There are multiple ways of editing Palettes in FE. First will be the way I recommend, the APE method.
The GBAGE was a very good way of editing palettes, and I will still have the guide here, but updates to GBAGE have rendered an important tool unusable as it had cause errors in some cases. It is unknown whether it will be making a return in the future.
Alternatively there is a Hex method and if for whatever need you have to inflict harm on yourself and you really really wish to use a Hex method, I recommend finding a different guide by searching explicitly for the 'Hex Method' as I only have a truncated version, which is not really at all helpful.
Recommended APE Method:Ok, so the first thing you want to do is download APE (Advanced Palette Editor). It can be found
here.Now what we will do first is find a Palette to Edit, lets use Eliwoods.
So let's open Nightmare and then open the FE7 Battle Palette Reference module. (I'm not sure if FE6 or FE8 have these)
Then we scroll through the list and find Eliwood's unpromoted palette offset.
Right we have that. So, now open APE, copy in FD9FAC (ignore the 0x8) and hit load, making sure the LZ77 compression box is ticked.
Now, if all we were doing was changing Eliwood's colours, we would be all set, simply copy the Palette down, change the colours and replace.
Simply use paint or Usenti to find RGB values.
** To be done: Further explain how to change the colours.
Repeat: If you are not changing the class of the character, or you know for sure that the classes both use the same palette order, then you are done here.
Now if you are changing class, I recommend using an already in-use palette of the class you want to change to.
Fore example: Lets make Eliwood a Cavalier.
First thing we need is the Palette of a cavalier. I'll use Sain's.
Put that in APE, load it and copy it. (ignore the random black splodge.)
The next thing you want to do is go back to Eliwood's Palette as that is what you are changing. So Reload his Palette.
After this you want to click replace. This replaces Eliwood's Palette but is not immediately visible, you must click load again to see the effects.
Great, so now Eliwood has the Palette of a Cavalier. It is at this point that you can use USenti or Paint to find out which colour is which spot on the sprite and edits can be made accordingly.
For now, I'm just going to make one of the greens purple, colour editing is done by double clicking the coloured bar in the changed Palette section.
Now we aren't done yet. First we must actually make Eliwood a Cavalier. Do this by going into the Chapter Unit Editor. (I recommend Blazer's Ultimate tutorial for further Information.)
And Finally, Enjoy you Eliwood who looks like Sain with Purple highlights.
Quick GBAGE Method EDIT: This is now unusable (Click Here To Hide/Show Text)
Ok, What you want to do is open GBAGE.
After that open the Image control, Palette Control and Colour Control windows.
Then let's go to where the battle animations are located. (This changes from different FEs)
In FE7, I know that image number 1746 is Eliwood's animation frames. (All other classes can be found upward of 1746)
So it should look like this:
Whaaa what's with those colours?
We have to find his palette offset.
So let's open Nightmare and then open the FE7 Battle Palette Reference module. (I'm not sure if FE6 or FE8 have these)
Then we scroll through the list and find Eliwood's unpromoted palette offset.
Right we have that. So, ignoring the 0x8 copy everything afterword, which is FD9FAC, and copy it into GBAGE like so:
(Note: "Compressed ROMpalette" must be activated after pasting the offset in.)
Great! Now he looks normal. You may notice in the colour control window there are various palettes. That's for the game to use when that class is on the other team, like in the Link Arena.
Using the Colour control window let's change a few things.
I decided to give him green hair, and purple clothes.
Ok, now for some reason the Colour Control window is a bit funny. Blue and green swap a bit, so it can take some getting used to. I've also read somewhere that if you don't change all the different palettes in the different rows it won't work. (However I have yet to see that problem)
So after that, test it. If it didn't work, then you may have to change all his alternate palettes.
Truncated Hex Method (Click Here To Hide/Show Text)
Steps:
- Run your ROM in VBA.
- When your chosen unit is in battle, press ctrl+p to pause the game.
- Select "Palette Viewer" from the tools menu. (Different version may have the Palette Viewer located in Tools>Debugger.)
- If your unit is on the right side of the battle animation, locate the tenth row of the righter-most palette square.
- If your unit is on the left side of the battle animation, locate the eighth row of the righter-most palette square.
- Click on the first square of the row. If it says "Ox76F3" Then, jot down "F3 76". The two "bytes", 76 and F3 need to but put in reverse order.
- After every four colours remember to put a 00. e.g. F3 76 A1 36 66 12 FF 7F 00 98 23 AC DE F5 4D DE 42 00 and so on.
- Open a hex editor and search for the whole colour line as hex values. (Some hex editors search for other things as a default setting)
- Once you have located the colour line, note down the offset. The offset is the first line of hex the colour line appears on. It is important that you do not lose this offset.
- Edit a few colours and save the ROM
- Close VBA
- Open VBA and check the battle palette. If colours change, you have found the right line. If not, you need to search again to see if they have multiple colour lines.
- Re-open the Palette Viewer
- Open your portrait in paint and use the colour picker to pick a colour. Then click edit colours.
- Open GBA colour Picker and insert the RGB values given by paint and it will give you an overall hex value of the colour.
- Remember to swap the two bytes of hex, and write them over the original colour.
- Do this for all the colours and check to see if they are correct. (Remember to close and Re-open VBA)
- If the colours are not right fiddle around until you get them right