FINALY A TUTORIAL FOR UNLZ GBA AND EXPLANATION ON HOW NOT TO MESS UP COLORS.

[jornoboy11]

hello guys,

This is my first tutorial so don't be angry if my tutorial isn't professional. I am not english/american or whatever so maybe I make some (or a lot of) spelling mistakes.

Everyone has the same problem. You are hacking a pokemon rom. You have made an excellent map, nice attacks, good items and all other things. You also have good sprites but there is one problem: ALL COLORS OF YOUR SPRITE WILL MESS UP WHILE INSERTING THEM. I had the same problems and I make this tutorial because nowhere you can find the answer on your question.

So........

PREPARATION/SIZE]

You download the programs graphicsgale, unlz gba and a pokemon ruby/sapphire/fire red/ leaf green rom. Install everything and go on to step 2

DOING IT

Open unlz gba. Click on open rom and select your pokemon rom (don't forget to unzip the pokemon rom to get a binary file). Now you will find all sprites of the game. Go to around number 600 (type in 600 and click ''go to''). Here you search for the sprite you want to replace for your own sprite. Click on ''save as'' and save it somewhere. Now open up gg (graphicsgale) 2 times. With one of the 2 gg's open your own sprite. With the other gg you open your pokemon you want to replace (the existing pokemon not your fake one). Now go to your own made sprite, go to the tab all frames and click color depth. Change the color depth of your pokemon to 16 colors. Make sure your pokemon hasn't to much colors. Now your pokemon has 16 colors. Now click on the tab view and click on palette (if you hadn't select it already). Now you see the 16 colors of your picture. Click (at palette) on the blue arrow and click on ''save pallete'' and save it somewhere in your files. Now go to the existing pokemon you want to replace. Open palette too. You will see this picture has 16 other colors. Now click on the blue arrow again and click ''load palette and open the palette from your own sprite. On the left side you will see the palette of your own made sprite and on the right side you will see the colors of the replacing pokemon. Now hold left mouse button and select all colors except for the background color of your own sprite and drag them to the right side. MAKE SURE YOU LEAVE THE BACKGROUND COLOR (MOSTLY GREY) OF THE REPLACING POKEMON IN THE 16 COLORS PALETTE. Now your picture can be inserted. Copy your sprite on top of the old sprite. Make sure you don't see anything of the old sprite. Now you make sure everything you want to be invisible is the old background color (mostly grey). And also make sure the picture is 64x64 and now you can save the picture.

Finish

Now you open unlz gba again. You click on import pokemon and you choose your pokemon. Now you will see your picture instead of the old picture (If not you messed everything up). Now click on write to rom and it's finished.

I hope this tutorial will help you a lot.

 

[tente2]

Hello, this was mostly useful but I have a problem: When I try to "Write to Rom", I get this message:

Compressed size is: 2D0. Which is too big. Aborting.

The sprite is 64x64, and it's 16 colors, so I don't know how what I did wrong or how it could be "too big".

Otherwise, it was great.

 

[Missingyep]

Hello, this was mostly useful but I have a problem: When I try to "Write to Rom", I get this message:

Compressed size is: 2D0. Which is too big. Aborting.

The sprite is 64x64, and it's 16 colors, so I don't know how what I did wrong or how it could be "too big".

Otherwise, it was great.

...Could you perhaps post the sprite?

 

[tente2]

...Could you perhaps post the sprite?

Here it is. Check the attachments.

 

[miksy91]

Compressed size is: 2D0. Which is too big. Aborting.

Which tells exactly why it won't let you insert it.

If you're trying to replace Bidoof with another pokemon and write its data in the same place where the original pokemon's sprite was, the data of the new sprite must not exceed the data of the original sprite and as UNLZ is done well so that you won't get bugs with sprites of other pokemon, it won't let you insert it.

Let's say the size of the original sprite is 500 bytes and the size of the new sprite is (as UNLZ points out) 0x2D0 (hex) bytes which is 720 bytes.
--> The inserted sprite of Bidoof takes 220 bytes of the data following the original sprite --> If you want to avoid bugs, you must insert the sprite of Bidoof in blank space.

 

[Sephiroth2009]

Hello, this was mostly useful but I have a problem: When I try to "Write to Rom", I get this message:

Compressed size is: 2D0. Which is too big. Aborting.

The sprite is 64x64, and it's 16 colors, so I don't know how what I did wrong or how it could be "too big".

Otherwise, it was great.

Goto FSF. Open up Calculator, choose scientific mode and choose Hex. Type "2D0" and click dec. That number you put into FSF where "needed bytes are". Click search beginning of rom. Than turn that 16 number into 1. Hit search. That offset will be used in UNLZ. Write to rom, check the pointers box, and insert the new offset into the image area. Click ok and it should work.

