Need Help With Dreamslayer's Sprite Rips

[Cartoonfanatic]

Hey guys, I'm having some trouble here. I'm wondering how do I get rid of the little pixels at the top of the sprite rip of Ken below? If you can't see the pixels please save the picture and zoom in at the top of the pic on the right side, then you'll see it. The colors of the pixels are in the palette too so I'm having trouble. The pixels are on the rest of the sprite rips too. How do I fix this? I won't be able to cut the sprites when I put them in Fighter Factory if they're still there. Other sprite rips of CvS characters from Dreamslayer don't have those pixels on them.

[Leon Belmont]

Go on an image editing program and just clean it? As in, use that pink, and just run over the whole image on where you think has these 'pixels' except obviously for Ken.

[Cartoonfanatic]

Do I have to clean everyone of the sprite rips individually?

[Cyanide]

Could learn to use pcxclean.

That would allow you to remove the pixels pretty fast but with some fiddling then reapply a more correct pallete to all the images.

[Cartoonfanatic]

I've known about PCXclean for a while now. But on winane's site it says it's for DOS and I have a Windows computer, is it still possible to use it PCXclean despite the fact that I have a Windows computer?

[Byakko]

Yes.
Read the doc on PCXClean, and you'll learn to make up the command line you need.
Create a text file, write that command line in it, according to your folders, sprites and palettes.
Make sure the file extensions show up - the text file must display the .txt at the end. In case you don't have the extensions displayed, when in your folder, go for tools -> folder options... -> display -> uncheck "hide known file extensions".
Change that .txt to .bat.
Put the .bat in the same folder as your files (palette, sprites)
Double-click on the .bat.
You're done.

Hint : a command line for PCXClean can be that :
pcxclean -c -y -t subdirectorywhereyourspritesare\*.pcx nameofyouractpalette.act
Of course, first make a copy of the directory where your sprites are, for safety purpose.

[Bastard Mami]

actually, you can use any program that batch applies palettes to get the same effect as pcx clean, except that they will require extra steps. if you can't run pcx clean post again so i can post how.

[Byakko]

actually, you can use any program that batch applies palettes to get the same effect as pcx clean

They usually use the closest color of the palette to take care of pixels with colors that aren't in the palette, no ? While PCXClean uses only a particular color - the background one (255).

so i can post how.

I just did...

[Bastard Mami]

ok, since someone is mildly interested.

change the entry that you do not want to have in your palette to the bg color, apply the palette preserving indexes. then reapply the palette but now with nearest color matching, the color will dissapear from the sprites. note that you must already have a good palette.

[Cyanide]

While PCXClean uses only a particular color - the background one (255).

It does the same as applying Maintain Indexes when you load a pallete in PSP. New pallete with BG colour in the right place is applied over old pallete with gibberish in it.

Doesn't make your comment wrong but needed some clarification.

[Byakko]

applying Maintain Indexes when you load a pallete in PSP.

Only if all the empty slots have the same color as the background... And palette-wise, it will still be wrong. If a pixel is associated with color slot 240, applying maintain index with a palette that has the same color as the bg on slot 240 will still leave that pixel with slot 240, only recolor it to the color that is on slot 240 of the new palette, and that's not what we want for Mugen, since we want the pixel to be switched to the background slot (255 for act file or 0 for Paint Shop Pro) ??? That are you would need to make another pass of "nearest color matching" with a palette that has only one occurence of the background color, in the background slot (0/255). Of course, if you don't want to be bothered with PCXClean, that's a solution - mass "maintain index" with one palette with unused slots filled with background color, followed by mass "nearest color" with another "good" palette with the background color only in the background slot. But you need two palettes then.


One more possible solution if you like to mess with neither palettes nor PCXClean : mass cropping.
If you have irfanview, put all your sprites in a same folder, open one, file->batch conversion/rename, check "batch conversion", check "use advanced options", go in "set advanced options", check "crop", "left top", Y-coord. : 3 (for example), width : 320, height : 237 (following the "3" example, total must be 240), uncheck resize, Ok, output format to pcx, select the folder where all your sprites are and click on "add all", set an output directory, then "start" and you're done.

[Cyanide]

I've found that's what PCXclean does. It doesn't reorder the pallete. If you load the image afterwards and check the pallete all the slots that were previously 1 colour will be a new one.

Unless i'm doing something wrong.

[Cartoonfanatic]

Okay, thanks for the replies everyone, you all helped me out big time.

[Bastard Mami]

That are you would need to make another pass of "nearest color matching" with a palette that has only one occurence of the background color, in the background slot (0/255).

exactly, that is why elecbyte made pcx clean in the first place and that is why it was suggested as an alternative in case pcx clean did not work.

[Byakko]

I've found that's what PCXclean does. It doesn't reorder the pallete. If you load the image afterwards and check the pallete all the slots that were previously 1 colour will be a new one.

Unless i'm doing something wrong.

PCXClean doesn't reorder the palette, it takes all the pixels in the sprite, and for each pixels that have a color not found in the reference palette, it automatically recolors it with the background color slot - not the nearest, but one particular color only. It doesn't change the slot the pixel is associated with : it reassociates the pixel to that particular slot, palette unchanged.
PSP doesn't do that, not in one go. All it can do is change the content of the slot the pixel is associated with, but leave the pixel associated to that slot. You need two steps to have the same result, like [E] was originally sugesting, yes.

[Cyanide]

So by the sound of that, we're in complete agreement? Okey doke good show XD.

[Byakko]

I'm still in contradiction with that :

It does the same as applying Maintain Indexes when you load a pallete in PSP.

Given how you still haven't backtracked on it and only said "so we agree", I can only respond that no, we still don't agree. Because it doesn't do the same. Which is why I have to go and talk to you as I would to a n00b. And you're not exactly helping (not that I can expect anything else). Talk about giving clarification... And I'm this close to making you a comparative scheme to make sure we do understand each other.

[Cyanide]

Leaving out the smartass comments.

We're going to have to drop this, just tried pcxclean again and found my PC hates it still. Gives me matte pictures of a very dark gray. Step up from not working but nevertheless broken. It's rather hard to describe anything like this without pictures and i can't take any of what my experience has been previously. Yes it has worked previously, it does not now.

[Cartoonfanatic]

I've tried/opened PCXClean for the third time now and it just opens really quickly then closes, what's going on with the program? It's not giving me a chance to type anything in.

[Byakko]

Did you... Why should I ask, I know you didn't.

Yes.
Read the doc on PCXClean, and you'll learn to make up the command line you need.
Create a text file, write that command line in it, according to your folders, sprites and palettes.
Make sure the file extensions show up - the text file must display the .txt at the end. In case you don't have the extensions displayed, when in your folder, go for tools -> folder options... -> display -> uncheck "hide known file extensions".
Change that .txt to .bat.
Put the .bat in the same folder as your files (palette, sprites)
Double-click on the .bat.
You're done.

Hint : a command line for PCXClean can be that :
pcxclean -c -y -t subdirectorywhereyourspritesare\*.pcx nameofyouractpalette.act
Of course, first make a copy of the directory where your sprites are, for safety purpose.

PCXClean is a DOS command line program. You can't just double-click on the icon, it only responds to a command line input.


I took the sprite, made a clean palette from it keeping only Ken's color, and ran tests. Of course, I made that palette specifically by picking the colors I knew Ken has on that sprite. If it's not the same exact red, PCXClean will consider it to be different and wipe it out.
Image 1 : the original
Image 2 : "maintain index" with a clean palette, the pixel is still associated with the same slot, regardless of the color in it. Even if the sprite still looked good by some miracle, the stray pixel still wouldn't be associated with the correct slot and Mugen wouldn't see it as transparent.
Image 3 : PCXClean with a clean palette, the pixel with a color not found in the palette is recolored
Image 4 : comparison, PSP's "nearest color" with a clean palette, the pixel is still there

As originally suggested by [E], to get the same result without PCXClean, you need more steps than just that in PSP.