Topic: Graphics Edits Showcase (Link's Awakening Font patch released)

[Bahamut ZERO]

I figure since it's been awhile since I mentioned I'd throw up the older things as patches that I actually start doing so lol.


Though... I notice I haven't really put up quite as much graphics up as I thought I have, since half of them are like, ONE changed thing on a tileset (like the Stalagmite and the Sealed Cave Coffin Chests) so I might wait a bit before making patches for those (since there are also other things I want to change in those two tilesets, but haven't really had the free time to do so.


But today what I DO have for today is a patch ready for the first graphic I threw up on the thread - The blimp styled airship I made from scratch over the Enterprise!

What the patch does:

1) Changes the Enterprise and the Red Wings into Blimp styled airships with propellers. This bad boy was made pixel-by-pixel and if my avatar is still the pic of it then you know what it looks like. ;D



2) Changes the "shrinky" versions of it (seen when you fly by it in in another vehicle in the sky) to reflect the new styling.

3) Changes the Enterprise's Hookclaw attachment gained after completing the first Underworld segment to a large magnet-type replacement. I did this after realizing that the Hook itself is ALWAYS hidden behind the airship and was always halfway showing on this new airship. It still has a tether, so it looks as natural (hell, a little more natural in my opinion) as before.


As always, use an unheadered v1.1 rom. Like the other patches it should patch cleanly to any WIP project or hack you play! 

[Bahamut ZERO]

Well, made a bit of progress on the Town Tileset. Not enough to warrant slapping up a screenshot, as a lot of it was planning how I want to go through and change up the roofing style (slanted roofs like the buildings in FF5 and FF6). From the looks of things the new roof tiles will be brown instead of white (as the brown palette is the only one I notice has a version with a grey color, and another version with green). I just need a firmer grasp on the Tile Properties table (mainly, how it picks which 8x8 tile to use) work on this should jump immensely.

[chillyfeez]

I've played around with that a bit, BZ. I'm off work tomorrow, so I'll try to get all the info together for you then.
It's kind of a weird process, making a tileset tile use other 8x8 tiles, but it's not difficult once you get the hang of it.

[Gedankenschild]

Be careful here guys. It's very easy to get into misunderstandings when talking about all these tables. Are we working with the terms set up by the FF4 hacking document?
What Yousei describes as the "Tile Properties table" has nothing to do with 8x8 tiles. It assigns properties to the already formed 16x16 map tiles.
It's the "Tile Formation table" that decides which 8x8 tiles make up the map tiles. That's the one I described below:

http://slickproductions.org/forum/index.php?topic=2062.msg23305#msg23305

I mentioned the Tile Properties Table to you, BZ, when you asked me something on RHDN. (I also asked you a question in return, which you never answered.)

[Bahamut ZERO]

Be careful here guys. It's very easy to get into misunderstandings when talking about all these tables. Are we working with the terms set up by the FF4 hacking document?
What Yousei describes as the "Tile Properties table" has nothing to do with 8x8 tiles. It assigns properties to the already formed 16x16 map tiles.
It's the "Tile Formation table" that decides which 8x8 tiles make up the map tiles. That's the one I described below:

http://slickproductions.org/forum/index.php?topic=2062.msg23305#msg23305

I mentioned the Tile Properties Table to you, BZ, when you asked me something on RHDN. (I also asked you a question in return, which you never answered.)

Oh shit, I didn't see that reply on RHDN!  Yes, I was talking about the Tile Formation table you shared some information with me before in the thread you linked in your post.

I've gotten the hang of tweaking the second byte (which dictactes the palette/tile orientation/etc), but I'm still curious how the first byte dictates what 8x8 tile is being used. How does that process work?

I should also recheck your RHDN thread in case my oblivious ass missed any of your other replies hahaha. 

I've played around with that a bit, BZ. I'm off work tomorrow, so I'll try to get all the info together for you then.
It's kind of a weird process, making a tileset tile use other 8x8 tiles, but it's not difficult once you get the hang of it.

Woah! Do you mean you can have a tileset use graphics from one of the other tilesets!? Sounds like very interesting info!

[Gedankenschild]

No big deal, it's not like I went into a lengthy explanation or something.

The answer to your question is actually there in that post. You probably overlooked it because you figured it would be more complicated. The first byte simply gives the hex number of the 8x8 tile in the tileset. As in 00 being the first, 01 being the second. Take another look at the pics I posted. We were talking about the save point. The first bytes are F6, F7, F8, F9. Count through the tilset until you arrive at the save point tiles.

Woah! Do you mean you can have a tileset use graphics from one of the other tilesets!? Sounds like very interesting info!

You can't freely use whatever tiles you want, I don't think that's what he meant.
However: The game loads a standard of (I think) 384 tiles into VRAM. Most tileset are smaller than that (Tower/Big Whale being the exception). As a result the beginning of the next set is usually loaded as well.

[chillyfeez]

Yeah, what Gedanknschild said. Also, bear in mind that you're still at the mercy of the palettes, so you might be able to put house tiles in a cave (for example, I don't know for sure), but they'd still be cave-colored.

I didn't even notice that BZ called it "tile properties." Those (minus the world map tile properties) are editable with FF4kster now, so I was pretty sure that wasn't what he was talking about.

