answered Sprite Replacement in Pokemon Platinum

[DerxwnaKapsyla]

For a few days now I've been trying to replace sprites in Platinum Version, however I keep getting met with something about an 8bpp error and that the sprite wouldn't work properly, and after writing it to the narc the sprite looks corrupted. I tried following the video tutorial but it still didn't help, that or I'm doing something wrong - but even then, I have no clue what. I'll go over my steps I'm taking.

Step 1: Extract sprite from GBA Rom Hack (Using APSE) and extract Bulbasaur from Platinum's narc file with PokeDSPicPlatinum

Step 2: Open both in gimp

Step 3: Set the coloring on the extracted GBA Sprite to indexed

Step 4: Extract the first sprite of the GBA Sprite (Since that's the normal sprite) and copy it into a new gimp window

Step 5: Resize the GBA Sprite without interpolation to 80x80

Step 6: Expand the canvas to 160x80, then copy the sprite to fill both frames

Step 7: Set the Bulbasaur sprite in gimp to use the GBA sprite's color table

Step 8: Copy over the GBA sprite to overwrite the Bulbasaur sprite entirely

Step 9: Save as a .png

Step 10: Import into pl_pokegra.narc with PokeDSPicPlatinum

And that's where I get the 8bpp error. Unfortunately, right now I'm unable to, but later I can revise this post with videos and screenshots if it'll help. But going off the above, would anyone know what I'm doing wrong, and how I can fix it?

[MeroMero]

Hi.

1. Make sure that you don't use more than 16 colors at time.
   
2. Make sure that each of the RGB values are divisible by 8, which means in hexadecimal each value should end with a 0 or a 8.
   
3. The background color should always be index number 0 to ensure transparency
   

If your image isn't already in indexed mode:

Go to Image > Mode > Indexed

Go to Windows > Dockable Dialogs > Colormap

There you can modify each of the indexes to make sure that the 2^nd and 3^rd criteria are fulfilled.

[DerxwnaKapsyla]

After looking over the sprite I'm using, I can be absolutely certain of several things:

Firstly, the sprite is currently using 16 colors, and is indexed - While I had to set it to indexed, it was already 16 colors because I extracted it from an Emerald rom hack

All the colors have 0 or 8 as their ending value, as listed in the HTML notation box - This also isn't surprising since, again, I extracted it from an Emerald rom hack, where the color limitation is still in effect.

The only color that seemed off was the 16th color, which was ffffff, to which I ask: What would I change that to; since it worked in Emerald why wouldn't it work here?

[MeroMero]

Change FFFFFF into F8F8F8 and it will work, the difference in shading will be negligible.

[DerxwnaKapsyla]

Things seem to be working now - the issue was that gimp cannot save in the proper format, so I had to switch to paint.net for the proper save format. However, I'm running into a new issue with sprites - specifically, a shiny sprite:

http://puu.sh/csAoN/8a2be183e5.png

Every time I try to insert it, write to the narc, the coloration goes haywire.

http://puu.sh/csApq/5d718da9e1.png

Any idea what could be causing the issue? I'm thinking it's the colors but... I'm not really sure.

Edited October 28, 2014 by DerxwnaKapsyla

[MeroMero]

I see what the problem is, and you're right in saying that the origin is the colors.

More specifically the slots order for your shiny palette is wrong.

To put it simply, each of the 16 colors of the shiny palette that replaces their respective color from the normal palette must be given the same slot number, otherwise you might end up with some discrepancies.

For example the color of the mouth in your normal palette is given the slot number 6 (beginning from the left), so you want to have the mouth's color for your shiny sprite as slot number 6.

Right now the color in slot number 6 for your shiny sprite is grey, not red as you intended.