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Cello September 2nd, 2009 4:59 PM

Cello's guide to everything tile insertion/placement (HUGE Guide, Tips, FAQ)
 


[ cello's guide ]
to everything tile insertion, tile/set placement, and much more!






[index]

1.) introduction
2.) tools you will need
3.) basics/need to know
4.) Preparing a tile
5.) pallette editing/saving
6.) Advanced map block editor
7.) Did you know?...
8.) FAQ/Fixes
9.) Credits







[
introduction]

Hello, I'm Cello, and I'm a stringed instrument apparently. Today I will be bringing you an advanced guide to tile insertion. I know what you're thinking, "isn't there enough of these guides already?"
Yes, it's true this guide will be covering the same tile insertion that others do, but it will also be providing tips & tricks, teach you the basics which other guides overlook, provide fixes and answers to any of your problems, and tile/set placement.

Even though this guide says advanced, it will be covering things from your first time inserting a tile, until you become a expert yourself. It is beginner friendly!

Don't let my post count or join date fool you. Not meaning to brag or anything but I'm kind of a big deal when it comes to this stuff, yahr? ;<
....Just kidding, now lets get on with the guide! First off, the tools.













[tools you will need]

Alright, so starting us off I will list you (in order of tile creation and not including the rom) what kind of tools you will need to put your pretty pixel pictures in your pokemon game. ;o

1.) First off, you need a heavy pixel-friendly software such as:

Spoiler:


  • Paint - You already have this program. If not, I'm afraid to say it but something's up with your computer. Or you have a mac, LOL. Ohhhhoho. No really... It's the ideal pixeling program for it's easy-to-use pencil tool, but it lacks in a variety of useful features. It does have a grid (View -> Zoom -> Show Grid) that measures pixels, but it can not be adjusted. I recommend saving only .PNG and .TIFF files in Paint, or else things will turn out low quality if you save as another file type.




2.) You will need a palette editing tool:

Spoiler:

  • Graphics Gale: This program can be used for editing your images palette. I DO NOT RECOMMEND GALE FOR PALETTE SAVING. It is a bugged and makes your colors darker in the .PAL file. It is still a good pixelling program, however.


  • Photoshop: It's an alternative. A very complex alternative. This program isn't suggested for pixeling but it does get the job done when it comes to palettes. It allows you to save palettes as a .ACT, too. Unfortunately, the program is wallet rape-ingly expensive and any talk of obtaining it for free is strictly forbidden/ against the law. So hush it foo'!


3.) You will need a map editing/tile insertion tool.

Spoiler:




4.) If you need a extra hand, this isn't a hospital and I'm no surgeon... but here are some extra tools that can help? :

Spoiler:



















[basics / need to know]

Before we start, we need to know the basics for anything to do with everything I'm about to cover. For tile insertion or anything I'm about to teach you, a prerequisite is computer experience or else a lot of what I say will make no sense. So in this section I will cover the info on tiles, common file types, and terms.

Basic terms/file types:

Spoiler:

  • Pixels: "The smallest piece of information to your image." When you zoom into a picture you see small square colors. Or even just looking at your screen. Those are pixels!
  • 16x16: Basically, pixel size, width and height.
  • RBG: Red, Blue, Green. The color model that's used to display digital images on your screens.
  • Tiles: The 16x16 images that are placed across your maps.
  • Tileset: The file holding all of your hack's tiles. You can load two of these in one map.
  • Palette: A compilation of one image's colors into a file. Imagine Bob Ross' color palette he used in his painting shows, only not tangible.
  • .PNG: Stands for Portable Network Graphics. This file is commonly used for it's high quality. Use it to save any rough tiles/images. It is space consuming!
  • .BMP: A Bitmap. Use this file for saving any final tiles you're ready to insert.
  • .DIB: Device Independent Bitmap. Same as bitmap, only you're tilesets are going to be saved as this. You will only be using this type of file when you export tile sets from A-Map.
  • .PAL: A palette file. Holds a images color information.
  • .ACT: Another palette file.
  • Indexing: It's basically taking your image and better organizing out it's palette so it can be saved/edited. This can be done in programs such as photoshop.
  • A-Map: Advanced Map.
  • Block Editor (a-map): The tileset editor used to insert/edit tiles in A-Map.
  • Down/Up (a-map): Is a A-Map tile editor thing. Like layers, you have a bottom and top one. EX: You could put grass on down and a tree on up!
  • Behavior Data (a-map): A tile's behavior. This is what sets certain tiles properties like animations of a door opening or footsteps in sand.


Basics on inserting tiles:

Spoiler:

  • A tiles height and length is 16x16 pixels. It can be no bigger. If so, it needs to be cut into multiple 16x16 tiles and placed together.
  • You can load two tilesets to one map. Think carefully of what you need for each map before loading/editing.
  • The tileset/block editor in A-Map can be found along the top by clicking the purple puzzle piece.
  • Looking at the block editor, on the left shows the two tilesets you loaded into the map you're working on. On the right shows the tile editor tools like up/down, your tileset's .DIB files/palettes, and the tiles behavior data.
  • In A-Map, when putting a tile together, your 16x16 tiles will be cut into four 8x8 slices.
  • A inserted palette can only have a max of 16 colors.
  • The first color in your palette is your transparent color. Anywhere on your tile where that color is, it wont appear on the map.
  • You have a total of 13 palettes to work with between your two tilesets. Palettes 0-12.
  • You only have the up/down layers to work with when making tiles in A-Map. That's two layers.
  • The behavior data, as mentioned, is the thing that determines what that tile does. Is it animated water? Grass? A door?
  • You CANNOT overwrite any tiles you are using in your .DIB file. If you do, that tile will be erased.
  • You CANNOT overwrite a palette you are using with another. If you do, any tiles using the palette you just changed will change too and be odd colors.

















[preparing a tile]

Now that we know the basics and have all of our tools, what say we finally get cracking on our tile work? In this section I will be covering how to prepare a image to be cut up into tiles. First of all, I would like to suggest something: Organize out your files.
Here's how I have my folders set up:



This way, everything is nice and tidy within the folders and easy to locate.
Moving along, we will now prepare a image to be imported and cut up into tiles.


FIRST Step - Open your program / Set your canvas.

You'll want to open up the program you're using to pixel. I'm going to use paint since it's less complex and easier to take a small sized photo with. Start a new file of any size, you'll probably re size it later anyways. If you have a tile already made or prepared, good! Open it up, you may not even need the next step.


SECOND Step - Set a Transparent color.

This is very crucial; Set your transparent color before anything. From experience, a palette chooses your transparent color based on the first color to actually be set in the image. Choose a color you know your tiles wont have in them. This color will be removed when placed on any game map.

I chose straight-up black. I know I'll never use that dark of black on any of my tiles. While you're in there messing with colors, make sure you're tile is edited and final. Also be sure you're not going over 16 colors with your tile, it will save you a lot of time.


THIRD Step - Set your tiles, touch them up!

Alright, we have our transparent background color. Now lets place our tile(s) overtop our transparent color! After the tile(s) are set, be sure to go to File -> Save As and the save your image in a memorable spot. I chose to save it as a .PNG for best quality results.



Alright, preparation was easy, yeah? Next comes grabbing your image's palette information.














[palette editing/saving]

This part can be either very easy, or very annoying. I'll be demonstrating how to index and save palettes in this section, in both photoshop and Gale. Basically it's teaching you how to use a program to find every color in the image you just made, and throw it together in one file. Fire up your program and load your image.

PHOTOSHOP - Locating the palette editor/saving the palette.

Alright, so I'm assuming we have our tile's image loaded into our palette editing program. In the images in the spoiler below is how to locate what you need in order to save your tile's palette.

First up is photoshop. In order to view your image's palette, you have to index it first.
Simply go to Image -> Mode - > and click "Indexed Color".
Like so:




When prompted, click "OK."
But before clicking ok, make sure your tiles palette is 16 colors or UNDER. You wont be able to use your tile if it's over. If you're under 16 colors, don't worry, I'll tell you what to do later to resolve this in the FAQ section. If you're over 16 colors, i'll cover it in another step below.
Here's an example of what to look for:




Now that we have your image indexed, we can now go see the palette.
Click on image -> mode -> and then color table now.
Demonstration:



You'll now end up with a palette showing all the colors in your image. You will need to save your palette from here, so click save, like this! (Save it in a place you'll remember, as either a .PAL or a .ACT):





GALE - Locating the palette editor. (DO NOT SAVE PALETTES IN GALE, REASON BELOW.)

The palette editor is automatically up the second you start gale. If not, it's a easy fix by clicking View -> Palette.

WARNING: A new bug with the palette saver has been foun. When you save your .PAL file and then load it in A-Map, the colors are all darker. I do not recommend this program for palette saving any longer.

I am looking into seeing if this can be fixed or not, however.

Graphics Gale is still a good pixelling program with the grid and all, but I do not recommend this palette saving, only editing.


How to save just in case, BE WARNED.

Spoiler:
Saving your palette is also very easy. Before saving, be sure to check your colors by clicking Image -> Count colors used.

If you have more than 16 colors, or your palette looks like this:
Spoiler:
http://i30.tinypic.com/6zah4y.jpg

You will need to use Ifranview to decrease your image's color depth. This can be found in a step below!

Ok, so after that, save your palette (if you're ready!).
The one bad thing about Gale is that you can only save a palette as a .PAL file, so if you're used to using .ACTs like myself, you may have to do some adjusting.
You can save the palette by following the images below:




Have more than 16 colors? - Use IfranView.

You will be worshiping this program before you know it.If you have a tile with a palette of more than 16 colors, simply open it up in ifranview first. This will only take a few clicks. Click Image -> Decrease Color Depth. Picture:



You will now be prompted to fill some stuff out. Just click 16 Colors, and hit OK.
Picture:



And there you have it, it's like nothing even happened! Make sure you save it. You may notices a few dotty pixel changes across your image. Just grab a color and color over it. Just make sure you dont go over 16 colors again!
Now go back into your palette program and save your palette and you're all set to go!

Now that we have our tiles finalized, and we have out palettes in a file, it's time to get our hands really dirty in Advanced Map!











[Advanced Map Block Editor]

Here we go, ladies and gents! Open up Advanced map. This is where you will taking the tile image(s) you just prepared and put them into your rom. You will also be using your palette you just made to color that image. It wont know what colors your image is without the palette file.

What I'm about to teach you is the easiest way known to insert tiles. Also, I have to give credit for other tile insertion guides because this isn't the first guide to demonstrate tile insertion this way.


Step one - Getting set up!

This is a program with a lot to it, so I'll walk you through it. First you'll want to load you're rom, of course. Choose your map that you'll be working from. If you want to start a new map, go ahead, but it would be wise to overwrite another map to save space in your rom.

Once you do all of this, it's time to go into the block editor, which is where you will do all of your tile insertion/editing work. It's the purple jigsaw puzzle piece along the top.
Or just check this image:




Step two - Block editor overview, locating the palette box, inserting palettes.

Ok, so we're in the block editor now. From the left over is your tileset which holds all of your finished and inserted tiles. Next down the line is up/down, palettes, tile bank/.DIB viewer, and the behavior data.

Right now we want to look at the palette box.



As you can see, you have 13 palettes spread between the two tilesets that you can use to color inserted tiles. You cannot overwrite a palette that is being used by another tile, or else that tile's color will change.

So now we want to get cracking on inserting the palette which just saved. Select one of the palettes 0-12 out of the box, whichever one isn't being used. Once you have found one, along the top, click palette -> load current palette from file.



Now locate your .PAL or .ACT file you saved of your tile you're about to insert and open it up.
That palette will now be replaced with yours.
Click palette again and select "Write Palette changes to rom." This is how you save most any change in the block editor.


Step three - .DIB Files, saving it.

Ok, so now that we've successfully loaded our palette and saved it, it's time to save our tileset into a .DIB file, which is basically a bitmap with your whole tileset in it.
Make sure, before you save it, that you have the palette of the tiles you are about to insert set, or else the colors will end up all funky.

To save your tileset, along the top in the block editor, click picture -> Save tileset 1 or Save tileset 2.



The two options do exactly as they sound. Save tileset 1 saves the first tileset in your map as a .DIB file, and Tileset 2 saves your second tileset.


Step four - Inserting your new tile(s) into your .DIB file.

For this part you will need your pixelling program. Open up your .DIB file. I opened mine up in Gale so I could use the grid to better place my tiles.



To set up the grid, just do as shown in the images below:



Now that your grid is set, cut and paste your new tiles from another file and paste them into you're tileset's .DIB file you have open.




Place it evenly across the grid so they aren't uneven when you place them in the map.
If you want to paste it over an old tile that you wont use, go ahead. Just whatever you do DON'T edit over a tile you're using or else it will be gone.

If tile glitching occurs, there is a fix in the FAQ section of this guide.

Once you're all finished, save your .DIB file.


Step five - Loading your newly saved .DIB file and new tiles.

Go back into A-Maps block editor. Along the top, click Picture -> Load Tileset 1 or Tileset 2. Make sure you're set to the correct palette.



When you load it, you will now notice that your new tile/tiles are in the right box.



Along the top, click Palettes -> Write Palette Changes to ROM.


Step six - Inserting your new tiles into the actual tileset.

This is the final step to it all. You can now see your tile, but it is not yet inserted and ready to use. When you click on your new tile, you can see where it grabs a little 8x8 slice of it. This allows you to better adjust your tiles.

So in order to completely insert your tile, click a empty space in the left box in the block editor like so:



You can see up/down is displayed as like a layer type deal. On down you can set the grass like I did, and on up you can set anything that will over over top of it. In my case, I put the rock over top of it. You will be switching between palettes a lot to do this.

When you're done with a tile, click the "Save" button a little to the right so that it saves your tile. Keep repeating until you're done inserting you're new tiles.



Once again, click Palette -> Write Palette Changes to Rom. Exit the block editor and check your map and it's tileset.

You will now see your new tile(s) in full bloom in the right tileset manager.



This means you can now select those tiles and set them in the map. Save all progress. Now, when you play on that map, everything inserted will appear.


CLOSING NOTES:

  • You have to repeat this with every tile(s) you insert.
  • You only have 13 palettes to work with so get creative. Put the grass/ground into one palette, the objects like flowers and stone into another, so on and so forth.
  • You cannot overwrite palettes being used. You can overwrite an old palette you dont plan on using though.
  • You cannot overwrite tiles that are being used. You can overwrite old tiles though.












[Did you know?...]

....That you can edit a color in a palette on the spot?

It's true! Why would I lie to you?! Just simply click the color and mess around with it on the scale. You can even drag and paste a color over another!
See, see!




....That you can instantly change a tiles colors by pasting it into a indexed image?

I swear it! Open your image that you saved after you indexed it and paste another tile into. It changes colors so it matches that palette! That way you can easily insert more tiles without having to insert a new palette. This will save you room for more tiles and palettes. LOOK!:




....That you can drag copy and paste a lot of tiles in A-Map at once?

