[Pokeemerald] Unique surfing overworlds

Next on my list of projects is unique surfing overworlds, using the pokeemerald disassembly.


Features:

• Individual surfing overworlds for the 102 pokémon that can learn surf (up to and including Gen III).
• Support for shiny pokémon.
• Any pokémon that has been taught surf but does not have an overworld sprite will display the standard surf blob instead.
• Dynamic palette system included.

Known issues:

• Placeholder graphics are currently used.
• The shiny palettes are not necessarily synchronised with the standard palettes so some of the shiny pokémon may appear incorrectly.

Contributing:

• Help is needed to create high quality surfing overworlds. There are 102 pokémon that can learn surf which is a substantial amount of work for one person. I have dabbled in pixel art but it is not my forté and I know there are many talented artists around who could do a better job than me.
• I have left the data in for (but not implemented) different surfing poses for the player as I don't think the standard pose will suit all the pokémon. However I would like other people's opinion on whether this is necessary and if it is then multiple poses will need to be made for each playable character.
• The video shows Gen IV style player sprites, however this base only includes the pokémon sprites.
  I personally prefer and am more invested in Gen IV style but I think it would be beneficial to the pokémon modding community as a whole to support both styles.

The pokémon graphics are located in "graphics/event_objects/pics/pokemon/surfable".
The list of pokémon that can learn surf is located in "src/data/field_event_obj/surfable_pokemon.h".

Here are some Gen IV surfing sprites to use as reference for anyone who wants to contribute:
How it works:
I wanted to make it compatible with my costume menu implementation so it works by creating a sprite beneath the player, like the standard surf blob does, and then a sprite above the player.
So taking the Lapras sprite in the video as an example, the formatting for the graphic becomes:
Where the top row is shown underneath the player and the bottom row is displayed above.

Completed sprites:


At present pokeemerald is 87% decompiled, meaning that there are still limitations on what can be done with it and it is not in a user friendly state, but I would still recommend playing around with it as it allows for much more complex changes than a binary ROM hack.
I will periodically be merging with the master branch until it is completely decompiled.

FAQ:

Is this compatible with existing hacks?
If the hack is using the pokeemerald disassembly then yes, it should also be fairly simple to port to pokeruby. You will need to understand how to use github though.
If you're doing a traditional binary ROM hack then no, but the benefits of learning how to use the disassemblies are significant.

Will a patch be made?
It could but that would defeat the point of using the disassemblies.

*Like it, how I use?* *-*
Please, make a patch. It will be help a lot of novices like me.

wow, perfect!
i need to Fire Red *-*

Absolutely love this! Here's a Tentacruel ~

AwsDan47 said:

*Like it, how I use?* *-*
Please, make a patch. It will be help a lot of novices like me.

Click to expand...

There is an installation guide for pokeemerald here: https://github.com/pret/pokeemerald/blob/master/INSTALL.md

I won't be making a patch. Whilst learning how to use the disassemblies has more of a learning curve than standard ROM hacking, the benefits are much greater so it's worth taking the time to do.

LykO said:

wow, perfect!
i need to Fire Red *-*

Click to expand...

When pokefirered is in a usable state it should be trivial to port this across.

Avara said:

Absolutely love this! Here's a Tentacruel ~

Click to expand...

That's brilliant, great job.

I absolutely applaud you, for your work!

I'm in my exam period and would like to try to design one/a few surfing pokemon probably based of MD/HGSS sprites. Not now but when I have a bit more time.

I'm not the best artist, and you are free to give feedback or plainly reject my work if it is not qualitivly high enough. Is there a list of "still needing a surfing sprite" pokemon?

Edit:

I couldn't restrain myself and started on the wailmer sprite. 20/12/18

Hestia said:

I apsolutely applaud you for your work!

I'm in my exam period and would like to try to design one/a few surfing pokemon probably based of MD/HDSS sprites. Not now but when I have a bit more time.

I'm not the best artist, and you are free to give feedback or plainly reject my work if it is not qualitivly high enough. Is there a list of "still needing a surfing sprite" pokemon?

Click to expand...

At the moment only Tentacruel and Lapras have surfing sprites, a list of pokémon that can learn surf up to and including Gen III pokémon can be found here: https://github.com/Slawter666/pokeemerald/blob/surfable/src/data/field_event_obj/surfable_pokemon.h, but I will update the first post with any sprite that has been completed.

@ slawter666
Oh I thought you also had a Kyogre surfing sprite.

Well, I did a wailmer sprite.

This is heavely based on Kyle-Dove work on deviantart, so you will have to include him in the credits. He stated in the comments anyone may use that image (2009).

This could also be usefull for a few other surfing pokemon.

Anyway, here is the wailmer sprite. (If wailmer is approved, I'll claim snorlax)

Edit: 22/12/18 I'm not 100% happy with the water trail. I'll might revamp this.

Couple of extras, let me know if you want any extra work done to them. I considered making the smaller Pokemon a little larger so that the player didn't look bigger than them to the point it looked strange but I'll leave that up to you x

Shiny Tentacruel~


Wartortle~


Shiny Wartortle~

Hestia said:

@ slawter666
Oh I thought you also had a Kyogre surfing sprite.

Click to expand...

All of the pokémon have placeholder graphics using their HGSS following sprites, the Kyogre sprite in the video was just to demonstrate that there are unique sprites for each pokémon and that it is functional.

Avara said:

Couple of extras, let me know if you want any extra work done to them. I considered making the smaller Pokemon a little larger so that the player didn't look bigger than them to the point it looked strange but I'll leave that up to you x

Click to expand...

I had considered that as particularly with Gen IV style overworlds the player and pokémon can look disproportionate. I think they should look fine size-wise with Gen III overworlds but I haven't tested that yet.

It was also the reason I've thought about implementing multiple surf poses for the player, as it doesn't make sense to ride every pokémon. Perhaps something on the lines of the player on a surf board or water skiis being pulled along by the pokémon? I'm interested to hear people's opinion on this.

How can the Dynamic palette system be installed? It seems good to do a tutorial on how to do it, if there is a fire network, for Emerald it should be better: D

I find this way of surfing interesting

Att: Google Traslate ._.

Looking forward to see Surfing Pikachu OW here...

Hey, are you fine if I use some of these surfing sprites? Brilliant idea by the way :)

FBI said:

Hey, are you fine if I use some of these surfing sprites? Brilliant idea by the way :)

Click to expand...

Absolutely, everything posted in this thread is for public use.

slawter666 said:

Absolutely, everything posted in this thread is for public use.

Click to expand...

Thanks. Do you have a credits list for the art?

FBI said:

Thanks. Do you have a credits list for the art?

Click to expand...

I've updated the first post to include a credits list.

Completed sprites:
008 Wartortle by Avara
073 Tentacruel by Avara
131 Lapras (needs shiny sprite)

The rest are uneditted HGSS follower sprites.

The water ski idea sounds fun!

Shiny Lapras ~

can u say which functions did this mod added/changed? Copying and pasting this on egg's battle egine can change some files

LuizComZ said:

can u say which functions did this mod added/changed? Copying and pasting this on egg's battle egine can change some files

Click to expand...

You shouldn't copy/paste these. What you should do is use git and merge them on top of your rom hack branch.

Completely forgot to give you these!

Tentacool ~


Shiny Tentacool ~