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DS development > DS Firmware Icons

#111743 - Dracker - Sat Dec 09, 2006 7:16 pm

I've seen some homebrew that shows a picture (like a game does) when you launch if from the firmware. How is this done?

Also, is it possible to extract this 32x32 icon from the binary? What are the palette limitations for creating a new one?

#111748 - chuckstudios - Sat Dec 09, 2006 8:02 pm

NDSTS can read them. They are apparently 4BPP.

#111762 - Lick - Sat Dec 09, 2006 10:33 pm

ndstool
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#111782 - josath - Sun Dec 10, 2006 1:18 am

here's some hacky php code which uses ndstool and extracts the icon to convert it to PNG: http://davr.org/ds2/demos/readnds.phps

check the bottledlight nds wiki, or gbatek, for info on the format & location of the icon data.

#115051 - - PT - Fri Jan 12, 2007 3:19 pm

I'm having trouble getting ndstool to add my DS icon and description to my demo.

It builds properly, the rom is slightly bigger and I can run my demo properly, but no icon! :o

I have this in the makefile:
Code:
ndstool   -c $(TARGET).nds -7 $(TARGET).arm7 -9 $(TARGET).arm9 -b miitii.bmp "_;_;_"


I've tried:
- 32x32 Bitmap @ 16 colours (4bit)
- Saving with MS Paint instead of Jasc Paintshop
- Adding '-f $(TARGET).nds' to correct the header checksum
- Removing spaces from the description
- Lowercase for the bitmap filename (yeah, I got desparate...)

I can see the Moonshell icon in my M3 Lite's menu and it makes me sad.
Any suggestions?

#115062 - josath - Fri Jan 12, 2007 5:14 pm

- PT wrote:
I'm having trouble getting ndstool to add my DS icon and description to my demo.

Any suggestions?


Can you upload your bmp file? perhaps i can look at it and see what's different from mine. ndstool can be a bit picky about images.

Here are a couple that I know work fine:

Code:
size in bytes:
2102 MultiNDS.bmp
1858 birds.bmp
2102 drops.bmp

'file' output:
MultiNDS.bmp: PC bitmap data, Windows 3.x format, 32 x 32 x 8
birds.bmp:    PC bitmap data, Windows 3.x format, 32 x 32 x 8
drops.bmp:    PC bitmap data, Windows 3.x format, 32 x 32 x 8

'identify' output:
MultiNDS.bmp BMP 32x32 PseudoClass 256c 2kb
birds.bmp[1] BMP 32x32 PseudoClass 195c 2kb
drops.bmp[2] BMP 32x32 PseudoClass 256c 2kb

http://h.davr.org/icons.zip

It seems like my bmp files are all 256 color (though they don't actually use that many colors each)

#115073 - Dark Knight ez - Fri Jan 12, 2007 8:12 pm

The bmp files used need to be 256 colour bitmap files, of which only (the first?) 16 may be used.
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#115142 - - PT - Sat Jan 13, 2007 6:07 am

josath wrote:
Can you upload your bmp file? perhaps i can look at it and see what's different from mine. ndstool can be a bit picky about images.

It seems like my bmp files are all 256 color (though they don't actually use that many colors each)


Sure thing.
[LINK REMOVED]

Yeah, I've also tried 256 colours, both with custom palette and default palette :/

I'll see if your icons work in a bit.

EDIT: They don't! :O
I'm beginning to think I should reinstall devkitARM from scratch

Last edited by - PT on Sat Jan 13, 2007 7:39 am; edited 1 time in total

#115146 - Sektor - Sat Jan 13, 2007 7:03 am

M3 only shows icons for .ds.gba renamed to .nds (.nds files with a loader).
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#115149 - - PT - Sat Jan 13, 2007 7:38 am

Sektor wrote:
M3 only shows icons for .ds.gba renamed to .nds (.nds files with a loader).

Wow, you're right!

Thanks a lot!! :D

EDIT:
For future reference, go with 16 colours (4bit) for best results.
256 colours (8bit) will work with ndstool and appear, but it'll look horrible.