Game formats converter, Requests and game format research Opzioni

[Nyerguds]

I decided to make a thread for this tool, because everything related to it is always posted in the threads about the games I'm working on, and that's getting really messy. So here is one central place where all progress updates will be centralized.

The tool has been renamed to "Engie File Converter", as of v1.3.0!

In this thread, people can post requests, examples and specs of graphics formats for which there are currently no converters, and I can see if it's possible to implement them in my tool.

Wiki page on the shikadi.net modding wiki:
http://www.shikadi.net/moddingwiki/Engie_File_Converter

Download:
http://nyerguds.arsaneus-design.com/projec...verter/release/
Just take the last file in the folder; it should always be the latest version

Source code:
http://nyerguds.arsaneus-design.com/projec...eConverter/dev/

Screenshot:


Current list of supported file types: (as of 1.3.3)

• Standard image types: PNG, BMP, JPEG, GIF. Anything else that is natively supported in the .Net framework (like certain types of TIFF) can also be opened, but not saved.
• Windows icons, with specific support for viewing the different images in the file (which the .Net framework does not do natively).
• Simple 768-byte VGA palettes in both 6-bit and 8-bit formats. The 6-bit type is used in a load of Westwood games; the 8-bit type is used by C&C64.
• The image and tileset formats used in the Nintendo 64 version of Command & Conquer, though only the image format has save support.
• The PC and N64 map format of Command & Conquer, with the ability to convert between the formats.
• The Command & Conquer Tileset Format, an uncompressed tileset format representing a rectangular shape of terrain cells, with indication of unused cells in the grid.
• Westwood Animation format (which uses their own XOR Delta compression), with support for four known versions, and the choice to embed palettes on saving. Used in a load of Westwood games.
• Westwood CPS Format, with loading and saving support for all compression formats, and the choice to embed palettes. Used in a load of Westwood games.
• Westwood Dune II SHP Format, with support for remappable frames.
• Westwood Command & Conquer 1 / Red Alert 1 SHP Format.
• Westwood Tiberian Sun SHP Format.
• The LCW image type from Blade Runner, a simple implementation of an LCW-compressed 16-bit image.
• The Westwood Palette Stretch Table format, a 64K file containing the best in-between colour for all possible colour pairs on a specific 256-colour palette. They are used to quickly upscale 8-bit images, mostly WSA animations and CPS images.
• AdventureSoft item icons and VGA format (Elvira: Mistress of the Dark)
• Dynamix BMP and SCR format, with compression support for RLE, LZW (reading only) and LZSS (reading only, though writing code is available and could be added later), and the Dynamix 8-bit palettes. Used in loads of Sierra/Dynamix games.
• Kings of the Beach PAK Format, a simple RLE-compressed image type with the ability to save a partial file.
• KORT Image format, a simple headerless image that is always 320x200, and of which the data is RLE compressed in simple Value/Length pairs.
• KORT BMP Format, an uncompressed tileset format.
• Mythos Visage Format, with full compression loading and saving support.
• Mythos Visage Animation Format, with support for compression and for optimising data into chunks on save.

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Original post:
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I decided to make a thread for this tool, because everything related to it is always posted in the threads about the games I'm working on, and that's getting really messy. So here is one central place where all progress updates will be centralized.

Currently the tool is still called the "C&C64 File Converter", since I started it with formats from the Nintendo 64 ROM of Command & Conquer, but I'll probably change that name.

In this thread, people can post requests, examples and specs of graphics formats for which there are currently no converters, and I can see if it's possible to implement them in my tool.

Wiki page on the shikadi.net modding wiki:
http://www.shikadi.net/moddingwiki/C%26C64_File_Converter

Download:
http://nyerguds.arsaneus-design.com/projec...verter/release/
Just take the last file in the folder; it should always be the latest version

Source code:
http://nyerguds.arsaneus-design.com/projec...eConverter/dev/

Screenshot:
-removed; see above-

Current list of supported file types: (in my current development version)
-removed; see above-

I worked on Dynamix BMP frames files too, but they are disabled in the tool until I actually find out how to uncompress the data.

I might disable the AdventureSoft icons list files type too; we found out that one icon is actually created from multiple frames from this file, each acting as a different colour layer, but there's no header of any kind to actually tell which images fit together. Also, since the file has no header, it identifies any file with a file size divisible by 72 as that type. I had to move it to the end of the autodetection list because of this

I'm currently working on custom save options per type; for example, file types like CPS and VGS can be saved with or without palette, and CPS and SCR support multiple compression methods. So if you save a file as CPS, after selecting the save target, a popup box will appear with the checkbox option "Save palette inside file", and a dropdown list with the different compression types.

So far, the internal system works, but I haven't actually made the popup yet.

Messaggio modificato da Nyerguds il 26 Sep 2018, 11:39

[Nyerguds]

I just implemented a system that gives a basic type to all supported file types, and uses that to automatically filter out the choices in the "Save" dialog

At this moment, the different types are 1-bit image, 4-bit image, 8-bit image, hi-colour image, C&C Map, and frames container. These types are used by each supported format to tell the system three things: the type(s) of the format, what input(s) the format accepts for saving to it, and, in case it's a frame container, what the type of the frames is.

Examples:
-if you load a 4-bit image, it will only show the types that can be saved from a 4-bit image, removing all file types that are specific to 8-bit. Note that high-colour formats can take any lower-bpp paletted format too, so they'll still be in the list.
-If you load a PC Command & Conquer terrain map file, it'll only allow saving that as PC C&C map file or as N64 C&C map file. It is a completely contained type not convertible to any other types. The graphical representation can be copied to the clipboard, though.
-if you load a range of 8-bit frames, the save types list will only show the types that are frames containers with 8-bit images in them, like the KORT bmp frames format.
-Since the Elvira icons-set save logic can convert any image to pure black and white by itself, and it can takes both a frame-set or a single image as input (it cuts it up into 24x24 icons itself), it will always show up in the save list of image/frames formats. Though if you choose to save as that format it'll still complain if the dimensions of an input image aren't a multiple of 24x24 pixels (or, in case of frames, exactly 24x24 pixels).
-The C&C1 tileset format is a frame containers for 8-bit frames, but it does show as single 8-bit image on index -1, so to save it as another type, it can act as both an 8-bit image and as frame container. However, at this moment the format only accept a single 8-bit image as save input (it cuts it up into frames itself), so it will not show up in the save list if you have frames loaded. I'll probably change that, though, but it takes some effort to implement.


Note that saving framed formats is distinguished from saving the single frames by going to the frame at index -1, though those formats that produce a preview frame at index -1 can also be saved as single normal image.

Messaggio modificato da Nyerguds il 21 Jan 2018, 20:13