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Chaotix Hacking (formerly Chaotix Level Editing)

Discussion in 'Engineering & Reverse Engineering' started by Andlabs, Jan 29, 2010.

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  1. Andlabs

    Andlabs

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    Writing my own MD/Genesis sound driver :D
  2. Hanoch

    Hanoch

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    Sorry for the bump, but I gotta ask this:
    Have you figured out what routine controls the way mappings are arranged (I.e, buildsprites) I really want to know how the 32x resizes the sprites and makes it look 3D. Maybe we could use stuff from chaotix into the sonic 1 32x disassembly, it needs to be finished.
     
  3. Andlabs

    Andlabs

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    I'm not sure how the scaling is done, since I haven't looked into that part of the 32X drawing code yet, but it's not that hard (just repeat pixels as they're drawn for bigger and cut out pixels for smaller).

    Also

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
  4. Hanoch

    Hanoch

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    I can't really recognize the zones in chaotix, is that Isolated Island new art? Or maybe you found the address for the chunk mappings?
     
  5. BlazeHedgehog

    BlazeHedgehog

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    So did anybody consider that

    [​IMG]

    He might be juggling emeralds/chaos rings?
     
  6. Hanoch

    Hanoch

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    It looks like he is spinning the rings on his fingers like a hula hoop.
     
  7. Overlord

    Overlord

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    Actually, it looks to me like he's weighing up choices.

    "This one? Or this one?"
     
  8. Mercury

    Mercury

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    That makes a lot of sense, seeing as how he did in the other main series games.

    If it doesn't look quite enough like it though, well, that's why it was never used, amirite? :specialed:

    (Oh, and I love Hanoch's sig)
     
  9. Andlabs

    Andlabs

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    Here is a pack of level maps from Chaotix. These aren't perfect (no objects and the numeric tiles where custom art is supposed to be) but they should show some of the design decisions the creators intended.
     
  10. Rolken

    Rolken

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    Impressive :o You got those made fast.
     
  11. Sinkdude

    Sinkdude

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    Great job, but could you make a version of it that works for the Chaotix prototype 1207?
     
  12. Andlabs

    Andlabs

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    I would but that code sucks =P I do have somewhat better code now as part of the level viewer (maybe eventual editor) that I have been working on, but sadly one thing might not change: the palette colors stored in the art aren't absolute, so the Starting Color may not go away unless I also include starting colors elsewhere (and I don't think there's a list anywhere :( ). It's a shame, really, and the art is fully capable of storing absolute palette indices, but it's too late to change =P
     
  13. Dr. Mecha

    Dr. Mecha

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    Hate to bump a 2 month old topic, but I found two sprites that are missing using your Art viewer:
    [​IMG]
    A leaping Egg, and his backward companion.

    Also, there's still some art missing from your viewer that are seen ingame: MSK's body for 1st and 3rd form, dark ring in ending and scenarios, etc.
     
  14. SGR

    SGR

    Give me the gams. Member
    Nice finds! Those were probably used in the intro part. I guess fat Eggman was meant to jump up to Metal Sonic at one point.
     
  15. Andlabs

    Andlabs

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    MSK's body in the first and third forms are Genesis-side, not 32X-side. But cool finds nonetheless! + - In before JJF edits the Metal Sonic sprite for Sonic in Chaotix =P  
     
  16. Andlabs

    Andlabs

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  17. Hanoch

    Hanoch

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    Seems to lag the special stages a bit. Also before the first end (after you get the first 6 spheres) before the COOL message appeared, I could see beyond the pipe a different level layout, and then it cleared itself when the COOL message appeard and afterwards it redrew the layout.

    I don't know if this could help you, but maybe you should try cracking the sonic 2 special stage format first?
     
  18. Andlabs

    Andlabs

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    Yeah. In my tests, there appear to be two layout objects: one containing the layouts for all the stages (this confirms that part) in a continuous chunk and one that's a continuous chunk of goal pieces; the two are swapped when you complete one area/start the next. The draw distance increasing would cause lag because the game is trying to draw more in one frame, and that second of the next level showing up is a result =P
     
  19. Andlabs

    Andlabs

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    Code (Text):
    1. CART:2081DFA SSLayoutOffsets:.data.w h'FFC8    ; DATA XREF: CART:208006Co
    2. CART:2081DFA                                ; goal
    3. CART:2081DFC                 .data.w h'E89A    ; 1.1
    4. CART:2081DFE                 .data.w h'E9B2    ; 1.2
    5. CART:2081E00                 .data.w h'EAB6    ; 2.1
    6. CART:2081E02                 .data.w h'ED74    ; 2.2
    7. CART:2081E04                 .data.w h'EF36    ; 3.1
    8. CART:2081E06                 .data.w h'F076    ; 3.2
    9. CART:2081E08                 .data.w h'F25C    ; 4.1
    10. CART:2081E0A                 .data.w h'F3D8    ; 4.2
    11. CART:2081E0C                 .data.w h'F57C    ; 5.1
    12. CART:2081E0E                 .data.w h'F8AC    ; 5.2
    13. CART:2081E10                 .data.w h'FB54    ; 6.1
    14. CART:2081E12                 .data.w h'FD52    ; 6.2
    Yep, once I figure out what these offset from (or if they are offsets), I will have this special stage format nailed. (Drop the $20 from the CART segment address to get the ROM address. This comes from a master layout system pointer list that I have to deconstruct fully; for interested eyes it's at ROM $80060.)
     
  20. Andlabs

    Andlabs

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    Code (Text):
    1. ROM:06005ED8; if a command does not specify that it takes a byte argument then a byte 0 must follow the command byte and preceed a offset/word argument
    2. ROM:06005ED8 off_6005ED8:    .data.w sub_6005E84 - loc_6005E72; DATA XREF: sub_6005E4E+1Co
    3. ROM:06005ED8                                ; 0 byte offset - nextpos += offset; r13[byte].w = somefunction()
    4. ROM:06005EDA                 .data.w sub_6005E90 - loc_6005E72; 2 - stop
    5. ROM:06005EDC                 .data.w sub_6005E9C - loc_6005E72; 4 offset - gosub (nextpos + offset)
    6. ROM:06005EDE                 .data.w sub_6005EA8 - loc_6005E72; 6 offset - nextpos += offset
    7. ROM:06005EE0                 .data.w sub_6005EB0 - loc_6005E72; 8 byte offset - r13[byte].w--; if (r13[byte].w != 0) nextpos += offset
    8. ROM:06005EE2                 .data.w sub_6005EC0 - loc_6005E72; $A byte word - r13[byte].w = word
    9. ROM:06005EE4                 .data.w sub_6005EC8 - loc_6005E72; $C byte word - r13[byte].b = (word & 0xFF)
    10. ROM:06005EE6                 .data.w sub_6005ED0 - loc_6005E72; $E byte - r13[5].b = byte (TODO)
    So apparently Chaotix has some sort of bytecode for special stage events. Here's an example:
    Code (Text):
    1. ROM:06006ABC SS_GoalChain:   .data.b 4            ; DATA XREF: ROM:06005018o
    2. ROM:06006ABC                                ; ROM:off_6005028o
    3. ROM:06006ABC                                ; DONE
    4. ROM:06006ABC                                ; loc_6005E68
    5. ROM:06006ABC                                ; so begins the end of stage tests
    6. ROM:06006ABC                                ; this will do the check and reroute the engine if the check fails
    7. ROM:06006ABD                 .data.b 0
    8. ROM:06006ABE                 .data.w sub_6006AE8 - byte_6006AC0; DONE
    9. ROM:06006AC0 byte_6006AC0:   .data.b 4            ; DATA XREF: ROM:06006ABEo
    10. ROM:06006AC0                                ; if it succeeds, the engine will fall here
    11. ROM:06006AC1                 .data.b 0
    12. ROM:06006AC2                 .data.w sub_6006CEA - byte_6006AC4; DONE
    13. ROM:06006AC4 byte_6006AC4:   .data.b 4            ; DATA XREF: ROM:06006AC2o
    14. ROM:06006AC5                 .data.b 0
    15. ROM:06006AC6                 .data.w sub_6006B3C - byte_6006AC8; DONE
    16. ROM:06006AC8 byte_6006AC8:   .data.b 4            ; DATA XREF: ROM:06006AC6o
    17. ROM:06006AC9                 .data.b 0
    18. ROM:06006ACA                 .data.w sub_6006B20 - byte_6006ACC; DONE
    19. ROM:06006ACC byte_6006ACC:   .data.b 4            ; DATA XREF: LoadSpecialStageStuff+116o
    20. ROM:06006ACC                                ; ROM:off_6005E20o ...
    21. ROM:06006ACC                                ; DONE
    22. ROM:06006ACD                 .data.b 0
    23. ROM:06006ACE                 .data.w sub_6006BC8 - byte_6006AD0; DONE
    24. ROM:06006AD0 byte_6006AD0:   .data.b 4            ; DATA XREF: ROM:06006ACEo
    25. ROM:06006AD1                 .data.b 0
    26. ROM:06006AD2                 .data.w sub_6006B3C - byte_6006AD4; DONE
    27. ROM:06006AD4 byte_6006AD4:   .data.b 4            ; DATA XREF: ROM:06006AD2o
    28. ROM:06006AD5                 .data.b 0
    29. ROM:06006AD6                 .data.w sub_6006C4A - byte_6006AD8; DONE
    30. ROM:06006AD8 byte_6006AD8:   .data.b 2            ; DATA XREF: ROM:06006AD6o
    31. ROM:06006AD9                 .data.b 0
    All the bytecode programs are static in ROM, so I read through them all (there are chains of them) and now there should be only very specific cases in which I wouldn't be able to find a routine that accesses the special stage layout chunk, which is copied and rebased to a piece of SDRAM because it contains one pointer that points to a list of variables (ok why?).

    EDIT
    FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF Turns out I now need to hunt down those cases because I still can't find the accesses I need
     
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