| iPIE | iPAQ 31x Image Exporer |
A small storytop
So I bought a iPAQ 314...
Therefore, I started searching the web for tweaks and tricks and I stumbled
into a topic on GpsPassion (http://www.gpspassion.com)
about customizing the iPAQ 310 (the USA version), which is pretty much the same
device with very few differences.
After reading a lot of posts from a great deal of great people I've decided to
make my own contribution.
One the most boring things I had to handle was creating custom images for this
device's interface (OASIS).
Some of the main interface buttons can handle regular bitmaps with or without
alpha channel (transparency), but the 95% of the interface's images are not in a
standard BMP format.
To handle this "special" image format,
FredLynx developed the
MioMap-IGO BMP Tool. that loads standard BMPs with alpha channel and
compresses them to the special format.
So, to create a semi-transparent image I had to:
1) create the image as a standard PNG with transparency using my
favorite image editor
2) open it with GIMP and save it as a BMP with alpha channel
3) use MioMap-IGO BMP Tool to convert it to the "special" format
Soon enough I started to get tired of all this steps and latter on I found out
that MioMap-IGO BMP Tool had some limitations, as it couldn't read all of those "special"
image files. Also, It wouldn't convert some complex bitmaps I've created and it
didn't handle transparency correctly.
I then decided to try to develop a tool to handle this issues. Don't get me
wrong! MioMap-IGO is a great tool!
After a lot of trial and error (there's no documentation mapping the "special"
image file format) I finally created iPIE which stands for iPAQ Image Explorer.
Featurestop
Load: BMP, PNG, GIF
Save: BMP (24bit-RGB, 32bit-ARGB, 16bit-Palleted-RLE-iPAQ), PNG,
JPG
Batch conversion
Screen Shotstop
This is a screen-shot of iPIE displaying an image from the iPAQ's
NAV\data.zip\ui_hp_sagan\800_480 folder.
I believe these are some photos iPAQ's developer team members... if not... I
really don't have a clue...
This file is one of those than MioMap-IGO couldn't open.
Downloadtop
You are free to download this tool, but keep in mind I offer no support and
accept no responsibility for what you do with it (sorry, this is necessary).
Still, I do accept comments and bug-reports. Mail them to
Version: 1.0.1
Release: 2009-01-08
Download Now!
More to cometop
If you install iPIE, you'll see it creates a start menu group
called iPAQ 31x Tools.
I did this because I'm working on another tool. Still very unstable... more to
come...