Achieving True Red

[Don Czirr]

Guys,

Hoping someone can help here.

I’ve been banging my head against the wall trying to get Guards units to show up with a real Soviet Red – but instead all I can achieve is a Sickly Orange - which is better IMO than the original Sickly Orange but still not a good Soviet Red Color.

Is there any way to get the Red to “stick”?

I color sampled from the highlight box / objective outline in the bmp and applied to the counter images but no luck. Those items appear Red but not my Guards counters.

Any ideas?

[Warhorse]

Hi Don,

Might be a palette thing, but don't know for sure? If you like, send them to me, I'll give it a shot?

[Don Czirr]

Hi Don,

Might be a palette thing, but don't know for sure? If you like, send them to me, I'll give it a shot?

Thanks Warhorse.

I attached the file.

Out of curiosity - have you ever seen any JTS game display a true Soviet Red color?  Panzer Battles Kursk is closer but not quite there ....

Soviet colors as seen in games like TOAW III or DC CB would be fine.

I'm wondering if it's  limitation with the JTS engine?

Hope you have better luck than I.

[Warhorse]

Hi Don,

Might be a palette thing, but don't know for sure? If you like, send them to me, I'll give it a shot?

Thanks Warhorse.

I attached the file.

Out of curiosity - have you ever seen any JTS game display a true Soviet Red color?  Panzer Battles Kursk is closer but not quite there ....

Soviet colors as seen in games like TOAW III or DC CB would be fine.

I'm wondering if it's  limitation with the JTS engine?

Hope you have better luck than I.

Hi Don,
Try this, not sure what the counters were, no black on the face of them, so just recolored to red.

[-72-]

You can use up to 24 bit graphics -making your available colour palette in the millions.

Maybe working out the exact hexidecimal code that you want your colour to be and chucking that in to whatever image editing program you use might be an idea (if possible) - it is in the ones I use (however in my experience there aren't a lot of guys even within JTS that are using Photoshop and/or Fireworks. Pointing at a palette is a bit like taking a shotgun to the problem, and not as exact as you can be.

But basically the point is - it is not going to be an engine issue; the only other thing it can be is your choice and the scale of what you are using it on.  It does make a difference in outcome in anything - like say building models (I am meaning plastic ones, not digital ones).

[Warhorse]

I can usually get whatever color I need with Paintshop Pro, it is a matter of replacing the colors correctly, saturation and such.

[-72-]

I can usually get whatever color I need with Paintshop Pro, it is a matter of replacing the colors correctly, saturation and such.

Understood- what I am saying is that you need the hex code for it, in order to get actual true; this goes for anything though, not just the colour in question.  If you can work out what that is -then you will be nailing it.

I just wasn't sure if that software allows you to plug in the code (wouldn't be surprised if it does), however the reason I posted was the 'engine' line; I am not sure what all some guys think that the engine does and doesn't do -there is no way that it can be having that impact as you can use 24 bit (but not 32 bit - and the difference there is going to be the alpha channel for transparencies -which isn't a factor).


Now if you start playing around with gradients, then you might start ending up with something that gets a bit different (leastwise I have) overall.

[Warhorse]

No problem, PSP X7 does allow you to punch in a code, or pick from swatch, RGB, etc. Just never used that part! I always see the code for any given color displayed in the menu that comes up with left clicking on a color in the materials panel, but didn't realize that if I find a code, I can copy/paste that code into the display box and voila!! Thanks for that little tidbit, learn something new every day!

We run into engine concerns as well at Matrix, with the Campaign Series, it is a common thing to blame anything on the engine!

@Don, did that suit you ok, or..?

[Don Czirr]

Thanks for the info guys. I was unaware of being able to use up to 24 bit.

I have Corel Draw 7 so I'll try to enhance with that.

I was not sure how intense you could get with a .bmp - which is what I assume that you need to keep the file name specified as?

Or is there a setting somewhere that you could modify to tell the PzC program to use a JPEG instead ?

[Strela]

Thanks for the info guys. I was unaware of being able to use up to 24 bit.

I have Corel Draw 7 so I'll try to enhance with that.

I was not sure how intense you could get with a .bmp - which is what I assume that you need to keep the file name specified as?

Or is there a setting somewhere that you could modify  to tell the PzC program to use a JPEG instead ?

Always BMP and no more than 24 bit.

I can do any colour I want - no drama. I did all the counters in the Panzer Battles series so let me know if you're still having issues....

David