- Pokémon Essentials Version
- Non-applicable
Hey everyone, I just noticed there actually isn't a tutorial for tileset basics on Relic! So guess what today's topic is... ;)
I don't know why I'm winking, you probably read the title of the thread. Anyway, for the sake of space, I'm gonna skip the vocabulary lesson and start off this thread with a link to the Essentials Wiki Page on Tilesets. Please take a moment to read at least that top section there, and then I'll get started.
I don't know why I'm winking, you probably read the title of the thread. Anyway, for the sake of space, I'm gonna skip the vocabulary lesson and start off this thread with a link to the Essentials Wiki Page on Tilesets. Please take a moment to read at least that top section there, and then I'll get started.
Size
The first thing you need to know about tilesets in Essentials is that each tile is made at a size of 16x16. This is because that's how Pokemon does it. (or at least how the old pokemon games did it, we're in 3-D these days of course)
But wait! Pokemon may use 16x16, but RMXP uses tiles that are 32x32! That's why after the tiles are made at 16x16, we double the size of the tileset; then it's the right size, and still captures that Pokemon look! Of course, if anything needs editing, you then have to reverse the process; Scale that tileset down to half size, make the edit, and then scale it back up before putting the set back into RMXP.
When you're changing the size of your graphics there is a way to do it wrong. Most programs want to smooth out your images as you resize them, but this will ruin pixel art. Here are the settings that will keep your pixels crisp:But wait! Pokemon may use 16x16, but RMXP uses tiles that are 32x32! That's why after the tiles are made at 16x16, we double the size of the tileset; then it's the right size, and still captures that Pokemon look! Of course, if anything needs editing, you then have to reverse the process; Scale that tileset down to half size, make the edit, and then scale it back up before putting the set back into RMXP.
- GIMP= Set the Interpolation to none, and resize by percentages of 200% or 50%.
- Photoshop= Set the Interpolation to Nearest Neighbor.
- Paint= Select all and then drag the image borders to the correct size.
Q: But why can't I just make 32x32 tiles? Or just edit them at full size without the other steps?
A: The short answer is you don't want to. All of the tiles and other graphics in Essentials are double-sized versions of their original resolutions; it's a trick acting like the game is 16x16. If you add something that's 32x32 into the 16x16 graphic system, then you're exposing the trick and throwing off the illusion. This isn't a good thing; it looks bad.
If you're dedicated to making a game that's entirely 32x32 though, you can. You'll just have little/no resources to support you. If you're curious about 32x32 graphics, then check out a game like Kanto Stories.
Q: Do I have to do that 'resize the tileset' thing even if I just want to re-position something on it?
A: Yes. Frankly it's just safer; if you don't move it properly and then do resize it later it'll throw it off anyway.
Q: Do I have to do that 'resize the tileset' thing even if I'm recoloring?
A: Yes, unless you're literally using the paintbucket tool. Shrinking the tileset to it's original size will make less work for you anyway, if you're doing anything more complex.
Format
Like it says on the wiki, tilesets are the width of eight tiles in a row. As for length, that limitation is so great it's better not to worry about it. Luckilly, there are some tilesets out there that are already formatted for RMXP! But there are some things to be aware of when using them, so let's get into examples.
The things I want to be aware of are:
The things I want to be aware of are:
- Is the set already double size?
- Does it have a background?
- What do the shadows look like?
I'm going to grab a tileset by @'Dawn Bronze'. It looks like it's formatted correctly so I'll go ahead and import it into my Essentials game.
The background is all one color and the shadows look to be pure black, so importing went smoothly. The settings shown in this .GIF will make RMXP ignore the pink color, while giving the shadows a little transparency. This could have caused problems if Dawn had made a couple of mistakes when formatting the set; however the background color and shadow color are only used for those respective purposes and not on any of the actual tiles. So everything's good!
Now to just set up the tileset in the Database...
Alright, this tileset is now ready to use! I didn't put any settings on yet, and I'll talk about settings in another section of the tutorial, but for now let's see how it looks when mapping.
A: You should pick a different color for one of those things. Take a look at these two images below, the one on the left has the shadows as semi-transparent, the one on the right doesn't. If this seems like too great of a limitation, please take another look at the .GIF above where I was mapping; there's a mailbox visible in the set that has a shadow, while still having a post that I would describe as black. It's all about how you work your colors!
Here is a pure black shadow, as you can see it stands out in a pretty bad way
Alignment
Let's say you have some tiles that aren't formatted into a set yet. If you didn't make them yourself, then you just have to make them fit into the tileset somehow right? Not quite.
For example, I'm going to look some tiles from @PixelMister. I took one of the houses and put it on into a tileset twice. Once just kind of slapped in there, and once aligned purposefully. Here's the result when I play.
