I change a colour on the pallete, and when I view the same picture later, not only does the pallete change back, but so does the picture!!! I spend ages looking for the perfect colour, and it just changes back!!! Is there a way to get colours which don't have any reference to the pallete?
Copy this to your hard drive. It will be worth alot when I'm famous.
Notice: Spelling mistakes above left in for people who need to correct others to make their life fulfilled.
Second way : Go to properties of your frame --->palette
Here you can import a custom palette , which has to be done outside of MMF. Various paint software provides you with an way to save a custom palette . Photoshop for example. So create your graphic there, store the palette for it, import the picture into MMF, and import the palette to the frame . Now you should have your colours like you wish . Beware, all the other graphics in this frame should also fit to this palette ...
But i have no clue how to modify or to export a palette from inside MMF . I never limited myself to those 256 colours . I always use high colours ...
The MMF editor is fantastic. People are just too Lazy to spend time getting used to it.
Jon, use more than 256 colours. There will still be only 256 in the pallette but it'll allow you to mix your own colours too without it conflicting. 256 colour mode shouldn't be used anyway, unless you're making games for Windows 3.1 or something.
LOL, forgive me, but why donīt you use 16 colours then ? This boosts your filesize near zero when you are right with your ten times. Who cares about the users. The file is this pretty small . Maybe you could even play it at an 80286 with 512 kb ram
The times where you had to fight to keep the filesize as small as possible are definitely gone. Also the days of 256 colours . Nobody uses a 486 nowadays . All modern PC`s are able to handle 16 million colours . The days of a 12kb cable modem are also gone. DSL is the way now . And here it makes not a big difference if the game has 10 MB or 15 MB . Whoosh, downloaded .
Sure, may need a bit more time with a 56k modem. But somebody who downloads a 10 mb game will also download a 15 mb game . Click games above this size are not this much around anyway . So why bother the user with low quality graphics when you can give them high quality ones ? Good graphics is a mainpiece of every game ...
256 colour graphics in MMF only makes sense for games with looots of actives at the screen. But even here it isnīt mainly a thing of the colur depth , but how much actives are there to slow the game down to unplayable . I personally use high colours, because the difference to truecolours is nearly not seen , but i free some space compared to truecolours . The difference between highcols and 256 cols on the other hand is veeery visible ...
By the way : the difference between 256 colours and highcolours and between high colours and Truecolours is around 1/3 . Not ten times . Make a test: create a testapp with some graphics inside . Then create exes of it with different colour modes . Letīs say the truecolour one has 3 MB . The high colour will have around 2 MB then . And the 256 colour one will have around 1 MB . And not 30 kb as it would be when you would be right with your ten times .
no it is actually a pretty dumb thing to say, have you ever actualy tried to make 16 bit color games with MMF? Unless you are importing GFX from Photoshop or something, anything over 256 is pretty much a waste of time, considering realistically you are only going to use 3-8 shades of any type of color. Or spend 8 years making your 16-bit sprites using the hundreds of useless shades in the MMF editor (which sucks by the way, TGF/Graphics Gale all the way!)
I think I am going to start a DistantJ/Tiles fanclub. who wants to join?
We will have cool events like telling pixel artists they are lazy, do blurry high colour gfx and other things only total f*cktards do.
It's probably best if you decide on a 256 colour palette before starting your game, otherwise you'll end up with yucky results. If you can create your game in 256 colours without much hassle, then it's definitely the way to go as your app will be *much* smaller. 32768 colours is also fine if you need more, but I'd stay away from 16 million unless you really *need* that many (and honestly, these cases are pretty rare). Just don't blame me when your five-frame application ends up several MB large...
"Now THAT was a stupid thing to say."
Nope , it still isnīt.
"Firstly, I wasn't even talking to you."
But you answered to this thread, and so i did . And because you are attacking me, i have to answer again
"Second, it was clearly an exaggeration. You think I'm going to bother making a bunch of games in different colour modes to test the size?"
Sure, how could i even think that you want to learn the truth . It is work of years, err, weeks, no, days, umn , allright minutes , no, two mouseclicks to do so : convert colour depth , build standalone exe ...
Havenīt felt that it is an exaggeration by the way . So no, it wansīt this clearly . I know lots of people who counts this as the truth . So it was a dangeous statement. Look at Shab. He sounds like he believes you ( Strange, moderators should have a bit more knowledge ... ). He definetely shares your opinion . And thatīs why i have intervened
"Also, when you test between different applications, are you using every single colour available in that mode when you test? I doubt it."
It is enough to say that my apps definitely uses more than 256 colours. And the difference is veeery visible . The 256 colour conversions of my games looks like CRAP . And are around 2/3 smaller than Truecols, by the way . Remember : True to high around 1/3 , high to 256 around 1/3 ...
"Conclusion: You're a raddish."
Nice one, run out of arguments, and call the other a raddish . A raddish is no argument. But smells good, yummy . Thanx for it
And to answer your question Shab: all my games are made in high colours . Since years . But yeah, i donīt use pixelart . I use mainly a rendersoftware to create my graphics . And i use Photoshop for post process .
Unbelievable but true : they both produce truecolour pictures. Wonder why there is a need to , when 256 colours are always enough than you two are thinking
I personally prefer renderart for my own needs . Which looks best in Truecols . And good enough in highcols
Ladies, believe it or not : we are in the 21 st century . There are more than 256 colours possible now . Marvellous ...
To prevent misunderstooding : I love pixelstuff, too . And have a high respect for all those people that pixel their stuff . But i cannot see the need to limit yourself to 256 colours. Even when it may be easier to pixel then . May be a good idea when you pixel outside MMF . Because then every single 256 colour picture contains its own palette . Import them in a Highcol App, and you will keep their colours as they are. But inside MMF you limit yourself to ONE palette per frame when you work in 256 colour mode.
And that was the troublepoint why Jon started this thread here ...
So actually it really depends on Jons graphic style.
In my eyes there are 3 basic styles for gfx:
Pixelart: Less is more. You really have to limit yourself to a 256 colour palette here, and even then you have to watch out with how many shades you use. I usually do my own palette and use that for the whole game.
Rendered gfx: You need hi coulour here, because this is done by machines, with automatic shading and gradients. It will look bad in 256 colours because it doesn't have the hand drawn dithering.
Hand drawn gfx: Depends here, it might look better in hi colour.
Strangely click and create and The game factory have different palletes,
@ distantj, i would say that the MMF editor isn't fantastic, the whole point of clickteams products is to make game making easier. If the MMF editor has a bad gui or it too complicated and fiddely then its going backward from the simple style of the previous products, klik and play etc.
People aren't lazy for not getting used to it, it is supposed to be easy to use from the off, otherwise it is a bad editor.
"The times where you had to fight to keep the filesize as small as possible are definitely gone"
For me that is half the fun, why do you think the 2bit craze was so popular?
What, I didn't agree with file sizes. I said over 256 was useless unless you are importing graphics, which you are, so obviously, it's a good choice. I was under the impression that you were actually spriting.
I don't want any more than 256 colours. You can debate this as much as you like, but only I know how many colours I need, and it's certainly no more than 256. I am not using any special effects. Every colour I use is personally chosen. I'm not using any special shading techniques. 256 colours is all I need, and it's beside the point. The point is that I have no idea how to use all 256 colours, so until someone teaches me how, I will continue to hate MMF.
Copy this to your hard drive. It will be worth alot when I'm famous.
Notice: Spelling mistakes above left in for people who need to correct others to make their life fulfilled.
to be honest, i couldn't be bothered to read all of the above comments so i don't know if this has been mentioned already, but you can change the default mmf palette like so...
1. get a copy of resource hacker from http://free.angeltowns.com/spacecadet/ResHacker.zip
2. open MMFusion.exe with it, and extract bitmap/2184/1033
3. edit it so it contains the colours you want,
4. import the bitmap again, and rebuild MMFusion.exe
i accept no responsibility for anything that might go wrong as a result (i've tried it with no problems)
There is no need for step 4 : as told, you can import a custom palette in the frame properties / palette / import for the current frame . I just donīt know how to export the current palette of the frame .
patching the MMF exe isnīt a good idea anyway . Too much can go wrong ...
MMF is as easy as taking a shit in a hammock, the event editor is the exact same as TGF. I don't like making sprites so i never spend much time in the picture editor anyway. I hope they fix this stuff in mmf2.
Steve Zissou: Anne-Marie, do all the interns get Glocks?
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Edited by the Author.
). He definetely shares your opinion . And thatīs why i have intervened 
