 |
|
Main
| FAQ
| Uploader
| IRC chat
| Radio
| Memberlist
| Active users
| Latest posts
| Calendar
| Stats
| Online users
| Search
| |||
| Views: 88,547,967 |
Main
| FAQ
| Uploader
| IRC chat
| Radio
| Memberlist
| Active users
| Latest posts
| Calendar
| Stats
| Online users
| Search
|
05-06-24 12:40 PM |
|
| Guest: Register | Login | |||
| Main - Posts by Heian |
| Heian |
| ||
 Red Koopa Level: 27 Posts: 99/126 EXP: 111979 Next: 4180 Since: 03-08-07 Last post: 5857 days Last view: 5856 days |
Speeds over 478 would indeed be good for long straightaways -- it would also be good to tweak the non-Stingray cars so that there's a little more balance between them. It would be more fun to have some cars run better than others on some courses rather than have the Stingray on top all the time.
I revised the spreadsheet so that it counts how many tracks are used how many times (in addition to just counting how often each panel is used). To save everyone the hassle of downloading a new sheet, I'll just paste those values here:
Some of those numbers aren't entirely meaningful as we're free to mess with the streets below the tracks that are set above cities; same with the mountains and forests in Red Canyon and Port Town, but for the single-background courses like Big Blue, we can safely say that 92 panels are editable and the other 10 will mess things up if we're not careful. (These figures also don't include the pasted-over parts in MC2 and 3, PT2, RC1, and DW2.) What would really be great is if we had access to 255 different panels for every course; then we could leave the originals in and add our own. You extended the RAM; would it be impossible to re-point all the pointers that depend on there being a certain number of rows and panels, or could we get more panels than they gave us? |
| Heian |
| ||
|
Red Koopa Level: 27 Posts: 100/126 EXP: 111979 Next: 4180 Since: 03-08-07 Last post: 5857 days Last view: 5856 days |
Whoops! I meant ROM -- you extended it, but I was afraid that attempting to define more rows would throw off the locations of the following track data in memory, and mess up various pointers.
If we can start redefining all those high-numbered panels to be useful bits of track rather than endless fields of barriers, we'll be able to do all kinds of things. Which is easier: making new rows, or making new 2x2 macro-tiles? |
| Heian |
| ||
|
Red Koopa Level: 27 Posts: 101/126 EXP: 111979 Next: 4180 Since: 03-08-07 Last post: 5857 days Last view: 5856 days |
Newbie question: what would 11110000 OR 00001110 be? 11111110, because you get 1 if the corresponding bit in either value is 1? |
| Heian |
| ||
|
Red Koopa Level: 27 Posts: 102/126 EXP: 111979 Next: 4180 Since: 03-08-07 Last post: 5857 days Last view: 5856 days |
No, I was indeed talking about the bitwise ORA that was being asked about by Ben. This thread is looking very useful to ASM beginners like myself.
Question (and this might be hopelessly oversimplified...): If you want to display some value on the screen, and you know its address in the ROM, how do you go about doing that? Let's say that a baseball game displays a batter's average (stored at 0xA0000 and A0001) and his home runs (0xA0004), and you know where the font graphics for those digits are stored in the ROM. Now you want to show his speed (0xA0006) in addition -- what do you do? |
| Heian |
| ||
|
Red Koopa Level: 27 Posts: 103/126 EXP: 111979 Next: 4180 Since: 03-08-07 Last post: 5857 days Last view: 5856 days |
Now there's a challenging read! I'll have a look at that; thanks! |
| Heian |
| ||
|
Red Koopa Level: 27 Posts: 104/126 EXP: 111979 Next: 4180 Since: 03-08-07 Last post: 5857 days Last view: 5856 days |
Sam: Use the trackpad? ^^; Seriously, I have no idea how to simulate a mouse. The opposite, where you can have an on-screen simulated keyboard, is possible, so perhaps there's a way to use the arrow keys to move the mouse pointer. How about this?
