RMXP -> VX Ace Sprite converter

[shaz 77]

I am creating a program to convert RMXP sprites to VX Ace format. This will allow you to build VX Ace tilesets by selecting and combining tiles from RMXP's autotiles and tilesets.

 

At this stage, I only plan to do tilesets, charsets and icons.

 

I'd like to know how many people would use a tool like this, and would you prefer it to run in your browser (with option to save to your computer), or a downloadable exe?

Edited December 19, 2011 by shaz

[Rosenblack 79]

i'll use it as an exe and it will be good for people with limited or slow internet (not that I am one thou)

Edited December 12, 2011 by Rosenblack

[Ragura 0]

I would definitely use this, preferably as a tool I can use offline for faster saving of results

[Phoenix-Crest 3]

I'll definitely DL this when its out ^^

[shaz 77]

Thanks for the comments. Seems an exe is the way to go, but I might post an online version during development for anyone who wants to play with it and provide feedback.

 

This is being done around my day job, so will progress more slowly than I'd like. I have the animated autotiles (Tile_A1) conversion more or less working. I'll try to post an in-progress tool over the weekend.

[Bravo2Kilo 32]

this sounds like a good tool and it will be a great for people converting from rmxp to rmvxa when it it comes out

[Rosenblack 79]

I'll happily test it.

[ShinGamix 101]

Wow I am really excited by this and would live to be a beta tester.

[Rosenblack 79]

i shall rank my self as test-gerbil (one lower than alpha/beta-tester)

[sorata 3]

This converter would be really a great help!

 

My biggest problem so far with the VX Ace are the animated Tilesets, because my round versions of water in XP don't quite fit, but maybe your algorithm can solve this problem?

I look forward to it.

[EBelle 12]

Nice idea. Something like this should be incredibly useful. Personally, I'm one of the few who'd prefer it browser based.

 

I hope you can manage to complete it!

[xmartyr7 45]

I would use it as an .exe, personally.

[+ Isaac Da'vid 4]

Moving this to the discussion section until the software is created, which at said time it can be moved back into the relevant forum.

[shaz 77]

No probs. I didn't really know where to put it.

[shaz 77]

So I got to spend some time on this over the weekend, and it's coming along quite nicely.

 

Here's a screenshot of the converter, with some detail on how it works.

 

 

 

 

You can create animated autotiles from animated autotiles, regular autotiles, tilesets and charsets.

You can remove a background to add transparency, you can add a background to a transparent tile to give it a different appearance, and you can replace backgrounds (though they might need a little manual tweaking afterwards).

You can even overlay tiles on top of each other to give a non-animated tile an animated element.

 

Column 1, top row - a straight conversion of an XP autotile to a VX Ace autotile.

Column 1, rows 2, 3 and 4 - a straight conversion of the XP desert water autotile, the same autotile with the background removed, and the same autotile again with the background switched to a cobbled stone.

 

Column 2, rows 1, 2 and 3 - lava cave autotile, earth cave autotile, new autotile with the background from the earth cave and the lava from the lava cave.

Column 2, bottom row - waterfall with an animated fairy from a charset ... if for some reason you want to have an animated fairy hovering in front of your waterfall.

 

Right hand side - animated waterfall split into 3 tiles (VXAce waterfall animation is only one tile high, so to get the top and bottom of the waterfalls as we have them in XP, we need to use 3 autotiles).

 

 

 

 

And here's how they look in the game.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Only the A1 tile is being worked on at the moment. I have a little tweaking to do before moving on. I expect I'll have tiles A1-A4 working by this time next week.

[Knightmare 170]

Pretty nice Shaz, the interface looks nice and simple, I know a lot of people will probably use this.

[Jasonicus 62]

This is nice if you like RMXP graphics, which are now incredibly dated looking. They are ugly when compared to Ace tiles. But, this is nice as there are plenty of XP tiles out there to use besides the RTP.

[Michael Ponder Jr 36]

Funny.. i feel they look better for some reason... :/

[shaz 77]

Yep - that's all in the eye of the beholder. I much prefer XP graphics over VX and VX Ace as well (though Ace is slightly better than VX).

[shaz 77]

I have an early version of the converter available to download for anyone who wants to have a play around. It lets you create all tileset tiles (A1-A5, B-E). You can get it here:

http://www.ezmash.net/Dev/RPGMaker/VXAce/RMXPAceConverter.zip

 

 

Please let me know if you can't get it to run.

 

No instructions are included, so I'll provide a quick walkthrough here:

• Start by loading an RMXP image (animated or regular autotile, character or tileset) and choosing its type from the drop-down list box
  
• Select the cells you want to copy
  
• Choose the tileset to copy to, and the cell you want to copy into
  
• Click Convert
  
• Repeat until you're done
  
• Save your files
  

Some hints:

• You can remove, add or change the background of your tiles by choosing a single tile in the source image and clicking Source or Target Bg before selecting the tiles to copy, and setting the Background option (Ignore, Add, Remove, Replace) from the dropdown list.
  
• You can create a composite image by combining several tiles into one by changing the Overlay option.
  
• Check the Direct Copy box to copy the tiles exactly as they are (background and overlay options apply here) rather than trying to do any conversion. This will allow you to include existing VX and VX Ace tiles in your new tilesets.
  
• When doing a Direct Copy, you can offset the X and Y positions - handy if you want to move things around a little (more useful on tiles B-E).
  
• Autotiles can be created from autotiles, characters and tilesets. Sheets A5 and B-E are designed to only copy from tilesets using Direct Copy.
  
• Select a small area from the source tileset and a large area in the target (A5 and B-E only) and check the Fill box to have the pattern repeated (good for adding a background prior to overlaying other tiles).
  
• Select a 4x5 tree tile from the source tileset, a single cell in the target tileset and check the Invert box to have it create a "forest group" for you - placing these side by side on your map will give you lots of trees, like a forest, without wasting any valuable layers. Adding a background to it will let you put it on tile A5 so VX Ace puts it on the background layer.
  
• The undo button will only undo the last action on each tab.
  
• There is no prompt to save - if you change a tilesheet and close the application, you'll get no warning about losing saved data.
  

What's Next?:

• Characters
  
• Icons
  
• Longer Undo trail (10x, 20x, unlimited?)
  
• Save warning on exit
  

Edited December 26, 2011 by shaz

[+ antega34 3]

I am having troubles with running the program. When I downloaded it, i got Error #2032. Do you know what is wrong?

 

PS: There is already many charset converters on the web, so I don't believe a charset converter would be necessary.

Edited December 26, 2011 by antega34

[shaz 77]

thanks - I was half-expecting something like this.

 

This happens when you try to open the .exe? You don't even get to the point of trying to open any files?

[+ antega34 3]

So i open it up, and I get this screen:

By antega34 at 2011-12-26

I tried opening it directly with an image, and the same thing happens. It just freezes and I can't do anything. Hope this helps!

Edited December 26, 2011 by antega34

[shaz 77]

okay, thanks. I'll test a bit and see if I can get around that issue.

Edited December 26, 2011 by shaz

[shaz 77]

It may be that some of the necessary files weren't included when I created the exe (I'm not surprised about this - first time I've created an exe with so many source files).

 

Could you please download THIS file, unzip it into a new folder, and try to run the exe? Let me know if it gives you different results.

http://www.ezmash.net/Dev/RPGMaker/VXAce/RMXPAceConverter.zip