This topic is intended for newbies to post various questions they have that may not warrant their own topic to ask. For more complicated questions, it is expected that a new topic is created like normal. The general range of questions that may be posted here involve cliches such as: How do I get SonED2 to work? I can't get my disassembly to build! What's wrong? I don't understand the documentation of x and x program! Can I do x and x with it? What program is best for x and x? ...among other things. Questions and answers are expected to be respectful—do not "demand" help, or you won't be getting it. Likewise, don't bash a newbie for having a question that may be obvious; however, if a certain question is asked multiple times after the answer is already given, expect us to be a bit annoyed. Before asking a question, make sure to check the archives, SCHG How-to:Guide, and the Sonic Community Hacking Guide. Laziness will NOT be tolerated! Show us that you've put effort towards finding the answer to your question before asking it, and we'll put effort towards answering it as best as we can for you. Utilities can be found in Sonic Hacking Utilities. Uncategorized utility downloads can be found in Category:Program Files. Disassemblies are at Disassemblies.
Guess I'll be the first to ask a question here then =P Anyways, about SonED2, I know about putting the two files for GHZ's 8x8 tiles together, but what do I need to change in the ASM or the rest of the disassembly so that it reads the tiles from the right file?
If you don't plan on changing the art for Green Hill Zone, you don't need to change anything in the assembly: just put the file 8x8ghz.bin in artnem and SonED2 will use see it, and keep the original 8x8ghz1.bin and 8x8ghz2.bin so the ROM still builds. Even if you want to change the art in GHZ, you might not have to change anything in the disassembly. You must first understand why the tiles are split: the first set (8x8ghz1.bin) of tiles makes the background and is loaded for the title screen and the acts in-game, while the second set (8x8ghz2.bin) is only loaded in the acts; on the title screen, other tiles are loaded instead. So, if you want to use a custom background, the title screen will load completely different tiles, so you'll be able to put GHZ's tile in one set and have the game load the compressed tiles from 8x8ghz.bin instead of loading 2 separate sets. On the other hand, if you still want the title screen to load the background from GHZ (edited or original) but want to edit the tiles (background and/or foreground), you have 2 options: - Edit 8x8ghz.bin in SonED2 and split it once you're done. To split your tiles, you might want to try SonMapEd. - Edit 8x8ghz1.bin and 8x8ghz2.bin separately in SonMapEd. Your tiles will change in your ROM, but they still not change in SonED2 unless you redo 8x8ghz.bin every time you change your tiles.
Which is a bit tougher, but can be handled by simply making a copy of the background art and never editing it. SCHG How-to:Make an Alternative Title Screen may be a good complement to merging these art files back together.
My disassembly won't work. This is as far as I get. Am I doing something wrong? This is as far as I get. View attachment 2293
The folder named Utilities has to much letters. Try using folder names with no more than 8 letters, then try again. (A hint: follow Qjimbo's How Tos for a perfect split disassembly setup)
Nice initiative, Tweaker. It allows newbie hackers to ask questions without fear of looking like fools so they are not discouraged to start a hack. This will surely result in a broader hackerbase later on when they progress to more advanced hacking.
Is there any possibility in the future of an Advanced Questions and Answers thread, where we can pool resources to overcome more advanced problems? I'm sure there are proficient sonic hackers that need to bounce ideas off someone every once in a while. I suppose, technically, that's the purpose of the entire forum, but it seems a little less impetuous to post in this kind of environment than to start a whole topic devoted to your issue. Feel free to shoot me down, im not entirely convinced by the idea myself but it seems like its a great idea, why let the noobs have it all to themselves, right?
This topic is a good way of finding out who's a lazy asshole, and who really needs help =P Nice idea Tweaker.
I think advanced questions and even simpler questions should eventually be covered in a FAQ in the wiki
Thing is, you used too complex art, I think. You're better off starting off scratch, following this guide.
I think I've found out what's wrong with my disassembly setup, I think I'm missing an s1comb.asm file. How would I go about that?
This page has the disassemblies: Some have s1comb.asm, and others don't need it. Check which you have.
I am trying to port something from S&K to S2, but I can't find any information on the following memory locations in S&K: FE05, F73E. Also, there are some object flags/counters unique to S3/S&K that I need, and I am wondering how to deal with them. I technically only need two (not necessarily adjacent) bytes somewhere in memory for these, since they should only affect one object. I don't have a good understanding of where everything is in memory for S2, so if somebody could point out some free space, it will be useful for other features as well.
FE05 is the second byte of the level frames timer, it's the same thing as FE05 in Sonic 2. F73E is the Tails carrying Sonic flag when he's flying. F73F, for that matter, is the picking up Sonic counter - unless this is 0, Tails won't be able to pick up Sonic. As for free memory space in Sonic 2, FEB0-FEBF is completely unused, which means you've got 16 bytes of contiguous free space. If by object flags/counters you mean object status variables, you can get all the info on that at SCHG:Sonic 3 & Knuckles#Object_Status_Table_Format. If you compare that with SCHG:Sonic 2/RAM Editing#Object_Status_Table_Format, it's pretty easy to see which Sonic 3k OST offsets correspond to which Sonic 2 ones.
Thanks, shobiz. I do mean object status variables, but I have already converted all the ones I can. The two I am asking about have no Sonic 2 equivalent. I was hoping for general advice on how to deal with them. I will probably just substitute one of those free bytes you mentioned, for now, since only one object should ever need them. You can probably guess what I'm doing from those memory locations. It seems to be a fairly common hack.
Okay, as I mentioned in my introductory post, I am intrigued by the concept of hacking. Problem is, I don't know where to start. The paticular game I would like to begin hacking is Sonic the Hedgehog 2. If anybody could share a little bit of advice with me, I thank you greatly. Bear in mind, I'm looking to change pallettes, level layouts, graphics and so on. I'm going to focus on adding new features when I have a little more experience as a hacker. Thank you for listening.
