Can you help with gfx editing?

[1upus]

Hi, I’m working on game translation. All texts is 100% ready, but I can’t find any tools for extracting/injecting gfx for editing. Did you used textirefinder from tools folder? Maybe you can help with some tutorial for gfx? Thx.

[leomontenegro6]

Which version are you trying to translate?

This project is mainly for the DSiWare version. Dealing with graphics on this version is very different than on the PC version. Most of them were edited by romhacking tools such as Tile Molester Mod, and searching for tutorials on Tile Molester usage on rh.net might help.

For the PC version, the one responsible for that is "Julio Cesar", from the Brazilian PC games translations site called Tribogamer. Maybe reaching him would help.

[1upus]

Thanks. I’m working on DSi version. Maybe you have bookmarks for TileMolester? It will be so helpful.

[leomontenegro6]

Well, it's been a while since I translated this game, almost three years. Don't remind all the details regarding DSi graphics editing.

Firstly, a few questions: How are you testing your translation? Are you using a Nintendo DSi, with the ROM in .nds format, running through Twilight Menu++ or similar? Or are you using a Nintendo 3DS, with the game in .cia format, installed on your portable?

Also, how did you manage to edit game texts? Did you use tools such as Tinke or ndstool to unpack/repack the ROM, and then edit the text files directly? Or are you simply opening the ROM with any hexadecimal editors and editing texts from there?

[1upus]

I’m working on dsi rom and testing in on NDSi with twlm++. Text and other data extracting/replacing with Tinke DSi mode. Text edited with autodump tool by MetLob. So, translation is completed. Except graphics. I have some experience with TileMolester, but can’t find palettes.

[leomontenegro6]

Okay. Since you guys are using Tinke DSi mode and know how to extract/insert files from the ROM, it makes things easier.

Firstly, take a look at the files inside the "arquivos_substituir" folder. There are a bunch of files with extensions such as .AN4, .ANM, .TS8, .LYR and .SCN. These are the DSi graphics I extracted from the ROM, edited in Tile Molester, and then inserted back.

Taking the "ALWAYSRUNALERT.AN4" file, for example, you can view it on Tile Molester with the following steps:

1. Open the file in TM;
2. Go to "View" -> "Codec", and choose "4bpp linear, reversed-order";
3. Go to "View", and check the "Tile grid" option (to make it easier to view the tiles);
4. Before editing, you need to reorganize tiles accordingly. You can do that by using the arrow keys, combined with Shift+Up / Shift+Down / Shift+Left / Shift+Right, and also incrementing pixels individually with plus (+) and minus (-) keys. For example, to reorganize the graphic in question, you could do something like this:
   • Shift+Left eight times;
   • Shift+Up nine times;
   • Left six times;
   • Plus 24 times;
5. The resulting image should be something like this:
6. To edit, you need to export it to PNG/BMP, edit on the image editor of your preference (Windows Paint, and Linux KDE's Kolourpaint4, are my favorites), and import it back.
   • To export, select the tiles with your mouse, go to "Edit" -> "Copy To", and select the path/format of the image to export.
   • To import it back, go to "Edit" -> "Apply selection", choose the edited PNG/BMP image, then drag the image to area you want, and finally click outside the selection to apply it.

This should do the trick for simpler images that can be edited without palettes. For more complex ones, I'll provide further instructions later.

[1upus]

Thanks. Will try!