Some info on Monster Colours / Palettes (DM)

[Gambit37]

I've been messing around with DM and found out some info about the colour palettes used.

There are 32 colours used in the game. Imagine this as two rows of 16 colours. The top row is used to draw all the interface elements (Character portraits, hand and spell boxes, inventory and items etc.) and the bottom 16 colours are used draw the map window. This is because the map window has to get darker independently of the interface as your light source gets weaker. Under these circumstances colour values of the last 16 colours are made lower to simlulate darkness.

The second row also dictates what colour some of the monsters are on each level. There are 14 colours that are common to every level. The other 2 colours vary depending which level you're on. This feature is used to control the colours of monsters and explains why if you place a rat on level 4 it will be pink as the palette only contains the extra pink for the worms, and not the browns of the rats. The 2 colours per level are as follows:

Level 1: Orange, Flesh
Level 2: Orange, Flesh
Level 3: Blue, Dark Blue (Trollin)
Level 4: Pink, Purple (Worms)
Level 5: Orange, dark Green (Coatl)
Level 6: Yellow, Gold (Wizards' Eyes)
Level 7: Orange, Flesh
Level 8: Orange, Flesh
Level 9: Khaki, Dark Brown (Rats and Rusters)
Level 10: Yellow, Gold (Scorpions)
Level 11: Blue, Dark Blue (Trollin & Puddles)
Level 12: Orange, Dark Orange (Oitu and Fader)
Level 13: Rust, Dark Brown (Demons)
Level 14: Rust, Dark Brown (Dragon)

Note that where monsters share the same palette, these can be placed on the respective levels with no colour change - assuming the monters types allows it. Placing monsters on levels with the wrong colours can lead to interesting effects so experiment a little.

Note that all other display objects while in the map window are drawn with only the 14 standard colours so that they remain consistent throughout the dungeon. It would be great if we could change the graphics as we could create items that change colours depending which level you're on...

[Ian Clark]

It has been mentioned before that a future version of DMute could have a colour-changing feature where you could decide on the level colours yourself. I must say that blue Spiders look like different monsters all together. <p><font face=arial>Ian

"Like a car crash I can see but I just can't avoid, like a plane I've been told, I never should board. Like a film that's so bad but I've gotta stay to the end. Let me tell you now, it's lucky for you that we're friends." Pulp - Like A Friend</font></p>

[Gambit37]

That shouldn't be difficult to do if we can find the colour offsets in the correct files, but neither Dungeon.dat nor Graphics.dat seem willing to give up their secrets. maybe palette info is hardcoded into the EXE?

I've messed about with graphics.dat a bit but haven't managed to do anything useful except crash DM a few times. There are clearly patterns in the HEX code which must be pixel information, but even when I've edited it, I've never managed to find the graphic that has been affected.

Does anybody have *any* info about the format?

[Ian Clark]

I think George edited one of them to get "DMute By George Gilbert" on a wall in his dungeon, and Toni (I think) edited the "Fires" file and changed lots of words such as "Chop" to "Chob"! You would be better off asking them. <p><font face=arial>Ian

"Like a car crash I can see but I just can't avoid, like a plane I've been told, I never should board. Like a film that's so bad but I've gotta stay to the end. Let me tell you now, it's lucky for you that we're friends." Pulp - Like A Friend</font></p>

[Francis]

The palette can be altered simply by changing which monsters are present on a level. I don't know if some monsters get priority over others or if it just depends on the order in which DMute handles their presence (when using the "check level integrity" feature). I don't remember which combinations of monsters I've tried, but I know that, on the same level, you can change the palette according to which other monsters are present (or are allowed to be present, even if they're not there anymore). You can make some really ugly ogres that way, as well as vexirks that turn red (at close range only) when they attack.

[Toni Y]

I was the one who edited the fires, but I couldn't decode the text completely so I couldn't make 100% accurate changes. I just used a hex editor to change what I could see to something (hopefully) a bit more funny.

[Gambit37]

Francis, are you sure? In my experiments, the palette is fixed per level and only the monsters change colour if you put the wrong coloured monsters on the wrong level.

A note about Vexirks - they do change to red when they attack and always have done; that's in the original game and isn't a palette issue.

[Francis]

Sorry, I suppose you're right about vexirks. But I do remember changing the colours of a monster just by adding another monster to the same level. I'll try it again just in case.

[Gambit37]

Wow, you're right. I hadn't actually noticed that before. It depends whether or not you use the 'check level integrity' feature after you have changed the monster types on a level - if you don't, then the level retains the original palette, but if you do a check, the palette is changed to the next highest priority creature. I haven't yet worked out which creatures have priority, but so far purple worms seem to take priority over everything. George must have known about this all along...

I'll see what more I can find out on this one. <i>Edited by <A HREF=http://pub17.ezboard.com/ugambit37.show ... ambit37</A> at: 7/24/00 10:17:18 pm
</i>

[Gambit37]

OK, this is what I found out. To change the palette used for a level, you do the following:

1) Remove at least one monster type (all occurences) and run the integrity check. For example, if your editing level 4, then remove either all the wasps, or all the worms, or all the screamers etc. You need to leave one available monster slot free.

2) Add a new monster with a different palette, eg, Oitu (those orange things that every body else calls spiders but in fact only have four legs. Interesting fact - they were redesigned slightly in CSB and the colour palette is slightly different)

3) Run the integrity check again. save the file and test. You should find that the new palette has been applied to the level.

I have managed to get orange worms using the above example, but there are numerous other combinations you can try. The only downside is that this procedure occasionally doesn't work, and no matter how hard you try, the palette won't change. This mainly occurs when purple worms exist on the level - everything just ends up pink.

Have you ever seen a gold dragon - looks pretty cool!

Note that there are some monsters that aren't affected by the palette change: rock piles, screamers, skeletons, golems, gigglers, ghosts, swamp slime, wasps, knights.

[Gambit37]

I've managed to identify the priorities that are taken by each creature when applying a palette to the level. Dragons and demons take priority:

Dragon / Demons (RED)
Oitu / Fader (ORANGE)
Trollin / Water (BLUE)
Purple worm (PURPLE)
Coatl / Swamp Slime (GREEN & ORANGE)
Rat / Ruster (BROWNS)
Scorpion / Wizard's Eye (Beholder) (GOLD)

So for example, to create ornage worms, your level would need to contain worms, and oitu and no other creature with a higher priority. You can also include any of the creatures that aren't affected by the palette change as mentioned in the post above.

The odd thing about this is that the logic dictates that it would not be possible to create a gold dragon or a purple oitu - but I have managed to create these in the past! So if anyone knows what is going on...! I think it's to do with whether or not you run the level integrity check, and whether or not you include the maximum number of monsters allowed on a level.

For example, on the worm level, you are allowed four monster types. If these are changed to screamer, worm, troll and oitu, then the orange of the oitu is used. If you then delete all monsters, run an integrity check, then add say a scorpion and a beholder and run the integrity check again, you would think that the palette would change to the gold of the scorpion/beholder. It doesn't - it remains orange. So I think the palette is only changed when the level contains the maximum number of creatures allowed.

Hope some of this helps.

[Ian Clark]

It might have something to do with what order you add the monsters... <p><font face=arial>Ian

Pulp - Styling the pattern for life!</font></p>

[Zyx]

It seems you were right about the palette: it changes only if all the monster slots are used.
To get a gold dragon, on level 1:
1. erase all monsters.
2. Put a beholder and a giant scorpion. Check integrity. (the palette will have several yellows)
3. Erase both monsters.
4. Put some dragon, but no other monsters. Check integrity. The palette is still yellow. Voilà.

[Zyx]

You forgot some creatures:
NOT affected: order,chaos,fire elementals
affected: jawas (vexirks) BROWNS?
Also, I found that BROWN has a higher priority than GREEN & ORANGE

Here are some interesting results you should try:
ORANGE: blue ogre, dragon, giant rat purple worm,
BLUE: beholder, demon, dragon, giant rat, oitu, purple worm, ruster
PURPLE: blue ogre, demon, dragon, giant rat, oitu, ruster
GREEN & ORANGE: water elemental, giant rat, purple worm
BROWN: blue ogre, demon, dragon, purple worm
GOLD: blue ogre, demon, dragon, giant rat, purple worm

[Gambit37]

Yep, you're right - BROWN is higher priority than GREEN & ORANGE.

With a bit of messing about, I've now had four different coloured worms on different levels of the same dungeon: purple, orange, gold and dark red. Cool!

Most of the combinations can be pretty ugly and look out of place, but there are a few that still work well in the context of the DM world. Blue or ornage rats look odd, but orange worms look cool.

Incidentally, I managed to get purple worms in CSB! I had been editing a DM saved game, then a CSB saved game. I saved my changes, loaded it up in CSB and there they were - purple worms on the start level. I guess DMUTE had somehow kept the palette data from DM and used that when saving CSB. I haven't checked other levels, but maybe other palettes have changed in CSB too - I'll have a look.