Gaming Animal Crossing: New Leaf Pattern Tool (work in progress)

[Thulinma]

Hey all,

Some of the old ACWW players might recognize my name - I'm the guy that made the ACWW pattern tool back in 2006 (geez, has it really been that long?).

Well, naturally I couldn't resist creating something similar for the new ACNL, now that it's out.
It's still very much experimental and a work in progress - but it does work.

ACNL Pattern Tool can be found here
Currently only tested as working in the latest versions of Chrome/Chromium/Firefox - any other browsers are out of luck for now (but please report if they work so I can add them to the list).

This is a pretty radically different direction from the old windows-only application I made back in 2006 - this is a HTML5 javascript application that runs completely client-side in your browser. Yes, that means it's open source pretty much by default.
There's a FAQ at the bottom of the page - please read it before you start.

Current features are:

• Generating of ACNL-scan-able QR codes (will update live as you change the pattern)
• Changing pattern name, creator name, town name, and all related IDs
• Changing the palette (all colors and combinations supported)
• Drawing right in your browser
• Downloading your pattern as a .acnl file
• Loading .acnl files from disk
• Loading QR code images from disk
• Copy/pasting creator information (copy from one of your own patterns and paste onto another to make the pattern editable in-game)
• Auto-conversion from any image file to a pattern (quality is low at the moment, I will improve this later)
• Everything works with regular and pro patterns
• User-changable zoom levels
• Offline version available through download link in the FAQ

Some stuff I still plan to add over the coming days:

• importing stored ACWW files
• adding a pattern database with tagging/search
• experimenting with out of bounds color values (many values are not used in-game...)
• Adding image conversion for pro designs
• Figure out what the 6 bytes of unknown data represent
• Add support for viewing/changing the pattern type

Feedback welcome!
(And volunteers that want to help make it better are welcome as well, of course!)

 

[bobmcjr]

If you'd be willing to incorporate some java (not script), you could use zxing, or just run a native zxing app on your server that reads a qr code passed to it through javascript and returns a decoded form. I know it supports animal crossing qr codes as the iOS ACNL image converter uses it. Also, I assume you've tried jsqrcode
I mainly want qr code reading support to grab the town and creator id's from my patterns.
BTW, it does work in Firefox (at least 21+)

 

[Thulinma]

If you'd be willing to incorporate some java (not script), you could use zxing, or just run a native zxing app on your server that reads a qr code passed to it through javascript and returns a decoded form. I know it supports animal crossing qr codes as the iOS ACNL image converter uses it. Also, I assume you've tried jsqrcode
I mainly want qr code reading support to grab the town and creator id's from my patterns.
BTW, it does work in Firefox (at least 21+)

Yes, I've tried jsqcode. It doesn't recognize ACNL codes, even though it's supposed to be a direct port of the zxing code... It seems it doesn't. Yes, the Java version of zxing does work - but I'm intent on keeping this 100% JavaScript just to see if it can be done. I may be forced to code my own QR code reader that can only ready animal crossing codes... Meh. If I have to, I will. :-)

Good to hear that it does work in Firefox - when I tested here in Firefox, the imagine would shift by 2 pixels every time you change drawing colors. That doesn't happen for you?

 

[signz]

Good to hear that it does work in Firefox - when I tested here in Firefox, the imagine would shift by 2 pixels every time you change drawing colors. That doesn't happen for you?

It does here (Firefox 21.0 (looks like an update is being downloaded)) - change drawing colour and it shifts and even changes colours like crazy.

€dit: Same in Firefox 22.0. :/

 

[Alexvire]

Good luck, I remember me use your program in 2006 for the DS game.

 

[bobmcjr]

It does here (Firefox 21.0 (looks like an update is being downloaded)) - change drawing colour and it shifts and even changes colours like crazy.

€dit: Same in Firefox 22.0. :/

Nevermind, I guess it does do that..