Quit calling me a liar, it hurts. ]:
I'm being for reals though! Looking in your tilesets in the map editor part of amap, hold ctrl and then right click and drag to collect a bunch of tiles. Next time you click on the map, it will paste everything you just collected when you did that! This will turn a tedious job of tree laying into cake work. Check it out d00d!:
















[FAQ/Fixes]

Q: My tiles have crazy colored objects over them after I inserted new tiles, how do I fix this?
A: This often happens as a result of older tiles that you've erased over glitch over a bit. Simply go back and edit those tiles back and save it. It'll be fixed.


Q: When I insert a new palette/tile, my tileset viewer on the left in the block editor squishes together. What happened?
A: This is just, in my eyes, a way of knowing that you need to save. In the block editor click Palettes -> Write Palette Changes to Rom. It'll be fixed.


Q: When I try to save my tileset, I get a error saying I can't export it due to multiple colors in the palette. What do I do?
A: If I had a penny for... er, nevermind. Read the error carefully.
http://i28.tinypic.com/eurjvt.png
This means you have the same colors in that one palette. Go to Palette -> View Palette Editor. Find whichever colors are the same and change them. Just don't mess with the first color. When you're done, Apply and save, then retry.


Q: In the map editor my tiles are fine, but when I play the game they're replaced by animations. How do I fix this?
A: Check each of your tiles behavior data and make sure it's not set to a animation. If it's still not fixed, simply delete those tiles and re-insert them. That will definitely work.


Q: My character is standing on top of a tree. What's going on?
A: Your character is just alarmingly good at climbing trees. ;) No, really, it's because you have your tile's second row Behavior Data is set to 20, for Hero is covering block. You need to change this to 00 so he goes underneath. Or just make it to where the objects not passable. They'll only go under it if your tree is on the up layer of your tile in the block editor, though! This works in vice-versa, too, if you want your character to stand on top of a up layer tile.


Q: How do I change my map's tileset?
A: Through the "Header" tab along the top of your loaded map in the map editor(not the block editor). When you're in the header tab, it will be at the bottom, where you'll be allowed to change the tilesets.



[Credits/Contact
]

  • Other guide authors for inspiring this guide, especially other tile inserting guides. Be sure to check them out too, we each have our own information to share!
  • Kyledove, Newtiteuf, and Speed for their free to use tiles demonstrated in some of the screenshots
  • Lu-Ho for A-Map
  • The creators of Gale/Photoshop/Paint
  • emilinrose and Spherical Ice for helping find new things to add/fix about the guide.

Have a question? Want to talk? PM me or send me a visitor message, I'll be more than happy to talk.

Also, feel free to suggest anything to be added to this guide. I'll give credit.


Tropical Sunlight September 3rd, 2009 5:22 AM

Even though I can insert tiles, this tutorial explains everything that is needed to know how to insert a tile.
Nice tutorial, really really!

Cello September 3rd, 2009 6:11 AM

Yay, it was published. :D
Thanks whoever did it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Colorful Summer (Post 5071282)
Even though I can insert tiles, this tutorial explains everything that is needed to know how to insert a tile.
Nice tutorial, really really!

Thank you for the response!
I plan on maybe updating this more with block editor behavior data stuff sometime soon, and maybe a few other things.

Banjora Marxvile September 3rd, 2009 7:47 AM

This is great! It is clear, and will help anyone who hasn't tile inserted. I like how you put all the basic terms and things before the tut, helps understanding it better. I'll recommend this to anyone who asks me how to tile insert, I think. Considering that you are so new to Tile Inserting... This proves that anyone can Tile Insert.

SharpPoint September 3rd, 2009 11:34 AM

Holy omg. This tutorial is so organized, very noob-friendly and funny, at the same time. Great job Cello!

colcolstyles September 3rd, 2009 2:43 PM

I like the way you wrote this in a casual, friendly manner. It makes the tutorial so much easier to read and comprehend. The material itself is very well explained as well, and I like how you went through and explained how to fix all those little things that could go wrong. You've probably saved your thread dozens of questions from newbies asking about error messages^^
Good tutorial overall. I wish I had this when I was getting started :D

Oh, one thing I didn't like was that you recommended that people get "AdvanceMap v1.91". Luckily, there is a newer, better version out (v1.92). Your link leads to the thread where both of them are posted but I think you should change the recommended tool to v1.92 so people don't go downloading the outdated version, thinking it's better for some reason.

Cello September 3rd, 2009 4:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by colcolstyles (Post 5072716)
I like the way you wrote this in a casual, friendly manner. It makes the tutorial so much easier to read and comprehend. The material itself is very well explained as well, and I like how you went through and explained how to fix all those little things that could go wrong. You've probably saved your thread dozens of questions from newbies asking about error messages^^
Good tutorial overall. I wish I had this when I was getting started :D

Oh, one thing I didn't like was that you recommended that people get "AdvanceMap v1.91". Luckily, there is a newer, better version out (v1.92). Your link leads to the thread where both of them are posted but I think you should change the recommended tool to v1.92 so people don't go downloading the outdated version, thinking it's better for some reason.

Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I have no idea what was going through my mind when I typed that. xD

Fixed!

It makes me very happy to know that people are finding my guide helpful and easy to use, though. Thank you all for the feedback. Anything else that's wrong or you think I need to improve, please let me know. :)

Also, anyone with questions do not fret to PM me or leave me a visitor message. I check PC often since I have easy portable access and respond quickly. Even if you just want to drop by and say "hey." :P

0m3GA ARS3NAL September 3rd, 2009 5:15 PM

Finally, a good, deep, tile inserting tutorial.
You are deserving of some appreciation, good job.

emilin_rose September 3rd, 2009 11:35 PM

I have a question about gale's palette saving. When i uploaded my palette into Advance Map, it gave me the "multiple colors" error, but when i went to correct it, i discovered to my horror that the colors were completely wrong and sometimes seemed to be entirely random. I think its a problem with Gale, because when i tried to import the palette to Photoshop to see if i could fix it from there, it gave me another error. When i load the palette in Gale, however, it works perfectly. Have you encountered this error before, or do you know how to fix it?

Zeffy September 4th, 2009 1:14 AM

I did it, I've learned how to insert tiles, thanks for the organized tutorial.
You deserve a round of applause!

874521 September 4th, 2009 3:35 AM

Quote:

And there you have it, it's like nothing even happened! Make sure you save it. You may notices a few dotty pixel changes across your image. Just grab a color and color over it. Just make sure you dont go over 16 colors again!
Now go back into your palette program and save your palette and you're all set to go!

Now that we have our tiles finalized, and we have out palettes in a file, it's time to get our hands really dirty in Advanced Map!


Nice tutorial! Other tutorials are good too but this explains a lot.
Can I just paste the tile without 16 colors to the 16 colors instead of coloring it?

Cello September 4th, 2009 5:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by emilin_rose (Post 5074104)
I have a question about gale's palette saving. When i uploaded my palette into Advance Map, it gave me the "multiple colors" error, but when i went to correct it, i discovered to my horror that the colors were completely wrong and sometimes seemed to be entirely random. I think its a problem with Gale, because when i tried to import the palette to Photoshop to see if i could fix it from there, it gave me another error. When i load the palette in Gale, however, it works perfectly. Have you encountered this error before, or do you know how to fix it?

Thank you for bringing this to my attention, I'm looking into it as I type this message.
There are two things that come to my mind that could be the problem:
1.) Gale doesn't index images and that could be the problem. In some cases it will grab exact colors, and other cases it wont. When you save a palette in gale with a un-indexed image it gets a lot of other unneeded colors. Or it could be a palette file that only Gale can read.
2.) .PAL files are a bit messed. I've had troubles with .PAL files before. I'm going to look deeper into this for you and edit my post/PM you with the results.

