Final Fantasy Hacktics

After spending a day and a half figuring out how to properly replace the male samurai sprite with the
custom made one available on the site, here's a quick tutorial I was asked to write up. 

This is pretty tame compared to replacing a actual story character but will still take about half a hour.

How to Replace a Sprite Correctly in WotL:
(Example used M Samurai by Lijj)

Programs needed:

FFTEVGRP         - For changing formation sprites
FFTpatcher        - Latest Version
Graphics Gale    - To properly edit the formation and portrait sprites
UMDGEN           - For extracting the ISO and re-compiling it

Other stuff needed:
FFT:WoTL ISO
M Samurai.bmp

• Open Shishi and open the iso.


• Scroll down to 7B Male Samurai


• Click sprite import and choose BMP (Shishi has a smaller limit then the SPR file size)


• Select the custom M samurai.bmp.


• Confirm that the sprite now displayed has changed to the new one.


• Exit Shishi (Changes save automatically)

----------------------------------------------------------

• Unzip the ISO to get to FFTPACK.BIN


• Start FFTPatcher and select PSP -> Utilities -> extract FFTPACK.BIN


• Close FFTPatcher

----------------------------------------------------------

• Navigate to the folder where you extracted FFTPACK.BIN


• In the EVENT folder you can find UNIT.BIN, this is needed next.

----------------------------------------------------------

• Launch FFTEVGRP


• Click file -> Open -> UNIT.BIN


• In the Character dropdown box, scroll to 34 Samurai (Male).


• Save the BMP of 34 Samurai (Male)

At this point you will need to use Celdia's Formation sprite tutorial HERE (http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=6702.0)
to convert both the custom images for UNIT.BIN & WLDFACE.BIN

• At this point you should have updated both your UNIT.BIN & WLDFACE.BIN with the custom images via Celdia's Tutorial.


• Start FFTPatcher again go to PSP -> Utilities -> Recompile FFTPACK.BIN

----------------------------------------------------------

• Open UMDGen


• Select and Open your WotL ISO and Extract Image to an empty folder.


• Now open UMDGen and open the ISO and Extract Image to an empty folder.


• Navigate to the folder that your extracted your image to.


• Replace the FFTPACK.BIN in that folder with the one you just recompiled with FFTPatcher.


• Go back to UMDGen


• Select New, then Right Click the Large White Open Box and select Add Existing Folder


• Select PSP game in the folder you extracted to earlier.


• Then Right Click again and Add Existing File and select UMD_DATA.BIN
  • (same folder you extracted to, just isn't selected when you clicked the other one)


• Rename No Label to SD then save as ISO.


• Congrats, you're done!

(http://oi44.tinypic.com/2f0bw4j.jpg)
!!SUCCESS!!

I sincerely thank you for this tutorial. It is more useful than you know.

Yeah, this is brilliant. thanks man. Just got done changing some sprites! :D Thank you very much!

Edit: Ran into a slight problem with a couple of the sprites - namely the Ramza Chapter 4 with cape (FFT: Mercs) and also the Unhooded Meliadoul sprite - the portrait colours are all screwed up before I've even modified them for us in FFTEVGRP. Pretty sure it's quite a common problem/ mistake but can't find a solution (not yet, at least.)

Easiest way to fix that. Open the sprite in Xifs Palette Editor. Click the very first color, this should fix the port.
Hit save. Then close Palette Editor and continue the tutorial :)

Huh, probably going to regret azking this one as will look a tad stupid, buuuut: is that in the Tools section of the downloads? Took a look but couldn't find it anywhere.

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

Ah brilliant, thanks guys.

Hi. Im new to try. And i have question. Where to download all tools? Can i change special job like Holy Knight to my units? How? Ex:beatrix sprites with job Holy Knight. Sorry for my bad english. (Psp version wotl)

You can get Graphics Gale and UMDGen on the internet by searching with google, but FFTPatcher and FFTEVGRP can be downlaoded here: http://ffhacktics.com/wiki/Tools

Is there a way I can change the cloud sprite to one of the custom sprites? It says it's too large to fit. I only ask because he's my favorite character and I hack him into the first chapter (took me a while to think of a way, kind of new at this still) but dont like his standard look. 

