Dungeon Master Forum

I want to take some pictures that I took and make them portraits. I have tried it with CSBuild using ADGE, but that takes away colour. I have also tried figuring out CSBuilds "import portrait" feature, but that also takes away colour. What way do you think would be easiest using either DMPC or CSBWin?

You have to reduce it to the 16 colors used by the DM palette, wether in DM or CSBwin. RTC allows more colors.

Also, watch out for the pallet shifting. CSB has a set pallette and if you put in a picture that looks fine in a piant editor, it could display in the wrong colours in CSB. The easiest thing to do is use ADGE to export the portrait picture, then in a paint program copy and paste your picture into the exported one. The palette will be fine. You can then adjust as needed

Oh, I guess RTC would work okay. I forgot about it when I made my first post. I was thinking more like "Don't use DMJava" because that just looks too far away from original DM for me. I'll try RTC. I started to work on it, but I'm out of time, so I'll continue when I have more time, then tell you if it worked. I don't usually work with RTC though...(that doesn't say help me, this isn't the right forum.)

Well, it's not working yet, but like I said, I usually don't use RTC. I've tried the editor and the text document thing. Text document gave me 10 critical errors (the mirrors aren't showing up in the preview, so that would probably be a problem). With the editor, I can't seem to open my pictures in the graphics editor thing.
My point right now actually isn't to play in a dungeon with my own portaits, I actually want to just get a picture, so maybe you know a different way to do this.

Well, now I've figured out how to read the log file, so that might help me. Before, I was sitting there wondering what the critical errors were, but now I can actually see them.

And, it's working...almost. I got the RTC file built, but I have my pictures hanging below the frame. I'll figure that out, but right now, I have no time.

I think you just need to set the Y-axis offset thing so the picture is high enough on the wall that it actually fits inside the portrait. Look up an already-existing portrait and check what the Y-offset thing says, then chance your own portraits to match.

It's perfectly possible to use any image as character picture with RTC ( CSBWin will limit you to 16 colors). I did it a few months ago with one of my daughter's school picture. She was delighted.

This is procedure:
-You should crop and reduce the picture to 64(width) by 58(height) pixels and save it in .BMP format (You can use Photoshop, Paintshop pro or even Irfanview to do this) .
-In the RTC Editor :
First you have to add the bitmap:
Menu Ressource, item "Add/Replace bitmaps" :
You add a New Bitmap ( select the new bitmap file, and give the attributes : Transparent : False and Y_offset : -24 )
Once the bitmap is known, you can create a new character:
Menu Setup, item "Characters" :
You add a new character, selecting the previously created bitmap as portrait. You define the name and the attributes, and that's it.
Probably you will create a mirror holding your character. It's straightforward.

I am finished this "Hall of portraits" and I have the pictures taken for my folder shortcuts.

Now, to reply to the posts.

Actually, Ameena, that's exactly what I did. I guess I didn't explain good enough that I knew why it wasn't working.

JCG, I didn't crop the picture, instead I went into Paint Shop Pro and used the resize feature. 5 of my critical errors were the size issue (I have five portraits). I had the portraits too small, I'm not sure why I did it that way.
When I tried the editor, but when I selected my bitmap from the open dialog, it wouldn't show in the path bar and it wouldn't let me leave...oh, that would be because of my small size, right!
I used the text file way to do this. I wanted to get some experience with it.
And I thought it would be straight forward. The text editor also made this easy, because it actually let me insert a portrait that was too small. Notepad doesn't know why I am doing this, so it can't tell me anything wrong. The RTC editor wouldn't let me put it in, not telling me why. The text editor way told me why using the .log file.

My other 5 critical errors, just incase you're wondering, were very silly. I told the text file to put my champion mirrors at the Y-coordinate 2. It should have been 1 (Again, 5 portraits)

So, you're all set to design a new dungeon for all of us

I could possibly design a new dungeon. Like I believe I said before, this was to take pictures for some shortcuts on my computer. Now that I know a bit more RTC, I might be able to create an RTC dungeon...if I get an idea. I am working on a set of CSBWin dungeons right now, not that concentrated, though. I'll try to shove my face into it right now.