GaleSheet

A tool to convert a Graphics Gale animation to a sprite sheet.

Usage

GaleSheet: 
    A tool to create sprite sheets from Graphics Gale .gal files

Usage:
    galesheet version
    galesheet encode [--method=<method>] [--width=<width>] [--destination=<filename>] [--palette=<colors>] ([--flip=<flip>] ...) <path>

Options:
    --flip=<flip>             Flips frames, H orizontal and/or V ertically [default: none].
    --width=<width>           Set sheet width [default: AUTO].
    --palette=<colors>        Save "palette" data of the given size [default: none].
    --destination=<filename>  Destination filename [default: spritesheet.png].
    --method=<method>         Selects the palette entry encoding method [default: rgb]:

                                - rgb : Encode 4 entries -- 1,2,3 as value 255 in r,g,b, and entry 0 as all zeroes.
                                - r|g|b : Encode entries in a single component (units being 256/palette size).
                                - bits : Encode up to 8 entries, by interpreting the rgb components as 3 bits (component > 0 means bit set)
    
    --rgb                     DEPRECATED: See --method
    -r                        DEPRECATED: See --method
    -g                        DEPRECATED: See --method
    -b                        DEPRECATED: See --method

This tool will take a number of .gal (as many as the glob pattern matches), and generate a single .png sprite sheet, with each .gal animation being an horizontal stripe.

In --width=AUTO mode, the sprite sheet will be made as wide as the longest animation strip.

At the moment, no other file is generated, so data such as timing, and frame coordinates, indexes, filenames, are not exported.

Build requirements

This tool makes use of the (oficial) library provided by HumanBalance.

To compile this project, you must first download the library, unzip and put it in the galefile/ folder.

This project is tested to work with the latest available library version, which at this time is ver.15.11.19

You will also need the .NET SDK, grab it from here.

Using galesheet

The program accepts multiple .gal files, in the same format.

• 24 bits per pixel (full color)
• 8 bits per pixel (palette)

In both cases, the output is a 24 bpp .png file.

In palette mode, there are two options for encoding the palette entry, by value in a single channel, per component.

The idea is that you'll use some kind of pixel shader to adjust the pixels to the right color

QA

Q: Okay, got it compiled. How do I use it?

A: This is how I use it. It might not be the best way, my Windows knowlegde is limited.

1. Go to the galesheet\bin\Debug\net461 directory
2. Right click on galesheet.exe and Create shortcut
3. Move the shortcut .lnk to somewhere so its in the Windows %PATH%
4. Create a .cmd file in a folder containing your animations like this one:

   galesheet.exe.lnk --destination="%CD%\spritesheet.png" "%CD%\*.gal"

5. Double click on it to begin the process

Q: How does --flip work? Can I flip in both axis?

A: The flip gets applied to each and every frame. The idea is to keep the order of the frames. For that reason, it's not applied to neither the animation strip nor final sprite sheet.

You can specify one or two flips separately, like this (order does not matter):

galesheet.exe --flip=H --flip=V *.gal

Q: I get a parsing error

A: Try using the flags and options in the order listed in the usage text

Acknowledgements

This tool also uses a C# wrapper to the dll provided by SebaGames.

Contributing

This tool has been created for a very particular, personal need, so it might not fit other use cases. Feature requests are discouraged.

You're free and encouraged to fork and adapt it to your needs, though.

Bug reports and/or fixes are welcome.