Retro Gaming Scripts For Gimp

Retro Gaming Scripts For Gimp

By   01:18:00

 

The retro gaming scripts for Gimp manipulate images to give them, naturally enough, a retro gaming look. Or to describe them from another perspective, these scripts add different styles of dithering to your images. 

 

Altogether there are eleven different scripts, and each one imitates the style of various retro computers. For instance, there are three scripts dedicated to retro Amstrad graphics, four to the old BBC computers, and others that adopt the graphic styles of  the ZX Spectrum, Commodore, as well as a few others.

The reason I have decided to provide a download for these scripts is because, since the Gimp Repository closed, finding scripts has become in many cases very difficult. It doesn't help that most bloggers/article writers just post about the same old scripts, leaving out the less well known ones no matter how good they may be. This makes finding a diversity of scripts all but impossible.

 

Also, I have used these retro gaming scripts in the past and found they can be a goood method for transforming images from the ordinary. As such these scripts deserve to be made more widely available, so now they can be downloaded for free from my Ko-Fi store.

 

I should make it clear I did not make these scripts and would be happy to credit the original creator if they came forward, or if anyone knows who they are. The scripts are however, in the open source spirit of Gimp free to download, distribute and use, so no intellectual property infringement has been commited.

How to Install The retro Gaming Scripts In Gimp

It can be quite common for people to be unsure how to install scripts in Gimp, but just follow these few steps.

1/ Open where the scripts are located on the hard drive.

2/ Select the first script and hold down Shift. Now select the last script, which should result in all of them being selected.

3/ Right click and from the drop down menu select Copy.

4/ For the next step you'll need to make hidden items visible. To do this, open Windows Explorer, (the yellow folder icon usually available on the Taskbar).

 

 

Under the View tab click Hidden Items to the furthest right, so there is a tick in the box.

 

5/ There are a lot of folders to click on in this step. First in Windows Explorer click on Local Disk (C:) so you can see all of its contents in the main panel. Now double click on the following folders in turn to navigate to where to paste the scripts:

Users > [active user account name*]  > App Data > Roaming > Gimp > 2.10 > Scripts.

 

Paste the Gimp scripts in the Scripts folder. 

*the 'active user account name' will be the name of the folder for your Windows account. It could be your name or simply just User.

 

6/ Start up Gimp, and under the Filters menu there will now be a section named Retro Computing listing all of the installed scripts.

Below are a few images created using the retro gaming scripts.

The last two images were created a number of years ago, using a legacy Second Life avatar. 

 

The animated gif was created by making a short video of a rotating avatar head in Second Life, grabbing each frame using GAP in Gimp, (this is the best download I can find), then applying the same retro gaming script to each image. They were then all compiled into an animated gif.

How To Use The Retro Gaming Scripts

 

There really isn't a correct way to use these scripts since they encourage experimentation to arrive at images you'll like. However, here is a quick run through of how I created the above image. 

The image used is by Nick Brunner and can be downloaded here for free from Unsplash.

1/ Open the image in Gimp. Depending on the image used, it will probably need to be cropped and scaled since the retro gaming scripts work best with smaller files.

2/ The scripts also work best with the colours of the image reduced. To do this select Image > Mode > Indexed.

3/ In the window that opens enter the number of colours you want to use. Here 15 has been added. Now hit Convert.

4/ The image will now look like the above. To be able to use the scripts we now need to convert the image back to RGB. To do that select Image > Mode > RGB.

5/ In the window that opens just hit Convert.

6/ The image is now ready to use, although if you want you could adjust the colour saturation and play with the Curves option, both found under the Colors menu.

 

7/ To open a script, select Filters > Retro Computing, and from the drop down menu choose the one you want to use. Here BBC Micro (Mode2) has been selected.

 

8/ The script window opens. Most of the retro computing scripts have a number of options, each with a different retro look generated from each script. (It may be useful to know that the BBC Micro (Mode 4) script generates monochrome images). 

 

Once an option has been selected hit OK.

 

9/ The script will take a short while to work, and then you'll have your dithered, retro gaming image.

