Post by ℓacey ☀️ on Jul 23, 2021 8:45:03 GMT -5
the very first thing i want to explain before we start the lesson is about how colors are used in babyz. being an older game, babyz has a very limited color palette so there are only 256 colors that are recognized by the game, and each of those colors is referred to by a number. you can see all of the game's colors and what number they are here or by pulling up the convenient color chart located in LNZ pro under insert > ball colour.
make sure you change the dropdown to "Babyz" so that it shows you the correct color palette.
so, looking at the color chart, if you want to give a baby blue eyes, for example, you might choose number 107 for them. the color chart is a very convenient thing you're going to want to become very familiar with as you hex babyz!
when you open a baby file, this is the first thing you will see at the very top: the texture list. this is where all of the texture files that a baby uses are listed. most areas on a baby's body that are not solid, flat colors, such as their hair, actually get their texture from external image files. this also includes any hair decorations or tattoos a baby might have. the texture list is how the game knows what textures to load onto the baby, and where they are located.
in the image above, you can see that all of betsy's textures are located in \art\autobuild. these are hidden folders in the game's directory which contain a bunch of various game elements including textures that were included with the game. you can see a list of the game hair textures here as well as previews of what they look like.
the game recognizes each texture based on the order they are listed in, starting with 0. so, in betsy's list above, hair3.bmp is texture 0, clear.bmp is texture 1, cottonwhite.bmp is texture 2, and B_LtBrown1.bmp is texture 3. textures 0-2 are used by the game to make the baby look the way they are supposed to, so i recommend leaving those exactly as they are. by default, texture 3 is always the baby's base hair color. so, if you want to change a baby's hair color, this is where that is done.
let's change betsy's hair color. maybe she would look nice as a blonde! if you go back to that list of game hair textures i linked above, you can see there is a nice blonde color already provided by the game, called B_Blond1.bmp.
in order to use this texture, we will alter the line where it says:
\art\autobuild\B_LtBrown1.bmp 0 256 256in this line, replace the B_LtBrown1.bmp with B_Blond1.bmp. be careful to keep the 0 256 256 after the bmp name, because that tells the game how the texture should show up on the baby and it won't load properly without it.
now, save the file in LNZ pro and then launch your babyz game. congratulations, betsy's hair should now be blonde!
now that we've successfully managed to change betsy's hair from one in-game bmp to another, let's try something a little bit more complicated. sometimes if you're hexing a baby with a certain theme, none of the in-game textures will be quite right for the look you are going for. in this situation, you may want to create your own hair texture or use one that another bc member has made for others to hex with.
let's go ahead and download a new hair texture to use on betsy. first, you'll want to make sure your babyz directory is set up so you can easily save new textures into it. so let's go to our \babyz\resource folder. there, create a new folder called "bmps".
that "bmps" folder is where we are going to put all of our external textures that we download. it is important to note here that not all hexed babyz will have their textures in in this specific folder. some older babyz will have their textures in the "clothes" folder, whereas some hexers like to create their own folders that their hexies' textures go into. you can always open up a baby's file in LNZ pro to identify where their textures are supposed to go. that said, for the purposes of this class, we will be using this "bmps" folder that i just had you make.
now we can save a new hair texture to use on betsy. there are a ton of awesome hair textures made by bc members out there. i myself have made many hair textures which you can find on my website, hexcapades under "hexing resources". babyz.org also has a bunch of hair textures that other bc members have made under "shop > bmp shop > hair bmps".
to save you the trouble of hunting through textures, i have one below for us to use.
you can right click on the texture above and save that texture to your computer. make sure you save it as "laceymagenta.bmp". place this texture in your "\babyz\resource\bmps" folder that you just made.
now, let's go back to betsy's file and find the line for texture 3 again.
\art\autobuild\B_Blond1.bmp 0 256 256because the blonde texture we used is included in the game, it is listed at its location in the hidden \art\autobuild folder i mentioned before. our new texture that we just downloaded is located in our \resource\bmps folder, so we are going to change the line so the game knows where to find our new texture.
\resource\bmps\laceymagenta.bmp 0 256 256now, launch your game again. if you did this correctly, betsy should now be sporting some lovely bright pink pigtails.
so that's the basics of the texture list and changing a texture. if you want to add more textures to the list, you can simply press enter and add the new texture on another line, and that would become texture 4 and so on. you can have as many textures as you'd like on a baby and when we get to the other sections of the baby's file i will show you how to apply your different textures to different parts of a baby to create certain effects, like, for example, an ombre hair color or a dip-dye colored tip effect.
reply below to show me photos of your betsy (or whatever you've opted to name her) with her hair texture changed to an in-game bmp texture as well as an external/downloaded hair texture! feel free to choose different textures for her other than the blond and magenta from the lesson, if you'd prefer.
I did it 
This is Lacey's aquashimmer
