Changing the menu icons.

[Ultima Weapon]

How do you change the character avatars in the menu screen in FF7?

[dziugo]

They are stored in the menu_us.lgp archive. Extract/Pack them with ficedula's LGPTools and convert them with mirex's biturn.

dziugo

[Ultima Weapon]

Once your in Biturn, how do you edit them from there?

[Wuz]

i could'nt get proper conversion with biturn (i was probably doing it wrong)
i did it successfully with Omega though.
Some results:

[steven]

that looks sweet. Do you think you can make a patcyh because I would like to have that for my game

[NVWC2006]

that looks sweet. Do you think you can make a patcyh because I would like to have that for my game

I have to agree, that IS pretty cool, some instructions for the rest of us n00bs would be really appreciated (i don't even know what Omega or biturn are...)!

[Wuz]

OK i got the patch files to work its all good now.
(Problem was i needed the ficedula.dll file present in the folder with the patch exe)

EDIT: there are smaller versions of the portraits that i did'nt replace, i wondered what they were for and it just dawned on me - 320 X 240 mode portraits.
This patch does not support 320 X 240, if someone asks for it i will do it, otherwise no.

Here is the patch files with instructions:
http://members.westnet.com.au/bcrouch/advent_avatars.rar

:: Instructions ::

:: 1 ::
extract the contents of "advent_avatars.rar" to a temporary folder

:: 2 ::
To use the Advent Children Portraits Run "Advent_Avatars.exe"
To revert to the standard Portraits Run "Advent_Avatars_Uninstall.exe"

:: 3 ::
Browse and set your Final Fantasy VII\data\menu\ folder as the "FF7 Folder"

:: 4 ::
Click Patch and you're done


:: Notes ::

the Ficedula.dll has to be in the folder with my patch exe's (I have included it)
Cloud and young Cloud have identical icons (i'm lazy - not that its a big deal)
I did'nt update the chocobo avatar (i don't even remember where you see it in game)
Sephiroth DOES have an updated icon.


:: Thanks ::

Ficedula - for his LGPTools Program (used to modify menu_us.lgp and create these easy to use exe's)
M4v3R - for his Omega Program (used to convert the bitmaps to game compatible tex files)
Qhimm - for his forums (bringing everything together)

Enjoy!
and if you have any problems let me know!
if it works fine let me know aswell!

Wuz.

[NVWC2006]

it seems to have worked perfectly. while i can't say i'm a fan of the quality of the pictures, it's quite ok because it ain't exactly a 32 bit program w/great color quality running there. tis pretty sweet, thanks for the patch!

[Ultima Weapon]

I converted my BMP file into a TEX file using Omega. Once its converted, how do I put the new file into the game?

[Wuz]

it seems to have worked perfectly. while i can't say i'm a fan of the quality of the pictures, it's quite ok because it ain't exactly a 32 bit program w/great color quality running there. tis pretty sweet, thanks for the patch!

yeah i know what you're saying... theres not much you can do about it really, they are'nt too bad though.
I noticed some glitches in the images when i tried it on my other system, i'm pretty sure this is caused by anti-aliasing.
I almost decided not to even try a second time when it did'nt work the first time... its all very tedious sometimes.

I just tried resampling the 24bit bitmaps to 8bit before pasting them onto the 8bit files so that the quality color depth is reduced properly (with macromedia fireworks as opposed to mspaint :p)
the files always turn out garbled.
So i think this is the best i can do

I converted my BMP file into a TEX file using Omega. Once its converted, how do I put the new file into the game?

open the menu_us.lgp with lgptools, highlight the tex file you have modified and click replace, select the modified tex file.
i think you have to just repack the file after that (button down the bottom)

that should do it.

[Thrashamatrix]

Wuz, I wanted to ask, Is there any way you could make a patch with some off the menu icons changed. What I mean is some off the icons dont fit, but some are great like Cloud's, Tifa's, Cait Sith's, Aeries. But not Barret's, Nanaki's and Yuffie's is there any way you could make one with different pics for the latter, If you are not up for it, I understand

(i'm lazy - not that its a big deal)

[AOD]

OMFG I like love you for these. well not really but you get what i mean

Wuz, I wanted to ask, Is there any way you could make a patch with some off the menu icons changed. What I mean is some off the icons dont fit, but some are great like Cloud's, Tifa's, Cait Sith's, Aeries. But not Barret's, Nanaki's and Yuffie's is there any way you could make one with different pics for the latter, If you are not up for it, I understand

(i'm lazy - not that its a big deal)

later*

[Wuz]

Wuz, I wanted to ask, Is there any way you could make a patch with some off the menu icons changed. What I mean is some off the icons dont fit, but some are great like Cloud's, Tifa's, Cait Sith's, Aeries. But not Barret's, Nanaki's and Yuffie's is there any way you could make one with different pics for the latter, If you are not up for it, I understand

(i'm lazy - not that its a big deal)

I think i know what you mean,
you mean have pics that are similiar in portrait style?
i still don't like the RedXIII pic that much myself, or Barrets (never use barret unless i have to   )

I'm not 100% happy with what i've done so far so i'll get back into it again and see if i can do better.

