Final Fantasy Hacktics

This tool allows you to open BMP (8bit) ONLY, convert them from/to old/new shishi arrangement. And if course it allows you to switch palettes.

Before importing in shishi just load the bitmap and click Null palette.

If you want to copy a palette, just drag & drop the one you want to copy unto.

http://zodiac.ffhacktics.com/Palette_Editor.7z (http://zodiac.ffhacktics.com/Palette_Editor.7z)

Excellent sounding tool Zodiac. I look forward to giving it a test run.

Update.

New interface and less buggy.

There are 3 palette edit modes:
Copy Row: Drag and drop to copy an entire palette row.
Copy Single: Drag and drop to copy a single palette color.
Color Edit: Double click the color to change its RGB values.

Since it still auto-saves I strongly suggest making a backup of your spritesheet.

Sweet! That'll be a really helpful utility for us.
Thanks, Zodiac! ^_^

Hey Zodiac... just wanna say a big thank you for putting this out. I have had a great deal of fun playing with palettes. I am not a pixel artist (though I do a lot of 2D UI and web design) so this is really my starting point, I find it fascinating that it's so quick and easy to completely change the appearance, look and feel of a character working with 16 colors.

By the way, this program is just wonderful on the Mac (via Windows, VMWare), with OS X's Zoom (deselect Anti-alias though). Zooming with this is more than sufficient for most people's needs. It works beautifully. If it was a Cocoa app (Mac program) I would glady add an Undo/Redo stack for it. I use XScope for color coding and correction, so an eye dropper isn't really needed (but it'll be nice).

Yeah, this is a seriously efficient program--the time it takes to edit palettes have been cut down tenfold. There are a couple changes that could make this program phenomenal, but it's definitely good as.

Umm, small update.
http://zodiac.ffhacktics.com/palette_editor.rar (http://zodiac.ffhacktics.com/palette_editor.rar)

It still auto-saves; I plan to fix that in the next version.

- Palette choosing was implemented, along with the original limit of 5bit per color, meaning the color you choose will be the same compressed by shishi.
- Highlight yellow on the selected color
- Forced file open on startup

(http://zodiac.ffhacktics.com/spritesheet_editor.png)

Zodiac, you just made an already easy to use Editor 10x easier to use now that it's got a killer UI. Those RGB sliders are exactly what I would have wished for (and with clearly visible RGB values to boot). Excellent work!

edit: Think you could change those RGB labels to text fields instead? So to  let the user still be able to manually enter in the RGB values manually. It's a minor thing really (I am not hypersensitive with color). Say I wanted color 035151, I just type 03 tab 51 tab 51 on the first field, much faster than having to drag the sliders.

edit: Ok here's another thing that's not from the previous version, I can't see the location for the color selected in the color map. Not sure if this is a bug or not... hmm. Regardless I still find it being a lot easier to use.

The color map is custom, this was the only way I could have nearly every possible color without a luminosity bar. Therefore the same colors may be present many times, rendering it impossible, or absolutely not worth it to have a marker on the map.
I made text fields before but either my compiler or Delphi don't support error handlers, which would make the program crash when you'd enter a letter of leave the field empty. The easiest solution was to just have the Track Bar to select manually RGB values.

By the way you can just copy the color unto the other one and slide the bars, the end result will be pretty much the same.

Now that you mentioned it, i can see why it was made like this.
Although abeit strange at first.. On a personal level, I actually prefer having the luminosity bar but that's because I am used to it more.

These are the two most common ways for designers to work with colors,

(http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/3062/screenshot20100302at516.png)

(http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/6631/screenshot20100302at517.png)


It's much easier to work with because it's based on color theory. Although I am okay with RGB sliders too. It's non issue since I could always use the older version along with it if I really wanted to use the color map and luminosity slider.



edit: So after about a week of using both editors, I am finding myself to be actually more productive using the older version. I can really pinpoint the colors I am looking for more easily that way... I guess I just can't adapt to the new version well enough. For now I still use the new editor for quick and dirty changes. But for serious work I am sticking to version 1 for now.

There also appears to be a bug when opening files with beta 2 of the editor. Just try to open several different BMPs without closing the app. It looks like a visual bug to me as these black pixels aren't saved. I'll try to capture a screenshot when I encounter it again.

If you're still looking to improve this, could you add a zoom feature?  It would make it much easier to tell how the sprites and portrait are looking for me.

Quote from: "DeadManWalking"If you're still looking to improve this, could you add a zoom feature?  It would make it much easier to tell how the sprites and portrait are looking for me.

If you are on a Mac, Ctrl+Scroll Up/Down to zoom in/out (system wide). You can turn off anti-aliasing too in the preferences.

If you are on a windows, you can try lowering your monitor resolution when working with palettes.


