Back in the day... really far back, I planned on creating an expansive collection of pallete hack mods for download. The idea was that rather than the patches be intended as hacks themselves (individually) they were instead a list of "themes" for zones that could be downloaded and applied in other mods and hacks for those who aren't very good or simply wanting to spend time purely on the more technical side of rom hacking. The pallete swap shop collection got to about 30 different themes across every zone (where appilcable) from sonic 1, 2, 3, & k. It was never released because at the time I had no net connection my self and eventually through hard disk failure I lost the whole lot and didn't have the means at the time to restart or post the results. Would there still be use for a project like this or would ips patching be incompatible with the newer assembly hacks? If so, I have no reservations about starting it up again, the palletes could / should be modified to taste and all I'd ask is credit for the use of the primary theme if still recognizable. Any interest? ---- EDIT ---- Preview of the pallets as screenshots for now are available on my Deviantart page Here
IPS patches would be incompatible with hacks using disassemblies, yes. What you could do is apply the patch to a clean ROM, then use split.bat from a disassembly to split the data out of the ROM, and take the palette files it creates.
God, I hate to admit I'm a novice in area's but I've never actually worked with or even looked at the ASM disassembles. I dropped out of the community due to loosing the net not long after the initial source assemblies for sonic 2 by stealth being revealed, I remember the hype but I didn't actually progress with the rest of the community on this whole area. Not having the net made it kinda less important than real life stuff if you get what I mean. So basically I'll round it to two points: 1. Is this something that could/would generally aid or help the community in some way even if small? 2. Is this something that require a lot of catching up to actually perform? If option one is dominant the I'll do it regardless cos I actually enjoy pallet modding and because that's something I believe in. If option two is the case then I'll still go for it but I'll probably ask for a lot of directions and pointers X_X; I'm not saying I'll give up at any point but one will probably take longer than the other and be far more annoying, I just want to know whats ahead of me. I'm not a technical guy, in truth with what you suggesting I'm already performing research, I'm just excellent with colours and artwork.
If you're looking for someone to guide you through palettes, or some of the hex-related facets of the disassembly, drop me a PM. I can't promise I'll always be as prompt as I probably should, but I will certainly be happy to do what I can.
You don't need to be technically smart to do this; you just need a good palette editor (or hex editor, whatever you use). In the disassembly, all of the palette files have been split apart as individual binary files into the "pallet" folder, so all you need to do is open them up, edit them, and double-click "build.bat" when finished. "s1built.bin" should show up; that's the new ROM file. Upon playing it, you should see your changes. Yes, I would actually like this, since I would spend less time palette editing and more time focusing on other stuff, like level layout or music. I'd like to see what interesting themes you've come up with, too.
Ok, I'm nearly finished my first series, alternate shading for sonic 2. I have started another; the Neon Noir series which finds appropriate zones to apply neon coloured effects too and more will be on the way. Preview of the pallets as screenshots for now are available on my Deviantart page Here I do have more but fine tuning out the tweaks and nigglets first, however I need to find a good place to store the files for download once they're ready and currently considering methods of distribution one of which is a share able PDF catalogue. Idea's for themes? PM, email or post me and I'll see what I can do. />
