Falcon 4 .APL File Format

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An APL is a palettized image with the ability to store alpha values in the palette.

NOTE:The byte order on disk is little-endian.

APL file format:

• check the first DWORD (4 bytes) to see that it equals 0x030870; if so, this is an APL file
  
• then check the next WORD (2 bytes), this is the width, in pixels, of the image
  
• then check the next WORD (2 bytes), this is the height, in pixels, of the image
  
• then load the next 256 DWORDs (1024 bytes) into an array, where each DWORD (4 bytes) represents a single palette entry. Each pallete entry consists of 4 bytes (alpha, red, green, and blue, from high-order to low-order, respectively).
  
• the next (width * height) bytes represent the image data itself, one byte per pixel, with one row's worth of pixel data coming first, then the next row's worth of pixel data, etc. The first byte represents the upper-left pixel in the image/texture; the last byte represents the lower-left pixel in the image/texture.

The byte value associated with each pixel, provides an index into the palette array, telling you which palette entry to use for determining the color to use for rendering that pixel. Just look up the corresponding palette entry to get the color data for that pixel, as well as the alpha channel value. If the alpha component is set to 0x80, then this magic value means do not use ALPHA.