EDIT: Ok, I've narrowed it down and it is because Gale doesn't index images. If your tile set has over 16 colors, it will load with a palette like this, which is way too many colors:


So you'll need ifranview.
1.) Open your tile(s) in ifranview.
2.) Go to Image -> Decrease Color Depth
3.) Select 16 colors and hit OK.
4.) Save

Now when you reload your tiles in Gale, you'll end up with a much for specific palette, like this:


Now save the palette and try it again in A-Map. It worked fine for me when I just tested it. :)
Sorry that gale is turning out complex with palettes.


For your multiple entries error, the fix is in the FAQ. :)

EDIT2: WOW, I checked the palette after I loaded it and every color is darker. For now I recommend not using Gale for palettes. I didn't realize this palette files it saved would do this.







______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Quote:

Originally Posted by 874521 (Post 5074533)
Nice tutorial! Other tutorials are good too but this explains a lot.
Can I just paste the tile without 16 colors to the 16 colors instead of coloring it?

I mentioned this in one of my "Did you know" tips; you can paste a tile that you want recolored into another image that's indexed. It will automatically change it's colors. BUT there's two things:
-You have to be really careful because sometimes it will give the tile you just pasted bad colors.
-If it's over 16 colors, it will usually not come out the way you want since it has so many colors. You can try it though.

You should try this if the image your pasting the tile to has similar tiles, like a cliff into a rock tileset.

I hope I understood your question correctly. >_<


Anymore questions, please let me know. :)

874521 September 4th, 2009 5:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cello (Post 5074678)
Thank you for bringing this to my attention, I'm looking into it as I type this message.
There are two things that come to my mind that could be the problem:
1.) Gale doesn't index images and that could be the problem. In some cases it will grab exact colors, and other cases it wont. When you save a palette in gale with a un-indexed image it gets a lot of other unneeded colors. Or it could be a palette file that only Gale can read.
2.) .PAL files are a bit messed. I've had troubles with .PAL files before. I'm going to look deeper into this for you and edit my post/PM you with the results.



I mentioned this in one of my "Did you know" tips; you can paste a tile that you want recolored into another image that's indexed. It will automatically change it's colors. BUT there's two things:
-You have to be really careful because sometimes it will give the tile you just pasted bad colors.
-If it's over 16 colors, it will usually not come out the way you want since it has so many colors.

You should try this if the image your pasting the tile to has similar tiles, like a cliff into a rock tileset.

I hope I understood your question correctly. >_<


Anymore questions, please let me know. :)

No, I meant the tile that hasn't been indexed will be pasted to the tile that is indexed, is it possible? Usually it is done to sprites. See the 3rd step on destinedjagold's tutorial. Click here to see.

Cello September 4th, 2009 5:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 874521 (Post 5074702)
No, I meant the tile that hasn't been indexed will be pasted to the tile that is indexed, is it possible? Usually it is done to sprites. See the 3rd step on destinedjagold's tutorial. Click here to see.

Oh yes, it can be. :)
The color will change automatically to match the palette. Hopefully you were going for that, but if not you can just un-index the image and then paste the tile in there. Or if you saved a version of the image un-indexed already.
Here, I'll even post a picture doing so.






EDIT:

MAJOR FIX.
Gale's .PAL files it saves seem to be bugged and I didn't realize it until just now.
When you load a palette file that you saved in gale the colors end up darkened.

I will continue seeing if there's a way to fix this, but for now I would like to recommend; do NOT using Gale for palette saving. Only editing.

874521 September 4th, 2009 6:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cello (Post 5074730)
Oh yes, it can be. :)
The color will change automatically to match the palette. Hopefully you were going for that, but if not you can just un-index the image and then paste the tile in there. Or if you saved a version of the image un-indexed already.
Here, I'll even post a picture doing so.






EDIT:

MAJOR FIX.
Gale's .PAL files it saves seem to be bugged and I didn't realize it until just now.
When you load a palette file that you saved in gale the colors end up darkened.

I will continue seeing if there's a way to fix this, but for now I would like to recommend; do NOT using Gale for palette saving. Only editing.

Oh, I see, thanks for that.

SharpPoint September 5th, 2009 7:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cello (Post 5074730)
Oh yes, it can be. :)
The color will change automatically to match the palette. Hopefully you were going for that, but if not you can just un-index the image and then paste the tile in there. Or if you saved a version of the image un-indexed already.
Here, I'll even post a picture doing so.






EDIT:

MAJOR FIX.
Gale's .PAL files it saves seem to be bugged and I didn't realize it until just now.
When you load a palette file that you saved in gale the colors end up darkened.

I will continue seeing if there's a way to fix this, but for now I would like to recommend; do NOT using Gale for palette saving. Only editing.

I noticed that, but it's when I used IrfanView and tried to open it in A-Map. =\

RockmanEXE September 12th, 2009 6:42 AM

Do you have to have palette editing tool?

Spherical Ice September 12th, 2009 6:53 AM

Dunno if it's been mentioned already, but on your description of Paint, you made a mistake:

Paint DOES have a grid. If you zoom in, and then go to View >> Zoom >> Show Grid/zoom in and do the Ctrl+G shortcut, it creates a grid.

Cello September 12th, 2009 7:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RockmanEXE (Post 5107326)
Do you have to have palette editing tool?

Unfortunately yes, you have to have a tool that can edit and save palettes. The palette will be needed when you load your tiles into the block editor of A-Map.

If there's anything about palette editing that you don't understand, please feel free to leave me a visitor message or private message. I'll be more than happy to help you further.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spherical Ice (Post 5107363)
Dunno if it's been mentioned already, but on your description of Paint, you made a mistake:

Paint DOES have a grid. If you zoom in, and then go to View >> Zoom >> Show Grid/zoom in and do the Ctrl+G shortcut, it creates a grid.

Oh wow, I've never seen that before. It's a shame it's just a pixel by pixel grid, rather than a adjustable grid so you can easily measure 16x16 tiles.
It's still usefull, especially for tile making and sprite editing. :D
I'll update the description informing that it does have a type of grid, though.

Thanks for sharing.

Spherical Ice September 12th, 2009 7:27 AM

Yeah, t'is a shame...
Oh, and if you have a Mac, then it isn't screwed up if Paint isn't there. =D

OM3GA Umbr30n September 12th, 2009 8:08 AM

This should help me.
T_T and my translation of a Whack a Hack Tut got declined

kesco1101 September 13th, 2009 4:11 PM

hey, i decrease the color depth on ifranview, but when i try view the number of colors in the palette on photoshop, it says i have 19 colors

p.s. does the palette have to be forced in black and white?

Cello September 14th, 2009 3:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kesco1101 (Post 5114428)
hey, i decrease the color depth on ifranview, but when i try view the number of colors in the palette on photoshop, it says i have 19 colors

p.s. does the palette have to be forced in black and white?

This is what I like to call a "wow, I had a lot of colors" moment.
Ifranview will occasionally stop itself from reducing a picture to 16 colors or below to prevent the image from becoming horrible quality.

This is a easy fix, but it requires that you do all the work. Just simply open up your image in a paint program and try your best to color over some of the lesser used colors with another color that's used a lot in the tiles.

And when you index the image in photoshop, in the Forced Box just set it to None.

halomarin September 18th, 2009 7:45 PM

great tutorial man, this will help me a lot

Aljam September 18th, 2009 8:30 PM

I think your tut is nice, very clear and well thought out! I personally hate doing that indexing stuff cause it really confuses me o.O. I'm sticking with my eraser method :P

~Gibson~ September 19th, 2009 12:05 PM

1 Attachment(s)
Well, I followed your Tut (exactly I hope^^), but as soon as I import the changed Tileset, AM shows kinda wierd tiles. I may have overread an important point, but if so, I dunno which.

Hope you can see from the pic, what I'm trying to talk about xD

greetz,
Gibson

Cello September 19th, 2009 12:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ~Gibson~ (Post 5133068)
Well, I followed your Tut (exactly I hope^^), but as soon as I import the changed Tileset, AM shows kinda wierd tiles. I may have overread an important point, but if so, I dunno which.

Hope you can see from the pic, what I'm trying to talk about xD

greetz,
Gibson

This could be a result of multiple different things, but all related to the palette.

  • Make sure you loaded/have it set to the correct palette. You have to load the exact palette you saved from the picture of the tile or else the colors wont match and everything will be funky looking.
  • Make sure you pasted and imported the same exact house that you saved the palette from. Indexed and all. Even if you have two copies of the same house, their palettes could be different. Even if you make one tiny change to the house after you save it's palette it could possibly mismatch. :P
  • The palettes colors have to match the house's palette. Don't edit the palette after you saved it or else this could mess up the colors order and make everything funky looking too.
  • Make sure the color you want to be transparent is the first color in your palette.
Judging by the look of it, it just looks like your houses colors got mismatched with the palette's colors. The roof is the same color as it should be, but the body of the house is messed up and is instead replaced by the transparent color.
Try indexing the house and re saving the palette again, then reload it.

Deucalion September 20th, 2009 1:43 AM

When indexing the colours, do you set transparency to on, and are black/white, primaries, or web forced, or is that option simply set to none? If you do, does transparency, black/white, primaries, or web count towards the 16 colour limit?

~Gibson~ September 20th, 2009 9:48 AM

2 Attachment(s)
@Deucalion:
Well, though I don't see your point, here're my settings:
Palette: Exact
Colors: 16
Forced: Black & White
Transparency: yes

@Cello:
Points 1-3 are out of the question, I've set it to the correct palette & everything matches to each other. But I ain't sure about the forth one. I index the house in Photoshop (5.5), I save the color table (look at the 1. pic), then I load it in AM, but the palette colors in AM are different from the PS ones (look at the 2. pic :p), so I think that's the actual problem.

greetz,
Gibson

Neo-Wolf September 26th, 2009 10:42 PM

Really great tutorial. Awesome for beginners!

~Gibson~ September 27th, 2009 8:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ~Gibson~ (Post 5135970)
@Deucalion:
Well, though I don't see your point, here're my settings:
Palette: Exact
Colors: 16
Forced: Black & White
Transparency: yes

@Cello:
Points 1-3 are out of the question, I've set it to the correct palette & everything matches to each other. But I ain't sure about the forth one. I index the house in Photoshop (5.5), I save the color table (look at the 1. pic), then I load it in AM, but the palette colors in AM are different from the PS ones (look at the 2. pic :p), so I think that's the actual problem.

greetz,
Gibson

Well, I still have that problem.
Anyone able to help me?

greetz,
Gibson

Cello September 28th, 2009 5:42 AM

Sorry for the late response. I haven't checked in on this in awhile.

From the looks at it, after loading the palette in your block editor the palette gets really disorganized, which honestly shouldn't be happening.
When you save the palette from Photoshop the palette should remain the way it was viewed.

Here, I'll show you how I organize my palettes when things aren't the way they should be. It's very simple.

First:
I use graphics gale for this. Download link.
Start up graphics gale and load your INDEXED image.

Second:
In the palette viewer, click the downward arrow and select Uniform Color.
Like so:


Third:
Select your image from the list in the box that pops up, and then click extract.


Fourth:
You will notice that your palette is now loaded in the right box. From there you can edit your palette freely.
By that, I mean you can drag colors and organize them as you like.
Just drag whichever color you want to be transparent to the first color.


Fifth:
After you drag you will notice the colors swap places in the palette. Click "Apply" and then save your image.


Now open the image you just saved in photoshop or your palette saving program and re-save the palette.
If you still get this problem, my only thoughts would be that you're loading the wrong palette in the wrong directory.

Again, sorry for the late response.

ALSO/// DO NOT SAVE PALETTES IN GALE. The colors darken.

NarutoActor September 28th, 2009 5:46 AM

here is something I noticed in this tutorial you waiste space you should want to get as most custume tiles in a tile set as posiable so in graphics gales click on the grid to 8x8 and deleate any blocks that repeat or can be x-flip or y-flip or both doing this will allow you to have a lot more space for a lot more tiles

Cello September 28th, 2009 5:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by narutoactor (Post 5165608)
here is something I noticed in this tutorial you waiste space you should want to get as most custume tiles in a tile set as posiable so in graphics gales click on the grid to 8x8 and deleate any blocks that repeat or can be x-flip or y-flip or both doing this will allow you to have a lot more space for a lot more tiles

I was actually just thinking about writing a section for X & Y flipping.
Unfortunately I'm in a bit of a hurry right now, but I'll be updating it soon with info on saving space by flipping with X & Y flipping.

The tilesets used in the images are merely examples.

~Gibson~ September 28th, 2009 7:44 AM

Thanx for your extensive description, Cello. But - call me an idiot :p - I STILL get the problem. The palettes are different. Everything works wonderfully unto I want to load the palette in AM, I'm just kinda baffled xD.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cello (Post 5165601)
If you still get this problem, my only thoughts would be that you're loading the wrong palette in the wrong directory.

What do you mean by that "wrong directory"? Maybe that's the solution xD

greetz,
Gibson

Cello September 28th, 2009 9:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ~Gibson~ (Post 5165896)
Thanx for your extensive description, Cello. But - call me an idiot :p - I STILL get the problem. The palettes are different. Everything works wonderfully unto I want to load the palette in AM, I'm just kinda baffled xD.



What do you mean by that "wrong directory"? Maybe that's the solution xD

greetz,
Gibson

I just meant that perhaps you're loading a previous saved palette in another folder that looks very similar.

It happens to me sometimes. When I go to load a palette it will bring up a different folder full of palettes that aren't the ones i'm looking for.

It can get a bit confusing.

This is actually very odd, though. If you're still getting the problem.
When you save the palettes they automatically change order without any say in doing so.
Have you tried saving it as a different file type? Like a .ACT instead of a .PAL, or vice-versa.

~Gibson~ September 28th, 2009 10:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cello (Post 5166165)
Have you tried saving it as a different file type? Like a .ACT instead of a .PAL, or vice-versa.

I did actually, but AM does not accept .ACT or .PAL files, which looks very weird to me. I have to change the .PAL into a .pal, maybe this is the problem..., I dunno xD^^

greetz,
Gibson

Dr. POP October 22nd, 2009 7:23 AM

First; Cello, thanks for this great tutorial :D It is really newby-friendly and clear.
However, I have a problem and maybe someone can help me out.

I have this tileset (well, a yet-to-become-tileset :)) of a house. This house has a red roof. I first used bright blue as my background color, and later pasted the house on the bg.

I followed all the steps in the tutorial. When I come to indexing my picture and creating a palette (using Photoshop) the first color in my palette is nót blue (which it should be, since it was the first color I used) but red (a kind of red from the roof, to be precise).

The first time I didn't notice and everything went OK, except for the blue not being the transparant color, but red. I later tried again, with black instead of blue, but it was the same story.

What to do to get the first color to be the first in the palette? Manually switching colors of course doesn't help, since all the colors in the tiles will be swapped.

