REXPaint

21 comments

• 

  tauraamui
  January 31, 2014 at 10:22 PM

  What language was this written in?

• 

  Kyzrati
  February 1, 2014 at 5:39 AM

  C++. It uses the same engine as my ASCII games X@COM and Cogmind (see sidebar).

• 

  imaberry
  February 3, 2014 at 9:41 PM

  Can you load the .xp file, which was intended for REXpaint, back into the REXpaint program for continued editing of the same .xp file? ... like in any other program.... in the world...?
  
  Example: Photoshop has .psd and we can load it back up for continued work any time, like many others do.
  
  Basically, how do i load it bk into REXpaint?
  
  Thanks for answering,
  Imaberry!

• 

  Kyzrati
  February 4, 2014 at 5:25 AM

  Of course you can! REXPaint saves all .xp files to the "images" subdirectory, and on subsequent runs you use the built-in file browser to open previously created images. From within REXPaint you can edit old files, as well as rename them, duplicate them, and delete them. Every time you start up REXPaint, it automatically opens *every* image you've ever created and saved (and did not delete)--just press Tab or click on the "BROWSE" button to look at the file list.
  
  See the "Browsing" section of the manual included with the program for more details.
  
  The one thing that differs from your average program is that REXPaint does not in any way hook into your OS, so it doesn't register the .xp extension and will not open a file by clicking on it. You shouldn't really need this feature, since RP opens all the images on startup.

• 

  Imaberry
  February 4, 2014 at 6:33 AM

  WOOHOO!! *dances* ONWARDS! TO THE REXMOBILE!
  
  Imaberry
  (dont eat me)

• 

  Kyzrati
  February 4, 2014 at 8:32 AM

  Have fun!

• 

  A Friend?
  March 10, 2014 at 3:36 PM

  Can you make this available for Android or do you know of one for Android?

• 

  Kyzrati
  March 10, 2014 at 3:43 PM

  Sorry, but implementing something like this for a mobile platform would simply be too limiting. The closest thing I can think of that's a major program is Hexels, and even they haven't yet done an iOS or Android version (though they haven't ruled it out for the future so keep your eye on that).

• 

  Zarms
  August 15, 2014 at 6:50 PM

  Rexpaint is a great tool!!! How can I create images (.png) with transparent background? Could you do a step-by-step guide?
  
  Sorry for bad english...

• 

  Kyzrati
  August 15, 2014 at 7:56 PM

  Thanks, glad to hear you're finding it useful!
  
  Transparent backgrounds are unfortunately not supported in the current version (mostly because I didn't even think to--not something I or most users from the roguelike community would need), but now that you mention it, I should look into it for a future version.
  
  You can however, still use REXPaint to draw an image and export it (to .png), then convert the background to transparent using other software. Just make sure the software allows you to select a single color throughout an image (the color you want to be the background), and remove that color.
  
  Sorry it's been a while since the last version. I'm even using a newer version myself right now, but I want to add more significant features before the next public release and haven't had the time. Maybe within the next month or so. Not sure if transparency will make it into that release (but it's on the to-do list now, along with a ton of other stuff =p)
  
  ("Bad English"? Dude, there's not a thing wrong with your comment! Except ironically the "Sorry for [my] bad English..." heh.)

• 

  Zarms
  August 16, 2014 at 9:22 AM

  Thanks for answering!

• 

  Anonymous
  September 5, 2014 at 5:51 AM

  Wow, after two hours of painting i am totally blown away, what a great program, FINALLY something very user friendly and with so many features.
  
  May i ask how i can help out and make the AMIGA fonts (yeah, there's actually more then one) available. I see the .png, but need some kind of tutorial how to make them properly in size 12.
  
  Keep up the good work!

• 

  Kyzrati
  September 5, 2014 at 7:26 AM

  Great! Happy to hear to it's working out for you, and that you're willing to help provide more resources that others can use!
  
