Well, Hi here everyone. It's finally C3 time. Before anything else, I'd like to point out, that I'm most likely gonna edit this post a bit over time, so taking a quick look again now and than might not be so bad.
Enough with that, it's time for the actual tool, that you've all been waiting for (or not... probably not)
I'd like to show off my little tool, that I've been working on for a couple of months now.
It's a tool with which one can create the graphics routine for custom Sprites using an easy to use GUI (Graphical User Interface)
Download
Mirror
FEATURES:
Well, as I said. This tool grants you the possibilety to create the graphics routine as an .asm file for any kind of sprite. That is to say, it doesn't matter how large the sprite is (8x8, 16x16, 32x32, or larger) or if it is a static, simple animated or one with complex animation.
To tool is operated simmiliar to Lunar Magic, you can paste with right click that is.
With the menu, you can enable/disable various settings to your personal liking, save and load your creations as .grc files and of course load paletts (.pal) or GFX files (.bin) to create your sprite with.
The tool creates an .asm file contining the graphics routine with everything needed. You just have to copy the whole code, paste it at the bottom of the .asm file of your sprite and jump to the routine with:
SOME SCREENS:
USAGE:
Simple Sprite
The tool is, as said, fairly easy to use.
Below you can see what it looks like if you open it for the first time.
Well, actually, that's what it'll always look like when opened...
After opening, there isn't much that you can/should do, except either opening an old project () or starting a new one.
Starting a new is probably what you want to do right now, so you just go to "File" and click on "New". Alternatively, you can hit Ctrl+N
You'll be presented with this screen here, asking you to select a name for you sprite, as well as the tilesize
spelling will be fixed
The meaning of the name should be obvoius, the tilesize on the other hand might not be. So just to clear things up. The entire sprite, that is every frame of every animation, can only consist out of tiles having the selected tilesize.
(this might be changed for future updates but for now, you'll have to bear with it.
You can finish the setup by clicking on "Setup sprite"
BE CARFULL ABOUT THE NAME THOUGH!
In this tool, any name you enter will be like that forever, with no hope of later change.
After the setup, this is what the window should look like:
The 3 windows on the right, containing 2 GFX files and the palette, load by themself.
Of course, you can also use the Load GFX/Load Palette button, to load your own files if needed.
The tool itself however can use the 8 default sprite palettes and all the default sprite GFX combinations you'd find under this in lunar magic.
In this tool however, you can simply use the dropbox in the palette section to choose your desired palette or hit in the menu to choose a default GFX combination.
Well, let's leave all the default stuff aside for now. Learning by doing is the fastest was, so let's just make a simple sprite for starters.
click on the lakitu head with the arrow pointing to the right on it . The programm will now ask you, what name you want to give this frame.
AGAIN, YOU CAN'T CHANGE NAMES, SO BE CAREFULL
For now, I'll make the same sprite as Iceguy/Nesquick Bunny in his Sprite Making Tutorial, that is... a blue mushroom.
I know, sounds very complex and interesting
So I'm gonna name my frame "BlueShroom"
Oh, and just in case this isn't clear, a "frame" is the "image" of your sprite, that is visiable at on point in time. (If you don't understand with this, you'll with later examples)
Anyway, after clicking "Create Frame", the frame should be added to your folder (window on the very right) and a tab with the same name should have been created. All in all, it should look like this:
I forgot to extand the "Test" folder with the little "+" symbol
Now, you might not have the grid yet. Just click on this symbol, and it will magicly appear.
This button is actually on of the most important ones. Mimimizing the window or certain other things can cause a few things (such as grid, palette and whatnot) to disappear.
However, one click on this button and they are all back, so keep that in mind.
Looking at the gird, you'll notice, that the centere has a red squere. This squere reprecents the original position of the sprite. It is, where there will be no X or Y displacement added.
The red squere is, where the "X" Sprite will late be (you knwo, the one you get when inserting custom sprites in lunar magic)
Now, how do we get our blue mushroom? Simple!
And e viola, we got our blue mushroom
We are almost done already. The only thing left to do is fix the YXPPCCCT format.
To do this, we simply rightclick and disselct "Use Second GFX Page".
^ To make things clear, you have to UNCHECK IT! I took the picture before clicking on it.
Now, all that's left is to compile our sprite either with the button or by hitting F5, or in the menu.
Depending on what you've set in the Settings, you'll be asked for the path you want the debugged .asm file to be in.
You'll be shown a preview of the code after debugging, you could directly copy it from there or from the created .asm file
Animated Sprite
Making and animated sprite is just as easy.
Following the trent. To show you how to make this, I'm just gonna make a simple Bob-omb. As I said, with this tool simple as well as complex sprites. A Bob-Omb will be enough to teach you the basics and once you know those, everything else is child's play.
Well, enough of the sweet talk, let's get into making it.
For starters, I'm gonna make a new project/sprite and call it Bob_Omb (god look at this creativety)
You already saw how to do this, so I'm not gonna bother with a screenshot for this one, alright?
After this, I'm gonna add two frames (using ), calling one "Walking_Left_1" and the other "Walking_Left_2"
The treeview now looks like this.
Now I'll click on and select "SP3=13, SP4=02 (Forest)"
You'll notice, that the graphics to your left changed to the forest ones.
With the tabs, we can change between editing "Walking_Left_1" and "Walking_Left_2". With what we've learned so far, I inserted the still-standing tile on frame_1 and the walking one on frame_2
It should look like this:
But this isn't animated yet. To get this done, we need to insert an animaton node (using ). After clicking on it, a little dialog will be braught up.
Here you have to enter a name for the animation (again, names can't be changed later on, so be carefull) as well as the frame counter to be used for the animation ($13/$14) and the animationspeed. That is, how long it takes for the next frame to be shown.
I decided to go with the settings you can see in the picture above.
In addition, you can also add some "additional code" which will be executed after the animation has been caried out (that means, after any frame of the animation has been displayed).
This is where ";Hallo" stands. So make sure not to write any garbage in there.
Clicking OK, creates our animation node. Now, all that's left to do is simply drag-drop the two frames into the animation (simply click on the frame, and pull it into the animation node)
Final result should look like this:
And we are done. This is a animated Bob Omb sprite. HOWEVER, it will always look to the left. Unless, you're not bothered by that, we'll have to add a right-walking animation (you probably figured with me anming everything "Left", didn't you).
To do so, we just repeat everything we did so far, except we replace all the "left" with "right".
Now, you might be asking yourself: "How do I make the Bob Omb tiles look to the right though?"
That though, is as simple as it can possibly be. You just rightlick the tile, after pasting it, and select "Flip X".
The end result should look like this:
And the treeview looking like this:
However, we cannot leave it like that. Now, the generated code, would just draw the first frame of the "Walking_Left" animation and than overwrite it with the first frame of the "Walking_Right" animation.
That's why, we'll have to add a condition!
Condition nodes make it so, that whatever frame/animation is under it will only be executed if all the conditions set in it, will be met. This part is the one requiring the most ASM knowledge in the entire tool. But do not worry, it's still not much.
After clicking on the icon, this window will be braught up:
I don't think I need to tell you anything about the condition name. The "RAM/ROM Addresse" part might be of more interest to you though.
In here, you have total freedome of what you're typing. That also means though, that you have to be carefull, not to make any mistakes.
For both, the "addresse" and the "value" you can use whatever you want. You can even use tables.
You might also want to use the logic (AND/ORA) gates. You can include those by checking "Use logic gate before comparing".
The gate will than be used on whatever you've written in the addresse field.
For example, if you have $15 in your addresse field, you could check and select AND #$03 , change the comparator to "!=" (meaning "NOT EQUAL") and see if it's uniqual to #$00
(this would check if the player is pushing left or right on the control pad)
Anyway, for our example we'll just use the same settings as the ones in the picture above.
Now, click on "Add>>" and you'll see, that the conidtion you've just setup will be writte in the "Condition List". Only the conditions written in this list will be checked. So when setting up a condition, never forget to hit the "Add>>" button.
After that you can click OK.
Now we've set up the condtion for the "walking left" animation, hoever we still need the one for the "walking right" one.
So just make a new condition with the same settings as before except:
Now, all that's left to do, is to drag drop the animation into the coresponding condition. The final reult should look like this:
Maybe some shorter names would have been wise
Now, all that's left is to compile with .
And like that, we've finished our animated sprite.
FUTURE PLANS:
If you're curious weather or not there will be any updates for this, than I can answer that with "probably yes".
It depens on how many people are going to use this. I don't really want to bother fixing things and/or adding new features for this if only 4 or 5 people use it at all.
As of now there's just 1.0
MENU
FAQ
No real questions yet
CREDIT:
I actually made the tool entirely myself and with google research.
I guess I'll credit FuSoYa since I took some of the icons from Lunar Magic
yczedit: disabled layout to prevent table stretch
ultiedit: decreased size of images to prevent table stretch (I have a smaller monitor than ycz I guess)
wiiqedit: got rid of width height thing in images. i guess it is something in google chrome.
Enough with that, it's time for the actual tool, that you've all been waiting for (or not... probably not)
I'd like to show off my little tool, that I've been working on for a couple of months now.
It's a tool with which one can create the graphics routine for custom Sprites using an easy to use GUI (Graphical User Interface)
Download
Mirror
FEATURES:
Well, as I said. This tool grants you the possibilety to create the graphics routine as an .asm file for any kind of sprite. That is to say, it doesn't matter how large the sprite is (8x8, 16x16, 32x32, or larger) or if it is a static, simple animated or one with complex animation.
To tool is operated simmiliar to Lunar Magic, you can paste with right click that is.
With the menu, you can enable/disable various settings to your personal liking, save and load your creations as .grc files and of course load paletts (.pal) or GFX files (.bin) to create your sprite with.
The tool creates an .asm file contining the graphics routine with everything needed. You just have to copy the whole code, paste it at the bottom of the .asm file of your sprite and jump to the routine with:
Code
JSR Grapahics
SOME SCREENS:
USAGE:
Simple Sprite
The tool is, as said, fairly easy to use.
Below you can see what it looks like if you open it for the first time.
Well, actually, that's what it'll always look like when opened...
After opening, there isn't much that you can/should do, except either opening an old project () or starting a new one.
Starting a new is probably what you want to do right now, so you just go to "File" and click on "New". Alternatively, you can hit Ctrl+N
You'll be presented with this screen here, asking you to select a name for you sprite, as well as the tilesize
spelling will be fixed
The meaning of the name should be obvoius, the tilesize on the other hand might not be. So just to clear things up. The entire sprite, that is every frame of every animation, can only consist out of tiles having the selected tilesize.
(this might be changed for future updates but for now, you'll have to bear with it.
You can finish the setup by clicking on "Setup sprite"
BE CARFULL ABOUT THE NAME THOUGH!
In this tool, any name you enter will be like that forever, with no hope of later change.
After the setup, this is what the window should look like:
The 3 windows on the right, containing 2 GFX files and the palette, load by themself.
Of course, you can also use the Load GFX/Load Palette button, to load your own files if needed.
The tool itself however can use the 8 default sprite palettes and all the default sprite GFX combinations you'd find under this in lunar magic.
In this tool however, you can simply use the dropbox in the palette section to choose your desired palette or hit in the menu to choose a default GFX combination.
Well, let's leave all the default stuff aside for now. Learning by doing is the fastest was, so let's just make a simple sprite for starters.
click on the lakitu head with the arrow pointing to the right on it . The programm will now ask you, what name you want to give this frame.
AGAIN, YOU CAN'T CHANGE NAMES, SO BE CAREFULL
For now, I'll make the same sprite as Iceguy/Nesquick Bunny in his Sprite Making Tutorial, that is... a blue mushroom.
I know, sounds very complex and interesting
So I'm gonna name my frame "BlueShroom"
Oh, and just in case this isn't clear, a "frame" is the "image" of your sprite, that is visiable at on point in time. (If you don't understand with this, you'll with later examples)
Anyway, after clicking "Create Frame", the frame should be added to your folder (window on the very right) and a tab with the same name should have been created. All in all, it should look like this:
I forgot to extand the "Test" folder with the little "+" symbol
Now, you might not have the grid yet. Just click on this symbol, and it will magicly appear.
This button is actually on of the most important ones. Mimimizing the window or certain other things can cause a few things (such as grid, palette and whatnot) to disappear.
However, one click on this button and they are all back, so keep that in mind.
Looking at the gird, you'll notice, that the centere has a red squere. This squere reprecents the original position of the sprite. It is, where there will be no X or Y displacement added.
The red squere is, where the "X" Sprite will late be (you knwo, the one you get when inserting custom sprites in lunar magic)
Now, how do we get our blue mushroom? Simple!
- Just go to the groupbox labeled "Sprite GFX SP1/SP3"
- select "Palette 3" from the dropbox
- left-click on the left-upper (8x8) corner of the mushroom (it should now be surounded by a red squere)
- make a right-click in the center of our editing window, where our tile should be placed
And e viola, we got our blue mushroom
We are almost done already. The only thing left to do is fix the YXPPCCCT format.
To do this, we simply rightclick and disselct "Use Second GFX Page".
^ To make things clear, you have to UNCHECK IT! I took the picture before clicking on it.
Now, all that's left is to compile our sprite either with the button or by hitting F5, or in the menu.
Depending on what you've set in the Settings, you'll be asked for the path you want the debugged .asm file to be in.
You'll be shown a preview of the code after debugging, you could directly copy it from there or from the created .asm file
Animated Sprite
Making and animated sprite is just as easy.
Following the trent. To show you how to make this, I'm just gonna make a simple Bob-omb. As I said, with this tool simple as well as complex sprites. A Bob-Omb will be enough to teach you the basics and once you know those, everything else is child's play.
Well, enough of the sweet talk, let's get into making it.
For starters, I'm gonna make a new project/sprite and call it Bob_Omb (god look at this creativety)
You already saw how to do this, so I'm not gonna bother with a screenshot for this one, alright?
After this, I'm gonna add two frames (using ), calling one "Walking_Left_1" and the other "Walking_Left_2"
The treeview now looks like this.
Now I'll click on and select "SP3=13, SP4=02 (Forest)"
You'll notice, that the graphics to your left changed to the forest ones.
With the tabs, we can change between editing "Walking_Left_1" and "Walking_Left_2". With what we've learned so far, I inserted the still-standing tile on frame_1 and the walking one on frame_2
It should look like this:
But this isn't animated yet. To get this done, we need to insert an animaton node (using ). After clicking on it, a little dialog will be braught up.
Here you have to enter a name for the animation (again, names can't be changed later on, so be carefull) as well as the frame counter to be used for the animation ($13/$14) and the animationspeed. That is, how long it takes for the next frame to be shown.
I decided to go with the settings you can see in the picture above.
In addition, you can also add some "additional code" which will be executed after the animation has been caried out (that means, after any frame of the animation has been displayed).
This is where ";Hallo" stands. So make sure not to write any garbage in there.
Clicking OK, creates our animation node. Now, all that's left to do is simply drag-drop the two frames into the animation (simply click on the frame, and pull it into the animation node)
Final result should look like this:
And we are done. This is a animated Bob Omb sprite. HOWEVER, it will always look to the left. Unless, you're not bothered by that, we'll have to add a right-walking animation (you probably figured with me anming everything "Left", didn't you).
To do so, we just repeat everything we did so far, except we replace all the "left" with "right".
