question about j2e
 

just wondering if anybody knows how the image is stored(what kind of format) in the j2e files.

IIRC, it's a PCX file, probably compressed with zlib.

so pcx is alot smaller than bmp?

PCX is compressed (and in JJ2's case 8bit) while BMP is not. There's probably some info here.

However, the tool used to make J2E's requires you to give it a PCX file, so I guess that's the format used :P

A J2E contains, among other things, 3 BMPs (not PCX), compressed with zlib. More specifically, the images are stored one byte per pixel (once you get past zlib).

:( Then it would be false of me to say "it's raw - like me"

One image is the episode pic, second is the title. What's the third picture, then?

A low-res of the title image, I believe, for the zooming in-and-out effect.

The title switches to a highlighted version when you select it.

That's just done with shaders I believe.

Also, I used to have the program that made .j2e files, but lost it 3 hard disk deaths ago.

No, it's done by using the other image.

*thinks back for a few moments*
Sorry, my bad, it is.

Also, the size of the image alone leads me to conclude that JJ2 was meant to be played in a resolution of 640x400.

does all the 3 bmp images start with "BM"when uncompressed?
and where do i find the uncompressed size in the header? i can only find the compressedsize (4 bytes before 78 da).

The uncompressed size is not given, because it is a static value. I don't have the exact figure at hand though. Basically width * height.

Well, it makes sense. The game was originally meant for 320x200 like JJ1 was. And 640x400 is exactly the double obviously.

ok, now i can uncompress everything so no more questions about that, but i don't know what the 8 bytes after the width and height are, can anyone tell me?
[IMG]http://www.freewebs.com/dvugglan/j2e.bmp[/IMG]
and one more thing, when i compress images, they become just 41 bytes and i think that is too small and jj2 doesnt like it. why?

I think the compressed size in the j2e files are at least around 10000 bytes and 41 is quite small compared to that.

I have no idea what the 8 bytes after are. They're marked as "unknown" in my file format specs. And 41 bytes definitely doesn't sound right.

At a guess, you probably used the compress/compress2 function wrongly.

well how should i use it?
it returns Z_OK or something like that.
i tried to increase all the unknown bytes by 1 and it worked just as usual, but when a set the all to ff, there was a memory error, it said something about memAlloc().

I have found the problem and now i can compress and make my own j2e files!
:-) thanks neobeo for your help.

You're welcome. :) Just out of curiosity, what was the problem?

i did wrong when i read the file into a char pointer.
in the fread funtion the first parameter must be an adress you know,
and usually i want to read data and put them in int variables or similar types and then i have to write fread(&var,... and i forgot that in this case it was a pointer and i wrote "&" before. the result were just alot of -51:-), quite a stupid thing to do:-) but that's the kind of small mistakes i often run into;)

now i try to read the .LEV files in 1.00g:-)
i have found out how the tileset data is stored.

This probably warrants a thread of its own, but the LEV file format is full of hate. </3 Among other things, each tile is stored differently depending on whether it has any transparent pixels, and where the transparent pixels are.

i know, and it's really annoying. but i think i've found out how it works.
the reason for doing this is because i want to get the cool jungle tileset.

Any chance of releasing a program publicly that allows this j2e editing?
(*dodges really sharp knife*)

Didn't you already get one?

About 4 hard disk crashes ago...

that's possible :-)

Yay! :)

ok, now I've made a simple console app, which creates a j2e file. you just have to enter som filenames etc. it works fine. does anyone think that could be something? :)

Well if it's made completely by you, it could be freely distributed, by being uploaded to J2O for example :)

Excellent idea!

it's uploaded now //zapS

zapS, please add me to msn (or unblock me) :p grytolle@craccoclan.com

And more importantly; nice job :D

So is there something to *extract* said images from the j2e file?

jj2 and print screen

Doesn't that just give you the whole screen and not the image?

Umm... yes. To be solved by cropping, I suppose.