nms-gen is a cli tool used to insert pixel art into a No Man's Sky save file as base parts/geometry. In a nutshell, one can take a sprite and insert it into a base as a series of objects that look like the original sprite. The process is not 100% fully automated; some manual import/export operations with the NMS Save Editor are required at the moment.
The process looks like this:
- Export the base data as JSON using NMS save editor.
- Run
nms-genwith the correct inputs to update the save data (see example use for how to do this). - Import the updated base data using NMS save editor.
Note: Because there is potential to inadvertently corrupt save data, it's highly important that one make a back-up of the existing save data before trying to manipulate the data.
The No Man's Sky Save Editor provides capabilities for importing and exporting base data in JSON format. The process is somewhat intuitive if you take some time to learn about the editor.
Assuming one has cloned the source and set things up with uv, the process of updating the base data from a sprite is a one-liner command like the following:
uv run main.py input_bases/bubble_base.json sprites/mega_man_standing.png 40 --o my_output_file.json
In this example input_bases/bubble_base.json is the original JSON base data, exported from NMS Save Editor.
sprites/mega_man_standing.png is the input sprite to inject into the base data.
The 40 is a z-up value to elevate the base geometry so that it doesn't get stuck in the terrain. You may need to experiment with this depending on the terrain around your base.
--o my_output_file.json is how you specify the updated save data output file.
If your pixel data import is successful, you'll see something like this in the console:
Success!