http://www.techiequest.com/type-to-click-simulate-mouse-cursor-actions-with-keyboard/ And a question for everyone: are there any hex editors that will display data in two-byte intervals rather than one? I want to make a tally of how often each row is used, just like I did with the panels in the spreadsheet earlier. Consider the row data for Big Blue, located just after the panel layout, at 0x1A380: [Panel 00] BE 71 BE 71 BE 71 BE 71 BE 71 BE 71 BE 71 BE 71 BE 71 BE 71 BE 71 BE 71 BE 71 BE 71 BE 71 BE 71 But since the rows of data are two bytes long, and I want to see which rows are being used only once in a give track (meaning that they can be edited freely), I want to be able to manipulate data looking like this: [Panel 00] BE71 BE71 BE71 BE71 BE71 BE71 BE71 BE71 BE71 BE71 BE71 BE71 BE71 BE71 BE71 BE71 |
| Heian |
| ||
|
Red Koopa Level: 27 Posts: 105/126 EXP: 111979 Next: 4180 Since: 03-08-07 Last post: 5857 days Last view: 5856 days |
SMKDan, is that second window in the Panel Editor a way to make new 2x2 macro-tiles from single tiles, or a way to make rows directly from single tiles, or a way to make panels directly from single tiles?
(Edit: Now looking again, I'm not sure what I'm seeing. It looks like in the bottom screen, tile 9F, a part of the magnets used in Port Town and Fire Field, is being selected. So we'll be able to go from tiles -> macro-tiles -> rows -> panels all on that screen?) |
| Heian |
| ||
|
Red Koopa Level: 27 Posts: 106/126 EXP: 111979 Next: 4180 Since: 03-08-07 Last post: 5857 days Last view: 5856 days |
Here's post #5006; do I at least get six fireworks as I jump onto the flagpole?
And that 100-Mario attack would make for an extremely fun game if someone could develop it. |
| Heian |
| ||
|
Red Koopa Level: 27 Posts: 107/126 EXP: 111979 Next: 4180 Since: 03-08-07 Last post: 5857 days Last view: 5856 days |
Rockman, so Mario's evil, yet he's the one the player is in control of?
(And I love that music! Is it from a movie?) |
| Heian |
| ||
|
Red Koopa Level: 27 Posts: 108/126 EXP: 111979 Next: 4180 Since: 03-08-07 Last post: 5857 days Last view: 5856 days |
Troopa, the AI will indeed fail on a custom map unless you edit the path to coincide with your new course, or make a new course with panels in the same positions as the original. Fortunately, we know a lot about the paths and should be able to edit them in a hex editor even if we can't do it in an application.
SMKDan, I'm fooling around with your latest iteration and am amazed at all that variety in the row and macro-tile data. It should be possible to make some interesting new rows. The only problem is finding the kinds of macro-tiles you want -- for example, all the tiles that consist of "a barrier circle with shadow on the top and gray course on the bottom" aren't conveniently next to one another! I've also found a few panels, such as 176 in White Land, which are technically part of the course, but are so unimportant that they could almost be removed and made into something useful. This panel, for example, is almost identical to the regular background except for a sliver of purple cloud (ice?) on the left. If the game balks at us making use of all 256 panels, we could start by editing these otherwise-useless panels and moving them around as we like. Editor bug reports -- saving edited courses often results in the order of the courses in the Grand Prix and practice sessions to change, and also for the Records screen to associate the times with the wrong courses. Some courses' times aren't saved at all, and others result in a blank space where the time belongs, with only a car icon to the right. I can't yet figure out why these errors are happening but will post more when I get anything. That Monster Death Wind course I posted earlier also won't run -- the starting line has been moved to some open space, causing the car to explode about 2.4 seconds after the starting gun goes off. I don't think I touched the starting position in the hex editor, and SMKDan's editor doesn't touch it either... Edit: Here's a patch featuring a slightly-edited White Land ("IV") containing extra jumps all over the place. It really doesn't like you jumping off the course and on to some of the extra panels that I placed there so that you could jump from White Land I to White Land II. I noticed also that SMKDan's editor restores the original palettes even if the ROM you're editing from has different ones, but doesn't restore the original font graphics and suchlike. I know you mentioned that this would happen, but how does the editor know what the palettes are supposed to be if your base ROM has different ones? In any case, ignore the different course names that I'd invented for my new-palette courses -- those will come back when I actually make new courses to go with the new colors. IPS patch here: http://www.geocities/com/heiankyo794/f-zero/TestWL.zip |
| Heian |
| ||
|
Red Koopa Level: 27 Posts: 109/126 EXP: 111979 Next: 4180 Since: 03-08-07 Last post: 5857 days Last view: 5856 days |
OK; I'll make sure to base future edits on a pristine ROM rather than edited versions.
I like your course! White Land is pretty good about keeping the barriers in the same places relative to the panel borders, so it's easy to edit the course without having to make new rows. Stuff I learned from that White Land patch: you can break the plane of the finish line in the air (I put a jump just before it) and it'll still count. Your car will flash in mid-air just like it would on the ground. In one of the GBA versions, you couldn't always fly over the finish line and it would make you redo the lap if you flew too high. That course on the patch keeps the original path, so you can have GP races on it and the computer cars will drive normally. I haven't seen any problems arising from the excessive jump ramps, either; the computer cars will jump as normal and keep driving. Also, how about showing the horizon graphics (city, mountains, storms, etc.) in another floating window? Then when we edit the palette, we'll be able to preview it. |
| Heian |
| ||
|
Red Koopa Level: 27 Posts: 110/126 EXP: 111979 Next: 4180 Since: 03-08-07 Last post: 5857 days Last view: 5856 days |
Reini, forgive me; the link should of course be geocities.com, with a dot and not a slash:
http://www.geocities.com/heiankyo794/f-zero/TestWL.zip |
| Heian |
| ||
|
Red Koopa Level: 27 Posts: 111/126 EXP: 111979 Next: 4180 Since: 03-08-07 Last post: 5857 days Last view: 5856 days |
Reini, is your ROM headered? I based this patch off the headered version, which has 512 bytes f mostly zeroes at the beginning.
If you only have an unheadered one (SMKDan's documents are based on unheadered ROM addresses, so I guess a lot of people have unheadered versions), I'll make another unheadered patch tomorrow with a second new track that I'm working on now. |
| Heian |
| ||
|
Red Koopa Level: 27 Posts: 112/126 EXP: 111979 Next: 4180 Since: 03-08-07 Last post: 5857 days Last view: 5856 days |
Here's another patch I created using SMKDan's info about car physics:
http://www.geocities.com/heiankyo794/f-zero/Supertanks.zip I created it from a headered F-Zero (U) using Lunar IPS just like the last one, so if that worked for you, this should too. The idea was to make some tank-like cars that never lose power, but it wasn't so simple. Even though all four cars are set to 01 for power loss, they still lose some energy when they slam into a barrier. They can sit on a barrier and lose very little power, though. Also, the number 478 seems to be in use in places other than where the maximum speed (0x0900) is ordinarily stored. I used values like 0920 and 0940 so as to get the speed over 500 km/h, but such speeds are only accessible if you've just used a booster and are slowing down back to your regular maximum. Depending on what your boosted speed was, the Fire Stingray might stay in the 600s (I set its maximum to 0B00). Other things in this patch: * New backgrounds for Big Blue, Silence, and Port Town * New font for the times * Experimental Death Wind course; don't touch the walls in the new part! * Silence and Sand Ocean connected with some of the panel rows converted to blank course Anyone know where the game stores data for deceleration when turning? The Fire Stingray seems to maintain its speed better than the other three cars even when all four cars can drive 478. And how about weight/jumping distance? |
| Heian |
| ||
|
Red Koopa Level: 27 Posts: 113/126 EXP: 111979 Next: 4180 Since: 03-08-07 Last post: 5857 days Last view: 5856 days |
Posted by smkdan I'm playing with a keyboard and wasn't using the shoulder buttons, so I guess I meant non-hard cornering. Not a big issue though.
Can't wait! Also, if anybody's looking at BS F-Zero 2, you can find similar acceleration tables around 0x144AD. These cars are balanced and fun to drive even with the default speeds and accelerations. |
| Heian |
| ||
|
Red Koopa Level: 27 Posts: 114/126 EXP: 111979 Next: 4180 Since: 03-08-07 Last post: 5857 days Last view: 5856 days |
SMKDan -- Awesome! I'll be getting started then, and will post my successes and failures as they happen.
Will simply loading the game into the editor expand the ROM to 2 MB? Are we free to use all the panels up to 255 for our own purposes even if the original courses only used 100 of them? |
| Heian |
| ||
|
Red Koopa Level: 27 Posts: 115/126 EXP: 111979 Next: 4180 Since: 03-08-07 Last post: 5857 days Last view: 5856 days |
Making a sample course right now! Keeping the barrier pieces "in phase", so to speak, is the hardest part. In Port Town, the barriers aren't aligned with the rows; one row will contain the top half and the row below it will have the bottom half. This makes it difficult to make, say, a course part branching off, because you have to implement parts of the "branch" in multiple rows.
