4bpp tile/map editor

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jwdonal
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4bpp tile/map editor

Post by jwdonal »

I want to create some 8x8 tile-based graphics for a project I'm working on. The project is not NES/SNES/GB specific so didn't think it appropriate to post in those forums. I've been using yy-chr to draw my tiles. In yy-chr I have the "Graphics format" set to "4BPP MSX/MD/WSC". The reason I selected this format is two-fold. The first is because the pixel color values are packed nicely into each sequential nibble and not (for example) split up over two 8-byte regions like in the NES pattern table. This makes it so that I can easily read the entire pixel value out of an array with just one read. The second reason is because I wanted to have at least 16 colors to work with when creating my tiles (since these are not NES specific graphics that I'm creating I don't need to limit myself to 4 colors).

Now that I've got all my tiles created I was hoping for an easy way to lay them out on my 32x30 tile screen. However, I can't seem to find a tool that I can import my 4bpp tiles into, lay the tiles out on a grid, and then have the tool generate me a simple name-table-like hex file with all the index values into the tile memory.

Is there a tool somewhere that will do this for me? I've been trying out lots of different apps that google is uncovering but none of them do what I want. Shiru's NES Screen Tool would be soooo perfect but only supports the NES pattern table 2bpp format. :'(
lidnariq
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Re: 4bpp tile/map editor

Post by lidnariq »

I recently used the Tiled Map Editor to this end. It takes a bunch of pictures or cel sheets as input, rather than any specific packed format.
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jwdonal
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Re: 4bpp tile/map editor

Post by jwdonal »

I don't see any way for that tool to export the name-table-like tile index format that I need...

Also, yy-chr doesn't seem to have a way to export my tiles into and image format that I could import into Tiled.

So don't think that will work...
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jwdonal
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Re: 4bpp tile/map editor

Post by jwdonal »

Oh my gosh. I'm such a dorkus. yy-chr has a freakin background layout and name-table export tool built right in!!! The problem was that it wasn't at all obvious that it even existed. It was a push-button at the top with the label "BG SET". I actually hit the button by accident and I was "whoa baby!". Haha. Hitting that button opens up an entire other window with a background/map editor and a NAM file exporter! BITCHIN!!!
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thefox
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Re: 4bpp tile/map editor

Post by thefox »

Tiled is a generic map editor. It takes in an image file, such as a png (can't remember if it supports other formats), of the map tiles and saves the map in XML format. You'd have to write your own to convert the XML map to a format of your choice, if one doesn't exist already.
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