The VG Resource

I request the maps for the various areas for kirby and the amazing mirror without the backgrounds.It's a complete pain to use VBA's tile and map viewer to arrange the sprites into something sensible.

TSR has this.

or you can get them yourself like so:

and then click save and it should come out like this:

or are you referring to something else?

You mean the world map backgrounds (like one of the ones in canasniimehugh's screenshot)?

I think he means the stage maps that you actually play in.

(07-08-2012, 08:24 AM)BlueBlur97 Wrote: [ -> ]I think he means the stage maps that you actually play in.

Yeah that one.

You do realize what you're asking right? There are hundreds of different stage maps in the game, that can prove to be a rather lengthy task for anyone who's trying it. Do you need a specific amount, or all of the stage maps in the game?

(07-08-2012, 09:01 AM)BlueBlur97 Wrote: [ -> ]You do realize what you're asking right? There are hundreds of different stage maps in the game, that can prove to be a rather lengthy task for anyone who's trying it. Do you need a specific amount, or all of the stage maps in the game?

Just one part of each individual world. like one part of mustard mountain, one part of cabbage cavern...

I guess you're saying that making whole levels from your tilesets is proving difficult? Well, I know that TSR has all/most the backgrounds, just not the actual levels, so...
I was considering ripping levels from the game at some point, but I can't yet since I have other things I've put off for too long that I need to finish.

(07-08-2012, 09:34 AM)Mighty Jetters Wrote: [ -> ]I guess you're saying that making whole levels from your tilesets is proving difficult? Well, I know that TSR has all/most the backgrounds, just not the actual levels, so...
I was considering ripping levels from the game at some point, but I can't yet since I have other things I've put off for too long that I need to finish.

Well that sucks. can you tell me what method you use for ripping maps?

The only way I would know how to do it is just AnimGet and sticking the screenshots together. I wish there was a proper tool for GBA games but there isn't unless someone were to make one specifically for the game like what was done for Golden Sun 1 & 2.

Looking neat? Maybe. Could use a transparency hack so all transparency uses the same color. I planned to make such a thing anyways to get my Lufia maps....


HOWEVER.



As you can see, I am at a loss concerning palettes.
I've extracted tiles and maps from the rom, but the way they set up their palette system, I cannot simply get them the same way as they aren't present in the data as palettes. Actually, I have no clue how they saved them and load them. All I know is that some are constantly changing (in order to animate mirror reflections, for instance).
For the first image, I got the correct palette by using VBA and making a memory dump (open memory viewer, click save, enter offset 05000000 and size 200). But that'd mean going through the whole game grabbing all palettes manually (with taking care of said constant "animation" palette changes). If I had those, I could match tiles, maps and palettes by trial and error using my nifty NBFxReader.
However, I'm rather short on time and do not plan to go through the whole game in order to get all the palettes.

Still better than having to rip all the maps with VBA's map viewer, though. So if you (or anyone) think you can get the palettes, I could toss you the other files, the program and some explanations. Or you could send the palettes to me. Whichever works better for you.

[MOD edit:snip'd large quote]

Give me the files and the explanations.

A little "please" and "thank you" would be very appreciated. I'm not getting paid for this!

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Usually, I have the most recent version of my NBFxReader in my Dropbox.
I decompressed the KATAM map and tile data and uploaded the files to MediaFire: Download, password is "thisispassword". Password for the RAR is "katamaps". Yes, I'm that witty.

Files 0989 to 1123 are maps. Drag&drop them into the "Graphics" panel of NBFxReader. 1124 to 1157 are tilsets. Drop those into the "Tiles" panel.
Palettes can be acquired using VBA: Open the Memory Viewer and Save offset 05000000 with size 200 for each room. The files you get can be dropped into the "Palette" panel of NBFxReader.
Just drop various files in there until you find something that matches.

On the right side of NBFxReader are several options. You need to set Tile Mode to 4bpp. Check the box next to "MagicAlpha" to set transparency of all palettes to the same color - you can choose a color by clicking on the colored square.
The last important option is the Map Columns setting at the top. Here, you define the width of the "Graphics" image. Set it to different values until the map looks correct.
You can ignore the other options for KATAM maps.

To save a map image as PNG, either click "Save" to save it in the same directory as the source file with file name "map_[mapfile]_[tilefile]_[palettefile].png" or click Save As to select where to save it with which name. You can then uncheck "Use source directory" if you want the "Save" button to save files into the same directory you just used with "Save as".

To give you some pointers, map 0989 matches tileset 1153. I think 0991 matches 1143 and 0997 compliments 1142.

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Some trivia about NBFxReader and it's name. I made the program to view the .NBF-something files I found in the SNK vs Capcom Card Fighters DS rom, that's where the name comes from. Then I learned the data format is basically Nintendo's standard GBA and DS data format they use internally in the system RAM. I've then optimized the program to be able to view more fles properly and ripped the Dinosaur King DS maps. Currently, I'm working on some Lufia: The Ruins of Lore maps, but those are so badly organized! However, I've already found a few bits and bobs I wasn't able to get with VBA back in the day.
It's mostly my personal ripping tool, but if anyone thinks he can put it to use, feel free to do so.

http://www4.atpages.jp/borokobo/neo/download.html

I'm gonna check 'em out for myself, but try the "Reflex Viewer" / "Reflex Sightseer" from this page, as it's apparently able to preview maps from Kirby and the Amazing Mirror. Also other Kirby map viewers.

(EDIT: Okay, Reflex Sightseer dumps all the background images from the game, and unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any way to disable the debug information in Reflex Viewer... I'll look at it a bit more thoroughly.)