PCX to AGI PICTURE

PCX to AGI PICTURE
Version 1.01
Author: Eskil Blomfeldt
1998-05-21

PCX to AGI PICTURE

Latest Version:	1.01
Release Date:	1998-05-21
Company:	N/A
Development Status:	Abandoned
Publication Status:	Published
Developer(s):	Eskil Blomfeldt
Interface:	CLI
Language:	C
Open Source:	Closed
Source Availability:	No
License:	Shareware
Type:	Picture Converter
Relevant Engine:	AGI
Platform:	DOS
Localization:	English
Website:	eskilbl@online.no

A.K.A.

• PCX2PIC

Description

Eskil Blomfeldt's PCX to AGI PICTURE a freeware DOS utility that converts .PCX to the vector based AGI Picture format. PCX2PIC is intended to be a small utility that will make creating AGI-games a little easier. It will scan a bitmap PCX-picture and convert it to the vector based PICTURE-format. This could be extremely useful for intro-screens and non-interactive screens, but it could also work for interactive scenes, although in that case you would have to add priorities manually in an AGI PICTURE editor like PICEDIT later. Another way could be to draw the background as a bitmap, convert it, and then add objects etc. in your AGI PICTURE editor afterwards.

The advantage of PCX2PIC should be obvious. At least for people like me, who are not talented graphic-artists, it is a lot easier to create pictures using programs like MS Paint, "Deluxe Paint" or other bitmap-based software. When you are using PCX2PIC you could also create the images in 256 or more colors and use a graphics program to reduce the resolution for you.

Version History

• 1.00 — 1998-05-20

First release

1.01 — 1998-05-21

Just a small update.

• Optimized the line-optimization routines a lot. The ones in the first version were extremely slow, and they've been improved by a million(to the point where you can actually use the accurate optimization on detailed images).

• Made the "SORT = NO"-option a little more efficient by only changing the color if the color actually changed. Earlier the program put a changecolor-code in front of every line and fill if sorting was turned off. Not anymore.

Development Status

Further development of PCX to AGI PICTURE has been abandoned.

Usage

PCX2PIC receives filenames on the commandline. For instance, you should type "PCX2PIC IN.PCX OUT.PIC" to read the file IN.PCX and write the file OUT.PIC. Type "PCX2PIC -?" for more information.

PCX2PIC will read a 256-color PCX-picture(see next section) and scan 160x168 of it, starting at coordinates (1,1). If you try scanning an image larger than this, only the top-left corner of the screen will be converted.

To optimize PCX2PIC for your use, you should read the PCX2PIC.CFG-file. It has a few options that can help you make PCX2PIC go either speedier, or make smaller files as a result. Descriptions of options and how they are used are in the configuration-file. If you did not get such a file with this program, or if it did not contain descriptions of the options, you should download the official version of this program at:

• [1]

If this address does not work(it will change soon), you should try searching other AGI-pages for the file.

I would strongly recommend that you take a look at the configuration-file. For instance, there is a very helpful option called OPTIMIZE that you can change. At the moment it is not set to the best possible optimization(called "accurate"), and, especially with detailed pictures you will get the best results using this optimization.

Options

Download

Download from here:

• File:PCX to AGI PICTURE (PCX2PIC).zip (ZIP file) [29.3 KB]

Known issues

• PCX2PIC receives filenames on the commandline. For instance, you should type "PCX2PIC IN.PCX OUT.PIC" to read the file IN.PCX and write the file OUT.PIC. Type "PCX2PIC -?" for more information.

PCX2PIC will read a 256-color PCX-picture(see next section) and scan 160x168 of it, starting at coordinates (1,1). If you try scanning an image larger than this, only the top-left corner of the screen will be converted.

To optimize PCX2PIC for your use, you should read the PCX2PIC.CFG-file. It has a few options that can help you make PCX2PIC go either speedier, or make smaller files as a result. Descriptions of options and how they are used are in the configuration-file. If you did not get such a file with this program, or if it did not contain descriptions of the options, you should download the official version of this program at:

• [2]

If this address does not work(it will change soon), you should try searching other AGI-pages for the file.

I would strongly recommend that you take a look at the configuration-file. For instance, there is a very helpful option called OPTIMIZE that you can change. At the moment it is not set to the best possible optimization(called "accurate"), and, especially with detailed pictures you will get the best results using this optimization.

Credits

• Eskil Blomfeldt

Legal

You may not accept money in exchange for this software. You may distribute it freely as long as all files, including this one, are included in their original unchanged form.

If you wish to include this software on a shareware/freeware-compilation that will not be free of charge, please contact me at eskilbl@online.no. PCX to AGI PICTURE was distributed with the Shareware

References

Also See

• Graphics Articles
• Vector Graphic Articles
• AGI Picture Resources
• AGI Picture Converters
• PicEdit
• eskilbl@online.no