NOTE: Spr2Pop is now obsolete. The conversion function has been incorporated into the Popcorn library itself. Spr2Pop is definitely not compatible with the new (2007) release of Popcorn.
Matthew Bloch is writing a games construction library called Popcorn. Popcorn's fast sprite plot routine requires a special format of graphics data. Spr2Pop is simply a program to convert from standard 8 bit RISC OS sprites to the Popcorn format.
This is an early version of Spr2Pop and comes with very basic intructions. However it is very easy to use: Run Spr2Pop in the usual way, and it will install on the iconbar. Drag a sprite file containing a single, 8 bit sprite to this icon. Then when the save box appears, drag the Popcorn data file to where ever you want it. If the sprite has no mask, you first need to select the transparent colour in the options window.
Spr2Pop can also be used from the command line. The syntax is:
Spr2Pop <infile> <outfile> [-nopreshift] [-trans <col>]
If you wish to use the program in this mode, I suggest copying the Spr2Pop binary from the application directory to your library directory.
Spr2Pop needs Acorn's ToolBox modules to run in desktop mode. If you do not have these modules (they are in the RISC OS 3.6 and later ROMs) you can download them too.