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Targa to Gif conversion


Currently the hardware overlay containing graphics elements and text on all KiSS players, is limited to 8-bits (256 colors) with a fixed palette. This might change in the future.

This document will describe how to get stuff from photoshop into the final gif file in the unusual palette format used by the KiSS player. You can download the conversion software here or use the on-line batch converter.

The .tga files must be 24 or 32-bit. Creating 32-bit targa files in Photoshop is a bit tricky so i've added a guide on how to do this.

At last, a brief summary of the main converter application:

TGA2GIF.EXE

Version 2.0A Copyright 1990-1992 Stephen B. Coy. TGA mods by Drew Wells
Alpha channel support and FS dither improvements: Joachim Michaelis, 2004.

Usage: TGA2GIF <input targa file> <output gif file> [-d] [-k] [-o] [-r (#)] [-m (#)] [-f (#)] [-p pal_file]

where:
-duse Floyd Steinberg dithering (recommended)
-kuse KML specific palette (recommended)
-p <palette file>
Palette file is 256 lines in RED GREEN BLUE ALPHA format like this:
50 60 70 0
80 100 120 127
120 130 160 255
etc...
Notice that for alpha: 0=transparent, 255=solid
-ouse ordered dithering

beta
.
.
.
-r #add random noise +- #
defaults to +-8 if # not given
-mchoose palette with median cut
defaults to popularity
-m #limit median cut pixel count to #
-f #use a fixed palette, fast but (sometimes) ugly
# determines which palette to use
    0 = grey scale
    1 = 8 red * 8 green * 4 blue shades
    2 = 6 red * 7 green * 6 blue shades

KiSS suggests using this program like this:
TGA2GIF -d -k input.tga output.gif

Or, if you don't want dithering, try this:
TGA2GIF -k input.tga output.gif



Website by Joachim Michaelis