Tile Layer v0.50b Console graphics editor by SnowBro Released 12/14/98 What's new: ----------- - added 1BPP / SNES / Virtual Boy / SMS support! - importable palette (tlayer.pal) is now in R,G,B format - palette can be saved (by pressing F2) - removed the grids; they made it hard to see exactly how the tiles pieced together - clipboard expanded to 17x8 tiles Getting started: ---------------- A quick explanation of the program follows. I suggest you read it, in order to clearly understand how everything works. If you send me an email asking about something that is already answered in the next paragraphs of this document, your letter will be ignored. If there's something in this document that you feel needs to be explained better, however, then don't hesitate to email me about it. Features overview: ------------------ - 1BPP / NES / Game Boy / Virtual Boy / SNES / SMS support - Edit two files at once, of same or different formats - Copy data from one graphics format to another - Huge clipboard (17x8 tiles) - Fast - Editing functions: FlipX, FlipY, Rot90 - Customizable colors - Automatic checksum repair of GameBoy ROMs Keys: ----- The main editing in Tile Layer is mouse-driven, but you may want to push the following keys at one time or another. ESC - Exit program F1 - Switch tile format F2 - Save palette Up - Scroll one row up Down - Scroll one row down Left - Finetune offset (-1) Right - Finetune offset (+1) PgUp - Scroll one page up Pgdown - Scroll one page down TAB - Switch file (when two files are loaded) Dual file editing: ------------------ One of the key features of Tile Layer is the ability to have two ROM files loaded simultaneously. This is done by specifying two filenames at the DOS prompt, separated by spaces, like so: tlayer mario.nes metroid3.smc In the main editor, you can then switch between the two files by pressing TAB. Switching tile format: ---------------------- Press F1 to toggle between the different tile formats. Although Tile Layer autodetects the tile format based on the ROM file's extension (.NES/.GB/.VB/.SMC/.SMS), it is sometimes necessary to switch from 4-bit to 2-bit or 1-bit format, because some SNES and SMS games store their graphics that way (usually fonts and stuff which require few colors). Moving around: -------------- Arrow keys Up and Down scroll through the ROM one row of tiles at a time, Page Up and Page Down take you where you want to go a bit faster. Arrow keys Left and Right finetune the offset (decrease/increase by one). The offset finetuning is an *IMPORTANT* feature; I'll try to explain why. Sometimes the tiles in a ROM aren't aligned at an even offset; let's say the tile data starts at 1005h in the file. But Tile Layer by default reads data from 0000h, 0100h, 0200h, etc., so the color info for the first bitplane(s) will be wrong. In such cases you need to adjust the offset by pressing arrow keys left/right until the starting offset for the tiles is correct (it's usually easy to see). Try viewing the dungeon graphics in "Zelda.nes" to see what I mean. ROM data: --------- Select a tile from here by clicking LEFT mouse button. Click RIGHT mouse button to paste the currently selected tile (either a tile selected directly from the ROM data or from the clipboard). Clipboard: ---------- Paste the tile selected from the ROM data (or from another location on the clipboard) by clicking RIGHT mouse button. Select tile to edit by clicking left mouse button. The clipboard is mainly a place where you can arrange scattered ROM tiles in an order that forms a complete picture, so that the editing gets easier. When you are editing two files at once, you can paste tiles from one file onto the clipboard, then switch file (by pressing TAB) and paste the tiles where you want them in the other file. You don't have to go via the clipboard though; just select a tile from the ROM data in one file, press TAB and paste the tile data directly. Example of how to copy tiles from a .GB ROM to a .NES ROM: 1) Load both files in Tile Layer as explained above. 3) Switch to the .GB file by using TAB, if it wasn't the first file you specified on the command line. 3) Locate the graphics data and copy the tiles you want to the clipboard, or if you just want one tile, select it with from the ROM data with the left mouse button. 4) Press TAB to return to the .NES ROM. 5) Copy the tiles to the ROM data and you're done! The process can be reversed, of course. You can copy 1BPP/NES/GB/VB tiles to a SNES/SMS ROM, or vice versa, but keep in mind that when copying data from a 4-bit format to a 2-bit format or lower, the upper bitplanes will be lost. Tile edit: ---------- Left mouse button draws currently selected foreground color, right mouse button draws currently selected background color. Change foreground/background color by clicking left/right mouse button on the desired color box to the right of the drawing area. Once you're done editing a tile, copy it back to the ROM (by pressing RIGHT mouse button while holding the cursor over the tile you want replaced). You have to copy it back yourself because when editing a tile, changes are NOT written directly to the ROM. This is to give you a second chance if you aren't pleased with the result and want to start over with the original tile again. In any case, remember to save your work often: there's no telling when you'll screw up next (I do it all the time 8-) ). Customizing colors: ------------------- The three vertical bars to the right of the tile edit window control the [R]ed, [G]reen and [B]lue component of the current foreground color. They can be adjusted to your own liking. When you are happy with it, press F2 to save it to "tlayer.pal". Importing a palette: ------------------------ When Tile Layer is started, it will check to see if there is a file called TLAYER.PAL present in the directory. If there is, it will be used as the default palette. The file contains RGB values for the program's colors. For NES ROMs, you can use NESticle's palette viewer to figure out the color values for the ROM you want to edit. Menu: ----- Rot 90: rotates the selected tile 90 degrees. Flip X: flips the selected tile horizontally. Flip Y: flips the selected tile vertically. Save: saves changes to file. Quit: erases your hard drive. No wait, that's not it... Uhm, actually, I don't remember. Well, that's about it. If you have any questions, suggestions or comments, send an email to my address, kentmhan@online.no. Oh, one final note: Although I've done my best to make sure that this program is totally bug-free, there still MIGHT be some strange error lurking around somewhere (I haven't managed to find it yet though). In other words, if you use this program and Something Bad happens to you or your ROM images, don't expect me to take any responsibility for it. But I can probably offer you some sympathy in the form of comforting words ("There there. Everything's gonna be all right."). (c) Kent Hansen 1998