Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Advance Palette Hacking Tutorial; Editing GBA Palettes ~
Topic Started: Sep 29 2007, 02:02 PM (9,950 Views)
SerenadeDS
No Avatar


.::Advance Palette Hacking Guide::.

I. :Intro:
- Welcome to the Advance Palette Hacking Guide by me, SerenadeDS. With this guide, you will learn how to change the Palettes (AKA Colors) of any GBA Rom. For this tutorial, I will be going step by step showing you how to change the colors of the Text Box in MegaMan Battle Network 6.

II. :Resources / Downloads:
- Here are some things you'll want to change Palettes...

~ APE Offsets List
~ Visual Boy Advance
~ Advance Palette Editor

III. :Teh Guide:
- Okay, to start this guide off, you'll need to open your VBA and load the ROM you would like to edit. Since I am going to editing MegaMan BN 6 Gregar, I will load it up.

~ Important Note: Whenever you want to edit the Palette of something, you must be at that point in the game so you can bring up the Palettes in the VBA.

- First, press the L shoulder button to bring up the Text Box. Like this:

Posted Image
Screen 1: Bringing up the Text Box

- Before we go any further, I wanna make sure you're caught up. So read the next three paragraphs for some useful info if you do not know much about this.

- Basically, the first thing you need to remember is that all graphics in any game are divided into two parts; Maps and Sprites. These both have their own section in the emulator's "Tools" option. So, Maps should be viewed with the Map Viewer, while Sprites with the OAM Viewer. Also, we will require the use of the Palette Viewer as well.

- So, the idea is, if we want to change Palettes in a "Map", then we'd need the Map Viewer and the Palette Viewer, and if we want to change Palettes of a sprite, then we'd need the OAM Viewer and the Palette Viewer.

- But, what is considered a "Map"? It's just all the backgrounds and all the tiles in the game, while the Sprites are all the graphical effects on the maps.

- Get it? It's very simple. Let's keep this tutorial rolling..

- After bringing up the Text Box, in the VBA, goto Tools > Map Viewer. Since the Text Box is a part of the Maps.

- The backgrounds have many levels, with different components in each level, so search through the BG levels to find what we are looking for.

- Look! The Text Box is BG0! Check out BG1 - BG3 if you want to, so you can get a better idea of what "Maps" are.

Posted Image
Screen 2. I found the Map I want to modifiy at BG0

- All you need to do now is click on the area that has the palette you want to modified, this will make the area appear in the panel down-left. Now click in one of the pixels (the one that has the color you want to modified), and this will fill the panel down-right with the color we want to change and will give us the one important thing: It's RGB value.

Posted Image
Screen 3. After clicking around we get all this info, but the RGB value is what we are looking for.

- Once we have the RGB values, then we switch to the Palette Viewer, and we look in the "Backgrounds" section, because we are modifying a "Map". Then we look for our RGB colors.

Posted Image
Screen 4. We found it, and the important value to get is that hex value 0x7AE9

- Now its time to open APE. Open it, and load the Rom your editing. Click on the button that says "Load by Searching". Then, Enter ALL of the numbers, from the same Line/Palette in order into APE. YOU HAVE TO SWAP ALL THE VALUES BECAUSE THEY ARE IN HEX. For example: 61A1-Swapped-A161. Swapping is taking the last 2 numbers, and putting them in front. So, after swapping the numbers, and inserting them, they should look like this.

Posted Image
Screen 5. Insert all the Hex numbers after swapping

- Now its time to hit the search button. Hit the search button, you will then see an offset appear in the Offset [Hex] box. Now change the little button to "Load from Offset" Next, you will see a group of five buttons next to the Pallet. Click the one that says "Export Palette" Then, below that, on the Changed Palette, load up the palette you just exported. After everything, it should look like this:

Posted Image
Screen 6. After Loading the palette you exported

- Now, goto Tools > Color Picker in APE. Wow! Look at all these colors to pick from! For this guide, I will make the Text Box Green. So I goto the Green section, and find the color that I want. I pick a darker green because it will go into the darker slot of the changed palette. Now, down in the bottom-right hand corner will be a thing that say "GBA 4816" That number after GBA is Hex vaule of the color we picked. The numbers are ALREADY SWAPPED. So now, you copy and paste that color over the color that we wanna replace! Put them in the Changed Palette section. Like this:

Posted Image
Screen 7. Replacing the colors of the palette O:

- Finally, click the "Replace button" in the top-right corner. Thats it! You've changed the palette! *woot* So, close the VBA and reload it. Resetting it won't work. So, reload the game and take a look. The Palette has been changed!

Posted Image ---------> Posted Image
Screen 8. The Palette has been changed! Look!


V. :Credits:
- Well, here is the guide to Palette Hacking. This will take you far and give your hack a custom look! Palette Editing may be frustating at first, but you should be able to get the hang of it. Well, I hope you all enjoy this guide. It doesn't matter if your a Beginner or a Expert Hacker, I'm sure APE will come in handy. So, enjoy! =D
Profile
Quote
 
MegaBassFalzar
No Avatar
Dedicated Member
O.o

AWESOME.

So... Is it basically the same for sprites?
Posted Image

Mmhmm.
Profile
Quote
 
SerenadeDS
No Avatar


Well, sorta. You have to use the Oam Viewer to find the Sprite, then on the Palette Viewer, look for the colors on the sprites side. Then its pretty straight forward...
Profile
Quote
 
ShadowCross.exe
Member Avatar
Regular Member
the Advance Pallet Editor link dosnt work -.-
Posted Image
Posted Image
Profile
Quote
 
SerenadeDS
No Avatar


ShadowCross.exe,Sep 29 2007
02:57 PM
the Advance Pallet Editor link dosnt work -.-

That's weird, I tried it like 3 times and it worked.. but then it stop working. >_>

Well, I just fixed the link, try it again.
Profile
Quote
 
ShadowCross.exe
Member Avatar
Regular Member
hèy how could i find out the digits for map recolur central Area cause i written down the light blue colur + the value but i dont know how to put it in 4 digits (meaning for Actual pallettes)
R:0
G:31
B:1
Value:0x07E0
Posted Image
Posted Image
Profile
Quote
 
SerenadeDS
No Avatar


ShadowCross.exe
Sep 29 2007, 05:35 PM
hèy how could i find out the digits for map recolur central Area cause i written down the light blue colur + the value but i dont know how to put it in 4 digits (meaning for Actual pallettes)
R:0
G:31
B:1
Value:0x07E0

Did you swap it? The Hex Vaule? 07E0 = E007.
Profile
Quote
 
ShadowCross.exe
Member Avatar
Regular Member
How Do I Swap It>Never Mind i Got it Thnxs For the Guide :D
Posted Image
Posted Image
Profile
Quote
 
SerenadeDS
No Avatar


ShadowCross.exe
Sep 29 2007, 07:30 PM
How Do I Swap It

*sign* :Cry:

READ THE GUIDE!! It tells you in there. Its not that hard to do..
Profile
Quote
 
ShadowCross.exe
Member Avatar
Regular Member
Yea Dont worry i Got it
Posted Image
Posted Image
Profile
Quote
 
MegaRockEXE
Member Avatar
BN Guides Author

You don't have to close VBA. Just push Ctrl+F1 to reload your game.