  The other things I'd like to add to make it perfectly user-friendly by aiding feature discovery are tooltips and a more in-depth/complete menu system, as right now a lot of special actions require that you first read the manual's full list of keyboard commands :( Tough to add though since the interface is pretty limited and I also rather like the uncluttered simplicity of the UI.
  
  As for making Amiga fonts, first read the intro to the "Fonts" section in the manual. More specifically, for a 12x12 Amiga font (you mean to make it square, yeah?), start with a black 192x192 image, and draw the glyphs in white as if on an invisible grid where each cell is 12x12. (Technically if by "size 12" you mean the for characters themselves to actually be 12x12, then the font size is larger than that since you have to account for space between them!) Make sure you put glyphs in the same cells that correspond to that character in code page 437 (used by the standard fonts, which is extended ASCII). For example, your capital 'A' should be in the second column, fifth row down. Look at how all the included fonts are arranged and you'll see. You can leave cells empty if they don't apply, or for some systems they may use different unique glyphs (not sure about Amiga), but try to adhere to any standard glyph positions used in the original system. Note that these systems essentially used bitmapped fonts like the REXPaint pngs, so most of them will have a preferred arrangement--if it's not possible to match perfectly then no big deal (matching CP437 is more important to preserve inter-font and inter-program compatibility). Have a look at some of the legacy font resources (separate download) for how some of those fonts were put together.
  
  Once you have an image ready, add it to data/fonts/_config.xt to use it (add a new line, and replace the Art font with your own), then of course e-mail it to me or put it on some forum and give me the link, so I can add it to the blog!

• 

  Kristine
  December 22, 2014 at 9:12 PM

  Thank you for RexPaint! I just started using it on a Mac via Wine, and it works perfectly. Just one little nitpick: In the manual you state:
  
  >The .xp files are deflated with zlib
  
  This is correct, but a bit misleading. As far as I can tell from opening them in a hex editor, .xp files are in fact gzip files (which uses zlib compression, but also has its own header). They are not just raw zlib-deflated data.
  
  As zlib provides support for gzip files, this makes using .xp files actually easier, so it's all good :-) But maybe you should mention gzip in the manual to avoid confusion.

• 

  Kyzrati
  December 22, 2014 at 10:54 PM

  Awesome, I love hearing from users and am glad that it works for you on a Mac under Wine. It should be pretty easy to emulate since the engine is just basic SDL using software mode (good old Windows GDI).
  
  Thank you for the correction--I'll update the manual for the next release. I'm not too familiar with the technical details of compression myself (I'm just happy when things work =p). My engine's file library was originally based on a vanilla zlib compression algorithm, but it was cumbersome to use since it only worked by creating a temporary file. Then a few years ago I discovered a particular set of zlib contributor classes/wrappers ("gzofstream" etc.) which can compress file streams on the fly in memory and found it incredibly useful (not being able to easily do something like that myself--I'm more of a designer than a programmer), so I swapped that in instead. I just looked at the header, and apparently it *is* gzipped (1f8b), and of course at the time if I'd paid attention to the fact that it's called "gz...", I should've known ;)

• 

  drugon
  March 20, 2015 at 1:51 AM

  Must say, that I'm really surprised and glad of what I can see and make in REXPaint now. Though I have some questions/request for features that are possibly will be interesting not only for me. First one - is there keyboard mode? Earlier I made ASCII pictures in windows notepad (well I use it even now very often for my purposes) and I used to draw with keyboard. Mouse control is also great, but for some reason I prefer classic input method. Second - is there zoom feature? Yes I saw that you can change fonts in the program (though not in ANSI edition for some reason) but that also changes size of the panels. Third - is it possible to make picture that are more than 80x60 size? Fourth - I noticed export feature in PNG format that is great. Will you make support of GIF animation also? I was very impressed by Cogmind title animation and wonder if it will be possible to make such a thing only with REXPaint without using additional programs. As for ASCII editors in common I'm almost sure that you saw these programs already, but anyway I'll recommend you to check them to see what else you could want to add to your editor. First one is ASCII Art Studio. It's pretty powerful instrument, though it's not free. And my favourite one for now - PabloDraw. Really great program and it's free.

• 

  Kyzrati
  March 20, 2015 at 8:41 AM

  Hi drugon, so you found this, too :). Glad you're having fun with it; as for your questions:
  
  1. I had never really thought of keyboard mode before, mostly because the type of art I make wouldn't be able to use it and remain as efficient as using the mouse. (By comparison, I support a pure keyboard mode in Cogmind because it is actually faster than using the mouse once you know how--I use it myself.). I can see now how certain types of art production might benefit from a keyboard mode, though that would be a pretty big addition. I'll add it to the long-term ideas list for future consideration.
  
  2. The entire interface, canvas and tools, must use the same grid, so zooming can only be accomplished as you describe. Not sure why you're unable to change fonts/zoom in the ANSI version. It works fine for me, in the exact same way as it works for the regular version. REXPaint-ANSI comes with multiple Terminal fonts and a Fixedsys font. My guess is you're using it in combination with a very small screen which won't load additional fonts because the resulting UI wouldn't fit on your desktop. On a larger screen you'll be able to use all the fonts and zoom normally.
  
  3. Any size you want. Just use the Resize command. You can also default to different sizes as well--read the manual and config file.
  
  4. There are a lot of export functions, but no animated gif support, no. I don't plan on adding gif animation--there are other programs that can do this already (to be discussed in the post mentioned below). Even if I did add it, it could never be used to animate things at the level of the Cogmind logo, which is only possibly via a particle engine. (I can think of some systems that could enable non-frame-based animation in REXPaint, but they would all involve some sort of scripting and require a massive amount of work to build; so not something I can do for free, but I don't want to charge for REXPaint, either. For frame-based animation you can use another program.)
  
  Never heard of ASCII Art Studio before. Somewhat surprised it's not free, since there are so many other good free options available. But I guess if it's powerful enough...
  
  There are actually quite a few others which I do know of (all free), and will be posting about in the future. I have a long post drafted for the Grid Sage Games dev blog that talks about best practices when using REXPaint, as well as a lot of other ASCII drawing-related information, though I keep putting off posting it until there's a longer lull in Cogmind development news--maybe next month!
  
  For discussing REXPaint with myself and other users there will also later be a forum (or more specifically, a board on the upcoming GSG forum). It will be announced here, too. I'd be interested if you'd drop by there later and explain what your ideal keyboard mode would be like.

• 

  drugon
  March 21, 2015 at 2:10 AM

  1. That would be nice. Not sure how to describe input method though. Well - like in PabloDraw I think.
  2. Well, my screen resolution is 1366x768. Pretty standard for laptops as I know.
  3. Just tried it. No problems with lesser grids like 20x40. But no more than 80x60 in ANSI and 62x60 in usual version.

• 

  Kyzrati
  March 21, 2015 at 10:00 AM

  Yeah, your laptop is standard res, but for font sizes larger than the default (12) you'll need a screen height of 840px. At least you can fit the default resolution, but REXPaint is ideally used on a larger desktop. Naturally the larger content you want the more space you'll need to display it.
  
  You can create images of any size, even 1000x1000, you just have to scroll around the image to see it all, like in Photoshop or pretty much any other paint program. (You might want to read the manual, or at least the list of commands.)

• 

  drugon
  March 24, 2015 at 8:03 AM

  Oh I see - numpad. Though there is one strange thing. All works fine except two buttons. When I press 7 it goes down and right, and when I press 3 it goes up and left. Shouldn't it be vice versa?

• 

  Kyzrati
  March 24, 2015 at 8:37 AM

  First of all, I had totally forgotten numpad could be used for that! (I don't use that method myself, as it's much faster to use the spacebar+mouse drag function.)
  
  And second, which I guess stems from the first (and I wonder if anyone else out there uses anything but mouse drag?), is THANKS you found a bug :). You're right--those commands were reversed. That will definitely be fixed for the next release!