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Main - ROM Hacking - SUPER MARIO ADVANCE 4 - Hacking & Editor Efforts New thread | New reply

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Kawa
Posted on 09-23-09 08:55 PM Link | Quote | ID: 115942


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Treeki's tilemap hack makes a level editor piss-easy to make. If you ignore converting the original object-based levels, the only hurdle would be graphic sets.

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copyRIGHThunter
Posted on 09-25-09 01:34 AM Link | Quote | ID: 116088


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Posted by Kawa
Treeki's tilemap hack makes a level editor piss-easy to make. If you ignore converting the original object-based levels, the only hurdle would be graphic sets.


Where has Treeki gone? He hasn't been here in ages. Thanks for posting your progress 14159.




I've emailed hukka (the creator of SMB3:WS) and he MIGHT (stress the might... as in definitely not a certainty) consider building an editor for SMA4 or update SMB3WS to edit SMA4 or release the SMB3WS source for you guys (as I'm terrible at programming... I guess I'm de-facto motivation... person). He may be in the mood to work on this, but not promising anything. In case you don't know, hukka's website is here:

http://hukka.furtopia.org/?hukka

And acmlm was involved in helping him build SMB3WS.




Is anyone else interested in getting Hukka's help?

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14159
Posted on 09-25-09 05:50 AM Link | Quote | ID: 116107


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Well, there was Treeki's custom method, other than that, I believe the next step would be to figure out how to get the ROM to load ROM levels like e-levels.

It was decided that the e-level format is better to work with but is somewhat separate from the main SMB3 engine. Sounds like perhaps do some tracing in an emulator to find the level loading routines for both the SMB3 part and the e-level part?

Either find a way to get the main game to load an e-level, or get the w-orld levels to be loaded from the ROM.

Kiiro
Posted on 09-25-09 06:15 AM (rev. 2 of 09-25-09 06:15 AM) Link | Quote | ID: 116109


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I wish i could work with the ROM, but i don't even know GBA's THUMBS...
If it was SNES's ASM, the problem would be different for me. (I'm not very good at ASM, but enough to do something simple.)

I can only work on Level Cards.
I still have some problems with e-levels, but well ^^

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Kawa
Posted on 09-25-09 06:30 PM (rev. 2 of 09-25-09 06:32 PM) Link | Quote | ID: 116123


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Supporting e-Levels stored in the ROM itself would go against the whole point of Treeki's tilemap hack:

From one fairly complex level format, things were reduced to one of the simplest, easiest to use formats imaginable -- a simple tilemap. In effect, Treeki's hack removed several processing steps from the level loader. Instead of taking this complicated format and processing it into a tilemap in RAM, you just expand the very same tilemap data directly into that same area. This is when loading is finished, and quite possibly it loads even faster.

To take that step and make it load from another level format would defeat the purpose, no matter what exactly the e-Level format is.

The way it is now, with the game loading raw, LZ77-compressed tilemaps, is the simplest you can get while supporting anything in the level's tileset (plains, underground, castle, etc). Object sets are no longer an issue.

The only problem, if you want to call it that, is that no matter the source format, you'd have to remake every level yourself, for lack of a converter (be it from native or e-Level). I for one would not call it a problem, as this pretty much forces some degree of originality.

(edit: that's why I stopped working on that native-to-raw converter, incidentally.)

Seriously, the only part that hasn't been touched is the sprite data, for which an object list is, perhaps ironically, one of the best methods available.
tl;dr: forget about elevels

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copyRIGHThunter
Posted on 09-26-09 12:41 AM Link | Quote | ID: 116147


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Posted by Kawa


The only problem, if you want to call it that, is that no matter the source format, you'd have to remake every level yourself, for lack of a converter (be it from native or e-Level). I for one would not call it a problem, as this pretty much forces some degree of originality.




So, that means when we'd go to edit any level from a fresh SMA4 rom, all the levels'd be cleared out/ no objects or tiles placed? I'm okay with that. I'd actually like that. However, we'd still be able to navigate the newly empty rooms? Like, we're not searching for "W1-1 Overworld" and "W1-1 Bonus Room"? We can find them, but they'll be empty?

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14159
Posted on 09-26-09 04:44 AM Link | Quote | ID: 116168


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Yeah, I understand that Treeki's method would involve a custom loader and negate what I said about loading e-levels from the ROM. But I, for one, have no idea how to do what Treeki stated. Unless he comes back or someone else can do what he said, that plan is kinda on hold.


What I had suggested would be an alternate to that method, for the possible case where Treeki doesn't come back with a new format/object map.

Kawa
Posted on 09-26-09 01:52 PM Link | Quote | ID: 116191


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Copy: More likely, they'd be complete garbage as the game tries to use SMB3 object data as if it were LZ77-compressed raw tilemaps. It's the same basic effect as when you open a jpeg image in Notepad or something silly like that.