Quote from: Drunkard on June 29, 2015, 04:29:21 pm
Is there a way I can change the cloud sprite to one of the custom sprites? It says it's too large to fit. I only ask because he's my favorite character and I hack him into the first chapter (took me a while to think of a way, kind of new at this still) but dont like his standard look.

You need to import the .bmp, not the .spr.

Depends what sprite you are trying to replace, in Wotl, you need to replace it with a sprite of equal or lesser size, unlike the PSX version

Is there any good way to reduce size of sprite?

I'm trying to change Marach sprite but it not easy cause his total size is too low.

I would like to know that as well. I am curious and am trying various things to import sprites with highter size to the WOTL version of the game. But without success.
And i read somewhere that it overwrites data if you do it with shishi 352. I would like to avoid that so that the game runs 100% ok.

Does anyone know a solution ?

By the way, thats a great Tutorial Fallout. it helped me a lot. Thank you 4 that !

help! im new here.. im trying to edit WoTL custom animation in EVTCHR but when i import it back using CDmage 1.02.1beta5 it truncate.

i tried cdprog and CDmage 1.01.5 too and it's not working for WoTL.

what should i use to import it back and if there is a tutorial on how to edit EVTCHR pls tell me so i would know if im doing it right. thanks!

EVTCHR.BIN always truncates. it's fine, I've never had an issue doing it that way in the psx version.

but when it truncates and then i run the iso, it stop working.

im editing the psp version..

is there  a way to fix this problem? how?

dunno. I don't mod WotL. and to my knowledge, no one edits EVTCHR in the PSP version.

Well, we know that quite a few have wanted to, but we haven't exactly ever had someone other than melonhead (FFTPatcher's creator) willing to research that version of the game in all of FFH's 9 years of existence, and he's long gone now. We just keep getting people interested in modding WotL, but no one ever willing to put effort into hacking it. So, most people just scrap their mod project, switch to the PSX version, or make an extremely simple mod (comparing to the modding possibilities of the PSX version).

thanks for the info and quick response.

maybe i'll just close my eyes when an event would occur.. hehe.

i haven't use UMDgen when importing EVTCHR. did someone already tried using it?

Quotemaybe i'll just close my eyes when an event would occur.. hehe.

Probably the best thing to do is just to use an existing standard animation instead. There's a lot you can do with those. There's a helpful post out there about them, if it helps:
http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=8352.msg165621#msg165621

Is there a way to change the sprites of Dark Knight and Onion Knight?

Quote from: daryin on October 05, 2016, 05:56:57 pm
Is there a way to change the sprites of Dark Knight and Onion Knight?

probably not as ftevgrp was compiled to only handle characters from the original version of the game.

NOt unless we can convince the author to release the source code

I think Shishi can directly access all that now? But I haven't checked, so I could very well be wrong.

Quote from: Nyzer on January 17, 2020, 10:52:42 pm
I think Shishi can directly access all that now? But I haven't checked, so I could very well be wrong.

Now that you have mentioned it. Yup It can AHHAAHAHh.
*correction still only for the OG Cast of the game.

did a texture dump of the game We are wrong lol.
we will not be able to customize the dark knight , onion knight , Balthier, Luso sprite and portraits because THEY ARE NOT in the unit.bin Instead their Unite and portrait sprite were care fully placed on WLDFACE.BIN.
slots 97 to 102 isreserved for the unit sprites the slot 104 to 111 are for the portraits as seen below
(https://i.ibb.co/sVfKfnb/08d90970f4f907bc5d3b60c3.png) (https://ibb.co/sVfKfnb)
ill attach below the in battle sprite of luso ill try to figure out in which part of the memory it is loaded. ill update you guys soon

I'm new to sprite, I downloaded some sprites here and tried to use it on ShishiSpriteEditor, but I always get this error (Sprite size is 65536 bytes, max size is 45056 bytes) The sprites SPR file on the site is bigger than the program can read accepted, so I put the BMP file and it worked, but it doesn't change the photo on the class roulette or on the selection screen, but in battles the sprite is set correctly, what am I missing?...  :(

Those are the Formation sprites. They don't use the spritesheets for some reason and need to be created & imported separately.

Hi,

You change this formation sprite with shishi. In the "other image section" choose the "UNIT.BIN (formation screen sprite)" and import your .bmp (24x40 pixel).