Thanks in advance

Zeffy October 23rd, 2009 2:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jm20 (Post 5248375)
First; Cello, thanks for this great tutorial :D It is really newby-friendly and clear.
However, I have a problem and maybe someone can help me out.

I have this tileset (well, a yet-to-become-tileset :)) of a house. This house has a red roof. I first used bright blue as my background color, and later pasted the house on the bg.

I followed all the steps in the tutorial. When I come to indexing my picture and creating a palette (using Photoshop) the first color in my palette is nót blue (which it should be, since it was the first color I used) but red (a kind of red from the roof, to be precise).

The first time I didn't notice and everything went OK, except for the blue not being the transparant color, but red. I later tried again, with black instead of blue, but it was the same story.

What to do to get the first color to be the first in the palette? Manually switching colors of course doesn't help, since all the colors in the tiles will be swapped.

Thanks in advance

You should read this post to switch transparent colors:
Quote:

Originally Posted by Cello (Post 5165601)
Sorry for the late response. I haven't checked in on this in awhile.

From the looks at it, after loading the palette in your block editor the palette gets really disorganized, which honestly shouldn't be happening.
When you save the palette from Photoshop the palette should remain the way it was viewed.

Here, I'll show you how I organize my palettes when things aren't the way they should be. It's very simple.

First:
I use graphics gale for this. Download link.
Start up graphics gale and load your INDEXED image.

Second:
In the palette viewer, click the downward arrow and select Uniform Color.
Like so:


Third:
Select your image from the list in the box that pops up, and then click extract.


Fourth:
You will notice that your palette is now loaded in the right box. From there you can edit your palette freely.
By that, I mean you can drag colors and organize them as you like.
Just drag whichever color you want to be transparent to the first color.


Fifth:
After you drag you will notice the colors swap places in the palette. Click "Apply" and then save your image.


Now open the image you just saved in photoshop or your palette saving program and re-save the palette.
If you still get this problem, my only thoughts would be that you're loading the wrong palette in the wrong directory.

Again, sorry for the late response.

ALSO/// DO NOT SAVE PALETTES IN GALE. The colors darken.


Dr. POP October 23rd, 2009 7:37 AM

Oh thanks! I must've missed that post :)

I found another way, however. It is a little more comlicated, but for the people that want to know:
In Photoshop, when you choose Image > mode > indexed color, in the drop-down menu (or whatever it's called) choose 'custom'. Doing this you can switch and customize your palette too.

However, I will use Cello's way myself. Thanks again :)

Chimchar 9 October 25th, 2009 4:34 PM

Nice Tutorial!
It's very good.
But it seems abit too long.
Oh, well.
Well done.

shadow ripper October 28th, 2009 5:29 AM

i have a problem.
when i load the block/pallete after i have used gale this comes up

error:
the pallete file is missing
blah/blah/blah/blah(bla is location :p)titleset2.pal

Zeffy October 29th, 2009 3:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shadow ripper (Post 5268369)
i have a problem.
when i load the block/pallete after i have used gale this comes up

error:
the pallete file is missing
blah/blah/blah/blah(bla is location :p)titleset2.pal

You should put the tileset.dib file with the tileset.pal file in one folder.

Hey Cello, I've got this problem. Everytime I import the .act file, the palettes change positions I need help.

mustyoshi November 2nd, 2009 10:03 AM

Thanks, this is what I have been looking for.

Jemzx January 15th, 2010 8:49 PM

this tutorial helped me a lot! thanks!

Dr. POP March 10th, 2010 11:03 AM

Hi, another question. I seem to have a problem with palettes created by IrfanView (haven't got Photoshop on this PC), and it seems to be the same problem as the GraphicsGale palette saving bug. (The colors end up completely different in Amap.) However, when using GG to view the palette (created by IrfanView) everything seems fine.

So not only are GG's palettes not compatible with Amap, IrfanView's palettes aren't either.

Is there an alternative to Photoshop/IrfanView/GraphicsGale for palette editing? GIMP maybe? (Haven't searched yet, but maybe someone here already knows...?)

Shiny Quagsire March 10th, 2010 2:32 PM

This is a great tuorial! Replacing colors in paint is quite hecktic.

BLAZEQUAZA March 15th, 2010 4:23 PM

Thanx! - This is Awesome!

BQ

Opalescent March 19th, 2010 3:12 AM

Awesome
 
I have a slightly different method, but this is awesome :)
This'll be handy if my method turns out to be a giant mistake...which is almost certain!

Thanks for the tutorial :3

Johto_legend March 21st, 2010 8:34 PM

hey i have a question. when i make the palette and "force" black and white, the white makes it 17 colors. and white isnt in the image so how can i get rid of it?
@Jm20
how do u move the colors around the way u said. in photoshop?

Zeffy March 22nd, 2010 1:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Johto_legend (Post 5642979)
hey i have a question. when i make the palette and "force" black and white, the white makes it 17 colors. and white isnt in the image so how can i get rid of it?
@Jm20
how do u move the colors around the way u said. in photoshop?

Instead of forcing black and white, select none or transparent. Any of those 2 works, just make sure you're colors is 16 or lower.

Opalescent March 26th, 2010 4:09 AM

Actually, I found an easier way of doing it :)
But this is excellent for people new to Tile Inserting. Hmmmm now all I need is a guide to changing the animations :)

Awesome

874521 April 4th, 2010 12:55 AM

I'm having a problem here, I put all the palettes at the Advance Map, but because the palettes are not exact, I put the ones which are nearest to the original. Here's what happened: (When I put it in the tileset but I'm not inserting it yet, it looked fine)


Doublet April 15th, 2010 3:06 AM

That was a pretty detailed tutorial, too bad I figured it out on my own before I read this! XD

anyhow, I am still encountering one problem; In AM the tiles look fine... But when I play the rom its bassically Anarchy! I've already made sure theres no animations, and have deleted and replaced the tiles a good amount of times.

Could someone help?

joeprice April 18th, 2010 10:22 AM

Hey, great tutorial, very well set out, easy to read and helpful.
BUUT.. I was wondering if you could help me. I can insert tiles just fine but when it comes to door animations I am at a total loss.
Right now all that I am trying to do is move the door with the "R" on it from the "Five Isle Meadow" map on fire red onto tileset0. Managed this without a problem but I can't manage to associate the animation of the door opening with my new tile. I presumed setting the behaviour byte to 69 would do the job but it does not. Any help would be greatly greatly appreciated. Thanks.

¬Er!c Cartman« April 18th, 2010 12:43 PM

Very great tutorial, thank you :D

Learath2 June 28th, 2010 11:45 PM

:(
 
every thing gets weird after i add a secon tree i made the pallets but the left side of the left tree and everything up at left side gets very weird
h t t p ://i48.tinypic.com/2uopc01.jpg

Banjora Marxvile June 29th, 2010 1:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Learath2 (Post 5922701)
every thing gets weird after i add a secon tree i made the pallets but the left side of the left tree and everything up at left side gets very weird
h t t p ://i48.tinypic.com/2uopc01.jpg

Well, yeah? you edited the colours of the whole Tileset, so all the tiles will change colour if they use that pallette. If that is what you were saying. If it is not that that is the problem, then what exactly is wrong, as the screenshot gives no hint.

