Pixmaps And XPMs

XPM is a text-based image format that can be embedded directly in C programs. It is not a modern asset pipeline, but it is excellent for a teaching lab because students can inspect the image data without a separate binary tool.

For the course sprites, you need enough support for width and height, number of colors, characters per pixel, the color table, transparent pixels, and pixel rows. You do not need a full image library. In fact, a small parser is more useful here because every part of the format remains visible.

Drawing Sprites

Sprites are rectangles with per-pixel decisions. A transparent pixel should not overwrite the destination. A sprite that begins partly off-screen should be clipped rather than rejected entirely. Color values should be converted into the current mode's pixel format before they are written.

This is the bridge from rectangles to games and tools. A game character, mouse cursor, icon, tile, note block, or document caret can all be represented as small images drawn at positions controlled by application state.

TIP

Keep XPM parsing separate from sprite drawing. Loading an image and drawing an already-loaded pixmap are different responsibilities.