Raster Master v1.4 R78

R78 brings more options for PNG format. in previous versions if you needed transparent PNG image you had to paint the area with Fuchsia color. This is something not very obvious unless you are reading these release notes. Now in File menu there is a Properties option. Currently you can select an index color to be transparent, use Fuchsia (did not remove this), or use Custom option. With Custom option you can also set the Alpha level. Pick the RGB value you want to be transparent and set the A value to select transparent level. All these options can be mixed to use multiple transparent colors.

Raster Master v1.4 R77

-Import from Clipboard added in Sprite Import. This increases the amount of sources you can obtain images from.
-Fixed XGA/XGA256 palette issue when Opening with PNG format

Raster Master v1.4 R76

-Quality improvements in Sprite Importing for Vga/Vga 256 Palettes
-Additional Sprite Import options for Mono/CGA/Amiga Palettes - no Palette tricks anymore
-Menu for XGA/XGA Palettes selection fixed
-BMP/PCX/LBM/GIF formats updated to load palettes in propper bit level for current palette

Example programs updated to show
PUT/putimage file
PUT/putimage array code
converting PUT/putimage file to obj and linking to exe
Palettes
Mouse shape code

Turbo Pascal
Quick Pascal
Freepascal (8086/GO32/Windows)
QuickBASIC
GWBASIC - full support for mouse and palettes, bload images - see channel code section)
Turbo/Power BASIC - Full for mouse and palettes and Bload images
Turbo C
QuickC (should work with Microsoft C - but did not test)
Open Watcom C (8086 and 32bit DOS)

More Example programs for Amiga compilers
More Example programs for QB64/Freebasic for RGB/RGBA Output format

Raster Master v1.4 R75

-New 8 bit Palette Mode. With the new palette mode we can import all the available art packs/sprite images without losing quality. This benefits mostly modern languages and libraries. Anything using raylib and RGB/RGBA output options.
-New Palette mode is found in Palette Menu under Palette XGA and Palette XGA 256
-Sprite Import Utility also has new Palette Modes as Import options
-Fix Open Palette menu item. Small typo was causing palette to be loaded incorrectly

Note: While coding the new palette modes I did discover a way to enhance the VGA (6 bit) sprite imports. I will automate this in a future version. There is a way to take advantage of this right now by doing a small palette trick in the current version

1. Import your sprite from the sprite Utility
2. Select XGA/XGA 256
3. Exit Sprite Utility
4. Switch to Sprite you just imported and go to Palette->Copy
5. Now go back to Palette Menu and Select Palette VGA/VGA 256, EGA, or any of the Amiga Palette Modes
6. Palette Menu again and Select Paste

This should result in better quality than just importing as VGA/EGA. This also allows you to import to Amiga Modes which are not listed as part of the import modes.

Raster Master v1.4 R74

-minor update to Turbo C Palette export - was creating palettes in the wrong case for Turbo C, fixed to output only lowercase.

Raster Master v1.4 R73

-Open Watcom support added for exporting palettes and mouse shapes. Res Export options now include Open Watcom just like all the other compilers. Open Watcom is now fully supported!

-Fixed a bug where the incorrect format was chosen when Exporting putimage to a single file when selecting freepascal/freebasic.

Raster Master v1.4 R72

Initial Open Watcom Support. After doing some testing I was able to figure out that the Open Wacom graph library is very similar to Microsoft and Borland.

The graphic commands look like Microsoft but the internal bitmap format for 16 colors is like borland BGI

The header bytes of the bitmap format contain 3 unsigned int (width,height,color bits)

For now you can export only image arrays and image array with mask. I have tested 2,4,16, and 256 color bitmaps. All confirmed working!

File->Export->Open Watcom C

Raster Master v1.4 R71

R71 fixes serious bug when exporting to single put/putimage file. This affects most of the compilers. fix was rather simple but hard to track down.

Raster Master v1.4 R70

R70 brings completion to DOS Mouse Shapes. When Exporting RES Text Include files now there is autoload code for all supported DOS platforms. Exporting to RES Binary is also supported for DOS Mouse Shapes now. With this completed Raster Master becomes the most powerful editor to create GWBASIC game apps. See ASM code channel folder to use Mouse Images and other graphics functions in GWBASIC. Lots of refactoring has been done so if i broke something let me know.

All Images (Sprites/Mouse Images/Palettes) can be easily loaded with

1. DATA statements
2. BLOAD (use Bin2Bsv utility to convert XGF/Mouse/Palette/RES Bin files to this format)
3. Regular file commands

Raster Master v1.4 R69

R69 brings Mouse Shape enhancements - a textual image is now created for all the exported data/arrays
Mouse Shape Export to File (*.mou) - this is mainly to allow files to be converted to bsave format for GWBASIC using bin2bsv utility.
For other DOS based languages the file can be opened and read into an array, once you have it into an array you can pass it to your mouse library function to change mouse image.