[RM2K3] USABLE COLOR PALETTE FOR 2K3?

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Hi, yes, hello. I am working on some character art that I will be modifying into face graphics.
Does anyone have a complete index of the usable colors for 2k3?
I know it's limited as to what translates over correctly so I was hoping to get my hands on a complete list before I ruin this line art.
Thanks in advance!
Mirak
Stand back. Artist at work. I paint with enthusiasm if not with talent.
9300
Is there a defined list? I thought the only limit was that every piece of artwork had to have 256 colors max, but the values could be whatever you wanted. So you could have a monster sprite with 256 shades of purple, and a separate monster file with 256 shades of green, and they'd both work.

I'll be monitoring this thread for when the smart people show up and explain this because i'd like to know as well.
Yeah it's 256 color per image set. As long as you index correctly before importing you can use whichever 256 colors.
Well alright then. I am so dumb about this stuff you have no idea. Thank you for letting me know!
Now to choose a 256 color palette I guess.
(oh no I'm bad at making decisions)
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
If you can't get them to look right, try storing each face in a different faceset file, with 15 out of the 16 faces blank and unused. You'll get to make everything look nearly perfect that way because you'll have all 256 colors for just the one face. (Different facial expressions for the same character can typically be in the same file without any problems though, since they use almost all the same colors.)

Your original line art faceset is almost certainly using RGB colors. If you open that faceset in Photoshop or Gimp or whatever image editor you use (except MS Paint which is terrible), you can change it to Indexed Color mode, which is the same thing as 256 colors. When you do that, it'll give you the option to build a palette automatically using a couple different algorithms. Try them out and see which one you like best, before going through the work of creating a custom palette - in many cases the automatically generated palettes are fine.
A lot of people also forget to save the file itself in 256 color format, and instead simply use 256 colors or less while saving in a full color format. So just remember: the image format matters, not just the number of colors in the image.
LockeZ

hedge1


Thank you both so much for the advice! This is really helpful stuff.
Each image uses a 256 color palette (8-bit) as others have said, but if you want to get technical about what colors you can use in your palette, RM2k3's rendering screen uses 16-bit RGB (pixel value: RRRRRGGGGGGBBBBB)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_monochrome_and_RGB_palettes#16-bit_RGB

So yes, there is a defined list. :)

Essentially, those are the exact colors you can use that will show up on your screen correctly. If you can't tell the difference between 32-bit and 16-bit color, it's most evident in near-black shades and near-white shades and if you use a monitor with a wide color gamut with appropriate brightness/contrast settings.
Actually, I'd suggest to just do your work in normal color mode and then save in 7-bit mode, chances are you are actually using less than 256 colors on the resource you are working on, unless you have crazy super defined gradients.

Whatever software you have should do it pretty easily and choose the best 256 colors for your image while maintaining it as much as possible. Just don't use the bmp 256 color option in paint, I think it uses the predefined web safe colors.

I know in paint.NET, Photoshop, Gimp and the likes all have a really easy way to convert to 256 colors either when saving or by indexing to a color mode in some tool/option.
author=PepsiOtaku
Each image uses a 256 color palette (8-bit) as others have said, but if you want to get technical about what colors you can use in your palette, RM2k3's rendering screen uses 16-bit RGB

I never knew that! Thanks for sharing!

Also, I made a program that will convert most images into 256-color pngs usable with rm2k(3). One nice thing about it is that it won't alter any colors, so things stay "pure" (it's why I made it in the first place). The downside is that if you use more than 256 colors, the remaining colors will simply be omitted and part of your image will be missing. For pixel art and general conversions this isn't a problem. But it sounds like it may be in your case. Still, in case in works for you, here's the utility:
https://rpgmaker.net/engines/other/utilities/184/

Note that it uses 32-bit color, so (based upon what I quoted above) I guess that potentially could be an issue. It has always looked right to me, however, so if you think it could work, it's probably still worth checking out.
author=hedge1
Note that it uses 32-bit color, so (based upon what I quoted above) I guess that potentially could be an issue. It has always looked right to me, however, so if you think it could work, it's probably still worth checking out.

Exactly right--2k3 converts it down to 16-bit. The best example is that if you were to make a system set that has a gradient background made using Photoshop's gradient tool, even though you are saving it to a 256 color palette, it's still using 32-bit colors, so 2k3 is going to reinterpret the image to 16-bit and you'll end up with undesirable colors in the gradient.

Here's an example I had lying around:


The left half of the image is what is in the actual file, and the right side is how 2k3 interprets it. (Might be hard to see on some monitors--the gradient example would be easier to see the difference)

To take it one step further, the "undesirable colors" refers to the hue looking a bit off, which is due to 6 bits used for green and 5 bits used for red and blue. More bits = more color shades. In 32-bit color, 8 bits are designated for R, G & B and another 8 for an alpha channel (transparency). 24-bit color ("true color") is the same thing but without the alpha channel.
That's really cool (and saddening) to learn. Thanks!
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