17 replies to this topic

[shadowofchaos]

Needed Programs:
*GBA Graphics Editor (Look in Nintenlord's Hacking Utilities)
*Wingrit (Get it from ROMHacking.net. Click here.)

Credits:
Ryrumeli - For teaching me in the first place. And helping me understand.
FlyingAce - For getting the FE8 offsets.

FE7 Battle Frame Offsets:
Image starts at 0x1D88B4. Palette starts at 0x1D8FA0. TSA is at 0x1D8C34.
(Name Frames have a width of 6, Weapon Name frames have a width of 7)
Enemy Name Frame: 1D8ABC
Enemy Weapon Name Frame: 1D8B0C
Player Name Frame: 1D8B78
Player Weapon Name Frame: 1D8BC8

FE8 Battle Frame Offsets:
Image starts at 0x801C14. Palette starts at 0x802558. TSA is at 0x80210C.
(Name Frames have a width of 6, Weapon Name frames have a width of 7)
Enemy Name Frame: 801F7C
Enemy Weapon Name Frame: 801FF4
Player Name Frame: 802044
Player Weapon Name Frame: 8020BC

Note: FE8 has a more generous tile limit than FE7.

Yep, you know those frames you see in battle right?

These look familiar?



Want to change these?

First, we need designs to replace them with.

For the purposes of this tutorial, we'll be using the "Fire Emblem: Dream of Five" battle frame design by AstraLunaSol for FE7 and "Fire Emblem 4: Rebirth" battle frame design by Lord Glenn for FE8.
They gave me permission to use them for the tutorial.

FE7 "FE:DoF":


FE8 "FE4R":


Also, be prepared to hear a lot about "tile limits". For this tutorial, a tile is an 8x8 pixel image that is used to construct your battle frame by flipping it horizontally, vertically, or both. That's what the "TSA" does, as well as say what palette to use.



Still prepared to go through this pain? Then open up your ROM in GBA Graphics Editor to get started. Enter the image offset.

"Step One" for the entire tutorial (Click Here To Hide/Show Text)

"The hell is this?"

Patience... you'll need A LOT for this. I'm 85% sure that the first time you follow this tutorial, you won't get it to work. I sure didn't.

Step 2 is the palette:

[spoiler=slightly big image]

"Still doesn't look that familiar"

Step 3, enter the TSA offset and check the "Use TSA":

FE7 (Click Here To Hide/Show Text)

FE8 (Click Here To Hide/Show Text)

"If I squint at it... sorta looks familiar"


Step 4, modify the Width and Height Respectively:

FE7 (Click Here To Hide/Show Text)

FE8 (Click Here To Hide/Show Text)

FE8 has an extra one. I'm assuming it's the Promotion one because of the design.[/spoiler]

End Result:
"Save as bitmap" into an image for your respective game. You should get one of these. This is the goal of our "first step".



Okay, we got those images now. But remember before you clicked "Use TSA"? It was some screwed up image?
Well, that's what we need to make. Those are the tiles that the TSA uses.

You can tile it yourself by taking each UNIQUE tile in your image and put it into another image. You'd best use a grid for this process. I don't know how to do this in other programs, but in GIMP, it's under "Preferences" and "Default Grid". Change it to 8x8 and click show grid.

However, I don't want to do that. I can get wingrit to do it for me.

This is where it gets messy.

Anyways, crop your template images into one side. And we need to make the palette.

"Step Two" for the entire tutorial (Click Here To Hide/Show Text)

I will ONLY be going from the FE7 portion for now, since the process is the same. I'll be showing progress on the FE8 side occasionally, but not step by step like the FE7 one.

Anyways, this is what you should end up with.

One side of the template.



I don't know where else to do this but GIMP, but the bitmaps you saved earlier, you need to view their palette.

On GIMP, you view the color map. Basically, we have to make the palette for this side, and all of the other palletes for Enemy, NPC, and the Battle Arena Gray/Purple.

Here's the thing, DO NOT touch the first 4 colors. Basically copy them, because those are the Text colors. You can if you want, but for the purposes of this tutorial, I won't.


If it doesn't look like that, try adjusting the size of the "Colormap" window. (If you don't have one, go to "Windows", "Dockable Dialogs", then "colormap".

In GIMP, for YOUR image, go to Image, then mode, then indexed. "Generate optimum palette", then "Convert". You should have something in your colormap window now.



Anyways, go on the original image/bitmap you got. Click on the first color:



Copy that.

Double click on your color in the toolbox. Paste it. Press Enter/OK.



Go on your cropped image.

Click the plus button.



And you should get:




Repeat for the other three colors.



IMPORTANT. You need to reorder them. The first color should be the transparency color you have. Second should be the purple, then white, then the brown-black text color.
To do this in GIMP, go to Colors, map, Rearrange colormap. Only the first 4 colors are important. The rest can be in any order. However, generally, to make it easier on you, order them in a logical manner. Like from light to dark, or vice versa.

After, you're done, it should look something like this.



IMPORTANT. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE 16 COLORS. No, not less or more. EXACTLY 16 colors. If you have any blank, press the plus on the colormap on ANY OTHER COLOR OTHER THAN THE TRANSPARENCY COLOR. Should be safer to add a completely different extra color though.



See the extra light blue at the end?

Anyways, now, what you need to do is make a palette like the original image (only the first 4 rows, not that crazy random colors part... XD)

To do this, click on each color respectively and the plus button to copy the color at the end of the colormap. It's easier done than said. End result should be soomething like this.



And edit them as you would any palettes. IMPORTANT, DO NOT ADD MORE COLORS THAN NEEDED. YOU CANNOT DELETE COLORS ON THE COLORMAP IN GIMP EXCEPT WITH THE UNDO BUTTON.
There's actually a way, but it's even more complicated than this tutorial. Just... don't bother.

You will only be able to see the edits on the first palette on the image, so I suggest you save each as a separate image, and then the "Master Image" that you will use has all the palettes in it.



If you look at the "Master image" in GIMP:



You will see it has all the palettes.



This is what we're looking for.

Afterwards, be sure to crop the inside of the name box like the "TSA Image we saw".



It's a 48 x 16 space inside the box. Be sure to use grids to do it right.



Do the same with where the weapon name would go. Yes, I know the TSA image are uneven for the red and blue. Just trust me.

Follow exactly where I go with it.

[shadowofchaos]

Final "Master Image":

"Step Three" for the entire tutorial (Click Here To Hide/Show Text)

Open up Wingrit:


Open up the palette viewer and make sure it's right.



If you're good... go find "GBA Export"



Copy my options:



Mainly, check "Map" in the box. Make sure reduce, pal, and flips are checked.

Under Image, copy my options. Make sure the bpp is "4". Under Meta/Obj, make sure it's sqr. That's VERY important. On Pal, change the num to 64. That's how many colors you have

On File, change it to ".bin" and uncheck the h file.

Press OK.



If you have any other message than this, I can't help you. Seriously.

Anyways, you should have 3 new .bin files wherever you opened your image.



Delete the *filename*.map.bin. It'll only screw you up if you mess with it.

(Note: I've switched to the DoF ROM, considering I'm actually DOING the custom battle frame edit while I'm making this tutorial)

In the GBA Graphics editor that is still open. Click "Load Raw". Find the *Filename*.img.bin.

If you can't see it, click on the file type and look for "Binary Files" instead of GBA ROMs.





As for the options, uncheck the "Abort if new graphics are bigger than old" and check "Repoint Graphics pointers".

Change the offset to free space, such as for this example, I expanded the ROM and I know there's at least 0x5000 bytes of free space at 0x1032FC8.

Press OK, and save. SAVE THAT OFFSET you put the graphics at.

Open up the *filename*.pal.bin in a hex editor. Open up your ROM in the same hex editor as well.

Copy it the stuff inside that, and paste it (WRITE, not INSERT. If it changes the file size, not the right kind of paste) on the offset for the palette in the ROM. For FE7, it would be: 0x1D8FA0

Once you're done, open it up in GBA Graphics editor again, this time don't check the "Use TSA".

You SHOULD get something like this:



Congratulations if you got this far. The actual hard part is done. Now comes the TEDIOUS part.

"Step Four" for the entire tutorial (Click Here To Hide/Show Text)

Open up another GBA Graphics Editor with a clean ROM of the one you're editing.

Put them side by side.

As soon as you enter the TSA and the offset on the ROM you're editing, it will look all wierd. That's normal.

Anyways, your goal is to make it look like the original. The "Tile Index" is the tile you're editing. "Graphics" is the tile number.
Flip checkboxes, do what they do. Palette is the Palette of the tile. "0" is blue, "1" is red. Typically for the battle screen, that's all you use.




After probably at least an hour...

Note, also DO NOT change the number for tile index 15-20, 30-35, 114-119, and 129-134. Those are RESERVED for the name tiles.
Same goes for Tile index 217-223, 232-238, 320-326, and 336-342. Those are RESERVED for the weapon name tiles.
DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT CHANGE THEM. If there are tiles there, instead of the transparancy tile color (except with a different tile number) THEN YOU WENT OVER THE TILE LIMIT.


If you do, crap like this will happen to you:





That was back when I attempted to insert this (by VincentASM):



If that's the case, you need to reduce the amount of tiles generated by editing your graphics.

Reminder: FE8 has a more generous tile limit than FE7.

If you were curious how I inserted it, I reduced the "quality" of it drastically. No more curls, no more shading as well. Take a look at the HP box. No more patterns.



To make sure your tiles are accurate. You can take advantage of the "Save as bitmap" option. You can then open it in GIMP, show the grid, zoom in, and compare it with your "Master Image".

Don't be afraid of testing it while you're still working on it. For example:



I think that's significant progress. Time for a test:



Left side seems fine. (the names we'll fix later)

To make it easier on yourself when working with the blue side, don't hesitate to change the width to 16.

And you're done!




.... OR ARE YOU?

"Final Step" for the entire tutorial (Click Here To Hide/Show Text)

Remember the "old" Master image you cut from?



Yeah, take those and make tiles out of them.

Recall FE7 had this on the top of the page:

QUOTE

(Name Frames have a width of 6, Weapon Name frames have a width of 7) Enemy Name Frame: 1D8ABC Enemy Weapon Name Frame: 1D8B0C Player Name Frame: 1D8B78 Player Weapon Name Frame: 1D8BC8

Go to the Player name offset "1D8B78". Proper width, etc.

Same palette offset as the frame: 1D8FA0

Save as bitmap. I don't care if it looks all weird. Open it in GIMP. Show your Grids. Remember those tiles I told you not to touch?

QUOTE

Note, also DO NOT change the number for tile index 15-20, 30-35, 114-119, and 129-134. Those are RESERVED for the name tiles. Same goes for Tile index 217-223, 232-238, 320-326, and 336-342.  Those are RESERVED for the weapon name tiles.

That's what these are.

To make it simpler, I'll show you a guide:

This is your image:



This is how it's arranged:



So, as a result, you must edit that image you saved like this:






"Import bitmap". Uncheck "Import Palette" and import the small image you just edited. And you'd be safer to Repoint it into free space.

When I look in the Hex Editor (HxD) I see that the tiles image only takes up a small amount of space, and that there's space again at 0x10331A0

So basically, I would insert the images by "import a bitmap" and repoint them to free space. Then I look at how much space that took up, and look where it ends. Then repoint the next graphic there, etc.

WRITE THESE ALL DOWN, in case you would need to change anything.

The other three work the same way.

I just listed them:
Player Name: 10331A0
Enemy Name: 1033230



Keep on Going...

(Please note, the red and blue weapon tiles are "different" as in they get shifted differently. BE SURE TO PAY ATTENTION which side you're inserting on when copying your "tiles"

Enemy Weapon Name: 10332C0
Player Weapon Name: 1033590

AAAAND....

YAY



Btw, if you get THIS during the Enemy Phase:



That means your tiles don't take ENOUGH space in memory.

To fix this, take the original "Tiles image":



And make your Tiles just as big.



Since it's bigger, it'll screw up other stuff... so repoint it... again.

NEW Tile offset: 1033390

A video to show this isn't all just pictures. Battle frame is actually in game.




Disclaimer: There will be SUPER LIMITED SUPPORT FOR THIS. You are to assume that you are ON YOUR OWN if you can't get it to work. Maybe some little help here and there, but you should ASSUME that people won't be able to help you.

[Fire Blazer]

Oh my. I think I read the whole tutorial (it was so long I can't be sure). That was REALLY long and complicated. I mean, that's like the limit of my graphical skills right there. I think I'd probably have a hard time doing what you just did... heck, I don't think I could do it, I'd probably get stuck on the TSA-editing step with GBAGE >_>

You mind if I put this in the Tutorial Directory? It could prove useful for very ambitious people. You are pretty ambitious yourself to even make this... lol.

In any case thanks for sharing, hopefully someone will make use of this. Oh, and Usenti can be used in place of GIMP, I believe. In fact, since Usenti is a much more basic program and was made for GBA graphic stuff it might be more user-friendly for people who can't work Gimp (which is more intimidating IMO). Just my 2 cents...

[shadowofchaos]

Go ahead, do anything you want with it

[Fire Blazer]

^Except for use it, I don't think I could do that, even if I wanted to. XD

[Blitzzurger96]

I need help with inserting this battle frame into my hack. http://forums.feshri...?showtopic=6558

[Fire Blazer]

dem broken image links

...wonder if anything can be done *scratches head*

[shadowofchaos]

QUOTE (Blazer @ Jul 20 2013, 11:21 AM)

dem broken image links ...wonder if anything can be done *scratches head*

It's the bandwidth. And I'm not going to upgrade to photobucket plus >_>;

If someone wants to, someone should imgur the images or something once the bandwidth is reset again.

[Fire Blazer]

Alright--any idea when that happens?

Alternatively I could pay for photobucket plus for you if it's cheap

EDIT: nvm dang that stuff is overpriced it's cheaper to have your own site host lol

[Blitzzurger96]

If this is inappropriate, then I apologize in advance, but I expanded the whole tutorial and copied it into a word document just for my convenience. Should I upload the tutorial until the thingy is fixed?

[shadowofchaos]

If you find a more reliable host for the images or the word document itself, then by all means.

[shadowofchaos]

I don't mean to double post to bump it, but if you need to save the images, now would be the time to do it.

Bandwidth has been reset.

[Fire Blazer]

oh gosh, so many images

I need to think of a way to save this tutorial easily >_<' *scratches head*

thanks for the heads-up anyhow

[Blitzzurger96]

Here is the link to the file in from my dropbox.
File on Dropbox

[YakYak]

O_O

...

...

...

I think I'll stick with the defaults for now...

[Fire Blazer]

Aye, this is pretty hard^ XD

@Blitz thanks I plan to back this up and host it somewhere else for safekeeping as well~

[SmashedFish]

The images in the second post have been restored, and they're rehosted on Imgur this time, so they shouldn't vanish any time soon.

[Snow]

So I took what looked to be the most important ones and uploaded them to my imageshack:

Above the "The hell is this?" (Click Here To Hide/Show Text)

Below "Step two is palette" (Click Here To Hide/Show Text)

Below "Use TSA" (FE7 only) (Click Here To Hide/Show Text)

Below "modify the Width and Height Respectively" (Click Here To Hide/Show Text)

Below "End Result:" (Click Here To Hide/Show Text)

Below "Here's the thing, DO NOT touch the first 4 colors." (Click Here To Hide/Show Text)

Below "In GIMP, for YOUR image, go to Image, then mode, then indexed." (Click Here To Hide/Show Text)

Below "Click on the first color:" (Click Here To Hide/Show Text)

Below "Double click on your color in the toolbox. Paste it. Press Enter/OK." (Click Here To Hide/Show Text)

Below "Click the plus button." (Click Here To Hide/Show Text)

Below "And you should get:" (Click Here To Hide/Show Text)

Below "Repeat for the other three colors" (Click Here To Hide/Show Text)

Below "it should look something like this" (Click Here To Hide/Show Text)

Below "IMPORTANT. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE 16 COLORS." (Click Here To Hide/Show Text)

Below "End result should be soomething like this." (Click Here To Hide/Show Text)

Below "You will see it has all the palettes." (Click Here To Hide/Show Text)

Below "Afterwards, be sure to crop the inside of the name box like the "TSA Image we saw"." (Click Here To Hide/Show Text)

Below "It's a 48 x 16 space inside the box. Be sure to use grids to do it right." (Click Here To Hide/Show Text)

Below "Follow exactly where I go with it." (Click Here To Hide/Show Text)

The spoiler name is more or less where the image was/should be. Hope this helps someone.