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Basic Questions & Answers thread

Discussion in 'Engineering & Reverse Engineering' started by Tweaker, May 29, 2008.

  1. Aerosol

    Aerosol

    Not here. Moderator
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    Not where I want to be.
    Sonic (?): Coming summer of 2055...?
    I re-discovered your guide a day or so after I posted the question and have been going through it since. Thanks for the help everybody,
     
  2. Dark Sonic

    Dark Sonic

    Member
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    Working on my art!
    Is there a guide out there that explains how to add Elemental shields to Sonic 2? I'm starting work on a project and it's one of the features I'd like to add. Unfortunately though, outside of art and level/object layouts, I know next to nothing about coding. Thankfully what I'm looking to do doesn't involve too much technical know how, but I may hit a few walls down the line.

    But let's see how far I can get before I start looking for others to join the cause :specialed:
     
  3. Unlimited Trees

    Unlimited Trees

    we Do a Little Mischief, Mischief... Member
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    UNITRES, Project Time, etc.
    If you wanna learn coding, I recommend looking at Markey's 68k tutorials, they certainly helped me learn how to do stuff for my hacks.

    As for the elemental shields, you could try looking at the stuff in S3K's disassembly, and try to look at the code from there and copy it to S2. I can't help you with that, though, since I never hacked Sonic 3 and I have only did actual stuff in Sonic 1.
     
  4. TheLastWhiteFlame

    TheLastWhiteFlame

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    S1 & S2 Restored
    For the bubble and flame shield, i have not clue. But by porting the S3K Ring Manager you can add the magnetic ring mechanic and then all you have do is modify some code in the "Attracted Ring File" (the instructions are in the file and the ring manager) and port the graphics (which is easy).
     
  5. Kyuu

    Kyuu

    Memory Access Violation Member
    Okay, so this is sorta building off of my latest post in the General Project Screenshots thread. If that's TL;DR - I had an invalid spring setting causing my hack to glitch out whenever it was loaded into memory, and it evaded my notice for over a year since I suspected my own code was the problem, when it was a flaw in the original spring programming all along.

    Anyways. Since it's been ages, I'm starting fresh and keeping track of what changes I'm making more seriously to avoid screwing things up too badly. One precaution I'd like to take is altering the spring code so invalid spring bits will be rejected, or (ideally) treated as a regular spring of that colour (as well as any oversights in similar routines that could lead to negative results).

    The method I was thinking of using is a simple "if these bits are set, then branch" comparison type deal. My questions - One, is this the ideal way to go about doing something like this? Two, where would be the right place to perform this check? Somewhere in the Spring_Main routine, before the game ever calls for the spring powers?

    Just to clarify: I'm not looking for a walkthrough on how to do this, I'd rather do it myself and see what I can learn from it. I'm just wondering if I could get some pointers (pun intended) on where to start. :)
     
  6. Technodevster

    Technodevster

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    Sonic 4 SNES, Genesis/32X and the Sonic 1 Proto disassembly
    Okay so there's this problem I've been trying to fix for the longest. I've ported over the invincibility stars and shield from S2 to S1 but when I try to port the title cards they show up like this.
    Any idea why this is happening or how to fix it?
     
  7. Blast Brothers

    Blast Brothers

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    I was importing some art into Green Hill when this happened:
    [​IMG]
    The screen cycles through corrupted graphics for a few minutes, and when the stage finally loads, it's just as broken:
    [​IMG]
    I'm not sure if the new tiles I added broke the Nemesis decompression or if VRAM got corrupted somehow. I'm using the GitHub disasm, in case that's important for a fix.
     
  8. Rlan

    Rlan

    Oldbie
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    So I'm keen to screw around with Sonic Shuffle's model viewer features, shown in this thread:

    http://forums.sonicretro.org/index.php?showtopic=31994&st=0&p=759650&hl=+sonic%20+shuffle&fromsearch=1&#entry759650

    However, being a real noob at this stuff, how would I go about overwriting a BIN file in a GDI file?
     
  9. Hitaxas

    Hitaxas

    Retro 80's themed Twitch streamer ( on hiatus) Member
    So, I've been unable to continue working on my hack due to a lack of a PC, but I've got a question. Is there anybody willing to compile sonic 2 build tools for Linux using arm64? If that is possible I could continue using an android device...

    edit: Forget it, I was able to figure out how to compile splitrom using g++ so I was able to get it working. Progress!

    Update: latest build_plus almost works but I get this error... Why?

     
  10. Caverns 4

    Caverns 4

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    Sonic: Retold
    My first guess is that you did not adjust the zone's animated art; flowers, etc, or any of the Pattern Load Cues, so your new tiles are getting overwritten by other art while they're still decompressing. That's the most likely cause; In _inc/AnimateLevelGfx.asm , look below the label AniArt_GHZ, and after @size:, the game processes the animated waterfall tops, and after that, each of the two types of flowers. I believe that the animated art starts running even when the zone's art is still being processed, so any overlap can cause potential problems.

    How many tiles are you adding?
     
  11. Clownacy

    Clownacy

    Tech Member
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    That 'asl' is an AS Macro Assember executable. You need to compile it, and put it in /usr/bin... that's if Linux knowledge (or lack thereof) is anything to go by.
     
  12. Hitaxas

    Hitaxas

    Retro 80's themed Twitch streamer ( on hiatus) Member
    I was able to figure it all out, after a little trial and error with the permissions. In theory, the files that I built should work natively on a rooted arm64 android device too. I am using this with a non rooted device running GNURoot Debian.
     
  13. Blast Brothers

    Blast Brothers

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    Good news: The level art corruption has been fixed! I believe that, since my new art took up much less space than the original art, that the secondary part of GHZ's art files never got filled. Therefore, removing the PLC for the secondary art fixed the issue.
    Unfortunately, I've run into another problem after porting the Spindash: Sonic is always sent rightwards once the charge is released, even if he's facing left. Any suggestions?
     
  14. Devon

    Devon

    Down you're going... down you're going... Tech Member
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    your mom
    Do you have the check to see if he's facing left, and if he is, negating the speed value?
     
  15. The Prof

    The Prof

    The Island Professor Member
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    Sonic 1 Yarmar Edition
    This seems very simple but I can't get it t work. I'm trying to give an alternate character their own lives icon art in Sonic 1. I've made the art and an alternate "Pattern Load Cues.asm" to load the art, and set that to load when the alternate character flag is set. The trouble is, the art that loads in-game is always Sonic's life counter. It's strange, because I used the same method to load the alternate character's signpost, and that works fine.

    I'm sure I'm missing something pretty obvious, but I've been looking at it too long to see it.

    EDIT: I just noticed, the art will update after a special stage or a game over, and stays set until the next time one of those things occurs. I don't know if that helps at all, but it's certainly weird.

    EDIT 2: Never mind, I've fixed it at last. I found that PLC_Main, where the icon is stored, was loading before the character selection flag was set, so it would always load the last played character or Sonic on first load.
     
  16. Blast Brothers

    Blast Brothers

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    Nope! Thanks for the help!
     
  17. Breadbin

    Breadbin

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    I have a quick question and figured this is probably the most appropriate place for it.

    I would like to get into beta testing some hacks but am unsure how to approach this matter. I have previous experience within QA (within both software and gaming sector) but quite understandably, I would imagine that anyone with an upcoming hack would want a veteran / someone that can prove the quality of their work - obviously, as this is my first venture into the area, I do not have any examples or a proven track record.

    In this instance, should I wait until a thread pops up where someone is seeking Beta testers and put my name forward or should I contact a few authors of some hacks and make the offer (I just worry this might be a bit too forward).
     
  18. E-122-Psi

    E-122-Psi

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    Hello I'm trying to get started modding SADX so may I ask:

    1. I want to edit the skybox textures to a higher resolution image. Does anything need to be specifically done to bulk up the res or do I just change the PVM? (PVMEdit doesn't seem to have the option to expand image size).

    2. Does anyone know the filenames for the Station Square skybox art?

    EDIT: Ignore second question. Found them.
     
  19. MainMemory

    MainMemory

    Kate the Wolf Tech Member
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    When editing textures for SADXPC, it's highly recommended to use texture packs, as the PVR texture format used in PVM files limits the color depth to 16 bits per pixel (a normal image usually has 24 or 32). You can use PVMEditSharp to export a PVM to a texture pack, which should be placed in a mod's "Textures" folder. The game will use whatever resolution textures you give it without any additional changes, though I think PVR textures have a maximum size of 1024x1024? Texture packs let you use basically whatever though.
     
  20. E-122-Psi

    E-122-Psi

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    I am inexperienced with actually programming mods. Can you explain how I go about making one with a texture pack?

    I did manage to use said software to edit a PVM. The results were sadly underwhelming though I don't know how much of that is owed to the PVM bit quality or just the picture itself.