Here we go again, in this tutorial I will explain you the basics of Lunar Magic.
The first thing you always should do is opening your rom in Lunar Magic. You all know how that works. You also know how to save your edited game. If you're too stupid for finding it in the toolbar, you could use the options from the "File" box.
If you want to add objects, make sure the button with the standart SMW ground is pressed. Then click on the button with the turn block on it. A window with all available objects shows up.
The numbers on the left is the objects number. In the dropdown-box you will find four options:
- Standard Objects -----> These objects are the standart objects that are used in all levels by Nintendo.
- Tileset Specific Objects -----> These objects are tiles that are looking and acting depends on the Tileset that is set for the level.
- Extended Objects -----> These objects are tiles like question and turn blocks, bushes and etc. They need the right Tileset to be shown correctly.
Direct Map16 Access (Lunar Magic) -----> Here are all tiles that can be pasted manually. Instead of a whole pipe, here you can paste the pipe tiles seperatly. With the Direct Map16 Access, you insert the ExGFX FG's too.
To paste the tiles, select one and press the right mouse button. To make them bigger or smaller, go to the bottom-right corner until you see a arrow. Hold the left mouse button and stretch or make them smaller. To delete a tile, mark it and press "DEL".
To add sprites, make sure the button with the shell is pressed. Then click on the button with the Baby Yoshi on it. A window with all available sprites pops up.
Like in the "Add Objects" window, the numbers on the left says which number the sprite is. There are three options:
- Standard Sprites -----> These sprites are shown in each level correctly regardless of which tileset is choosen. You can use them each time without any bad side-effects.
- Tileset Specific Sprites -----> These sprites are the ones that are used for levels that has the correct graphics loaded for them. Let us take for example the Bob-Omb: On the top left it says "SP4=02". You should see the Bob-Omb in level 105 garbled. It is because the wrong GFX file is loaded. To change that, click on the red poisonus mushroom, (I explain that later), check the box and click on the SP4 dropdown-box. Then scroll to 02, click on it and press OK. Now the Bob-Omb should have the correct graphics but the bullet bills and Rex's are messed up. This happened because the bullet bill uses SP4 too. But you changed it to show the Bob-Omb correctly. To change that back, click in the SP4 on 20 and click OK. (The same goes for sprites that uses the other SP settings)
Why aren't the Koopas messed up when I change the SP4 setting? Like I mentioned before, this is a standart sprite and can be used in each level.
- Special Commands and Generators -----> These sprites are the ones that makes for example, moving the Layer 2 or let generating bullet bills from all sides. They don't need any setting for themselves but the sprites that are spawned need them, so don't forget to change them. To delete a sprite, mark it and press "DEL".
I mentioned that objects before, they have special settings and GFX depend on the tileset that is used. Let's say, you want to use Castle GFX in level 105 but all castle tiles are garbled and some tiles are missing. What to do? Click on the button with the blue, poisonus mushroom on it and a window comes up. There is a drop-down box that says "Change FG/BG GFX" and a box that says "Change Sprite GFX". To have a castle tileset, click on the first drop-down box and select "1: FG1=14, FG2=17, BG1=1B, FG3=18 T:1 (Castle 1) and click ok. The tiles of level 105 should be changed now to castle GFX. Notice how the Tileset Specific Tiles in the Add Objects window changed too. The FG tiles may have now wrong palettes. To change that, click on the button with the blue star on it and a window with many colors and drop-down boxes comes up. To change the palette of the FG tiles, change the option in the drop-down box where it says "FG Palette 0" until you find the colors you want. Then hit OK. To get a castle BG, go to "Level -----> Copy Background Image" and type in a level number of a castle, an example would be 101. The palette of the background can be changed by the palette editor (rainbow star) too. Remember the second drop-down box "Change Sprite GFX when you click on the blue poisonus mushroom? In the brackets you should see enemy names, if you use this enemys in a level, change the settings in that drop-down box to that enemy to get correct settings and to avoid errors like "Enemy dissappearing" etc.
These editors are one of the most important tools featured by Lunar Magic when you want to alter or add graphics.
Let us open the 8x8 editor and see what does what. The first thing you'll see are tiles like the pipes, bushes, the door and the animated tiles like the question block or the coins. You can cycle through the palettes by pressing PageUp/Down. Each tile uses one palette row (explained later). At the bottom, it will say "Rendered with palette 0x1" if you press PageUp. Pressing it more times will cycle through the other palettes.
Pressing up/down on the arrow key will cycle through the pages, there are 4 standart pages, page 0,1,2 and 3. The first two pages are showing Layer 1/2 graphics, the other two are showing the sprite graphics. The first half of page 0 is FG1, the second half is FG2, the first half of page 1 is BG1 and the second half FG3. The first half of page 2 is SP1, the second half is SP2, the first half of page 3 is SP3 and the second half SP4. This is important for inserting ExGFX, so remember that for now, I'll explain this later aswell.
What exactly are these editors good for now?