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How To Use The Free Rooms Templates

How To Use The Free Rooms Templates

By   14:48:00

 

As part of the celebrations for Second Life's 19th birthday, exhibitors were able to offer gifts to visitors, and whilst I had some windchimes to give away, I wasn't able to complete in time the gift I originally intended to offer. Not to be deterred, the gift of a copy of the build that formed my exhibit is now available.

To be clear, what is available is the build of the rooms themselves, rather than the content. I've called them templates because they are effectively blank canvases for anyone to use to create their own unique builds, as well as their own unique 360 degree imagery. 

 

Grab your Free copy of the Rooms Templates from the Marketplace here.

What Are The Rooms Templates? 

 

'Rooms' is a project I've been working on for a while, and consists of three rooms contained inside a black cube. Each room interlocks with the next with the intention of making the viewer/visitor question the space they're in, and by extention the nature of 3D virtual space. This 360 panorama is the end result.

The starting point for the project was to create something that would make 360 degree panoramas in Second Life that had an unexpected feel. The possibility that the rooms might be an interesting place to visit and interect with developed from this.

From that point it also occured to me that since everyone's imagination works in different ways then everyone would construct something different using these rooms. For instance, take a look at this 360 panorama and how it uses space in a similar way, but looks very different. The idea therefore came to be to offer the rooms as templates for people to develop in any direction their creativity took them, in the hope they would create their own amazing 360 degree panoramas, and possibly allow others to visit their builds in Second Life.

To find out more about Rooms at SL19B, take a look this blog post.

What Is Included With The Rooms Templates?

When you recieve this item from the Second Life Marketplace it will contain:

• Land Footprint
• Rooms Template Rezzer. This is the red box with an arrow on top. This will rez the rooms with windows and views outside of them.
• Rooms Template Rezzer No Windows. This is the orange box with an arrow on top. This will rez a version of the rooms that has no windows.
• Rooms Buttons a. These buttons control the views outside the middle room.
• Rooms Buttons b. These buttons control the views outside the lower room.
• Rooms Buttons c. These buttons control the views outside the upper room.
  

The idea of having two versions of the room templates is to add more options for what can be created with them.

Both versions of the rooms are big. The version with windows has a footprint of about 30m x 24m, (and a prim count of 43), whilst the other is around 24m x 23m (with a prim count of 27). Because of this large size, and to help with placement on a parcel, a footprint object has been included, as can be seen above. The purple area shows the footprint of the smaller template, whilst both the purple and green areas together show the footprint of the template with windows.

As well as being important in positioning the rooms in relation to a land parcel, the footprint object is also used to accurately rez the rooms at height, as we'll see in a moment.

Rez Boxes

 

The footprint object includes a red square with an arrow, and an orange square with an arrow.

 

Place the red rezzer box on top of the red square so both arrows are aligned. Now the rooms with windows will rez exactly where the footprint is.

 

Placing the orange rezzer box over the orange square of the footprint and making sure both arrows are aligned will ensure the rooms without windows will rez precisely over the purple area of the footprint.

Using The Rezz Boxes

Although the rooms can be rezzed on the ground, they are intended as skyboxes. To rez one of the rooms templates, follow these simple steps.

1/ Rez the footprint object on the ground and place it where you want the rooms to be placed. Get close to the grey box and sit on it.

2/ Right click on the footprint object  and from the menu click Edit, so the Edit Window opens. Make the Object tab the active tab.

The area highlighted in red in the Edit Window is what we're interested in. We'll use it to edit the Z position of the footprint object. (For those that may not know Z is the up/down co-ordinate in virtual space, so we're about to change the height of the footprint object).

3/ Enter how high you want the rooms template to be from the ground. Here 1000 was added. When you're ready hit Enter on the keyboard, and the footprint object will be repositioned 1000m in the sky.

 

Because you sat on part of the footprint object you'll also be transported to 1000m in the sky.

Once the footprint object is in the sky you can stand up.

4/ Position one of the rez boxes over the corresponding coloured square on the footprint. Then left click on the rez box.

5/ This window will appear. To rez the rooms hit the Rezz button.

6/ The rooms are now rezzed. As you can see there aren't any textures on the walls or ceilings of the rooms (although there are floor textures). This is so you can start with the blank canvas that was mentioned earlier.

 

Its also important to note that you'll be standing in one of the rooms after they have rezzed. This is because there is no way in or out of the build, so being inside after rezzing means you can set a landmark and easily access the rooms.

