My palette file for VICE

[WonderSlug]

Hello all.

I made a palette file to be used with the C64 and C128 emulators in VICE.

As far as I can tell, this custom palette very closely matches that of a real C64 and  C128 as they look on 1702 and 1902 monitors, respectively.

Here's the 'text' of my palette file.  

============================================================


#
# VICE Palette file
#
# Syntax:
# Red Green Blue Dither
#
# This one works best on a standard RGB color scheme on a
# Microsoft Windows 9x/2000/XP system and CRT/LCD monitor.
# It might also work well on another OS that runs VICE like *nix/Mac.
# This palette seems to most closely match that of an original C64/128.
# It was compared to an actual running C64 with 1702 monitor.
# The colors are well saturated, with no bleeding, and very good contrast.

# Black
00 00 00 0

# White
FF FF FF 0

# Red
FF 00 00 0

# Cyan
00 FF FF 0

# Purple
# 80 00 80 0 (W3C/X11 Standard)
# FF 00 FF 0 (Magenta / Fuschia)
# C0 00 C0 0
A0 00 A0 0

# Green
# 00 FF 00 0 (Lime)
# 00 80 00 0 (W3C/X11 Standard)
# 00 C0 00 0
00 A0 00 0

# Blue
00 00 FF 0

# Yellow
FF FF 00 0

# Orange
# FF A5 00 0 (Standard Orange)
# FF 80 00 0 (Deep Orange)
FF A0 00 0

# Brown
# A5 2A 2A 0 (Standard Brown)
# 6A 33 04 0 (Dark Earth Clay Brown)
80 40 20 0

# Light Red
# FF C0 CB 0 (Pink)
# FF 69 B4 0 (Hot Pink)
FF 80 80 0

# Dark Gray
# 40 40 40 0 (Twice as dark as Standard/Medium Gray)
40 40 40 0

# Medium Gray (Standard Gray)
80 80 80 0

# Light Green
# 90 EE 90 0 (X11/W3C Standard)
# 90 F0 90 0
90 FF 90 0

# Light Blue
# AD D8 E6 0 (Standard Light Blue)
# 80 80 FF 0 (Saturated Light Blue)
80 A0 FF 0

# Light Gray (Silver - Twice as bright as Standard Gray)
# D3 D3 D3 0 (Standard Light Gray)
C0 C0 C0 0


============================================================


Copy and paste the above text, between the '========', but don't include the '======' , into a text file and save it.

I saved it as 'cbmstandard.vpl' in the C64 and C128 subdirectories of VICE.  To use it, do the following within VICE (using WinVICE 1.22 as an example):

Goto Settings -> Video Settings -> VICII Palette

Choose External Palette

Type in cbmstandard.vpl   (or whatever you saved the above text as)

[Stephane Richard]

Not sure if it's a problem with your palette file or if it's with vice..  But I followed your steps, started my c128 vice...change the palette etc...then I hit F7 and ALT-R to go to the 80 column mode and the text was yellow isntead of light cyan.

[nikoniko]

Are you sure you loaded it as the VICII palette? Sounds like you replaced the VDC palette instead.

[Golan Klinger]

I take it the other thread you started with the same name is a duplicate and can be removed?

[WonderSlug]

Yeah, I hit submit the first time, and the site took forever to respond.   I then went back to the forum, and it didn't show my post, so I reposted this one.

Looks like my first attempt finally got through, although partially.

I just went and deleted the other one.

[WonderSlug]

Not sure if it's a problem with your palette file or if it's with vice..  But I followed your steps, started my c128 vice...change the palette etc...then I hit F7 and ALT-R to go to the 80 column mode and the text was yellow isntead of light cyan.

Yeah, as the mod stated, this palette file is only for the VICII palette.  Leave the C128 VDC palette (which is used by the 80 column mode) alone, since it is already properly set up.

[xlar54]

Which file is this?  Looking around in vice I dont see a palette file that stands out (by filename).

[WonderSlug]

Which file is this?  Looking around in vice I dont see a palette file that stands out (by filename).

It's a custom file I made.  copy and paste the text above into a file and save it.  Then reference it in the settings as I stated above.

[nikoniko]

Leave the C128 VDC palette (which is used by the 80 column mode) alone, since it is already properly set up.

Actually, it isn't. Special monitor circuitry is supposed to massage the 128's half-intensity yellow into a lovely shade of brown, but the VICE palette doesn't take that account, instead displaying a dark yellow.

[nikoniko]

xlar, you can find the default palette files in the /128 subdirectory.

