Simviation Forum - Gauge editing

Nov 22^nd, 2004 at 8:54am

ivormills Offline
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Hi,

I am trying to edit gauge bitmaps for CFS1, and I have downloaded a couple of gauge bitmap editing programs.
I convert the bitmap to bmp for editing, I edit in photoshop, but my prefered way of working is to convert the bmp's from index to rgb. This way you can work much better in photoshop. My problem is, when I convert back to index, even using the original colour table, the gauge is not recognized in cfg edit, says bitmap cannot be loaded. Any ideas?

Thanks

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Reply #1 - Nov 22^nd, 2004 at 9:16am

Hagar Offline
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Look for a utility named GauBmp2 by Chuck Dome. This is very easy to use & will extract the gauge BMPs for editing & replace them afterwards. It's a long time since I used it but I think it works best if you convert your edited images to the correct 8 bit colour format before replacing them into the gauge. They must use the correct colour palette to display properly. I've never used Photoshop but this should be possible with similar options to PSP.

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Reply #2 - Nov 22^nd, 2004 at 9:28am

ivormills Offline
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South West England

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Hi,

Thanks for your quick reply Hagar.

Yes I have been using the Chuck Dome utility, I convert my bmps back to index colour using the original colour table from the converted gauge bitmap, but it still no joy! Maybe I am missing something?

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Reply #3 - Nov 22^nd, 2004 at 11:27am

Hagar Offline
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As I mentioned, I have never used Photoshop. If I was doing this in PSP I would increase the color depth of the original 8-bit image to 24-bit before editing. This gives the full range of colours to work with. (The colours display in PSP as RGB by default. I have no idea what Index colour is or what difference it makes.) Then decrease the color depth back to 8-bit before saving the changes.

There are various options for decreasing the color depth in PSP. These are the settings I use. It's always worked for me. I'm sure Photoshop must have similar options & you might need to experiment with the settings.

PS. I reduced the color depth of one of these images from 24-bit (16 million colors) to 8-bit (256 colors) using the above method. Can you you tell which is which?

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Reply #4 - Nov 22^nd, 2004 at 2:15pm

ivormills Offline
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South West England

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Hi,

Thanks for that info Hagar, I will give it a try and let you know.

Thanks

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Reply #5 - Nov 23^rd, 2004 at 10:15am

Padser Offline
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Tally-Ho, chaps...

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~S~ Ivor

I've tried this in the past myself.

I also used Chuck Dome's GauBMP utility, but found the most effective tool was the built in feature in FS Panel Studio (the payware version of CFGEdit).

http://www.fspanelstudio.com/

It'll cost you $24.99 to download.

Using this I was able to go in and make a proper mess of all sorts of my gauges... Wink

Don't forget to back up first, eh?

Cheers,

Pads

http://www.234squad.org.uk

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Reply #6 - Nov 23^rd, 2004 at 2:37pm

ivormills Offline
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South West England

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Hi,

Thanks for your reply Pads, I think you are right, bite the bullet, pay the fee, get something that works! Lol

Ty

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Reply #7 - Nov 23^rd, 2004 at 2:42pm

Hagar Offline
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I just tried the method I described to repaint & replace a gauge BMP with GauBmp2. It worked a treat.

PS. My Fox Four colleague Mike Eustace uses the same method for most of the gauges in his excellent CFS1 & CFS2 panels.

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Reply #8 - Nov 23^rd, 2004 at 8:35pm

Stratobat Offline
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To fly... Or not to fly?

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Quote:

PS. I reduced the color depth of one of these images from 24-bit (16 million colors) to 8-bit (256 colors) using the above method. Can you you tell which is which?
[img]

I'll take a shot at it Grin

The one on the right is in 8 Bit... Am I right ? Grin

Regards,
Stratobat

&&&&'If the literal sense makes good sense, seek no other sense lest you come up with nonsense'

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Reply #9 - Nov 24^th, 2004 at 3:20pm

Hagar Offline
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Quote:

I'll take a shot at it Grin

The one on the right is in 8 Bit... Am I right ? Grin

Regards,
Stratobat

Give that man a coconut. Grin

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Reply #10 - Nov 24^th, 2004 at 3:58pm

Stratobat Offline
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Lmao

Regards,
Stratobat

&&&&'If the literal sense makes good sense, seek no other sense lest you come up with nonsense'

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