Goals:
1. better pics (for most if not all chars)
2. revise patch method/figure out anti aliasing problem (not sure if AA caused the glitches or the fact that i made the uninstaller with a non stock file(i think i did))
3. Try to make compatible images with proper 8 bit resampling so they are much better colourwise

[Thrashamatrix]

I think i know what you mean,
you mean have pics that are similiar in portrait style?
i still don't like the RedXIII pic that much myself, or Barrets (never use barret unless i have to   )

I'm not 100% happy with what i've done so far so i'll get back into it again and see if i can do better.

Goals:
1. better pics (for most if not all chars)
2. revise patch method/figure out anti aliasing problem (not sure if AA caused the glitches or the fact that i made the uninstaller with a non stock file(i think i did))
3. Try to make compatible images with proper 8 bit resampling so they are much better colourwise

So you deceiphered my garbled up post, will it help if I look for pictures for the other characters? to let you focus on the actuall hard part.

[Wuz]

you can post some here if you want (if you find something you really like)
I was thinking i would watch advent children in a media player that will take screenshots.
I'm yet to watch the anime on the advent pieces bonus disc (can't recall what its called) I thought i might do a anime style pack from it if it has all the characters in it.

Just got a hard drive off a courier for a service job that i'm doing so that will eat a bit of my time today but i should still be able to get stuck into this

[SmackinHard87]

What were the size of the .bmp's you used? I try to convert a pic of zack and it gets F-ed up in both omega and bitrun.

[Wuz]

What were the size of the .bmp's you used? I try to convert a pic of zack and it gets F-ed up in both omega and bitrun.

the files i used were 128 X 128 pixel 8-bit colour bitmaps (which is the format you get when you convert a .TEX file to bitmap.

the character portrait should take up 84 X 96 pixels in the top left of the canvas, the remaining space should be left white.

EDIT: the images getting stuffed up is what i'm trying to work out, do they go all brown (well not always brown) and garbled? like distorted and stuff.
I'm trying to figure out if its the colour information that causes it or the file format when i try to convert bmp to tex.

Not sure why they did it that way, but lets not get started on what they did/did'nt do and should/should'nt have done  

[Wuz]

ok the problem with bitmaps going garbled when merging back to a tex file is to do with the bitmap palette used.
As a result, any portrait images i use, are forced to use the same palette as the originals.
I have managed to export the palette info from the stock files and am able to convert with error diffusion (yields best results from what i can tell) to the proper colour palette.
what do you guys think of the quality of clouds portrait here:


to make it very simple to understand:
typical bitmap quality is 24bit, as an old game and the fact that the portraits do not require a big range of colours (cartoons not photo's) FF7's images are 8bit.
with this reduced bit depth certain colours are not available, the colours that are available are defined by the palette information.
This time round i have that palette information, and can do a much better colour conversion (also the portraits i have selected are now from high res screenshots i captured myself from my dvd)

I'll continue to work on other characters now...

[Thrashamatrix]

Nice Wuz I like it very much, It is as one would say... perfect I went looking and found no actual pictures every picture is a huge wallpaper type picture so I will gladly use your ones and there is a place where you choose a chocobo picture when can capture them I think you can name them and get to see their picture, the quality is amazing

[Wuz]

getting better...
cait siths portrait is bad, i'm not sure if i'll be able to get a decent one of him (he's small and does'nt have very closeup shots in the movie so i have little to work with)
note: in game these don't look as good (640 X 480 fullscreen)
also, thanks to qhimm for getting the forums back up, i lost motivation on this without them

[Thrashamatrix]

As with the previous post very nice, dont bother with Cait Sith as every body hates him and he sucks. period. can you put up a patch with the modified version?

What about Cid and Vincent?

Good Job!!!!!!!

[zero88]

This patch is excellent! You need to release a new version.

I like the original Cloud and Tifa, but the new ones of everyone else look good. The Cid and Vincent ones are good, too.

[Wuz]

I'm thinking i might modify tifa and maybe yuffie, they are a little too dark.
I will also attempt to better cait sith.
any comments on the portraits (any you think don't suit for whatever reason)
also thats "young" cloud on the end there
I think i'll be moving my furniture tomorrow (8hrs driving) so i'll try get a new patch out in the next 10 hours.

[Wuz]

ALL DONE!



updated patch available here:
http://members.westnet.com.au/bcrouch/advent_avatars.rar

Enjoy!

[Thrashamatrix]

 
 

Bloody aweserm this makes it look really good fantastic job wuz, now if I could get actual voice overs for dialogue!!!