One thing that would really be helpful: the ability to take a given row, and instantly duplicate it in the first free space (or last; doesn't matter) in the row data. Often I'll see a row that's very similar to what I want to create, and I'll want to base my new row off that. Same for tiles, though there doesn't seem to be much free space at the end of the tile data. Still working on this sample! |
| Heian |
| ||
|
Red Koopa Level: 27 Posts: 116/126 EXP: 111979 Next: 4180 Since: 03-08-07 Last post: 5857 days Last view: 5856 days |
Still making progress on the test course (haven't driven anything yet, but it looks decent in the editor), but I had an idea for Reini's question. Might it not be possible for at least the white parts of the minimap to be generated automatically based on which panels contain track pieces? Climax did it in a similar way -- they had pre-made map pieces for each pre-made panel -- but we might be able to at least eliminate the hard part of the minimaps. We could then outline it in black or even do something more exotic, like writing the course name in tiny 5x3 bitmaps, or something. |
| Heian |
| ||
|
Red Koopa Level: 27 Posts: 117/126 EXP: 111979 Next: 4180 Since: 03-08-07 Last post: 5857 days Last view: 5856 days |
SMKDan, for the most part this course is a grid of perfectly straight streets in the style of F-Zero GP Legend's early story mode courses. I'm trying to make some forked roads where one path has a jump and one has a boost panel in front of some mines; stuff that will make the driver have to choose between different dangers.
I'm also trying to simulate FZGX's "Trident" by substituting jump panels for walls -- Silence II in the BS game did this. This just might work out really well. |
| Heian |
| ||
|
Red Koopa Level: 27 Posts: 118/126 EXP: 111979 Next: 4180 Since: 03-08-07 Last post: 5857 days Last view: 5856 days |
Making more progress on the track!
One more thing I think we really need is a panel duplicator. Just like with the rows, being able to select a panel and then overwrite another panel with a copy of it would make things a lot easier. I've been finding myself pasting all 16 rows of a given panel into a new panel and then adjusting only the parts I need to. An even better solution would be to be able to duplicate a panel and at the same time duplicate all the rows in it, so that if you copy panel 0 into a new panel 201, you can edit the rows in 201 without messing up the rows in 0. Also, and this might seem like heresy to some people, I just can't get used to having the secondary click do something instead of bringing up a contextual menu. At first I thought it was confusion stemming from me being a left-hander and having the left- and right-clicks reversed, but it's more than that. Having the "other" click perform an immediate action really feels unnatural. Are many other applications like this? I've never used a game editor before this. (Edit: Test course! 
This very-much-unfinished course features some altered rows, new panels, and many panels in new positions. The path mapping hasn't been fixed, so if you run into a wall on that newly-created backstretch, you'll be in trouble, but the other parts work! * Barriers are now purple; works fine. * Panel 125 contains boost panels, which don't normally occur on MC1, but they work. They're shaped like some kind of street-crossing zone rather than like a real boost panel because I didn't want to get into messing with 2x2-tiles yet, and just took what was available. * The bottom rows of panel 89 have a perpendicular jump pad inserted, and this works fine. (Some of the other rows, namely 109 and 110, now have bits of jump panel in them, which I'm trying to get rid of.) * That big ugly town-square-like area of panel 95 is just something I haven't figured out what to do with yet. It's supposed to give the driver a chance to switch lanes. Now for the problems: after using the editor, the series of practice courses is different - Red Canyon is the first one now. Without going back and editing that, I can't practice on this course, so I'm testing it in the Grand Prix. Perfectly drivable, except that the path is much longer -- about 30 seconds or so -- and so I'm in 15th place at the end of the lap, and will rank out pretty quickly in Lap 2 once the extended backstretch starts. Still, the course editor works as advertised and if you designed a course in which you didn't have to edit the path, you could make perfect courses. This was just a test run, and my next effort will be a little more ambitious. |
| Main - Posts by Heian |
© 2005-2023 Acmlm, blackhole89, Xkeeper et al. |
|
MySQL - queries: 129, rows: 161/161, time: 0.224 seconds. |