-------------------------------------------------- FORMATS OF FIRE EMBLEM 12 -------------------------------------------------- CG: Graphics without a palette. Usually comes with a .CL File CL: Palette information for several graphic formats ANM: Contains pure animation information. PKGC: A graphic file with a footer-table storing the palette information. Can be easily extracted. PKSC: Similiar to PKGC but palettes are always stored at the very end of the file. PKANM: A file for storing a base-graphic with animation-data. Also contains palette-information. MD: Stores a 3D-Model with a texture which also contains alpha-bytes. Should be carefully edited. MA: Data related to models. Possibly used for casting shadows. CA: Unknown, model-related format. VA: Stores palettes for alpha-values; Used for aliasing graphics. TEX: Contains texture-graphics. P: Contains palettes for single graphics. Rarely used. TPL: Another palette-format. Also rarely used. CMB: Contains script-information. SDAT: Common NDS sound package. Self explanatory. BIN: Common binary package format. Unknown Formats: .EC, .FH, .FHS, .MH, .MHS, .FB, .FBS, .MB, .MBS, .FF If you manage to analyze their function feel free to contact me. Fire Emblem 12 also contains a lot of files without endings. They are mostly graphics and often store palette information. -------------------------------------------------- GRAPHIC EDITING -------------------------------------------------- One of the biggest differences to Fire Emblem 11 is the use of custom graphic-formats which store the palettes directly. This might seem complex at first, but it is pretty easy to edit graphics once you know how the formats work. All graphics are using the GBA 8bpp or GBA 4bpp format. There are exactly four files using the NGP 2bpp format: the system font and all ascii-fonts. Almost all graphics are compressed with LZ11 or LZSS but you might also encouter some RLE-Compressed graphics. I recommend Puyo-Tools for compressing and decompressing files, although it doesn't support all of FE12 graphics. As soon as you have decompressed graphics you can start editing them with CrystalTile - That's at least what I suggest. When working with files which don't have a palette file located in the same directory you have to find it in the current graphic package. Almost all important graphics are packaged and have more data stored than just the image. Lets say we want to edit the file "sallymenu.pkcg" which contains the window frame for the preparation menu. We open the decompressed file (LZSS) with Crystaltile. We now have to find the palette. It is stored in a footer-table at the very bottom of the file and looks like this: L2ƒ.èk*W WËNËNêR,B‡f.R.NèI.JèE‰9L2|c;W¸FuB Click on Edit => DATA->Palette Conversion and you have the correct palette. You can now switch to the tile editor and set the correct Format (GBA 4bpp). I don't want to explain CrystalTile any further at this point because it is a very common tool when it comes to hacking NDS-games. It is mostly just finding the right format and offset and doing a lot of copy & paste between CrystalTile and your favorite graphic program. (And make sure to often save your work or you will hate CrystalTile pretty soon!) So this is all you have to know about basic FE12 graphic editing. Sometimes it is a little bit more difficult to find the palette information but you should learn the trick pretty soon. And be careful when editing textures for 3D-models - incorrect alpha values can screw up your work pretty fast. -------------------------------------------------- FILE STRUCTURE OF FIRE EMBLEM 12 -------------------------------------------------- 2: Contains idle-poses of map sprites and the palettes. 3: Contains all other poses of map sprites. ascii: Rarely used fonts used to display errors. av: Contains unknown graphics. Each of them contains a footer-table with blue palette-information. b: Contains animations for classes. button: Contains all button-graphics. bw: Cotains strangely compressed images and some animations. cfx: Data for weather-effects. cpu: Contains script-information. data: Contains several important scripts and variables used within the message system. dic: Contains all graphics used for the dictionary. dispos: Contains data for background-animations. dwc: Contains a package with a large list of images. Most are unused. evt: Contains tutorial-images as well as background-images for events. extra: Contains graphics for the extra-menu. f: Contains graphics for large faces. ffx: Contains the levelup graphic. fin: Contains graphics for the epilogue. fonts: Contains the fonts of the game. Formats differ a lot. fx: Contains several animations used within the battle system. g2: Contains all graphics used on the map which is displayed when starting new chapters. gameover: Contains the gameover graphic. icon: Contains all icons aswell as the corresponding palettes. intro: Contains graphics for class-names. jobslide: Contains graphics for class-changes. link: Graphics for the Nintendo WiFi menu. linkmenu: Contains graphics for multiplayer-battles. linkwinlose: Contains graphics for multiplayer-battles. m: Contains all texts used within the message system and menus. map: Contains tiles for the maps. minimap: Contains the minimap-graphics. mm: Contains all main menu graphics. nameinput: Contains text-files with strange data. Possibly used to arrange the input-table. onfx: Graphics/Animations for several actions. onmap: Graphics/Animations used on the map. opening12: Contains all graphics for the opening. pcmake: Contains graphics for the character-information. s: Graphics for backgrounds. sally: Graphics used for the base-menu. script: Contains all the scripts used within the game. sf: Contains small face graphics and the corresponding palettes. shield: Contains the binding shield graphic. shop: Graphics used within the shop-menu. sound: Contains all the sound effects used within Fire Emblem 12. title: Contains the title-graphics displayed on the main screen for several menus. title12: Contains the logo of the game. transporter: Contains graphics for the convoy. troop: Contains graphics for the troop menu. window: Several graphics for displaying windows and gauges or scrollbars. -------------------------------------------------- FIRE EMBLEM 12 MESSAGE COMMANDS -------------------------------------------------- [X] Ends the scripted sequence [A][ClearBox] Clears the text of the current box [FreezeMouth] Halts the mouth animation [UnfreezeMouth] Starts the mouth animation [Pause=X] Starts a pause for x seconds [Fade=X] Fades for x frames [TargetRight] Sets the right portrait active [TargetLeft] Sets the left portrait active [LoadPortrait=NAME] Loads a portrait to the active position [RemovePortrait] Clears an active portrait [LoadBackground=X] Loads a background-image [EyeCommand=X] Animates eyes ec = Eyes open ed = Eyes closed [FaceCommand=X] Animates the face 0x40 Standard 0x61 Sad 0x73 Smile [SpecialSymbol=0xXX] Displays special characters 0x96 - And for reference (These glyphs are not in the english-translation nor the japanese original!) 0xDC Ü 0xFC ü 0xC4 Ä 0xE4 ä 0xD6 Ö 0xF6 ö 0xDF ß [Music=X] Plays a track [Sound=X] Plays a sound [SpecialText0x14=0x30] Displays a dynamic variable [SpecialText0x14=0x39] Displays player name UnknownCommands [Unknown0x4=F32] Halt music -------------------------------------------------- CONTACT -------------------------------------------------- This small guide was written by Chrisblue. Contact me at admin@chrisblue.org if you want to suggest any changes or have questions.