Palette Cleanup - Revision history

Doofus-01 at 00:49, 24 August 2025

2025-08-24T00:49:36Z

Doofus-01: /* Example */

2025-08-23T23:55:05Z

‎Example

Doofus-01: /* Example */

2025-08-23T20:59:14Z

‎Example

Doofus-01: /* Background - Is this really needed? */

2025-08-23T20:54:44Z

‎Background - Is this really needed?

Doofus-01: First Draft

2025-08-23T20:51:33Z

First Draft

Doofus-01: Created page with "This is WIP ==Purpose== Unit sprites are supposed to be pixel art, but sometimes this breaks down. Maybe someone accidentally edited an image with an anti-aliasing tool (e.g..."

2025-08-23T13:32:09Z

Created page with "This is WIP ==Purpose== Unit sprites are supposed to be pixel art, but sometimes this breaks down. Maybe someone accidentally edited an image with an anti-aliasing tool (e.g..."

New page

This is WIP

==Purpose==
Unit sprites are supposed to be pixel art, but sometimes this breaks down. Maybe someone accidentally edited an image with an anti-aliasing tool (e.g. cut-paste lasso, paintbrush) or maybe the original contribution just had too many similar colors. Starting in 1.17, an effort was made to enforce a set palette: https://github.com/wesnoth/wesnoth/issues/6417

===Why do sprites need to be pixel art?===
The game works just fine with non-pixel art images, but there are few reasons for the pixel art sprite convention:
* Simplifies color swapping - having a set palette makes it simpler to map the original colors to new colors. The most obvious example of this is the team coloring magenta/pink conversion to red for player 1.
* Distinction from terrain/scenery - The terrain and scenery images are not pixel art. With the current conventions, the sprites or "game pieces" should have a clear distinction from the background or "game board"
* Stylistic decision - pixel art is an art form, not simply a limitation, even if it may have had its origins in graphics limitations.

@@ Line 3: / Line 3: @@
 ==Purpose==
 Unit sprites are supposed to be pixel art, but sometimes this breaks down.  Maybe someone accidentally edited an image with an anti-aliasing tool (e.g. cut-paste lasso, paintbrush) or maybe the original contribution just had too many similar colors.  Starting in 1.17, an effort was made to enforce a set palette: https://github.com/wesnoth/wesnoth/issues/6417
 ==Background==
 ====Why do sprites need to be pixel art?====
-The game works just fine with non-pixel art images, but there are few reasons for the pixel art sprite convention:
+The game works just fine with non-pixel art images<sup>*</sup>, but there are some reasons for the pixel art sprite convention:
 * Simplifies color swapping - having a set palette makes it simpler to map the original colors to new colors.  The most obvious example of this is the team coloring magenta/pink conversion to red for player 1.
 * Distinction from terrain/scenery - The terrain and scenery images are not pixel art.  With the current conventions, the sprites or "game pieces" should have a clear distinction from the background or "game board"
-* Stylistic decision - pixel art is an art form, not simply a limitation, even if it may have had its origins in graphics limitations.
+* Stylistic decision - pixel art is an art form, not simply a limitation, even if it may have had its origins in graphics limitations of the 1970s and earlier.
 ====Enforcing a palette means restricting colors...  Don't cramp my artistic expression!====
-It might sound restrictive, but no one said the palette needed to be 8-bit.  If you need to add a color to the palette, that is fine, just do it deliberately.
+It might sound restrictive, but no one said the palette needed to be 8-bit.  If you need to add a color to the palette, that is fine, just do it deliberately (see below).
 ==Palette Cleanup (with an Example)==
@@ Line 39: / Line 41: @@
 https://github.com/wesnoth/wesnoth/blob/master/data/core/images/units/human-loyalists/HumanLoyalist_ColorMap.png?raw=true&type=.png
-is included in mainline unit image directories, but you could use your own.  With the ImageMagick bash script shown above, the ColorMap needs three things:
+is included in mainline unit image directories, but you could use your own if the image is not intended for mainline contribution.  With the ImageMagick bash script shown above, the ColorMap needs three things:
 # the colors needed for the palette
 # at least one fully transparent pixel
-# at least one 60% opacity shadow pixel (''srgba(23,0,53,0.6)'')<sup>*</sup>
+# at least one 60% opacity shadow pixel (''srgba(23,0,53,0.6)'')<sup>**</sup>
 You'll see in the output reports that there are still colors with only 1-3 pixels, so this isn't optimized.  But the palette is still fairly small and, most importantly, every color is tracked and the same across the animation frames, so simple color-swapping is now (reliably) possible and broken team coloring is less likely.  The restrictions on the alpha channel, where only the shadow can be semitransparent, help to clean up any almost invisible cruft floating around the sprite.

@@ Line 14: / Line 14: @@
 It might sound restrictive, but no one said the palette needed to be 8-bit.  If you need to add a color to the palette, that is fine, just do it deliberately.
-==Example==
+==Palette Cleanup (with an Example)==
 Consider these two images:
 https://forums.wesnoth.org/download/file.php?id=101241&type=.png
@@ Line 35: / Line 35: @@
 </syntaxhighlight>
-The ColorMap image is included in mainline unit image directories, but you could use your own.  You'll see in the output reports that there are still colors with only 1-3 pixels.
+The ColorMap image

@@ Line 14: / Line 14: @@
 It might sound restrictive, but no one said the palette needed to be 8-bit.  If you need to add a color to the palette, that is fine, just do it deliberately.
-===Example===
+==Example==
 Consider these two images:
 https://forums.wesnoth.org/download/file.php?id=101241&type=.png

@@ Line 4: / Line 4: @@
 Unit sprites are supposed to be pixel art, but sometimes this breaks down.  Maybe someone accidentally edited an image with an anti-aliasing tool (e.g. cut-paste lasso, paintbrush) or maybe the original contribution just had too many similar colors.  Starting in 1.17, an effort was made to enforce a set palette: https://github.com/wesnoth/wesnoth/issues/6417
-===Background - Is this really needed?===
+==Background==
 ====Why do sprites need to be pixel art?====
 The game works just fine with non-pixel art images, but there are few reasons for the pixel art sprite convention: