Ephraim/Eirika palette editing

[TheoryDS]

Okay, so I've searched all over multiples forums for a way to edit Ephraim and Eirika's battle palette colors (without having to dump the animation, manually edit each pixel and reinsert it)

I've found multiple tutorials which were all very helpful, but the problem is that they all involve finding the offset for the particular palette. Ephraim and Eirika are generic and do not have an offset for their colors. The problem with them is that many palettes are incompatible so swapping them through Nightmare wouldn't work.

I've even tried using APE and FERecolor, putting in Ephraim's colors to see if I could find an offset. I got the following:

[spoiler=Hex ]

5553 FF7F FF6B 1F4B 182A 2E19 B37F 897A6255 FA04 900C 9877 F36E 505E 693D A514

[spoiler=Palette Offset]C04FE0

I tried editing it this offset for Ephraim, but going back into the game to check, his colors remained the same. I've read from Blazer's tutorial that there are extra palette spaces, but in Nightmare, there are no addresses for these extra spaces. I also couldn't find any tutorial that explains how to access or create them.

Any help is appreciated!

Edited November 21, 2011 by TheoryDS

[CT075]

Ephraim and Eirika use the default palette for their class, it's kind of retarded but it makes sense in a way.

The only suggestion I'd have would be to copy an existing palette, paste it in some free space and repoint. Then edit that palette with the FERecolor method.

Edited November 21, 2011 by Kam

[TheoryDS]

That involves hex editing correct?

Would there be a good guide / tutorial for this that I could learn from?

[CT075]

...sigh, hacking for dummies it is.

[spoiler=easymode]Find a random palette. Any one that you don't intend to use later will do.

Take that palette and give it to Eirika/Ephraim.

Turn off all the layers on VBA except for layer 5 (Ctrl-layerNum). You should see nothing but the sprite layer.

Get into a battle, hit F12 before either unit starts moving.

Isolate the sprite.

Compare it to the sprite you wanted to use. Go find the pointer to whatever palette you used. Then use the FERecolor method.

Edited November 21, 2011 by Kam

[TheoryDS]

I have considered just editing someone else's palette and giving it to them, but it would only be my last resort if I can't figure out how to use the extra palette space.

Because I'm unsure if I'll have a need for any of the other palettes later on, so I'd much rather keep them there. Which is why I wanted to learn how to make use of the supposed "extra palettes"

[CT075]

I don't even know about 'extra palettes'. If there are any, then you can do exactly what I just told you to, with the added step of "point the extra palette to wherever the old one is".

Being entirely honest, if you're worried about running out of entries in the table, my first response is "expand the damn thing"

[Mariah the Magician]

Here's a guide my sister Deannomite made to find unlisted palettes, just follow it step by step and you should find the palettes. :)

<><><>How to find palettes<><><>

-This will find you any palette that is not on the list, as long as its a unique class-

CAUTION: USE A BACKUP GAME FOR THIS PLEASE!!!!

1. Open up VisualBoyAdvanced, Hex Editor, GBAGE, Notepad and Nightmare.

2. Go into Nighmare, load the module called "Chapter Unit Data" and load "Prologue Cutscene2".

3. You are already on the right dropdown list. Go to where it says "Starting Class"

and change that to whatever class you wish to view the palette of. Hit Enter.

4. Then scroll down to "Slot Item 1" and change that to a weapon that the starting

class you set is able to use. If none, make it "none". Hit Enter. Save ROM.

5. Load your game on VBA - New Game (or restart chapter if you are on prologue). Wait until

Seth fights Valter. He should be the class you made him. Go to tools - Palette viewer.

6. Locate the palette that looks to be of his graphic. Select the first color.

7. Look where it says "Value". Type the value of the color on notepad. Byteswap it so that it

is flipped. (Example:) "Value: 1234" would become "Value: 3412". Swap and type the number on

notepad. Do this for the next four colors horizontally. You should have something like this:

(Example Values: 1234, 5678, 9012, 3456) will become: "3412785612905634"

8. Copy those numbers. Go to your hex editor. Load your ROM. Go to search - Hex Search -

and paste those byteswapped numbers. Click find (make sure you are at the beginning)

9. The palette usually STARTS at "10", so click on the 10 and look down to see what the

offset is of that spot.

10. Go to the character image in GBAGE and type in the offset in "palette offset".

If it does not look right, then search the string of numbers again and see if the next

one is correct. This usually takes a few tries to find, because so many palettes will

start with the same four colors. Searching beyond four usually will not work, though.

Note: Character palettes are usually listed under the battle palette reference module.

Characters with their own classes tend to not be listed, and this is how you find them.

Note: Valter may kill Seth if the class you make him has too low of health and defense... OUCH.

Therefore, Seth will be invisible, but still talk in the scene after the fight...

Edit: She says also if you need further help she can use screen shots. xD

Edited November 21, 2011 by Mariah the Magician

[CT075]

Alternately, just find the first color in the palette viewer, take that memory offset, and save a memory dump that's 0x20 bytes long. Throw it into Nintenlord's GBAGE compressor, and search for that in the hex editor. The way outlined above can (not likely, but I've had it happen before) take you to something you don't want.

And if it's a character palette, the palette will always start with 10 A0 00 00. If it's a generic, class palette (like in this case), IIRC that won't be compressed.

In any case, it's probably safest to just manually set the palette and change it, rather than fucking around with classes.

[TheoryDS]

Thanks you guys. Your posts were very informative. I'm going to give it a try.

[Deannomite]

Thanks you guys. Your posts were very informative. I'm going to give it a try.

Let us know if you need any help, whatever method is easiest for you is the best. :) I wrote mine for myself to remember when I was just a beginner, and it seems to be the most simple path for me (but I'm weird lol). Anyways, if it's at all confusing or if you have any other general hacking questions, I may be able to help you. I've almost completed my FE8 hack. There are certain fields that I am not very skilled in, but I've managed to hack straight from the ROM using a hex, and marked down some of the codes that help me find what I'm looking for. Since editing FE8 is such a pain in the butt haha. Anyways, good luck :)

Edited November 26, 2011 by Deannomite