Author Topic: Looking into the possibility of a menu editor.  (Read 2236 times)

Mauron

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Looking into the possibility of a menu editor.
« on: December 05, 2024, 10:16:34 pm »
It's looking clunky to design and will probably be difficult to use, but this is what I have so far.

Boo the Gentleman Caller

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Re: Looking into the possibility of a menu editor.
« Reply #1 on: December 05, 2024, 11:49:09 pm »
Well hot damn.

DemiFiend

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Re: Looking into the possibility of a menu editor.
« Reply #2 on: December 14, 2024, 08:05:04 pm »
I'm interested. Does it work on the combat menu?

Mauron

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Re: Looking into the possibility of a menu editor.
« Reply #3 on: December 16, 2024, 08:32:04 pm »
Currently looking like no on the combat menu, but I have gotten what should be a system to load and write back to the ROM.

TheMage

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Re: Looking into the possibility of a menu editor.
« Reply #4 on: December 27, 2024, 10:17:28 pm »
OOooooo!! I am excited!

Zakyrus

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Re: Looking into the possibility of a menu editor.
« Reply #5 on: January 06, 2025, 12:15:53 pm »
This is a God's Wet Dream, we are SO stylin', now!

I don't care even if this is 'crappy/buggy' ...(gotta start somewhere ;) )can we get a test version? :D

Also, T.Geiger's saying: "Functionality comes before glossy appearance..." Yup. However, this means we could eventually have: T E X T C O L O R F A D E R


*With animated rainbow transitions...

FAWKING, YUS, YES!!

~Z
« Last Edit: January 06, 2025, 12:26:46 pm by Zakyrus »

Mauron

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Re: Looking into the possibility of a menu editor.
« Reply #6 on: January 07, 2025, 04:51:03 am »
I'll see what I can get. Currently working on getting multi-ROM support going. I'd like at least basic save/load done before sending something out.

Zakyrus

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Re: Looking into the possibility of a menu editor.
« Reply #7 on: January 07, 2025, 03:42:13 pm »
Kewl as FAWK!

https://youtu.be/UnjiKuoRe7A

Also, Using THESE ICONS...IT WOULD SO be BADASS to COLOR THIS STUFF IN!

~Z

Mauron

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Re: Looking into the possibility of a menu editor.
« Reply #8 on: January 17, 2025, 05:52:20 pm »
So, basic viewing is working. Let me know how it looks.

It doesn't write back to the ROM yet - this is probably one of the highest complexity plugins, and save functionality will take a while. Strings are also read only, and I'm not sure if Japanese and Pre-release ROMs are displaying them correctly yet.

Zakyrus

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Re: Looking into the possibility of a menu editor.
« Reply #9 on: January 24, 2025, 11:52:31 am »
So, basic viewing is working. Let me know how it looks.

It doesn't write back to the ROM yet - this is probably one of the highest complexity plugins, and save functionality will take a while. Strings are also read only, and I'm not sure if Japanese and Pre-release ROMs are displaying them correctly yet.

Very impressive, almost working FULLY, I can tell that the code is SLEEK and fast.

Almost there!


Ok, for some questions, (I guess, ugh!!--haha!!) ...
IF say I wanted to add the word "GOLD" instead of 'G', if we could get a simple tutorial of how to use this to do that, how would we implement it? Otherwise, I'll look into also, because this is MOTHER-FAWKING-COOL!

~Z

Mauron

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Re: Looking into the possibility of a menu editor.
« Reply #10 on: January 24, 2025, 03:30:11 pm »
So right now it's read-only - I want to get an idea of how useful it is before continuing. There's a LOT of behind the scenes work going into this.

When saving works, you'll be able to find the right strings and edit them.

- Start with the menu box selection labeled "Equip Main Boxes"
- Note the third item in there, "Draw String 0002: TIME..." (there's more).
- You can access the Strings Editor, and looking at entry 02 shows this:
Quote
TIME{line break}
{line break}
  {display 3-byte value, 0 digits, Mem.7E9D96}G
- If you type in there, it will change the text. You can set it to read GOLD instead.

Now lets check other menus. Shops have "Shop menu draw boxes". The third item in this one is "Draw String 003C..." which is this.
Quote
{jump to Mem.FFC94B}{advance 0246}{display 3-byte value, 0 digits, Mem.Gold}G{advance 0344}{note} Owned{advance 0404}{note} Equipped
First off we've got that {jump to Mem.FFC94B}, which is one of the reasons this plugin is a pain. It's more text being parsed somehow.

Then we've got another "G" text, to change to Gold.

Finally there's "Save Draw slot details". That one, the second item is "Draw String 16", which gives us this:
Quote
{set palette 00}TIME{line break}
{line break}
  {display 3-byte value, 0 digits, Mem.7E98C4}G{line break}
{line break}
{special flag 00}Save {note} {display 2-byte value, 0 digits, Mem.7E98C0}

Zakyrus

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Re: Looking into the possibility of a menu editor.
« Reply #11 on: January 25, 2025, 05:34:59 pm »
So right now it's read-only - I want to get an idea of how useful it is before continuing. There's a LOT of behind the scenes work going into this.

When saving works, you'll be able to find the right strings and edit them.

- Start with the menu box selection labeled "Equip Main Boxes"
- Note the third item in there, "Draw String 0002: TIME..." (there's more).
- You can access the Strings Editor, and looking at entry 02 shows this:
Quote
TIME{line break}
{line break}
  {display 3-byte value, 0 digits, Mem.7E9D96}G
- If you type in there, it will change the text. You can set it to read GOLD instead.

Now lets check other menus. Shops have "Shop menu draw boxes". The third item in this one is "Draw String 003C..." which is this.
Quote
{jump to Mem.FFC94B}{advance 0246}{display 3-byte value, 0 digits, Mem.Gold}G{advance 0344}{note} Owned{advance 0404}{note} Equipped
First off we've got that {jump to Mem.FFC94B}, which is one of the reasons this plugin is a pain. It's more text being parsed somehow.

Then we've got another "G" text, to change to Gold.

Finally there's "Save Draw slot details". That one, the second item is "Draw String 16", which gives us this:
Quote
{set palette 00}TIME{line break}
{line break}
  {display 3-byte value, 0 digits, Mem.7E98C4}G{line break}
{line break}
{special flag 00}Save {note} {display 2-byte value, 0 digits, Mem.7E98C0}

Read Only? ;D
Meaning we're super-close!

Ok, instead of 'GOLD' let's say I want to use the traditional 'G' but with a "Gb Gg Gy Gg" (being Golden-Bronze, Golden-Green, Golden-Yellow, then Golden-Grey) in a 1/4 sec format.(In other words, flashes each color of this in .25 sec)

^ I know this sounds stupid--but cool--however, is ESSENTIAL of "things users *might want to be able to implement*.

LATER ON: Imagine the 'Temporal Portal Graphics, being "warped/rainbow_faded" *WITH* the COLORS of the RAINBOW shell/SWORD "STACKED_ON_THE_TEXT"    <---- YES!


~Z
« Last Edit: January 25, 2025, 05:37:41 pm by Zakyrus »

Mauron

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Re: Looking into the possibility of a menu editor.
« Reply #12 on: January 25, 2025, 06:15:34 pm »
Adding write-functionality is not a trivial task, which is why I'm trying to gather as much feedback as possible.

Colors changing are doable, but how much is another story.

Let's take a look at an existing changing to see an example.

Code: [Select]
{set palette Mem.7E0D4D}{display 1-byte value, 0 digits, Mem.7E9B23}{advance 0194}{set palette Mem.7E0D4E}{display 1-byte value, 0 digits, Mem.7E9B24}{advance 0114}{set palette Mem.7E0D57}{display 2-byte value, 0 digits, Mem.7E9B25}{special flag 00}{advance 04A6}{set palette Mem.7E0D4F}{display value, cap offset 00, Mem.7E9B1C}{line break}
{set palette Mem.7E0D54}{display value, cap offset 03, Mem.7E9B20}{line break}
{set palette Mem.7E0D52}{display value, cap offset 05, Mem.7E9B1F}{advance 04B6}{set palette Mem.7E0D50}{display value, cap offset 01, Mem.7E9B1E}{line break}
{set palette Mem.7E0D51}{display value, cap offset 04, Mem.7E9B21}{line break}
{set palette Mem.7E0D53}{display value, cap offset 02, Mem.7E9B1D}{line break}
{set palette Mem.7E0D55}{display value, cap offset 06, Mem.7E9B22}
This shows modified stats when adding new equipment. It can set the palette from a RAM address, then show the new stat, resulting in the game's grey/white/blue stats on equip change.

This plugin doesn't include the capacity to change the setting of RAM addresses, just reading them into text.

Zakyrus

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Re: Looking into the possibility of a menu editor.
« Reply #13 on: January 26, 2025, 06:14:20 pm »
COOL! Next question: The Colored text ICON (like <sword>) but done for each individual item has a pallet for that FIRST_CHARACTER? How much has to be done to accomplish this?

~Z

Mauron

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Re: Looking into the possibility of a menu editor.
« Reply #14 on: January 27, 2025, 02:43:07 pm »
Way out of scope for the plugin. Please focus on what's currently in it for now, and how useful you find the current functionality.