This document describes the raw data format of the color palette (PAL) file. The same format was used for both Fallout and Fallout 2, giving all PAL files complete compatibility with both game engines.
PAL files contain a palette used when rendering FRM frame data. Additionally, they contain a table for transforming RGB values into an index in the palette (speculated as being used for extracting fonts), and also several tables concatenated beyond the main file data whose uses are not clear.
As referenced below, the Palette area (0x00000000 - 0x000002FF) and the RBG Conversion Table area (0x00000300 - 0x000082FF) are required elements in PAL files.
The purpose of the .exe-Generated Data is not clear. When loading PAL files, if these tables don't exist FALLOUT2.exe and MAPPER2.exe will generate them.
Also note that values contained in custom PAL files provided for individual FRM files are subject to certain changes in the game and mapper engines.
| Offset | Size | Type | Value | Description | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0x00000000 | 1 | unsigned byte | 0..63 | Red000 | Palette
Colors in the palette are in the range 0..63. The first element (index 0) is always considered transparent (actual color is ignored). If the value of one color component is not in the range 0..63, in a special table the index is marked as unused, and all components of the color are set to 0. Elements from 229 to 254 are used as 'animation colors' and Fallout sets their values itself. 229 to 232 are animated green (for radioactive waste), 238 to 247 are orange, red and yellow (for fires), and the rest are bright blue (computer screens). Since normal RGB goes from 0..255, using palette colors (0..63) directly to draw the image will make it very dark. The easiest way to get correct colors is to multiply the value by 4, so that a palette entry of "1,2,3" actually becomes "4,8,12" in RGB. |
| 0x00000001 | 1 | --"-- | --"-- | Green000 | |
| 0x00000002 | 1 | --"-- | --"-- | Blue000 | |
| 0x00000003 | 1 | --"-- | --"-- | Red001 | |
| 0x00000004 | 1 | --"-- | --"-- | Green001 | |
| 0x00000005 | 1 | --"-- | --"-- | Blue001 | |
| ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | |
| 0x000002FD | 1 | --"-- | --"-- | Red255 | |
| 0x000002FE | 1 | --"-- | --"-- | Green255 | |
| 0x000002FF | 1 | --"-- | --"-- | Blue255 | |
| 0x00000300 | 1 | unsigned byte | 0..255 | Element00000 | RGB Conversion Table
Table for converting RGB values => index in the palette. |
| ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | |
| 0x000082FF | 1 | unsigned byte | 0..255 | Element32767 | |
|
.exe-Generated Data | |||||
| 0x00008300 | 4 | char[4] | 'NEWC' | Tag for the availability of additional tables.? | |
| 0x00008304 | 65536 | byte[65536] | Additional table 1 | ||
| 0x00018304 | 65536 | byte[65536] | Additional table 2 | ||
| 0x00028304 | 65536 | byte[65536] | Additional table 3 | ||