Convert PNG to IFF looks bad + a couple of AGS questions

[Loki762]

I am building a game collection and for the "Cobra" game I needed to create an IFF image as I could not find it anywhere. I took the image from Lemon Amiga, where it looked good but when I converted it with "Pro Motion NG" then it ended up looking terrible.

Original picture:



My converted picture:



How can I do this better?

An add-on bonus question - the game "Cobra" is coming from Retroplays collection, "Games - Beta & Unreleased" but why is Cobra set in this category as I can find it on Lemon Amiga as a published game in 1991?

The game collection is based on Retroplays archieve and Arcade Game Selector 2 (AGS2), which I think is great :-) I need to find some music rips to put in also - anyone know where I can find an archieve for that?

[Samurai_Crow]

Have you tried a qualitative conversion using Personal Paint on the Amiga side? Also, most IFF converters don't use coppershades. Also, split-screens using the copper to change palettes mid-screen will multiply the available number of colors even more.

[Loki762]

I would prefer to do this on my PC as my strong side is not on the Amiga (I have no idea what you are talking about) ;-) Isn't there a good converter on the PC that can convert from e.g. PNG or JPG to IFF?

Originally Posted by Samurai_Crow

Have you tried a qualitative conversion using Personal Paint on the Amiga side? Also, most IFF converters don't use coppershades. Also, split-screens using the copper to change palettes mid-screen will multiply the available number of colors even more.

[Samurai_Crow]

No there isn't.

The idea of using copper split screens means dividing the top half of your display from the bottom half so they are 2 small pictures. The Amiga chipset can change palettes between them to get more colors at once.

[StingRay]

Originally Posted by Loki762

Isn't there a good converter on the PC that can convert from e.g. PNG or JPG to IFF?

XnView will do the job just fine. There aren't any copper shades in the image anyway.

[AMIGASYSTEM]

Try with GrafX2 MultiOS !


http://grafx2.chez.com/index.php?static3/downloads

[Loki762]

Neither "XnView" or "GrafX2" helped me out here and the result is identical to what I already have:



I have also attached the original PNG picture - can anyone do it any better on a Windows platform?

[StingRay]

This is my XnView converted version: http://stingray.untergrund.net/cobra_01.iff

[d4rk3lf]

Pro motion NG is an awesome app, but I still don't knpw how to use it.
You are definitely doing something wrong here... you shouldn't have that bad result...
So, for this stuff, I just use Photoshop (CS6).... I've tried now on your image...even on only 16 colors, it looks like a much better conversion.
I'll do a quick recording now on how I do it, and will switch between various options... but it's very easy....
[ Show youtube player ]

So basically, go to Image - mode - indexed color
Then in new window:
- Pallete (local perceptual) (or keep the same if you want)
- colors (pick the number you want... 8-16-32-64-256)
- all other options to "none" (these are used for color that is alpha and for dithering (blending), but you don't need that as far as I understood.

Save as IFF.. and there you go.

[AMIGASYSTEM]

Originally Posted by Loki762

Neither "XnView" or "GrafX2" helped me out here and the result is identical to what I already have:

I have also attached the original PNG picture - can anyone do it any better on a Windows platform?

For me with GrafX2 the conversion is good, I enclose converted files !

What viewer are you using and above all what OS Amiga are you using?

[Nobby_UK]

I usually use PSP5:

[Loki762]

It seems impossible to get the previously free(?) PS CS6 and I am not going to pay a monthly feed ;-)

I would be mostly interested in XnView as this is free but also it seems easy and straight forward. I tried loding the picture to my Amiga and it did work - however the picture must be in 320x128 pixels as this is what AGS2 requires. But did you do anything else than "Save As"? If so I do not know why it works for you but not for me?

Originally Posted by StingRay

This is my XnView converted version: http://stingray.untergrund.net/cobra_01.iff

[kriz]

Find old versions here: http://www.oldversion.com/windows/paint-shop-pro/

[Amigajay]

I use PSP too, i find it easier to grab an old AGS .iff and change the colour to full 16-bit, then copy and paste the new image into the old with ‘replace’, then change the colour range back down to (64 in my case), imo keeps a better range of colours and pixels look better this way instead of converting the new image down to the correct size and colours and saving that way.

[Daedalus]

It sounds strange that you'd need to do that sort of thing. If the image is a faithful screengrab, the colour and pixel information should be 100% and should be preserved without extending the palette range or resizing the image.

[Amigajay]

Originally Posted by Daedalus

It sounds strange that you'd need to do that sort of thing. If the image is a faithful screengrab, the colour and pixel information should be 100% and should be preserved without extending the palette range or resizing the image.

May sound strange but thats the reality

From memory when reducing the colour depth through PSP it doesn’t save them as the first 64 colours which AGS requires, something like that i can’t recall exactly but its just easier to load an old image first

[Loki762]

Well, I am not able to get any decent result with "XnView", which seems to be the only option I have so far. I do not compress the picture in any way (I have checked the "Save" options) and the image only has 256 colors. When viewed in Windows (with XnView) then the saved IFF looks fine but on the Amiga it looks very bad. I test this with WinUAE on a standard A1200 setup (same result on my real A1200).

I can download PaintShop Pro 9 but it requires an account on PSP page (which I expect does not work). This seems too much hazzle for the very few pictures I will make so maybe I will just settle with the low quality on these few pictures :-)

Originally Posted by Daedalus

It sounds strange that you'd need to do that sort of thing. If the image is a faithful screengrab, the colour and pixel information should be 100% and should be preserved without extending the palette range or resizing the image.

[Daedalus]

Sounds like quite a mess so, the RGB values shouldn't be open to interpretation at any point in the process unless that's something you want. I don't know the specifics of how PSP works (I haven't used it since the '90s); PersonalPaint has always been excellent for any conversions to IFF I've needed (and it runs on WinUAE so is handy to use on a PC too).

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by StingRay

XnView will do the job just fine. There aren't any copper shades in the image anyway.

Originally Posted by Nobby_UK

I usually use PSP5:

Yep, I use Paint Shop Pro 7 and XnView

[Retro1234]

Paint Shop 6 maybe try reducing the colour first

Theres been a number of updates and branches to AGS over the years and contain packs of ready converted pictures.