ZX Recoloring project

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Ralf
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Re: ZX Recoloring project

Post by Ralf »

I'm sure he could try to patch every particular issue
Yes, if such project should be successful, it can't be "release and forget" thing. The tool author should cooperate with people trying to make games and address problems they encounter.

And I agree also with Andy that
It's always pitched as something that is easy, requires no programming experience and that will produce great results
You know, when people hear about colouring black and white pictures they immediately think of 5 years old kids in a kindergarten ;)

But no, adding colour to Spectrum games isn't a job for 5 years old kids. You must be good at pixel art. You never work at whole object like houses or tree but rather on small tiles and sprite parts. And yes, you need some understanding of assembler as well.
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Re: ZX Recoloring project

Post by hikoki »

I may be wrong but this project is different. If you open the sample you'll find the original sprite and the modern one. So the process tries to be transparent to the user as for searching and replacing entire sprites.
It may be a proof of concept which doesn't work on every case yet, but the idea of the author is in there, just replace every sprite by yours. Besides, I understand the modified emulator allows to place any sprite without taking account of any limitation like colour clash or the number of colours.
geecab
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Re: ZX Recoloring project

Post by geecab »

Hi there! I decided to register with this forum after I read this thread as am really interested in modifying the graphics on certain speccy games (I've been playing around with emuzwin v2.5, changing the graphics on Fairlight and Amaurote. I'd like to modify MAME to do something similar but that is a subject for a new thread :p).

Anyways, I decided to try out the Iball2 game the developer modified (I downloaded the iball2_remake.rar from his website). It looks and works pretty well. I've read the WOS thread too, it's a real shame he was hit by such harsh/bitter/unfair responses. I think his idea could have gone places, even just for prototyping new colour schemes for old games. I think the configuration (settings.txt) for the modified sprites is clever too (When 2 sprites collide, you can configure which modified sprite should be in the foreground, and which should be in the background).

I think with a game like Iball2, where sprites don't often collide or hide behind each other, then this pixel find/replace method can give good results.

I think this sort of approach lends itself best for games like Rebelstar/Rebelstar2 (Where the graphics are pretty much stationary and never overlap). Might have a go a modifying Rebelstar2 myself...

Something else, but I'd recommend keeping the new sprites the same pixel resolution as the old sprites they are replacing (I.e. Just modifying the pixel colour of the new sprites). Mainly because when sprites overlap/collide (And the emulator has trouble identifying a match), it is less obvious when the old sprites are momentarily displayed (You hardly notice it). Also, keeping everything at the same resolution also looks more faithful to the original game (You look at it and think "wow, that's cool speccy graphics", rather than "This clearly isn't a spectrum game"), but I understand this might just be my personal preference.

:)
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Bedazzle
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Re: ZX Recoloring project

Post by Bedazzle »

geecab wrote: Wed Jul 03, 2019 1:31 pm I've been playing around with emuzwin v2.5, changing the graphics on Fairlight and Amaurote.
Fairlight will be a problem, cause some graphics is procedure generated.
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Re: ZX Recoloring project

Post by geecab »

Bedazzle wrote: Fri Jul 05, 2019 5:29 am Fairlight will be a problem, cause some graphics is procedure generated.
Thanks Bedazzle! Good to know.
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Re: ZX Recoloring project

Post by geecab »

I've been playing around with the recolouring stuff a bit more. I really like it! It’s very easy to use and I am hooked now. I think it’s really worth trying if you haven't done so already :)

I decided to have a go at recolouring Aquaplane as there aren't many sprites in the game. I've recoloured quite a few of the sprites, it didn't take too long and I'm pretty happy with the way things are looking (See screenshot below). There is an occasional 'flicker' problem with the original sprites in Aquaplane. I have a suspicion the flicker is because Aquaplane does not synchronise its video memory writes with the video interrupt. As the original sprites occasioanly flicker, then so do the new/recoloured sprites, which looks a bit odd. Not sure what can be done about this.

I've also started recolouring Stormbringer (Currently, I've only recoloured the main character/hero sprite. See screenshot below). Things looks great/smooth and there is zero flicker. Something is a little odd though, if say on the screen below, I move the hero character under the big tree or under the green handle of the sword, the emulator fails to recolour the sprite. Move anywhere else and its fine.

