OP2ArtReader

A modern re-creation of the original op2art Viewer 3.0 (2005, by Cynex) for Outpost 2: Divided Destiny. It reads the game's art files (OP2_ART.BMP + op2_art.prt) and lets you browse and export every image, picture, frame, and animation group.

Written in VB.NET targeting .NET Framework 4.8 (Windows Forms).

Features

• Browse the full art hierarchy via four tabs:
  • Image – the lowest level: raw pixel data + palette + size.
  • Picture – an image plus its position within a frame.
  • Frame – multiple pictures composited together (correct draw order + transparency).
  • Group – an animation: a sequence of frames, with a selection rectangle and centre.
• Dual render – the left side shows the selected art at 1:1, with a second 2× zoomed view below it (crisp nearest-neighbour, scrolls when larger than the panel).
• Group animation – plays automatically on the Group tab (toggle Animate), or step frames manually with Frame in group.
• Group overlays (faithful to the original):
  • Draw Borders – the selection rectangle as white corner-brackets.
  • Draw Lights – overlays the game's fixed "lights" group (index 47).
• Extended Info tree – shows the structured fields for the selected object (rect, palette, type, offsets, frame/picture counts, appendices…).
• Batch Save – export ranges of Images / Frames / Groups to BMP at 32 / 24 / 16 / "8 or 1"-bit colour depth. Images export losslessly in their native indexed format (8bpp with the sprite's palette, or 1bpp for shadows).
• View → Background Color – switch the canvas (both renders) between Gray, the original op2art Orange (0xFF7F00), Brown, or Green.
• Settings persistence – paths, last selection, view toggles, window position and batch-save options are saved to op2art.ini next to the executable (same section layout as the original).
• Group names – if op2art_names.ini sits next to the exe, the Group tab's status line shows which unit/building each group is (e.g. group 904 → "Cargo Truck Eden Gene Bank – dir 0"). It's a [GroupNames] section of <group>=<label> lines, generated from the Outpost2.exe decompile (the op2remake building_anim_catalog.tsv + unit_anim_catalog.tsv). Optional — absent file just means no names shown.

Requirements

• Windows with .NET Framework 4.8.
• An Outpost 2 installation (1.4.1 / OPU). The viewer expects:
  • OP2_ART.BMP in the Outpost 2 folder.
  • op2_art.prt in OPU\base\sprites\ under that folder.

Building

This is a legacy (non-SDK) Windows Forms project. Build it with Visual Studio's MSBuild, not dotnet build — the .NET SDK's resource compiler rejects the legacy WinForms icon resource.

& "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\18\Community\MSBuild\Current\Bin\MSBuild.exe" OP2Art.sln

Or open OP2Art.sln in Visual Studio and build normally. The executable is written to ..\build\OP2ArtReader.exe (Debug) / bin\Release\ (Release).

Running

1. Launch OP2ArtReader.exe.
2. On first run, browse to your Outpost 2 game folder (the one containing outpost2.exe). The choice is remembered in op2art.ini.
3. Use the Select menu / tabs to pick an object, or File → Batch Save to export.

Project layout

File	Purpose
CPrtFile.vb	Loads op2_art.prt + OP2_ART.BMP; renders images, frames, groups.
CPalette.vb	Reads the PRT palette chunks.
CIni.vb	Minimal INI reader/writer (used for op2art.ini and op2art_names.ini).
fMain.vb	Main window: tabs, menus, rendering, animation, group names.
fBatchSave.vb	Batch export dialog (fBatchSave.Designer.vb for layout).
fAbout.vb	About box (fAbout.Designer.vb for layout).
WinGDI.vb	GDI interop for image blitting.

Art format notes

All art is built from two files:

• OP2_ART.BMP – raw 8bpp/1bpp pixel data only (no size or palette info).
• op2_art.prt – palettes, image headers (size/type/palette), and the picture/frame/group animation tables.

Levels: Image → Picture (image + offset) → Frame (composited pictures) → Group (animated frames + selection box). Palette index 0 is transparent. Image types 4 and 5 are 1bpp shadow masks that darken the background rather than being coloured sprites.

📄 Full format reference: docs/op2_art_format.md — file structures, rendering semantics, shadow packing, and group border/lights behaviour.

Credits

• Original op2art Viewer 3.0 © 2005 by Cynex.
• Format documentation from the Outpost 2 community (forum.outpost2.net).
• This re-creation builds on the OP2Graphics / op2art recreation efforts.