Egg Palletization Tools

This repository is aimed as a guide to using specific Panda3D tools.

Components

Panda3D Binaries

We will primarily be using three of Panda's tools with their usages defined below:

egg-palettize

egg-palettize [opts] file.egg [file.egg ...]

egg-palettize attempts to pack several texture maps from various models together into one or more palette images, for improved rendering performance and ease of texture management. It can also resize textures and convert them to another image file format, whether or not they are actually placed on a palette, and can manage some simple texture properties, like mipmapping and rendering format.

egg-palettize reads a texture attributes file, usually named textures.txa, which contains instructions from the user about resizing particular textures. Type egg-palettize -H [in the command line] for an introduction to the syntax of this file.

The palettization information from previous runs is recorded in a file named textures.boo (assuming the attributes file is named textures.txa); a complete record of every egg file and every texture that has been referenced is kept here. This allows the program to intelligently manage the multiple egg files that may reference the textures in question.

egg-texture-cards

egg-texture-cards [opts] texture [texture ...] output.egg

egg-texture-cards generates an egg file consisting of several square polygons, one for each texture name that appears on the command line.

This is a handy thing to have for importing texture images through egg-palettize, even when those textures do not appear on any real geometry; it can also be used for creating a lot of simple polygons for rendering click buttons and similar interfaces.

egg-trans

egg-trans [opts] -o output.egg input.egg

egg-trans reads an egg file and writes an essentially equivalent egg file to the standard output, or to the file specified with -o. Some simple operations on the egg file are supported.

Texture Attributes (txa)

Palletization Process

2D Assets

The typical pipeline for palettizing 2D assets, such as GUI and simple 2d images, utilize Panda's egg-texture-cards tool. This is crucial for the input egg file required by egg-palettize.

3D Assets