I've zipped up everything I've done here incase anyone fancies taking a look:-
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Ml8vP ... sAV3WvOAsi

Aquaplane screenshot

Stormbringer screenshot

:)
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druellan
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Re: ZX Recoloring project

Post by druellan »

Simon Owen's projects are also interesting, using a similar approach: the original codebase working on background, and a new graphic layer on top:
https://simonowen.com/spectrum/augmentinel

Image
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Re: ZX Recoloring project

Post by AndyC »

geecab wrote: Sat Jul 06, 2019 2:15 pm I've also started recolouring Stormbringer (Currently, I've only recoloured the main character/hero sprite. See screenshot below). Things looks great/smooth and there is zero flicker. Something is a little odd though, if say on the screen below, I move the hero character under the big tree or under the green handle of the sword, the emulator fails to recolour the sprite. Move anywhere else and its fine.
This is the problem with trying to solve it with image recognition techniques. The relatively low resolution of the image, plus the inherently quirky colour clashing artifacts will most likely cause it to fail at times and end up with a somewhat unsatisfactory result. You could possibly tweak the algorithm to better suit some games, but doing so will likely cause others to behave worse.
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ZXDunny
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Re: ZX Recoloring project

Post by ZXDunny »

You need an emulator that reads and writes memory using shadow RAM images.

When a memory read is performed, you read from three extra copies of the 64k that's paged in - and store them in shadow registers. When writing, you either write just the 8 bits you read from main memory (in the case of a general memory write), unless you're writing to the screen in which case you extract 8 bits for PAPER and 8 bits for INK and combine those to a screen that can handle 256 colours. If you have 7 extra banks of RAM, you can easily make graphics that are 256 colours per pixel.

Of course, you can't load games from tape this way, but snapshots are really useful. All you need then is an editor that allows you to identify graphical objects in memory and pre-load those regions with 256 colour representations of their 1s and 0s.

This has already been done, btw, many years ago. But it never gained any traction at all, despite being very simple for the average user to mess around with. You don't need to do image recognition, no need to trap screen display routines.
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Re: ZX Recoloring project

Post by hikoki »

[mention]geecab[/mention]
Thanks! You may want to send your work to the author, RG_Software, and tell him about the issues you mention.
Do you think it'd be possible to take the Jet Pac Advance Mod and put Scuba Dive's sprites instead? Using Horace everywhere could also be fun. I'd like to see a different Bruce Lee sprite. Another kind of game to mod could be those with 3d graphics like Ant Attack to use baddies from other Spectrum games giving them a 3d look. What about Double Dragon? there were graphics out there for a remake that never was finished. One could also think of using Renegade graphics for Double Dragon, or take one of these beatemups and give them a Christmas theme like making the Three Wise Kings fight with burglars disguised like Santa Claus. In general it'd be interesting to mod good early games with UDG or simple graphics. Another idea would be making demakes of modern games, Mario sprites from Gabriele Amore comes to mind. Aberrations like these may not deserve to be in the form of real Spectrum game, that's why I see these experiments like any other modern game for PC.
rg_software
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Re: ZX Recoloring project

Post by rg_software »

Thanks to @geecab for pointing me to this thread! Sorry for a somewhat long reply, but my project rarely gets much attention, so let me use it as an excuse for stating my point of view :)

1) Motivation. I think the idea of "easy remastering" is still relevant today, and I am happy that some people share my view. What's different now. First, a few major titles got "official" remasterings and re-releases, and some companies started fighting with fan-made remakes, which doesn't increase our motivation to do this work. This concerns Speccy scene to a lesser degree, but fun remakes competitions (like organized by remakes.org) are long gone, and I miss those times. Nowadays a decent remake (especially with a blessing of a copyright holder) can be turned into a commercial mobile game, which can be a preferable path for many.

