Looking for Windows Tool to grab Sprite Graphics from original Games like Shadowfax

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Luzie
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Looking for Windows Tool to grab Sprite Graphics from original Games like Shadowfax

Post by Luzie »

I´m looking for a Windows Tool which can find, view and save those Sprite-Graphics from original Games like Mike Singleton´s Shadowfax.

Image

There´s a Sprite Search Tool in Spud Emulator but this seem to have a maximum limit for Sprite Height and Width of 20 Pixels.
It seems Shadowfax Graphics/Sprites are size 32x32 pixels so grabbing the Sprite with Spud won´t work.

Do you know of any other tool which I can try?
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Re: Looking for Windows Tool to grab Sprite Graphics from original Games like Shadowfax

Post by SteveSmith »

It would be great if there was something like this. I'd love to create games that had a medley of sprites from various Spectrum games.
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druellan
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Re: Looking for Windows Tool to grab Sprite Graphics from original Games like Shadowfax

Post by druellan »

ZXSpin has also a sprite inspector. I don't remember the limitations, but perhaps can be useful.
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PeterJ
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Re: Looking for Windows Tool to grab Sprite Graphics from original Games like Shadowfax

Post by PeterJ »

[mention]Luzie[/mention],

I've not looked at this in great detail, but it would appear to do what you need (at least according to the description).

http://retrospec.sgn.net/game/gfxrip
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R-Tape
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Re: Looking for Windows Tool to grab Sprite Graphics from original Games like Shadowfax

Post by R-Tape »

Those are nicely animated horses.

If they were stored as 32x32 then the SPIN GFX ripper would do it, but it looks like they're stored differently (around 25612). Possibly as individual 8x8 blocks. I don't know if there's a viewer to handle that.

I'd be tempted to take repeated screenshots (.scr) in the emulator, and you can collate them in ZX-Paintbrush. Long winded, but at least it would get it done.
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Re: Looking for Windows Tool to grab Sprite Graphics from original Games like Shadowfax

Post by Ralf »

The simplest way and in many cases the best one would be just to grab some screenshots and get your sprites from them.

If you want to use some tool, you can try out SGE:
https://worldofspectrum.net/pub/sinclai ... winsge.zip

It requires some skill - experimenting with sprite width, masks etc. And if your sprites are stored in some less common
format then this tool will fail to display them properly.
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Luzie
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Re: Looking for Windows Tool to grab Sprite Graphics from original Games like Shadowfax

Post by Luzie »

PeterJ wrote: Tue Oct 20, 2020 11:34 am @Luzie,

I've not looked at this in great detail, but it would appear to do what you need (at least according to the description).

http://retrospec.sgn.net/game/gfxrip
Thanks, I tried on Win10 x64 and it don´t seem to run here. I will have another try on Win10 32-Bit soon.
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Re: Looking for Windows Tool to grab Sprite Graphics from original Games like Shadowfax

Post by hikoki »

Sevenup allows for converting png to udgs. Import a png and export with these options
https://tcyr.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/basto1.jpg
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Luzie
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Re: Looking for Windows Tool to grab Sprite Graphics from original Games like Shadowfax

Post by Luzie »

Luzie wrote: Tue Oct 20, 2020 9:05 pm
PeterJ wrote: Tue Oct 20, 2020 11:34 am @Luzie,

I've not looked at this in great detail, but it would appear to do what you need (at least according to the description).

http://retrospec.sgn.net/game/gfxrip
Thanks, I tried on Win10 x64 and it don´t seem to run here. I will have another try on Win10 32-Bit soon.
I tried GFXrip v1.08 under Win10 32-Bit and it works.
Setting X to 8 (Pixel size width) results in this display (Graphics are found at offset +9250 from Start of .SNA-File, so those graphics seem to start in Memory at about 16384+9250=25634. Characterset (Numbers in 8x8 pixel) is visible:
Image

Setting X to 16 (Pixel size width) results in this display:
Image

Sadly width can´t be set to 24 pixels. Only to 16x2=32. Now I think the Shadowfax-Sprites are 24x24 pixel size instead of 32x32.

As result I think it´s best to do screenshots with emulators and copy the graphics I want to grab frame for frame into new pictures.
It seems it´s not easy to find an Emulator which save in native 256x192 pixel-size and .BMP or .PNG. All I tried (SpecEmu, Fuse, Spectaculator, Spud and EmuZWin) save at higher Pixel sizes or with a surrounding border.
Last edited by Luzie on Sun Oct 25, 2020 6:38 pm, edited 5 times in total.
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Luzie
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Re: Looking for Windows Tool to grab Sprite Graphics from original Games like Shadowfax

Post by Luzie »

hikoki wrote: Tue Oct 20, 2020 10:26 pm Sevenup allows for converting png to udgs. Import a png and export with these options
https://tcyr.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/basto1.jpg
Thanks! I´ll give this a try.
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Luzie
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Re: Looking for Windows Tool to grab Sprite Graphics from original Games like Shadowfax

Post by Luzie »

I´ve tried a little bit with random poking into the Sprite-Area and found this:

The sprites are size 32x32 Bits or better say 16 pieces of 8x8 Bits:
One sprite I found starting in memory at adress 25632: 8x8-Block 0, then from 25640 upwards=8x8-Block 1 and so on
to 25752 upwards=8x8-Block 15
I start counting at 8x8-Block 0 and go up to 8x8-Block 15, so this are: 16 "8x8-Blocks"
This 16 "8x8-Blocks" I´ll number in Hex from 0 to F and here´s the order of these blocks I found in memory:

C D E F
0 1 2 3
4 5 6 7
8 9 A B

While the game is running, the Opponents-Graphic-Bits are the same order as in memory: Bits 76543210
while the Player-Graphic is mirrored from this and gets displayed as: Bits 01234567

You can see this, if you e.g. Poke the first Byte of "8x8-Block C" with 255:
POKE 25728,255 will display a complete pixel-row on the upper right of the Opponent-Sprite and a complete pixel-row on the upper left of the Players-Sprite:
Image

This 16 "8x8-Blocks" I´ll number in Hex from 0 to F and here´s the order of these blocks I found in memory:

Update:
Maybe I´m wrong with this order in memory from 25632
C D E F
0 1 2 3
4 5 6 7
8 9 A B

and it should be:
0 1 2 3
4 5 6 7
8 9 A B
C D E F
so Sprite-Data begins 4x8 Bytes earlier at 25632-32=25600
...I´ll have to investigate this.
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