See, each 16x16 tile consists of 4 8x8 tiles. Every tile you see in Lunar Magic (when you edit the levels) are made up of 8x8 tiles. These editors can change the graphics used by your ROM completely. Now, if you want to change the appearing of some objects, open up the Map16 editor and search for the tile you want edit. Let's take for example the moon, tile 6E.
How do I know which tile has which number?
If you hover your mouse on a tile, on the bottom of the editor, it will say "Tile 0x6E (Adress 0x370)". The number I underlined is crucial, don't bother about the rest. This applies for the moon tile now.
Let us continue with changing the moon tile. So, click on it and press the button "Edit 16x16 Attributes" seen in the Map16 window. You will get a little window now which contains the informations of the tile, made up of which tiles, use which palette, layer priority and the behavior. Good, in the 8x8 editor, when you hover your mouse on a tile, you'll see something like this at the bottom: "Tile 0x8D (Adress 0x11A0)." Like in the 16x16 editor, the underlined number here is the one we need. Tile 8D is the top-right part of the moon.
The little window that contains all the informations for the 16x16 tile you want to alter has 4 boxes at the top, saying which 8x8 tiles are used. Since tile 8D in the 8x8 editor is the top-right tile of the moon, it's in the rop-right box. This means, if you want to change the moon to, let's say a coin, you input following:
Top-Left Box: 6C ; Since this is the top-left part of the coin
Top-Right Box: 6D ; Since this is the top-right part of the coin
Bottom-Left Box: 6E ; Since this is the bottom-left part of the coin
Bottom-Right Box: 6F ; Since this is the bottom-right part of the coin
Then select a palette (you can view the palettes in the palette editor, more info about that later), the priority (should the tile appear behind or in front of Mario) and the behavior (act like a question block, a cement block, etc... the tile you input there is the same number you get when you hover your mouse on a tile in the Map16 window). right-click on the moon object and press F9. This saves the Map16 data, if you don't do this step, all the objects will turn in they former form when you re-load the rom. So never forget this.
Hooray, you changed your first object! Simple, not?
There are other additional commands to modify the tiles more:
Flip X: This flips the tile horizontally.
Flip Y: This flips the tile vertically.
Edit 8x8 Attributes: Here you can change the palette for each 8x8 tile to customize the tile more.
Flip X: This flips the 8x8 tile horizontally that is selected.
Flip Y: This flips the 8x8 tile vertically that's selected.
I will update this tutorial from time to time. Please don't PM me for questions. Copyright by Buu-Huu
1. Getting Started
The first thing you always should do is opening your rom in Lunar Magic. You all know how that works. You also know how to save your edited game. If you're too stupid for finding it in the toolbar, you could use the options from the "File" box.
2. Adding Objects
If you want to add objects, make sure the button with the standart SMW ground is pressed. Then click on the button with the turn block on it. A window with all available objects shows up.
The numbers on the left is the objects number. In the dropdown-box you will find four options:
- Standard Objects -----> These objects are the standart objects that are used in all levels by Nintendo.
- Tileset Specific Objects -----> These objects are tiles that are looking and acting depends on the Tileset that is set for the level.
- Extended Objects -----> These objects are tiles like question and turn blocks, bushes and etc. They need the right Tileset to be shown correctly.
Direct Map16 Access (Lunar Magic) -----> Here are all tiles that can be pasted manually. Instead of a whole pipe, here you can paste the pipe tiles seperatly. With the Direct Map16 Access, you insert the ExGFX FG's too.
To paste the tiles, select one and press the right mouse button. To make them bigger or smaller, go to the bottom-right corner until you see a arrow. Hold the left mouse button and stretch or make them smaller. To delete a tile, mark it and press "DEL".
3. Adding Sprites
To add sprites, make sure the button with the shell is pressed. Then click on the button with the Baby Yoshi on it. A window with all available sprites pops up.
Like in the "Add Objects" window, the numbers on the left says which number the sprite is. There are three options:
- Standard Sprites -----> These sprites are shown in each level correctly regardless of which tileset is choosen. You can use them each time without any bad side-effects.
- Tileset Specific Sprites -----> These sprites are the ones that are used for levels that has the correct graphics loaded for them. Let us take for example the Bob-Omb: On the top left it says "SP4=02". You should see the Bob-Omb in level 105 garbled. It is because the wrong GFX file is loaded. To change that, click on the red poisonus mushroom, (I explain that later), check the box and click on the SP4 dropdown-box. Then scroll to 02, click on it and press OK. Now the Bob-Omb should have the correct graphics but the bullet bills and Rex's are messed up. This happened because the bullet bill uses SP4 too. But you changed it to show the Bob-Omb correctly. To change that back, click in the SP4 on 20 and click OK. (The same goes for sprites that uses the other SP settings)
Why aren't the Koopas messed up when I change the SP4 setting? Like I mentioned before, this is a standart sprite and can be used in each level.
- Special Commands and Generators -----> These sprites are the ones that makes for example, moving the Layer 2 or let generating bullet bills from all sides. They don't need any setting for themselves but the sprites that are spawned need them, so don't forget to change them. To delete a sprite, mark it and press "DEL".
