Read-only archive of the Armageddon Games Forums Archive (2000–2026) · About this archive

Just a few notes on Csets and palletes

34 replies · 116,067 views · Started 13 March 2002

I'm posting this because I see alot of posts in which people mix these up and it can get very difficult to understand that way:
Csets are NOT the same thing as palletes!
A pallete in ZC/ZQ is a square of 16x16 colors (256 colors total). A Cset on the other hand is 1 horizontal row of 16 colors within the pallete. Each Combo can use 2 Csets: the standard one and a second one by using the Cset2 feature. The first Cset can only be Cset 0-5. With the Cset2 feature you can use almost any Cset on the pallete. Every Dmap has 1 pallete asigned to it, but level palletes (basicly every pallete besides the main pallete and the 2 extra sprite palletes) use only Csets 2 and 3 and 4 and 9. Csets 0,1, 5-8 and 10 and beyond are always the same on every Dmap. These Csets are set on the main pallete and cannot be changed per Dmap/level pallete. So keep in mind that you can basicly only use 3 Csets per lvl pallete and 1 more if work around it and you have the combospace.

So, to sum things up:
- If you are talking about which pallete a sprite uses, your wrong. Every sprite uses the same pallete, with a few exeptions on some bosses and other things. What you probably mean is what Cset a sprite uses, because they can differ from sprite to sprite.
- Only a few Csets are available for combos, so use your color space carefully and use multiple Dmaps (and so more Level palletes) per map/area.
- A few Csets can not be used/changed at all. If you look at the main pallete you will see it reaches from Csets 0 to 14, which is 15 Csets. ZC/ZQ use 16 Csets, so 1 Csets is taken by the game menus/borders etc. There also are a few Csets that you can change, but cannot asign sprites to use to. Why this is I don't now, but some of the higher Csets can not be used by sprites or combos, so you can basicly ignore those, they are for sertain special things in the game like screen flashes and triforce effects, best not to mess with that to much.

Hope this helps explain some stuff (mods, pin this if you want to, fine with me).

From my palette importing guide:
The very first thing to know it that ZQuest organizes its colors first into CSets of 16 colors each. These CSets are then organized into 16 color palettes. If you have any questions about something I've said in this section, remember the difference between them (I've noticed some confusion in help topics between a palette and a CSet). The CSets are organized into rows, with 16 of them on each palette.

If only some people would bother to read things like this, we wouldn't have this problem. But they find the forums first, and most people prefer not to care if that guide's even there.

Not to sound like a rent a mod, someone shoot me if i do, but why not freeze this topic? It's all usefull stuff and I'm sure people could use it.

Originally posted by GuitarmanTim
(mods, pin this if you want to, fine with me).

I think GT had that idea too.

*BANG*

my pleasure 😊

*edit*
and plith, I know you already made a part about this but like you said, the forums get reached faster and not everyone visits AZC and the tileguide. Hope you don't mind me posting this here even though u already made a part about it :shy: :saint:

This is helpful and seeing as how space is availible at the top consider this pinned. I can always use help with palletes vs C-sets 😊

Thanks for the advice. Palettes are the hardest thing to wrok with in ZQ, since if you change one color, other stuff changes as well.

Yes! That was a prob for me as well!
But look! I changed many palletes and stuff in L1A!
I think I'm good in changing the colors!

Palettes are easy to explain. Simple to use.

But in advanced graphics, they are very tough to master.

To get the most out of a quest, it helps to make a palette so that tiles can look differently when the CSet changes.

That was confusing I know...

Okay, I've read this stuff and I get most of it, but please I would like help with something. How do you change which Cset an item or monster uses?

You can't do that with monsters, unless you change the actual palette it uses, which would make other monsters look weird unless you recoloured them, kind of tricky. For items, go to sprites, then items and when you select the tile the item uses, press + or - on the number pad to change it.

I got a little question about csets within a palette.
can you overlap them so you don't have to find aall the colors yourself?

Didn't You Mix Those Up!
I Thought C-sets Were The Tiles In
Quest->Tiles

I Might Be Wrong. But I Did Think It Was The Other Way Around.

Oh, and thanx Jigglysaint, For The + and - thing. I Mean:
You can't do that with monsters, unless you change the actual palette it uses, which would make other monsters look weird unless you recoloured them, kind of tricky. For items, go to sprites, then items and when you select the tile the item uses, press + or - on the number pad to change it.

how do i change csets for link so that i can completely make him look like someone else?

edit CSet 6. that's his default pallete. also, sprite palletes 6-8 affect his ring colors (6 - Blue 7 - Red 8 - Gold)

Is there any way to view what tiles will look like using high-numbered palletes in ZQuest? I know how to preview the first 16 level palletes, but I want to use one of the extra ones.

Yes, there is, actually. Go to "Data -> Palette" and enter any pallet number in there, from 00 to FF, to view it on that screen, right in Zquest.

Yes, there is, actually. Go to "Data -> Palette" and enter any pallet number in there, from 00 to FF, to view it on that screen, right in Zquest.