[Atrius]

Version 0.2 is now available - [Link]

Oh yes, I said GS:TLA editor.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v698/AtriusV/Games/Golden%20Sun%20Project/GSTLA_editor1.png http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v698/AtriusV/Games/Golden%20Sun%20Project/GSTLA_editor3.png http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v698/AtriusV/Games/Golden%20Sun%20Project/GSTLA_editor2.png http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v698/AtriusV/Games/Golden%20Sun%20Project/GSTLA_editor4.png

Screenshot 1
The item editor screen. A glance at the options shows that I've opted to turn corn into a lethal weapon.

Screenshot 2
It's the Enemy Editor, and Briggs! I haven't messed with him any, but notice the unlabeled values above & below his attacks that I haven't been able to identify yet. If anyone can tell me what they do, you get a cookie. It's also worth noting that the elemental powers & resistances aren't editable. Y'see they're shared between enemies so I'll probably make a separate editor for them so there's no confusion when you edit the values for one enemy, and they change for 50 others.

Screenshot 3
The enemy group editor, probably the least impressive screen so far. Curious as it may be that Saturos & Menardi are in The Lost Age, it gives me a chance to try a battle against all four of the main antagonists from both games.

Screenshot 4
Text viewer. All of the game's text is viewable here, including the occasional message left behind by the game's creators, or translators.

And screen shots of the results of my fiddling in-game:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v698/AtriusV/Games/Golden%20Sun%20Project/GSTLA_hacked1.png http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v698/AtriusV/Games/Golden%20Sun%20Project/GSTLA_hacked2.png

Screenshot 1
Food products make excellent weapons

Screenshot 2
Unfortunately in the battle against Saturos, Menardi, Agatio, and Karst, Karst ran out of memory to extract her sprites into, so instead she decided to appear as glitched versions of my party members. Piers in this particular case. Also, obligatory joke about Felix's howling corn.


I'm hoping to get a sprite viewer in there before I release it, and maybe, if you're really lucky, a map viewer. I've got the ground work done, but it'll be a hard task transferring it over. I REAALLY want to port the decompression code over to a c++ dll first too since the language I'm mainly programming the editor in is kinda on the slow side. It would really speed up loading times for maps, which right now are kinda unbearable. Eventually I even hope to reverse the decompression code so I can make the compressed stuff editable too.


Anywho, that's a look at what I've been concocting . I'd love to hear any comments, questions, or concerns you may have so far.

[Split Infinity]

Looks awesome so far. Way better than anything Toasty and I could achieve in VBA.

[Atrius]

You and Toasty hack GS? What kind of stuff do you do?

[David]

Wow, this is really cool. I noticed that for Felix the corn appears as a sword. Is it a sword for the other characters? If so, what about the two that can't equip swords (Sheba and Mia)? What does it show up for them as?

[Someone Else]

You are quite awesome, you know that?

You should release a modded GS: TLA for us to play with on VBA. =P

[Atrius]

This is what the corn appears as for each character

Felix: Long Sword
Jenna: Staff
Sheba: Staff
Piers: Long Sword

Isaac: Long Sword
Garet: Mace (Huh... Can't he wield Long Swords?)
Ivan: Staff
Mia: Staff


I hadn't thought about how that's decided, I'll have to look into some time.


Wind Dude
Maybe once the tools are far enough along, though the plan is to release them so other people can make mods.

[Drizzy Drake]

Is it possible to change the enemy sprites to put say a FF5 enemy in?

[Atrius]

Not in the first version of the program, but it will be at some point.

The first version is basically just gonna have Item & Enemy editors, and viewers for other stuff.

[Toasty]

Atrius, on Oct 4 2008, 11:26 AM, said:

You and Toasty hack GS? What kind of stuff do you do?

Not really anything amazing. I just know how to pull off sprite sheets with what VBA has built into it. Though I know how to do some programming, it's nothing near your level. I really need to learn C++. I'm far better aquainted with hardware.


Anyway, HOLY SHIAT. That is orgasmic. You get major props.



As for the decompression code, I highly doubt I could reverse engineer it or anything, but who knows. If you show me what you've got, I might be able to do something with it.

[EDIT] Lol at the howling corn, and holy shizbits at it unleashing Iris.