Also, how do you load the offsets? They never get me anywhere.
The Rockman EXE Zone | YouTube
Profile
Quote
 
Mgamerz
Member Avatar
The ShoutBox King

I save my palette, but then when I try to load, nothing is there.
Edit: Apparently it does not export it with a file extension, so I have to manually tack mine on. Also, after I reloaded it, everything was 0000.
Edit: Strange, you can't save 2 palettes in the same session to the same directory.
My first palette edit:
Posted Image
This is a great guide with pictures, except a few noticeable spelling errors.
I run a Mass Effect 3 modding site named ME3Tweaks.com that details how to mod ME3 as well as showcasing mods for the multiplayer aspect of the game. I also developed a mod manager utility as well as an online mod creation tool named ModMaker.
Profile
Quote
 
SerenadeDS
No Avatar


Yea, well I will try to fix the spelling errors. Nice Job on changing the Palettes Mgamerz. It's not that hard once you get a hang of things.
Profile
Quote
 
Mgamerz
Member Avatar
The ShoutBox King

Yeah, It's pain though, because I don't know how the yellow is drawn in the customscreen for a darkchip. I searched it, and couldn't find it. I also couldn't find the palette for stepsword (It's a Sprite of a huge picture of chip images, In chip hacking guide you'll see)
I run a Mass Effect 3 modding site named ME3Tweaks.com that details how to mod ME3 as well as showcasing mods for the multiplayer aspect of the game. I also developed a mod manager utility as well as an online mod creation tool named ModMaker.
Profile
Quote
 
MegaRockEXE
Member Avatar
BN Guides Author

So, how would I actually use the offsets? They don't take me anywhere, so it kind of defeats the whole purpose of saving these numbers if I am going to have to type in all 16 colors every time.
The Rockman EXE Zone | YouTube
Profile
Quote
 
Mgamerz
Member Avatar
The ShoutBox King

You don't. Just put in like the first 5, and if only 1 comes back, check to make sure it works. Did I just beat MR at hacking something (0_0)?
Posted Image
LEGENDARY
I run a Mass Effect 3 modding site named ME3Tweaks.com that details how to mod ME3 as well as showcasing mods for the multiplayer aspect of the game. I also developed a mod manager utility as well as an online mod creation tool named ModMaker.
Profile
Quote
 
MegaRockEXE
Member Avatar
BN Guides Author

No, I just thought there would be a shortcut for offsets found.
I'm not as open when I don't post enough videos, huh? That's what happens with a 1 month delay.
The Rockman EXE Zone | YouTube
Profile
Quote
 
Souljah001
Member Avatar
Dedicated Member
For some reason, APE won't let me open the damn ROM, what do I have to do so that it will open?
Posted ImagePosted Image
Quote:
 

One time, 4 people called Everybody, Nobody, Anybody, & Somebody were faced with a problem.  It affected Everybody and Anybody could have solved it, but Nobody did anything about it.  Eventually, Somebody got upset and tried to convice Everybody that there was a serious problem.  But Nobody listened and after a while Everybody was affected. Soon after, Somebody asked if Anybody was going to do something about the issue, but again, Nobody cared and Everybody lost something dear to them.  The final time the the problem occured, Somebody got really mad and did the thing that Anybody could have done but Nobody actually did, even though it affected Everybody.
Profile
Quote
 
SerenadeDS
No Avatar


You must have a MAC! *dies* Just kidding..

I dunno why, could you be more specifc? I think it does open the rom, you just dont know. When you open "teh rom" it should look like this:

Posted Image

Look and see the Code of the rom and see if you loaded it.

Profile
Quote
 
Souljah001
Member Avatar
Dedicated Member
When I'm browsing for it on my comp, it won't let me open the ROM
Posted ImagePosted Image
Quote:
 

One time, 4 people called Everybody, Nobody, Anybody, & Somebody were faced with a problem.  It affected Everybody and Anybody could have solved it, but Nobody did anything about it.  Eventually, Somebody got upset and tried to convice Everybody that there was a serious problem.  But Nobody listened and after a while Everybody was affected. Soon after, Somebody asked if Anybody was going to do something about the issue, but again, Nobody cared and Everybody lost something dear to them.  The final time the the problem occured, Somebody got really mad and did the thing that Anybody could have done but Nobody actually did, even though it affected Everybody.
Profile
Quote
 
1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
Go to Next Page
« Previous Topic · Off-Topic · Next Topic »