I never tested this with a Pokemon before, but I did it with the into sprite of the hero. I don't see how it'd be any different.

And by the way, when it auto aborts...DO NOT CLICK OK, click CANCEL.

 

[Shiny Charmander]

somebody please help me,
I am pretty new to this site
I would really like to know how to insert the professor oak sprite without getting a big black and blue mess
that would be great
thank you

 

[ShadowGrey]

somebody please help me,
I am pretty new to this site
I would really like to know how to insert the professor oak sprite without getting a big black and blue mess
that would be great
thank you

There are more sprite inserting tutorials on this site than fish in the sea, head to the home page, emulation then tutorials, any tutorial called 'inserting a sprite/pokemon' etc will work, just remember to repoint your data.

 

[xephos]

Thanks, saved my title screen from a BSOD look alike.

 

[Chaos Devil]

Hello, this was mostly useful but I have a problem: When I try to "Write to Rom", I get this message:

Compressed size is: 2D0. Which is too big. Aborting.

The sprite is 64x64, and it's 16 colors, so I don't know how what I did wrong or how it could be "too big".

Otherwise, it was great.

You Need Free Space Finder.
Go To File-Load rom, Load Your Rom And Click Search From The Begging Of The Rom, Then In The Bottom Right Hand Corner There Are 2 BoxsThe Bottom One But The Code In So 2D0 And The Find And The Copy The When You Try To Upload The Picture Press Write To Rom Then You Will See The Image Offset Remove All The Numbers Except For The 2 00 Then Copy The Code Into It And Click Auto Abort Fix Pointers And Export Image Then Press Ok And It Shud Work

 

[Gandan]

This tutorial mostly worked...except I get a black screen when I encounter the pokemon whose sprite I replaced. I didn't receive any kind of error message from UNLZ, so I have no clue what I did wrong. Has anyone else had this problem?

 

[Shadow Libra]

You Need Free Space Finder.
Go To File-Load rom, Load Your Rom And Click Search From The Begging Of The Rom, Then In The Bottom Right Hand Corner There Are 2 BoxsThe Bottom One But The Code In So 2D0 And The Find And The Copy The When You Try To Upload The Picture Press Write To Rom Then You Will See The Image Offset Remove All The Numbers Except For The 2 00 Then Copy The Code Into It And Click Auto Abort Fix Pointers And Export Image Then Press Ok And It Shud Work

I did exactly as he said but it didn't Insert
can anyone help.

 

[tayub121]

Hello.
I can definitely remember having these problems!
The black screen is an overloaded offset basically so make sure that you have a transparent color and 15 other colors in your palette and the picture is 64x64. Now, for just a second, pretend you have no transparent color. The new sprite should be on top of the old one when indexed (If the picture is 60x60 and two pixels away from the 64x64 boundary, make sure the new sprite is 60x60 and in the same location on the 64x64 boundary.)

*COLOR CHANGING*
APE Advanced Palette Editor is the way to change those colors. I usually import my new sprite and then go through and change the palette with APE to get the colors I want. Basically (emphasis on this) it's easier to change sprite colors outside of UNLZ-GBA. You can't only use that one program for all your sprite editing.

Conclusion
This was the most frustrating thing for me when I couldn't figure it out. I hope I kind of helped because this can be complicated. I recommend checking YouTube for some helpful tutorials.

Good Luck!
Happy Hacking!

 

[Ninja-Bunny]

This tutorial mostly worked...except I get a black screen when I encounter the pokemon whose sprite I replaced. I didn't receive any kind of error message from UNLZ, so I have no clue what I did wrong. Has anyone else had this problem?

Hey I also have this problem, did you find out how to fix it

 

[EpicJeffrey]

I think it means you unchecked auto abort if new data is bigger.

 

[rigirock]

I'm confused, everything was working fine, but when i tried to obtain the pokemon with the sprite, (starter pokemon) My game froze, anyone know what's up?

 

[Golden Empoleon]

@Gandan @Ninja-Bunny @rigirock: I'm having the same exact problem now and if one of you know please help me out. Thanks :)

 

[PokeHackMon1]

when i import a fenniken picture all is okay and i write to rom when i check the picture it all scrambled up

 

[King Haxxo]

Ok, I'm going to try to address the black screen problem. When you click "Write to Rom" make sure you ALWAYS have "Auto abort if new data is bigger" checked because that will tell you with a pop-up if the new data is bigger.

If enough people need it, I can make a step by step tutorial of how to get rid of black screen.

 

[SidDays]

when i import a fenniken picture all is okay and i write to rom when i check the picture it all scrambled up

You probably wrote a bigger picture with the auto abort checkbox unchecked which has ruined your sprite. You can use Free Space Finder to find free space and repoint the picture to that location. An easier way would be to just use Advanced Sprite Editor or Nameless Sprite Editor 2.x, both have automatic repointing features.