The Tile Insertion Tutorial
Hello! Although I made a huge tutorial about loads of things, I thought it was time I explained tile inserting even more deeply. So here I go. (This tut is mainly for firered, I'm not sure if it works elsewhere)
What are Tiles?
Alright, I remember when I first attempted this, and I have to admit, I didn't even know what it was. -_- So I'm going to start from the basics. Play a Pokemon game, play any Pokemon game, and look around the digital world you're playing in. What do you see? Trees, houses, water, rocks, cliffs, sand, bushes, floor tiles, TVs, couches and chairs, tables, beds, doors, Pokemon centers and markets, grass.... Everything you see in the pokemon games (Outside of battles of course) are tiles. The average generation 3 tree is composed of four tiles. For a better understanding of tiles, open up A-Map. Anyways, the size of a tile in any art program, is 16 pixels for both the width and height. And now that you know what tiles are, lets move on to tile inserting.
What are Tiles?
Alright, I remember when I first attempted this, and I have to admit, I didn't even know what it was. -_- So I'm going to start from the basics. Play a Pokemon game, play any Pokemon game, and look around the digital world you're playing in. What do you see? Trees, houses, water, rocks, cliffs, sand, bushes, floor tiles, TVs, couches and chairs, tables, beds, doors, Pokemon centers and markets, grass.... Everything you see in the pokemon games (Outside of battles of course) are tiles. The average generation 3 tree is composed of four tiles. For a better understanding of tiles, open up A-Map. Anyways, the size of a tile in any art program, is 16 pixels for both the width and height. And now that you know what tiles are, lets move on to tile inserting.
What is Tile Inserting?
Well, since this is a 'hacking' tutorial, let me explain what 'hacking' tiles, is. Tile inserting is NOT a must. Many succesful hacks have been achieved without inserting custom tiles. But if you want your hack to be graphically unique, you're in the right place (Or on the write page considering web pages aren't places -_-). Tile inserting, as is obvious, is the act of inserting new tiles to the Pokemon game. This way, you can have custom trees, houses, the works. Don't worry, you won't have to draw them yourself. You could either hire a professional tiler, or get your tiles from a public source, as many do exist (You might need permission in some cases).
Some tiles inserted for one of previous hacks: (Inserted my Anbuja)
Well, since this is a 'hacking' tutorial, let me explain what 'hacking' tiles, is. Tile inserting is NOT a must. Many succesful hacks have been achieved without inserting custom tiles. But if you want your hack to be graphically unique, you're in the right place (Or on the write page considering web pages aren't places -_-). Tile inserting, as is obvious, is the act of inserting new tiles to the Pokemon game. This way, you can have custom trees, houses, the works. Don't worry, you won't have to draw them yourself. You could either hire a professional tiler, or get your tiles from a public source, as many do exist (You might need permission in some cases).
Some tiles inserted for one of previous hacks: (Inserted my Anbuja)
What are Tilesets?
Not much to explain here. Tilsets are groups of tiles, usually defined by a certain setting. Indoor tilesets have tiles for tables, chaires, couches, stairs, TVs... Outdoor tilesets have trees, grass, houses, cliffs, water.... Underwater tilesets have, well, underwater stuff -_-. And so on. Of course some tilesets are mixed of different tiles which fit different settings, probably because the producers needed said settings to be put together. Open up A-Map, and then open up a map, of any town, and you will see that town's tileset on the right side. Anyway, each tileset is bound to 13 palettes, and all the tiles have to fit said palettes, but what is a palette?
Blockset of Pallet Town / Previously referred to as Tileset:
Not much to explain here. Tilsets are groups of tiles, usually defined by a certain setting. Indoor tilesets have tiles for tables, chaires, couches, stairs, TVs... Outdoor tilesets have trees, grass, houses, cliffs, water.... Underwater tilesets have, well, underwater stuff -_-. And so on. Of course some tilesets are mixed of different tiles which fit different settings, probably because the producers needed said settings to be put together. Open up A-Map, and then open up a map, of any town, and you will see that town's tileset on the right side. Anyway, each tileset is bound to 13 palettes, and all the tiles have to fit said palettes, but what is a palette?
Blockset of Pallet Town / Previously referred to as Tileset:
Of course it a lot bigger in reality, this is just a preview...
