Image Processor

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Overview

ImageProcessor.png

The image processor is a tool we developed to help the artist to export and name the objects in the game in a far more efficient way then by hand.

This tool works excellent together with PyxelEdit.

The idea

Pyxel Edit is awesome to work with tiles and also with objects if you handle it properly, because it has an auto tile update feature that let you work on tiles and object on one place and update all copies of it in the document.

So how we worked:

We had several layers for tiles and objects in Pyxel Edit that where used to create the assets and as PyxelEdit allows for easy level editing too we always made a preview level too so we got a feeling for the assets and how they will look in the final level.

To export the 1000s of objects we put a copy of the tile/object on a seperate layer that we only use for exporting them. (As Pyxel updates all copies if you edit one of them, the export layer always stays uptodate.

All objects then have two layers:

  1. The objects itselfs
  2. The shadows.

We export them into two files that need to be a perfect match in size.

Where it helps

The tool is really good in exporting big numbers of object and helps you optimize your workflow if you are using PyxelEdit or other tile based GFX Tools.

  • Crops the image pixel perfect if you want.
  • Exports object and shadows at the same time
  • Easy to export objects of the same type but with tons of variations.


Controls

Short Cuts

  • Space +L-Click and Drag: Pan the view
  • Cmd/Ctrl + L-Click (and Drag): Select the part of the image that should get exported to an object with given name.

Settings

  1. Object File: Load the object png here.
  2. Shadow File: Load the shadow png here.
  3. Output Name: Name of the object
  4. Variation: The variation number of the object to be exported. Count this up for variations
  5. Status: Animation status number.
  6. Export Shadows: If ticked it will export the shadows to with the same name as the object plus the "s" for shadows.
  7. AutoCrop: Crops the object to the smallest size possible (This check includes the shadows as the shadows and objects need to be the same size)

How it works

  1. Load the object png and the shadow png into the tool (They should be located at the ./images folder in the tools folder.)
  2. Set a name and choose your options.
  3. Now press CMD/CTRL +L-Click and drag the courser over the area you want to export as an object.
  4. Release the mouse button and now the object (and the shadow) is placed into the ./output folder
  5. Repeate with higher variations nummer or new objects until done.
  6. Copy over the files from the output folder into your ./objects folder in the mod folder.


Known Issues

  • You can't scale the window
  • You need to load a object and shadow file or else the tool is not working does not show anything.

Linked Information

Assets Rules and Naming

File names for objects