library creator

[DC#1]

Is there a way to take 2D and 3D objects and or textures from existing libraries and put them into a newly created library? If so how. If I remember you can only add 2D.

[BrianZ111]

For the handful of 3D objects in the stock libraries, you can't put them in other libraries. For 2D objects you can right click on it in the existing library to get the full size image then do a print screen and paste it into a paint program. Then crop it down and save it out as a 256 color (8-bit) bmp file for adding to your new library. If I remember right the upper left pixel is the invisible color so make sure the background is the same color as that pixel.

[DC#1]

Thanks Brian, I will give it a try.

[DC#1]

Will making the original size from the existing library smaller have an effect on the Quality and how it looks in the game? Also sometimes a message comes up saying if you save at this size it could have an effect on the color and yes it does. What can I do about that?

[BrianZ111]

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that you're going to want to use an optimized color palette. The effect on color doesn't have to do with size. It has to do with going down from 16.7 million colors which is pretty much the standard to 256 colors which the game requires you to do. An optimized palette helps mitigate the loss by choosing the 256 shades of color that best match your image rather than just a standard set of colors, some of which you don't need for your particular image.

I don't know why they didn't just use 16.7 million colors and use JPG or PNG as the format to reduce file size as all of that was already around back in 2000, would have made things a heck of a lot easier, and looked a little better as well, but they didn't so this is what we have to do.

I don't think you can do this in Windows Paint so if that's what you're working in you'll need another piece of software.

Going the free route, the best choice is GIMP. In GIMP you go to Image > Mode > Indexed. Then select "Generate optimum palette" if it isn't already and pick one of the option under the color dithering drop down. You can try different options under dithering if you want but all will probably look about the same and all will look better than none.

In Paint Shop Pro which is a fairly inexpensive program and what I primarily use for image editing, you go to Image > Decrease Color Depth > 256 Color palette. You can turn "Preview on Image" on to make it really easy to compare different option here. You'll choose either of the optimized options in the left section, "Error diffusion" or "Ordered dither" in the middle section (if you have a choice, ordered dither is grayed out for me right now as I walk though it while writing this. Not sure why but you just don't want "Nearest color") and try "Reduce color bleeding" on or off in the right section (usually seems better with it on). Uncheck "Include Windows' colors" in the right section if it's not already as there's no need to waste some of the colors on those.

I haven't had Photoshop installed in over 10 years due to it being way overpriced for my needs so I don't know the specific steps for doing it there but I'm sure a Google search can turn it up.

As far as actual size, I don't know if there is a resolution limit where after you go above a certain size the game doesn't actually use the additional detail anymore. All I could suggest there is to try it and see how it looks in game. If you don't use an optimized palette the color problem will be there regardless of what size your image is though.

[BrianZ111]

Also, do the reduction to 256 colors and palette optimization after the crop. Otherwise you'll waste colors in the palette on parts of the image you don't even need.

[DC#1]

Thanks for all the help Brian. I'll give it a go.