Duke Nukem 3D Palette Format
| Format type | Palette |
|---|---|
| Hardware | VGA |
| Colour depth | 18-bit |
| Number of colours | 256 |
| Games | None |
Duke Nukem 3D stores its palette information in the files PALETTE.DAT and LOOKUP.DAT. The game only uses 256 colours, but uses various lookup tables to give the appearance of varying levels and colours of light.
PALETTE.DAT contains the palette for the entire game along with shading and translucency lookups.
LOOKUP.DAT contains the lookup tables for the various virtual palettes used within the game other than palette 0.
PALETTE.DAT format
PALETTE.DAT is made up of 3 sections; Palette data, shade tables and a translucency table.
| Data type | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| UINT8 [256][3] | palette | The game palette data stored as a standard 6-bit VGA palette. |
| INT16LE | numpalookups | The number of palette lookup tables in the file |
| UINT8 [numpalookups][256] | palookup | Array of simple lookup tables for each palette entry |
| UINT8 [256][256] | transluc | 2-dimensional array to find the blended result of two palette entries |
Shade Tables
The shade tables are simple lookup tables that translate a given palette entry to its equivalent at a given level of darkness.
Translucency Table
The translucency table is a 2-dimensional array that gives a result when two palette entries are alpha-blended together.
LOOKUP.DAT format
LOOKUP.DAT is made up of 2 sections; Palette swap tables and alternate palettes. Alternate palettes are used for full-screen animations such as the title screen and episode cut-scenes
| Data type | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| UINT8 | spritepals | The number of palette lookup tables in the file |
| PALETTE_SWAP [spritepals] | palette_swaps | Array of simple lookup tables for each palette entry |
| UINT8 [n][256][3] | alt_palettes | Animation palettes stored as a standard 6-bit VGA palette. These palettes take up the remainder of the file |
Palette Swap format
Each PALETTE_SWAP is defined as the following 257-byte structure:
| Data type | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| UINT8 | palette_swap_index | The index of this palette in the game |
| UINT8 [256] | palette_swap_table | Lookup table for this palette |