CGA/EGA (graphics formats from 80s games) parsing with png/etc output, colored terminal preview, pre-alpha of wasm front-end
This is currently very much in an alpha state/early beta state: apis and CLI arguments may still change heavily and the apis aren't documented. This file has decent usage examples below.
Standard crate/cargo install
[features]
default = ["terminal", "png"]
png = ["dep:image"]
#terminal related features
terminal = ["dep:clap"]
#Preview window popup for the terminal
gui = ["dep:sdl2"]
#web usage may want to build with no-default-features to skip irrelevant terminal stuff
wasm = ["png", "dep:base64", "dep:gloo", "dep:js-sys", "dep:web-sys", "dep:yew"]
Including terminal or wasm produces the corresponding binary
If you use feature gui
you must install the sdl2 libraries:
brew install sdl2 sdl2_gfx sdl2_image
[sudo] apt-get install libsdl2-dev libsdl2-gfx-dev libsdl2-image-dev
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gif or png output (half the point of the whole library). -
If I use image::DynamicImage there are additional encoders/decoders that will be free - wasm web based processing app - basic happy path with no options works
- Zooming/scaling (for png and gui output)
- Additional EGA planar encodings
- Map viewing (the other half): using the tile/spritesheets as palettes for larger images in psuedo CGA/EGA form (common in 80s games)
- Outputting to CGA/EGA encodings - useful for making non copyrighted test format files to ship
- Document the code beyond a simple readme
- Palettes beyond the defaults- cga from the full 16 and ega from the full 256.
-
Breaking the features back out now that I have a better understanding of the modules - More tests. Adding as I go, but as I learn rust more and understand the problem space better will make sense to do more
- Full paletting from RGB(?A alpha support maybe)
- Better terminal support - rascii for iterm/sixel/etc or ratitui for full tui (helpful for discovering formats) and scrollbars
- Optimize terminal output (don't repeat active codes)
- Train a model to recognize format and tiling patterns for smart discovery. I don't know how many test files I can get my hands on but I guess I could generate them
This can be used as a library or executable.
The binary handles arguments (and thus help) via clap 4
Usage: cega [OPTIONS] <IMAGE>
Arguments:
<IMAGE>
Options:
-a, --ascii-mode <ASCII_MODE> images will horizontally crop to terminal
[possible values: a, c, p, h]
a = plain ascii
c = colored ascii
p = full pixels via ansi bg color
h = horizontal half pixels (UGLY)
-p, --palette [<PALETTE>] ega palette can be used for cga, but not the inverse
[possible values: cga0, cga0i, cga1, cga1i, ega]
-i, --image-parser <IMAGE_PARSER> [default: cga] [possible values: ega_row_planar, erp, cga]
-c, --custom-ascii <CUSTOM_ASCII> 4 or 16 chars palette like -a " +%0"
-w, --width <WIDTH> [default: 320]
-o, --output-file <OUTPUT_FILE> format based on extension - see image crate
-t, --tile-height <TILE_HEIGHT>
-s, --sdl
-q, --quiet
-h, --help Print help
-V, --version Print version
cega can parse output to png, and other formats.
cega can parse tiled/spritesheet style cga and output "pixels" to the terminal
cega ../../assets/game/CGATILES.BIN -w 16 -r 16 -i cga -t p
:
cega will output some suggestions, like if it's not a CGA fullscreen image, but you don't specify tiling:
cega ../../assets/game/CGATILES.BIN -t a
:
cega will ouput in different preview formats, such as colored ASCII or a gui window:
cega ../../assets/game/CGATILES.BIN -w 16 -r 16 -i cga -t c -c "1234" -s
: