IMPORTANT NOTE: SPCAMO's games use an unsigned 16-bit value for LBM index numbers. Thus, you can only use #'s 0 to 65535 for LBMs. Anything higher....causes weird effects.
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To edit/open Steel Panthers’ LBM files, you will need a copy of Corel/JASC Paint Shop Pro – it’s the only major editing program on the market that supports LBM, which is an ancient Electronic Arts file format developed for the Amiga back in 1985.
The information on this page is condensed from two Shrapnel Game Forum threads (LINK #1 and LINK #2).
Essentially, here is the suggested workflow for creating excellent LBM images for Steel Panthers:
Start by converting the photo to greyscale – IMAGE → GREYSCALE.
EFFECTS → ENHANCE PHOTO → Automatic Contrast Enhancement. Run this twice; first with Lighter/Normal/Flat then a second time with Lighter/Normal/Natural. (In JASC Paint Shop Pro 9, its ADJUST → AUTOMATIC CONTRAST ENHANCEMENT.)
Now click on the EFFECTS tab again and then click on the Sharpen tab then do "Sharpen More" (In PSP9, it’s ADJUST → SHARPNESS → SHARPEN MORE).
Use the selection tool to draw a rough 2:1 box around the area you want to use in your pic then press CTL-C and then Ctrl-V ( you now have a copy of the photo ) then do the following:
RESIZE with the controls set to SMART SIZE and both resize all layers and maintain aspect ratio ON and PIXEL SIZE selected. It varies by photo but in this case I set the width to 164 and that gave me height of 86 which fits well with the 160x80 size of a PIC.
Now press SHARPEN once then cut and paste the entire photo into a pre made 160x80 image already set up with the PIC palette (Click HERE to download a blank LBM file with the SPCAMO palette loaded) and you'll get the right side of this attachment instead of the left or you can take out the tanks and men you don't need and get in closer like the second attachment ( which is what I would do but I'd use the photo we already have).
Alternately, you can use Paint Shop Pro’s built in
image de-colorizer to try and get a better look – IMAGE →
LOAD PALETTE (Click HERE
to download a Paint Shop Pro Palette file with the “flashing”
colors removed from the palette so your LBM files don’t flash
in game). You want to use “Nearest Color Matching” or
“Error Diffusion Dithering”.
If you want, you can
go into your \Game Data\Design\Palettes directory and get the
palettes there – you want JASC_WINSP_PICPAL.pal
Finally, sometimes you just have to look for a different photo, as some photos just don’t work well no matter what you do with them!