Creating a basic image

Converting source art to 3DO image format involves two steps, discussed in this section:

Resizing source art.
Exporting source art with the 3DO Image Writer.

For more information

If your source has a lot of its colors at one end of the spectrum, consider creating an image with a custom VDL (see Creating images with custom VDLs).

Resizing source art

To save images in the proper size, you have to consider the following issues:

On NTSC screens, the maximum display size for a 3DO image 320 x 240.

If the image is larger, only the upper-left area is displayed.
If the image is smaller, it is displayed in the upper-left corner and the areas not used are displayed in black.

The PAL screen centers smaller images on a black background.

How to resize source art

To resize source art, follow these steps:

From the Image menu, choose Image Size.

Figure 1: Dialog for resizing an image in Photoshop.
In the dialog, change the units to pixels and specify either height or width, using the appropriate numbers for NTSC (320 x 240) or PAL (384 x 288). Make sure that Resolution is 72 pixels/inch and that Constrain Proportions is checked and Constrain File Size is not checked, and choose OK.

Photoshop scales the source art to the specified size. If you prefer to crop the source art, use the Canvas Size command.

Exporting source art with the 3DO Image Writer

To export source art with the 3DO Image Writer, follow these steps:

From the File menu, choose Export > 3DO ImageWriter.

Note: To generate a PAL image (384 x 288), choose Export > PAL Image Writer.
Specify the name of the image. Using the extension .img is recommended.

The dialog shown in the figure below lets you choose the export options for the image.

Figure 2: 3DO Image Writer dialog.
In the VDL Type box, choose Standard.
Next, decide the type of standard VDL you want to use:
- Standard 5-5-5 uses five bits each for red, green, and blue.
- Standard 5-5-4-0 uses five bits each for red and green but leaves the lowest bit of blue for cornerweighting.
Note: If the original image has 24 bits per pixel, the tool discards the bottom three bits of the red, green, and blue part to prepare the image for the frame buffer and the image will not look exactly as it did on the Macintosh screen. A custom VDL, discussed below, may be helpful in this situation.
Choose OK to save the image.

You can check the Suppress Warnings box if you anticipate warnings during the conversion process and don't want to see them.