Hey ya'll,

I recently tried out and registered Cortex Command, and not for one moment did I regret the $20 I spent. But I've been wanting to do a bit of sprite art for weapons and actors, but I've run into a problem.

Microsoft Paint doesn't zoom in far enough for me to see what I'm doing, so I downloaded Paint.NET. Unfortunately, it appears that Paint.NET doesn't like the bitmap files Cortex Command uses, and severely messes them up in-game.

To demonstrate, I opened the .bmp image for the Flak Cannon. I then made no modifications, and saved.


This is what it looks like in Paint.NET.


This is how it looks in-game.

I'm not sure what could be causing this issue, so input on this issue would be greatly appreciated.


EDIT

So I installed Paint.NET.3.30.2993.Beta2 from the other version I was using, Paint.NET.3.22. The Beta apparently allows saving .bmp's in 8-bit. However, I got this result when trying it in-game.

Is it in the CC pallet?

If you mean it is only using colours from the CC palette, then yes. I didn't even change the sprite, I just opened it and saved it.

Well hmmm...

I have no clue what's wrong then. You just opened the original Flak cannon and changed nothing?

How about maybe doing it in Paint.net, moving it over to MS Paint, THEN Saving. It should work.

Saving it using MS Paint works fine, it's just Paint.NET.
I suppose this is now a problem with the program I use, not Cortex Command.
Thanks for your help.

Open palette.bmp, paste your sprite into it, crop and save as your sprite. Works for most things like this.

Alternatively, GraphicsGale.

Copying it into Palette.bmp and then saving it didn't work. I'll try GraphicsGale.

did you save it as an 8 bitmap?

Paint.net ruined my mod. I made a ton of sprites in it, and found this out. Nothing you can do, just use paint. Also, you can zoom to 10x in paint, just click the line at the very bottom of the zoom box.

PaintDotNet can not save as a 256Bitmap, so it will not work, I have tried many times before, and I know from personal experience. So, you CAN still make the sprite IN PaintDotNet, but you have to copy, and paste it into MSPaint while the pciture of the CC pallete is open. Watch this video from Trouser Demon to see what I mean...
http://youtube.com/watch?v=peMhNAntfTA

Then save as a 256Bitmap.

Edit: If this does not work, God must hate you... or something. Because that NEVER fails for me.

It's alright, I downloaded Graphics Gale and used that instead. I think I prefer it over Paint.NET.

Just as a heads up, I opened a thread about it on Paint.NET's forums, the answer to this question may be posted there.
http://paintdotnet.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=23442

I think that that Paint.NET may have fixed the issue with their newest update.

Someone tested the beta of that version, with that functionality.

It didn't work then.

Paint.NET is really just not your best bet for spriting. Too bad, so sad, get over it.