 

[Ahh-chuu]

I've been looking up and down for something like this, I found a break down of how the qt codes are read but I can't use it's once I have no idea how to read it or code for that matter. Maybe it will help you though?
http://programresource.net/en/2013/05/04/2183.html

 

[Thulinma]

I've been looking up and down for something like this, I found a break down of how the qt codes are read but I can't use it's once I have no idea how to read it or code for that matter. Maybe it will help you though?
http://programresource.net/en/2013/05/04/2183.html

Thanks, but the problem is not so much that I don't know how to do it (I do know - since I can create them I can easily read them too), but more that I was hoping to use a library instead of needing to code it myself, which is a lot of work.

 

[Ahh-chuu]

I see that would indeed be a hassle, well ill definitely keep looking around and se if I can find any more resources, but that you for all the effort you've put forward so far! This is a great program !

 

[Thulinma]

I just uploaded a new version (you may have to ctrl+shift+R or ctr+shiftl+f5 to get the updated version), with the following changes:

- Firefox support
- Loading acnl files is now possible
- Added copy/paste buttons for creator information

Updated the main post to reflect these changes.


EDIT:
Again an update, this time the changes are:
- Now reads most ACNL QR codes (I found the problem in the jsqrcode library and fixed it - it can now read most, though not all, ACNL QR codes). Simply upload an image file containing one QR code using the file upload button on the tool itself and it'll read it for you.
- Changed the default pattern to a blank pattern.
- Removed the preset patterns (they were used without permission and though I doubt it'll be a problem, it's nice not to have to rely on others for content). Since you can now upload any QR code to read out the pattern, this should be no problem.

EDIT2:
- Added support for converting any image into a pattern (quality not very high atm - will improve later).
- Updated the colors to look better (like in-game).

EDIT3:
June 30 version changelog:
- Support for pro patterns (both import and export)
- added pixel grid
- added zoom buttons
- added offline version download link in FAQ

EDIT4:
- Added more image conversion modes (for better quality when converting)

 

[sound214]

This sounds amazing. However, the link you provided doesn't seem to work anymore.

 

[omgpwn666]

Yes, the link is down. Other than that, I love this thing.

 

[Phyzoon]

Could you fix the link please? I used it before the update, it was great already.

 

[Argyle]

Dying to try this out, but the link is dead still, sadly. 404'ed out the door.

 

[Thulinma]

Fixed it. Sorry, forgot the server got rebooted and in-progress projects aren't automatically restored to the webserver from disk.
Everything is back online and I'll put the project in the list so it gets auto-restored on reboots.

 

[Argyle]

Fantastic work! As a pixel artist with a large amount of pixel art already made that I can extract some designs from, this is very exciting. Thanks for making it!

 

[medoli900]

I have a suggestion:Cropping image
I can't code it myself,but here he did it.
Its more practical than resizing the image and its perfect to make pattern.

 

[anthonyplep]

I'm having trouble taking this pro design and changing it so its mine so I can edit to my liking. I load up the design, I load up blank of mine in another tab, and copy paste the creator and town on mine into the one im trying to edit, but im not able to redesign it once scanned back into the game

Edit: I think its probably because its a pro design, and it seems you cant edit those regardless

 

[Thulinma]

I have a suggestion:Cropping image
I can't code it myself,but here he did it.
Its more practical than resizing the image and its perfect to make pattern.

That makes sense. I'll see what I can do to add this.

I'm having trouble taking this pro design and changing it so its mine so I can edit to my liking. I load up the design, I load up blank of mine in another tab, and copy paste the creator and town on mine into the one im trying to edit, but im not able to redesign it once scanned back into the game

Edit: I think its probably because its a pro design, and it seems you cant edit those regardless

If you're using two tabs, you can't just copy/paste like that. Sometimes the town name includes unprintable characters which can only be copied using the copy/paste buttons in the editor. So, load a design of your own, hit the copy button, then load the design you want to turn into yours and hit the paste button. Pro designs can't be edited in-game, but they can be reverted to "simple" patterns if they are yours instead. If you don't see that option, the game doesn't consider the design to be yours yet and your name/town or the ID's weren't copied over correctly.

 

[JohnnyBlaze1986]

AWESOME! Thanks for this! I just bought a kilt in the game today, so now I can make a Hot Rod Shirt to go along with it! We should SERIOUSLY make a thread with all of our QR creations. I can make wrestling shirts like I did for City Folk.