- Creating Fake HDMA Gradients -
What is a fake HDMA gradient? Well, a gradient specifies a range of position- or value-dependent colors, usually used to fill a region. Basically, one color blending into another.
How to Make It:
Step 1: Setting Up The Palette
Okay, we've opened up Lunar Magic. Now what?
Well, first of all, if we want the palette to appear ONLY IN THIS LEVEL, we first must check "Enable Custom Palette". If "Enable Custom Palette" is NOT checked, then the palette will be shared globally(throughout the game).
Now, click on the Rainbow Star- the "Palette Editor" Dialogue.
Now the "Palette Editor" Dialogue has popped up. These colors are this level's palette. You must decide which Palette Row you want to use for your gradient. I suggest palette 1, because it is rarely used for anything, but you might also want to use palette 7, which means your gradient would share its palette with water. If you do that, you'll have to play around to get the water to look right, but sometimes its worth the extra palette row. Anyways, for this tutorial I chose palette 1.
Now, copy your Back Area Color and paste it on whichever palette row you're using, but COLOR 8. I've circled where color 8 is located in red. Every color in that VERTICAL row is color 8. This color will be the color on one end of the gradient(the bottom).
Now, what color do you want the other end of the gradient(top) to be? You decide, and remember that you can change this anytime later. Paste it on COLOR 1(which I've circled in red) of the palette row you're using.
Now, hold ALT and right-click on COLOR 1 in the palette row you're using. Then, still holding ALT, right-click on COLOR 8 of the palette row you're using. This should produce a gradient in the Palette Editor Dialogue. This is what will appear in the background of your level. However, first we must set the background up.
Step 2: Setting Up The Background
Open up the 16x16 Tile Map Editor Window by clicking on the full ?-block.
This is the 16x16 Tile Map Editor Window. Scroll through it with the down and up arrow keys until you come to the page your vanilla background uses(either 10 or 11 depending on the background).
This is what the hill BG's page looks like. Now, unless you wanna screw around and possibly mess something up with your ROM, BE SURE TO DO THIS STEP: Press F2, a popup like this should appear asking if you want to save the Map16 page data to Map16Page and Map16Pageg. Say yes.
Now, scroll to an empty page(you can tell it's empty if it's filled with the little blue squares like this) with a VALUE HIGHER THAN 11. I chose 12.
Press F3. It should ask if you want to LOAD the date from the Map16Page and Map16Pageg onto the current Map16 page. Say yes.
A page of Map16 data that looks EXACTLY like the one you saved should appear. Hooray.
Now, click on "Edit 16x16 attributes after selecting ANY tile.
First of all, edit it so the tile uses the palette row # you're using for your gradient.
IMPORTANT INFO DIRECTLY BELOW
Well, you now have to set up which 8x8 tiles each 16x16 tile will use. Make sure to set up each tile so there are 2 8x8 tiles horizontally next to eachother, and the next 2 below.
Now, a nice 8x8 solid color tile guide:
Color 1: tile F9
Color 2: tile FA
Color 3: tile FB
Color 4: tile FC
Color 5: tile FD
Color 6: tile FE
Color 7: tile FF</span>
If you have a question about that part, feel free to ask, as I was quite vague(as it's hard to explain).
After creating each 16x16 tile, paste it in preferably the garbled section of the bottom right.
Once you're finished pasting all your 16x16 tiles, REMEMBER TO PRESS F9 TO SAVE YOUR MAP16 PAGE!!
WE'RE NOT DONE QUITE YET! Open up the Background Editor with the button that looks like a leaf(it's inbetween the ?-block and Castle buttons).
Now, and this part's important, scroll with the PageUp and PageDown buttons through the BG Editor until it says the BG uses the Map16 which contains your gradient tiles. Paste your gradient tiles on the background.
Now we're done, a Fake HDMA Gradient in our background! Now you can play around and get different results(by the way, this method works for other vanilla backgrounds such as forests, mountains, clouds, ANYTHING) such as these:
What is a fake HDMA gradient? Well, a gradient specifies a range of position- or value-dependent colors, usually used to fill a region. Basically, one color blending into another.