(Forgive me for not making everything look pretty here, this is about alignment)
For example, I'm going to look some tiles from @PixelMister. I took one of the houses and put it on into a tileset twice. Once just kind of slapped in there, and once aligned purposefully. Here's the result when I play.
(Forgive me for not making everything look pretty here, this is about alignment)
The problem with the house on the left here is that my player character can't line up with the door correctly. You might also notice that she's standing further away from that house as well. When putting tiles into a set, try to keep in mind how the player will be able to interact with them.
Here's how I had aligned the house on the right; all I cared about was getting the door aligned, because that's the part of the house that the player needs to interact with (if the map was evented, the door graphic would be there of course):
Here's how I had aligned the house on the right; all I cared about was getting the door aligned, because that's the part of the house that the player needs to interact with (if the map was evented, the door graphic would be there of course):
Properties
When you're looking at a Tileset in the Database you'll notice there are a few buttons along the right side. Now the wiki explains this pretty simply, so here's that link again, take a look at the Database section.
Now here's my addition:
Now here's my addition:
- Stuff that the player can sometimes walk on under special circumstances should be marked impassable. I'm talking about stuff like the doors on houses, or water tiles. The door event or surf ability will take care of movement when the time comes, mark those as impassable.
- Passage comes in handy for instances like ledges, or if for example you have a fence that you want the player to walk right up to but not pass through. I like to use it on chairs so my player can't walk through the backside of them.
- Priority is really important while mapping! No matter what layer you map on, if one tile has a higher priority than another, it will show up on top!
- Priority of 1 will cover the player's body, but not head. Higher priority=object is higher above the player.
- Use the Bush Flag for your grass instead of making it Priority 1.
- The Bush Flag will erase the bottom of the player instead of putting the grass on top of the player like a Priority of 1 would.
- The Counter Flag lets the player interact with an event on the other side of the flagged tile. This lets you do stuff like put all the evening in the Nurse Joy graphic, instead of having 1 event with the graphic and another event on the counter doing all the stuff.
- Terrain Tags are the best and you should read up on them; there are special ones that make your grass contain encounters, makes bridges work, and tells Essentials what kind of battlebases to pull up based on the environment.
- Higher numbered Terrain Tags need to be added to the tileset from the in-game editor.
Autotiles
Autotiles are those tiles that aren't part of your main tilesets, but have their own special folder and can be animated. When you're in the Database, you can assign up to 7 Autotiles to be partnered with a Tileset, and then they're added along the top. (If you need animated tiles and 7 isn't enough, you can use a script like this and save yourself the Autotile space. The script isn't related to Autotiles.)
The first form is a single tile, repeated in a row. This is a good choice for animating a single object, like these flowers in Essentials. Most of the examples in Essentials are 4 tiles, and thus, 4 frames of animation, but I believe you can string it out for much longer.
Next there is a form that makes mapping easier. When you have something with corners and want to make complicated shapes with it, you can use this kind of Autotile. I won't try to explain the mathmatics of how it maps, just go ahead and test it out for yourself. Again I took an Example from Essentials here:
Can you see how this is formatted? It's 3 tiles across and 4 down. When RMXP is reading this Autotile, it's broken down like this:
So that upper right tile is actually the four inner corner pieces. The upper left tile is what you get when you place 1 of this Autotile unconnected to itself, and is also what appears as the "preview" for this Autotile on your tileset.
This final form combines the two I just listed. it has the easy-mapping functionality while also being animated. So, after seeing how the last form was set up, does this big Autotile make sense? It's the same style, but repeated for many frames in order to animate. Like a single tile animation, you can have as many frames as you want here.
The first form is a single tile, repeated in a row. This is a good choice for animating a single object, like these flowers in Essentials. Most of the examples in Essentials are 4 tiles, and thus, 4 frames of animation, but I believe you can string it out for much longer.
Next there is a form that makes mapping easier. When you have something with corners and want to make complicated shapes with it, you can use this kind of Autotile. I won't try to explain the mathmatics of how it maps, just go ahead and test it out for yourself. Again I took an Example from Essentials here:
Can you see how this is formatted? It's 3 tiles across and 4 down. When RMXP is reading this Autotile, it's broken down like this:
So that upper right tile is actually the four inner corner pieces. The upper left tile is what you get when you place 1 of this Autotile unconnected to itself, and is also what appears as the "preview" for this Autotile on your tileset.
This final form combines the two I just listed. it has the easy-mapping functionality while also being animated. So, after seeing how the last form was set up, does this big Autotile make sense? It's the same style, but repeated for many frames in order to animate. Like a single tile animation, you can have as many frames as you want here.
- Credits
- No credits, it's a tutorial
