[Tiddles]

E-122-Psi, on 11 October 2014 - 06:06 AM, said:

Also, more a question for the long run, is it possible to put new gameplay objects into the S3+K disassembly (I don't think I've seen any projects that do so, unless Tiddle's extras in Complete apply). If it is, you know what must happen...

What's a Tiddle? (Canned laughter)

I create all sorts of objects for S3C, though they're mostly of the helper object kind. There's no special trick to it compared to any of the other games, as far as I know, but there are a few things to remember:

• Instead of a single byte object ID at the start of the object's memory, there is a four byte pointer directly to the location of the object's code. This is really handy because you can have objects that you just spawn on demand that don't need to waste space in any of the level object lists (e.g. none of the player objects have IDs, because you'd never place them in a level layout), and you can also avoid the boring routine counter and jump table by just pushing a new code address to (a0) when you want the object to run different code next frame. Objects in S3&K use both this technique and the old routine technique, which obviously still works fine.
  
• If you do need the object to appear in a level, you need to add it to as slot under either Sprite_Listing3 or Sprite_ListingK (or both) depending on which levels you want to be able to use it in. Sprite_ListingK covers the levels that only appear in S&K excluding Flying Battery and the bonus stages, and Sprite_Listing3 covers everything else. The files for these are "Levels/Misc/Object list - Sonic 3.asm" and "Levels/Misc/Object list - Sonic & Knuckles.asm".
  
• I understand there are various differences in areas such as priority definition, but I don't really work with the other games so I can't tell you a lot about that. As usual, all the necessary helper routines probably have different names from any of the other disassemblies.

So basically, write some object-style code, add a pointer to the start of it into one of the object lists if you want it in a level, ??? and profit.

This post has been edited by Tiddles: 11 October 2014 - 04:37 PM

[E-122-Psi]

Whoops, I always make that typo. Yeah, I know you added a huge load of stuff to Sonic 3, I just wasn't sure if it was along the lines of full new objects rather than, like you said, 'helper objects' or additions to existing routines.

By location do you mean like the line in the ASM?

Depending on if it translates any easier than Sonic 1, I may have something for next year's hacking contest. :D

This post has been edited by E-122-Psi: 11 October 2014 - 07:41 PM

[Tiddles]

For code writing purposes, I mean its starting label. So you'd define a simple object like:

Obj_TitleANDKnuckles:
		move.l	#Map_TitleANDKnuckles,mappings(a0)
		move.w	#$E4C0,art_tile(a0)
		move.w	#$120,x_pos(a0)
		move.w	#$108,y_pos(a0)
		move.w	#$80,priority(a0)
		move.b	#$54,width_pixels(a0)
		move.b	#$C,height_pixels(a0)
		move.l	#Obj_TitleANDKnuckles_Display,(a0)

Obj_TitleANDKnuckles_Display:
		move.w	(Player_1+y_pos).w,d0
		addi.w	#$5C,d0
		move.w	d0,y_pos(a0)
		jmp	(Draw_Sprite).l

This is the big &KNUCKLES on the title screen that I don't use. Note how it skips its initialisation routine once run by changing its own code pointer to Obj_TitleANDKnuckles_Display, so Process_Sprites will come straight back to that point in future, rather than using a routine counter and jump table.

If you're creating it procedurally, you'd do something like:

		jsr	(Create_New_Sprite).l
		bne.s	+
		move.l	#Obj_TitleANDKnuckles,(a1)
+

As usual you can set anything else like x_pos(a1) and y_pos(a1) before the + if you want to, but there's no point with this object since it writes its own in anyway.

If you have it in a level layout, you still give it an object ID by placing it in one of the lists I mentioned (add dc.l #Obj_TitleANDKnuckles like the other entries in those lists) and use that ID in the level layout. That much still works like it used to. But if you go and snoop in object RAM, you'll see its first four bytes are something like 00 00 49 6A, which is the ROM location of where the object code ended up. (Having your assembly generate a listing file as the Git disassemblies now do is really helpful for tracking this back to the actual code that object is running).

[MathUser]

I enjoy these character in Sonic game hacks. Keep up the good work.

[E-122-Psi]

MathUser, on 12 October 2014 - 09:01 AM, said:

I enjoy these character in Sonic game hacks. Keep up the good work.

Thanx. I'll try. :P

Concerning the Sonic 3 translation, I gave it a quick shot. I put it in the listings of both the 3 and Knuckles files too. So far it seems to be recognizing the object at least, but all it does is crash the game. I'm not fluent in Sonic 3 commands, is there anything in this that looks off here?:

Obj_Laser:
	moveq	#0,d0
	move.b	$24(a0),d0
	move.w	Obj_Blob_Index(pc,d0.w),d0
	jmp	Obj_Blob_Index(pc,d0.w)

Obj_Blob_Index:
	dc.w	Obj_Blob_Init-Obj_Blob_Index
	dc.w	Obj_Blob_Move-Obj_Blob_Index
	dc.w	Obj_Blob_Destroy-Obj_Blob_Index

Obj_Blob_Init:
        move.l  #SME_0iwB5,mappings(a0) ; ($C)
        move.w  #$79C,art_tile(a0)
        move.w  #$2,priority(a0)
        move.b  #$8,width_pixels(a0)
        move.b  #$4,render_flags(a0)
        move.b  #$4,y_radius(a0) ; $A	
	move.l	Obj_Laser_Display,(a0)

