Originally posted by smwedit at edit board

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Programs:
Lunar Magic
Paint Shop Pro 3.11
IrfanView
Pic2snes or Pcx2sopt
vSNES
YY-CHR
MSpaint (comes with windows)


Inserting
You need a map16 page (most likely), GFX file(s), a sample level (most likely), and a palette (most likely). Put the map16page.bin in with your rom, and put the GFX files in a folder called ExGraphics (if it is not there, create it). If it asks to replace, rename the numbers in the ones you are inserting to numbers that are not there. Then go into LM, click the yellow mushroom, go into either old GFX bypass>FG/BG or go into super GFX bypass, set the bypassed GFX to the correct slot (if the GFX file looks like BG GFX, insert to BG1, if it looks like FG, that is FG3, if it has pipes on it, FG1, if it has a berry on it, that is FG2). Go to the 16x16 tilemap editor, if it is BG, go to a blank page 0-F, if it is FG, go to 10-1F. press F3 then F9 in the page you are inserting it into. If it is a BG, go find a blank level (usually a test level) and go to file>open level from file, browse to the correct level file, and click open, go to file>save level to rom and save to the blank test level you started out with originally, not the level for the sample level. You then have to go back to the level with the GFX and copy the BG from that level, If it doesn't look right (except for the palette), then go to the BG tilemap editor and press PGup and PGdown until it looks right. then go file>palettes>insert level palette from file and browse to the palette you want. Your BG/FG should now be inserted.

Extracting
Open your rom with LM, go to the level with the GFX, note the GFX it uses (FG1, FG2, BG1, FG3) go into whichever bypass you are using, find the GFX it uses, and note the numbers. go to the 16x16 tilemap editor and go to the page it uses, press F2, now go to file>save level to file (if it is a BG), make a new folder in the directory of your rom, save the level into it. then go to file>palettes>export level palette to file, save to that same folder. Then go into your rom directory and move or copy the map16 page to the folder, then go into the folder called "ExGraphics, copy the GFX files with the numbers you noted in the bypass. Paste them into the folder with all the other stuff. Your BG/FG should now be inserted.

Drawing GFX
Open LM and your rom and go to the level you want to draw GFX in, go to whichever bypass you use, and set the GFX (BG1 or FG3, it depends on if you want a BG or FG) to a blank GFX file. then go to the 8x8 tile map editor, press F9, erase all the GFX in that file by using TLP or YY-CHR. then go under level and select "enable custom palette", go to the palette, draw the colors you need for it. Then go to the 8x8 tilemap editor, and press the yellow mushroom. Then draw the GFX how you want and assemble in the 16x16 tilemap editor (remember, 0-F is FG, 10-1F is BG). If it is FG, set the tiles to behave how you want, by setting which tile you want it to act like or insert a custom block with block tool. You should now have your GFX drawn how you want it.

Ripping GFX from SMAS
(if this seems too hard, try m16-7k, it still works with these BGs) Open the rom in YY-chr, browse to where you see the BG GFX you need, get a screen of the BG, get the RGB values of the colors of it and put them into whichever palette you need them for. Then assemble it in the 16x16 tilemap editor like I said in drawing GFX. Then, last but not least, assemble those tiles in the BG tilemap editor. You should now have a SMAS BG.

M16-7k (on BGs)
You will need PSP 3.11, pic2snes or pcx2sopt, irfan view, and LM. First, open your image in an image editing program (photoshop, MSpaint, or any other good one). Note: photoshop isn't a free program. look for 8x8 outlines, select from one of those to the edge, if the height or width (it depends if the selection is vertical or horizontal) is a multiple of 8, it is fine. When that is done, look for small black lines on the top, if you find any, then find other 8x8s on the image that would look good over them and place them. Or instead of doing all of that, get the image with a program called vSNES by opening a savestate with the BG. When that is done, open the image in irfan view, go down under image and select decrease color depth. select 16 colors (4bpp) and copy the image with CTRL+C. Open PSP3.11 and paste the image in with CTRL+V. save as a version 2 pcx on the desktop. then place either pic2snes or pcx2sopt on the desktop and go to run under the start menu. type in cmd or command, hit run, type in cd desktop. then you should type the name of the EXE file of pcx2sopt or pic2snes. type in the name of your pcx, then the same name, then the palette # you want to use +1. Then type in the name of the pcx twice again. Look back at the number where it says "# tiles in picture", if it is greater than 128, you are going to have to do some mapping:" Take the number, open the calculator program that comes with windows and set it to scientific, Type in the number and click where it says "Hex", Add hexadecimal value FF to it and subtract hexadecimal value 180 from it, then subtract the value from hex value FF. Now go into LM, go to the level you want to use, and bypass the GFX files that are going to be used to blank ones or whatever ones you want to use. If the value is close to or in the 3 hundreds or more, it will probably take up too many tiles. Try the next steps without the mapping and come back here if it doesn't appear to take up too much (more than one row in sprite GFX). Go into the 16x16 tilemap editor, select a page between 10 and 1F, and press ctrl+shift+alt+F1+N+O+insert. If you had to do the mapping, set the "add value to tiles in hex" to the number you got from calculating; you should then map the tiles: map them by selecting them in the left one and then clicking the one you want it to overwrite instead in the right one; you need to do that to avoid animated ones, the 8 "solid color" tiles at the end of FG2, and maybe the end goal tiles; What I would do is I would select the first one needed to be mapped, then map it to the tile of one less than the "add value to tiles" value or closest one that can be mapped. I do it with all of them, eliminating the less important 8x8 tiles. Note: sprite gfx can't be used for BG/FG GFX, it won't appear correctly in the actual game because they are stored in different places in the RAM. Then hit ok, and select all the files from the desktop that you want to use. Then you should have the BG. edit it in the BG tilemap editor by moving it around, copying and pasting it. Then save the level, press F9 in the 16x16 tilemap editor and the 8x8 tilemap editor, and press the yellow mushroom. You should have now successfully ripped a BG. Note: if you are going to rip it again or you think you might, store the files created by m16-7k in a folder.

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