A palette swap is a practice used in video games, whereby a graphic that is already used for one element is given a different palette, so it can be reused as other elements. The different palette gives the new graphic a unique set of colors, which make it recognizably distinct from the original. Palette swaps are commonly used to distinguish between first and second players, for creating visual hierarchies, and for making visually distinct areas for levels in games.

One reason palette swaps are used is to save memory. In early computer gaming, when cartridges were the main storage medium and memory capacity was both scarce and expensive, a single sprite could be reused by changing its palette. As such, many new objects could be created without the need to produce new graphics from scratch, which saved both production costs and development time. Early games in the Mortal Kombat series frequently used palette swapping to introduce new ninja characters. More generally, palette swaps are common in sports games, in which the color scheme of opposing players is used to differentiate between teams.

In certain cases, such as role-playing video games, palette swaps are used to signify a character's status. Prominent examples of this are seen in Final Fantasy, in which a player character afflicted with the "Poison" Status effect will appear purple. By contrast, the main characters of Breath of Fire II occasionally swap their palette colors to indicate an increase in their respective statistics. In The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, areas affected by "Twilight" have the colors of their environmental graphics altered to appear less colorful and more yellow, and their normal color is restored once player has completed a certain objective, and in Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, and Mario is Missing!, Luigi is a palette swap of Mario having green replacing red.

See also[link]

• Head swap

External links[link]

• Palette Swapping: 17 Games that Did it Right, GamePro, January 13, 2009

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