7/ Left click the rez box again and this menu will appear. if you're happy with the position of the rooms, hit the Freeze button to remove the rez script from the rooms. 

If you want to remove the rooms, hit the Remove button.

8/ The rooms template is now rezzed, so you can delete the rez box as well as the footprint object. Remember to landmark a position within the rooms template so you can access it again.

Using the Window Buttons

 

The final items included with the room templates are the window buttons. There is a set for each room. The red button allows you to select the scene, and the blue button enables it to scroll.

Each set of buttons has a slightly different name. 'Rooms Buttons a' should be rezzed in the room you'll be standing in after removing the footprint and rez box. 'Rooms Buttons b' belongs in the lower room, and 'Rooms Buttons c' belongs in the upper room.

Unfortunately I could not include the scripts for the buttons and scenes with mod permissions because they're commerical scripts that I didn't create. If you'd like to use your own scenes, simply delete the scripts in the buttons and the scene viewer and add your own. I'll try to find a better option asap.

You're now ready to start using these rooms templates for your own creations. If you'd also like to use them to create 360 degree images, then these tutorials will be very useful. I should add that stitching images of the rooms into 360 panoramas can be tricky. Sometimes it works first time, other times there can be a lot of trial and error to get it right. The tutorials mentioned above suggest using a setting of between 60 - 90 for the HFOV in Hugin. In the case of the 360 panorama created from these rooms, 85 was used. In other panoramas, 100 was a good setting.

Wall Walker 

 

Once you've created your build using these templates, try exploring it with a wall walker. The above video is a little rough around the edges, but gives an idea of how the wall walker works.

 

There are a number of versions of wall walkers on the Marketplace, but they're all based on the original, which is open source. Therefore decide for yourself whether you want to pay for one or grab the freebie. 

 

The original wall walker comes with some unappealling walk, stand and run animations, but its easy to replace them with your own.

 

If you haven't seen a 360 degree panorama created using these rooms, take a look here, and then see what you can do with your new templates.

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Create A Collage Effect With Gimp Part One

Create A Collage Effect With Gimp Part One

By   09:19:00

 

 

I recently watched a Texturelabs video on creating a collage effect in Photoshop and wanted to see if it was possible to recreate it in Gimp. Unfortunately Gimp doesn't have some of the features used in the Photoshop tutorial, but I found using a few workarounds made creating the collage effect quite a simple process.

The Texturelabs video page generously links to their free downloadable collage textures to be used as you want in your own projects, and it is these jpegs that are used here. Just follow the above link to grab your own copies. If you'd like to use the same photo used in this tutorial you can download it here from Unsplash. 

For the purposes of simplicity this tutorial has been divided into two parts. This first section deals with a little preparatory work, which basically involves creating a gradient we'll need to use later. Once the gradient has been created the interesting stuff can begin in Part Two, which will cover creating the collage effect in Gimp.

 

If you'd rather skip creating the gradient and go straight to Part Two you can download the gradient file here, then install it into Gimp. Once its downloaded, copy the gradient file, navigate to Program Files > Gimp 2 > Share > Gimp > 2.0 and paste it in the Gradients folder.

Creating A Gradient In Gimp

 1/ With Gimp open, create a new image. The size isn't too important.

2/ Select the Gradient tool. From the gradient drop down list select FG to BG (Hardedge), highlighted in blue.

 

 3/ The Modify active gradient option will probably be checked. As the text below it explains, this will need to be unchecked in order to edit a copy of the selected gradient.

 

 4/ Drag the cursor horizontally across the canvas window so a basic gradient is created.

 

 5/ Click on the horizontal line midway along the black segment so a node is added.

6/ In the small window, upper right of the canvas area, make sure the linked icon is closed, so that both colour swatches act as one.

Click on one of the black colour swatches.

7/ This window will appear.

 

8/ There are three sliders respectively named R,G and B. By adjusting these sliders using the triangle handles we can select a colour to add to the gradient.

The first colour we want to add is red, so drag the R slider fully to the right.

 

When you're ready hit OK.

 

9/ The red has been added to the gradient with the node at the midpoint of its placement.

