Lunar Magic 1.9 was released, and with it, a brand-new Map16 editor. It far surpasses the old one, and will be of great help to hackers like myself who use Map16 tricks frequently. There are a lot of buttons and a lot of things behave differently, so let's go through what everything does!
1. Reload Map16 data from ROM. This discards all changes you've made since the data was last saved.
2. Save Map16 data to ROM. Self-explanatory; has the same function as F9 from previous versions.
3-4. Undo and redo buttons. You can now fix mistakes without loading the whole ROM in Lunar Magic. This will come in handy for sure.
5. 8x8 editing mode. Lets you select individual 8x8 tiles for editing.
6. Brings up an 8x8 tile selector so you don't have to have the editor open when you're working with 8x8 tiles. Ctrl+right click to paste tiles to Map16 (you need to be in 8x8 editing mode). Also tells you which page the graphics are in (FG1, FG2, BG1, FG3, BG2, BG3).
7. Zoom x2. Enlarges the window twofold so you can see what you're doing.
8. Change pipe tiles to edit. Changes the palette of tiles 133-13A so you can choose which pipe tile you want to edit without using precious Map16 space.
9. Select tiles. Select all FG tiles selects pages 00-3F, and select all BG tiles selects pages 40-7F. Select all tiles does just that.
10. With this on, imported Map16 pages will retain their page number. With it off, they will be pasted over the current visible area.
11-12. Saves and loads, respectively, the current selection of Map16 tiles to a .map16 file.
13-14. Saves and loads, respectively, all of the Map16 data to a .map16 file. It is recommended to save before doing this, because pages 00 and 01 are saved as they are in the ROM, not necessarily the same as what is shown in the Map16 editor.
15. Displays page numbers. Also displays pages in 8x8 tile selector.
16. Toggles a 16x16 grid for easily viewing which tiles are which. The grid covers the rightmost and bottom row of pixels on each tile.
17. Toggles the color to be used for transparency. On, it shows a black-to-blue gradient. Off, it shows the back area color for that level.
18. I actually don't have any idea. If anyone could tell me what this button does, that'd be great. NOTE: The button is currently unused. Thanks K3fka.
19. There is no 19. Stop looking for it, because I know you are.
20. Everything in this box does the same thing as the "Edit 16x16 attributes" menu for the currently selected tile.
21. Allows quick remapping of Map16. Explanation given in-menu.
22. Jumps to the specified page.
Moving, copying, pasting, changing Map16 tiles feels a lot smoother with this new editor. Instead of having to select a tile, change it, and then paste it back over the original, you can just change it after selecting it. You can move tiles by selecting and dragging, and the usual shortcuts work for cutting, copying and pasting. F1 toggles page numbers, F2 saves the current selection of tiles, F3 loads a .map16 file, F8 toggles the grid, and F9 still saves data back to the ROM.
That looks to be about it in this new Map16 editor; let me know if I missed anything. Thanks for reading!
1. Reload Map16 data from ROM. This discards all changes you've made since the data was last saved.
2. Save Map16 data to ROM. Self-explanatory; has the same function as F9 from previous versions.
3-4. Undo and redo buttons. You can now fix mistakes without loading the whole ROM in Lunar Magic. This will come in handy for sure.
5. 8x8 editing mode. Lets you select individual 8x8 tiles for editing.
6. Brings up an 8x8 tile selector so you don't have to have the editor open when you're working with 8x8 tiles. Ctrl+right click to paste tiles to Map16 (you need to be in 8x8 editing mode). Also tells you which page the graphics are in (FG1, FG2, BG1, FG3, BG2, BG3).
7. Zoom x2. Enlarges the window twofold so you can see what you're doing.
8. Change pipe tiles to edit. Changes the palette of tiles 133-13A so you can choose which pipe tile you want to edit without using precious Map16 space.
9. Select tiles. Select all FG tiles selects pages 00-3F, and select all BG tiles selects pages 40-7F. Select all tiles does just that.
10. With this on, imported Map16 pages will retain their page number. With it off, they will be pasted over the current visible area.
11-12. Saves and loads, respectively, the current selection of Map16 tiles to a .map16 file.
13-14. Saves and loads, respectively, all of the Map16 data to a .map16 file. It is recommended to save before doing this, because pages 00 and 01 are saved as they are in the ROM, not necessarily the same as what is shown in the Map16 editor.
15. Displays page numbers. Also displays pages in 8x8 tile selector.
16. Toggles a 16x16 grid for easily viewing which tiles are which. The grid covers the rightmost and bottom row of pixels on each tile.
17. Toggles the color to be used for transparency. On, it shows a black-to-blue gradient. Off, it shows the back area color for that level.
18. I actually don't have any idea. If anyone could tell me what this button does, that'd be great. NOTE: The button is currently unused. Thanks K3fka.
19. There is no 19. Stop looking for it, because I know you are.
20. Everything in this box does the same thing as the "Edit 16x16 attributes" menu for the currently selected tile.
21. Allows quick remapping of Map16. Explanation given in-menu.
22. Jumps to the specified page.
Moving, copying, pasting, changing Map16 tiles feels a lot smoother with this new editor. Instead of having to select a tile, change it, and then paste it back over the original, you can just change it after selecting it. You can move tiles by selecting and dragging, and the usual shortcuts work for cutting, copying and pasting. F1 toggles page numbers, F2 saves the current selection of tiles, F3 loads a .map16 file, F8 toggles the grid, and F9 still saves data back to the ROM.
That looks to be about it in this new Map16 editor; let me know if I missed anything. Thanks for reading!