How to merge tilesets, Using Gimp 2.0

[Third333strike]

I always see people asking questions about how to edit tilesets. Its a very easy process, and doesnt take any previous knowledge.

Step 1- Firsty, you need to download GIMP 2.0.  It is a free Image editer, and the one that I will use for this tutoiral.

Gimp 2.0 Link - http://www.gimp.org/downloads/

Now, In a tileset for Rpgmaker XP, the size of the tilsets WIDTH is always the same. Its set at 256.

The height can be changed to as long as you would like, but I suggest not making it extremely long, as I beleive it will cause more lag.

RMXP uses a tile system, and each tile is 32 x 32 pixels.

Step 2 - When you open up Gimp, under the Image Tab, you can select Configure Grid, and change the grid to whatever you want, but        for tileset editing, you will want to stay at 32 x 32.

Step 3 - Now, when you open up Gimp, choose the first tileset you would like to edit, and open it up.

Step 4 - Now, go to the View Tab, at the top, and click, Show Grid & Snap to grid.

After you do this, a grid will show up, and these are exactly how the tiles are layed out in RMXP, and you are ready to edit.

Open up your second image, and repeat steps 2-4.

Now that you have both images open, choose what you would like to combine.

I will move a tree over to a different tileset for this example.

Step 5 - Once you know what you would to combine, use the Rectnagle tool, at the top-left hand corner of Gimp.

Select the area around the tree with the rectangle tool. Once you have the area selected, press Control, C to Copy the selected region. Make sure that you are exactly on the grid. This should be easy since you clicked the Snap To Grid option.

Step 6 - With the tree now copied, you are free to paste it (Control, P) to any area of the second tileset.

Step 7 - If there is no room for your new material, then you will need to increase the size of the tileset's height.

Step 8 - To increase the size of the tileset, click on Image, at the top of your tileset. Under this tab, click on the Canvas Size...Button.

Step 9 - Once in here, there is a small chain looking icon to the right of width and height. Unlick this, or else the width of the tileset will be changed, and that is no good. Once you unclick this, you may change the height to whatever you like.

Step 10 - Find the appropriate spot for your new graphics, and paste them in!

Hope This Helps Some People~

 

[Vazoh]

thank you so much!

 

[Third333strike]

No problem, I just wanted to help somebody.

 

[Mustardy85]

Great! I actually downloaded gimp months ago.. got too complicated so I deleted it. Thanks for the link, I forgot where to get it again.

 

[GanonLives]

Thank you this will hopefully be quite helpful.  I am always doing this and always when I place my tileset in the game something is off a bit and I have to go back inside and edit it.  Was using Adobe Illistrater before but will give this a try now. :smile:

 

[tamer3009]

can i make tileset to rpg vx ?

 

[Tindy]

It's easier to just use MSPaint....:/

 

[Bad1sghost]

Wow, THANKS A TON! I could never figure out how to make it so that the images where in the right spots. Could this be done with characters as well?

 

[Kiriashi]

So I merged 4 tilesets, and put them in my game. But when I use the tileset, Only the first one in the tileset bar on the let works, the rest don't have the right backround, so part of it looks white. In gimp only the first tileset has the blue backround, and everywhere else there are checkers.

 

[SorcerGamble2]

like someone said, its easier to just use ms paint, which every cpu has...
but with gimp i've had some problems if you don't start with a picture bigger than you need and then try to make it bigger as you go along.  but, obviously, it may just be that you didn't take the time to make all of the background colors the same on each tileset you were trying to merge.
also, gimp supports alpha transparency so you may have been using that accidentally.

with paint just make urself a template of black and white squares like, say, 9600 pixels in length 256 in width... and if you run out of room, just increase the pic length and repaste ur template at the bottom of where you left off.

 

[OrigamiRose]

Pretty nice tutorial, but as people already mentioned, just use ms paint. It's easy to work with, and almost all computer has it. It's a bit easier to use it aswell.

EDIT: Crap, I missed the last post date. My bad :down:

 

[Kiriashi]

Huh? Well anyways, thank you Third333strike, I can do it now. There is just one thing, the shadows in the tileset appear dark blue and look bad.

 

[Dewoor]

The problem with using MSpaint is, that if there are half-transparent tiles (like in VX) then paint can mess it up.

 

[Lorddarkfrog]

The problem with MSpaint is it looks crappy unless you spend months on it... and you cannot get that grid on.

 

[Tindy]

The problem with MSpaint is it looks crappy unless you spend months on it... and you cannot get that grid on.

...What?  Dude, I just made a tileset from bits and pieces from like 7 different tilesets and it only took me three days.  What in the hell are you talking about?  Yeah, you can't get the pretty grid overlay on, but if you're not lazy it really doesn't matter, especially if you have a template saved.  And if you don't, making one takes, what, a minute?

Once you unclick this, you may change the height to whatever you like.

Make sure that's in multiples of 32.  If it's not, graphics will either get cut off or have loads of space at the bottom.

 

[Bridgeman]

Why all the hassle, copy&paste in MS Paint is your friend. And FYI information the transparency and half-transparency parts in the tileset can be defined when you import in RMXP, so no it does not get messed up.

This tutorial is pretty much wasting time really. But if some people get helped by it, sure why not.

 

[vistacsigirl]

I have never done any of this before. I was wanting to merge tilesets so i followed this tutorial. The only problem Im having is getting my merged tileset from gimp into rmxp. When I go to import and find the gimp folder the merge is saved in, the folder is empty. I also tried copying and pasting the file into the graphics/tilesets folder and still cant get it to work. Someone please help.

 

[Mikee]

I'm having a problem with gimp as well.  I've done this with photoshop before, but now I can't seem to find how to change the grid size in it.  Anyway.  I love the grid in gimp, it makes things much easier.  (Someone said it only takes them about three days to merge tilesets in ms paint.... WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU WASTING ALL THAT TIME FOR!?  It takes five minutes to download and install a free program that you only have to work in for probably less than an hour, and you've got a perfectly good tileset.)

My problem is... When I paste in gimp, the pasted objects only show up over the top of the old tileset and when i drag down to the newly created part of the canvas, it's just the dotted lines of the selected items.  No tiles...  Anyway, I'll go see what I can do about it.

Thanks for the tutorial, it helped me a lot.

 

[dcbd]

good tut

i suggest just using ms paint, it's much more simple. but i suppose this is helpful to gimp users.
like Tindy said, have a saved template ready and you're good to go.

i never use gimp (never even heard of it until recently), and i don't think i'll ever need it whenever i need to edit or merge tilesets.

 

[Gen0cide_]

Gimps method is far simpler and foolproof if you want merge specific tiles rather than entire sets, and even Tindy said it took him 3 days to do with Paint.. with Gimp you can do that in half an hour tops. :thumb: Good tut!