11 replies to this topic

[anarkhya]

Hello there,

Context is: I'm totally new to anything ZC, I've launched the editor for the first time this month. I did study Zelda I graphics for the past three weeks or so, and gave a shot at remaking the og graphics, using my graphic editor and Tiled app, for convenience with tiles arrangement.

 

I have a tileset in front of me that can generate most if not all screens of the og overworld. I did respect some of the Nes specs, like 3 color+transparency per tile, while I ignored the nes palettes altogether as they weren't flexible enough for the output I wanted.

 

My question is this: What would be the most easy and user-friendly way for me to mass import a tileset I've built into ZC ?

Edited by anarkhya, 21 July 2024 - 09:00 PM.

[Russ]

The first step you'd wanna do is to set up the palettes in ZC. You've already been building the tileset following NES rules, so that'll simplify it (ZC can handle 15 colors + transparency per tile, and that's not counting using 8-bit mode, but still, following NES pecs means you've got a ZC-compatible palette guaranteed). To do that, you'd wanna go to Quest->Graphics->Palettes->Levels, find a blank palette (or just overwrite the first one), and rip your colors in. Csets 2-4 are the csets used for overworld/dungeon/environment colors, so for each, you'd have color 0 be transparent, then colors 1-3 be the three colors.

 

With that done, you'd go to Quest->Graphics->Tiles. Find an empty page or delete tiles to make room. Click the grab button, then click file, and select the image of your tileset. Likely, the colors will look wrong, but if you press R, ZC will auto recolor them into the current cset. This will allow you to select the tiles and rip them into the tile page. Selecting the upper left tile, holding shift, and selecting the bottom right will let you grab a whole chunk of tiles at once.

 

Lastly, you'll need to turn them into combos. The easiest way to mass convert tiles into combos is to select a group of combos (selecting the upper left tile, holding shift, and selecting the bottom right), press M, then select a blank spot on the combo page. Each tile will be made into a combo, and it will let you set the properties of all the new combos at once (very useful if you're creating combos for a whole chunk of solid objects and only want to set solidity once).  Keep in mind that the combo page is only 4 combos wide, so if you select a chunk of tiles greater than 4 wide, the result will be a little funky looking.

 

I hope this helps. I tried to make it as newby friendly as possible, though I admit a lot of ZC isn't the most intuitive to newcomers, so if you need any help (for example, what a cset is), happy to elaborate.

[anarkhya]

Thanks for elaborating, reading it without the editor at hands, it looks not thaaaaat painful to do. Also because I was mentally ready to accept there would be no straight and intuitive way to do what I want, when I looked at the Zeditor's interface. I don't know what a combo is (but I think I get it), nor a cset, but I'll get back with questions about the vocabulary, after some practice in the editor.

 

Oh and an important note on the context: I'm not interested in quest creation, just about releasing graphics that would be usable in an engine, though if I get it right, I must create a qst file which contains this tileset, that is the only way for my goal ?

Edited by anarkhya, 21 July 2024 - 11:38 PM.

[Moosh]

Depending on the scope of what you have made it may be easier to submit your tiles as loose tile submissions. A feature complete tileset tends to imply around 100 pages with a wide variety of graphics for overworlds, dungeons, players, enemies, items, weapons, NPCs, ect. It's very demanding so it's no surprise there's only been a couple original tilesets released in the two decades and change ZC has been around.

 

Technically the extent of what you need to make a tile submission is have an image with tiles fitting to a 16x16 pixel grid with an indexed palette. To make it more easy to use though, it's recommended to fit your tiles to the most closely compatible tileset. From what you're describing that's probably Classic or Cambria. 

 

Some other options include:

• Koten: Another Classic set but with a very unique art style.
• FYS: A modified Classic set with more colors
• EZGBZ / Vintage Dreams: Both based on the Gameboy Zeldas. VD has a slightly more complicated palette with a lot more color ramps but overlapping light tones.
• BS: Based on BS Zelda. Has a surprisingly large ramp in the overworld.
• PTUS: The latest update to the Pure tileset, a popular choice for ALttP style graphics with some simplifications.
• Dance of Remembrance: Similar to Pure but with more complex mountains and overall larger color ramps.
• Firebird: Sort of Gameboy based but with a 5 color ramp in both overworld and dungeons.

[anarkhya]

 

From what you're describing that's probably Classic or Cambria. 

 

Some other options include:

• Koten: Another Classic set but with a very unique art style.
• FYS: A modified Classic set with more colors
• EZGBZ / Vintage Dreams: Both based on the Gameboy Zeldas. VD has a slightly more complicated palette with a lot more color ramps but overlapping light tones.
• BS: Based on BS Zelda. Has a surprisingly large ramp in the overworld.
• PTUS: The latest update to the Pure tileset, a popular choice for ALttP style graphics with some simplifications.
• Dance of Remembrance: Similar to Pure but with more complex mountains and overall larger color ramps.
• Firebird: Sort of Gameboy based but with a 5 color ramp in both overworld and dungeons.

 

 

 

Oh

My

God

 

Haha, okay, well, now that I got the chance to take a closer look at some released tilesets, thanks Moosh, I can see the magnitude involved oO. I'm baffled by this level of complexity and diversity, its going all-in towards the J-rpg route, which is... Quite the opposite of my intentions. My intentions being to supply a minimal, readable tileset, Action-Rpg in spirit, following the principle of Zelda I

For example, my aim is to have entire screens looking as minimal as this output:

 

So, yes, I guess submitting loose tiles is my best bet

Edited by anarkhya, 22 July 2024 - 08:32 AM.

[Mitchfork]

This looks really nice, fwiw. I recognize the mountains are well-edited BS - is the rest of this your own work?

[anarkhya]

This looks really nice, fwiw. I recognize the mountains are well-edited BS - is the rest of this your own work?

It was supposed to be a BS-Zelda to z1 experiment, transferring the shapes of BSZ tiles in the context of nes specs, including nes palettes. After getting really annoyed at the color saturation of any nes palettes I've tried to use (Fceux, Wavebeam, Nintendulator etc), I dropped the nes palettes constraint and built my own palette instead. Then, I also dropped respecting the BSZ tiles because, while I found their rock tiles (though I decreased their initial complexity, to stay low on the tiles in use) and dungeon walls really well made, I wasn't happy with many other tiles found in BSZ, so I've started making my own to compensate for the loss. Bottom line, it's now a mix of edited BSZ, my own and a very lil bit of Oracle of Ages

Edited by anarkhya, 22 July 2024 - 04:31 PM.

[Moosh]

These are some nice looking tiles indeed. I could definitely see someone using some or all of these in a Classic quest. If you start to approach something feature complete, you could compile them all in a tileset for ease of use, but that's definitely not something that's expected of you as an artist, just sharing your work is plenty. 

 

Also when I say feature complete, the definition of that can vary wildly. Of the tilesets listed, most have features for up to version 2.50, but some are from version 1.92 which was much closer to Zelda 1 in scope. The most important features from newer versions to support I'd say are items. Key ones being: sword slashing, hammer, flippers, roc's feather, and lift glove. These are the ones that add new sprites onto Link's sheet which are the most daunting for an amateur spriter to fill in themselves.

[anarkhya]

Yes, I do not wish to go the feature complete route, as it would be incompatible with the minimal "z1 in essence with a few sweets on the way" design I'm aiming at. So, to your opinions, how should I approach publishing this tileset ? Submitting it as loose tilesets, or submitting a qst file ? Considering that I have very few tiles to embed, for example rock tiles are consisting in 16 chunks of 16x16, with which I draw the entire overworld

 

The feature complete definition of the term I would have, regarding this set, would be:

• drawing a full z1 overworld with additional (but few) decorative elements, as seen in the screenshot
• drawing any z1 dungeon with additional (but few) decorative elements
• drawing a full z1 item set
• drawing a full z1 enemies and Link spriteset

Edited by anarkhya, 22 July 2024 - 11:50 PM.

[Moosh]

Yeah I'd go with loose tiles then. Most of that sounds easy enough to paste into the existing Classic tileset. I look forward to seeing the finished submission.

[anarkhya]

Another question, on the practical side, is it useful that I include in the submitted loose set both color variants of an enemy, from a spriteset featuring enemies, when a tiny fixed palette is being used ?

Ah, and same question for the animated sprites featuring a second frame that is just the first one but flipped horizontally

Edited by anarkhya, 12 August 2024 - 04:37 PM.

[Matthew]

That probably wouldn't be necessary to include, as recoloring in that case would be trivial. Same with positional transformations (rotation, flip, etc).