Here is a tutorial a bit outdated but you'll find clear explanations on how to make your own formation sprite

Celdia's tutorial (https://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=6702.0)

Thanks to everyone, they made me see where I was wrong, now I downloaded the programs and I already tested everything that they taught me and it worked ...
My next step now is to create my own sprites ... Thanks to all of you ...

Cool,

It's always a lot of fun for me to see new sprites (since i'm not able to do it my self)

Good luck and see you (and your sprites) soon.

So, noticing that the original topic of this post is 7 years old or so....

Is it still the correct way to insert formation sprites for WOTL? or has an update somewhere to something made it easier

so many posts here are so many years old, it's hard to know what exactly is still accurate

again inquiring about the PSP version (specifically formation sprites), not the PSX

Quote from: faoronkenlee on January 19, 2020, 08:09:30 amdid a texture dump of the game We are wrong lol.
we will not be able to customize the dark knight , onion knight , Balthier, Luso sprite and portraits because THEY ARE NOT in the unit.bin Instead their Unite and portrait sprite were care fully placed on WLDFACE.BIN.
slots 97 to 102 isreserved for the unit sprites the slot 104 to 111 are for the portraits as seen below
(https://i.ibb.co/sVfKfnb/08d90970f4f907bc5d3b60c3.png) (https://ibb.co/sVfKfnb)
ill attach below the in battle sprite of luso ill try to figure out in which part of the memory it is loaded. ill update you guys soon

I am modding WOTL and wanted to know how to replace, or if it is even possible to replace, luso's portrait since I cant find it in WLDFACE.BIN.

(https://ffhacktics.com/sprites/s/neocloud.bmp)

I ran into another issue where the bmp. file is too large.  I get a message that says its 43070 and that max is 43008 bytes.  Is there a way to shrink it or am I doing something wrong?

QuoteIs there a way to shrink it or am I doing something wrong

?


No to both.

This post was useful but I think it is outdated, you now only need to use the program Shishi.

Also, there are a few steps that are not correctly explained in the tutorial after following Celdia's tutorial, so I had issues and I had to see other tutorials. These are:

• Use Impr + Pant on the Shishi window and saving the image in the original dimensions (24x40 & 32x48) for the UNIT & WLDFACE in the Sprites section. (You don't really need to use Graphics Gale for that. I used Paint as it was faster for me to use).
• Convert your images that are gonna be in UNIT.BIN & WLDFACE.BIN to BMP files that should be in 16bits colors [4bpp format]. (Again, you can use many programs for this step and I used GraphicsGale and sometimes Photopea, that it is an online tool).
• I did a test and UMDGen didn't work to me for saving so I used UltraISO that I had installed and it works perfectly.

This is what worked for me, because you can use other programs for the same results.

Here's a useful post (https://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=11087.0) about some errors you may get. I had to use this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f12qKI6-JsE) to understand it. You might follow a few more steps if you have a custom sprite and not just another palette.

P.S: @Fallout10mm Quote my useful info in your post if you want.

(Edit: The next info is from my FAQ from the hackmod I'm doing, also useful)

Hello! Pretty new to modding the PSP version and while editing Cloud's Sprite to his AC version found on the site, this error occurs. Can anyone help me with a fix or workaround?
(https://i.imgur.com/lXpdqsN.png)

Quote from: zkl on December 10, 2022, 01:55:02 pmHello! Pretty new to modding the PSP version and while editing Cloud's Sprite to his AC version found on the site, this error occurs. Can anyone help me with a fix or workaround?
(https://i.imgur.com/lXpdqsN.png)

I'm not an expert editing sprites (I only did replacements of portraits, fixing pixels and changes to palettes...) and it is a very hard work (also very susceptible to errors) but you can see in the message that there is a limit for your image and you are using more bits. Try to open your project in Photopea (online tool) and save it as BMP, see if the size gets smaller.
If this doesn't work, open the original/unedited Cloud BMP in GraphicsGale and paste your edit there. Do the same, see if the size gets smaller. This 2nd option is usually better.

I can't help more with this issue but most of the time I had that issue I fixed this way.

It's all in my WoTL FAQ. (https://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=12942.0)