Editing PBMs

Hey everybody, it seems that a lot of people have been having trouble with this lately, so I figured I'd post how to do it.

First, open up a PBM by right clicking it and selecting "Open With" then choose the graphics editing program of your choice.

Second, Make any changes you want to the PBM, you may notice that you can't use some colors, this is because each PBM has a set pallette, if you want to change this pallete, open the PBM with CaveEditor, and select change Pallette, or copy the file into paint, and save it as whatever PBM you were editing, you can now use any color.

Finally, Run cave story, you may notice that an error similar to jhfdsjfhb,js pops up on the screen, and cave story closes. In your cave story file, there will now be a text document named error that has the name of the file you edited in it. To stop this error, you can either open cave story with your Hex editor, search for the string (C)Pixel, and go over to the hex column and replace it with all 0's. The other option is to open your PBM with a hex editor, and at the very end of it, write in (C)Pixel.

Yup, that's it

Black is automatically the transparent color, by the way.

Cheers!
Lace

ADDENDUM:
If you do this and are still having problems, right click on your cs directory and got to properties and make sure that it is NOT read-only.


okays, have fun!

 

Stickied.

 

I can't open "Arms" in Cave editor, so I can't edit the pallete

Edit: Never mind. I changed it to a 256 color bitmap. Wow, thanks!

 

One thing- when I try to save changes, it wants me to save it as a new file... and .pbm isn't a choice...

Is that your only problem?

Where it asks what type you want to save it is, choose the bitmap of your choice (16 color, 256 color, 24 bit, etc.) and then just add .pbm at the end when saving. Paint will automatically save it as a pbm then.

 

I don't think it will save it as a .pbm that way if you're using the Show File Extensions thing.

But there's an easy work-around, just save the file with quotes, like "NpcJesus.pbm".

With the quotes, mind you

 

I don't think it will save it as a .pbm that way if you're using the Show File Extensions thing.

But there's an easy work-around, just save the file with quotes, like "NpcJesus.pbm".

With the quotes, mind you

Well it works for me when i save it as a 24 bit bitmap with paint,
so why don't you try it to see if i'm lying?
(note: i can also save .dat files this way, but idk how much good that would do me)

 

Not exactly related to Cave Story, but the .pbm's for Ikachan can be edited and saved with no hex edits. (And by the by, Map1.pbm is actually the map. o.o')

Spoiler

(Am secretly modding Ikachan. >.>)

 

search for the string (C)Pixel, and go over to the hex column and replace it with all 0's.

Interestingly, due to the way strings are handled it would probably be sufficient to replace only the opening parenthesis with a null character. Not that that makes any difference.

You could also replace the string with a different string of equal or lesser length, though I can't imagine why you'd want to do that.

 

Spoiler

(Am secretly modding Ikachan. >.>)

Want any help? Why no-one has bothered to try this until now is beyond me.

 

The other option is to open your PBM with a hex editor, and at the very end of it, write in (C)Pixel.

Sorry if this sounds like a stupid question but what do you mean by the very end of it?

 

[QUOTE=The other option is to open your PBM with a hex editor, and at the very end of it, write in (C)Pixel.

Sorry if this sounds like a stupid question but what do you mean by the very end of it?

 

Hey everybody, it seems that a lot of people have been having trouble with this lately, so I figured I'd post how to do it.

First, open up a PBM by right clicking it and selecting "Open With" then choose the graphics editing program of your choice.

Second, Make any changes you want to the PBM, you may notice that you can't use some colors, this is because each PBM has a set pallette, if you want to change this pallete, open the PBM with CaveEditor, and select change Pallette, or copy the file into paint, and save it as whatever PBM you were editing, you can now use any color.

Finally, Run cave story, you may notice that an error similar to jhfdsjfhb,js pops up on the screen, and cave story closes. In your cave story file, there will now be a text document named error that has the name of the file you edited in it. To stop this error, you can either open cave story with your Hex editor, search for the string (C)Pixel, and go over to the hex column and replace it with all 0's. The other option is to open your PBM with a hex editor, and at the very end of it, write in (C)Pixel.

Yup, tht's it

Black is automatically a transparent color, by the way.

Cheers!
Lace

Sorry if this sounds like a stupid question but what do you mean by the end of it? do you mean the file name or is it in one of the columns in all the hex codes. I'm just learning how to use this and it doesn't make any sence to me

 

Don't feel bad, I didn't know at first either until I used XVI32 to look at the PBM files that came with the game to get familiarized with the hex editor menus.

To answer your question, yes, it would be added at the end of the hex code numbers.
For example, at the end of Loading.PBM (The added (C)Pixel part is marked in red, the actual picture is the rest of the code listed)-

42 4D 7E 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 3E 00 00 00 28 00 00
00 40 00 00 00 08 00 00 00 01 00 01 00 00 00 00 00
40 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 00
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 FF E2 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00 00 7E 3C 66 7C 3C 66 3E 66 60 66 66 66 18 66 66
66 60 66 7E 66 18 6E 66 00 60 66 66 66 18 76 6E 00
60 66 66 66 18 66 60 00 60 3C 3C 7C 3C 66 3E 00 00
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 [COLOR="Red"]28 43 29 50 69 78 65 6C[/COLOR]

When adding the (C)Pixel part onto a new PBM file or an edited one, I usually have to be careful not to cut off a part of the file itself by accident with the Overwrite mode option in the Tools section near the top of the hex editor window. It wouldn't hurt to keep a backup of the file before hex editing it, just to be safe.

When I add the (C)Pixel line, first, I duplicate the very last number on the left side of the window (The hex code itself) by clicking on that last part of the code to highlight it, then click on the highlighted square of right side part (Where the text will be shown) & type in(C)Pixe. As I add to the code, the duplicate hex code typed earlier (Usually seen as 00, but there are some exceptions) is pushed beyond the part where (C)Pixe is, so in order to finish the file preperation, I turn on Overwrite mode (It'll have a checkmark when it's on) & type in the L while the last square is highlighted. Don't worry if the code goes to the next row, as long as it's still in order of (C)Pixel going after the file code, it should work just fine.

There's probably a much more efficient way to add the (C)Pixel onto the end of the code, but this method still works for me...

 

Cool never knew tha adding the (C)Pixel to a sprite weas so easy
I always used cave editor to remove (C)Pixel requirement and that is not a very effective way of editing

 

There's probably a much more efficient way to add the (C)Pixel onto the end of the code, but this method still works for me...

If you're editing tilesets, just open the game in Sue's and use the tileset editor. Auto-adds (C)Pixel.
Same might be true of attaching an NPC sheet.
Not sure about for backgrounds.

EDIT: I dug this out of my archives.
How to edit PBM's

 

okay, new method of doing this, I said it on the first page, but wanted to explain in detail for all you peoples out there. the code that checks for (c)pixel is at 0x0111F0. what it does here (as far as I can postulate) is do a character by character comparison between the string at the end of the pbm and the string at 0x48C4D4 (interestingly, before the string actually starts) it then does the evil crash thing if you messed up. you can have all sorts of fun with this code, such as making the game crash if you equip an item that says "if you equip this item the game will crash" but that's not what we're here for. instead of noping out this code, we just go to where it's called, at 0x00F710, and nop out the code there. (five 90s, mind it, no more or less)

also, note that this code hasn't been tested, but it should work unnless the code does something besides checking.

ach! devil post!

 

The other option is to open your PBM with a hex editor, and at the very end of it, write in (C)Pixel.

Sorry if this sounds like a stupid question but what do you mean by the very end of it?

Maybe the script? I have no clue. I use Cave Editor to mod it sometimes. But I made it so Paint will open/edit all of the .PBM's and Cave Story still works. I made Balrog have eyebrows, and Quote have a scarf.

 

*Facepalm*

Beholder answered that...

42 4D 7E 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 3E 00 00 00 28 00 00
00 40 00 00 00 08 00 00 00 01 00 01 00 00 00 00 00
40 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 00
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 FF E2 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00 00 7E 3C 66 7C 3C 66 3E 66 60 66 66 66 18 66 66
66 60 66 7E 66 18 6E 66 00 60 66 66 66 18 76 6E 00
60 66 66 66 18 66 60 00 60 3C 3C 7C 3C 66 3E 00 00
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 [COLOR=Red]28 43 29 50 69 78 65 6C[/COLOR]

That's what the very end of the file looks like in Hex.
28 43 29 50 69 78 65 6C produces the letters/symbols "(C)Pixel"
Really, I'd just use the 'Remove (C)Pixel requirement' in CE. Takes 5 seconds to do and then you'd never have to mess with again.
Ever.

 

Hex editor download???

You say hex editor and, call me a noob, but what is the best hex editor to use for cave story. i just started modding for cave story recently and did not no wat the best hex editor for it was. Yes, i do have some experience with hex editors.

ty in advance

 

Eh, I dunno that there's one that's especially good for modding/hacking Cave Story, so just use whichever one you're most used to. I use XVI32 but whatever you use for other things, I would say use for Cave Story.