4. Using Tileset Specific Objects
I mentioned that objects before, they have special settings and GFX depend on the tileset that is used. Let's say, you want to use Castle GFX in level 105 but all castle tiles are garbled and some tiles are missing. What to do? Click on the button with the blue, poisonus mushroom on it and a window comes up. There is a drop-down box that says "Change FG/BG GFX" and a box that says "Change Sprite GFX". To have a castle tileset, click on the first drop-down box and select "1: FG1=14, FG2=17, BG1=1B, FG3=18 T:1 (Castle 1) and click ok. The tiles of level 105 should be changed now to castle GFX. Notice how the Tileset Specific Tiles in the Add Objects window changed too. The FG tiles may have now wrong palettes. To change that, click on the button with the blue star on it and a window with many colors and drop-down boxes comes up. To change the palette of the FG tiles, change the option in the drop-down box where it says "FG Palette 0" until you find the colors you want. Then hit OK. To get a castle BG, go to "Level -----> Copy Background Image" and type in a level number of a castle, an example would be 101. The palette of the background can be changed by the palette editor (rainbow star) too. Remember the second drop-down box "Change Sprite GFX when you click on the blue poisonus mushroom? In the brackets you should see enemy names, if you use this enemys in a level, change the settings in that drop-down box to that enemy to get correct settings and to avoid errors like "Enemy dissappearing" etc.
5. 8x8 and 16x16 Editor
These editors are one of the most important tools featured by Lunar Magic when you want to alter or add graphics.
Let us open the 8x8 editor and see what does what. The first thing you'll see are tiles like the pipes, bushes, the door and the animated tiles like the question block or the coins. You can cycle through the palettes by pressing PageUp/Down. Each tile uses one palette row (explained later). At the bottom, it will say "Rendered with palette 0x1" if you press PageUp. Pressing it more times will cycle through the other palettes.
Pressing up/down on the arrow key will cycle through the pages, there are 4 standart pages, page 0,1,2 and 3. The first two pages are showing Layer 1/2 graphics, the other two are showing the sprite graphics. The first half of page 0 is FG1, the second half is FG2, the first half of page 1 is BG1 and the second half FG3. The first half of page 2 is SP1, the second half is SP2, the first half of page 3 is SP3 and the second half SP4. This is important for inserting ExGFX, so remember that for now, I'll explain this later aswell.
What exactly are these editors good for now?
See, each 16x16 tile consists of 4 8x8 tiles. Every tile you see in Lunar Magic (when you edit the levels) are made up of 8x8 tiles. These editors can change the graphics used by your ROM completely. Now, if you want to change the appearing of some objects, open up the Map16 editor and search for the tile you want edit. Let's take for example the moon, tile 6E.
How do I know which tile has which number?
If you hover your mouse on a tile, on the bottom of the editor, it will say "Tile 0x6E (Adress 0x370)". The number I underlined is crucial, don't bother about the rest. This applies for the moon tile now.
Let us continue with changing the moon tile. So, click on it and press the button "Edit 16x16 Attributes" seen in the Map16 window. You will get a little window now which contains the informations of the tile, made up of which tiles, use which palette, layer priority and the behavior. Good, in the 8x8 editor, when you hover your mouse on a tile, you'll see something like this at the bottom: "Tile 0x8D (Adress 0x11A0)." Like in the 16x16 editor, the underlined number here is the one we need. Tile 8D is the top-right part of the moon.
The little window that contains all the informations for the 16x16 tile you want to alter has 4 boxes at the top, saying which 8x8 tiles are used. Since tile 8D in the 8x8 editor is the top-right tile of the moon, it's in the rop-right box. This means, if you want to change the moon to, let's say a coin, you input following:
Top-Left Box: 6C ; Since this is the top-left part of the coin
Top-Right Box: 6D ; Since this is the top-right part of the coin
Bottom-Left Box: 6E ; Since this is the bottom-left part of the coin
Bottom-Right Box: 6F ; Since this is the bottom-right part of the coin
Then select a palette (you can view the palettes in the palette editor, more info about that later), the priority (should the tile appear behind or in front of Mario) and the behavior (act like a question block, a cement block, etc... the tile you input there is the same number you get when you hover your mouse on a tile in the Map16 window). right-click on the moon object and press F9. This saves the Map16 data, if you don't do this step, all the objects will turn in they former form when you re-load the rom. So never forget this.
Hooray, you changed your first object! Simple, not?
There are other additional commands to modify the tiles more:
Flip X: This flips the tile horizontally.
Flip Y: This flips the tile vertically.
Edit 8x8 Attributes: Here you can change the palette for each 8x8 tile to customize the tile more.
Flip X: This flips the 8x8 tile horizontally that is selected.
Flip Y: This flips the 8x8 tile vertically that's selected.
I will update this tutorial from time to time. Please don't PM me for questions. Copyright by Buu-Huu