14159: What Treeki did was very simple and fairly easy to reproduce. You can hardly even call it a "custom level loader". If he doesn't come back, I got his notes and the skill to do it.

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copyRIGHThunter
Posted on 09-27-09 12:46 AM Link | Quote | ID: 116220


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I see Kawa. That makes sense.

I'm not sure if/when Treeki's coming back, since he hasn't posted anything in 47 days. He seems to have vanished from here. Do you want to move ahead with your plan?

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Kawa
Posted on 09-27-09 02:26 PM Link | Quote | ID: 116241


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If you want to, I can try and replicate his work. Then all we'd need is a tilemap-based editor. The problem with replicating his work is that I only have the RAM address that things are loaded into, but not the function's entry address. Still, if not too many functions use that address, I should be able to find it.



The most important thing about said editor is that things are still screen-based. Each screen is 16 by 64 metatiles (each being 16x16 pixels), and there's 16 screens. The tilemap, to compound this, is planar -- each tile is 16 bits, but it's stored as two seperate chunks of 8 bit values.

So you have 16x64 screens = 1024 bytes, times 16 screens = 16384 bytes per plane. Then you have another 16384 bytes for the second plane.

Still, I've had plenty time to figure this out for writing a level editor.

Raw 2*8bit planar --> raw 16bit linear --> de-screen --> editable, and ofcourse the opposite of this.

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copyRIGHThunter
Posted on 09-28-09 01:36 AM Link | Quote | ID: 116270


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I'm interested! So far, there hasn't been any kind of editor produced and it feels like things have slowed down. Something tangible, even if it's really limited would bring some new blood back into this topic!

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Kawa
Posted on 09-28-09 05:21 PM Link | Quote | ID: 116298


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Very well, then. I'll try and find either the function Treeki edited or Treeki himself, then work from there. It may take some time though, because of other projects and TV Tropes.

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erpster2
Posted on 09-29-09 02:36 AM (rev. 2 of 09-29-09 05:48 AM) Link | Quote | ID: 116326


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Posted by copyRIGHThunter
Thanks for you efforts Sonic Hachelle-Bee. It's cool seeing some english instead of the mistranslated mess we've all see so far. I found some translations of the kanji in SMA4 and the level names come to this....

# M11 Athletic with Note Blocks! (おんぷブロックでアスレチック!)
# M12 The Airship's Unbearable! (ひこうせんはとまらない!)
# M13 Excitement Under the Ice! (こおりのちかでおおあわて!)
# M14 The Tanuki Suit's Secret (タヌキスーツのひみつ)
# M15 Keep Going by Transforming Mario!! (へんしんマリオでつきすすめ!!)
# M16 With Boots On, GO! GO! (くつをはいてGO!GO!)
# M17 Be Careful of Taa-kun (ターくんにきをつけろ)
# M18 Ice Fortress (こおりのとりで)
# M19 Desert Pipe Labyrinth (さばくのパイプめいろ)
# M20 Break Through the Top of the Tower!! (とうのうえからかけぬけろ!!)
# M21 Escape the Fortress!! (とりでをかけぬけろ!!)
# M22 Rope-climbing Athletics! (ロープをのぼってアスレチック!)
# M23 The Ghostly Mansion of Mystery! (おばけやしきはなぞだらけ!)
# M24 Fly the Skies on a Mantle! (マントでおおぞらをとべ!)
# M25 Dig! Dig! Dig Through!! (ほって!ほって!ほりまくれ!!)
# M26 The Ocean is Full of Danger! (うみのなかはきけんでいっぱい!)
# M27 Hidden Koopa Castle (かくしクッパじょう)
# M28 Don't Mess With the Koopalings! (コクッパにだまされるな!)
# M29 Koopa's Airship Part 1 (クッパのひこうせん ぜんぺん)
# M30 Koopa's Airship Part 2 (クッパのひこうせん こうへん)
# PR Challenge! Togetoge Fortress (チャレンジ!!トゲトゲとりで)
# ?? Break Through With B-Dash! (Bダッシュでかけぬけろ!)



wow, nice. I'm wondering if anybody has figured out how to access that rare B-Dash level. it's the only e-level I haven't touched on.

I feel like playing all those e-levels all over again on both US and European versions of the SMA4 game.

Posted by Kiiro
I have talked to Parasyte, who did work on the decompressor with DJ Bouche.
http://www.kodewerx.org/forum/download/file.php?id=548

Link to Decompressor.

And link to ALL levels decompressed :
http://www.caitsith2.com/ereader/sma4/elevel.rar


the "names" of the e-levels from that rar file have those old messed up characters, Kiro.
can you post up the decompressed e-levels with the english translations? thanks.

only e-level missing from that package is B-dash; does Zeromaru know about that rare level?

Sonic Hachelle-Bee
Posted on 09-29-09 11:13 AM Link | Quote | ID: 116332

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Thanks for you efforts Sonic Hachelle-Bee. It's cool seeing some english instead of the mistranslated mess we've all see so far. I found some translations of the kanji in SMA4 and the level names come to this....

# M11 Athletic with Note Blocks! (おんぷブロックでアスレチック!)
# M12 The Airship's Unbearable! (ひこうせんはとまらない!)
# M13 Excitement Under the Ice! (こおりのちかでおおあわて!)
# M14 The Tanuki Suit's Secret (タヌキスーツのひみつ)
# M15 Keep Going by Transforming Mario!! (へんしんマリオでつきすすめ!!)
# M16 With Boots On, GO! GO! (くつをはいてGO!GO!)
# M17 Be Careful of Taa-kun (ターくんにきをつけろ)
# M18 Ice Fortress (こおりのとりで)
# M19 Desert Pipe Labyrinth (さばくのパイプめいろ)
# M20 Break Through the Top of the Tower!! (とうのうえからかけぬけろ!!)
# M21 Escape the Fortress!! (とりでをかけぬけろ!!)
# M22 Rope-climbing Athletics! (ロープをのぼってアスレチック!)
# M23 The Ghostly Mansion of Mystery! (おばけやしきはなぞだらけ!)
# M24 Fly the Skies on a Mantle! (マントでおおぞらをとべ!)
# M25 Dig! Dig! Dig Through!! (ほって!ほって!ほりまくれ!!)
# M26 The Ocean is Full of Danger! (うみのなかはきけんでいっぱい!)
# M27 Hidden Koopa Castle (かくしクッパじょう)
# M28 Don't Mess With the Koopalings! (コクッパにだまされるな!)
# M29 Koopa's Airship Part 1 (クッパのひこうせん ぜんぺん)
# M30 Koopa's Airship Part 2 (クッパのひこうせん こうへん)
# PR Challenge! Togetoge Fortress (チャレンジ!!トゲトゲとりで)
# ?? Break Through With B-Dash! (Bダッシュでかけぬけろ!)


Unfortunately, some of these names won't fit because the game only allows up to 21 characters to be displayed as a name. I took the english names somewhere while downloading the e-levels (I don't remember where). They were their respective filenames, fit exactly within 21 characters, and seemed quite good.


the "names" of the e-levels from that rar file have those old messed up characters, Kiro.
can you post up the decompressed e-levels with the english translations? thanks.


Sure. Here are mine:
http://hachelle-bee.perso.sfr.fr/Miscellaneous/SMA4eLevels.zip

Kawa
Posted on 09-29-09 06:22 PM Link | Quote | ID: 116340


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Unfortunately, I have so far been unable to find the function that Treeki replaced, despite all my efforts.

This does not mean the project is over. In fact, I just noticed Treeki being on the board's IRC channel, and just left him a memo. Now, all we can do is wait.

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eddine67
Posted on 09-29-09 09:02 PM Link | Quote | ID: 116345


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Tutorial SMA4 Decompressor ?
Thanks

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Kawa
Posted on 09-30-09 02:17 PM Link | Quote | ID: 116378


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Having talked to Treeki about it, I got his notes.

His level loader was hardcoded to a specific address, so every level would use the same tilemap. Ofcourse, different header settings wreak havoc on which tiles are used, exactly.

I went and found out where in RAM the game stores the current level's header pointer and adapted Treeki's code to use that instead. Now all I need is an editor.

For those interested, I can post the loader code if you want.

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eddine67
Posted on 09-30-09 05:50 PM Link | Quote | ID: 116386


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Bonjour (désolé car mon google traduction beuge ...)
Quelle émulateur faut-il prendre pour mettre les niveaux-e ?
NO$GBA peut-être mais à chaque fois ça marquait : NO$GBA a rencontré un problème et doit fermer ...
Alors j'aurais pris VBA 1.7.2 mais il me faudrait un tuto car je suis nul en hack sur ordi
Merci

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erpster2
Posted on 09-30-09 06:00 PM (rev. 2 of 09-30-09 06:01 PM) Link | Quote | ID: 116387


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Posted by caitsith2
Managed to finally apply the translated names over to the actual e-reader level card data. These are located on http://caitsith2.com/ereader/sma4.htm

It was the lack of a working compressor that had proven to be the initial road block from doing that.


wonderful caitsith2. one problem; all of the levels with the fully translated english names I've tested work except Bowser's Airship Part 1.

After loading the "mushroom 29 - Bowser's Airship Part 1.raw" file into no$gba emulator and attempting to play Bowsers Airship Part1 level, it would start off messed up like this:



mario or luigi would no longer be on screen and the messed up airship would keep scrolling to the right and I would automatically die. seems like that RAW file has some incorrect level data and needs a do-over. can you fix this?

eddine67
Posted on 09-30-09 09:00 PM Link | Quote | ID: 116391


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oui mais je ne sais pas l'utiliser
et je voudrais mettre tous les switches sur la sav fr
comment fait t-on avec VBA ?

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