[Request/Tutorial] Battle Background; An unexplored area of PokeMMO Customization

[Smooge]

Hi there, lately I've been obsessed with customizing the client to my liking, taking bits and pieces of media from other games and mashing them together to make a UI I love.
But there is one thing in PokeMMO that continues to taunt me, the battle background.
I think most of the battle backgrounds in black/white are pretty ugly, but there are a few i do like, So, I taught myself how to open ROMs and tried to change all the generic backgrounds to my favorite one: the background of the Iris battle in BW2.
I actually managed to get it to work!... sorta.
The animation of the background does not carry over and I cannot figure out why. (here's what it SHOULD look like for reference: https://youtu.be/FOUEhoWG-Og?si=QZ1QIp0vkpjLaKOF&t=79)
I've tried everything, searched everywhere, and just couldn't find an answer to this issue. I am almost certain its possible, however the answer just does not exist in a readily available place online. 
So I wanted to make this post because I think its a really cool idea, and also give a small tutorial on how to actually do this. And I really hope someone more experienced than me can explain how to keep these animations, as it would open the door to even more customization.

First off this guide will only explain how to move around models within the games BW and BW2, as I have no experience with creating my own models/animation.
What you'll need:
1. A clean, legal ROM of Pokemon Black/White. (Also Black/White 2 if that's where you choose to take assets from)
2. A ROMhacking tool called Tinke. I wont link it here as idk if I'm allowed to, so just google it.

Where the battle backgrounds are stored and how to change them:
1. When you open up the Pokemon Black/White ROM in Tinke, you can find all the battle background assets in a/0/1/1 (Its the same in Black/White 2, which I used to take assets from)
2. To actually view the files, you must click "Unpack" on the 1 folder

3. Once unpacked you can then open the next 1 folder and see all the assets, you can click on View to see the textures and such.
3a. For example, this is the texture used in most grass encounters (as far as I can tell)

From this point on, I'm not 100% sure if what I'm doing is correct, and I'm going to explain what I did to insert a custom background (with broken animation), so be warned.
4. First you need to locate the background you want to steal. In my case it was in a/0/1/1/1_115.BMD0 in Pokemon White 2 (which is the champion iris battle background)
After you locate the file, click extract and put it in a place you can find it for the next step.
5. Then you need to locate the backgrounds you want to replace. I replaced 1_46.BMD0, 1_47.BMD0, and 1_48.BMD when testing as they are the generic grass background in most encounters. (as far as I can tell)
To replace them, click "Change File" and select the file you extracted earlier.
6. Go back to the 1 folder containing all of the battle assets, and click Pack. This entire process wont work unless you repack it.
7. Click Save ROM and then load it on PokeMMO and see if your changes worked.

8. Spend the next 16 hours trying everything you can find on the internet to fix the broken animations 😞

And that's it, that's the extent of my ROM hacking knowledge. Thankfully there are some cool backgrounds in both games you can change to that don't look bad with broken animations, such as this one:

Hope you guys figure this stuff out because I'm out of ideas lol, good luck!

 

 

 

Edited December 29, 2023 by Smooge
broken image

[Zelotz]

Hello there! (Perhaps I’m a bit late.)
I would like to know certain things about this, I have asked everyone involved in the “Battle Background” about certain things, and the truth is that we just have to wait for their responses. If you allow me, I would like to ask you some questions about this topic.

Since this morning I have been called by my own interest to this topic and these doubts arose:
 

· I’m not very knowledgeable, but could we edit the scenario file in some 3D way?
· Are you interested in continuing to experiment with this project?
· Could you inform me about what problems trying to model the scenarios implies?
 

The truth is you were the one who explained the most and helped me a lot in my search (and I appreciate it very much), in the same way my intention is not to place scenarios from other already created games, I want to be close to the possibility of creating my own scenarios.

"I believe I’ve only been searching for a short time (about 7 hours at most), but I fully intend to see my search through to the end"

I have tried with multiple file converters, from Shapr3, Blockbench and Blender, but before continuing testing I want to obtain possible valuable information about it. I also know that I have not been the one who has put the most effort into this, so I know you can help me a little, I would appreciate it very much!

If you’re able to answer my questions, I’m available to respond via chat if you prefer.