Advance Map Tutorial

Neti's Advance Map Tutorial

Table of contents

1. General Stuff
2. Map
3. Movement Permissions
4. Events
5. Wild Pokemon
6. Header
7. Block Editor
8. Connection Editor
9. World Map Editor
10. Palette Editor


1. General Stuff

First of all you should know how to open Roms and Maps in Advance Map.
Opening a Rom is quite logical and there shouldnt be problems:
Go to "File" -> "Load Rom" and select your Rom.
Another way of doing this is the context menu for which a registry key is needed.
This registry key should be in the folder in which you installed Advance Map, named AMKontextMenu.dll.
Just copy it to C:\\\\Windows\\system32\\ . Then click the windows start button and then "run". enter the following:
regsvr32.exe "c:\\windows\\system32\\AMKontextMenu.dll"
now it should be registered and you can open a rom in advmap via right click.

Once youve opened your Rom, there will be three points appearing at the left tab.

"From Header" displays the maps from the Rom, "From INI" displays the original Maps saved in an INI which you got with Advance Map and "Map Files" displays Maps saved in the Maps Folder in the folder where Advance Map is installed.
I never used anything else than "From Header"... I never needed them^^
So now just doube click on "From Header" and there will be a long list popping up.
Either its a list of Map Banks, Map Names or Tilesets. You can change the way theyre ordered at the top:

I recommend using "Sort by Map Name".
So now just open one of the categories, eg Pallet Town and there will be more options appearing. Those are the maps. Double Clicking on one of them will open it.

Now you will see the map or its movement permission or Event or whatever Tab youre currently in. You can change the Tabs easily by clicking on them. Theyre located above the big Tab:


Now ill explain the different Tabs and other Functions of Advance Map.


2. Map Tab

The Map Tab is the most important Tab of all, since you build the maps in there.
It is divided into two tabs, one with the map and the other one with the Block Palette.
You can choose which Block you draw on the map by simply clicking on it in the Block Palette.
But you can also draw so-called Big-Blocks, which consist of many small Blocks.
To create such a big Block, hold down CTRL, right-click and hold it on the block where you want to start the selection and then move the mouse over the blocks you want to select. You will see a preview of the Big Block appearing on the Window. When you release the right mouse button and CTRL you can now draw this Big Block with a left click.
The Tile you click on will be the upper left one of the big block.

This is the preview Window of the Big Block, mapping forests and cities is way faster this way since you can create buildings for example with one click.

Another thing you will notice in the Map Tab is the Border-Block Field above the Block Palette.
The tiles you put in here will create the border, so when the heros gets to the border of the map he will see those tiles. Most often those are trees or normal mountain ground.
In the Pro-Header View you can expand the Border-Tile so it is bigger than 2x2, but ill come back to that later.

So you know about the functions of the Mapping Tab now, you could start mapping right ahead. But you should get some skills first.
I made a Mapping Tutorial to help Beginners not to make the most common mistakes.
You can look it up HERE.


3. Movement Permissions Tab

Sometimes im wondering why so many people dont understand the movement permissions correct and dont know how to use them...
Well, placing them is the same as in the Map Tab: Select one from the palette and click on the map.
The different Types of movement permissions are explained in advance Map, even though many ppl dont seem to notice it! They say D is a sign, or 0 is a ladder... that is wrong!
1 is the easiest of all, its just not walkable... impossible to enter this tile.
Now there is kind of a level system:
C is Level 2, it is the normal walking permission.
10 is Level 3, 14 is Level 5, 18 is Level 6 and so on...
You can not walk from one Level to another one.
There are other Bytes for each Level which will do exactly the same as 1, so theyre kinda pointless...
The only Special Things are the following three bytes:

0 -> It is the crrossing of different Levels. If you want to make your Hero get from Level 2 to Level 3 you must place a 0 between the C and the 10 or the Hero wont be able to go there.

The next special Byte is 4. It is Level 1, which means it is water, you can surf on it.

And the last one is 3C, i espacially like this one: It means the Tile is passable from above and below.
To understand this you have to understand how Blocks work with their Top and Bottom Layer. To make it short: Each Block has a Bottom Layer of tiles which will be dispalyed UNDER the hero and a top layer which will be displayed OVER the hero. But this happens only if the hero is on level 2 or below. If he is higher he will be displayed above the top layer as well.
So for certain Blocks like bridges you need 3C, which means you can walk under and over them. If you enter a tile with 3C movement permission it will remember which permission youve been on before and the 3C Tile will behave as if it had that Movement Permission. That makes it possible to make one tile be passable from above and below.
I know this is kinda confusing... Ill show you an example from a map of Legend of Fenju:

As you can see i made the tile where the bridge is above the mountain 10 and the tiles before that 0, so the player can walk on the level 3 (10) tiles. When he continous walking on the 3C Tiles he will be on/above the bridge and unable to enter the tiles with C Movement Permission. But he will be able to enter the ones with a 10 at the end.
When hes coming from below, he will walk under the bridge cause he will remain on Level 2.
By the way, the meaning of each Movement Permission is displayed at the bottom left when you hover above it with the mouse.


4. Events Tab

This one is kinda easy to understand.
Adding new Events can be done by increasing the amount of the specific Event at the bottom right and click "Change Events".
The new events will appear at the top left of the map.
You can simply drag and drop Events wherever you want.
Ill go more in detail about the specific event types now:

Persons

Persons are of course people walking around, but also items, cut trees and so on.
So to speak, they are things you can interact with.

The first option for a person is its Person Number. Its only needed for Scripts so just leave it like it is.
The Picture Number is the OW Sprite the Person uses. What I really like is the fact that Advance Map loads the OW Sprites from the Rom and displays them, so you can choose the correct one.
The next thing is called unknown, and since it is unknown i dont know what it does...
Then there are two position bytes. Those will change when you move the person on the map and vice versa. They define where the person is when the map loads.
Again: Unknown
Now the Movement Type. Fortunely everything is described in the Dropdown List, thx to Lu-Ho!
The Movement bytes are values for the movement type. Changing them will cause different things with each movement type... for example when you make a person move clockwise you can define how many fields he/she goes down and left before he goes back up and right to where he/she started. If anyone would make a list what they cause for each Movement Type he would be a freak!
The next thing is again unknown.
Now we have a checkbox, simply checking whether the person is a trainer or not. If it is checked the persons script offset will be called when the hero walks into the persons view radius. So you can use this not only for trainers.
Something unknown once again...
The next thing is the View Radius: Its only relevant if you checked the Trainer option. The value in there is how far (in tiles) the persons view radius is. So if it is 3, the person will see the hero if hes standing 3, 2 or 1 tile away from him. Of course the person has to look in the heros direction.
The Script Offset is the Offset which is called when you talk to the person. This way you can start scripts when talking to People.
The Person ID is important when it comes to Scripting. When you set a flag via script which is similar to a Persons ID, the Persons will disappear and never come back unless you clear the flag.

Signposts

Signposts are just Objects which are activated when you talk to them. They can contain Items or Scripts. The Talking Level defines from which Level (described in the Movement Permissions Section) you can activate the Signpost.
The rest should describe itsself...

Warps

Warps are definitely important when it comes to mapping, because without them you couldnt use doors, stairs and stuff. A Warp has to be placed on a Block that has specific Warping Behaviour Bytes or it wont work.
The Values you have to enter are easy to figure out:
Start with "Map bank" and "Map". You can find the numbers when you look at the name of the map you want to warp too at the left tab where you can choose the map. It will say something like "VIRIDIAN CITY (3.5)". Now you already have both Values: 3 is the Bank, 5 is the Map.
The value "To warp no" is also easy to figure out. it defines to which warp on the destination map youll be warped. You can look up the number at the very top of the options when you selected the destination Warp. So just click on it and note the number at "No." directly under the dropdown menu which lets you switch between the different Event Types. Enter that number at the "To Warp no" value of the other warp and youre done.

Scripts

Scripts just call an Offset you enter when you step on them. But they dont work if you dont assign the following Values to them:
Var Number: 4051
Var Value: 0000
I dont know too much about Scripting so I cant explain that xD

Flying Position

This simply is the Position the Player lands on when he flies to that Map. The Location of the Event will be where he lands, thats it. Not all Maps have one!


5. Wild Pokemon Tab

This is like the easiest of all Tabs and it should be really easy to understand.
You can choose which Type of Wild Pokemon you want to edit from the dropdown field.
Then you can edit the encounter ration by editing the value or moving the little marker.
The last thing you can edit is WHICH pokemon you can ecnounter and what their MAX and MIN LEVEL is. you can add Pokemon multiple times if you want.
Grasse can have up to 12 different Pokemon, Water and Headbut Trees or the rock-smash rocks (both defined via "tree") can have up to 5 different ones and the fishing rod has 10 slots.
If you chosse one of the different options from the dropwdown list and there are no options displayed you have to expand the wild pokemon header. Simply click on "Expand" and check the types you want to have on that map, then click "OK".
When youre done with the Wild Pokemon Header click "Save" to save your changes.


6. Header Tab

I think most of the things here described themselves.
You can expand the amount of options by checking "Professional Header View" in the Settings Menu.
The only thing I have to say here is that it is possible to change the Map Dimensions and the Tilesets used in a map. That is important I think.
Even though it explains itsself like the rest in this Tab^^


7. Block Editor

With the Block Editor it is posssible to edit the Block Palette used in the Map Tab.
Check out my Turtorial on how to insert/edit Tiles and edit Block Data


8. Connection Editor

Start it via this Button:

Many People seem to have problems with it, but its kinda easy if you understood it once.

"Connection No" lets you choose which Connection youre editing at the moment.
Direction should be clear...

Offset is probably the hardest part of understanding this...the value entered here means how many tiles the map connecting to this one is delayed.
If your Connection goes Up or Down, it means how many tiles it is delayed to the left (or right if you use negative values) and if you make a connection that goes left or right a positive value what make the connected map be delayed down and a negative one would make it be delayed up.
If you leave it 0 the map will connect without any offset, so the upper border will be the same as the upper border of the current map (if you use Left/right connections). Its the same with the left border when you use connections that go up or down.

Map Bank and Map No can be found out easily the way i described it at the Warps Section.


9. World Map Editor

Start it via this button:

Advance Maps World Map Editor only edits the position of Routes/Towns and stuff, not the image!

First, select the Tile you want to edit.
Then you can edit its options at the bottom or top layer (the top leayer is used for caves and forests!).
The first thing is the value. You can select one from the dropdown list. The list contains the Map Names which can be chenaged in the Header Tab or at the Name Option under "Name Offset". When the player looks up this tile on the region map, it will display the map name you choose here.
Just leave "Name Offset" as it is or you will cause problems^^
The "Name" Option can be used to edit the Map Name.
The last thing is the position. This position defines where the player symbol will be displayed when he is on a map with the map name you assigned before and then looks up the region map. Just copy those values from the left, under the region map image.
Now you can save it and do the same thing for the whole map! Fun, isnt it?
You can also edit the Flying/display Flag. That is just the flag which is set when you enter a town and makes it possible to fly to that town later on.

That is not all I think, I dont know everything about the World Map Editor yet.


10. Palette Editor

The Palette Editor is Part of the Block Editor.
Open the Block Editor and go to "Palettes" -> "Show Palette Editor". A window like this one will pop up:

You can switcch through the palettes with the help of the dropdown Menu.
If you click on one of the colors you can edit it, there are 3 ways:
1. Moving the 3 slide controls
2. Using "Select Color": Click it and then move your mouse to a point anywhere on your screen. It will copy the color from there. When it has the desired color hit Enter on your keyboard.
3. 15Bit GBA Color Value: Just enter a 15 Bit Color Value here and then click "15bit to RGB".

When youve edited a color and youre satisfied with it, click "Apply" and it will be saved.

When youre done editing your Palettes, go back to the Block Editor and choose "Palettes" -> "Write Palette Changes to ROM". This will save all your changes.


The End

Finished another Tutorial Oo
I hope this helps! Again: Thx to Lu-Ho for making such a great Program!



This Tutorial was made by Neti
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