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How to use the online BG ripper

ExGFXRipping/DrawingTool-Specific

How to use Edit’s BG ripper


Hello there. I’m Sayuri and I will be your guide to using this pretty awesome tool for easily ripping graphics. Let’s get started!

(Note: This guide assumes you already know how to insert custom graphics into Lunar Magic, how to use Map16, and how foreground/background slots in Super GFX Bypass work)
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First off, there’s the link to the tool itself, which is here.

There are four resources you can rip graphics from with this tool: ZSNES/ZMZ savestates, Visual Boy Advance savestates, savestates from Sega Genesis/Megadrive emulators, and PNG images. The process is nearly identical no matter what savestates from those that you use.

This guide will cover background rips only. Foregrounds are much more time-consuming and tedious to rip, and will be covered at a later time.

To begin, make your savestate (or find your PNG image). When you get it, drag it somewhere you won’t lose it. Now open the BG ripper page and, under the text that says “This is the file to base your BG off of.” , click Browse and select your savestate. (If you’re using a PNG image, the width can be no greater than 512, or else the tool will throw an error at you!) Click the button at the bottom that says Start.

For savestates only: In the next page, you’ll see an image preview of what your savestate looks like, always by default reading from layer 2. Use the parameter boxes above the box to crop the image to how you want it to appear in-game. Keep in mind that due to the Super Nintendo’s default resolution of 256x224, only a limited area of the layer will be able to be used, so I advise you crop the image to those dimensions, or you can find a work-around. When you’re finished with your cropping, click the Continue button.

For PNG images: The page mentioned above will be skipped, so don't worry about any of that and move on to the steps below.

You’re now at the page for selecting the palette that your rip will use, the ExGFX tiles it will use, and the Map16 tiles it will use.

First up is the palette. You can use the dropdown menu to choose any palette row from 0 to 7, but I suggest you use only 2 to 7, lest you mess up the status bar palettes stored in the first two rows (unless you’re using a custom status bar that doesn’t use them; like the DKC Status Bar, then feel free)

Next is the ExGFX slot-selecting. There are four boxes here, but you’ll only be using the first three. This is where you select the slots that your rip will take up. The spaces for selecting the tiles to use are 16x8 rectangles. The top part of the first box is GFX14 (FG1). The bottom part is GFX17 (FG2). In the second box, the top part is GFX19 (BG1), and the bottom part is GFX15 (FG3). In the last usable box, the top part is BG2, and the bottom part is BG3.

Lastly is the Map16 tile selecting. There are 16 boxes here, but only 14 of them are usable – do NOT use the first two boxes, as these are for the original game’s backgrounds, and changing them will have ugly consequences.

The tiles here start at page 40 in Map16. However, they can go up to 7F - the "bank" button at the bottom changes if it uses the pages in the 40's, 50's, 60's, or 70's. So if you change the bank to 1, and you use the fourth box on the top row, you'll be using Map16 page 53. Now, choose the tiles that you want to use. The tool will tell you how many tiles you need to select at the top left, next to “Map16 tiles required:”. Say you choose to use the fourth box for your tiles – then your rip’s Map16 file needs to be inserted into page 43. So now, when you’ve finished, scroll to the bottom and click “Create ExGFX and Get Download Link”. You’ll get a ZIP folder containing your rip and everything you need to insert it.

Inside the ZIP folder are at least three things: a folder containing the Map16 page of the tiles you selected, a Lunar Magic MWL file containing an example of the assembled rip and its palette, and the graphics files.

First, open Lunar Magic and go to the level you want your rip in. Insert the .bin file in the Map16Page folder into the 16x16 Tile Map Editor window, and scroll to the page it’s supposed to be in and make sure you match it up exactly as you selected in the tool. Remember to save the changes.

Now for the graphics file(s) – they will be named after the areas you selected them in. If you only used the top part of the third box, for example, the file will be called “bg2.bin”. Rename the file to any ExGFX number you haven’t used, and insert it into your ROM. Open the Super GFX Bypass window and type in your new ExGFX file number into the slot you selected (FG1, BG2, BG1, etc).

Lastly, the palette and tile setup. Open the “level.mwl” file and open the palette editor. Copy the row with the palette of your rip and paste it into the actual level you’ll be using it in (make sure you paste it into the correct row). Now, you’ve probably noticed a garbled mess of tiles at the top-left. This is your rip, but it’s showing up like this because MWL files always open into level 25 by default, which probably isn’t set to use anything your rip is using. Anyways, open the background layer 2 editor and copy all the tiles that are part of your rip and paste them into the background of the level you’re using the rip in. Adjust the background as you see fit, and – ta-da! You’ve ripped a background from an external source. I’m so proud of you.

That concludes this guide – if you have any questions or suggestions to improve it, let me know. Thanks!
Seems like a pretty nice guide. The foreground tutorial should be useful too! #smw{:TUP:}

ExGFXRipping/DrawingTool-Specific