What are Palettes?
Palettes are sets of 16 colors, and no tile can surpass, or transcend, said limit. Of course it would be foolish to use tile per palette. Its wise, and obligatory, to make every couple tens of tiles fit to the same palette. Anyways, we'll get to this later.
Palettes are sets of 16 colors, and no tile can surpass, or transcend, said limit. Of course it would be foolish to use tile per palette. Its wise, and obligatory, to make every couple tens of tiles fit to the same palette. Anyways, we'll get to this later.
Palette of trees+flowers+grass in Pallet town as viewed in the Block Editor's Palette Editor
How do I Know Whether or not the Tiles I'm Using fit Similar Palettes?
Well, if you've used a Tiler, he/she should know how to coordinate the tiles he/she makes. If you got them from a public source, most 'hacking' tile sources use similar palettes as a precaution, and to make hacking an easier job for the, well, hackers. Try not getting your tiles from sources deditcated to RMXP games, they'll most likely not fit a single palette.
Well, if you've used a Tiler, he/she should know how to coordinate the tiles he/she makes. If you got them from a public source, most 'hacking' tile sources use similar palettes as a precaution, and to make hacking an easier job for the, well, hackers. Try not getting your tiles from sources deditcated to RMXP games, they'll most likely not fit a single palette.
Each two trees in this image have the same palette (Vertically of course) - by Calis Project
What Tools Will I Need?
Well, here's a list:
-MS Paint (Windows 7 MS Paint won't work. Go to a friends house, and copy the old version. All you need is the ap itself, which is located in C:\WINDOWS\System32. Go there, and type in 'mspaint', and you should find it, or just search for it in the search manager). The reason the new one won't work is because Windows 7 MS Paint doesn't support BMP files. Also, you can find the classic MS Paint in the attachments, posted by Pia Carrot/White. Thanks.
-Character Maker Pro
-Advance Map
-Infran View
And now, to the actual inserting.
Well, here's a list:
-MS Paint (Windows 7 MS Paint won't work. Go to a friends house, and copy the old version. All you need is the ap itself, which is located in C:\WINDOWS\System32. Go there, and type in 'mspaint', and you should find it, or just search for it in the search manager). The reason the new one won't work is because Windows 7 MS Paint doesn't support BMP files. Also, you can find the classic MS Paint in the attachments, posted by Pia Carrot/White. Thanks.
-Character Maker Pro
-Advance Map
-Infran View
And now, to the actual inserting.
The Work Stuff
STEP 1 - Indexing the Tiles
Basically, choosing your tiles should be according to palette, every group of tiles should belong to a single palette, or in other words, all of the same 15 colors. But why 15 colors? I thought, or more like you thought -_-, that palettes are composed of '16' colors. Well they are, but what you didn't know, untill you finished reading this, is that the first color in the palette is the transparent color, or background color. Anything of the first color in the palette will NOT appear in gameplay, or in mapping at that. So choose a color that you will NOT be using in the tiles, and set that as the background color. Mind you, the width and height of your tiles together should be a multiple of 8, and the width should be less than 128 pixels (So they can fit in the exported tileset, which you will understand later).
Basically, choosing your tiles should be according to palette, every group of tiles should belong to a single palette, or in other words, all of the same 15 colors. But why 15 colors? I thought, or more like you thought -_-, that palettes are composed of '16' colors. Well they are, but what you didn't know, untill you finished reading this, is that the first color in the palette is the transparent color, or background color. Anything of the first color in the palette will NOT appear in gameplay, or in mapping at that. So choose a color that you will NOT be using in the tiles, and set that as the background color. Mind you, the width and height of your tiles together should be a multiple of 8, and the width should be less than 128 pixels (So they can fit in the exported tileset, which you will understand later).
Alrighty, now that your tiles are all together and looking tidy, open up Infran View, and open up the tiles. Now go to Image --> Decrease Color Depth --> Choose '16 Colors (4 BPP)' and make sure that 'Use Floyd-Steinberg dithering' in unmarked, and hit ok.