2) Tech stuff. It turns out that only certain types of games would benefit from the approach I proposed in "ZX Recoloring Project", and not all of them are equally easy to convert. Well, this is to be expected, but in practice it just means that one needs love a certain game, have a motivation to do a remake (in spite of my point (1)), be satisfied with my project's capabilities, and be happy that only the graphics gets upgraded. I wanted scrolling and better sound in Joe Blade 3, so I had to write my remake from scratch. I think it is good. Since modern emulators support advanced graphic filters, I bet many people are just happy with them.

3) On good recolorings. In my strictly personal view, a good remake (I imagined when designing ZX Recoloring Proj) should feature double-resolution sprites and updated colors. I like, for example, Deflektor, Exolon and Head over Heels remakes from Retrospec. I tried to play with triple resolution, but it looks weird -- like a huge screen populated with few huge blocky objects and vast empty spaces in between (we upgrade the screen resolution, but the game resolution stays the same). I am not a fan of keeping the initial resolution intact -- yes, I understand that such a game looks "more faithful", but... Even a double resolution is "pixelated enough" nowadays to look retro, and if a game has a version for Amiga or Atari, it would be exactly what you want -- the same game, (nearly) the same resolution, better colors. We've seen a lot of HD remasters today, and now I think we know they can look good if made properly. Say, I really like HD remasterings of Grim Fandango, Full Throttle and Monkey Island. They are good. I don't like Leisure Suit Larry, though, and I completely dislike modern Dizzy made for Android. So it is possible, but it takes time and skill.

4) On the state of "ZX Recoloring Project". I don't consider it "effectively abandoned" -- it is just being postponed every year due to other exciting things I have to do, like my daily job and other semi-hobby projects :) Though in practice the biggest hindrance was graphics. I wanted to create a nice showcase for the project, so I tried to recolor I, Ball 2. Unfortunately, I was never satisfied with the results. I am a reasonably decent coder, but drawing sprites is completely outside my expertise. Yes, I could so something semi-decent, but that's not the purpose of a showcase, right?

Technically the project is in a permanent alpha stage. There are a lot of things (in coding) that must be done there, but it makes sense to invest my effort only if someone really wants and is able to recolor some nice game. I don't think I can do it, but I can help and improve the project if there are any interested people around. Can't promise to do it fast, but I am still alive and capable of doing various stuff.
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Re: ZX Recoloring project

Post by Ralf »

Well and honestly said, Rg_Software.

I believe it was some kind of vicious circle here. Nobody used the tool, because they weren't any nice examples of recoloured
games with it showing what would be possible.

Maybe you actually should have finished this I Ball 2 game, it would give an impression that actually it's possible to complete
something with the tool. On the other hand if it was done with "programmer graphics" ;) then it wouldn't be very encouraging too.

So nobody used the tool because nobody used the tool ;)

And I'll be honest here too, people are afraid of using new, unchecked tools because they are untested and probably buggy.
So working with them may be frustrating and there is a risk that you'll do some work but eventually it'll turn out that
obtaining your goal isn't possible and you have to trash what you've done.

Double resolution was also a thing that put some people away. It should be an option, not a must. And no, working in higher
resolution and using 2x2 pixels just doesn't feel right.

That's what I feel, hope you didn't get offended by it.
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Re: ZX Recoloring project

Post by hikoki »

rg_software wrote: Sun Jul 07, 2019 5:21 am
4) On the state of "ZX Recoloring Project". I don't consider it "effectively abandoned" -- it is just being postponed every year due to other exciting things I have to do, like my daily job and other semi-hobby projects :) Though in practice the biggest hindrance was graphics. I wanted to create a nice showcase for the project, so I tried to recolor I, Ball 2. Unfortunately, I was never satisfied with the results. I am a reasonably decent coder, but drawing sprites is completely outside my expertise. Yes, I could so something semi-decent, but that's not the purpose of a showcase, right?

Technically the project is in a permanent alpha stage. There are a lot of things (in coding) that must be done there, but it makes sense to invest my effort only if someone really wants and is able to recolor some nice game. I don't think I can do it, but I can help and improve the project if there are any interested people around. Chan't promise to do it fast, but I am still alive and capable of doing various stuff.
Cool project! Thanks for coming by and telling us you are still alive and kicking.