[Atrius]

Toasty, on Oct 5 2008, 01:16 AM, said:

Not really anything amazing. I just know how to pull off sprite sheets with what VBA has built into it. Though I know how to do some programming, it's nothing near your level. I really need to learn C++. I'm far better aquainted with hardware.

I don't even know C++ well enough to make something like this in it. I'm only writing a dll to handle decompressing data in C++. I'm quite ashamed to say the rest is made in Game Maker.

Toasty, on Oct 5 2008, 01:16 AM, said:

As for the decompression code, I highly doubt I could reverse engineer it or anything, but who knows. If you show me what you've got, I might be able to do something with it.

I've just about got 'em figured out already except one, but I'm almost sure you can use whichever one you want in most situations. If you really want to help though, I can give you the addresses in memory of some data for maps that I haven't figured out the exact formatting for.




Also, new screen shot, All sprites are in fact just sprites, no matter what you think they're for.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v698/AtriusV/Games/Golden%20Sun%20Project/GSTLA_hacked3.png

[Split Infinity]

So how exactly does this work, does it modify the data in the ROM or does it just mess around with the emulator memory?

[Atrius]

My program edits the ROM directly.

The reason I'd have to give you the address of the data in memory is because it's compressed in the ROM. It wouldn't be much use knowing where it is if you didn't have something to decompress it. The location it gets decompressed to in RAM is used for all maps, so you can look at the data for any area in the game, and compare it if needed.

[Max]

Wow, Atrius, very impressive work yet again. Is there any way you could just make a dump of all of the "default" data in some meaningful format (e.g., XML)? I'd love to take a look at and do some analysis of various values that are not explicitly displayed in the game. As a software developer I'm also curious just how they designed all the various data structures and their storage in memory.

Great work, I look forward to seeing even more progress.

[Atrius]

I could do that. I'm not too familiar with the XML file format though, you wouldn't happen to have an idea of how you'd like it formatted would you?

[Atrius]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v698/AtriusV/Games/Golden%20Sun%20Project/GSTLA_editor5.png

Sprite Viewer is working, hopefully I'll be able get a demo out before the end of the week.

[Max]

Atrius, the beauty of XML is that the format can be whatever you want it to be. It uses the tag based demarkations of HTML <tag>...</tag>, but by nesting things you can achieve any hierarchy you want.

Alternatively, if you just export it all into some structured format with some documentation describing how to read it, then I wouldn't mind transforming that into something more usable by other developers or automated programs.

[Matthias]

Wow this is amazing work. I've been studying GBA/NDS development a bit lately and I'm wondering how could you even begin to develop something like this in the first place. What I'm more surprised with is that you even used Game Maker. o_o

[Toasty]

Why is Link in there? And what's with the elf chick?

Anyway, XML is pretty straight foreward as Max described. It's kinda like makeing your own programming language. But all you have to do is be consistent with how you format the stuff.

I find that most configuration files for PC games are coded in XML.

[Atrius]

Max, don't mind doing it in XML.

Matthias, Game Maker isn't as limited as some people make it out to be, though to be fair I did end up offloading some of the decompression work to a DLL written in C++. It was just to speed it up though.

Toasty, Link has always been in there. You hadn't heard? I mentioned it here quite a while ago. Mostly I just figured I'd find some sprites with the viewer that I didn't recognize at all from the game, and post a picture of them, I didn't actually hack any of them into the game they're already there.




Also, just as a side note. Nothing really important, but:

The demo is now available - [Link]

[Max]

Wow, that is so much fun to play with. I'd be very much interested in working with you on extracting all the raw data into some sort of organized structure or file format and then get that set up in a database which people can access and browse.

[Max]

I don't like double-posting, but I wanted to bump this and get my question seen:

Atrius, would it be possible to get this editor or the data extractor program to work on non-English ROMs? I could provide ROMs in several languages (German, French, Italian, and Spanish) if that would be any help. Part of the problem with creating multi-lingual sites is finding people who have the game in two languages and can correlate the names. Being able to extra the text entries from each game and do that in some automated fashion would save literally countless hours of work.

[Atrius]

Actually I've already been working on that since I wanted to expand the editors compatibility anyway. It's difficult because things tend to be stored in different locations for each language version, but I ought to be able to manage. Let's just hope the string indexes are the same.

[ColumMcClelland]

great to see many people interested in you work. I hope that one day Golden Sun mods stretch to the success of the Pokemon games, the series truly deserves it.

nice work... :P

[Blink]

Heh, saw this on NCFC. Nice work Atrius.

[Atrius]

Thanks, I figure I might as well advertise it if I can.

[Atrius]

I just realized I haven't posted the preview images of the new version here yet.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v698/AtriusV/Games/Golden%20Sun%20Project/GSTLA_editor7.png

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v698/AtriusV/Games/Golden%20Sun%20Project/GSTLA_editor8.png

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v698/AtriusV/Games/Golden%20Sun%20Project/GSTLA_LongNames.png
No I didn't change Felix's default name to Sir Wickles... Strange though, it breaks the 5 character limit, or is that really the limit?

[Max]

"New" version? One that you haven't released yet, or just showing some features that you didn't show before?

[Atrius]

You didn't think I was gonna make it so you could edit just Items & Enemies and call the editor finished did you? I'm still working on it.

[Toasty]

Still, Sir Wickles is a pretty badass name. ;)

Looking foreward to the added features. I need to get a hold of a TLA ROM first though. I haven't even tested out the editor yet.

[Atrius]

I hadn't really had any time at all to work on the editor the past month, but now that I have had some time here are some new screen shots so no one thinks I've abandoned this project.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v698/AtriusV/Games/Golden%20Sun%20Project/GSTLA_editor9.png
I finally worked out the problem I needed to before I could make it so you could switch item, and ability icons.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v698/AtriusV/Games/Golden%20Sun%20Project/GSTLA_editor10.png
I think I've mentioned that the portraits are actually assigned to sprites, and not in the message box script. Now if a sprite has a portrait assigned to it, you can change it, but for now you can't add a portrait to a sprite that doesn't have one.

A few oddities concerning portraits:
- They're in 2 categories: Party Members, and NPCs.
- Party members can use NPC portraits, but NPCs can't use party member portraits.
- Pier's portrait is pushed back one slot compared to the rest of the party members, there's a slightly modified Alex portrait in the slot his should be! :lol:


And of course I had to test these new features:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v698/AtriusV/Games/Golden%20Sun%20Project/GSTLA_hacked5.png

[Max]

Nice work Atrius, I was beginning to wonder if you'd ever get back to working on this stuff. At some point I'd love to see you write some kind of technical paper explaining how all these different systems work.

[Atrius]

Mmm.... That would be nice to have.

It still needs some work, but it's nice to have it mostly working in the editor now, so here's a screen shot.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v698/AtriusV/Games/Golden%20Sun%20Project/GSTLA_editor11.png

Yes, for some reason there is a Mercury Lighthouse map in The Lost Age...

[Split Infinity]

A scrapped cutscene perhaps?

[Atrius]

Actually it's from the ending cut scene, when the kids are talking to you from the base of Mercury Lighthouse after you light the Mars Lighthouse.

There are a couple other odd places though, like the hallways outside of the Link Lobby, and the small room to the left of the Shop Debug Room.

[Split Infinity]

It looks like the bottom three halls would have provided Lobby access from somewhere else in the game, and the one on the right comes up from the battle staircase.

[The Valeshipper FAN! XD]

Nice hacking..stuff! :D :joy:

[Atrius]

Version 0.2 is out!

You can grab it at the same place as before, or right here if you're lazy.

[Max]

Very cool Atrius. Any chance you'll be able to add the ability to export certain things as images (esp. maps)? I'm also curious to hear more about how the window lights work, as it appears to have some kind of pseudo-gradient overlay on many of the interior maps.

[Atrius]

I can do that.

The tile layer with the window lights & stuff like that is drawn over the other layers with an additive blend mode. Basically instead of just replacing the pixels underneath them, their RGB values are added together so it brightens them.

[Kaj]

Dude, you are a genius, seriously.

[Atrius]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v698/AtriusV/Games/Golden%20Sun%20Project/TextEditing.gif

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v698/AtriusV/Games/Golden%20Sun%20Project/TextEditing_02.png http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v698/AtriusV/Games/Golden%20Sun%20Project/TextEditing_00.png

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v698/AtriusV/Games/Golden%20Sun%20Project/TextEditing_01.png http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v698/AtriusV/Games/Golden%20Sun%20Project/TextEditing_03.png


Yup. Thus far I've only been making the data that isn't compressed editable, and adding viewers for the stuff that is. Now that I've got a decent amount of the non-compressed stuff dealt with, I decided it's about time I cracked that text compression.

[Max]

I know you mentioned that you weren't sure you'd be able to make the edited text longer than the original. Is that limitation still in place or did you find a solution to that?

[Atrius]

I've thought up a solution to that, I'm currently working on implementing it. There are some other problems with the compression though, it doesn't like certain character combinations. I should be able to work around that eventually too without sacrificing the compression.

[Toasty]

Holy crap. I'm totally editing all the text in the game for comic relief.

It'd be awesome if you could add more text bubbles to a cutscene, but I imaging that you'd have to modify the game's structure for that.

[Atrius]

I have some important news concerning the development of the editor, read here.

[Toasty]

Dude, I am so joining the Airforce now. I think I've found my calling.

It's name is 9S100.

[Atrius]

The requirements to get into it are pretty high. You take the ASVAB before you can even pick what jobs you want in the Military, and it has the highest score requirements out of all the jobs for the Air Force. You even have to take another separate test to qualify for it.

[Toasty]

Good thing I'm pro at taking tests then. <_<

[Max]

I wish you the best in your new endeavor Atrius. I certainly know what it's like to put things on hold to go pursue a great new opportunity, and I hope it works out well for you. Any chance you'll open source the editor or otherwise give the code to someone else to continue?

[Atrius]

I plan on continuing it myself as soon as I'm able.

[Swedishfish]

Quote

I have some important news concerning the development of the editor, read here.

Have fun bombing the f**k out of some terrorists.

[Toasty]

Dude, chances are he's not even going to go over seas (or at least not to the middle east). Let alone fire a weapon at a terrorist, or even get anywhere near a terrorist.

Not saying whether or not that's a good thing, because it's got its pros and cons. Just sayin'

[Atrius]

Been a while hasn't it? Sorry I've been neglecting you guys, I've had serious issues accessing my account here since I got back that I was just recently able to resolve.

So letsee... Where to start.... Text editing seems to be the last thing I mentioned here, so keeping in mind that a lot of these screen shots are of things still heavily under development-

Data Viewer
The way some of GS TLA's data is arranged is very peculiar, yet helpful at the same time. At the end of the ROM file there is a large array containing various types of data ranging from graphics, to the games code itself. The idea of the data viewer is to be able to browse through ALL of this data, a few sample images are at the links below.

Palettes
Tilesets (Eventually will be able to load with palettes so they're colored)
Menu Graphics
Battle Animation Graphics (Notice also that although the data viewer couldn't positively identify this it did notice it was compressed, decompressed it automatically, and offers several manually selectable options for viewing the data)
Hex viewer (Yes, although the editor is designed for user friendliness, low level hex editing will be available)

As I mentioned, this data array also includes pointers to the game's code. What's quickly become one of my favorite new features of the data viewer is it's ability to scan the code for data pointers, not only that, but as it completes this scan it keeps track of the functions it scans through, and builds a list of where each data pointer is used. I'm sure more advanced ROM hackers could think of plenty of uses for information like that. I know it's already come in handy for me several times.

Map Viewer Upgrades

In addition to upgrades that I hope will help with speed issues many people have with the Map viewer, it also now displays NPCs. In fact, I was even able to make this video using the in development v0.3 of the editor. Yes, NPC's aren't just visible, but a limited amount of editing can be done to them as well. You can move them around, change their sprite, edit their dialogue, and although you can't edit them yet you can view their scripted event data which comes in two varieties: assembly coded interactions, and idle behavior scripts in a Golden Sun's custom, much simpler scripting format, interpreted and simplified even more by the editor's interface.


Experimentation videos
These are videos I created while experimented with editing various data in the game. It won't be possible to do this kind of stuff in the editor yet, but it's proof that it is possible, and I am actively looking into how to achieve it for future versions.

Golden Sun: Hacking, Dutch Farmer Unleash - Oh yes, the unleash of the mythical wheat sword. For this video I took Flora's summon, changed the background, edited the flower petal palette, and replaced her graphic.
Golden Sun: Hacking, Zelda Cutscene - Cutscene editing, a fairly simple example, but hey, editing ASM code with a HEX editor is tricky!
Golden Sun: Hacking, A Touch of Touhou - Another custom sprite insertion demonstration, this time with music to match!

[Matthias]

Ahahahahahahaha! "Well excuse me Princess." :)