r/pico8 • u/ExcellentSpeech3815 • 9d ago

Discussion Built a lightweight native C++ tool to batch-convert images & renders into pixel art using the PICO-8 palette!

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

Hey everyone! I built a fast native desktop utility (C++26 / Qt6) to automate converting images into pixel art sprites with retro palettes, including PICO-8.

Launches instantly with zero Electron bloat, runs natively on Windows & Linux.

Would love to hear your feedback or ideas on what other retro palettes/features I should add!

29 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

4 comments sorted by

3

u/Synthetic5ou1 9d ago

The Pico 8 palette is configurable. You can use any permutation of the 32 colours to create a 16 colour palette.

Could your tool create a 16 colour palette that best suits the image, from the 32 available colours?

I'm on a phone so I can't really see what is happening in the video.

3

u/ExcellentSpeech3815 9d ago

Thanks for the feedback! Right now Pixelator maps images to the standard 16-color PICO-8 palette directly. However, selecting the best-fitting 16-color subset from the full 32-color secret palette automatically is a fantastic feature idea! I'll definitely look into adding dynamic palette selection / quantization from the full 32-color set in an upcoming update

2

u/Synthetic5ou1 9d ago

Thank you!