Now save the image as a 16 color BMP. Alrighty, No no no no, wait, don't close this window yet. Go to Image --> Palette --> Edit Palette. You will notice that the first color in the palette (In order from left to right) is not the background color, or maybe it is. If it is, close this window, and skip the rest of this step, if not, read on. Look for the background color amoungst all of the 16 colors. Once found, double click it. On the far bottom right corner, you will see three boxes labled 'Red, Green, and Blue'. These are called the RGB coloring system. The three together are like a code that determine a color.
Memorize the three numbers, or write them down, and close this window. Now double click the first color in the palette, the one on the far left. Now, write down the RGB numbers of this color, and replace them with those of the background color you wrote down earlier. Now hit 'Add to Custom Colors' and choose the color from the 'custom colors' menu on the left, and hit ok.
Now go to the background color (No, not the first color in the palette), and replace its RGB numbers with that of the first color in the palette, the ones you memorized earlier. Hit 'Add to Custom Colors', choose the color from the 'custom colors' menu, and hit ok. You will notice that the colors have been switched. Now hit ok on the palette menu.
Okydoky, yes, your tiles look all messed up, but that's ok, trust me, the players won't mind... Yup, we're gonna fix that. Save the current image as a different 16 color BMP than the first one. Now, open the one that looks right, in MS Paint, and copy it, all of it. Now open up the one with the right palette, the one that looks messed up, and paste the old one over it, and save. Now go to the one you saved first, or the one you opened in MS Paint first, and delete it.
Vwala, your tiles are indexed, and the background color is the first color in the palette. Perfection.
STEP 2 - Exporting the Palette
Alrighty, open up Character Maker Pro. Yes, we're exporting the palette in this program, not in Infran View. The reason for this is because the latest two releases of A-Map (And possibly those before them), do not support 'PAL' Files, which is the only type of palette files Infran View can export. We need Character Maker Pro to export an 'ACT' File. Drag the 'perfect' tiles BMP we made in the previous step, and place it in the work area of Character Maker Pro (The big dark gray space in the program window), and it should open up. Now, go to Palette --> Save Palette (Or if the program is in some ancient foriegn language, which it probably is, because that is it's default language, go to the 5th menu from the left, and the third option in that menu. Be sure to save it as an ACT File.
Now go to the background color (No, not the first color in the palette), and replace its RGB numbers with that of the first color in the palette, the ones you memorized earlier. Hit 'Add to Custom Colors', choose the color from the 'custom colors' menu, and hit ok. You will notice that the colors have been switched. Now hit ok on the palette menu.
Okydoky, yes, your tiles look all messed up, but that's ok, trust me, the players won't mind... Yup, we're gonna fix that. Save the current image as a different 16 color BMP than the first one. Now, open the one that looks right, in MS Paint, and copy it, all of it. Now open up the one with the right palette, the one that looks messed up, and paste the old one over it, and save. Now go to the one you saved first, or the one you opened in MS Paint first, and delete it.
Vwala, your tiles are indexed, and the background color is the first color in the palette. Perfection.
STEP 2 - Exporting the Palette
Alrighty, open up Character Maker Pro. Yes, we're exporting the palette in this program, not in Infran View. The reason for this is because the latest two releases of A-Map (And possibly those before them), do not support 'PAL' Files, which is the only type of palette files Infran View can export. We need Character Maker Pro to export an 'ACT' File. Drag the 'perfect' tiles BMP we made in the previous step, and place it in the work area of Character Maker Pro (The big dark gray space in the program window), and it should open up. Now, go to Palette --> Save Palette (Or if the program is in some ancient foriegn language, which it probably is, because that is it's default language, go to the 5th menu from the left, and the third option in that menu. Be sure to save it as an ACT File.
There, your palette is exported.
STEP 3 - Exporting and Re-Importing the Tileset
Alright, open up A-Map, and enter the block editor (The Jigsaw puzzle piece thingy, lol). Now, you will see a Palette drop down, list. Go through that list, palette by palette, until you find one that is unused by the ROM. Unused means that the colors that appear in the below tileset (Below, not to the left, that's called the block set) do not fit any of the tiles in the block set (Now the one on the left). You should find out what I mean once you screw up your tiles a couple times, lol. Once you've found an unused palette, go to pallete ---> load current pallete from file. Browse until you find the ACT file we esported in the previous step, and doulbe click it. Now go to palette --> write palette changes to ROM.
Look at the block set, if they look weird in color, then you've chosen a used palette. Fix that by looking for an unused one. (You'll have to load a new rom if you've screwed up this step, so ALWAYS keep backups. If you mess up a hack you've been working on for weeks, don't come crying to me. Also, make sure that A-Map is set to automatically back up your ROM)
Now go to Picture --> Save Tiles {2} (Or {1} if you want to replace old tiles with your tiles, but lets do this for now).
Save this tileset anywhere you'd like, and open it up with MS Paint. Now open the tiles we indexed earlier (The ones I told you to keep under 128 Pixels in width, cause you're about to understand why). Now paste those tiles in the tile set, and make sure they don't cover any other tiles. Also, make sure that the distance between the top left corner of your tiles and both the top and left borders of the tileset image, is a multiple of 8.
STEP 3 - Exporting and Re-Importing the Tileset
Alright, open up A-Map, and enter the block editor (The Jigsaw puzzle piece thingy, lol). Now, you will see a Palette drop down, list. Go through that list, palette by palette, until you find one that is unused by the ROM. Unused means that the colors that appear in the below tileset (Below, not to the left, that's called the block set) do not fit any of the tiles in the block set (Now the one on the left). You should find out what I mean once you screw up your tiles a couple times, lol. Once you've found an unused palette, go to pallete ---> load current pallete from file. Browse until you find the ACT file we esported in the previous step, and doulbe click it. Now go to palette --> write palette changes to ROM.
Look at the block set, if they look weird in color, then you've chosen a used palette. Fix that by looking for an unused one. (You'll have to load a new rom if you've screwed up this step, so ALWAYS keep backups. If you mess up a hack you've been working on for weeks, don't come crying to me. Also, make sure that A-Map is set to automatically back up your ROM)
Now go to Picture --> Save Tiles {2} (Or {1} if you want to replace old tiles with your tiles, but lets do this for now).
Save this tileset anywhere you'd like, and open it up with MS Paint. Now open the tiles we indexed earlier (The ones I told you to keep under 128 Pixels in width, cause you're about to understand why). Now paste those tiles in the tile set, and make sure they don't cover any other tiles. Also, make sure that the distance between the top left corner of your tiles and both the top and left borders of the tileset image, is a multiple of 8.
Now save the tileset, and go to the block editor in A-Map. Select the palette you replaced earlier from the dropdown list, and go to Picture --> Load tileset {2} (or {1} if you exported that one earlier).
Now your tiles are in the tileset and ready to be moved to the block set.
STEP 4 -Moving them Tiles
This is the easiest step. Scroll down to your tiles in the tileset. Now choose a tiles in the blockset, one that's either empty, or you want to replace (Which I don't recommend).
You'll see a box in the top of the window, where it says Down/Up. Down is the backgroud, that the player will cover. That's usually grass, water, or cave floor. The up is where you put your tile, where the background color won't appear. Don't forget to hit save after each tile is done. Do this tile by tile untill you're done, and when you are, kudos, tile insertion is done. Lol.
One more thing, you can expand the blockset in the options in the Block Editor window. Tileset/blockset are only newly used terms, so in the menu, it might say tileset when it means block set, just so you know.
I've been asked to elaborate a bit on this subject, so here goes nothing. Okay, basically what you are doing is moving the tiles from the tileset to the blockset. You have to do this on your own because A-Map doesn't know how to put together your tiles. To A-Map, your tiles are like a 5000 piece Jigsaw Puzzle, the is only visible under ultraviolet and is designed to not actually work.
Anyway, there are three locations in the block editor of A-Map that you have to pay attention to. The Tileset, Blockset, and the Up-Down area.
Now your tiles are in the tileset and ready to be moved to the block set.
STEP 4 -Moving them Tiles
This is the easiest step. Scroll down to your tiles in the tileset. Now choose a tiles in the blockset, one that's either empty, or you want to replace (Which I don't recommend).
You'll see a box in the top of the window, where it says Down/Up. Down is the backgroud, that the player will cover. That's usually grass, water, or cave floor. The up is where you put your tile, where the background color won't appear. Don't forget to hit save after each tile is done. Do this tile by tile untill you're done, and when you are, kudos, tile insertion is done. Lol.
One more thing, you can expand the blockset in the options in the Block Editor window. Tileset/blockset are only newly used terms, so in the menu, it might say tileset when it means block set, just so you know.
I've been asked to elaborate a bit on this subject, so here goes nothing. Okay, basically what you are doing is moving the tiles from the tileset to the blockset. You have to do this on your own because A-Map doesn't know how to put together your tiles. To A-Map, your tiles are like a 5000 piece Jigsaw Puzzle, the is only visible under ultraviolet and is designed to not actually work.
Anyway, there are three locations in the block editor of A-Map that you have to pay attention to. The Tileset, Blockset, and the Up-Down area.
Note: There's something I've done wrong in the insertion of the trees into the tileset in the above image. You'll understand in a minute.
The Tileset is where all the bits, pieces, and fragments of your tiles that you've inserted, and those that are default to the game, exist. The blockset is where the blocks/tiles are, the things you use to make your maps. The Up-Down are is where you will shape you block/tile.
There are three steps to this:
1- Select the fragments of your tiles.
2- Select the place in the blockset where your block/tile will be. (You can use an empty place or replace an old tile, which I do not recommend)
3- Putting together the block.
In the block editor, you can choose 8x8 fragments of the 16x16 tiles you placed in the tileset. You can do this by clicking on the fragments in the tileset, and you will see your selection here:
The Tileset is where all the bits, pieces, and fragments of your tiles that you've inserted, and those that are default to the game, exist. The blockset is where the blocks/tiles are, the things you use to make your maps. The Up-Down are is where you will shape you block/tile.
There are three steps to this:
1- Select the fragments of your tiles.
2- Select the place in the blockset where your block/tile will be. (You can use an empty place or replace an old tile, which I do not recommend)
3- Putting together the block.
In the block editor, you can choose 8x8 fragments of the 16x16 tiles you placed in the tileset. You can do this by clicking on the fragments in the tileset, and you will see your selection here:
You can also choose bigger selections from the tileset by holding the 'Ctrl' (Control) button, then holding the right mouse button and dragging over the tiles you want. The selection will appear in the same place as above^^.
Now click on a place in the blockset where you want to place your tiles. In the Up-Down area, you will see the block formation of the place/tile/block you chose in the blockset. The up, as I said before, is the actual tile itself, and whatever color you put in the beginning of the palette will be transparent here, but not in the Up-Down area of course. In the 'down' area, you can put any floor tile you want to be under the tile you put in the 'up' area.
Go to any block in the blockset, one that has the down part you want for your tile, and choose the down part from there (The Up-Down area of that tile).
Just one note, DON'T FORGET TO SAVE!!!! I cannot stress enough on that. If you put together your tile, and go to another block without hitting the save button here:
Now click on a place in the blockset where you want to place your tiles. In the Up-Down area, you will see the block formation of the place/tile/block you chose in the blockset. The up, as I said before, is the actual tile itself, and whatever color you put in the beginning of the palette will be transparent here, but not in the Up-Down area of course. In the 'down' area, you can put any floor tile you want to be under the tile you put in the 'up' area.
Go to any block in the blockset, one that has the down part you want for your tile, and choose the down part from there (The Up-Down area of that tile).
Just one note, DON'T FORGET TO SAVE!!!! I cannot stress enough on that. If you put together your tile, and go to another block without hitting the save button here:
Anywho, there is one more thing you should know. When you choose an 8x8 fragment from your tileset, you can flip it by choosing the X-flip or Y-flip option in the block editor. That way, you only have to insert half of a tree, and you can use the X-Flip on every fragment to make it whole. That way you can save space in the tileset, and that's the mistake I was talking about up there^^. I inserted the entire tree, and ate up my entire tileset. Make use of this feature for every tile you can, trust me, you'll regret it if you don't!
THEN!!!!!!!
THEN!!!!!!!
I really hope this helped.
Bye-bye
Character Maker Pro:
Bye-bye
Character Maker Pro:
character_maker_pro_1.3.rar | |
File Size: | 316 kb |
File Type: | rar |
Classic MS Paint:
mspaint_xp.rar | |
File Size: | 137 kb |
File Type: | rar |