 

10/ The area a colour takes up in the gradient can be edited by dragging the edge of the colour to the right or left. Dragging the node will also affect the colour's size and position.

Click on the horizontal line again, this time midway along the white area to add another node.

Click on one of the white colour swatches in the small window.

11/ The colour we want to add this time is green. Because the new node on the horizontal line is in the white area of the gradient, all of the sliders are set to the right. Drag the R and B sliders fully to the left.

 

When you're ready hit OK.

12/ Green has now been added to the gradient. The last colour to add is blue, so click on the furthest right end of the horizontal line, then click on the small window again.

13/ This time drag the R and G sliders fully to the left. 

 

 When you're ready hit OK again.

 

As a side note, looking at the HTML notation of each colour used here will give an idea of how these colours work, keeping in mind white is #ffffff. 

 

You may also have noticed that when the sliders are dragged fully to the left they are set to 0. This means they contribute nothing to the colour value. Hence here we have added pure red, green and blue to the gradient. This will be important in Part Two.

14/  From this point you can simply follow Part Two of the tutorial and go on to create the collage effect. 

 

However, this gradient will only be available in Gimp until another custom gradient is created or tweaked. This is fine if the gradient here is only going to be used once, but to make sure its available to use on a number of collage effect projects, it will need to be saved.

Saving The Gradient

Unfortunately after creating a gradient this way it can't just be saved. The above method was used because its an easy way to create a temporary (custom) gradient, which could be used immediately if we chose. 

 

The main reason this method was used however, was to quickly provide an image with the specific colours needed for a saved (or permanent) gradient.

 

To create a gradient that can be saved we now need to turn these colours into a palette, then save the palette as a gradient. Luckily this will only take a moment.

 

  

1/ First select the Palettes tab, top right. If you don't see it, go to Windows > Dockable Dialogs > Palettes, and the tab should appear.

2/ Right click anywhere within the Palettes panel and from the drop down menu select Import Palette.

3/ This window will open. Select the image option. This will use the colours in the canvas area since that is our image. 

 

The number of colours is set to four, and as we need just one column for each colour, the number of columns is also set to four.

 

If you need more information on creating palettes in Gimp, there is an indepth SL-Inspiration tutorial you can view here. 

 

When you're ready hit Import.

4/ The palette can now be seen in the Palettes panel, highlighted in red, above.

5/ Switch to the Palette Editor tab and in the space highlighted in blue, give the new palette a name.

Sometimes the colours in the palette will be out of their original order. Just use the cursor to drag a colour to where it should be. This will create a copy of the colour in the palette. Simply right click on the unwanted duplicate and from the drop down menu hit Delete Color.

6/ Back under the Palettes tab the renamed palette can be seen.

7/ Still in the Palettes tab, right click on the new colour palette and from the drop down list select Palette to Gradient.

8/ Select the Gradient tool from the Tools panel, and the new gradient will be listed among all the others. With the new gradient active, hit the Edit this Gradient icon, highlighted in blue. 

 

To the right, the Gradient Editor tab will be active and its panel will show the gradient.

 

 9/ For the gradient to be useful to us in Part Two we need each colour to have hard edges.

Right click on the first white triangle handle beneath the gradient panel. From the drop down menu select Blending Function for Segment > Step.

10/ The black is now a solid colour with a hard edge. (Ignore the canvas window, we're focusing on how the gradient appears in the Gradient Editor panel. Since the image is very similar to the saved gradient it may be distracting, so delete it if you need to).

11/ Double click on the next white triangle handle to select it. The area either side of the handle will appear dark when its selected. Right click and again, from the drop down menu select Blending Function for Segment > Step.

 

 12/ Repeat until all colours of the gradient are solid with hard edges.

 

Although this may seem a lot of trouble to set up, once the gradient has been created and saved, it can be used on as many collage effect projects as you like. There is also the added benefit you now know how to create and edit gradients in Gimp, as well as save them.

If you would like to locate the saved gradient file on your hard drive, a typical location for such files is Local Disk (C) > Users > User > AppData > Roaming > Gimp > 2.10 > Gradients. You will probably need to make hidden files visible on your PC first, (open File Explorer, select View and check the Hidden box).

 

Join us in Part Two of this tutorial to see how this gradient will help us create the collage effect.

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