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Palettes

The Palette asset contains the information about a specific game palette, consisting of 16 colors.

You can create a new empty palette with the button, import the palette from a specific PNG file with the button, or extract all the game palettes contained in the game PNG images with the button.

You can edit each palette color by clicking on it and then either shifting the color bars, entering a HEX value or by picking one of the available colors.
If you enter a HEX value, the color would be mapped to an available color automatically.

Palette Window

Palette Structure​

The Mega Drive supports 4 palette lines of 16 colors each, for a total of 64 colors on screen at any time. Each color is 9-bit RGB (3 bits per channel), giving 512 possible colors.

  • Line 0 — Typically used for backgrounds. The first color (index 0) is the global background/transparent color.
  • Lines 1–3 — Used for backgrounds, sprites, or both, depending on your project's needs.

Each 8x8 tile (whether background or sprite) can only use colors from a single palette line. You assign a palette line per tile, not per pixel.

Sprites​

Sprites can use any of the 4 palette lines, but each sprite tile is limited to the 16 colors of its assigned line. Sprites support a maximum of 16 colors per tile.

Backgrounds​

Background tiles follow the same rule — each 8x8 tile references one palette line. A single background image can use all 64 colors across different tiles, as long as each individual tile stays within one palette line.

Palette Events​

You can manipulate palettes at runtime using scripting events: