sp65 is a tool that converts images from common formats into formats used on the 6502 platforms that are the targets of the cc65 compiler suite. In addition, it allows some very simple operation with loaded graphics data, like using part of an image for further processing.
The utility has been designed in a way that adding additional source or target formats is easy. The final output is either binary, or C/assembler source.
The sp65 utility accepts the following options:
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Usage: sp65 [options] file [options] [file]
Short options:
-V Print the version number and exit
-c fmt[,attrlist] Convert into target format
-h Help (this text)
-lc List all possible conversions
-r file[,attrlist] Read an input file
-v Increase verbosity
-p tgt,file[,attrlist] Write the palette to a file
-w file[,attrlist] Write the output to a file
Long options:
--convert-to fmt[,attrlist] Convert into target format
--dump-palette Dump palette as table
--help Help (this text)
--list-conversions List all possible conversions
--pop Restore the original loaded image
--read file[,attrlist] Read an input file
--slice x,y,w,h Generate a slice from the loaded bitmap
--verbose Increase verbosity
--version Print the version number and exit
--palette tgt,file{,attrlist] Write the palette to a file
--write file[,attrlist] Write the output to a file
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Below is a description of all the command line options. For the concept of attribute lists see below.
-c, --convert-to format[,attrlist]Convert a bitmap into one of the supported target formats. The option argument must at least contain the "format" attribute. For more attributes, see section Conversions.
--dump-paletteDump palette as table.
-h, --helpPrint the short option summary shown above.
-lc, --list-conversionsPrint a list of possible conversions.
--popRestore the working copy of the bitmap from the one originally loaded from the file. This may for example be used when creating several output files from one input file.
-r, --read filename[,attrlist]Read an input file. The option argument must at least contain the "name" attribute. See input formats for more information.
-v, --verboseIncrease verbosity. Usually only needed for debugging purposes. You may use this option more than one time for even more verbose output.
-V, --versionPrint the version number of the assembler. If you send any suggestions or bugfixes, please include the version number.
-p, --palette target,filename[,attrlist]Write the palette of the input bitmap to a file in a format suitable of the target.
-w, --write filename[,attrlist]Write an output file. The option argument must at least contain the "name" attribute. See output formats for more information.
sp65 consists of
These modules can be combined to a pipeline that reads data, does some optional bitmap processing, converts the bitmap into a target format, and writes this binary data to disk in one of several forms.
As described in Processing pipeline, sp65 consists of lots of different modules that may be combined in different ways, to convert an input bitmap to some output.
Many of the processors and converters have options to change the way, they're working. To avoid having lots of command line options that must be parsed on high level and passed down to the relevant parts of the program, sp65 features something called "attribute lists". Attribute lists are lists of attribute/value pairs. These lists are parsed by the main program module without any knowledge about their meaning. Lower level parts just grab the attributes they need.
In general, attribute lists look like this:
attr1=val1[,attr2=val2[,...]]
Instead of the comma, colons may also be used (even mixed).
To simplify things and to make the most common options look "normal", some
mandatory attributes may be given without an attribute name. If the attribute
name is missing, the default name is determined by the position. For example,
the option
--read does always need a file
name. The attribute name for the file name is "name". To avoid having to type
sp65 --read name=ball.pcx ...
the first attribute gets the default name "name" assigned. So if the first attribute doesn't have a name, it is assumed that it is the file name. This means that instead of the line above, one can also use
sp65 --read ball.pcx ...
The second attribute for --read is the format of the input file. So when
using
sp65 --read ball.pic:pcx ...
a PCX file named "ball.pic" is read. The long form would be
sp65 --read name=ball.pic:format=pcx ...
Changing the order of the attributes is possible only when explicitly specifying the names of the attributes. Using
sp65 --read pcx:ball.pic ...
will make sp65 complain, because it tries to read a file named "pcx" with an (unknown) format of "ball.pic". The following however will work:
sp65 --read format=pcx:name=ball.pic ...
The attributes that are valid for each processor or converter are listed below.
Input formats are either specified explicitly when using
--read, or are determined by looking at the
extension of the file name given.
While sp65 is prepared for more, this is currently the only possible input format. There are no additional attributes for this format.
The current bitmap working copy is converted to a GEOS compacted bitmap. This format is used by several GEOS functions (i.e. 'BitmapUp') and is described in 'The Official GEOS Programmers Reference Guide', chapter 4, section 'Bit-Mapped Graphics'.
The current bitmap working copy is converted to GEOS icon format. A GEOS icon has the same format as a C64 high resolution sprite (24x21, monochrome, 63 bytes). There are no additional attributes for this conversion.
