Author Topic: Text within Epoch's time gauge  (Read 2444 times)

Fauntleroy

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Text within Epoch's time gauge
« on: January 01, 2018, 11:58:40 pm »
I'm guessing the text that appears on Epoch's time gauge is compressed because I can't find it. It's also not part of the game's ASCII text. Anybody know how to access it?

Mauron

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Re: Text within Epoch's time gauge
« Reply #1 on: January 02, 2018, 03:56:42 am »
Those are graphics placed on the screen when the time gauge is loaded. My notes are incomplete, but 65,000,000 BC has tiles listed in four byte groups starting at 0x03EDEB.

The data is in the following format:
XX YY AB CC

XX and YY are coordinates for the tile. AB selects from the currently loaded graphics in VRAM, working as a row/column selection for tiles. CC is special properties. 40 = flip horizontal 80 = flip vertical, 3F "page" - This will allow you to select different graphics loaded.

Usuable tiles range from 0x40-0x71. Depending on what you're doing, I may be able to help more.

Fauntleroy

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Re: Text within Epoch's time gauge
« Reply #2 on: January 02, 2018, 07:12:54 pm »
Ah, I see.

Well, I want to change the names of the some of the eras (Dark Age to Antiquity, that sort of thing).

What would be great is if I could just overwrite the current graphics with a replacement I made myself. I'm comfortable with tools like Tile Molester.

Happen to know where the letter tiles are at in the ROM? The normal fonts are easy to find but I'm not seeing the Epoch text.

Thanks yet again!

Mauron

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Re: Text within Epoch's time gauge
« Reply #3 on: January 02, 2018, 07:34:01 pm »
The time gauge graphics are compressed at 0x38000. Some tiles are reused in the graphics. Notably, "Ag" is used in both Middle and Dark Ages, and "es" is used for Present and Ages.

You'll have to change some of the tiles used by the text. I can track some of that down.

Have you worked with compressed packets before?

Fauntleroy

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Re: Text within Epoch's time gauge
« Reply #4 on: January 02, 2018, 08:05:42 pm »
No I have not! :)

This sounds like a bit of a Rubix cube but I'm up for the challenge.

Mauron

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Re: Text within Epoch's time gauge
« Reply #5 on: January 02, 2018, 08:22:58 pm »
0x03EE34 is the start of 12000 BC Dark Ages tile assembly.

To export a compressed packet:

1) Go to File -> Compression...
2) Put the address of your compressed packet in the address field. (38000)
3) In filename, press the "..." button and select a destination.
4) Press Decompress.
5) On the status bar at the bottom, there will be a notice. Write down the value after Compressed: In this case, I got B6C. You'll need this for later.

The graphics are 4bpp planer, composite (2x2bpp).

There's some empty tiles under the time gauge tiles and before the text you can use as free space. You can also freely replace the "Dark" tiles.

I'll write up some insertion instructions later. Your new tiles will probably be larger when compressed.

Fauntleroy

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Re: Text within Epoch's time gauge
« Reply #6 on: January 02, 2018, 08:31:16 pm »
Sweet!  I'll do this after dinner tonight. Thank you!!!

Mauron

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Re: Text within Epoch's time gauge
« Reply #7 on: January 02, 2018, 09:06:59 pm »
Inserting the graphics:
1) Make sure there are no unsaved changes to your ROM.
2) Go to File -> Compression...
3) Put the address of your compressed packet in the address field. (38000)
4) In filename, press the "..." button and select a destination.
5) Press Compress.
6) Compare the compressed size on the status bar to the compressed size you noted earlier. If it's the same or less, save. If not, note the size, reopen your ROM, and proceed to Finding new space.

Finding new space:
1) If you don't have it already, download the Chrono Trigger Database.
2) Look for free space or JUNK greater than or equal to the compressed size. Temporal Flux will take this space starting from the beginning of the ROM when saving changes.
3) Go to Window -> Custom Data.
4) Add a new entry for your packet. Set start offset and end offset to the size you need, and override free space to true.
5) If there's a message at the bottom that says Warning - Space Requested In Use, try again with a different address. If not, insert the modified graphics at that address.
6) In a hex editor, go to 0x027220. Take the last two byte of the address, and insert them in reverse order. Using 0x38000 as an example, you'd take the 8000, and insert them as 00 80.
7) Go to 0x2738C. Take the first byte of the address, add 0xC0, and store it here. In this example, you'd take the 03, and add 0xC0 to get 0xC3.

After this you'll need to change the Dark Ages tile assembly. This is at 0x3EE464-0x3EE56. Every fourth byte will be the tile index.
Tile Molester's Tile Grid can help with this. The row followed by the column will be the index you need. For example, "dd" in Middle would be 5A. 00 can be used for a blank tile if your text is shorter.

Fauntleroy

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Re: Text within Epoch's time gauge
« Reply #8 on: January 02, 2018, 11:29:22 pm »
Damn. That is really easy when you get good instruction.





I only had to add one additional tile and change two bytes in a hex editor.

Very small change, but... I'm happy to see it done!

Thanks again to Mauron!!!

:o <<< This Nu is saying, "We're not worthy, we're not worthy!"

Mauron

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Re: Text within Epoch's time gauge
« Reply #9 on: January 02, 2018, 11:32:25 pm »
Looks good!

Redline57

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Re: Text within Epoch's time gauge
« Reply #10 on: January 20, 2018, 02:19:54 am »
Very cool.

Fauntleroy

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Re: Text within Epoch's time gauge
« Reply #11 on: January 20, 2018, 01:07:15 pm »
Thanks!

While I've done a lot of whining on this board, I find this is actually one of the funner games to hack.