How to Make It:
Step 1: Setting Up The Palette
Okay, we've opened up Lunar Magic. Now what?
Well, first of all, if we want the palette to appear ONLY IN THIS LEVEL, we first must check "Enable Custom Palette". If "Enable Custom Palette" is NOT checked, then the palette will be shared globally(throughout the game).
Now, click on the Rainbow Star- the "Palette Editor" Dialogue.
Now the "Palette Editor" Dialogue has popped up. These colors are this level's palette. You must decide which Palette Row you want to use for your gradient. I suggest palette 1, because it is rarely used for anything, but you might also want to use palette 7, which means your gradient would share its palette with water. If you do that, you'll have to play around to get the water to look right, but sometimes its worth the extra palette row. Anyways, for this tutorial I chose palette 1.
Now, copy your Back Area Color and paste it on whichever palette row you're using, but COLOR 8. I've circled where color 8 is located in red. Every color in that VERTICAL row is color 8. This color will be the color on one end of the gradient(the bottom).
Now, what color do you want the other end of the gradient(top) to be? You decide, and remember that you can change this anytime later. Paste it on COLOR 1(which I've circled in red) of the palette row you're using.
Now, hold ALT and right-click on COLOR 1 in the palette row you're using. Then, still holding ALT, right-click on COLOR 8 of the palette row you're using. This should produce a gradient in the Palette Editor Dialogue. This is what will appear in the background of your level. However, first we must set the background up.
Step 2: Setting Up The Background
Open up the 16x16 Tile Map Editor Window by clicking on the full ?-block.
This is the 16x16 Tile Map Editor Window. Scroll through it with the down and up arrow keys until you come to the page your vanilla background uses(either 10 or 11 depending on the background).
This is what the hill BG's page looks like. Now, unless you wanna screw around and possibly mess something up with your ROM, BE SURE TO DO THIS STEP: Press F2, a popup like this should appear asking if you want to save the Map16 page data to Map16Page and Map16Pageg. Say yes.
Now, scroll to an empty page(you can tell it's empty if it's filled with the little blue squares like this) with a VALUE HIGHER THAN 11. I chose 12.
Press F3. It should ask if you want to LOAD the date from the Map16Page and Map16Pageg onto the current Map16 page. Say yes.
A page of Map16 data that looks EXACTLY like the one you saved should appear. Hooray.
Now, click on "Edit 16x16 attributes after selecting ANY tile.
First of all, edit it so the tile uses the palette row # you're using for your gradient.
IMPORTANT INFO DIRECTLY BELOW
Well, you now have to set up which 8x8 tiles each 16x16 tile will use. Make sure to set up each tile so there are 2 8x8 tiles horizontally next to eachother, and the next 2 below.
Now, a nice 8x8 solid color tile guide:
Color 1: tile F9
Color 2: tile FA
Color 3: tile FB
Color 4: tile FC
Color 5: tile FD
Color 6: tile FE
Color 7: tile FF</span>
If you have a question about that part, feel free to ask, as I was quite vague(as it's hard to explain).
After creating each 16x16 tile, paste it in preferably the garbled section of the bottom right.
Once you're finished pasting all your 16x16 tiles, REMEMBER TO PRESS F9 TO SAVE YOUR MAP16 PAGE!!
WE'RE NOT DONE QUITE YET! Open up the Background Editor with the button that looks like a leaf(it's inbetween the ?-block and Castle buttons).
Now, and this part's important, scroll with the PageUp and PageDown buttons through the BG Editor until it says the BG uses the Map16 which contains your gradient tiles. Paste your gradient tiles on the background.
Now we're done, a Fake HDMA Gradient in our background! Now you can play around and get different results(by the way, this method works for other vanilla backgrounds such as forests, mountains, clouds, ANYTHING) such as these:
Might just be a personal habit of mine though...
and no problem.
