Palette editor

About palettes

Palettes are a list of individual colours that may be used to colour the pixels within a tile.

You define a colour value for each of the allowed colour slots within the palette.

Palette limitations

  • The Sega Master System gives you a selection or 64 colours in total that you can use (6-bit colour).

  • The Sega Game Gear gives you a selection or 4096 colours in total that you can use (12-bit colour).

  • The Nintendo Entertainment System gives you 56 colours to choose from.

  • The Nintendo Game Boy allows only 4 shades of grey.

Working with palettes

The palette editor section of the window is where you work with palettes.

In summary you can perform the following functions:

  • Define new palettes.

  • Clone existing palettes.

  • Import palettes from assembly code.

  • Remove palettes.

  • Choose colours in the palette.

  • Change the order of colours within the palette.

  • Replace colours on your image.

These functions will be expanded on below.

Defining a palette system

Only applies if you’re working with a Sega Master System and Game Gear project.

You’ll be asked to select the system that the palette is designed for. This is due to the fact that the palettes are defined differently in code.

To change the system click on the icon for the desired system in the palette editor.

Changing systems will affect how the palette is exported and also how the colours are displayed in the tile editor.

Palette management functions

Moving between palettes

You can define more than one palette in your project, and at times you would probably want to swap between these different palettes.

To move between palettes click the drop down arror next to the palette’s name at the top of the palette editor, and then select the palette that you would like to work with.

Keyboard shortcut: Ctrl and Up or Down arrow.

Create a new palette

To create a new palette click on the “Create a new palette” button on the palette toolbar.

A new palette will be added to your project with a generic selection of colours.

Keyboard shortcut: Ctrl + Alt + P.

Clone a palette

You may wish use an existing palette as a template for creating a new palette. This is where the clone palette function is useful.

Another example; if you are creating a Sega Master System and Game Gear project, you wish to create a palette that targets the Master System and then clone to create a Game Gear version.

To clone a palette, in the palette editor click the “Clone” button.

Remove a palette

To remove a palette, in the palette editor click the “Remove button” button. If you accidentally remove a palette, the action can be undone by clicking the “Undo” button.

Naming a palette

You can assign a friendly name to your palette, this doesn’t affect the palette itself, but will cause SMSGFX to automatically generate a code comment with the palette name when you export your project as code.

To name your palette, in the palette editor, with the palette selected, either click onto the name of the palette or the edit icon next to the name of the palette, and then type a new name.

Changes are automatically saved when you exit the text box.

Emulate system colours

Enabling this function will show your palette colours and render your tile set colours to look similar to how they would look on the target system.

If you’ve defined colours using RGB, then enabling this may have a profound impact on how your image looks, however it is recommended as it gives you an accurate indication of the final image.

Import a palette from code

SMSGFX has the ability to turn WLA-DX compatible code snippets into palettes (and tiles) for use in your project.

To import a palette:

  • Copy the palette definition lines from your source files into the clipboard, the lines will look similar to the following:

.dw $fdb $a00 $0a0 $0f0 $500 $f00 $005 $ff0 $00a $00f $055 $0ff $050 $f0f $555 $fdb

NOTE: You can include comments in your pasted code, SMSGFX will ignore these.

  • Click the “Import a palette form your assembly code” toolbar button.

  • Choose the target system from the “Select the system” box (selecting the wrong system will have odd results).

  • Paste the assembly code into the box provided.

  • Click the “Import palette” button.

Palette colour management

Selecting a colour

You can select a colour by clicking on it’s respective icon within the palette editor. The selected colour will have a dark box drawn around it.

Choosing a colour

There are two ways that you can choose a colour:

  • The colour selector gives you a convenient colour editing ability without needing to display a popup window.

  • The colour picker dialogue gives you colour editing ability in a popup window. The colour picker dialogue is shown by double clicking on a colour in your palette.

Both options give you similar functionality, the colour picker dialoguie allows you to cancel the operation if you change your mind about choosing a colour.

RGB tab

  • Individual red, green and blue values can be adjusted using the sliders or entering their numeric values.

  • The “Hex” box allows you to choose a colour using a hex value.

  • Clicking the colour preview box will display the system’s native colour picker for you to use.

SMS colours tab

  • Only available on Sega Master System and Game Gear projects.

  • It shows you all 64 colours available from the Sega Master System, click on a colour to use that colour.

GB shades tab

  • Only available on Nintendo Game Boy projects.

  • It shows you all 4 shades of grey available from the Game Boy, click on a shade to use that shade.

NES colours tab

  • Only available on Nintendo Entertainment System projects.

  • It shows you all 56 colours available from the Nintendo Entertainment System library, click on a colour to use that colour.

Re-ordering colours

It is possible that you may want to shift the colour from one index to another. For example, you may want to swap colour #3 with colour #4.

SMSGFX profides a colour swap function that can swap the values of a particular colour index, it will also update your tile set, updating all colour references to match the new colour index.

To swap colour positions:

  • In the palette editor click on a colour using the secondard button (or right button).

  • Under the “Swap position with colour” heading, choose the colour that you want to swap with.

  • Click the “Swap” button.

The colour positions are now swapped and references to each colour are also updated in your tile map.

Replace all instances of a colour

You may wish to change all instances of one colour to anothe colour, for example, you may want to change all references to colour #15 to colour #1.

Performing this function does not affect your palette, it modifies the tile set.

To set all instances of one colour to another:

  • In the palette editor click on a colour using the secondard button (or right button).

  • Under the “Set all instances to colour” heading, choose the colour that you want to set to.

  • Click the “Set” button.

All instances of that colour will now be replaced with the selected colour.