[WonderSlug]

Leave the C128 VDC palette (which is used by the 80 column mode) alone, since it is already properly set up.

Actually, it isn't. Special monitor circuitry is supposed to massage the 128's half-intensity yellow into a lovely shade of brown, but the VICE palette doesn't take that account, instead displaying a dark yellow.

Ah, yes, now that I see it, you are correct.  I also notice that the 80-column VDC gray is much too dark in VICE.  It should be closer to medium gray instead of the dark gray it is now.

I've made a custom palette strictly for the VDC 80-column mode which should look much better.

As before, I saved this one as 'c128vdcstandard.vpl' in the C128 subdirectory of VICE and point to it in the C128 Settings -> Video Settings -> VDC Palette

===========================================================


#
# VICE Palette file
#
# Syntax:
# Red Green Blue Dither
#
# This one works best on a standard RGB color scheme on a
# Microsoft Windows 9x/2000/XP system and CRT/LCD monitor.
# It might also work well on another OS that runs VICE like *nix/Mac.
# This palette seems to most closely match that of an original
# Commodore 128 VDC 80-Column palette.
# It was compared to an actual running C128 with 1902 monitor.
# The colors are well saturated, with no bleeding, and very good contrast.

# Black (X11/W3C Standard Black)
00 00 00 0

# Medium Gray
# 80 80 80 0 (X11/W3C Standard Gray)
# 60 60 60 0
70 70 70 0

# Blue
# 00 00 80 0 (X11/W3C Standard Navy Blue)
00 00 A0 0

# Light Blue
# 00 00 FF 0 (X11/W3C Standard Blue)
60 60 FF 0

# Green
# 00 80 00 0 (X11/W3C Standard Green)
00 C0 00 0

# Light Green
# 00 FF 00 0 (X11/W3C Standard Lime)
# 60 FF 60 0
80 FF 80 0

# Dark Cyan
00 80 80 0

# Light Cyan (X11/W3C Standard Cyan)
00 FF FF 0

# Dark Red
# 80 00 00 0 (X11/W3C Standard Maroon)
# 90 00 00 0
A0 00 00 0

# Light Red
# FF 00 00 0 (X11/W3C Standard Red)
# FF 80 80 0 (Pink)
FF 60 60 0

# Dark Purple
# 80 00 80 0 (X11/W3C Standard Purple)
D0 00 D0 0

# Light Purple
# FF 00 FF 0 (X11/W3C Standard Magenta / Fucshia)
# FF 80 FF 0
E0 80 E0 0

# Brown
# A5 2A 2A 0 (X11/W3C Standard Brown)
# F0 80 00 0 (Amber Screen)
# 80 40 00 0 (Earthen Brown)
# A0 60 00 0 (Medium Brown)
# C0 80 00 0 (Dull Orange)
# FF 80 00 0 (Orange)
# FF 80 40 0 (Orangish)
A0 60 00 0

# Yellow (X11/W3C Standard Yellow)
FF FF 00 0

# Light Gray (X11/W3C Standard Silver)
C0 C0 C0 0

# White (X11/W3C Standard White)
FF FF FF 0


============================================================

[Edwing]

Hey. Thanks for your color lists. Having used CCS64 for a while, as time went by I did some manual fine tuning until I've come to the following set of emulated VIC colors:

Code Select Expand

$RGBCOLOR0=181818
$RGBCOLOR1=ffffff
$RGBCOLOR2=903040
$RGBCOLOR3=b6fafa
$RGBCOLOR4=ba31e4
$RGBCOLOR5=60c050
$RGBCOLOR6=3018c0
$RGBCOLOR7=fbfb60
$RGBCOLOR8=b87028
$RGBCOLOR9=703800
$RGBCOLOR10=ef839f
$RGBCOLOR11=4d4d4d
$RGBCOLOR12=808080
$RGBCOLOR13=b7fbbf
$RGBCOLOR14=948cff
$RGBCOLOR15=c8c8c8

Note that they're not for 9300 °K but some custom setting at around 8000 °K; and that they're not for "plain" but scanline filtered display (which I think looks much more like the real thing).

So these are supposed to be mixed with alternating lines of black, meaning that "black" is not shown as 181818 but rather like 0c0c0c.

The filter of course also requires the PC monitor's contrast to be set quite high ... for the emulator with scanlines, I have it at 80% while normally I work at 50% or 60%. (I believe in VICE you can set the alternating color to shades of grey rather than just black...)

Hope this is of some use for someone.

Cheers,
Edwing :ö)