Now, you might be asking yourself: "How do I make the Bob Omb tiles look to the right though?"
That though, is as simple as it can possibly be. You just rightlick the tile, after pasting it, and select "Flip X".
The end result should look like this:
And the treeview looking like this:
However, we cannot leave it like that. Now, the generated code, would just draw the first frame of the "Walking_Left" animation and than overwrite it with the first frame of the "Walking_Right" animation.
That's why, we'll have to add a condition!
Condition nodes make it so, that whatever frame/animation is under it will only be executed if all the conditions set in it, will be met. This part is the one requiring the most ASM knowledge in the entire tool. But do not worry, it's still not much.
After clicking on the icon, this window will be braught up:
I don't think I need to tell you anything about the condition name. The "RAM/ROM Addresse" part might be of more interest to you though.
In here, you have total freedome of what you're typing. That also means though, that you have to be carefull, not to make any mistakes.
For both, the "addresse" and the "value" you can use whatever you want. You can even use tables.
You might also want to use the logic (AND/ORA) gates. You can include those by checking "Use logic gate before comparing".
The gate will than be used on whatever you've written in the addresse field.
For example, if you have $15 in your addresse field, you could check and select AND #$03 , change the comparator to "!=" (meaning "NOT EQUAL") and see if it's uniqual to #$00
(this would check if the player is pushing left or right on the control pad)
Anyway, for our example we'll just use the same settings as the ones in the picture above.
Now, click on "Add>>" and you'll see, that the conidtion you've just setup will be writte in the "Condition List". Only the conditions written in this list will be checked. So when setting up a condition, never forget to hit the "Add>>" button.
After that you can click OK.
Now we've set up the condtion for the "walking left" animation, hoever we still need the one for the "walking right" one.
So just make a new condition with the same settings as before except:
- A different name (that's a given isn't it)
- set the comperator to "=" instead of "!="
- And don't forget the "Add>>" button
Now, all that's left to do, is to drag drop the animation into the coresponding condition. The final reult should look like this:
Maybe some shorter names would have been wise
Now, all that's left is to compile with .
And like that, we've finished our animated sprite.
FUTURE PLANS:
If you're curious weather or not there will be any updates for this, than I can answer that with "probably yes".
It depens on how many people are going to use this. I don't really want to bother fixing things and/or adding new features for this if only 4 or 5 people use it at all.
As of now there's just 1.0
MENU
Main Menu | |
Open a saved project by loading a .grc file (duh) | |
Save your project as .grc file (even more duh) | |
Refresh/Reloade everything (this one is important!!!) | |
Change the current grid size | |
Hide all selected tiles (makes them invisible and they can no longer be moved or deleted | |
Unhide one or more tiles. Displays a list of all tiles currently marked as hidden. You can select one or more tiles to unhide from this list. | |
Unhides ALL hidden tiles | |
Delete all selected tiles FOREVER! | |
Change the backcolor of the working area | |
Load a combinaten of GFX like in Lunar Magic | |
Debug the project and create the asm code for the graphics routine | |
A little "About", not that important | |
Side Menu | |
Add a Frame-Node | |
Add an Animation-Node. Makes all the frames underneath it to an animation. | |
Add a Condition-Node You can set which RAM-Adresses need to have certain values for the frame or animation underneath it to be displayed | |
Move the selected node in the tree-view up once | |
Move the selected node in the tree-view down once | |
Delete all selected nodes and the nodes under the selected one FOREVER! |
FAQ
Question | Answer |
Will it blend? | Probably not, unless you throw in your harddrive, than maybe |
No real questions yet
CREDIT:
I actually made the tool entirely myself and with google research.
I guess I'll credit FuSoYa since I took some of the icons from Lunar Magic
yczedit: disabled layout to prevent table stretch
ultiedit: decreased size of images to prevent table stretch (I have a smaller monitor than ycz I guess)
wiiqedit: got rid of width height thing in images. i guess it is something in google chrome.