I've attached code for loading BMPs from .exe files, provided you know the ID number of the BMP. I've only ever used it with MinGW, but it should compile fine with MSVC as well.

It's pretty straightforward to use:

The version I attached is for Allegro 4. I did write a version for A5, but it no longer compiles, and I haven't had a chance to see what changes need to be made to get it to compile with the new RC1 release. I can still provide the code if you want to attempt to update it yourself.

I still haven't added 8bit (or less) BMP support either, so it only works for 16, 24 and 32 bit images.

I can't help you there then sorry, it's not something I ever wanted to do.

Why not just make an allegro program to get the colors of each pixel and then save it how a 2d array would be written in whatever language you're using. You can put this in a source file and then convert the 2d array to a bitmap.

Load the resource bitmap as a windows bitmap, and call convert_hbitmap_to_bitmap on it to get an Allegro BITMAP.

I assume you'd use the win32 LoadBitmap function to load the hbitmap, but its been a while since I used the win32 api.

I don't have allegro installed right now, I'm going to install allegro 5 soon though.

Here's how I would go about doing it, I'm not sure about the correct function names though.

int data[BITMAP_HEIGHT][BITMAP_WIDTH];

for (int j = 0; j < bmp->h; j++)
{
    for (int i = 0; i < bmp->w; i++)
    {
       data[j][i] = getpixel(bmp, i, j);
    }
}

and then save it to a txt file called mybitmap.h where the output would look something like. (This will be larger in order to store all of the pixels of the bitmap).

#ifndef MY_BITMAP_H
#define MY_BITMAP_H
data[BITMAP_HEIGHT][BITMAP_WIDTH] = { { 155645, 1212321, 15648684 },
                                      { 155645, 1213321, 15648684 }, 
                                      { 155645, 1212321, 15648684 }};
#endif

and then make a blank bitmap using create_bitmap(BITMAP_WIDTH,BITMAP_HEIGHT) and fill it with the values from the data 2d array using putpixel(BITMAP *bmp, int x, int y, int color) where color is the number in the data array.

I think I'm gonna abandon the whole resource file thing.Yesterday I wasted 6 hours trying to connect them to the code.And it wouldn't even find the damn resource inside the resource file let alone convert it.Is it possible to do the same thing but with a dll?Hide the bitmaps without embedding them to the executable?

What pisses me off the most is that while there is support for usage(supposedly) there is hardly any documentation out there.I've searched for hours the last couple of days and I've only found some worthy articles that don't resemble that much what I want to do which is quite simple imo.

EDIT:thx for all the replies though

EDIT 2:Don't answer this,I just saw the other thread(http://www.allegro.cc/forums/thread/605608) .If anything,answer there since it's already asked.

i didn't want to have file dependencies for sth to work.More so because it was small.So I wanted to embed them in the executable.
Also if I ever needed to do that and had a real good reason after doing it here I would have an example an knowhow to do that and I wouldn't have to learn everything from scratch then.And since VS gives you support for such things why wouldn't it work(pisses me off when things that are supposed to work don't).

@type568:the meaning of resource files as in .rc or .resx is to embed them to the executable and not have to give the actual resources as in bitmaps texts etc given along with the executable.It's not a question of organisation or overhead.It's a question of file dependency and hidden resources(again bitmaps and the rest).Some don't like to have the resources out there for everyone to take and manipulate.Also it isn't the best to have file dependencies cause if you forget to send them along the exe or for some reason they don't end up in the same directory as the executable in the end user pc.

@BAF:yeah i was thinking about dat files.i'try them at some point when i'll have free time.

Does anyone know if there is or will be support for datafiles in A5?

You have the PhysFS addon now.

Uh, yes it does. Just not allegro's old dat format. Theres plenty of other data file formats that it supports. Like zip files.