Graphics Tools / Methodology Survey

[EdgeFaction]

Hi Everyone!

 

There is a tremendous amount of information on these forums varying in age. I was curious what everyone was using today in terms of tools for creating graphics for games. Thank you in advance for your contribution! As a new developer I was hoping to learn how others with more experience are getting things done in 2022! My specific questions:

 

1.) What tools / methods are you using to create tiles (single 8x8).

2.) What tools / methods are you using to create large tile maps?

3.) What is your overall workflow for creating graphics for Intellivision games?

 

 

[+DZ-Jay]

I'll let others offer much better suggestions than mine, since I've heard of some rather sophisticated workflows around here; but I'll offer my two scents worth of suggestions:

• For tiles and sprites some use one of those 8-bit sprite drawing programs, there are plenty.
• For larger screens with scenery, like title and splash screens, you can use something as simple as MS Paint (or Paint.Net), and export into a BMP.  You then process it through IntyColor (which comes with the IntyBASIC compiler) to generate a graphics data file.  Some use this technique as well to rip entire sprite sheets.

My personal workflow is rather old school and low-tech:

• I draw my graphics (scenes, sprites, fonts, and all) in an ASCII file using "." and "#" to represent on and off pixels.
• I mark-up the ASCII art with tokens defining color and other metadata for each tile.
• I then rip them up using a custom tile ripper of my own devise, written in Perl.  I have general purpose variations of the script to handle character sets, sprite animation sequences, scenery blocks, and even a special-purpose one to process level maze data for my old game.
• The output of my script is marked up with assembler macros which formats the data in an appropriate way for my own routines to use for loading into Graphics RAM (GRAM) and displaying on the Background Table (BACKTAB).
• Animations are especially interesting, since I just draw them as a series of (ASCII art) tiles arranged horizontally, and the tile ripper handles deduplication and sorting of the data blocks; and ultimately provides a set of single or double unique tile data, with an indexed array to describe the sequence.
• I have other custom scripts for a quick build/run/test cycle that rip, assemble, and run the program so that I can see how it looks.
• Finally, I adjust the graphics in the ASCII file, build/run/test, then rinse and repeat.

Not a very friendly workflow, and perhaps not a very appealing one for others; but it works for me, and I'm not one that adapts easily to change.

I'm sure others have better and more useful advice to offer.

 

    dZ.

Edited October 21, 2022 by DZ-Jay

[+cmadruga]

1. Combination of Intycolor, Paint, Gimp, Piskel, Notepad++.

2. Tiled

3.

Sprites:

Piskel --> Export sprite sheet --> Paint/Gimp touch-ups -->  Intycolor  --> Notepad++

Background gfx:

Highly varies depending on whether there is an existing reference or starting from scratch. But the tools tend to be the same.

[EdgeFaction]

Great replies so far, thank you @DZ-Jay and @cmadruga!  Piskel was a tool I wasn't aware of. It looks like it has palette management so you can import a palette (namely one made for the Intellivision) so that is very cool. Please keep them coming and thank you all for sharing!

Edited October 21, 2022 by EdgeFaction
Errors and clarity

[1980gamer]

For the TI99/4A  I use Magellan.  

github.com/Rasmus-M/magellan

 

 

This could be modified to work with the Intellivision. It is a great tool, Could be used for play fields, characters etc.  Stretching etc. 

I do not have the skills for this ☹️ it will not be me to make these additions to the software.

 

Even as is, you can set the screen to 20x12 and define 8x8 tiles etc.

 

The power is the export of code in various formats.   This would certainly get me into intellivision dev.

[Brian's Man Cave]

Quick question regarding notepad. I am currently using regular notepad on my PC which works fine but I have seen others use one that numbers each line. Is that a free software? Currently I need to paste my code into excel to find a specific line of code!

[+DZ-Jay]

On Mac, I use TextMate, which is not free; but there is Sublime, which is.

 

On Windows, I use EditPlus, which is not free; but there is Notepad++, which is.

 

Typically, what programmers use is a “source code editor.”  Code editors are more sophisticated, versatile, and feature-rich than plain old Notepad, and include things like line numbering, syntax highlighting, integration with development tools, user macros, keyboard shortcuts, etc.

 

Since you are asking for recommendations, please be aware that text editor choices are deeply personal, and the source of many legendary epic religious wars since the birth of the Internet.*
 

So, tread these waters with care.  You have been warned.

 

Ultimately, it does not matter:  just search for “code editors,” pick one that looks useful, try it out, and if you feel comfortable with it, then stick to it; if not, move on to the next.

 

If you have never used one before, you will wonder how you ever lived without.

 

   dZ.

 

 

 

 

* You may think this is an exaggeration, but it is not.

Edited March 7 by DZ-Jay

[+Lathe26]

15 hours ago, DZ-Jay said:

...

 

Since you are asking for recommendations, please be aware that text editor choices are deeply personal, and the source of many legendary epic religious wars since the birth of the Internet.*

...

 

* You may think this is an exaggeration, but it is not.

I still remember Unix folks having arguments over the editors vi and emacs back in the early/mid 1990s...

• "vi is just shorthand for vile!"
• "emacs = Eight Megabytes And Constantly Swapping!"

[+DZ-Jay]

2 hours ago, Lathe26 said:

I still remember Unix folks having arguments over the editors vi and emacs back in the early/mid 1990s...

• "vi is just shorthand for vile!"
• "emacs = Eight Megabytes And Constantly Swapping!

Hey!  That war never ended.  So, choose your side carefully. 😠

[carlsson]

3 hours ago, Lathe26 said:

"emacs = Eight Megabytes And Constantly Swapping!

