How to capture images to make a remake
Monday, January 31, 2011
Pune To Coorg By Road
Let's see the basic steps for capturing images of classic games, so that we can apply to create a "remake" with a modern computer, respecting the aesthetics of the original game.
The steps are:
As graphical tools we use:
I apply it to a remake version of Manic Miner for Amstrad CPC, which will convert to graphics mode 800x600.
Here we go ...
The steps are:
- Launch the game from an emulator.
- Capture screens that interest us. Resize
- until resolution of the current team. Remove
- fragments that interest us.
- make "transparent" images.
As graphical tools we use:
- XnView for almost every step, because it can capture multiple images easily, resize several at once, cutting the area that interests ...
- GIMP to add transparency (the other steps, which can also occur with GIMP, are easier to XnView, but this last step, however, is more "visual" and powerful GIMP in XnView).
I apply it to a remake version of Manic Miner for Amstrad CPC, which will convert to graphics mode 800x600.
Here we go ...
1 .- Launch the game from an emulator.
To catch an Amstrad CPC game, the emulator CPCE I like is, it captures images as they were in the original, "pixelated", while other emulators as winap, "soften "outlines to export the images, which means you lose some retro aesthetic that is more difficult to achieve perfect transparency in the neighborhood.
Steps depend on the specific distribution used. For example, in CpcGamesCd is the list of games, and throw one of them (by pressing Enter or double click) will open the emulator and then the game, the risk may be to launch a emulator that is not what we want , but that is easy to solve: since the Emulator menu, choose the one we feel like using.
If you use the CPCE emulator directly, would you press F7 to open a disk image (a file with extension DSK, perhaps in a compressed ZIP file). In most cases, the game will start automatically.
2 .- Capture screens.
capture tools we use in Windows (XnView or otherwise), or the key itself PrintScreen and then paste into any image manipulation program, but if you want a more reliable, the ideal will ask our emulator is he who keeps the screen. From CPCE, this is accomplished by pressing the F12 key, and they will create images with names 0001.BMP, 0002.BMP and beyond.
These images have size 768x576, 640x400 + corresponding to edge of screen, if our CPCE is set up to double size (if IMAGE_DOUBLE = 1 appears in the file CPCE.INI) or 384x288 (320x200 + edge) if you are normal size (CPCE.INI IMAGE_DOUBLE = 0)
These images have size 768x576, 640x400 + corresponding to edge of screen, if our CPCE is set up to double size (if IMAGE_DOUBLE = 1 appears in the file CPCE.INI) or 384x288 (320x200 + edge) if you are normal size (CPCE.INI IMAGE_DOUBLE = 0)
3 .- Resize pending the resolution of current equipment.
could almost use any image manipulation program from free alternatives such as XnView, Paint.net or GIMP to professional applications like Photoshop.
I would use XnView, which is free, small, very comfortable as a viewfinder and simple handling, and also allows such handling many images at once, "batch."
from XnView to resize the image you're seeing, we can enter the "Picture" menu and choose "Resize" (or use the shortcut Shift + S). See something like this:
can choose the new size in pixels or percentage. If we start with an image of 320x200 (or 384x288 including border), we want to resize for use in a game of 800x600, you should use 250% as size. If original was 640x400 (or 768x576 with border), we should resize 125%, for a 800x500 playing area.
And if we do not want to soften the edges to keep the retro style and that it is easier to achieve the effect of transparency, we should say that the method of resizing is the "closeness"
If you use GIMP, the equivalent option called "Scale image", within the "image" and, like XnView allows us to specify the final size in pixels or percentage , and different ways of interpolating the image ("invent" new items to appear), of which we would call "no"
4 .- Remove the fragments interest us.
Again, suffice any any programs listed. In XnView enough with "click and drag" the mouse on the image to select the area of \u200b\u200binterest, and then click the Crop button (and save the changes, of course):
Achieving this in GIMP, would begin by choosing the crop tool (which has an image that resembles a blade). Then would puncture and drag them with the mouse to select the area you want to keep, and we would double-click to complete the operation.
5 .- Do "transparent" images.
This step depends on the graphics library we use: in Allegro, which in its most extended use images in BMP, transparent areas are indicated by filling them with a "key color, a color that has certainly not be drawn on the screen. By contrast, in SDL, which allows you to use PNG images, it is more reasonable to use the transparency inherent to this format.
Creating a PNG with transparency is more cumbersome and less versatile than GIMP XnView: XnView if we have to go to the File menu and choose "Save As." If we choose the PNG format, we indicate which of the colors of the palette we want to become transparent:
This has two drawbacks: firstly, we should know what is the color that "spare" (we can help the "Image" menu in the "Edit color map, but if there are several similar colors may not be helpful). Moreover, all that color would become transparent, and that may not interest us, but we wish that some areas transparent and others not.
is more comfortable and more powerful it from GIMP, because we can make certain areas transparent and others are not. But the details deserve another entry, so it is postponed until another day ...
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