RPGM Tutorial Transform VX Ace Assets to MV With Minimum Quality Loss

Master Mirror

Member
May 11, 2017
203
284
I wanted to create this guide for those who want to start developing a game using RPG Maker MV engine and having a hard time while trying to find useful assets for their project.

Best way to deal with this problem? Transform already existing VX Ace assets to MV!

Since RPG Maker VX Ace is older than MV, it has a wide range of asset selection already created by both the community and the devs. This makes it easier to find related assets for your game's theme in VX Ace.

There's an easy way for us to transform these assets and turn them into MV compatible ones.

This will be a step by step guide and all you need to have is free image editor GIMP. You can download it from the link below;



1- Go to

2- Upload your asset image, choose upscaling 2x and and press "Convert" as shown in the screenshot.



3- Download the result image by pressing CTRL+S and save it in your desktop. (If you are using Firefox browser like me) Otherwise right-clicking to the image and choosing "Save Image" should work with other browsers.

4- Open the image in your GIMP editor.
Go to Image > Scale Image as shown in the screenshot.



5- Choose percent instead of pixels for scaling and change Width and Height from 100 to 75 as seen in the screenshot. At the end, press "Scale" button.



6- It's time to save the work, go to File > Export As as shown in the screenshot. Save the new image to desktop.



7- You don't need to change any of the options below, just hit the "Export" button.




Aaand that's it! We have successfully transformed RPG Maker VX Ace asset to MV. Now we can use it to create our game in MV properly.

Explanation

RPG Maker VX Ace is using tile size as 32x32 pixels. This number is 50% higher in MV which is 48x48. We needed to increase the resolution of the tileset according to this percentage but we couldn't simply stretch it by changing its size in an image editor such as GIMP or Photoshop. It would make the image low quality and blurry.

We first used upscaling technique generated by Deep Convolutional Neural Networks algortihm in waifu2x website and doubled the resolution of our image. Since this resolution was bigger than we needed, we used GIMP editor to scale it from 100% to 75% to get the exact MV resolution. This way, we managed to increase the scale without losing any quality.

Here is the same example tileset I used to make it MV compatible. You can also see the difference between simply stretching the image and scaling it with waifu2x.

MACK's Tile_D 512x512 (RPG Maker VX Ace original asset)





Only Stretching it with an image editor for MV 768x768 (Photoshop, GIMP, MS Paint, etc.)




Upscaling technique with waifu2x 768x768 (best outcome)



You can clearly see the blurriness between stretching and upscaling. Waifu2x sample is much more clear than the simple stretching one even after we increased the size of the image by 50%.

Possible questions:

-Should I change the noise reduction from Medium to Highest or None while converting the image? What would be the difference?

No, you shouldn't. Noise reduction is used for clearing the image from compression artifacts. This would make your tiles more smoother but the expense of detail. At the end it would still look like blurry. Medium(default) option is the best one imo.

-Should I decrease the compression level of the image while exporting it in GIMP? Would it increase the quality of the image?

No, you shouldn't. There won't be any noticable difference between compressed or uncompressed image in GIMP. It will only make the size of the image bigger (870 kb > 2.2 mb for the sample tileset above).


Good luck with the development!
 

xDEEPx

Active Member
Oct 7, 2017
547
167
I wanted to create this guide for those who want to start developing a game using RPG Maker MV engine and having a hard time while trying to find useful assets for their project.

Best way to deal with this problem? Transform already existing VX Ace assets to MV!

Since RPG Maker VX Ace is older than MV, it has a wide range of asset selection already created by both the community and the devs. This makes it easier to find related assets for your game's theme in VX Ace.

There's an easy way for us to transform these assets and turn them into MV compatible ones.

This will be a step by step guide and all you need to have is free image editor GIMP. You can download it from the link below;



1- Go to

2- Upload your asset image, choose upscaling 2x and and press "Convert" as shown in the screenshot.



3- Download the result image by pressing CTRL+S and save it in your desktop. (If you are using Firefox browser like me) Otherwise right-clicking to the image and choosing "Save Image" should work with other browsers.

4- Open the image in your GIMP editor.
Go to Image > Scale Image as shown in the screenshot.



5- Choose percent instead of pixels for scaling and change Width and Height from 100 to 75 as seen in the screenshot. At the end, press "Scale" button.



6- It's time to save the work, go to File > Export As as shown in the screenshot. Save the new image to desktop.



7- You don't need to change any of the options below, just hit the "Export" button.




Aaand that's it! We have successfully transformed RPG Maker VX Ace asset to MV. Now we can use it to create our game in MV properly.

Explanation

RPG Maker VX Ace is using tile size as 32x32 pixels. This number is 50% higher in MV which is 48x48. We needed to increase the resolution of the tileset according to this percentage but we couldn't simply stretch it by changing its size in an image editor such as GIMP or Photoshop. It would make the image low quality and blurry.

We first used upscaling technique generated by Deep Convolutional Neural Networks algortihm in waifu2x website and doubled the resolution of our image. Since this resolution was bigger than we needed, we used GIMP editor to scale it from 100% to 75% to get the exact MV resolution. This way, we managed to increase the scale without losing any quality.

Here is the same example tileset I used to make it MV compatible. You can also see the difference between simply stretching the image and scaling it with waifu2x.

MACK's Tile_D 512x512 (RPG Maker VX Ace original asset)





Only Stretching it with an image editor for MV 768x768 (Photoshop, GIMP, MS Paint, etc.)




Upscaling technique with waifu2x 768x768 (best outcome)



You can clearly see the blurriness between stretching and upscaling. Waifu2x sample is much more clear than the simple stretching one even after we increased the size of the image by 50%.

Possible questions:

-Should I change the noise reduction from Medium to Highest or None while converting the image? What would be the difference?

No, you shouldn't. Noise reduction is used for clearing the image from compression artifacts. This would make your tiles more smoother but the expense of detail. At the end it would still look like blurry. Medium(default) option is the best one imo.

-Should I decrease the compression level of the image while exporting it in GIMP? Would it increase the quality of the image?

No, you shouldn't. There won't be any noticable difference between compressed or uncompressed image in GIMP. It will only make the size of the image bigger (870 kb > 2.2 mb for the sample tileset above).


Good luck with the development!
Hey.... I tried this and it gave me this outcome
What did i do wrong o.o and why is most assets I use add the background with it..?
 

Master Mirror

Member
May 11, 2017
203
284
Hey.... I tried this and it gave me this outcome
What did i do wrong o.o and why is most assets I use add the background with it..?
Hi, you probably used a non-transparent tileset or saved it other than .PNG (.JPEG etc.).

Make sure you are using a tileset with a transparent background and save it as .PNG image file.
 
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xDEEPx

Active Member
Oct 7, 2017
547
167
Hi, you probably used a non-transparent tileset or saved it other than .PNG (.JPEG etc.).

Make sure you are using a tileset with a transparent background and save it as .PNG image file.
Heyy So I think I am close.... I tried this one but the square isn't fitting one, it's spreading over other squares ;'m Help?

 

Master Mirror

Member
May 11, 2017
203
284
Heyy So I think I am close.... I tried this one but the square isn't fitting one, it's spreading over other squares ;'m Help?

There may be more than one reason for that to happen;

-Your tilesets might have wrong ratio for MV. Make sure that whichever tileset you are using is equal to pixels below.

RPG Maker MV (It's 1.5x bigger than VX Ace tilesets)

A1 and A2 are 768 x 576 pixels (VX Ace: 512 x 384 pixels)

A3 is 768 x 384 pixels (VX Ace: 512 x 256 pixels)

A4 is 768 x 720 pixels (VX Ace: 512 x 480 pixels)

A5 is 384 x 768 pixels (VX Ace: 256 x 512 pixels)

B-E Tilesets are 768 x 768 pixels. (VX Ace: 512 x 512 pixels)

-Your tilesets may have an alignment problem. You can move/edit them to correct positions by using GIMP. But from your images, this shouldn't be the case because they look smaller than they are supposed to be.
 
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xDEEPx

Active Member
Oct 7, 2017
547
167
There may be more than one reason for that to happen;

-Your tilesets might have wrong ratio for MV. Make sure that whichever tileset you are using is equal to pixels below.

RPG Maker MV (It's 1.5x bigger than VX Ace tilesets)

A1 and A2 are 768 x 576 pixels (VX Ace: 512 x 384 pixels)

A3 is 768 x 384 pixels (VX Ace: 512 x 256 pixels)

A4 is 768 x 720 pixels (VX Ace: 512 x 480 pixels)

A5 is 384 x 768 pixels (VX Ace: 256 x 512 pixels)

B-E Tilesets are 768 x 768 pixels. (VX Ace: 512 x 512 pixels)

-Your tilesets may have an alignment problem. You can move/edit them to correct positions by using GIMP. But from your images, this shouldn't be the case because they look smaller than they are supposed to be.
Perfect! Thanks for adding the pixel image size for the specific tilesets!
Oh and whenever I put the Ace assets into waifu to make them into mv what upscaling should I choose 2x>?
Looks Awesome " "
Oh and since you're answering questions.. do you know how keep tiles on a map even if you delete tiles on the "A,B,C,D,E".... I have other tilesets I need on one map but when I delete a tileset they are removed from the map.. ;'m
 

Master Mirror

Member
May 11, 2017
203
284
Oh and whenever I put the Ace assets into waifu to make them into mv what upscaling should I choose 2x>?
It's suggested that you upscale it with 2x and then shrink it to 75% with GIMP. Not just because there's no option for 1.5x on waifu, but also to keep details on your tilesets clean after you make it smaller. It's easier to deal with higher resolution images than the lower ones (whatever you want to do with them).

do you know how keep tiles on a map even if you delete tiles on the "A,B,C,D,E".... I have other tilesets I need on one map but when I delete a tileset they are removed from the map.. ;'m
I'm not sure if there's a way to increase tileset size in editor or use more than 2 tilesets for the same area. I've found a related thread on official RPG Maker forum, maybe this is what you need;



If the link above doesn't work for you, as a last resort, you can create your own custom tilesets by cutting and pasting each tile you want to a single tileset and use it as it is. You can do this with GIMP.
 
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xDEEPx

Active Member
Oct 7, 2017
547
167
Much appreciated bro.. ive been looking for a proper way around ace to mv and you specified the details better than anything on google/youtube.. cheers.
 
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Master Mirror

Member
May 11, 2017
203
284
Much appreciated bro.. ive been looking for a proper way around ace to mv and you specified the details better than anything on google/youtube.. cheers.
Glad I could help, good luck with the development stuff.:FeelsGoodMan:
 

Loro

Member
Jun 29, 2017
106
101
I appreciate this guide. But there is a better way. Get waifu2x caffe (gui) and just upscale by 1,5x. That way you dont need to downscale. That website is just a demo, a test of the real waifu2x which is opensource and lots of guis already available on github. So, using the waifu2x caffe gui version, there is no need anymore to over-upscale, just to downscale to 75%. Just directly upscale by 1,5x with the real waifu2x. As said, that website is just a demo website host to test out how good waifu2x is. You can compile and host it yourself or just get a good gui version of it, like the one I linked to. waifu2x caffe exists since april 2017 btw.
 
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