This is a fairly little-appreciated facet of Brawl hacking, but it's very possible to add new marks (also called franchise icons, but they're called marks internally, so I use that term instead) into the game, even modeled ones like used on the results screen.

Now, keeping with BrawlEx's theme of 'easily-aligned slots', best practices say start with mark 24. This is because 21 to 23 are spoken for by sc_selmap.pac (I've actually got 21 assigned in one of these packs, but that's because it matches 21 in sc_selmap.pac).

Just click a mark below to download the pack that has everything you need and instructions to add them.






As you can see, the last one is actually custom, a 'generic Nintendo' mark that might fit for more traditional Miis and maybe R.O.B., being that he's actually hardware, and not from any game.

Now, because of space limitations, you may need some room made in the various info files. Don't worry. I've got you covered. Get your reduced-size info files here.

If there's any questions or issues not covered by the troubleshooter, or requests for custom marks, post up.

Would this be possible somehow?

I know that you can add new them by using textures, but I'm just that kind of person that would go the extra mile to actually model out new franchise icons to truly integrate a character into Brawl.

I'm already able to make some of the more geometric franchise models on my own in Blender, and can probably learn how to make some of the ones that aren't so simple, so that part's not any kind of issue.

So, the question becomes, is there any way to insert a new franchise icon model, and if so, how would that be done?

This isn't a ton, but when I saw how they got super lazy with the Pokémon Trainer's individual 'mon CSPs while having their own box pictures, this idea sprang into my mind.

Of course, I wanted to make them look as official as possible, so I used the trophy models, which, apparently Charizard's trophy model does [/i]not[/i] play well with exporters. Still, I was able to tame it and bend it to my will, so get rekt, DolPokeLizardonR1!

The original idea was to have images for independent pokémon for Brawl Expansion where the core of the modding focus was characters and/or stages. No outrageous pose changes, just color shifts.

Anyway, here's the images. They're already 'formatted' for Brawl's native CI8, 240-color format, so if you drop 'em in, they should work fine.

Charizard Preview:


All Charizard colors


Squirtle Preview:


All Squirtle colors


Ivysaur Preview:


All Ivysaur Colors



Use these, or not, or distribute 'em if you think they're good enough. Hell, I don't even really need credit for 'em. I'll just be happy if they get used.

[Post Merge: April 01, 2015, 02:40:23 AM]

Yes, I have tracked down the font used by Nintendo for this screen, and surprisingly, it's not Japanese. But having found and confirmed as a match, I can make a guide.

Please note that this is written with Photoshop 7 experience in mind, but should work for any editor that has decent type layer capabilities. You should have the ability to make text any size at any time (using fractions of a point), and the ability to drag the type later to alter the aliasing. This is important so that you have the crispest text possible.

First, you'll need the updated Brawl Name Fonts file. This will provide all the fonts necessary to create:

- Large CSS name textures
- Small CSS name textures
- Stage name textures

The other two are beyond the scope of this guide, but with trial and error, you should be able to create those as well. I still need to bring my character name guide over here, but I haven't seen much interest for it.

The guide:

Step 1: Create an image with the following properties:

- 208 pixel width
- 56 pixel height
- DPI: 95.987 (BrawlBox exports .png files at this bizarre setting, but I think it's a floating point issue. Match it to be safe)

Step 2: Fill the image with black (0, 0, 0 RGB value). This should be obvious, but some might not do it if it's not here.

Step 3: Create a type layer with the following attributes:

- Font: Compacta
- Character Size: 27 point
- Aliasing: Strong
- Character Height: 99%
- Character Width: 145%
- Leading: 22.5 point (this is a setting that will be needed if you should need two lines. Change this value to 21.75 only if you need a Q on the bottom line)
- Justification: Centered (meaning, the text centers itself as you type, rather than being left- or right-aligned)
- Text Color: 255, 255, 255 (full white)

Step 4: Type your desired stage name out in all caps, with the center point at the exact middle of the image, and the baseline 40 pixels down. All-caps is the style, except for certain situations (metric units (see: 75 m) or the proper name 'Wii Fit', as seen in the new Smash Game).

Step 5: Ensure the text is aliased so that there are:

- exactly 16 pixels of solid black above and below the stage name for a 1-line name,
- exactly 1 pixel of solid black above and below for 2-line names without a Q on the bottom, or
- exactly 1 pixel above and 2 pixels below for 2-line names with a Q on the bottom line.

(Note: In Photoshop 7, if the aliasing is misaligned, you can zoom in to 400 or 800% and place the Type Tool cursor in your text, and Ctrl-Drag the text to correct aliasing. This ability is invaluable)

Step 6: Adjust aliasing along the horizontal axis so that you have as little aliasing on the sides of letters as possible. Some is alright, but we want clear text when it's rendered.

Step 7: Use a rectangular marquee selection to count the solid black space to the sides of the name, and outside of the Type Tool, drag until the number of solid black pixels is equal on both sides, giving more space to the right if there's an extra pixel.

Step 8: Flatten, save and test in Brawl.


Hopefully this helps you guys out.
Post Merge: April 01, 2015, 02:40:23 AMAnd just so you can see I'm not BSing here, here's a name for one of the new Project M stages in vBrawl style:

After finally tracking down the necessary font and figuring out the settings, I'm able to make 100% accurate and totally custom (no copy/paste of letters or anything) CSS names. I'd do in-battle names as well, except I haven't looked into the settings I'd need for those yet.

Here's a sample of my work so far:

MenSelchrChrNm.XXX:

MenSelchrChrNmS.XXX:

Of course, I'm not limited to Latin scripts either...

(Note to any Russian speakers: My apologies for the poor translation of the name. It's a Google Translate deal, and more intended to show what's possible than anything else)

So don't be shy, and hit me up with some requests. These are intended to fit perfectly within the normal Brawl CSS, or any mods that don't impact the text.