I''m having a problem with palettes. I load a 8-bit, 256 color palette from a bitmap file, like this:

  
LPDIRECTDRAWPALETTE LoadPalette(LPDIRECTDRAW,LPCSTR);
LPDIRECTDRAWPALETTE LoadPalette(LPDIRECTDRAW lpdd, LPCSTR szbitmap)
{
    LPDIRECTDRAWPALETTE lpddpal;
    int filehandle;
    PALETTEENTRY ape[256];
    memset(ape,0,256*sizeof(PALETTEENTRY));

    if (szbitmap && (filehandle = _lopen(szbitmap, OF_READ))!=-1)
    {
        BITMAPFILEHEADER bf;
        BITMAPINFOHEADER bi;

	//Read file data into buffers

        _lread(filehandle,&bf,sizeof(BITMAPFILEHEADER));
        _lread(filehandle,&bi,sizeof(BITMAPINFOHEADER));
        _lread(filehandle,ape,256*sizeof(PALETTEENTRY));
        _lclose(filehandle);

      // For some reason, I don''t seem to have to flip the

      // red and blue components

       for(int i=0; i < 256; i++) {
			ape[i].peFlags = PC_NOCOLLAPSE;
        }
    }
	//Create the palette and return it

    if (lpdd->CreatePalette(DDPCAPS_8BIT | DDPCAPS_ALLOW256 | DDPCAPS_INITIALIZE,ape,&lpddpal,NULL)!=DD_OK)
    {
        return NULL;
    } else {
        return lpddpal;
    }
}
  

I call the function like this: It always returns successful.

  
        //Get the palette of a bitmap file

	LPDIRECTDRAWPALETTE lpddpal;
	if(!(lpddpal = LoadPalette(lpdd,"fireballs.bmp"))) {
		PostQuitMessage(0);
	}
	//Set it to the primary surface

	lpddsPrimary->SetPalette(lpddpal);
  

The problem is, when I blit the bitmap (loaded with a different function onto an offscreen surface) to the Backbuffer, and then flip it to the primary surface, the bitmap looks like it''s in 16 colour mode, not 256! I know the palette was set properly to the primary surface, because I can plot pixels in all 256 colors, but the bitmap''s colors are screwed!

Whoops! After hours of scrutiny, I discovered I left out the LR_CREATEDIBSECTION flag in the LoadImage function! This is a cruel API...