I have just got my hands on Adobe Photoshop for the pure reason of AoE. I have been striving to create credible graphics for AoE but so far I have had too much trouble.

In that time I have picked up on the fact that all SLPs can be converted to 8-bit BMP and then back to SLP. My problem is creating new images in 8-bit BMP format using the correct palette.

I know there are many tedious methods used by anyone with 30-40 hours to kill, but I think that I have a solution...

This is untested (I will try it out on the weekend):

1. Use SLP Studio (GUI/Windows version) to load the required palette (it is a BIN file). Most of the SLPs use the first palette, and I believe that all in-game graphics use the same first palette. Set-up menus etc use the others.

2. Take a screenshot and paste into MS Paint. Crop out everything but the colours, it is okay to keep some of the black background too. Save the image as 256 BMP file.

3. Open the saved palette with Adobe Photoshop. Configure the image to index the colours to the colours in the image. Save this colour table as a palette.

4. Open the SLP you wish to change via Adobe Photoshop (after extracting via SLP Studio).

5. Open the image you wish to use to replace the SLP (can be in any format, JPG etc).

6. Open a blank page, apply index colours, loading the previously saved colour table.

7. Copy the image from step 5 into the page in step 6. The copied image should convert to the same colour palette. You may be prompted for dithering/nearest colour technique, or set this up yourself. Dithering = colour not in palette is created from a texture of near colours, can create a spotty effect if seen up close. Nearest colour = finds nearest match to replace colour outside of palette, not always perfect.

8. Fix up picture to same size as replacement, use image from step 4 as guidance.

9. Further steps required for player colour and shadow effects.

10. Use SLP to replace frame with new image.

Again, I need to test this out, but if anyone can try it out in the mean time or add useful comments let me know. Potentially, any image can be put into the DRS files, and therefore the game.

Just the basics should help to replace any 1 frame image, such as a building or icon.

[This message has been edited by Rasteve (edited 01-17-2007 @ 08:54 AM).]