Palette Animation

[/\/\isanThr0p]

I have heard about palette animation a lot and I think I could have use for that. Is there a good place where I can learn how to make a palette animation in Direct Draw (7)

[Sastraxi]

Well, for starters, it's really easy to populate 3 byte arrays/long array with the colours shown on the pallette, shown below:

Dim byteRGB() As PALETTEENTRY
    Dim pDescriptor As DirectDrawPalette
    Dim R(255) As Byte
    Dim G(255) As Byte
    Dim B(255) As Byte
    Dim LNG(255) As Long
    Dim It As Integer
        
    Set pDescriptor = [Surface].GetPalette
    pDescriptor.GetEntries 0, 256, byteRGB()
        
    For It = 0 To 255
        R(It) = byteRGB(It).red
        G(It) = byteRGB(It).green
        B(It) = byteRGB(It).blue
        LNG(It) = RGB(byteRGB(It).red, byteRGB(It).green, byteRGB(It).blue)
    Next It

To get the colours that you need for getlockedarray methods, just call on R(), G(), and B(). For other operations (API) use the LNG array.

[/\/\isanThr0p]

thanks

that far it's all clear how can I animate that? I want it to change continiously.

[/\/\isanThr0p]

Hey
ahm does that only work with 8 bit mode or surface?

[Sastraxi]

Works only w/8bit surfaces

[/\/\isanThr0p]

ok
I tried to make the palette of the surface 8 bit by doing that but it still gives me an automation error (DDerr_generic)

sur.ddsd.ddpfPixelFormat.lRGBBitCount = 8

what do I have to do?

[Jotaf98]

There's a very good sample that includes direct access to video memory and palette rotation in the DX MSDK, it's called DDBlend.

But you shouldn't create your own palette like that: you'll notice it's much easier to load it from a file so you can modify it as you wish (eg.: you'll notice that Starcraft's palette is very irregular, like it has 6 gradations for metal colors, a few more for dirt ground etc; you should do this instead of making a general palette that may have colors you don't need and not have the colors you need )

You should rotate it like this once you get the palette:

'To rotate the first 8 colors
 
Dim Temp As Long
Temp = Pal(0)
 
For i = 0 to 6
  Pal(i) = Pal(i + 1)
Next i
 
Pal(i + 1) = Temp

Ok, to make it work for other colors, you can just replace the 0s with the first color and 7 with the last one. Good luck

[/\/\isanThr0p]

ok thanks for that
but how can I create a 8 bit surface
do I just have to save the file in 8 bit or what?

[/\/\isanThr0p]

Ok I played around with the blend example.
I think I cant work it without setting the display mode to 8bit. That is impossible for me though, because I just want to animate the background for a 3d game. I cant set the game to 8 bit only for that.

Thanks anyways. If anyone has a solution please help!

[Jotaf98]

That's even easier: just save the image as 8-bits (most graphics programs let you choose your palette), and edit the palette of the surface where you have the image in the game, using the code I gave you.

There's no problem about blting it to a 24-bits surface

[Fox]

Yes, DX will do this job for you. Also you can load 24bit surfaces and blt to a 8bit buffer, DX will convert the colors...

meaning: Your buffers dont have to be the same color depth

[/\/\isanThr0p]

Well sounds all just great. The only problem is I cant make it. I loaded an 8bit picture (pallete optimal) to a surface without doing anything special. Well when I try to get the palette I get an automation error. I dont know what I have to do. The game is in 16 bit. I cant use anything else because of the crappy graphicsboard I got here.

[Jotaf98]

Well, there's something that wasn't suposed to happen

I never tried to do that, but I thought that if it was possible to do it with the primary surface, it was possible with all of them...

[/\/\isanThr0p]

buhuuuuuuu
so what should I do? A static background to my 3d Pong sounds extremely boring to me.



HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Any Ideas that dont take to much memory and CPU power are very welcome.