Unfortunately either method will decrease your screen estate. I would prefer to have 4-5 palette editors opened at the same time to work (and zoom'ed in). It's not a big deal though.

I plan to, but not for the next release.
Next version will have:
- Custom demo sprite; copy/paste certain parts of the spritesheet as you want with:
• Zoom Level
• Portrait rotation
• Custom Background color
• Watermark (for the spriter's signature or something else)
• Tiling mode (like 4x2, or 8x1 to show all 8 palettes)
• Current palette or all non-black plalettes
- Auto-save removed
- Reintroduction of the old color selecting mode (while keeping the new one)

And I don't plan to allow anything to show all the 8 palettes at the same time for palette editing. Not only do you edit only one palette at a time, 8 full spritesheets would take way too much space on the screen.

The next version (after the one mentioned above) will probably have a batch function for the Custom Demo Sprite function above.

That's a pretty good challenge to take upon Zodiac.

To be clear about opening many palette editors, I meant I like to say, have my Male Knight opened on the left, female Knight opened on the right, Priest opened on the top left... etc.. It's useful for color correction and fine tuning contrast / color balance.

And, if you can, add two window views per sprite/palette opened, one for 100% zoom, and one for 200% zoom (adjustable). It really saves a lot of time if the user wouldn't have to zoom in and out manually. Oh, do you mean by bringing back the version 1 color map please? It's the only reason why I am keeping version1 around.

If I ever do that, it won't be before a long while since I lack the coding knowledge to do it.

Quote from: "Zodiac"Tiling mode (like 4x2, or 8x1 to show all 8 palettes)

Perfect. This will make life so much easier for me.

Great work, Zodiac. I look forward to whatever comes next.

Quote from: "Zodiac"- Custom demo sprite; copy/paste certain parts of the spritesheet as you want with:
• Zoom Level
• Portrait rotation
• Custom Background color
• Watermark (for the spriter's signature or something else)
• Tiling mode (like 4x2, or 8x1 to show all 8 palettes)
• Current palette or all non-black plalettes
- Auto-save removed
- Reintroduction of the old color selecting mode (while keeping the new one)

So yeah, I haven't done everything I was supposed to, but that's gonna be it for now.

Download is attached in first post.

By the way, feel free to post your scripts here; I only made 4 and everyone could use a lot more.

Excellent work Zodiac. The scripts implementation is quite clever.

However...
1. Why is it that the Demo Window isn't updated on the fly?
2. Refresh button (for the demo window) isn't working for me [it's greyed out].
3. Why is there a "Save" button for the demo window?
4. A reload button would be a nice and easy feature, as opposed to re-opening the same file.

1. Because the way it is currently handled, generating demo sprites consumes way too much resources and therefore should only be activated manually.
2. Not yet implemented.
3. To save the demo picture; duh.
4. Yes I planned this for the next update.


(8x1) Basic Monster Poses[100%].script
//Basic Monster
Col(1)
Background(000000)

Portrait(000,028,1)

//First Row 56x56
Copy(000,256,056,056,032,000,1)
Copy(056,368,056,056,088,000,1)
Copy(112,312,056,056,144,000,1)
Copy(168,312,056,056,200,000,1)

//Second Row 48x48
Copy(000,096,048,048,048,056,1)
Copy(192,048,048,048,096,056,1)
Copy(048,144,048,048,144,056,1)
Copy(096,192,048,048,192,056,1)

Zodiac, I love you man.  This is going to make my Frankenspriting to a new level.

Oh shit, this has come a long way. I'll grab the newest version when I get back to palette editing. Great job, man.

Bug report:
The palette color you are currently on will reset (0,0,0) when you open a new file.
Using Copy Single/Row will not palette swap the display anymore.

To do:
- Fix bugs
- Save demo in png.
- Add SHP files support for scripts.
- Add back old color select mode.
- Add Watermark script option.

...Really needed features  :idea:     I know you already have plans Zodiac, but if you see these feature fit the bill, please implement them!



1. Copying color information to clipboard, whether it is single or row(preferred). This makes transferring colors a lot easier across different sprites.

2. Pressing Null Palette button should also save the file immediately.

3. Ability to edit palettes completely via keyboard, using Arrow Keys to navigate colors, and typing RGB values. (For example, if I want color 22-17-17, just type 22-tab-17-tab-17). Ctrl/Cmd+C for Copying a single color, and Ctrl/Cmd+V for pasting.

4. Undo / Redo stack.. Or even just a single step Undo (via Ctrl/Cmd+Z) will be Tremendously helpful.


edit: A slightly unrelated problem that I am having lately... perhaps you might know what's causing this:

(http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/8136/screenshot20100426at100.png)

This always randomly happens after saving in Photoshop, it seems to truncate the file at that last White Box you see above. Pass that white box, the palette colors will not show at all (in Palette Editor or Shishi).  Is there a way to fix this without having me manually copying everything over into another sprite file?

