Box Art BMP for games

[Redifer]

Did this mockup of what the interface could look like

That's really cool but I could do without the bouncing red arrows and moving checkerboard background. I mean they're cool and all but it's a menu. Doesn't really need too much flash.

[Chilly Willy]

Finally back online - my internets were down for a week! I about went nuts!!

I'd probably try mic's sixpack on the files first. I also would make them MUCH smaller. You don't need details from the cover art, just a good enough image to tell what game it is. Look at the size of the images I use for the N64 boxart as an example.

[RickyKustafason]

Good Idea!  Hey, don't you wanna program this? 

[darkfalzx]

I also would make them MUCH smaller.

Is there a technical reason for that?
If not, I thought it looks pretty sweet at 96x128. Especially since the image will have to be condensed into very few colors, I thought the size could compensate for that.

Here are a few boxes I did with absolute minimum pixel editing - pretty much what you would expect from a script:


As you can see - after conversion to 3-bit color and only 3 15-color palettes some look better than others.

[darkfalzx]

The conversion is a little complicated without the right tools. I use ProMotion (Cosmigo), as it has a lot of 8 and 16-bit optimization features built in.
First - the image needs to be shrunk down to 96x128 in Photoshop with the Bicubic Sharper option. Then the image has to be opened in ProMotion and reduced to a safe palette of 32 colors with dither.
After that I suggest cleaning it up and aligning whatever frames there are to the 8x8 grid.
Then - in PM's Color tools select the Color Tile Mapping, Color Tile Settings - in there set the tile size to 8x8, number of colors per tile to 16, and number of palettes to 3. Also check the "Ignore transparent tile palette index 0".
Then in Color Tile Mapping hit Optimize Palette - the image will now be optimized to only use 1 out of 3 16-color palettes per 8x8 tile. Finally - go into Colors again, Modify Channel Bit Depth, and set the bit depth for the RGB channels to 3-bit. Hit Proof.
Bam! - you have a genesis-compatible box art image!

[RickyKustafason]

I also would make them MUCH smaller.

Is there a technical reason for that?
If not, I thought it looks pretty sweet at 96x128. Especially since the image will have to be condensed into very few colors, I thought the size could compensate for that.

Here are a few boxes I did with absolute minimum pixel editing - pretty much what you would expect from a script:


As you can see - after conversion to 3-bit color and only 3 15-color palettes some look better than others.

I like 'em.  And your process is quite involved, but you mention a script here.  So you have an idea the process can be automated?  Even though library isn't huge, a scripted process could be helpful and save the manual effort. 

Good job they look great! 

[Grambo]

http://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=434249

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/photoshop/scripting.html

[darkfalzx]

Unfortunately Photoshop is useless for the purposes of the conversion, as a lot of very format-specific things have to be done. ProMotion - a purpose-built animation/tile program for creating pixel art for consoles/handhelds hes all the features needed, but out-of-the-box is missing automation features. There might be plugins one can use to create batch-processing scripts, but as of yet I haven't messed with those.
However, if one can point me to a library of good quality Genesis/Megadrive boxart - I could start generating a Genny-compatible library. However, I will only do that if, say, ChillyWilly tells me he is reworking the MegaEverdrive menu to use them. Otherwise it's too much work possibly for nothing.

[Chilly Willy]

Not anytime soon... too many other things to work on right now.

I think smaller is better for boxart because it really doesn't give you any extra info. I takes away for the area available for the menu, which is already horribly limited. If I were to go with big box art, it would be an option that you would select by navigating to a file, then pressing a key to pull up the box art as a temporary overlay.

[darkfalzx]

I am a big fan of visually-pleasing things. Have you ever used XBMC or WiiFlow?
<<WiiFlow
(http://www.geexbox.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/xbmc-tvshow1.jpg <<XBMC)

This was my idea for the MegaED menu - make it all visual and pretty, though, like in all of those menus - there could be an option to eliminate the fancy graphics, and dedicate the entire screen to menu text (but what's the fun in that?: )

Either way man, if you ever decide to take this up - give me a PM - I'd love to do some more genny art/conversion.

[Chilly Willy]

I am a big fan of visually-pleasing things. Have you ever used XBMC or WiiFlow?
<<WiiFlow
(http://www.geexbox.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/xbmc-tvshow1.jpg <<XBMC)

This was my idea for the MegaED menu - make it all visual and pretty, though, like in all of those menus - there could be an option to eliminate the fancy graphics, and dedicate the entire screen to menu text (but what's the fun in that?: )

Either way man, if you ever decide to take this up - give me a PM - I'd love to do some more genny art/conversion.

No, haven't used those... but that is an interesting way to do the menu. Not sure how well that would translate to the MD... try scaling that image to 320x224, limit it to 32-ish colors, and see if it looks any good.

[darkfalzx]

That's not exactly what I meant when I said

This was my idea for the MegaED menu - make it all visual and pretty, though

What I meant is - just make the Genesis menu as visual and vibrant without being too unreadable. And having large box-art images, moving cursor arrows, and scrolling backdrop kind of take us in that direction without overtaxing Genny hardware.

Recreating the coverflow mechanic, which I was NOT proposing at all, will probably require a 32X at the very least, and even then all the box arts will probably have to be using a common 256-color palette.

If I get some free time I could probably make an actual "working" fake menu in GameMaker or something - just to show you what I mean, if that screen mockup isn't enough: )

[Chilly Willy]

Remember that the 32X can do hicolor graphics (32768 colors) as well as 256-color paletted. You're still limited to 320x224 (8-bit graphics), or 320x200 (16-bit graphics).

[Metro City]

progress has been made on this menu? I read that you mention the n64 you know give me more information? thank you

[johnyept]

Unfortunately Chilly Willy seems to be inactive since 2015 (is everything ok with him/you)?

Instead of creating a new topic, I decided to reply to this one, completely aware that the last relevant post was in 2013.

So, my 2 cents on the subject:
- I recently discovered a tool called Screen Scraper that downloads almost every type of image you can think of (2d box, 3d box, cartridge, title/gameplay, screenshot, marquee, etc) for pretty much every game of every system, genesis/mega drive included, with the same name as the ROM.
- whatever image format would eventually be supported by custom or official firmware, we would "only" need a tool to convert the downloaded images to the required format, or some kind of script using the required programs to convert the images.
- One simple suggestion to what to display: an image on the right side of the screen, showing either the box art or the cartridge, or possibly a menu option to select between none, one of the two, or both (one above the other). Or even simpler, just modify the firmware so it changes the background to a background with the same name as the selected ROM (ex: background_romName.jpg) where the image format is a black image with the box/cartridge art on the right.