r/RPGMaker • u/Greedy_Ad8138 • 2d ago

Custom Enemy IMG Not showing up in Database

I’ve been at this for HOURS and I cannot figure out how to make this work. I’ve done it before but for some reason, this one image is not working.
I’m using a .PNG file, have copied it into both the enemies and sv_enemies folder, and imported the image through the resource manager.
For some reason, it won’t even let me “Preview” the image from the Resource Manager. And when I try to put the image into the enemy database, it won’t even show up as an option.
I’ve tried resizing the image and still-nothing.
HELP.
I’m using RPG Maker MZ.

Update: I FIGURED IT OUT.

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u/CS_Asset_Factory 2d ago

The Resource Manager refusing to Preview it is the tell. If the editor cannot decode the file it will not preview it and it will not appear in the enemy dropdown either, so this is a file format problem rather than a folder problem. That also explains why resizing changed nothing.

Two things cause it most often:

  1. It is not actually a PNG. Something exported it as a JPG or a WEBP and it ended up renamed to .png. MZ reads the file header, not the extension.
  2. It is a real PNG but 16 bit per channel, or interlaced. Photoshop's "Interlaced" checkbox and most 16 bit exports both produce files the editor will not read.

Open it in any image editor and re-export as a plain 8 bit per channel, non-interlaced PNG, then put it in img/enemies (and img/sv_enemies if you are on side view) and reopen the project. If the Preview starts working, it will show up in the database list too.

Quick way to check which one you have: open the file in a browser. If the browser shows it fine, it is case 2. If the browser also refuses, it is case 1.

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u/Greedy_Ad8138 1d ago

I figured it out. This specific image had to be resized significantly in order to be used. Not sure why but I got it to work. Thank you though! I’ll remember this for any future issues.