Difference between revisions of "Talk:PALETTES.DAT"
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| + | In the case of the background images, the palette swaps are pulled from [[BACKPALS.DAT]], but I never realised the intercept radar was a palette cycle, though it does make sense - I assume that's handled entirely by the executable. | ||
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| + | Oooh, I didn't know mode 13 was a *real* display mode! I thought it was just a "prebuilt" mode that QBasic provided to "script kiddies". XD | ||
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| + | Not sure what you mean about those fifteen colors and how "They appear to match the old text mode 16 colour palette". I checked QBasic's idea of what the default mode 7 palette should look like (mode 7 being a sixteen color only version of mode 13, but with multiple "screens" you could flip in and out of the display buffer - guess you could call it EGA?) and it doesn't match the colors in any of UFO's palettes. But, I dunno if the palettes QBasic used followed any real standard, or if I even know what I'm talking about. :) | ||
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| + | - [[User:Bomb Bloke|Bomb Bloke]] 04:56, 12 June 2007 (PDT) | ||
Revision as of 11:56, 12 June 2007
Just for a bit of general information, it might be worth mentioning that some of the palette entries are used for colour cycling. For example the radar pings on the intercept console. That's achieved by shifting a whole block of palette entries to give the effect of movement. (Think KITT's chasing lights) The image doesn't change, but the colour that you see does. It results in a wave movement. If anyone remembers the shifting colours on ye olde Windows startup screens, this was achieved in the same way.
Other palette swaps include the greyscale background bitmaps that are used in the Geoscape screens. They keep the same palette entry, and the game only needs to shift these entries to different shades to change the shades of the backgrounds.
Come to think of it, anyone know what conditions change the normal backgrounds from red to purple? It seems to vary.
Also another random technical tidbit, the game uses mode 13h for its display. In other words 320x200x256clr VGA mode. It used to come standard on all SVGA cards as a safe mode to revert to. The first fifteen colours after the transparency were probably left behind for use by the console. They appear to match the old text mode 16 colour palette.
- NKF
In the case of the background images, the palette swaps are pulled from BACKPALS.DAT, but I never realised the intercept radar was a palette cycle, though it does make sense - I assume that's handled entirely by the executable.
Oooh, I didn't know mode 13 was a *real* display mode! I thought it was just a "prebuilt" mode that QBasic provided to "script kiddies". XD
Not sure what you mean about those fifteen colors and how "They appear to match the old text mode 16 colour palette". I checked QBasic's idea of what the default mode 7 palette should look like (mode 7 being a sixteen color only version of mode 13, but with multiple "screens" you could flip in and out of the display buffer - guess you could call it EGA?) and it doesn't match the colors in any of UFO's palettes. But, I dunno if the palettes QBasic used followed any real standard, or if I even know what I'm talking about. :)
- Bomb Bloke 04:56, 12 June 2007 (PDT)