probably a lot of different revisions (as there're quite a number of versions of DP released for the original Amiga platform). If you save an image with a newer version of LBM (which is quite possibly the case when you are using an image convertor using default settings), DP2 may not be able to open it.
DP2  (also DP2E) for DOS is an old programme. It is no surprising that it won't open some images saved by "modern" applications. If you need to continue to use old applications (like me), you only choice is to experience with formats and settings on the images so that they can be loaded.

[abstauber]

I've just tried it.
Here's the .png:


First I've switched the colormode to indexed - 255 colors. Then I've saved it as pcx.

And here's the .pcx:
http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/08_colored.pcx
It loads fine in DP2e, try for yourself

[JuggernautGames]

First I've switched the colormode to indexed - 255 colors. Then I've saved it as pcx.

And here's the .pcx:
http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/08_colored.pcx
It loads fine in DP2e, try for yourself

What did you do to make indexed colors, Xnview, or another program? Can you walk me through what you did step by step? Thanks

[abstauber]

I did the conversion in Gimp:
Image -> Mode -> indexed. 255 colors (not 256 because zero is a color too)

In Photoshop, it's:
Image -> Mode -> Indexed Color. Then enter 255 in the field "colors".

Hope it helps.