Would it be possible to use these graphics for a showcase? http://www.smspower.org/Homebrew/BruceLee-SMS
We could ask the authors for permission.
Sprites from other Spectrum games would have a big impact on me, say using Scuba Dive graphics on some other Spectrum game which is not underwater.
rg_software
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Re: ZX Recoloring project

Post by rg_software »

Ralf wrote: Sun Jul 07, 2019 9:25 am That's what I feel, hope you didn't get offended by it.
No offense, of course. There is no ideological reason for me to restrict the resolution to double size or impose any additional restrictions. When you look at my webpage and see "2009" there, it might give an impression of a long project in a state of stagnation. In reality, it is just an early prototype I dared to put online just in case someone is interested.

However, you are right -- I should find some time and make something workable out of it. I just feel constant lack of time, though.

As suggested below, I can indeed reuse sprites of some other existing port just as a proof of concept. Bruce Lee is one possibility; another one can be to take Dizzy sprites from Amiga and recolor Dizzy 3.5, AFAIK it is Spectrum-only.
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Re: ZX Recoloring project

Post by geecab »

Thanks so much for joining the thread rg_software! Hopefully this thread will ignite enthusiasm back into the project and encourage more people to give it a try :)

I'm going to waffle on about the ZX Relcoloring Project now (I'm going to refer to it as 'ZXRP' in this post as I mention it a few times. Hope that's ok). Nothing is in any particular order, just stuff I have in my head after reading all the posts:-

I really like the fact how quickly with ZXRP you can add a splash of color to a much loved speccy game in a very short amount of time. For me, I'd just be happy seeing a few of my old favorites 'tweaked' a little. Perhaps just adding a dash of color to the hero & enemies so that they no longer blend into the landscape. The games that I'd like to see get the ZXRP treatment, are the games that existed on the Speccy, that didn't get a decent Amiga/AtariST port. Amaroute, Fairlight, TargetRenegade, Marauder to name a few.

I also think ZXRP will be really handy for developers when prototyping game graphics. Say you are working on the graphics for a fighting/platform type game where the hero is an Alien, the enemies are Colonial Marines. You could 'pick' a game from an vast number of Speccy titles (Lets say you pick Renegade), and use ZXRP to change the sprites of the hero/enemies. You could be really imaginative, the original 'Forward-Punch' sprite could be replaced with a 'Alien-Spraying-Acid-From-Mouth' sprite sort of thing. Very quickly you can put together a few sprites in any paint editor, and soon you'll be able to try out your own ideas (The fun part), getting the graphics looking great before progressing.

I do think the spec256 emuzwin 'way' of doing things is very good. I used it quite a lot now and have decent results (Although this varies depending on the game). The problem I've found is, emuzwin is no longer being developed and the 256 color options are a bit buggy (I spent ages recently working on Amaurote, but there are game speed issues with emuzwin running in 256 color mode. Also, with Amaurote, the screen slowly becomes corrupt with random colors and there doesn't seem to be any setting in emuzwin that can help). You also have to rely on emuzwin's sprite editor to add your colors which can be very time consuming, especially when its a case of coloring one pixel at a time. There is also the fact that you will need to know the memory locations of all the graphics you see in the game. The sprites maybe stored in memory in a confusing separated/split/reversed manor (Certainly the case for Amaurote), so that adding your artistic flair, one pixel at a time can be very tricky. Sure, some graphics are easy to find when viewing a memory dump of the game, but some sprites can not be found no matter how much you arrange the memory view/width, and you'll end up getting dirty in a load of machine code looking for them. Whereas, with ZXRP, you can just take a few screen caps of the game when that sprite is showing, bang it into an editor and off you go.

I was also thinking that perhaps one day, ZXRP could be modified as a post processing video add-on for Mame. When Mame has rendered a frame of a game, it gives it to ZXRP for some sprite replacement, before being given back to Mame so that it can be displayed on screen. Kind of like a filter. It could be used for any game platform too, not just the Speccy. Just a thought anyways :)

Once again, really glad you have joined the thread rg_software! Right, sorry for waffling on. Going to get back on do a bit more work with Stormbringer!

