Hi, I couldn''t decide whether to post this here on in the beginner''s section, cause it''s most probably not hard at all. I have just finished coding a 2D fire effect, and I need a good palette for it to look good. Since recently begun working with palettes I''m not that good on manipulating colors, so I came here. I want to create a 256 color look-up table, where 0 (black) is cold and 255 (white) represent very hot. In between I want a spectrum from red to yellow. I never were any good at painting and mixing colors as you can see, so I need some help setting up the look-up table init code (a 256 byte char array). Thanks!

It sounds like you want a palette representing blackbody emmission (the thing that goes from black to red to yellow to white). This palette is based on the color of iron as it is heated.

I know that Photoshop has a built-in blackbody palette; you could export it from there. Alternatively, google for some info about blackbody radiation and build your own. Alternatively, just fake your own by dividing the palette into 3 pieces and giving each a gradient.

But... but that''s what HITLER would say!!

this might do it (my syntax may be off):




and no i did not test this, but it seems right, i know the array is 256 x3, but i dont see how you can get the color red or yellow or anything for that matter in only one byte. Perhaps i do not understand palettes at all in which case you can ignore this. Otherwise,given an index 0-255, you will get black->red->yellow->white from the above.
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[edited by - mstein on March 4, 2003 12:59:05 PM]

Yes, you are right - it''s a 256*3 array. Thanks for giving me the algorithm! I will try it out right away! Blackbody emission sounds really interesting, I will take a look at that as well! I will go for the fake for a start, but I will look into the blackbody emission for sure! I will check back here a bit later to see if someone else comes here to share their knowledge!