EDIT: I SOLVED THE PROBLEM. SOLUTION BELOW.

Original Post:
I tried changing the animated SMK of "Singleplayer" in the Main Menu: SEE HERE
As you can see, I need to use another palette.
How can I get the correct palette?
Maybe I could extract it from the original .smk somehow? (glue\mainmenu\single.smk)
I extracted the original .smk into .bmp's: SEE HERE. But sadly, the palette is lost in the process.

Any help? What are good programs to extract and edit .smk's? Where do I find those palettes of glue\mainmenu\single.smk, glue\mainmenu\singleOn.smk, ... etc.

Solution:
I solved it! Here is how to edit the animated symbols in the SC main menu:
- get the "Smacker" program by RAD Game Tools
- start "smackerw.exe" (preferably as Admin?)
- go to tab "Graphics Processor"
- select BMP as output format
- in left list, select the .smk you wish to be converted into a group of BMPs
- open one of these BMPs in an image editing software ( I use PSP9)
( - have a look at the palette to check that it correctly is a 256-color one)
- extract the palette (PSP9 can do this)
- open whatever BMPs you created in order to make the new SMK
- open these BMPs in the image editing software and load the previously saved palette on them
- use smacker again to make these BMPs into a .smk file
- this time, it's under the tab "Smack"
- navigate to the correct folder where you saved your BMPs
- use shift to select all your BMPs on the left
- click "Smack" on the right
- it will now ask to create a list file --> create it (i did NOT rename it, don't know if that matters)
- the list file is now in the list on the left
- click it, and ONLY it
- then click "Smack" on the right again
- it should create your .smk file now, IF THERE IS AN ERROR: make sure that the path where you saved your BMPs and listfile (.lst) IS NOT TOO LONG.

I may upload a comprehensible image tutorial for this later. ツ

Post has been edited 4 time(s), last time on Oct 5 2023, 10:06 pm by Netbek.

Hi!

Glad you have managed to solve it, or so it seems. But here's a few things to consider:

RAD Game Tools changes the way smacker works some time around in the 2000s or so. So make sure you are using the *old rad game tools* keyword: old.

There's some downloads in the downloads database that contain this tool.

If you use their newest version they can have glitchy or improperly encoded smks that won't work with SC. So make sure you're testing this because you WILL get smk files out of both but only the ones made with the old rad game tools will work with sc properly. So that's one thing to consider.

Another thing is that i am pretty sure other than having to use 256-color BMP files the smks don't really use any pallete but a very good bet is to just use the game basic color pallete scheme for your files.

I am linking you to the modding tool package but be warned that from all these tools I ONLY recommend using old smacker tools, the other tools are outdated and have been replaced by other, more modern, tools:
http://www.staredit.net/sc1db/file/337/

(I accidently posted this in another thread and then moved this post here. Please don't delete it as spam)

to alleviate the suffering of potential future searchers, I shall link ALL SC 1 .smks, converted into BMP-images, to this post. They all have the correct palettes, which can be extracted with an image editing program (I use PSP 9).

I will also attach the palettes of the animated main menu graphics, and the animated campaign figures.
Indeed, all main menu graphics (single player distant battleships, editor planet, exit black hole, multiplayer satellite) seem to be using the SAME palette!
And with the animated campaign figures (Terran Marine of Episode 1, Hydralisk of Episode 2, Zealot of Episode 3), it is the same, they all share one palette.
So with the 2 palettes I attached, it should cover ALL animated .smks of the menu.

ALL SMKs AS BMPs (with correct palettes)

Attachments: