How do I change the colour palette of my game?
This page will take you through the tools used to edit the game colour palettes.
This guide assumes you have installed and have already set up a project with WDC. If not, get started by clicking here.
Editing the Wolf3D Palette
WDC has the ability to edit the palette in DOS Wolfenstein 3D, which is hard-coded directly into the exe. To do so, open your Project Information window.
In the GamePal.obj section of the Folders/Files section, point it to the GAMEPAL.OBJ
located in your source files. If you followed this guide when setting up, it will be in your \WOLFSRC\OBJ\
folder.
Once you've selected the file, it can be edited by clicking the Edit Gamepal.obj button. This will bring up the palette editor.
Once edited, this will only change the file in the source code. You will need to build a new exe for the changes to be playable.
Navigating the Editor (Spear of Destiny)
Spear of Destiny's colour palettes are located in the VGAGRAPH
file, and are easier to edit.
Start WDC and open your project, if you haven't already. At the top of the window, you will see a row of fifteen square buttons.
Make sure to select the Color Palettes button. Your window should look similar to the following, which means you're on the right screen!
1. The Scrollbar
On the Color Palettes screen, the scrollbar will move between the different palettes the game uses (In-game palettes, menu palettes, etc).
2. Palette Preview
This shows you the currently selected colour palette.
3. Replacement Preview
If a palette has been selected to overwrite the current one, this space will display the replacement.
4. The Replacement Bar
This is where you will point WDC to replacement palettes. There is an address bar that will tell you where the replacement file is located and what it is called, and four buttons.
5. Export, Add Chunks
Here, there are three buttons. The first is a dedicated Export button for saving the current palette to a new external file.
The second and third buttons are for adding new palettes rather than replacing them. Doing this requires changes to the engine in order to make use of these additions properly.
Palette Editor
If you click the Edit Gamepal.obj button or
Edit Palette button on the Replacement Bar (Depending on if you're editing the Wolf3D or SOD palette), you will bring up the Palette Editor window for whatever palette you had currently selected.
The editor is simple, and divided into two parts.
1. Palette Colours
This is the palette you're editing. You can see the specific coordinates for the colours (For use in coding and scripting), and you can select each colour with a left mouse click.
2. RGB sliders
These sliders can be used to adjust the selected colour in the palette. Alternatively, manual values for Red, Green and Blue can be entered via the three text boxes.
In the File
menu there are buttons to import or export a replacement palette to edit and add to the project, or save the palette as a BMP image file.
Publishing your changes
When you're done editing a palette, click OK to accept your changes. To save and publish your palette changes to your project, either click File
→Compile All
, or File
→Compile
→VgaGraph
.