Importing custom sprites into WotL iso

[Wasabi]

Hi everyone,

For the past couple of days I've been mulling over on how to customize the formation screen and in-battle sprites for the War of the Lions (PSP) version of FFT. I've asked help from RavenofRazgriz and fdc here on the forums via IRC, but, call me a neophyte, I absolutely have no idea what I'm doing or what I have at my disposal that is relevant to my efforts.

So far I have these programs downloaded and installed:

FFTPatcher v.0.478
Shishi Sprite Editor v.0478
FFTactext v.0478
FFTOrgASM v.0478
MagicISO
WinHex
GraphicsGale

From what I've read around the forums, the obvious answer is that it's currently not possible to port custom sprites because the spritesheets here on FFH are relatively too big for Shishi to read. Also, from my [inexperienced] efforts, finding the BATTLE.BIN and anything relevant to sprite modding under MagicISO and WinHex is just a bit too difficult for me to comprehend on my own.

I've read Jon's and Celdia's tutorials on how to mod sprites, and I really do want to make this into a reality. Probably not by my hand, but hopefully from someone that has more experience in these matters. Hopefully more efforts in customizing the WotL version in terms of spriting can be put into action, but as of right now I'm exhausted in trying to find ways in doing this myself (in working on this and my own stress IRL).

Thanks for reading! Any help at all will be appreciated.

[Mega_Tyrant]

If you want to use a sprite file that is larger than the PSP file size limit you have to use an earlier version of Shishi which you can get from here:

http://code.google.com/p/lioneditor/downloads/list

the version .352 is fairly stable and is what I use to bypass the size limit.

As far as formation sprites go, those are stored in UNIT.BIN.  You'll need to get FFTEVGRP to edit UNIT.BIN.

[Wasabi]

Version .352 does work, but you're limited, or restricted, under the guidelines of Type 1 and 2 sprites. It's not as flexible as the latest Shishi, but i guess this will do in importing the custom sprites to be usable.

As far as formation sprites are concerned, I'm having a hell of a time locating the UNIT.BIN in the PSP ISO. CD Mage fails to work with the WotL version, and I was told to use MagicISO, but I'm not used to looking at hex and knowing what to do with it (outside of GameShark, I guess). So until I can locate the UNIT.BIN, I can't use FFTEVGRP or Graphics Gale to change the formation screen sprites.

[Mega_Tyrant]

I believe there is a tutorial somewhere on the forums on how to realign the arms so that you can change any sprite to be Type 1 or Type 2 you should locate that if it is an issue for you.

UNIT.BIN as well as WLDFACE.BIN (for changing the portraits) are stored within the fftpack.bin file.  Ah, good the post I made on gamefaqs is still there.  Here's the instructions I gave to thisisstupid and Materia on gamefaqs:

As far as spriting goes:

1. Insert sprite with Shishi. And patch the ISO with the new sprites if your using the older version

Note 1: The new version automatically patches when you import in the .spr file.

Note 2: You will have to use the older version of Shishi for some sprites because the spr file size is over the limit.

2. Export spritesheet as BMP.

3. Open BMP in Paint.

4. Change the image dimensions so that it's 24x40 pixels and make sure the only pose in the image is the right-front facing pose. Save Image.

5. Convert the BMP to 16 color BMP

Note 1: The steps here are different depending on the program you use. I use Adobe Photoshop but there's also GIMP or GraphicsGale.

Note 2: DO NOT USE PAINT!! IT WILL MESS UP YOUR IMAGE!!

6. Extract fftpack.bin from ISO with UMDGen.

7. Extract files in fftpack.bin with FFTPatcher.

8. OPEN UNIT.BIN with FFTEVGRP.

9. Replace the sprite your changing with the sprite from step 5 and click save.

10. Rebuild fftpack.bin with FFTPatcher

11. Insert new fftpack.bin back into ISO. Save as ISO format.

Then you can patch your game with FFTPatcher and text edit with Tactext. There's also inserting the Portrait which you'd do after step 9 using FFTEVGRP but the file worked on is the WLDFACE.BIN.

The result should be something like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwF9BJGDSRM

[Mega_Tyrant]

Also if by any chance the sprites you are trying to use include Alucard, Tifa, Tidus, or Reno I've already made some UNIT.BIN replacements for them for someone else a while back.  You can find them here:

http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=4986.20