Originally posted by xBlitzerx:

Is anyone working on a mod to get the original sprites back into VI? I'm waiting on that to start my playthrough.

Yep. I merged this topic into the thread where I'm working on adding the original sprites.

Moved to FFVI Subforum, since this is now considered a mod release.

@ChrisH36: Awesome work. That is by far my favorite font so far. Could you perhaps make a new thread in the FFVI subforum, so that way I can link the mod index item directly to the thread? Thanks in advanced!

A sprite sheet in this case, is nothing more than the image containing every pose that a given sprite has side-by-side. FFVI Explore extracts all of the sprite sheets for you as images that can be edited.

A before and after would be hard in this case, since the before was actually pulling the images from http://www.spriters-resource.com/snes/ff6/. I then cut the sprites out of the image that don't exist in the Steam version. Each sheet is unique, with different backgrounds, different order, etc and the Steam version also has it's own unique order and amount of poses per character.

I'm a huge fan of automation as well, but I think that it wouldn't be manageable in this case. If anything, the big time waster is lining up sprites and guessing where they go within that aforementioned invisible box. A character might be evenly distributed in the middle for the most part, but when you have a dog sprite, for example, it changes everything. A dog will be placed at the top/middle when moving up and down, but when walking side to side, it is placed in the middle/middle.

Basically, since the SNES version didn't have a sprite sheet, but instead had people creating their own sheets, positioning has to be done by hand and estimated for the most part.

Another reason why it requires manual labor is sometimes sprites don't exist in the Steam version like they did in the SNES release. A good example is magitek armor.

In the snes release there were sprites that included the magitek armor with no driver, but only when not in motion. Otherwise, while in motion, you would always have a character driving it. The Steam version however has a sprite for every animation of the magitek armor with no driver in it, and instead places the character's chocobo riding sprite on top of it when moving left and right, and uses the normal walking up/down animation for riding up/down.

This means I had to draw the missing pixels by hand as if no rider was in the armor even while in-motion using the idle empty magitech armor as a base.

In conclusion, sadly doing it by hand for every sprite is the way to go, but it's still fun at least. I've even fixed color bugs in the original SNES release that were overlooked by millions. Terra's shoes turn purple when she's wagging her finger (upper right hand corner- http://www.spriters-resource.com/snes/ff6/sheet/6707/ )

Originally posted by dairymoose:

Is there any way that other people could work on sprites from unrelated parts of the game and combine their work with OP's? Rather than needing OP to do literally everything? Seems like it would be a good community project considering it doesn't require artwork or anything, just the requisite knowledge that entails changing sprites.

It's definitely possible, but I suggest everyone to experiment with it first, since it is a bit different than you'd expect.

Basically, the sprite sheets are limited to 256 colors in an indexed mode color palette. Each image has its own color palette which is potentially unique, aside from the first two colors. The first color determines the background of the image and will be transparent in-game. The second color is the sprites's border that will change colors in-game when the character has a status effect.

Now, if you're wanting to import another sprite that has it's own colors not included within the original color palette, you are going to have issues, since most of the colors won't exist in the original color palette.

I'm not an expert by any means, but I do it in the following way (using Photoshop CC):

1. Cut and paste every SNES sprite into one image that will end up replacing the Steam's sprite sheet later. This is important, since you need all of the colors to be in the image that will end up in the Steam sprite sheet.
   
2. Since the SNES sprites are roughly 2x smaller than the new sprites, resize the image by 2x.
   
3. Replace the background color on the image with the one from the Steam's spritesheet, just for convenience.
   
4. Convert the image from RGB to 8-bit Indexed Mode. It'll ask you how to convert the colors, choose "Exact" and "without dithering.".
   
5. Cut out (Select All + Cut) the SNES spritesheet image temporarily.
   
6. Re-arrange the color palette so that the first color is the background color, and the second color is the sprite border.
   
7. Re-paste the image.
   
8. Save the color palette as a file (.act exension).
   
9. Then going back to the Steam Spritesheet, cut out the image temporarily.
   
10. Upload and replace the ACT color palette that was saved earlier into the Steam Sprite sheet.
    
11. Then re-paste the image.
    
12. Now the Steam spritesheet has the same color palette with the correct order as the SNES spritesheet. Now you can literally cut and paste each sprite from the SNES sprite sheet to the Steam sprite sheet and line them up.

Lining up the sprites isn't easy, since there's literally an invisible box that you have to work with. I usually make grid lines and measure out the sprites that I want to replace before I drop them in, and make sure that the boxes are the same height and width throughout the sprite sheet.

Also, it is possible that the character border can have multiple colors due to the RGB->Indexed mode auto-conversion. You have to then redo the border with that same second color you defined.

I hope this makes sense. It's not really complicated, just a bit tedious to figure out and grasp at first. At least it was for me.

It definitely sounds like it could be a good idea.

------------------

To everyone interested: Please create a sprite sheet of any character and add the FEP/EXE to this thread.

This way I can see if you need any help getting the hang of it. Once a few people show interest, and are able to contribute; I'll edit the 2nd post with all of the sprite sheets that need to be done, and we can divvy up the workload :)

Originally posted by Jprime777:

Wait, so work on this mod has halted already?

Nyxo, the developer of the FFVI Explore mod tool, is working on possibly getting higher resolution sprites working. It hasn't halted, it is just suspended until he gets word from Nyxo whether it's possible or not. That way he can concentrate on higher resolution sprites from the start.

I like the font. It definitely feels reminiscent of older Final Fantasys. I'm all for adding it to the index, if you want to release it :)

Originally posted by Jetfire1998:

Has anyone done a recolour mod for Edgar? I am far too used to his green armour in the SNES version

That would actually be a simple mod thankfully. You could even use this as a reference: http://imgur.com/ADjzEwW . I was thinking of tackling that, but am caught up in the original sprites project at the moment. Afterwards, I might take a look, otherwise that image should be a good start for anyone wanting to do it.

Here you can see my progress so far. I left a few sprites out, since they are still a WIP, but this will give you guys a good demonstration. I'll update the main post tomorrow. Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4x0UF2m_8s

Moving to FFXIII-2 Subforum for easier collaboration.