Hacking M3 Sakura loading screens

[Domo]

Anyone have some good ones? This is the only thing lacking from Sakura patches, the lack of matching loading screens.

 

[ENDscape]

you can make your own loading picture. Its just a bmp file and as long as you follow the size and name you can make your own.

 

[Domo]

Actually, from what I understand it requires an 8-bit bmp file for it to actually load on the M3 Sakura. I have no way of creating an 8-bit bmp with any of the software I have in my posession.

 

[gangsterboi]

well you might want to download fireworks, photoshop, gimp (which is free), or just gif movie gear.

If you decide to get GIF movie gear all you have to do is open the picture you have made (which will probably be 24bit) and it will immediately change to 8 bit then save it and wallah!

 

[dohclude]

i recommend GIMP. I have been using it for years on linux, and it's available on windows now too. It's great, it's very powerful, it's open source, and it's FREEEEEEE!

http://www.gimp.org/downloads/

 

[Domo]

No way to save as 8-bit bmp as far as I'm aware. Just 16-bit, 24-bit and 32-bit.

 

[Cheater388]

Think for a sec! Computers operate on a sting of 1s and 0s; that's two digits. So if each digit is an actual color, then 2 to the power of 8 is actually 256 colors (that's 8-bit, by the way). So an 8 bit picture has 256 colors (255 technically, but whatever)!

Now, there is an option in the GIMP menu (under "layer") to switch between fill (RBG) colr, grayscale, and indexed color (selective coloring). With indexed color, you can choose for a picture to only have a maximum of 256 colors. To have an 8-bit image, choose "indexed color", input "256 colors" and then select no dithering (dither is an intentional static)! Save it as a regular bitmap.

 

[strata8]

I've made one for my area o4.2 skin:

Click to view

 

[thedicemaster]

http://narutrans.freehostia.com/ssp.zip
here, makes all grey options/loading screens fit with the pink m3sakura style.
the menu backgrounds are recolored versions of the original grey ones.
the loading screen is a random image ripped from a website, with an M3???(m3sakura) watermark on it.

loading screen is 8bit, 256 colors.
i added dithering to increase quality of the image (dithering is like adding salt, sometimes it makes things better, sometimes it doesn't, and sometimes it doesn't do a thing.)
options backgrounds are 24bit, default settings.
i used macromedia/adobe fireworks for this.

 

[Cheater388]

I just do something really silly with my loading screen.

http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/1372/minicreateyr5.png

 

[Blue-K]

Yeah, but this is a big problem for me, I've done a FL_BG_Top Image in Gimp, converted it and its now definitely an 8 Bit, Paint also shows that, but the Sakura Skin Maker shows something like that:

????? MakeSkin.exe ????? 0046B28E ????? 01EDC000 ????????????

If I delete the Image, the Skin Maker works normal. I don't know what to do...
Sorry that i post that here, but when it works, i will also post my loading screen (Apple Leopard)

 

[Densetsu]

Yeah, but this is a big problem for me, I've done a FL_BG_Top Image in Gimp, converted it and its now definitely an 8 Bit, Paint also shows that, but the Sakura Skin Maker shows something like that:

????? MakeSkin.exe ????? 0046B28E ????? 01EDC000 ????????????

If I delete the Image, the Skin Maker works normal. I don't know what to do...
Sorry that i post that here, but when it works, i will also post my loading screen (Apple Leopard)

Check this thread.