Importing and Exporting RPG Maker XP Resources

Importing/Exporting RPG Maker XP Resources Why not give your player a fun break from the main quest with a simple quest, you could even add hours of gameplay time with rich and varied quests. Here, we'll show you how to get started.  Share this Tutorial →

The first thing most developers do when they want to begin customising their projects is adding new, custom resources to their games. Doing this is very simple, but requires a little knowledge of the preferred file types that RPG Maker accepts, and a few golden rules.

Step 1: Opening up the Materials Menu

The materials menu is found in the top bar of the program. It should look something like this.

You will then see the Materials window, this interface is responsible for handling all of the files that your project will use. From here you can import files into your project folders, export existing files to other areas of your computer, preview them within the RPG Maker XP software (a good way to see if the file format is supported) and delete any un-wanted files. It is important to only keep essential files within your game folders to minimise the size of your project, this ensures that your game is quicker to download and will be easier to place on file-sharing websites.

Step 2: Choosing a file type to import

In this case, I will be adding a new character graphic to use in my game. The first thing we have to do is tell RMXP that we wish to Import/Export from the Characters folder. We do this by selecting "Graphics/Characters" from the left hand window. This will show all of the files stored in that folder with the project file. Currently, every file has a blue icon next to it, this shows that these are the original RTP files that come with the RPG Maker XP package.

Step 3: Importing your file

Simply search your computer for the relevant file. If you are unable to find your file in the browser than it may be the wrong file type. At the bottom of the window you will see 'Files of Type:' listing the accepted formats that RMXP will accept. You can find a definitive list of file formats accepted by RMXP at the bottom of this tutorial and links to various format conversion software.

Step 4: Getting your file ready for import

The next and possibly most important step involves setting transparencies and translucencies for your graphic. In other words, this involves telling RMXP which colours in your graphic to ignore and to make transparent (in other words the background colour) or make translucent (to create shadows for example). In this example, the light blue background colour needs to be transparent, so left clicking it will tell RMXP to make this colour transparent for this particular graphic. Because I am not using any shadows at this time, i will leave the semi-transparent colour as nothing. It will appear black but as long as you have not selected any colours (using the right click button) then the effect will not appear on your graphic at all.

When you are happy with your choices, click OK to import your graphic into your game folder. Your file will then appear at the very top of your files (assuming you did not start its name with a number). You should also notice that instead of a blue icon it will have a red ball next to it, this is to signify that the file is not included in the RTP (for installation purposes later on).

Step 5: Enjoy

Your character graphic will now be available throughout the RPG Maker XP package, fully working and requiring no further work.

RPG Maker XP Accepted File Formats

Resource Type	Accepted Formats
Animations	.png   .jpg   .bmp
Battlebacks	.png   .jpg   .bmp
Battlers	.png   .jpg   .bmp
Characters	.png   .jpg   .bmp
Fogs	.png   .jpg   .bmp
Gameovers	.png   .jpg   .bmp
Icons	.png   .jpg   .bmp
Panoramas	.png   .jpg   .bmp
Pictures	.png   .jpg   .bmp
Tilesets	.png   .jpg   .bmp
Transitions	.png   .jpg   .bmp
Windowskins	.png   .jpg   .bmp
Background Music (BGM)	.mid   .ogg  .wma   .mp3  .wav
Background Sounds (BGS)	.mid   .ogg  .wma   .mp3  .wav
Musical Effects (ME)	.mid   .ogg  .wma   .mp3  .wav
Sound Effects (SE)	.mid   .ogg  .wma   .mp3  .wav