Basic | Advanced | Application | Testing Art
Cutting Your Sheets


After you've finished a sheet, you have to Black out all of the frames. This means you have to erase any instance of the character sprite and then turn the background to pure black. The same goes for inventory and drop frames. [With non-items you usually just turn the background black.]

The client only recognizes pure black as transparent. Be careful - Use the darkest black. Otherwise your creation will have a black box around it when you go to test it.

Also be careful of any stray pixels from the character sprite, as they can be hard to see in the black. It's best to first remove the character and then fill with black.

When you're done, only your creation should remain.
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Next is the actual cutting of the sheets. Each frame is saved as an individual file numbered in the order of the sheet.

The cut frames should always be saved as .BMP files. At no point should any pixel art ever be saved as a JPEG. The full sheet can be saved as a .PNG file, since the individual frames are what actually go into the graphics.
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Resource Hacker and Patching Graphics

You can download Resource Hacker here. Resource Hacker is used to open Endless Graphics Files [EGF] and view the graphics inside. There are 25 EGF files, each of which contain different types of graphics. Here's how it's laid out:

Gfx001: Client GFX
Gfx002: Client GFX
Gfx003: Tiles
Gfx004: Objects
Gfx005: Overlay
Gfx006: Walls
Gfx007: Tops
Gfx008: Character Sprites
Gfx009: Hairstyles [m]
Gfx010: Hairstyles [f]
Gfx011: Boots [m]
Gfx012: Boots [f]
Gfx013: Armors [m]
Gfx014: Armors [f]
Gfx015: Hats [m]
Gfx016: Hats [f]
Gfx017: Weapons [m]
Gfx018: Weapons [f]
Gfx019: Shields [m]
Gfx020: Shields [f]
Gfx021: NPCs/Monsters
Gfx022: Shadows
Gfx023: Inventory/Drop views
Gfx024: Effects
Gfx025: Spell Symbols

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Opening an EGF file is simple. Open Resource Hacker, clicking File and then clicking Open. By default, Reshacker will only be looking for Win32 PE files, so you'll need to change it to All files in order to see the EGF files.

Now navigate to the gfx folder of the client you're testing in. You'll see the 25 EGF files. Let's open up Gfx013.EGF and see what we can do!
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We've opened a Graphics file, so now what? Well, you'll see a big numbered list of folders. In every numbered folder is a single frame of an armor.
[The process of actually slotting new GFX is the responsibility of server owners and will not be covered in this guide.]
You will be learning how to test art by patching existing GFX. So let's say we're poking through this EGF and- Oh! We found the peasant suit. Well, that'll have to do.
We'll be patching the peasant suit with new armor GFX.

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Be sure you're on the first frame of the armor before you start patching in frames.
Now click Action and then click Replace Bitmap ... followed by Open File with New Bitmap.
You'll now be able to select .BMPs to replace the selected frame with. Select Frame 1 of your armor and click Replace.
Now just repeat the process with the rest of the armor frames! Easy. [With items you also patch the Inventory and Drop frames in Gfx023.]

Warning: Never save the same EGF file twice without closing it. Also, never save an EGF file with the testing client open. Both of these things can corrupt the GFX and make it unusable. [Thankfully, Reshacker automatically creates a _original file for just such a situation.]

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Special Instructions

Mostly used with hats, the special Masking Color helps to "Cut" pixels. With some hats, like the White Samurai from EO, it looks odd when hair pokes through the top. By using a combination of the standard Pure Black and the Masking Color, the pixels above the hat can be removed while the pixels below can be untouched.
The Masking Color is used on the area that you don't want to be cut. Pure Black is used on the area you want cut.

A word of caution: This color will cut anything - This is most evident in wings. It can also cut armors, the sprites face, etc. Anything that the Pure Black touches when used with the Masking Color.

If the Masking Color is not used with a hat, then Pure Black serves its usual transparent purpose and doesn't cut.
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7.5


Also related to hats, there is a repeating frame in the graphics files. You only have to pixel the front and back, but the back frame will repeat in the GFX: Frame 1 is the front, frames 2 and 3 are the same back frame.
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