[Bahamut ZERO]

Yeah, what Gedanknschild said. Also, bear in mind that you're still at the mercy of the palettes, so you might be able to put house tiles in a cave (for example, I don't know for sure), but they'd still be cave-colored.

Actually, that also interests me a good bit. There's been more than one occasion where I've wanted to do just that so I wouldn't have to copy n' paste graphics in YYCHR and waste space. :)


The other day I looked at the House tileset and noticed it had more than half a dozen tiles made up of the top 2 8x8 squares used for the stove graphic, in a blue palette. I started analyzing the graphics to see what I could Frankenstein into new things, but there isn't a whole lot I can work with.  Being able to use graphics from, say the Castle Interior tileset, would be quite awesome!

[chillyfeez]

I actually looked into it this past week - I was turning one of those blue stovetop tiles into a special floor tile that NPCs can't walk on (interesting info: NPCs won't step on a "bridge layer" tile) - so since I was already halfway there I played around with it a bit. Gedankenschild is absolutely right - 384 tiles are loaded into VRAM, which means you can use essentially half a tile sheet more than what is typically used by default by any tileset. It doesn't allow for too many possibilities, really, but if you look hard enough you might find a gem or two.

[Bahamut ZERO]

I actually looked into it this past week - I was turning one of those blue stovetop tiles into a special floor tile that NPCs can't walk on (interesting info: NPCs won't step on a "bridge layer" tile) - so since I was already halfway there I played around with it a bit. Gedankenschild is absolutely right - 384 tiles are loaded into VRAM, which means you can use essentially half a tile sheet more than what is typically used by default by any tileset. It doesn't allow for too many possibilities, really, but if you look hard enough you might find a gem or two.

Oh boy! That's good to know. :D And great idea with the special floor tile that NPC's can't walk on - that'll give the ability to basically  have custom npc paths in a sense!


So.... totally got sidetracked again, and decided to play around with the Twins' NPC sprites. Basically I'm trying to make them not look like Fat Velmas (smaller/slimmer bodies, and eyes that don't remind me of Velma's glasses from Scooby-Doo).


To speed up the process and give myself an idea of what I'll be working with, I'm  essentially cutting and pasting Palom's head onto the Little Boy NPC's body and giving it a cape. So far I've got the down facing pose done and it doesn't look half bad, minus Palom's head looking a bit big on the body.

These damn Velmas are gonna get whipped into shape!

[chillyfeez]

That does look quite a bit better.
I think their chubbiness bothered me, too, but I never gave it much thought.
Nice work!

[Grimoire LD]

I actually looked into it this past week - I was turning one of those blue stovetop tiles into a special floor tile that NPCs can't walk on (interesting info: NPCs won't step on a "bridge layer" tile) - so since I was already halfway there I played around with it a bit. Gedankenschild is absolutely right - 384 tiles are loaded into VRAM, which means you can use essentially half a tile sheet more than what is typically used by default by any tileset. It doesn't allow for too many possibilities, really, but if you look hard enough you might find a gem or two.

Oh boy! That's good to know. :D And great idea with the special floor tile that NPC's can't walk on - that'll give the ability to basically  have custom npc paths in a sense!


So.... totally got sidetracked again, and decided to play around with the Twins' NPC sprites. Basically I'm trying to make them not look like Fat Velmas (smaller/slimmer bodies, and eyes that don't remind me of Velma's glasses from Scooby-Doo).


To speed up the process and give myself an idea of what I'll be working with, I'm  essentially cutting and pasting Palom's head onto the Little Boy NPC's body and giving it a cape. So far I've got the down facing pose done and it doesn't look half bad, minus Palom's head looking a bit big on the body.

These damn Velmas are gonna get whipped into shape!

That does look much better. They clearly were never intended to look so disproportionate... don't tell that to the guy who made their American concept art (the worst Concept Art, of All Time!!)



*shiver*

[chillyfeez]

Oh, wow. It's like a cross between Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum and something straight out of a nightmare.
And I'm really, truly sorry to point this out, but what's with the bulge in the pants of the one I must assume is Palom? Not only is is unnecessary regardless, but he's FIVE.

[Grimoire LD]

An LPer thinks that Katsuya Terada didn't even really try here and likely only had the sprites for reference (clearly not the battle sprites! Likely didn't even have genders available to him). I do have to give him credit where its due though...




The things he gets right on a portrayal of Edward are actually rather telling. My favorite part is the bevy of potions he has wrapped around him, almost definitely a clear reference to the cut Salve command. But... that's about all he gets right. Everything else is kind of silly... at best.

[Bahamut ZERO]

Photoshop some Velma heads on that Twins concept art and you get a good idea of what I see when I look at their sprites lmfao.


Spent a good chunk of free time yesterday playing around with graphics (a recurring trend lately) and began poking around in the graphics for Final Fantasy Legend 3. Not a whole lot of it came of it, other than finding out I can easily convert and colorize game boy graphics lol. Hell I might use some of the town tile graphics form that as a reference to how i'm gonna go about the house changes I wanna do in FU ReMIX.

I also found out it's as easy as copy and pasting when it comes to using some parts of FFL3's font too! I found that the numbers in FFL3 fit in nicely with my skinny font in FU. I also ported the FU font to FFl3, and looks pretty badass!

Also finished up the sprites for Palom and Porom, so I'll throw up screens!