8 bit palette - background problem

[bicilotti]

I'm making a short game in 8-bit mode.
For sprite making I've chosen my palette, exported from AGS, used it to draw (with graphicsgale) and finally I've imported my sprites back into AGS. No problem.

Now I'm making a background and I've followed the same steps (export palette from ags, draw, import bg). but something isn't working.

I've used the very same colours of the sprites (there were 10 of them) on the background, and the very same exported palette. My guess was that, once imported, the background would not have room dependend colours, but only gamewide colours (there are 10 colours gamewide, and I'd like to use only those slots).

Whenever I use the CyclePalette() function, sprites colours change, room colours do not (except for black).
I feel that the palette indexes screwed up during the import, or AGS does not want to recognize the colours of my BG as gamewide.

Any idea? Thanks in advance
-Francesco

edit: I've tried to lock every other colour (i.e. to make it "gamewide", gray, for example) to see if I could force AGS to use my gamewide palette. Whenever I import my bg it says there are not sufficient cols for it and then the BG is displayed as a monochrome blue on black.

[Gilbert]

I haven't have much time to experiment with the recent versions of the editor yet, but seems that the 'exact colour import' option is no longer available (a VERY stupid move). I'm not quite sure how the editor treat the import of 8-bit backgrounds at the moment, but if it's like the old default it will mangle the order of the colour slots which actually makes this mode completely worthless to use. Instead, try to change all the slots (including those you use to draw sprites) to 'background', import a background and then change the sprite slots back to 'gamewide' and see if that helps.

FYI you may read my original tutorials in the wiki, which unfortunately are only for older versions of AGS at the moment.

[bicilotti]

Instead, try to change all the slots (including those you use to draw sprites) to 'background', import a background and then change the sprite slots back to 'gamewide' and see if that helps.

Clever idea, unfortunately it doesn't work (I've switched everything to BGcol, imported, switched all (or some) to Gamewide -> same result).

but seems that the 'exact colour import' option is no longer available (a VERY stupid move).

Now, that would be handy. I read your tutorials one month ago and I noticed that the option wasn't there anymore.

I wonder if this is something that can be asked during RC2 or if it's to be implemented in next versions.

Thanks again for the tutorials, they were really handy (I wish there were more folks using the full capabilities of 8-bit mode).

[Jim Reed]

If all else fails, you could fake the background with sprites.

[Gilbert]

I was thinking about this and have an idea, that is, to import the background into a room with V2.72 and then load the room in V3.X to upgrade it, but this method is quite clumsy.

[abstauber]

Doesn't the 8-bit import setting in the preferences tab do the trick?

[Gilbert]

Yeah, it seems to be what we're looking for. Unchecking the option should do the trick. I think it's too discreetly hidden at the moment.

In fact, I think I already found that several months ago, when I struggled to find out how this could be done in order to rewrite the tutorials. I think the revamping of the tutorials was half-finished but I was too busy to continue on to finish them. And then I forget everything. Shame on me.

[Gilbert]

Just FYI. The tutorials in the wiki have been updated to work with AGS V3.1.2.
I've found some oddities with the editor that could be classified as glitches or limitations (annoying but wouldn't prevent games to work properly). I'll do more tests, especially on V3.2, and then report them on the Technical forum.