making .lmp files

[Senban]

What program do I need to convert my Qrack/DP conback.jpg in to a .lmp file?

[Baker]

You'll need Adquedit

http://www.quakeone.com/index.php?in...ile&file_id=49

As far as I know, only 128 x 128 charsets "work" with Quake and those have to use the Quake palette (so what you might be thinking of doing might not strictly be possible).

[Senban]

You'll need Adquedit

http://www.quakeone.com/index.php?in...ile&file_id=49

As far as I know, only 128 x 128 charsets "work" with Quake and those have to use the Quake palette (so what you might be thinking of doing might not strictly be possible).

Yeah, it looks like I'm going to be better off making a whole new image rather than trying to convert the existing one but thats cool as long as I can put in a unique console image.

[MH]

The Console background should be able to go to 640 x 480, which is a hard-coded limit in the texture uploader. Custom engines will be able to go higher, but for best compatibility you should stick to 640 x 480.

The charset is hard-coded to 128 x 128. Again, you can use a custom engine that supports external charset textures and go higher.

Be aware that regular GLQuake writes the version number into the console background using data from the charset texture, so there are assumptions made about the size of both textures in there. If visual corruptions on the regular GLQuake console bother you, then stick to the same dimensions as regular GLQuake (if you use smaller dimensions for the conback the engine will likely crash).

The LMP format itself is simple. It consists of two integers (width and height) followed by a string of width x height bytes, each of which is an index into the Quake palette. A paint program that is capable of exporting raw formats with a custom header should be able to handle creating one. You might even be able to write your own converter.

The exception is the charset, which doesn't have the two integers at the start. It's just data and nothing else. It can afford to do this because the engine always assumes it's 128 x 128.

LMPs need to use the Quake palette, so you'll need a paint program that's capable of loading custom palettes onto a 24 bit image, with a good variety of colour matching algorithms available. It's probably advisable to get a copy of the Quake palette that doesn't contain entries for fullbrights, although for LMPs that doesn't really matter.

Palette index 255 is transparent, by the way. Again, the charset is the exception - it uses 0 as it's transparent colour.

If you look at wad.c and wad.h in the Q1 source (these handle loading LMPs from the gfx.wad file) you'll see that the format seems capable of using compression and other fancy pants stuff; but in practice the engine doesn't actually have code to support this (Carmack probably ran out of time), and it's never used.

[Senban]

The Console background should be able to go to 640 x 480, which is a hard-coded limit in the texture uploader. Custom engines will be able to go higher, but for best compatibility you should stick to 640 x 480.

What happens if I put in a 640x480 console back ground and some neo-luddite decides to load my mod in dos-quake playing at 320x240?
Anyway this is what I've got so far:
and
With both sitting next to each other in the GFX folder the more advanced engines load the 800x600 jpg and the more traditional ones load the 320x240 lmp. I'm more or less happy with that, and the bit of me that's less happy can shut up and worry about getting back in to coding the damned thing.

[MH]

What happens if I put in a 640x480 console back ground and some neo-luddite decides to load my mod in dos-quake playing at 320x240?

You'll get different answers to this one. My own opinion is that it's their tough luck, there's no reason to run DOS Quake other than to be willfully contrary (unless one doesn't know that Win/GL exist, in which case you can address that knowledge gap in your readme). In fact, I'm pretty certain that software Quake can only do a console texture of 320 x 200 anyway.

Anyway this is what I've got so far:
and
With both sitting next to each other in the GFX folder the more advanced engines load the 800x600 jpg and the more traditional ones load the 320x240 lmp. I'm more or less happy with that, and the bit of me that's less happy can shut up and worry about getting back in to coding the damned thing.

Looking good!

[Senban]

You'll get different answers to this one. My own opinion is that it's their tough luck, there's no reason to run DOS Quake other than to be willfully contrary (unless one doesn't know that Win/GL exist, in which case you can address that knowledge gap in your readme). In fact, I'm pretty certain that software Quake can only do a console texture of 320 x 200 anyway.


Looking good!

The thing is an important part of my demographic is my friends home network which consists of <200mhz PI's with no GL support so the whole shebang has to run in WinQuake.
But anyway I've checked it out with BJP's WinQuake which is the most traditional client I can lay my hands just now and that resizes it fine. Anyway the more I think about this the more inevitable it becomes that I'm going to end up running Quake.exe in a dos box at which point I might as well start growing my beard and applying for a job with the Taliban.