[Graphic✓] [repost because I am an idiot] Noob question about implementing trainer sprites

Thank you based mods for catching this before I posted on the main board. Anyway...

{Hi, I'm sorry if this question was already asked a million times in the past and I'm not seeing it because I'm new around here. But I'm having trouble implementing custom trainer sprites I made into a Pokemon Emerald rom. I found a few tutorials online and they suggested a method where I use unLZ-gba and Tile Molester Alternate, but in one of them I was reading (from this site in fact) a user suggested to the person making the tutorial to use NSE 2.X instead, so I download this and try to use it, but it doesn't allow me to edit trainer sprites from emerald (though I put one of them into firered just fine). So i went back to TMA, but it would act as though the file was closed without saving when I pull up my rom, despite me having saved and it not showing the error message that happened to a different file where I forgot to save. I'm hoping someone with actual experience (IE: not me) could help me out with my current issue.}

Jorenty said:

Thank you based mods for catching this before I posted on the main board. Anyway...

{Hi, I'm sorry if this question was already asked a million times in the past and I'm not seeing it because I'm new around here. But I'm having trouble implementing custom trainer sprites I made into a Pokemon Emerald rom. I found a few tutorials online and they suggested a method where I use unLZ-gba and Tile Molester Alternate, but in one of them I was reading (from this site in fact) a user suggested to the person making the tutorial to use NSE 2.X instead, so I download this and try to use it, but it doesn't allow me to edit trainer sprites from emerald (though I put one of them into firered just fine). So i went back to TMA, but it would act as though the file was closed without saving when I pull up my rom, despite me having saved and it not showing the error message that happened to a different file where I forgot to save. I'm hoping someone with actual experience (IE: not me) could help me out with my current issue.}

Click to expand...

NSE is by far the easiest tool to use. Are you sure you're opening the correct sprites from the ROM? BPRE is FireRed's BPEE is Emerald's so you have to select sprites from that folder/section when 'navigating'.

EDIT: Wait, I now see that Emerald's folder can only edit a select few sprites. In that case, you can do it with unzlGBA and I'll explain how to in just a moment. I'll post my short tutorial below.

Tools Needed: unLZ-GBA, Paint XP, IrfanView, Freespace Finder

1. Create your sprite on any image editing software (Paint XP works), ensuring that you do not use any more than 16 colours (15 for sprite and a background colour such as a pale-green).

2. Open Irfanview and open your sprite.

3. On the Image header, go down to Decrease Colour Depth and select 16 Colours.

4. On Image again, select the very bottom option Palette --> Edit Palette.

5. Locate the background colour (pale-green) and add to custom colours. Then change the first colour (black) to your background and vise versa. Your image will look odd, but that is natural.

6. Save your image as name_indexed or whatever you like, but don't overwrite the original.

7. Using Paint XP, open your newly saved indexed image.

8. Go to Edit --> Paste From. Find your original image and insert it.

9. Save over name_indexed (or whatever you called it).

10. Open unLZ-GBA and navigate to the trainer sprite you wish to overwrite. I don't know the beginning number of them for Emerald, unfortunately.

11. Click Import and insert your name_indexed image. Write to ROM should then be pressed with the top two options ticked (Export Image/Auto Abort). If you get an error message about the file size being too big, follow these next steps, otherwise skip to step 16.

12. Without closing the error message, take note of the Compressed Size.

13. Open your ROM in Freespace Finder and write in your Compressed Size in the bottom right hand box. It should come up with a number above it. Copy/make note of that.

14. In the Needed Bytes box, write down the number you just found. Make sure Search from Beginning of ROM is selected then click Find.

15. Make a note of this number (usually six digits) and go back to unLZ-GBA, repeating steps 10-11. This time, when you click write to ROM, paste the number you just wrote down in the box labelled Image Offset. Tick Automatically Fix Pointers and Ok. It should not come up with an error message this time.

16. Now the image is inserted, go to the next sprite and back again. You should see the outline of your sprite with messed up colours. This is normal. We're now going to fix the palette.

17. Once again import your indexed sprite and Write to ROM. This time, uncheck everything but Export Palette. Hit Ok and go to the next sprite then back again.

18. If everything was done right, you should have your correctly coloured sprite inserted into the ROM. The only thing left to do is test it in game!

Thank you so much. I had a few issues at first (paint xp wouldn't save for me, so I used GIMP instead.) But all worked out. I can't express enough thanks.

Jorenty said:

Thank you so much. I had a few issues at first (paint xp wouldn't save for me, so I used GIMP instead.) But all worked out. I can't express enough thanks.

Click to expand...

It's no problem. It's the same method I used to use when I first started ROM hacking ten years ago. When I returned to it earlier this year, there were lots of new tools which did these things, but this method should still work without any bugs.

Umm, I read this thread and I was looking for this kind of info, but I have a major issue with my unLZ.
Basically, when I load it up the sprites and palettes don't match and no matter what I change them to, they never give me what I'm looking for. Even after looking at various guides, I still can't get it to work.

WHAT AM I DOING WRONG!

Rage-Induced Gameplay said:

Umm, I read this thread and I was looking for this kind of info, but I have a major issue with my unLZ.
Basically, when I load it up the sprites and palettes don't match and no matter what I change them to, they never give me what I'm looking for. Even after looking at various guides, I still can't get it to work.

WHAT AM I DOING WRONG!

Click to expand...

Can you post a screenshot so I can see the problem more clearly? Also are you using FR as a ROM base? If so, it's more appealing to use NSE to edit sprites.

Here's what my interface looks like.
I posted my own discussion on it, but I can't link it, just check my profile, should be the first one.
P.S. I'm using Emerald because I got told that there is more available to work with in terms of coding