Holy shit, this is just great! I'm loving this. Thanks Zodiac.

$@&*$&@*$&*@$&*(.    Just lost 1-2 hours of palette work because the palette editor v3 doesn't ask you to Save Changes.  I rather have it automatically save changes than this. No it's not the first time it has happened. But I am pissed. Lost at least over 10 hours of work in the past week because of this issue.  Zodiac, please, for the love of ST.A, change this in the next release.

For those interested, in this 7z contains 2 scripts: one for type1 and another for type2 sprites, which compiles all body parts together to create all the frame used by the game. To be used with this palette editor of course.

Sorry, but right now it will only support one palette

I'm just loving this tool! It's really useful. Thanks Xifanie!

Does this not work on Windows 7? When I try to open a file this is what happens:
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/834/bugjk.png/

Sorry for thread ressurecting.

As it stands, it will only open and edit properly 256x488 8bpp (256 colours) BMP files... nothing else.

What language is this written in?  Visual Basic?

in Pascal

Really?!  Are you aware of Lazarus?  It's sort of like Delphi, and it's cross-platform.

http://www.lazarus.freepascal.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lazarus_%28IDE%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Pascal

No, and I don't really care since I hate coding

Do you have the source available if someone else wants to take a crack at it?

Yes, upon request I could

Random Question: Will this ever be integrated into FFTPatcher's code base?

My program is in python and FFTPatcher was coded in .NET...

The link is broken. Will you please re-upload it?

Quote from: Xifanie on April 20, 2012, 07:37:05 pm
My program is in python and FFTPatcher was coded in .NET...

Wait, I thought you said it was Pascal?

Oh, you're right, I did code it in Pascal... what was the single program I coded in python I wonder?

Some scripts for converting between sprite types, and tethical sprites, I assume?

There's no such thing as converting from/to TYPE1/TYPE2.
My scripts only generates images, and I'm not even sure tethical can make use of my scripts.

I get an error "floating point division by zero." Everything looks fine. The BMP IS 256x488.

Is it 8bit/256 colours?

Yes, I'm positive it is. And everything looks fine on it. The only thing I could possibly think of is that it can't read the cape I inserted.

I'll take a look at it if you share your bmp.

Here it is. It's not quite finished though, but the problem is still there.

...I can't even open it in GraphicsGale. Judging from the size of the file:
Your file: 374 906 bytes
8bit, 256 colours file: 126 006 bytes

Yours is 24bpp.

You should never edit a file in 24bpp to start with as it will be a mess to recreate the palettes. Try to find the option in your program to convert the file to 256 colours, but be aware this won't be enough to fix the sheet. If you still can't use the file in my palette editor/shishi, you'll have to use another program.

Huh, Gimp must've changed the bit depth for some reason. Anyways, it worked. Thank you  :)

*sigh* Now I seem to have a new problem. I took a break from editing and was going to upload the uncompleted sprite to my ISO so I could see how the changes looked but the BMP won't uninvert. Like your instructions say on this topic, I opened the BMP on Palette editor and clicked Null palette and then exited. Then I uploaded the BMP to Shishi and it still showed inverted. I went ahead anyways and started the game up, entered a battle, and it was inverted. So I went back and resaved the BMP from Gimp and instead of loading it into Palette editor I just uploaded it straight to Shishi. No dice there either. I've tried a multitude of things at this point. What am I doing wrong?

(http://xifanie.ffhacktics.com/sprite_palettes.png)

There's no way to "uninvert" the conversion to 24bpp, you'll have to deal with it and somehow use gimp to replace/move around the colours properly? There may be tutorials about spriting with Gimp around, but most people use GraphicsGale so I'm not sure.
I tried Gimp in the past but couldn't even select something and delete.

Gimp sucks ass for spriting and editing palettes.  Use mtPaint, it has a dedicated palette editor.  And Pinta isn't bad either.  I can link to either one if you need help finding and installing them.

Linux user, I assume?

No, I use windows. The weird thing about this is that I've already done this before and I had no problem, but now all of the sudden I'm having the problem. I've uploaded the same sprite, although it has been edited since then, to Shishi and it worked fine.

If you're on Windows, use Graphics Gale.  mtPaint has a Windows executable too, I believe.  You might also want to try Paint.NET, I think it's shareware.

GIMP sucks for spriting because it always wants to mess with your file formats.

Wow Xif, I have just started to play with this program and its unbelievably excellent. It's so easy to use, that even a spanner like me finds it simple. I have now made alternate palletes for Vincent. He looks tasty in pink!!
Cheers!! :-)

2 more scripts~!
This is how they look like...
Basically, they're just combinations of default scripts.

Alright! new scripts. A good sprite presenter.. thanks for sharing Mike.