RPGDX > Forums > Design and programming > Sprite Packing Tool

Ichoris · Pretty, Pretty Fairy Princess Joined: 20 May 2009 Posts: 6

Does anyone know of a good tool for packing sprites/textures?

I want to feed it a bunch of .PNG (24 bit with alpha) and have it spit out a new .PNG (24 bit with alpha) where the sprites are all packed together on a page.

The page size needs to be a power of 2 (128x128, 256x256, 512x215, 1024x1024). The tool should also write out a file which contains the offsets (UV) and width and height to each sprite.

I have seen a few tools but none seem to keep the alpha infromation for the input or output .PNG files. Any help would be awesome.

Thanks!

Mattias Gustavsson · Posted: Wed May 20, 2009 7:29 am Post subject:

I don't know of a tool, but it's not that difficult to write one. If you're using C++, you could probably get this code to work quite easily: http://www.colossusentertainment.com/forumref/lib2d_imgpack.zip (it's public domain, so if you can use it, please do)

It's from an ooold engine I made long ago (back when I believed in using 3D hardware for 2D games *lol*) and it's not perfect (there's some wasted space, as marked with red/green fields:

It outputs an XML file on this form, which is quite handy:

_________________
www.mattiasgustavsson.com - My blog
www.rivtind.com - My Fantasy world and isometric RPG engine
www.pixieuniversity.com - Software 2D Game Engine

Ichoris · Pretty, Pretty Fairy Princess Joined: 20 May 2009 Posts: 6

Thanks! Your tool does exactly what I need. I will take a look at the code. Thanks again!

Mattias Gustavsson · Posted: Thu May 21, 2009 12:38 pm Post subject:

Sure thing :-) And if there's any questions about the code, I'll be happy to answer. Unfortunately, the code is old and doesn't compile anymore, and there's parts of it I'm not at liberty to disclose, or I would make all of it available...
_________________
www.mattiasgustavsson.com - My blog
www.rivtind.com - My Fantasy world and isometric RPG engine
www.pixieuniversity.com - Software 2D Game Engine

Ichoris · Pretty, Pretty Fairy Princess Joined: 20 May 2009 Posts: 6

Thanks. I was able to get my tool working. I just wrote my own version (in JAVA so works on MAC and PC) but it was helpful to see how you did some things. Very useful. Thanks again.

I'm trying to add some new things to it. I had another question posted here:

http://forums.rpgdx.net/viewtopic.php?t=2187