Lynx can handle 1, 2, 3 and 4 bits per pixel indexed sprites. The maximum size of a sprite is roughly 508 pixels but in reality the Lynx screen is only 160 by 102 pixels which makes very large sprites useless.
The number per pixels is taken from the number of colors of the input bitmap. You can also force the number of pens used in the conversion.
There are a few attributes that you can give to the conversion software.
The first is what kind of encoding to use for the sprite. The attribute for this is called "mode" and the possible values are "literal", "packed" or "shaped". The default is "packed" if no mode is specified.
The "literal" is a totally literal mode with no packing. In this mode the number of pixels per scanline will be a multiple of 8 both right and left from the action point.
If the source bitmap edge ends with a color where the least significant bit is one then there will be an extra 8 zero bits on that scan line.
So if you are using totally literal sprites and intend to change them at runtime then please add a single pixel border far left and far right with zeros in order to prevent graphical glitches in the game.
The standard encoding is called "packed". In this mode the sprite is packed using run-length encoding and literal coding mixed for optimisation to produce a small sprite.
The last encoding mode "shaped" is like packed. But we can stop the conversion to the right abd left edge when we get the first "edge" colour. If no edge colour is specified we stop at the first index 0 colour. If your edge index is outside the range 0..15 then your sprite can use all the colours in the defined palette. This will also produce the smallest sprite possible on the Lynx. The sprite is not rectangular anymore.
This keyword is only meaningful for shaped sprites. By default it is 0. The shaped sprite outer edge is defined by the colour index "edge".
This keyword defines the order the colours in the original bitmap is mapped to the Lynx sprite. The length of the pen also defines the depth of the generated sprite. If you want to create a 1 BPP sprite you can define the two indices used in the sprite like pen=34. Now areas in colour index 3 will be mapped as 0. Areas in colour index 4 will be mapped as 1. The default pen=0123456789abcdef.
The sprite is painted around the Anchor point. The anchor point x can be between 0 and the width of the sprite - 1. If anchor point x is zero then painting the sprite in location 10,20 will set the left edge of the sprite 10 pixels from the left of the Lynx screen. When the sprite is scaled by hardware the anchor point stays in place and the sprite grows or shrinks around the anchor point. You can also define the location using the words "mid" for the center or "max" for the right edge. The default value is 0 (left).
The sprite is painted around the Anchor point. The anchor point y can be between 0 and the height of the sprite - 1. If anchor point y is zero then painting the sprite in location 10,20 will set the top of the sprite 20 pixels from the top of the Lynx screen. When the sprite is scaled by hardware the anchor point stays in place and the sprite grows or shrinks around the anchor point. You can also define the location using the words "mid" for the center or "max" for the bottom. The default value is 0 (top).
Using
--write it is possible to write
processed data to an output file. An attribute "name" is mandatory, it is used
as the file name for the output. The output format can be specified using an
attribute named "format". If this attribute doesn't exist, the output format
is determined by looking at the file name extension.
For this format, the processed data is written to the output file in raw binary format. There are no additional attributes (besides "name" and "format") for this output format.
For this format, the processed data is written to the output file in ca65 assembler format. There are several attributes for this output format:
The value for this attribute specifies the numeric base for the data values. It may be either 2, 10 or 16. The default is 16. If the base is 2, the numbers are prefixed by '%', if the base is 16, the numbers are prefixed by '$'. For base 10, there is no prefix.
The value for this attribute specifies the number of bytes output in one line of the assembler file. The default is 16.
This is an optional attribute. When given, the output processor will wrap
the data into a .PROC with the given name. In addition, three constants
are added as local symbols within the .PROC: COLORS, WIDTH
and HEIGHT.
When using C output format, a small piece of C source code is generated that
defines the data containing the output in an array of unsigned char.
Possible attributes for this format are:
The value for this attribute specifies the numeric base for the data values. It may be either 10 or 16. The default is 16. If the base is 16, the numbers are prefixed by 0x. For base 10, there is no prefix.
The value for this attribute specifies the number of bytes output in one line of the C source code. The default is 16.
This is an optional attribute. When given, the output processor will wrap
the data into an array of unsigned char with the given name. In addition,
three #defines are added for <ident>_COLORS,
<ident>_WIDTH and <ident>_HEIGHT.
sp65 (and all cc65 binutils) are (C) Copyright 1998-2012 Ullrich von Bassewitz and others. For usage of the binaries and/or sources the following conditions do apply:
This software is provided 'as-is', without any expressed or implied warranty. In no event will the authors be held liable for any damages arising from the use of this software.
Permission is granted to anyone to use this software for any purpose, including commercial applications, and to alter it and redistribute it freely, subject to the following restrictions: