# 🐼 Complete DPET Creation Guide - Streamlined with Panda Programs 🎋

**The fastest way to create Desktop Pets using automated tools**

---

*Well, let's start off by saying I'm not the best at putting together guides, but I believe this program needs a straight-forward way to streamline creating content if it's going to thrive. So now that that's out the way, let's get started!*

## 📋 What You'll Need

### 🛠️ Essential Tools
1. **🐼 Panda Sprite Splitter** - Auto-extracts sprites with background removal
- **Download:** ``
2. **🐼 Pandas Depet Maker** - Creates complete DPET packages
- **Download:** ``
3. **📁 DPET Base Folder** - Engine files to start from
- **Download:** `LINK FOR DOWNLOAD FOR ALL FILES NEEDED:https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1z1fOccoksbL8AytTh4SWNoFHsPYbYdiv?usp=drive_link`

### 🎨 Sprite Sources
1. **Sprites** (with transparent backgrounds preferred)
- **Spriters Resource:** https://www.spriters-resource.com/
2. **Image editing software** (if needed for touch-ups)
- **GIMP (Free):** https://www.gimp.org/

### 📺 Video Tutorial
**YouTube Guide:** `new video soon!` - *Didn't see any good guides out there for this, so I made one! Hope y'all enjoy as well as have fun creating pets!*

---

## 🚀 Step-by-Step Process

### Step 1: 🔍 Find Your Sprites

**Go to [Spriters Resource](https://www.spriters-resource.com/)**

Use the search at the top to find what you're looking for. **Make sure the background is TRANSPARENT** - if it's not, you can still use it (the Panda programs will help remove backgrounds).

For this guide, we'll download a sprite sheet:

1. **Find your character/sprite sheet**
2. **Click on the sheet you want**
3. **Click "Download This Sheet"** when the page loads
4. **Save the file** to your computer

*You should now have a sprite sheet image file!*

---

### Step 2: 🎯 Extract Individual Sprites

**Open Panda Sprite Splitter**

This replaces the old manual cropping and online resizing process!

#### Load Your Sprite Sheet:
1. **Click "🎋 Load Image"**
2. **Select your downloaded sprite sheet**

#### Remove Background Colors:
1. **Click "💉 Eye Dropper Tool"**
2. **Click on background areas** in your sprite sheet (this teaches the program what to ignore)
3. **Add multiple background colors** if needed
4. **Adjust "Similarity" slider** (try 30-50 for most sheets)

#### Auto-Detect All Sprites:
1. **Choose detection mode:**
- **"🧠 Smart Adaptive"** - Best for most sprite sheets
- **"🔗 Tight Spacing"** - For sprites very close together
- **"📏 Grid Based"** - For uniform tile sheets
2. **Set Min Size** to around 20
3. **Set Max Size** to around 500
4. **Click "🔍 Auto Detect"**

*The program will automatically find and box all your sprites!*

#### Fine-Tune Results:
- **Click sprites** to select them
- **Drag red handles** to resize boxes
- **Right-click** to delete unwanted boxes
- **Use "➕ Add Box"** to manually draw missing sprites

#### Export Everything:
1. **Click "📂 Set Output Folder"** - choose where to save
2. **Set size to 128x128** for regular sprites
3. **Keep "Sprite Scale" at 65%** (fills canvas nicely)
4. **Click "🐼 Export Sprites!"**

**🎯 Pro Tip:** Select your best sprite and click **"💾 Save Selected as Icon"** to create your 16x16 icon automatically!

*You now have all sprites exported at the correct sizes with backgrounds removed!*

---

### Step 3: 🏗️ Build Your DPET

**Open Pandas Depet Maker**

This replaces the tedious manual file renaming process!

#### Setup Your Project:
1. **Enter Pet Name** (letters, numbers, hyphens only)
2. **Click "🐼 Browse"** for Base Folder - select your downloaded DPET base
3. **Click "🐼 Browse"** for Output - choose where to save completed DPET

#### Assign Sprites to Animation Frames:

**Essential Frames (Start with these):**
- **icon** - Double-click and select your 16x16 icon
- **shime1** - Walking frame 1
- **shime1a** - Walking frame 2
- **shime2** - Walking frame 3
- **shime5** - Sitting/idle pose
- **shime11** - Standing pose

**Additional Frames (for richer animation):**
- **shime6** - Mouse pickup (when user grabs pet)
- **shime4** - Falling
- **shime12-14** - Climbing animations
- **shime22** - Jumping
- **shime23-25** - Ceiling walking
- **shime31-33** - Hanging/dangling

*Double-click any slot to browse for an image. Each slot shows a clear description!*

#### Transform Sprites if Needed:
**Important:** All sprites should face LEFT!

After loading an image, transformation buttons appear:
- **↔** - Flip horizontally (if your sprite faces right)
- **↕** - Flip vertically
- **↻** - Rotate 90°
- **↶** - Undo last change
- **⟲** - Reset to original

#### Generate Your DPET:
**Click "🎋 Generate DPET 🐼"**

The program automatically:
- ✅ Creates proper folder structure
- ✅ Copies all engine files
- ✅ Resizes sprites to correct dimensions
- ✅ Creates icon files (.png and .ico)
- ✅ Generates config files
- ✅ Fills missing frames with transparent images

*Your DPET is now complete and ready to upload!*

---

## 📤 Upload to Steam Workshop

**Open DPET and go to Workshop section:**

1. **Open DPET application**
2. **Click "Workshop"**
3. **Click "Upload"**
4. **Fill out the information** (name, description, tags)
5. **Drag and drop your generated pet folder** onto the upload area
6. **Submit!**

*Choose "DPET only" for local testing, "Workshop" for public sharing.*

---

## 🎯 Pro Tips & Troubleshooting

### 🔧 Common Issues:

**Panda Sprite Splitter:**
- **No sprites detected:** Add more background colors with eye dropper, increase similarity
- **Too many small pieces:** Increase min size, try "Smart Adaptive" mode
- **Sprites cut off:** Use manual resize handles or add boxes manually

**Pandas Depet Maker:**
- **Invalid base folder:** Make sure it contains .jar files and conf/img/lib folders
- **Sprites facing wrong way:** Use horizontal flip transformation
- **Missing frames:** Program automatically fills blanks - you only need to assign the ones you have!

### 🎨 Animation Tips:
- **Start with basic frames** (walking, sitting, standing) then add more
- **Walking animation** needs at least shime1, better with shime1-4
- **Facing direction** - all sprites should face LEFT
- **Icon quality** - use your clearest, most recognizable sprite

### ⚡ Speed Tips:
- **Use "Smart Adaptive" detection** for most sprite sheets
- **Batch export** all sprites from splitter at once
- **Focus on essential frames** first, add fancy animations later
- **Transform preview** updates instantly - experiment freely!

---

## 🏆 Why This Method Rocks

### Old Manual Way:
❌ Online sprite splitter (one by one cropping)
❌ Online bulk resizer (separate upload/download)
❌ Manual file renaming (error-prone)
❌ Manual folder structure creation
❌ Lots of time and potential mistakes

### New Panda Programs Way:
✅ **Automatic sprite detection** (finds everything at once)
✅ **Smart background removal** (eye dropper + AI detection)
✅ **Instant transformations** (flip, rotate with live preview)
✅ **Frame assignment interface** (clear descriptions, no guessing)
✅ **Complete DPET generation** (proper structure, all files)
✅ **Quality control** (consistent sizing, proper formatting)

---

## 🌟 Final Words

That's it! **Easy peasy** - it just takes a few minutes now instead of hours! You should now have your own PET ready to upload and share so we can see this community thrive.

**There's no reason this shouldn't be as popular as Wallpaper Engine - it's up to us to make it so!**

Upload your creations and let's build an amazing library of desktop pets! 🐼

*Much love, hope this helped someone!*
**-Pandalord421_TTV**

---

## 📚 Additional Resources

new youtube video soon!

- **Spriters Resource:** https://www.spriters-resource.com/
- **GIMP (Free Image Editor):** https://www.gimp.org/
- **Program Documentation:** See individual README files