Obj_Laser_Display:
	lea	(Player_1).w,a1
	move.b	#$18,$30(a0) 				; distance laser will travel
	move.w    #$C4,d0                   	; play sound
	jsr    (Play_Sound).l
	cmpi.b	#$29,$20(a1)
	beq.s	Obj_Laser_DownwardNICOLE		; if not, branch
	move.w 	#$660,$18(a0)				; speed of laser
	jmp	Obj_Laser_ContNICOLE
Obj_Laser_DownwardNICOLE:
	move.w 	#$660,$1A(a0)				; speed of laser
Obj_Laser_ContNICOLE:
	add.w	#$10,x_pos(a0)
	btst	#0,(Player_1).w
	beq.s +
	neg.w	$10(a0)
	sub.w	#$20,x_pos(a0)
+
	lea (ArtSNK_Laser0).l,a1
	move.w #$79C*$20,d2
	jsr (SNKDec).l
	addq.b	#2,$24(a0) ; 

Obj_Blob_Move:
	cmp.b	#$0,$30(a0)
	beq.w	Obj_Blob_Destroy
	sub.b 	#$1,$30(a0)
	jsr (loc_358A8).l
	move.b	$40,$20(a0)	; lol
	
	clr.w d0
	move.b mapping_frame(a0),d0
	asl.w #$1,d0 	; *2 for correct offset	
	lea (LaserArtPointers).l,a1
	adda.w (a1,d0.w),a1
	move.w #$79C*$20,d2
	jsr 	(SNKDec).l
	
	lea	(Ani_Laser).l,a1
	jsr	(Animate_Sprite).l
	jsr	(sub_FE6E).l ;enemy and monitor data
	jmp	(Draw_Sprite).l

Obj_Blob_Destroy:
	clr.b	($FFFFFFA4).w	; clear NICOLE flag 
	jmp Delete_Current_Sprite
	
Ani_Laser:
	dc.w laser0-Ani_Laser
laser0:	dc.b 3,0,1,1,2,2,3,3,$FD,0
	even

SME_0iwB5:	
		dc.w SME_0iwB5_8-SME_0iwB5, SME_0iwB5_12-SME_0iwB5	
		dc.w SME_0iwB5_1C-SME_0iwB5, SME_0iwB5_26-SME_0iwB5	
SME_0iwB5_8:	dc.b 0, 1	
		dc.b $F8, 5, 0, 0, 0, 0, $FF, $F8	
SME_0iwB5_12:	dc.b 0, 1	
		dc.b $F8, 5, 0, 0, 0, 0, $FF, $F8	
SME_0iwB5_1C:	dc.b 0, 1	
		dc.b $F8, 5, 0, 0, 0, 0, $FF, $F8	
SME_0iwB5_26:	dc.b 0, 1	
		dc.b $F8, 5, 0, 0, 0, 0, $FF, $F8	
		even

I can get most of the other coding needed from my Amy hack, so if I get this bit working, I could probably get a basic build of S3 Sally done fairly quick.

This post has been edited by E-122-Psi: 08 November 2014 - 11:23 PM

[.Luke]

Seriously enjoying this hack, E-122. Sally is doing a lot of things here to stand out from Amy in play style, and I'm liking the changes. (The disabled air cap leaves a lot of room for insane moves too, because after I fell in Chemical Plant Zone 2, I spindashed and jumped off a ramp to fly back above the water.)

Although I think I'm going a little nuts with being able to shoot at things here. I was camping at the rightmost totem-pole in Aquatic Ruin's boss while shooting at Eggman, and Sally's physics were pretty much disabled when the totems collapsed. I could walk around in mid-air, and it didn't stop until she jumped.

I'm trying to remember if this is an issue in the vanilla game too, but here's a screenshot from playing on my DS with jEnesis.

[E-122-Psi]

It's likely to do with this bug here:

http://info.sonicret...g_on_Air_Glitch

I'll try fixing it for a later update.

[E-122-Psi]

New revision uploaded:

* Scan mode added. Like with S1, not a lot of objects to try it on, but effective enough when found.
* Laser compatibility with WFZ entrance capsule added.
* Some odd effects caused by laser reacting with objects fixed.
* Odd cosmetic fixes.
* Glitch that causes Sally to sometimes break objects by charging into them fixed.
* Glitch that causes the projectile to collect rings fixed.
* ARZ boss glitch which breaks Sally's gravity fixed.

Remaining bugs:

* Laser art is garbled in splitscreen.
* Some art still doesn't transition properly with super mode.
* Title screen glitches a little when skipped with Start button.

This post has been edited by E-122-Psi: 13 December 2014 - 04:22 PM

[Hayate]

E-122-Psi, on 08 November 2014 - 08:22 PM, said:

Concerning the Sonic 3 translation, I gave it a quick shot. I put it in the listings of both the 3 and Knuckles files too. So far it seems to be recognizing the object at least, but all it does is crash the game. I'm not fluent in Sonic 3 commands, is there anything in this that looks off here?:

...

I can get most of the other coding needed from my Amy hack, so if I get this bit working, I could probably get a basic build of S3 Sally done fairly quick.

Don't know if you're still struggling with this, but there are a couple things I noticed:

1. SST offsets have changed in S3&K, for example, routine should be 5(a0) not $24(a0). Have a look at this wiki page for more info (I refer to it so often it's the top result if I type 'I' in my address bar )
2. I'm a bit concerned about this:

        lea (ArtSNK_Laser0).l,a1
        move.w #$79C*$20,d2
        jsr (SNKDec).l
        addq.b  #2,$24(a0) ; 

I'm not familiar with the labels you're using, and SNKDec doesn't exist in the disasm I have, but many of the data loading routines do not work while in a level (for example, they can only be used on a menu screen, or when loading a level, but cannot be called by objects).

I'm guessing you're trying to use DPLCs? In which case look at Sonic_Load_PLC, and the generic version Perform_DPLC for examples on how the game does it already. If you don't have those labels, loc_12CD6 and loc_8504A should go into the middle of them respectively. Hope this helps a bit!