[Graphics] Tile Insertion - The Easy Way

[Ray Maverick]

Hello. I'm Ray.
Let's get to the point. If you're here, you probably don't know how/struggling to insert tiles. That's what I'm going to teach you.

Tool used: PhotoFiltre
http://photofiltre.en.softonic.com/
Well if you don't download this, you'll have problems with this tutorial. However, you can still insert tiles with another program like paint or photoshop.
I guarantee it's the best tool for tile inserting and it'll help you a lot.

Here's the steps.
1. Open the tiles you want to insert in PhotoFiltre.
2. Select the colour picker and check if the colour codes (Red, Green and Blue or R G B) are multiples of 8.

Spoiler:

Yeah, they are in this screenshot.
The colours need to be multiples of 8 because only then the ROM recognises the colours.
3. Locate all the colours of the tile with the colour picker (Must be 15 or less) and put them in a row like this:




4. Open A-map, look for this icon:
(Block Editor)
This is how the program looks:

Spoiler:

The circled area is where we will work on for now. Each pallette is for a specific tile in there. You can do whatever you want with these pallettes as long as you don't screw up the pals of a tile you want. Each pal has 16 colours, the first one is the transparent and the last one which appears when the ROM doesn't recognise a colour, because it doesn't exist in the pallette or it's not in multiples of 8. You can view the pallette: pallette, view pallette editor.

5. Then we need to make sure the colours of the tile exist in the pallette. That's why we gathered the colours in step 3. Now start editing R G and B of each colour, so it is the same with the tile's pallette in step 3. (Row doesn't matter)
Like this:

Spoiler:

6. When you're done, go to pallette > write pallette changes into ROM. Don't freak out, if you're gonna change MANY tiles, it's easily fixable.
(Whatever tile didn't change colour uses another of the 12 pallettes)
Then select Picture > Save Tileset 1 (Make sure you save it with the pallette you inserted the tile's colours before) I suggest you make a special folder where you can save the tilesets.
7. Open the tileset in PhotoFiltre. Open your tile, use the mouse tool (next to the colour picker) to select the tile. Right click, copy, and paste somewhere in the tileset. (Replace something you won't need)

Spoiler:

I put it there. Of course I just screwed up some important tiles, but oh well, put it somewhere else. *The Block Editor separates the tileset in 8x8 mini blocks. I'm not sure if you understood this, so I'll explain later.
Save the tileset in the same folder you saved the previous one. It needs to be in the same folder with the (*.pal) file.
8. Picture > Load Tileset 1 > (*.bmp) files, the most recent tileset.
See the results. If you followed my instructions, the tile should look okay. If it's not okay, go to the previous tileset in PhotoFiltre and check the colour codes.

Spoiler:

9. If you click "Write Pallette Changes", the tiles you replaced will be screwed up in the tileset. (That's why you need to replace tiles you don't need, duh.) You see that black space on the roof's house? Select that with your mouse.
Then select your tile from the tileset, and put it there:

Spoiler:

(Select the black space, then the tile. It's like a puzzle!)
Background of the tile.
Basic tile.
Save.
Result.
(Use other black spaces or replace other tiles to make the rest of the tile.)

*The tileset is separated by 8x8 mini blocks.
*The size of a normal tile is 16x16 (You can select the tile with the mouse tool and look down PhotoFiltre, you see the size)
*If something weird happens to the tileset, expanding glitch (Don't use the expanded space!) or surpressing, click Write Pallette Changes.


The end! If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

[Tropical Sunlight]

Are you sure?
There are easier and quicker ways using Photoshop, though.

The tutorial itself is great. I explains everything and is has pictures. If I didn't know how to insert tiles I would probably learn now

[SwiftSign]

Nice tutorial, lots of images make it pretty.

Although you should say by where you linked photofiltre that it's not necessary, as every art program has RBG scaling, even MS Paint!

Colours -> Edit Colours -> Define Custom Colours

Also makes it easier if you want to recolour the block to a certain colour that is already in the tileset, as following this tutorial is only good for one tile/palette .

[Ray Maverick]

Originally Posted by SwiftSign

Nice tutorial, lots of images make it pretty.

Although you should say by where you linked photofiltre that it's not necessary, as every art program has RBG scaling, even MS Paint!

Colours -> Edit Colours -> Define Custom Colours

Also makes it easier if you want to recolour the block to a certain colour that is already in the tileset, as following this tutorial is only good for one tile/palette ;).

Thanks, that's what I wanted to achieve with the images.

Going to add that right now.

I'm going to write the second part of the tutorial later, which is exactly what you said, the other way: recolouring the block.

[Penguins]

Cool deal I really like it thanks.

[francisbb]

This tut is extremely briiliant

[Ray Maverick]

Thanks man, really long till I heard a good comment.

[francisbb]

Originally Posted by Ray Maverick

Thanks man, really long till I heard a good comment. But now you're just making mods the happy. >>

Truly thank you I used to insert tiles a diffrent anoying way but now I'm going to do this