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Advanced Palette Editing Guide
Topic Started: May 27 2009, 07:26 PM (4,017 Views)
Agro
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Programmer!

From MegaRock.exe's permission, he told me that I can remake the Advanced Palette Hacking Guide so I will do it.

Let's get started!

So, why don't we start with what we need? We need the following tools:

Visual Boy Advance
Advanced Palette Editor also know as APE and
A ROM to palette hack

Do you have those? Good, now why don't we start by opening up Visual Boy Advance(VBA). Now go and load your ROM you feel like editing. For this guide, we will be using MegaMan Battle Network 6 Falzar.

So open that ROM up. Now, would you go to somewhere on the Real World? Or on the Net.

Well, for palette hacking, we can't use Memory Viewer. Memory Viewer is to edit values within the ROM. Palette Hacking is used to edit colors of sprites, background, and designs you see, but not edit them; changing the colors of them.

So, if we are not using Memory Viewer, what will we be using?
Go to Tools and view all the Tools. We will be using:

- Palette Viewer
- OAM Viewer
- Map Viewer
- Tile Viewer


Make a text box come up now. Open up Map Viewer at this point. If you see on BG1, it has a text box like the one you have on the screen. View the other BG's to understand what BG's are for. Now click on the blue part of the Text Box. Those are the colors we will be editing.

Now take that aside and look at OAM Viewer. OAM Viewer is used to view smaller sprites like the Navi and the PET. Now go to Tile Viewer. That is the hardest way to get BG's palette. So never use that to find palettes. Now go to Palette Viewer. This is what we will be using to write the palette of what you are editing into APE.

Now go back to Map Viewer and click on the Blue Part of the Text Box. Now you see some black, some white, some light blue, and some dark blue. Those are the colors that make up the text box's palette. Now in the box with the grids, click on the dark blue.

You can see that it's RGB is:

Code:
 
R = 1
G = 13
B = 24


If you can't understand that, here's an image of the RGB outlined in red:

Posted Image

Now look that the RGB of the light blue. Here's and image of it outlined in red:

Posted Image

Okay and there is black so you know black will always be 000. There can be other kinds of it so always double check.

Now we have to find the palette of it in palette viewer. Open up palette viewer from the Tools dropdown list. Now, I'll give you guys a first time break and I'll show you the palette. It's at the very bottom of the BAckGrounds. I know there is Red and Gray but since there are only few colors they had to put that in.

The palette is over here outlined in red:

Posted Image

Now you guys have to open up APE, what you have been waiting for! Open it up! It should look like this:

Posted Image

Now open up your ROM you are editing. Got that? Now you see at the top of it there is to options?
Switch it to Load by searching. Got that? Now we will be writing the palette into the game.

Go back to palette viewer in VBA. You see at the beginning the color is black? Look at the value for black. It is 0000. So in the first box put 0000. IT should look like this:

Posted Image


Now I want to note now that the values on palette viewer are kind of wrong. Not that wrong but you need to switch something around. Go to the next color. The value is 7BFE. So you need to switch the first to values with the last 2 values. So when you insert 7BFE in APE you should actually type in FE7B. You get it? Now look at this image:

Posted Image

Now finish writing that row of palettes in to APE.


Now are you done? Okay press the Search button. You got an offset didn't you? If you didn't you entered the palette wrong. So back and fix it if you did.

Now you see at the right side of where you put the palette? There are some buttons. Click on the one that has the arrow pointing to the right which is export(save). You got that? Now switch the option to Load by offset.

Now you have that in. Now in the second place, click the button that has the arrow to the right.
Select the file you just saved. Now it is there right? Now you want to edit the blue part of the text box right? Okay go to Tools-> Color Picker. Now I will go to a Green Color for mine. Let's see.

Now I've got my Color. You see where it says GBA? Mine is 430E. That is the value we will be using. But don't go on Yet! The GBA Value in Color Picker is already switched around so instead of the dark blue which is A161, put 430E in place of that. Now for the light blue. I picked 830D. So instead of E97A, put 830D. Now this is what APE should look like by now:

Posted Image

Now on APE click the Save button. Reload your ROM on VBA and it should look like this:

Posted Image

So now you guys have palette hacked your first time! I hope this is useful for you guys and you will be able to edit almost every sprite's color in the game!

Have fun!
Edited by Agro, Jun 12 2009, 02:02 PM.
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timaeus222
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The Tech Guy
There's an easier way to obtain colors. Instead of flipping the hex value, you can...

USE TEH EYE DROPPAR TOOL!

XD
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Agro
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Wow, that's kind of cool.
So anyone else think of this topic?
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Hakairyu
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The name is Kidink. Coin Kidink.

well, is the ape offsets topic is also deleted, if not, it'd be better to put a link
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ThyGamePlaya
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I can put all of my APE addresses, BUT they're for Gregar.
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Megaboy08
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We Need Ape Offsets from every game, some prefer gregar and not falzar, So Post them Please.
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Agro
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Programmer!

I will remake it and it is not only for Falzar, but Gregar.
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Megaboy08
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I didn't mean that, I meant for the Addresses not for the guide.
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ThyGamePlaya
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Hold on, I'll make a notepad with all the addresses, this may take some days.
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MegaRockEXE
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BN Guides Author

I should have told you how to use palette files to search with. I'll re-explain that soon.
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Agro
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Oh yes MegaRock.
In one of the PM's from me and you on YouTube, you explained that to me.
I'll add it tomorrow.
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ThyGamePlaya
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mega rock.exe
Jun 10 2009, 08:40 PM
I should have told you how to use palette files to search with. I'll re-explain that soon.
If it involves importing/exporting the palettes into .gpl files, that could take me even longer because I never did that to any of the addresses. I'll see if I can do that.

Also, can I put my bookmark so that people can download it?
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Hakairyu
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The name is Kidink. Coin Kidink.

while i was editing the battlefield, i found that some palettes have changing colours, (i clicked to auto-update). So how can i find the offset? In sanctuary it seems like there are every color.
Hakairyu: Why did the whale cross the road?
----------/
---------\
-(\__/)/
(+'.'-/+) I was told to put this bunny in my sig. I did so, after putting a sword through it.
(")_/(")
---/
HvK: To get to the other tide!
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BladeCrossEXE
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TREZian
how do i put this where a sprite was removed? *django was removed from the english version) if i have the sprite sheet, could i just import it there?
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Agro
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Programmer!

and tehn you could APE it.
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BladeCrossEXE
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TREZian
i've made the pallette, and i opened django's oam in ape.....i just can't get it to replce.
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Agro
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You have to get Django's palette, get the colors you want and replace in APE.
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BladeCrossEXE
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yeah...looks like mah plan won't work....
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Agro
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It's pretty easy. Just make it permanent. That's why it won't come up.
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BladeCrossEXE
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TREZian
no i mean i was gonna make Sabata from Boktai 1 a DMP, but if i color mod Django's hair, itll do the skin too. oh well. Hey, how do i find the Sprite's value? I did the Text box no prob, but i'm trying to do megaman to start, and i found his pallette, but it says "Invalid Pallette"
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