Learath2 June 29th, 2010 3:46 AM

a better screen
 
h t t p://img689.imageshack.us/img689/5753/helpl.png

a better screenshot after adding the tree right side this happens i did make the pallets same

Banjora Marxvile June 29th, 2010 6:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Learath2 (Post 5922963)
h t t p://img689.imageshack.us/img689/5753/helpl.png

a better screenshot after adding the tree right side this happens i did make the pallets same

You've recoloured it wrong. You need to make all the tree colours fit the Tileset pallette exactly. Redo the tile, making sure that the tree fits the pallette perfectly.

sir.euge July 3rd, 2010 2:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 874521 (Post 5074533)
Nice tutorial! Other tutorials are good too but this explains a lot.
Can I just paste the tile without 16 colors to the 16 colors instead of coloring it?

this is caused due to dithering. just uncheck that option when changing the color depth and your image wont have random dots all over it! this is probably what everyone is experiencing and they are probably forced to recolor their tiles

Xnenai July 3rd, 2010 9:57 PM

Great tut, I've definitely learned more from this than any other. I still have problems with my background color though...

Dr. POP August 21st, 2010 7:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 874521 (Post 5680667)
I'm having a problem here, I put all the palettes at the Advance Map, but because the palettes are not exact, I put the ones which are nearest to the original. Here's what happened: (When I put it in the tileset but I'm not inserting it yet, it looked fine)


Well this is a problem I have too. I am sure I have the right tileset with the right pallette, with no more than 16 colors, all indexed, blah blah. However, it still ends up this freaky in the Block Editor (and in the maps too).

Did anyone already find the solution to this problem?

Blaze Orange August 21st, 2010 1:04 PM

I don't see why gale and photoshop are necessary. Why can't I just index with IrfranView, set the first color of the pallet to transparent, paste it over in paint, and then export the pallet as a .PAL file in IrfranViw.

Dr. POP August 21st, 2010 1:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blaze Orange (Post 6092045)
I don't see why gale and photoshop are necessary. Why can't I just index with IrfranView, set the first color of the pallet to transparent, paste it over in paint, and then export the pallet as a .PAL file in IrfranViw.

You can. At least that's the way I do it and it works fine up until I import the whole thing in Amap...

Multi August 21st, 2010 9:52 PM

It's the best Tile-sets Tutorial EVER I learned new things!

Dr. POP August 22nd, 2010 9:42 AM

Okay, I found out it's not GraphicsGale that saves palettes in a wrong way, instead it's A-map which interprets the colors completely wrong, hence the darkened colors. I have now kind of found a way to prevent AdvanceMap to ruin your palette. You should use .ACT as your palette saving format. Now, since neither GraphicsGale nor IrfanView are able to save palettes in .ACT format, you should first save the palette as .PAL. Next, open it up with this program: PaletteEditor (Direct Download) or any other palette editing program. Save the palette as .ACT and load it in A-map. As simple as that.

However, it doesn't really help as long as this happens...


If someone knows/finds out how to fix this, I would really appreciate it. If I need to give more info or screens just say.

Banjora Marxvile August 22nd, 2010 9:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jm20 (Post 6094490)
Okay, I found out it's not GraphicsGale that saves palettes in a wrong way, instead it's A-map which interprets the colors completely wrong, hence the darkened colors. I have now kind of found a way to prevent AdvanceMap to ruin your palette. You should use .ACT as your palette saving format. Now, since neither GraphicsGale nor IrfanView are able to save palettes in .ACT format, you should first save the palette as .PAL. Next, open it up with this program: PaletteEditor (Direct Download) or any other palette editing program. Save the palette as .ACT and load it in A-map. As simple as that.

However, it doesn't really help as long as this happens...


If someone knows/finds out how to fix this, I would really appreciate it. If I need to give more info or screens just say.

There is a third option. As always... That happens because the tileset doesn't match the pal file.

Anyway, the third option is manually recolour all your new tiles to fit the pallette of the tileset (Ever heard of the Eyedropper and Eraser Trick?), and then Save it. Reload in Advance Map, and then change the Pallette.

Dr. POP August 22nd, 2010 11:19 AM

Maybe you can help me any further...? I recolored my custom tileset in the colors of Palette0 in Pallet Town trough importing the palette in GraphicsGale and thus generating a custom tileset in the colors of the default tileset in FireRed.
Then I imported the tileset in Amap, and the following happens: :paranoid:

Any further action, like trying to edit the blocks, results in blank tiles and blocks, both in the maps as in the block-bank and tileset... (Most commonly in colors green, blue and black.) See picture few posts earlier.

It happens with every single tileset I import. Even when I load the default ingame tileset (which I had exported a second before) it crashes. I honestly think it is something with AdvanceMap, but on the other hand, many hackers succeeded in inserting custom tilesets...

PS: Could it be something with animated tiles? I have kept most animated tiles original, but not for example doors etc.. Could this be the problem?

PPS: Thanks to AdvancePaletteEditor by HackMew palette editing and inserting is no problem anymore whatsoever. However, the AdvanceMap .PAL format is distinctively different from the 'common' .PAL format. No other program than A-map accepts this different .PAL file.

Banjora Marxvile August 23rd, 2010 12:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jm20 (Post 6094787)
Maybe you can help me any further...? I recolored my custom tileset in the colors of Palette0 in Pallet Town trough importing the palette in GraphicsGale and thus generating a custom tileset in the colors of the default tileset in FireRed.
Then I imported the tileset in Amap, and the following happens: :paranoid:

Any further action, like trying to edit the blocks, results in blank tiles and blocks, both in the maps as in the block-bank and tileset... (Most commonly in colors green, blue and black.) See picture few posts earlier.

It happens with every single tileset I import. Even when I load the default ingame tileset (which I had exported a second before) it crashes. I honestly think it is something with AdvanceMap, but on the other hand, many hackers succeeded in inserting custom tilesets...

PS: Could it be something with animated tiles? I have kept most animated tiles original, but not for example doors etc.. Could this be the problem?

PPS: Thanks to AdvancePaletteEditor by HackMew palette editing and inserting is no problem anymore whatsoever. However, the AdvanceMap .PAL format is distinctively different from the 'common' .PAL format. No other program than A-map accepts this different .PAL file.

Not many use GraphicsGale. It isn't to do with Animations. It is probably how you are doing it. Try NOT using Graphics Gale, manually reolouring your new tiles to fit the old Tileset, loading that in Advance Map, and using the Pallette Editor in Advance Map to redo the pallette. I think the key mistake you are using is not using AdvanceMaps in-built pallette editor.

Before trying this method, redo yours, (Indexing the tileset, copy and pasting the new tile in), but do not change the pallette, then load the tileset in Advance Map, then do the pallette in Advance Map. If that doesn't work, then try the method I mentioned earlier.

Dr. POP August 24th, 2010 4:04 AM

Before trying any of the methods above at all, I decided to try to follow Cello's tutorial precisely once more. And, I'm a bit embarassed to admit, it worked! :D I still don't know exactly what I did wrong, but I now found the method that completely works. Thanks for all your advice and help, BanjoraMaxville! Now I can finally work further on my hack! :)

shawn0173 August 26th, 2010 9:50 AM

in photoshop, when i try opening my .png file photoshop closes. why is this? how can i fix it?

Multi August 26th, 2010 10:10 AM

more Details! dude... can't help... :P

Binary August 26th, 2010 10:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shawn0173 (Post 6104824)
in photoshop, when i try opening my .png file photoshop closes. why is this? how can i fix it?

It might be a problem with photoshop. Try re-installing it.
Quote:

Originally Posted by Multi (Post 6104861)
more Details! dude... can't help... :P

I think it's as elaborated as it can be.

shawn0173 August 26th, 2010 10:24 AM

yeah i start it, i click open, i select my image which is in .png then photoshop automatically closes, thats it. ill try reinstalling it. thanks

EDIT: reinstalling it didnt work :(

Multi August 26th, 2010 9:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shawn0173 (Post 6104892)
yeah i start it, i click open, i select my image which is in .png then photoshop automatically closes, thats it. ill try reinstalling it. thanks

EDIT: reinstalling it didnt work :(

can you see this .png image? if you cant see try new image!

TehHepticOne September 2nd, 2010 3:22 AM

Hey guys,

I was justing following everything that the tut was tellimg me to do, but when I tried to open the palette file into A-Map There was an error popping up saying "AdvanceMapError(11): The File could not be open." Any ideas guys?

countryemo September 3rd, 2010 4:54 PM

Ok please help. im trying to learn. but when i open the block editer, there is no "pallete" section. so i cant import the palletes.

Banjora Marxvile September 3rd, 2010 11:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by countryemo (Post 6126727)
Ok please help. im trying to learn. but when i open the block editer, there is no "pallete" section. so i cant import the palletes.

The pallette section is one of those menus at the top. Sure it isn't there next to "Blocks" and "Picture"?

countryemo September 3rd, 2010 11:31 PM

1 Attachment(s)
nope it isnt. i been recoloring them to fr.lg pallets which works, but some i need a new one.

Banjora Marxvile September 3rd, 2010 11:36 PM

Strange... at a guess, you do have the newest version of Advance Map, right? Not to worry, I guess you can also insert the pallette with APE (yet that could be harder... Unless you insert a sprite with the pallettes you want into a clean ROM, save the pallette somewhere, look up that pallette in APE, and then copy and paste all the data over the pallette you want to change in your ROM...)

Zeffy September 3rd, 2010 11:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by countryemo (Post 6127686)
nope it isnt. i been recoloring them to fr.lg pallets which works, but some i need a new one.

That A-Map version is old. Get the new one (1.92).

countryemo September 3rd, 2010 11:42 PM

ape- ok im not gonna try, as i didnt unstand in your post.

yes i have the newest 1.92
i tried downloading a older one. 1.91
but the link sent me to 1.92 sadly

Banjora Marxvile September 3rd, 2010 11:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by countryemo (Post 6127697)
ape- ok im not gonna try, as i didnt unstand in your post.

yes i have the newest 1.92
i tried downloading a older one. 1.91
but the link sent me to 1.92 sadly

Strange... Anyway... The only way of inserting pallettes for you then is through APE. The best way is:

Insert a sprite/tileset with the pallette you want into a clean ROM using UNLZ or whatever you use. Save the pallette in an offset you can remember. Open APE, search for that offset, and your pallette is there.

Open your ROM in APE too, find the pallette offset for the pallette you want to edit, and just change the pallette to that in the clean ROM.

Zeffy September 3rd, 2010 11:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by countryemo (Post 6127697)
ape- ok im not gonna try, as i didnt unstand in your post.

yes i have the newest 1.92
i tried downloading a older one. 1.91
but the link sent me to 1.92 sadly

:/

1.92 looks like this, and the one you showed is an old version of it. :/

countryemo September 3rd, 2010 11:54 PM

hm i redownloaded it, and its there. thanks ^^
:P

hackerofdarkness September 18th, 2010 9:00 AM

I'm just asking but sometimes when I insert a pallet it sometimes make me recolor it to fit the pallet any way to fix it

Random92 October 4th, 2010 2:16 PM

Great guide, it explains everything you need to know about tile inserting. I used a combination of this and Aljam's guide to create my first custom tile.

Spoiler:


Thank you for taking the time to create this guide!

countryemo October 20th, 2010 5:13 PM

Hey
I got a question.
When I use Photoshop to index my tiles, when I insert it to Advanced map, it replaces the wrong part of the pallete (like where the tree colors go, it goes to the grass part?)

Im not sure if this effects allot, im still learning
---
adding on to palletes, my tree is about 11 colors, grass is 3,as you see my tree takes up some colors unlike the the fr/lg trees.
-
Also possiple need other help. I got some tiles with the black background, but im kinda confused/worried from there.

I know how to index, and all. its just getting the new pallete in. like is it going to get it in right?

/Also couldnt figure out the palletes in gale

Daru05 October 21st, 2010 1:39 AM

Hello. A want Download Palette. Please give mi link to download this palette

countryemo October 21st, 2010 3:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daru05 (Post 6236742)
Hello. A want Download Palette. Please give mi link to download this palette

All I gotta ask is what are you saying?
You want a link to download what pallete? What pallete? There no download.. I honestly have no idea what your asking

hackerofdarkness October 24th, 2010 1:42 PM

I belived he want celleo pallet like from his trees or something

Cello November 13th, 2010 6:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daru05 (Post 6236742)
Hello. A want Download Palette. Please give mi link to download this palette

Unfortunately I lack the palettes from this guide to share, sorry.



I would like to thank everyone who has tended to this guide and helped the people with questions while i've been away. Also, thanks for keeping my guide up-to-date Harry, I see you edited it a couple of months back. :]

Just a status update:
Seeing as I still get a message here and there requesting help, I would like to state that if anyone still needs help, you can try to ask me, but, well...
Lets just say i'm glad i wrote this guide...
...Because I really needed to freshen up on this.

Baronnecro November 13th, 2010 7:15 AM

thank you I asked you in a private message. you are good help.

Akhilesh February 28th, 2011 11:08 PM

Thanks Very very much bubby it really helped me. THANKSSSSSSSSS......!!!!!

I was trying to insert tiles for a lot of days but when I came across your thread I was very delighted to be able to insert tiles...
Thankssss!!!!!!!

wildbeast April 30th, 2011 1:05 PM

Just looked at this tut. It was REALLY helpful but I had a problem in the last few steps where you put them in the tileset. I followed all the steps however when I added my new tiles to the set and loaded in A-Map with the right palette my new tiles weren't there :/

EDIT: Re-did all the steps. I added the tiles from the file which hadn't been indexed which was why they hadn't showed :D AMAZING GUIDE!

Dinis25 June 4th, 2011 9:33 AM

Hi there!
Amazing tutorial, the best I have read about tile inserting.
Now, I have a little problem. I inserted the tiles on my map in A-map. All looked good, but when I tryed it out in visual boy, the colores of my new tiles where black and white, insted of blue (water). I putted the tiles in an empty place.
Can you help me, please?

Banjora Marxvile June 4th, 2011 9:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dinis25 (Post 6676751)
Hi there!
Amazing tutorial, the best I have read about tile inserting.
Now, I have a little problem. I inserted the tiles on my map in A-map. All looked good, but when I tryed it out in visual boy, the colores of my new tiles where black and white, insted of blue (water). I putted the tiles in an empty place.
Can you help me, please?

Which ROM was that, and which Pallette? And, did you remember to set the tiles to use that pallette when you inserted them into Advance Map to make them able to be used to map with?

Dinis25 June 4th, 2011 9:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Banjora Marxvile (Post 6676762)
Which ROM was that, and which Pallette? And, did you remember to set the tiles to use that pallette when you inserted them into Advance Map to make them able to be used to map with?

It was Ruby in English. Pallete 12 of tileset nº 10.
I can map them, and the colours stay normal. Everything is working on a-map, but on the emulator (I tryed with visual boy and No$gba, both last version) the colours are black and white (more like gray).

Banjora Marxvile June 5th, 2011 1:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dinis25 (Post 6676786)
It was Ruby in English. Pallete 12 of tileset nº 10.
I can map them, and the colours stay normal. Everything is working on a-map, but on the emulator (I tryed with visual boy and No$gba, both last version) the colours are black and white (more like gray).

That's why. Pallette 12 isn't a functional pallette to use in Ruby yet, only in Firered. Use any pallette but 12 when tile inserting into Ruby.


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