Funny thing is that it still consumes about 8 MB RAM. Or perhaps 64 MB, who's counting when other applications swallow gigabytes of RAM? We're running PHPStorm at work, and it easily consumes 3-5 GB just by starting it with a project.

[First Spear]

On 3/7/2023 at 7:37 AM, Brian's Man Cave said:

Quick question regarding notepad. I am currently using regular notepad on my PC which works fine but I have seen others use one that numbers each line. Is that a free software? Currently I need to paste my code into excel to find a specific line of code!

I use Visual Studio Code. It's free, runs on Lin/Mac/Win, has more options than you can imagine or just use it vanilla. 

If I had unlimited money, I would use UltraEdit (I use Windows) because it has better column-based editing, but otherwise VS Code is the way.  (let the religious wars rebegin).

 

Line numbers!

 

Edited March 11 by First Spear

[+fdr4prez]

On 3/7/2023 at 4:37 AM, Brian's Man Cave said:

Quick question regarding notepad. I am currently using regular notepad on my PC which works fine but I have seen others use one that numbers each line. Is that a free software? Currently I need to paste my code into excel to find a specific line of code!

If you download Notepad++ (its free), then it will have line numbers displayed on the left margin.

 

But for normal Notepad, if turn OFF the Word Wrap:

 

And you turn ON the Status Bar:

 

 

Now in the lower right corner it will have your current Line and Column location:

[Brian's Man Cave]

23 hours ago, fdr4prez said:

If you download Notepad++ (its free), then it will have line numbers displayed on the left margin.

 

But for normal Notepad, if turn OFF the Word Wrap:

 

And you turn ON the Status Bar:

 

 

Now in the lower right corner it will have your current Line and Column location:

Ah! Thanks for this ... this will work well

 

[Lillapojkenpåön]

Is there a way to make IntyColor output the cards like this

 

    BITMAP ".......#"
    BITMAP ".......#"
    BITMAP ".......#"
    BITMAP "########"
    BITMAP "...#...#"
    BITMAP "...#...#"
    BITMAP "...#...#"
    BITMAP "########"

 

Instead of one big value?

[+DZ-Jay]

6 hours ago, Lillapojkenpåön said:

Is there a way to make IntyColor output the cards like this

 

    BITMAP ".......#"
    BITMAP ".......#"
    BITMAP ".......#"
    BITMAP "########"
    BITMAP "...#...#"
    BITMAP "...#...#"
    BITMAP "...#...#"
    BITMAP "########"

 

Instead of one big value?

 

Use the "-i" command-line option:

-i     Generates BITMAP statements instead of DATA

 

If you run the tool with no arguments, you will get some guidance on the usage.

 

 

dropzone:IntyBASIC-SDK dz$ intycolor

Converter from BMP to Intellivision Background/Foreground format
v1.1.7 Dec/03/2018  by Oscar Toledo G. http://nanochess.org

Usage:

    intycolor image.bmp image.asm [label]
        Creates image for use with assembler code

    intycolor -b [-n] [-p] [-i] image.bmp image.bas [label]
        Creates image for use with IntyBASIC code

    -n     Removes stub code for display in IntyBASIC mode
    -p     Uses PRINT in IntyBASIC mode
    -o20   Initial offset for cards is 20 (0-63 is valid)
    -m     Tries to use MOBs for more than 2 colors per card
    -c     Doesn't use constants.bas for -m option
    -i     Generates BITMAP statements instead of DATA
    -r output.bmp  Generate BMP report of conversion in file
                   red = error, green = GRAM, yellow = GROM
                   grey = MOB
    -g clue.txt    Exact clues for -m, text file up to 8 lines:
                   x,y,color[,x_zoom(1-2),y_zoom(1-4),0/1]
                   The final 0/1 indicates 8x8 or 8x16
                   Suggestion: run with empty text file and
                   option -r to see what cards require MOBs
    -x p/grom.bin  Path and file for grom.bin, by default it
                   searches in current path for grom.bin
    -fx    Flip image along the X-coordinate (mirror)
    -fy    Flip image along the Y-coordinate
    -a     All 8x8 cards as continuous bitmap in output,
           doesn't generate card data.
    -e45d2 Replace color 4 with 5 and d with 2 before process,
           useful to recreate same image with other colors.
    -d     Process image in chunks of 16 pixels high, useful
           to create MOB bitmaps.
    -v     Process 8x8 cards in vertical direction first.
           Useful for horizontal scrolling bitmaps and -a option.
    -k4    Add 4 blank cards to generated data
    -kx4   Pad generated data to a multiple of 4 cards
    -q16   Define bitmaps in blocks of 16 cards (default)
           When not using music player in IntyBASIC, limit is 18
           When using ECS Music player in IntyBASIC, limit is 13

By default intycolor creates images for use with Intellivision
Background/Foreground video format, you can use 8 primary
colors and 16 background colors for each 8x8 block.

Using the flag -s0123 creates images for use with Color Stack
mode, the 0123 can be replaced with the sequence of colors
you'll program in the Color Stack registers (hexadecimal 0-f)

intycolor will warn you if your image cannot be represented
by a real Intellivision

It can use GROM characters if you provide grom.bin in current
directory.

It requires a BMP file of 8/24/32 bits, remember Intellivision
screen is a fixed size of 160x96 pixels but this utility will
accept any multiple of 8 pixels in any coordinate.

The -a option is for working over monochrome bitmaps and
generating a continous bitmap for scrolling with more than
the limit of GRAM definitions (the program must define the
bitmaps as the scrolling goes on).