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Topics - FaustWolf

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121
Chrono Cross Modification / CHRONO CROSS FILE EXPLORATION THREAD
« on: October 21, 2007, 08:57:47 pm »
In light of the day's wondrous turn of events, I'm starting a new thread dedicated to our findings regarding the files that the Ramsus/Yazoo dumper has produced. I can't very well recap everything that happened, so if you're reading this for the first time, check out the posts that start here: http://www.chronocompendium.com/Forums/index.php/topic,4729.msg83034.html#msg83034

This thread shall be dedicated to the basic findings that flow out of Ramsus' wonderful work. I've attached a number of files to this thread:

1st: The Ramsus/Yazoo dumper, which is what Zeality, Luminaire85 and I have used successfully to dump ALL of Cross' files. It's a tool originally created by Yazoo of Terminus Traductions that Ramsus modified so that it works more efficiently (and at all, in my case). Beware though, Ramsus will be making continual improvements to this program to make it even better!

2nd: More tools I received from Sephiroth 1311 in Italy. I'm not sure what's in here just yet, but there may be new tools we can use. Remember though, if there are any new tools in here, they haven't been optimized by Ramsus.

3rd: The rest of Yazoo's tools, written in C++ and compiled by Ramsus. The beauty of this is people don't have to compile themselves to check everything out since Ramsus has done that work for us. Inside you'll find all sorts of goodies including decompression utilities. To use them, run from the command line or (in my case, since I suck at command lines) simply drag the pertinent file over the .exe.

[attachment deleted by admin]

122
*Update 10/18/2007* TIM Decimal -> Hexadecimal Conversion Progress: 9619 / 9619   (100% Complete, thanks to Ramsus)

Hello, all! I was originally going to do a tutorial for how to find .TIM addresses in the Chrono Cross .iso for purposes of mapping out the first CD, but as it turns out the Entity has been even more kind to us than I originally thought!

It just so happens that TIMViewer automatically outputs a record of where all the files it pulls from the .iso are located. Only problem? The offsets are in decimal, not hexadecimal format. Soooo - we need to convert from decimal to hexadecimal offsets.

Here's a quickie tutorial on how to convert the file info contained within the attached .zip from decimal to hexadecimal offsets fairly quickly.


TUTORIAL BEGINS NOW

Experience Necessary: Status as a Chrono Cross fan. That's it. :D
Materials Needed: The attached .zip containing .TIM extract info; Windows Calculator (find it under Start -> Programs -> Accessories); the TIM Offsets text form.

If you're a Mac user or otherwise don't have access to the basic calculator, anything that can convert from decimal to hex will do, though you may need a separate pocket calculator depending on how full-featured the calculator you find is. Microsoft did something totally right and sensible for once!

Once you've extracted the text file contained in the .zip, open your converter/calculator. You should be looking at something like this: http://img296.imageshack.us/img296/1895/timextractcalcys8.gif

Now for the easy part. What we need are beginning and ending offsets for the .TIM files. Let's say we're gathering hex info for File #1 (the first .TIM TIMViewer pulls from the .iso). Copy the decimal start offset, "1321744", and paste it into Windows Calculator. This can be done via Edit -> Copy and Edit -> Paste in both programs as needed. You can also use the keyboard shortcuts Ctrl+C and Ctrl+P  DO NOT TYPE THIS STUFF MANUALLY IF YOU CAN HELP IT. That leads to inefficiency and human error.

Note that the "Dec" radio button should be automatically highlighted below the field where calculated numbers appear. Press the "Hex" radio button just to the right; the number you had copied earlier should magically become "142B10" - the calculator's just done a decimal -> hexadecimal conversion for you. This hex number "142B10" is also the offset in the .iso at which the .TIM file starts. Copy that number from the calculator and paste it into your offsets form in the appropriate place.

Next we need to find the file's ending offset. Convert your "142B10" back into "1321744" by highlighting the "Dec" radio button. Now add the file size in decimal ("1414") with the calculator, and re-convert the result to hex. You should end up with "143096", which is the file's ending offset. This means that the first .TIM file is contained within hex offsets 142B10 and 143096.

*Important Note: For some very odd reason, when you do a file scan of the .iso in TIMViewer, the GUI tells you that the first file is a different length in decimal, placing it between offsets 142B10 ~ 143056. After doing the necessary checks in Cygnus Hex Editor, I have determined that the text dump TIMViewer makes is accurate, while the GUI results are not. I'm not sure what's up with this, but I've got visual evidence to back this conclusion up.

TIM #1's header in the .iso starting at offset 00142B10 compared to the TIM's own file header: http://img296.imageshack.us/img296/7758/tim1headsw2.gif

TIM #1's end of file in the .iso ending at offset 00143096 as determined in the preceding fashion: http://img296.imageshack.us/img296/34/tim1tailjw8.gif


Eventually all this .TIM info and info about other files we collect will be used to map out the .iso's file structure. This will help the Compendium narrow down which offsets might contain the really good stuff like character models and pre-rendered backgrounds.

