basic aseprite to picotron exporter

README.md

picotron is in early alpha -- it doesn't seem to have a sprite editor yet but it does support sprites in a particular format, so I threw together this quick-and-dirty aseprite exporter. hopefully this exporter will be obsolete soon!

requirements

you'll need Aseprite to use this.

this script is Windows-only, because of the io.popen('clip' ... str) -- "clip" is a windows executable. but you can replace that with print(str) and manually press ctrl-c on the popup window and it should work (don't close the popup afterwards or you'll need to re-open the script)

how to use

1. save this script to your aseprite scripts folder (File > Scripts > Open Scripts Folder) then reopen aseprite (or rescan scripts)
2. load an image with the picotron palette (or pico-8 extended palette)
3. change the image's color mode to "indexed" (Sprite > Color Mode > Indexed)
4. launch this script, press "copy" to copy to clipboard.

• if there is a current selection, it will only copy that region
• leave the script window open to copy again later

4. see the picotron alpha release notes for info on how to use the string in your clipboard. it should looks something like [gfx]08080000000000000000000000000700707007777007717177700777777000607070[/gfx]

how does it work

it converts pixels into picotron's gfx format: "[gfx]", 2-char hex width, 2-char hex height, WxH chars of color data, "[\gfx]".

the color data is "extended hexadecimal", i.e. 0=>"0", ... 15=>"f", 16=>"g", ... 31=>"v"

pico8

you can use this for pico8 too; just copy and you can to paste directly into the pico8 sprite editor. note that it will likely only work with the first 16 colors

pico-export.lua

-- Pico[8|tron] Export
--  by pancelor

-- a simple script to export the entire sprite (or current selection)
-- in the pico8 format, e.g.
-- [gfx]08080000000000000000000000000700707007777007717177700777777000607070[/gfx]

function add(tab,elem)
  table.insert(tab,elem)
  return elem
end

-- 0=>"0", ... 15=>"f", 16=>"g", ... 31=>"v"
local function picohex(val)
  if 0<=val and val<=9 then
    return string.char(0x30+val)
  elseif 10<=val and val<=31 then
    return string.char(97+val-10)
  else
    assert(nil,"bad val for picohex: "..val)
  end
end

-- copy string to host clipboard
-- windows-only
-- https://community.aseprite.org/t/solved-copy-string-within-aseprite-extension/16344
local function xsel(str)
  io.popen('clip','w'):write(str):close()
  -- print(str) --non-windows systems (requires manual ctrl-c)
end

--[[
# main
]]

local dlg = Dialog("Pico Export")
dlg:button{text="Copy", onclick=function()
  local cel=app.activeCel
  if not cel then return app.alert("error: no sprite found") end
  if cel.image.colorMode~=ColorMode.INDEXED then return app.alert("sprite palette must be indexed") end

  -- rect: the subrectangle to export tiles from
  local rect=app.activeSprite.selection.isEmpty and app.activeSprite.bounds or app.activeSprite.selection.bounds

  local build={}
  --add(build,"b=userdata(\"")
  add(build,string.format("[gfx]%02x%02x",rect.width,rect.height))
  for dy=0,rect.height-1 do
    for dx=0,rect.width-1 do
      local col = cel.image:getPixel(rect.x+dx,rect.y+dy)
      local ix = app.pixelColor.tileI(col)
      add(build,picohex(ix))
    end
  end
  add(build,"[/gfx]")
  --add(build,"\")")
  xsel(table.concat(build,""))
end}
-- dlg:label{ text="(then ctrl-c)" } --non-windows systems
dlg:show{wait=false}