Latest screenshot...
Stormbringer2

:)
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Re: ZX Recoloring project

Post by rg_software »

geecab wrote: Sun Jul 07, 2019 6:33 pmOnce again, really glad you have joined the thread rg_software! Right, sorry for waffling on. Going to get back on do a bit more work with Stormbringer!
Thank you :) Well, meanwhile, if you need me to tweak something in the toolset -- just let me know.
Let's see how life goes, but I will try to find some time to update the project with new capabilities. Of course, if you finish something, please share with me so I can use your work as one of possible showcases.

BTW, one reasonable scenario for using original sprites is just fighting with color clashes. Say, many DizzyAge ports simply use the original images, but they still look much better, since in the real Speccy Dizzy games color clash it is a big problem. (It might be much less relevant for many other games, such as Myth).
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Re: ZX Recoloring project

Post by geecab »

Great stuff rg_software!

Things have been going well with Stormbringer and I've colored in a load of sprites in now. I think, however, there might be a small problem with the emulator failing to recolor sprites at certain positions when I believe it should be able to handle it.

Its a bit difficult to describe, so here is a picture that hopefully shows one example of what I am seeing:-
walk_in_front_of_tree_pic

Here, the Knight walks in front of a tree trunk, and after he reaches a certain point, he stops being recolored. My first thought is that I've drawn my 'search' bitmaps incorrect somehow, but I've double checked them and they look ok to me?

I've zipped up everything I've done with Stormbringer so far. If you have a spare moment and fancy giving it a try sometime, then I'd really appreciate it. It might be easier for you to see it in action to get any idea of what is happening (and where I've messed up :p). When you run the emulator, I've saved the game state so that you standing next to the tree trunk in the picture.
Stormbringer recolor project

Many thanks :)
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Re: ZX Recoloring project

Post by rg_software »

geecab wrote: Tue Jul 09, 2019 12:09 am Things have been going well with Stormbringer and I've colored in a load of sprites in now. I think, however, there might be a small problem with the emulator failing to recolor sprites at certain positions when I believe it should be able to handle it.
I see. OK, please give me a few days -- I am having a particularly tough week, but I promise to get back to this project as soon as I can.
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Re: ZX Recoloring project

Post by geecab »

Cool! Absolutely no rush, just thought I'd mention it, thanks again :)
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Re: ZX Recoloring project

Post by geecab »

Hi Hikoki!

Just been looking back over the thread an noticed your post.
hikoki wrote: Sun Jul 07, 2019 1:58 am Do you think it'd be possible to take the Jet Pac Advance Mod and put Scuba Dive's sprites instead? Using Horace everywhere could also be fun. I'd like to see a different Bruce Lee sprite. Another kind of game to mod could be those with 3d graphics like Ant Attack to use baddies from other Spectrum games giving them a 3d look. What about Double Dragon? there were graphics out there for a remake that never was finished. One could also think of using Renegade graphics for Double Dragon, or take one of these beatemups and give them a Christmas theme like making the Three Wise Kings fight with burglars disguised like Santa Claus.
Yes, I definitely think all that should be possible. You have put the idea of recoloring Scuba Dive in my head now :) Excellent game, and there shouldn't be many sprites to recolor either...

You also mention the 128k edition of the Hobbit in a previous post and I've given that some thought. You could really put your own spin on lots of graphic adventures with this technique, changing 'stationary' images with something new. I was thinking about Micronaut One, I know its a vector game but that could be given a make-over, recolor the dashboard/cockpit panel, might look pretty cool. There is also an 'about' option in Micronaut One where you can view images of the insects you are fighting against. Those images could be tweaked to look a little more scary.

One other thing that crossed my mind, you could replace dull looking "Menu", "Game Over" and "Congratulations, You have completed the game!" screens (That are perhaps just text on a black background) with an impressive picture. Some people (Myself included) enjoy getting spectrum games running on their arcade machines and this has got me thinking, when I load a spectrum game on my arcade machine and are confronted with the menu (Something like, "S to start, R to Redefine Key, K for Kempston Joystick") it would be cool to replace all that with "Insert coin to start!" sort of thing.

Lots of possibilities :)
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Re: ZX Recoloring project

Post by 4thRock »

That Stormbringer recolor project is interesting.
Only gave it a quick look but having the graphics as .bmp is a great idea.

I'd limit myself to a simple graphic replacement with Spectrum "compatible" graphics (original resolution, only one colour per 8x8 or at most 8x1).
That's something that could have happened back in the day if the Spectrum had some sprite support.

Must find some time to try it with Bomb Jack and Golden Axe.
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Re: ZX Recoloring project

Post by geecab »

4thRock wrote: Wed Jul 10, 2019 6:57 pm I'd limit myself to a simple graphic replacement with Spectrum "compatible" graphics (original resolution, only one colour per 8x8 or at most 8x1).
That's something that could have happened back in the day if the Spectrum had some sprite support.
The good things is that as the replacement sprites are bitmaps, you can mod someones else's bitmaps pretty easily in any paint editor and get the look you are after :)

>>Must find some time to try it with Bomb Jack and Golden Axe
Sounds good!
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Re: ZX Recoloring project

Post by geecab »

Hi rg_software!

I've been adding the remaining graphics to Aquaplane (Thought I'd try and get one game completely finished). Unfortunately, I think I've reached the maximum number of sprite recognition jobs that my PC can handle (Which seems to be about 20 'pixel' recognition jobs in total).

I've had a few thoughts on how to overcome this. Please don't think I expect any of it to be implemented (Its sounds like a scary load of work to me now I've wrote it all down :p). I'm just suggesting stuff really and parts of it might be worth considering as and when you are in the code again :)

- In settings.txt, the "SearchArea=Y:n|X:n|H:n|W:n" parameter. Searches for a sprite in a specified area (Where n is pixels. Height (H) and Width (W) sets the size of the search area. The top left of the search area is positioned at Y and X). If omitted, the entire screen is searched.

- In settings.txt, the "MaxInstances=n" parameter. Stops searching for a sprite after 'n' instances of that sprite have been recognized. If omitted, search for as many instances of the sprite as possible.

- In settings.txt, the "Group=n" parameter. Specifies a group of sprites that depict the same object/character (For example, a sequence of sprites depicting a person running). When one of these sprites is recognized, no need to search for any of the other sprites in that group.

- Use multiple CPU cores to perform recognition jobs simultaneously.


Example of how settings.txt might look:-

; Search for the Sun, there'll only be one and it'll be located at the top right of the screen...
0 pixel zx_sun.bmp pc_sun.bmp SearchArea=Y:0|X:200|H:50|W:56 MaxInstances=1

; Below the Sun are some clouds that move horizontally across the screen, there are only ever 3 clouds shown at once...
0 pixel zx_cloud.bmp pc_cloud.bmp SearchArea=Y:50|X:0|H:50|W:256 MaxInstances=3

; Search for the game's hero. There'll only be one of him, but he's depicted by a number of sprites...
0 pixel zx_myhero1.bmp pc_myhero1.bmp SearchArea=Y:100|X:0|H:92|W:256 MaxInstances=1 Group=1
0 pixel zx_myhero2.bmp pc_myhero2.bmp Group=1
0 pixel zx_myhero3.bmp pc_myhero3.bmp Group=1
0 pixel zx_myhero4.bmp pc_myhero4.bmp Group=1


Something else I was thinking about was a dependency setting. For instance, the recognition of sprite A, B & C to occur only while sprite D is recognized. Or perhaps recognition of sprite A, B & C to start only when Sprite E is recognized, and to finish only when Sprite F is recognized. Just trying to think of ways to stop searching for everything all of the time. To search for certain set of sprites that only get displayed when the player reaches a particular level/stage/screen in the game.

Sorry for waffling on. Hope this helps :)
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Re: ZX Recoloring project

Post by ZXDunny »

Holy crap dude, you're doing this by image recognition? While that's an impressive task, there really are much, much easier ways to do this :)

Are you monitoring an emulator screen display, or do you have your own emulator that this engine is tacked onto?
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Re: ZX Recoloring project

Post by 4thRock »

BombJack didn't work, it just replaced the entire background.

So I tried Xevious and it works :D
Image

The new ship sprite only has added colour. This allows it to downgrade nicely to the original when over a background:
Image
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