If you're interested in helping me slog through this, please see if you can reproduce my results with the first .TIM file's decimal offsets, and ask any questions you may have about the process in this thread or by PM.

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123
BREAKING NEWS EDIT: As of Sunday, October 14, 2007, we and the folks at the xentax forums have come to agreement that the .BIK archives are in fact "false positives." In other words, we have not yet discovered the archives Square stuffed its Chrono Cross files into. But the search continues in earnest for ways of getting at the insides of the Chrono Cross .iso.

SUPER EDIT - 10/13/07: Okay, I'm re-invading my first post to provide myself with some organization and to "cut to the chase" for Compendiumites who are wading through this the first time. My sincerest hope is that this whole .BIK occurrence is going to result in the "mapping" of the Chrono Cross CD file structure. For this lofty goal to occur, we'll need three things as I see it currently:

1. *COMPLETE* A very good hex editor. Hex Workshop is the utility of choice here, but a great alternative is Cygnus. Its search feature takes some getting used to, but is actually quite a bit more powerful than Hex Workshop's IMHO. If anyone else would like to download Cygnus and help out here, find the Hexit hex calculator as well, since Cygnus doesn't have as good a "goto" feature as Hex Workshop does. *Thanx Luminaire85!

2. *COMPLETE* A .TIM viewer that can rip .TIM files and output them in their native format. PSicture rips .TIMs and outputs them as .BMP files. Clean .TIM rips will provide us with hexadecimal references for exploring the Chrono Cross iso and the .BIKs -- provided the image data isn't compressed in its pre-ripped state. *Thanx Zeality!*

3. A PSX emulator with debugging capabilities a la SNES9x Debugger. Does such an emulator even exist? If it's out there somewhere, it might tell us which disc sectors the emulator is reading at any given point in time. Therefore, perhaps we'd be able to tell where on the disc/iso pre-rendered backgrounds and character models are being pulled from.

All of the above is intended to give the Chrono Community access to Chrono Cross' resources. We've got textures already, though Zeality and I strongly suspect we're missing some of those. Let's push onward and get model data!

This idea has only just developed over the past few days, and in many ways I still don't know what the heck I'm doing. I've dabbled in each of the necessary aspects of this blossoming project, but I've been here long enough to know that more gifted Compendiumites have far greater expertise in these sorts of things than I. If you're reading this and can provide advice or have ideas on how to proceed, by all means join in! Hopefully this will be a long-term Compendium project that will occupy Chrono fans for a while, and if we're successful in ripping models and the like, it will usher in a new age of Cross hacking or Cross-based fangames.


Original post and edits appear below:

Hello again everybody! I swear I'm not trying to up my post count by spamming this section of the forums! :lol:

I recently decided to throw my Chrono Cross iso at a program called "Filestripper" produced by the xentax community. I *don't* recommend anyone else do this because it takes a God-awful amount of time and will tie your PC up for hours. Anyway, I can see that I've gotten about 420MB worth of ".bik" files so far. I assume it's an archive of some sort, and I've got three such archives (still running Filestripper, but I don't expect to get any more such archives based on the way things are progressing).

Has anyone here encountered / produced .bik files before? Any ideas as to what they might contain? My cursory Google search suggests that .bik files usually contain music and/or video, but I sincerely doubt that Chrono Cross' soundtrack and its videos combined would take up 2/3 of an entire disc -- unless Filestripper has somehow bloated the file sizes by converting Chrono Cross' music and FMVs into some weird lossless compression format. I dunno.

I'll upload them via Rapidshare for interested parties once Filestripper finally finishes. It's taking its good ol' time, so that won't be until tomorrow morning in my neck of the woods.

Here's to hoping it's something interesting and that we can find out how to open them! I don't want to give anyone false optimism though. It could be 420MB of unusable junk data too.

EDIT: Just thought of something. Filestripper's been giving me a gazillion "Invalid MPEG frame found @ such-and-such an address" messages. Maybe the program's stuffing its error logs into .bik files and that's the source. I hope not; that would be Teh SuX0Rz. I guess we'll see.

EDIT: Finally had to abort the program before it finished due to the need to get some work done today. I've uploaded the .BIK files in separate rars, which people may grab at Rapidshare below:

http://rapidshare.com/files/62248175/Track_010AAF37EB.rar.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/62269095/Track_0113E96864.rar.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/62272980/Track_0100563BCC.rar.html

Filstripper's readme says it can rip .BINK files, which come from Rad Game Tools (http://www.radgametools.com/default.htm). Though quite frankly I'm unsure as to whether or not this has anything to do with .BIK files (I most definitely captured .BIKs and not .BINKs, at least that's what my computer says).

RadGameTools says they've contracted with 1100 customers since 1999, and Squaresoft isn't on their partial list of companies. Knowledgeable Compendiumites, when was Chrono Cross released in Japan, and how long was its development cycle? Is it possible Square would have contracted with a company like this to provide...whatever it is this company provides? Rad Game Tools isn't in Chrono Cross' list of credits in the instruction booklet. Probably a false lead.

EDIT: Aha! BIK, BINK, what's the difference? Rad Game Tools is power and I've got the -- oh, nevermind. Anyway, Rad Game Tools does use BIK files. Could Square have contracted with this company? I've got a BIK compressor from Rad Game Tools, but I don't know if I'll be able to find a decompressor. Stay tuned.

124
Chrono Cross Modification / Okay, Chrono Cross Textures
« on: October 10, 2007, 01:03:50 am »
Hallo alles! <- Me practicing German.

Just completed a dump of the Chrono Cross CD image and I believe I *might* have found a considerable number of textures stored as .bmp files. Take a gander at some of these:


Glenn's face.


Riddel's face.


Harle's face.


Lynx's Scythe, perhaps?


Komodo Dragon


Now I must ask the Chrono Community three questions:

1. Has anyone seen these before? Could anyone with some expertise confirm that these are, indeed, model textures?

2. Does anyone know how to view the file structure on the Chrono Cross CDs? These are all messed up because they were ripped from a .bin file of IsoBuster's creation, but they'd be clear as day if they could be ripped directly from the CD. If previous image ripping experience serves me correctly, that is.

3. Would these be useful in any way, say, for 3D modeling practice or re-creating the Chrono Cross models if someone could get their geometry separately?


I'm not sure that *all* Chrono Cross textures are this readily accessible. I haven't gotten anywhere close to sifting through all 6000+ images viewable in the ripped game image, but so far I've only found face and weapon textures as you see above along with what might be spell textures.

EDIT: Er, on second glance, maybe there's more than just faces in there. Is it possible that a character's entire model texture could fit in so small a space?

125
History, Locations, and Artifacts / Colored Books in Radical Dreamers
« on: October 06, 2007, 04:19:47 pm »
Hey, all. Can anyone confirm whether the various colored book key items in Radical Dreamers actually contained excerpts from Dune, Silence of the Lambs, etc., in the Japanese version, or are these something DemiForce put in there as easter eggs?

I'm especially interested in this excerpt from the Purple Book - Front:

"The Neo-Epoch was damaged and expelled into space without any phase changes.
Warning! Warning! Engine severely damaged! Output has been reduced to 30%! Only
six Antiparticle shells remain!
Shield range 16 sectors! L-spin reaction at the starboard bow! The enemy fleet
is moving towards us!
Gyado, wake up! Hiyu Corps, use your final power..."

Certainly sounds interesting - like Belthasar took on the Borg or space aliens or something in the Neo Epoch in another dimension. Any ideas as to what, exactly, "Gyado" and "Hiyu Corps" refer to?

The colored book entries are here:
http://www.chronocompendium.com/Term/Key_Items_%28Radical_Dreamers%29.html

126
Hello, all! I probably shouldn't have released anything from my pet project while it's still in its infancy, but with the Dream Splash logo egging me on every time I visit the Compendium, I finally broke down and decided to polish a few Zeal-related scenes for the Splash.

The first part ("Prelude") might not even be applicable here, since it's related to Zeal only on a few tangent points (Belthasar in 2300, the Black Omen, etc).

The second part ("Past is Prologue") is a vision of how the Ocean Palace Incident might play out in a different dimension - specifically, the dimension suggested by the ending, "What the Prophet Seeks."

But first, some caveats for those who might venture through my horribly-coded web documents:

*This is sort of a fan script accompanied by the music that inspired the various scenes, thanks to the wonders of JavaScript - but since my coding skills are infantile, the audio accompaniment only works for Internet Explorer users. Knowing my luck, everyone here is probably a Firefox aficionado. Also, unlike Claado Shou of Chrono Symphonic fame, I've not learned the proper way to write cinematically, so the style will appear quirky, and the scene descriptions far too detailed for some.

*I've taken liberties with canon that cannot be explained by the simple fact that this takes place in an alternate dimension. For example, I've shamelessly altered some characterizations -- in this alter-dimensional vision, the Prophet doesn't exile the gurus, his ultimate goal is significantly different than his goal in Chrono Trigger, Zeal isn't possessed by Lavos in any way, and Schala has guts, among other things.

*I've created FAQs for both parts to act as a running commentary, but don't read them until after the scenes, because they contain major spoilers.

*There's over-the-top violence, because neither the Prophet nor Lavos are nice dudes. I actually intend the project to be a pro-peace work, but you wouldn't know it from the beginning.


If none of the above turn you off, take a gander. I've tested everything in Internet Explorer and it seems to work, but drop a comment here if you experience technical difficulties, and I'll see what I can do. There may be a delay in hearing the music for Internet Explorer users, since I can't seem to get m3u streaming to work with the host I'm currently using. So the music portion will probably be inaccessible to 56k users as things stand.

And if this stuff is too weird even for the Splash, that's fine. This exercise has value as a system test of sorts, and has already provided valuable insight on how I would go about presenting this project once it's complete.

Oh, and please view this in a full-screen window. The words will be all jumbled otherwise.

See it here:
http://download-v5.streamload.com/74e0adf4-4adf-4831-9ce9-1dcf6d9fbd8a/faustwolf/Hosted/Chrono%20Break%20TOC.htm

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