ROM Hack Is there a way to edit the graphics in a homebrew?

[HipN]

^Topic.

Please, and thanks!

 

[chuckstudios]

First off, what homebrew?

Most sane developers that have embedded graphics would probably use a 15 or 16 bit graphics format, so looking at the homebrew in Tile Molester may help.

 

[HipN]

Homer and the Lost Donut. I am trying to replace some things, like the donut, and some character images. Also some things in the menu, like the options and so on...

EDIT: I tried Tile Molester, and it was weird. There were no clear tiles or anything. Just a bunch of squares and stuff. Most, if not all were small sqaures that had a certain colour, and so on...


I guess I can't edit this game.

 

[chuckstudios]

You have to play with Tile Molester's options to get it to work

 

[FAST6191]

A lot of homebrew uses bitmap (GBA and "PC" style and on rare occasion JPEG) images as well, not to mention LZ77 (vram safe) compression of imagery so you may need to find some stuff out.

Of course a lot is "built" with NDSTool (or some other nitroROM file system builder) so that is a good place to look.

 

[chuckstudios]

FAST: Most homebrew does not use NitroFS, due to the lack of argv[0] on the DS. The only homebrew that can use it uses EFSlib, which is rather rare.

 

[FAST6191]

Guess I looked a rather biased selection of makefiles, my bad.

 

[HipN]

For some reason. NDSTool won't work on my PC. a quick dos window or w/e its called pops up for a split second, and then disappears.

 

[FAST6191]

it is a command line app, some use DSLazy as a frontend but I use batch files:
Disassembly

I have included a rename command so you can simply put the batch file, the uncompressed rom and ndstool in an empty folder and run the batch file to disassemble the rom, if you have the rebuilding batch file as well you can copy that across as it will not affect the process.

rename *.nds x.nds
ndstool -x x.nds -9 arm9.bin -7 arm7.bin -y9 y9.bin -y7 y7.bin -d data -y overlay -t banner.bin -h header.bin

Now you just have to run this batch file (it is essentially a program so just double click it) and a DOS prompt will flash up wait 30 odd seconds (depending on rom size) and the DOS prompt will close and on your drive in the same directory as the batch file and ndstool some folders will appear (data, overlay...) and a bunch of files will appear, now you can edit the rom as you please although I suggest you stick to the data directory as the others contain fairly vital data which is rarely that big anyway.

Rebuilding/compiling:

ndstool -c xmod.nds -9 arm9.bin -7 arm7.bin -y9 y9.bin -y7 y7.bin -d data -y overlay -t banner.bin -h header.bin

When you run this from the same directory as NDSTool and a previously disassembled (and now probably modified) rom it will make up a file called xmod.nds.
You can leave the original x.nds file alone and if you are using it the disassembly batch file as well for this batch file will not cause ndstool to use anything else other than the files required to be included in the rom it makes up.

You can also include a few more commands like "del *.bin" and "rd data /s /q" and "rd overlay /s /q" after the ndstool section to tidy up after rebuilding but you will likely be deleting files and hoping the file gets small enough so you do not really want to get rid the files that quickly, many find it nice however if they can be rid of "useless files" if you make a batch file to go with your rip guide.

Now you can have three files (ndstool and the two batch files) which you can use to build and disassemble roms, I also keep a copy of goldeneyes small sound file to hand in the same directory as these three files are stored in for convenience.

 

[HipN]

....................Okay.. I didn't get a single thing. But thanks anyways. The problem is, the program just doesn't work. The DOS command windows comes up for half a second, literally, and disappears.

Is there a program that simply opens a x.nds and shows me a bunch of sprites and stuff?

 

[chuckstudios]

Tile Molester. But like I said, you have to change the options to see stuff.

 

[outphase]

....................Okay.. I didn't get a single thing. But thanks anyways. The problem is, the program just doesn't work. The DOS command windows comes up for half a second, literally, and disappears.

Is there a program that simply opens a x.nds and shows me a bunch of sprites and stuff?

Use the command prompt...