Author Topic: Ending Pic mini-project  (Read 5537 times)

FaustWolf

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Re: Ending Pic mini-project
« Reply #45 on: January 04, 2008, 02:19:41 am »
Some graphical quirks need to be taken care of first, but we should have an ending pic patch tomorrow. BTW, I accidently wrote over location palette set 0 instead of palette set 8 in my test ROM; anyone happen to know offhand if set 0 is being used anywhere in Prophet's Guile? If so, that's perfectly fine -- I can do a data transfer to the correct offsets.

Vehek

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Re: Ending Pic mini-project
« Reply #46 on: January 04, 2008, 02:31:14 am »
That palette was originally the palette I overwrote for the Zeal Palace guest room palette. But luckily for you, I replaced the telepod's palette when asked to revise the palette. So it's not used.

FaustWolf

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Re: Ending Pic mini-project
« Reply #47 on: January 04, 2008, 03:50:59 pm »
Scheiße! Guys, I'm beginning to suspect that the first color in each location palette is an alpha channel / transparency. Is that correct according to your experiences? Do we actually have 14, and not 15, colors to work with in each palette?

Daaaamn, that's gonna put me back a bit if I'm right. I'll have to re-insert the artwork after adjusting the palettes, though I can keep the tile assembly. Can somebody confirm or deny my suspicion regarding the alpha channel?

UPDATE: Yeppers, testing confirms that the first of the 15 colors in every location palette is an alpha / transparency. This means we'll have to sacrifice a bit more quality, but it can be done. I hope to have an ending pic patch tomorrow. Really. I promise. Maybe.
« Last Edit: January 04, 2008, 05:03:40 pm by FaustWolf »

FaustWolf

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Re: Ending Pic mini-project
« Reply #48 on: January 05, 2008, 01:45:47 am »
More good news. It appears that the location palettes have not one, but at least two freaking transparencies!! And the transparencies occur seemingly randomly -- I'm sure I've got my palettes aligned correctly in the ROM, yet in one set the extra transparency is in the 13th color's "slot", and in another set it's in the 14th color's "slot."

Is it even possible for an SNES palette to have two alpha channels, let alone at varying positions between palettes? If so, does this mean there is a switch that determines whether a color is a transparency? Or am I just in a really weird Twilight Zone situation here?

I'll try creative use of layers to solve the problem -- luckily I made the whole ending pic on Layer 1, so I can strategically place Layer 2 tiles to "fill in" the gaps left by the alpha channels.

UPDATE: We're getting there. Obviously some more quirks to work out yet, but here's where we're at with the ending pic currently:

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« Last Edit: January 05, 2008, 03:02:16 am by FaustWolf »

FaustWolf

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Re: Ending Pic mini-project
« Reply #49 on: January 05, 2008, 01:15:16 pm »
Okay, final version. If everyone approves, it's in.

Chrono'99 or Zeality, what are the requirements for the ending pic patch? Shall I keep the .flux file that erases all courtroom events but not the .flux file that skips to the courtroom when the game begins?

Also, I had to scroll the screen to get the pic centered decently. Should I change the scroll locks before making the patch to save you some work Chrono'99, or would you rather handle that aspect?

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justin3009

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Re: Ending Pic mini-project
« Reply #50 on: January 05, 2008, 01:17:07 pm »
Wow.  That looks good.  The only issue I see is just some excess brown pixels or lighter yellow pixels right next to Magus's arm.  Otherwise that looks uttertly amazing.

FaustWolf

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Re: Ending Pic mini-project
« Reply #51 on: January 05, 2008, 01:19:44 pm »
Ooh, that's right, there's some dark pixels near Magus' left arm that I want to get rid of. Shouldn't be too much of a problem. The lighter yellow you're talking about Justin -- are they near his right arm? Those ones will be harder to blend in with the rest of the sky, but I'll see what I can do.

justin3009

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Re: Ending Pic mini-project
« Reply #52 on: January 05, 2008, 01:26:32 pm »
Wouldn't it be better to savestate their, export the graphics, load them up and then load the palette up in there?  I think that'd be much easier but...Not sure if that helps

FaustWolf

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Re: Ending Pic mini-project
« Reply #53 on: January 05, 2008, 01:29:46 pm »
It might be more efficient, but I prefer changing the inserted art via TileMolester and re-compressing back into the ROM. That's what I'm used to by now, anyway.

EDIT: How does this look?

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« Last Edit: January 05, 2008, 01:48:36 pm by FaustWolf »

justin3009

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Re: Ending Pic mini-project
« Reply #54 on: January 05, 2008, 02:28:05 pm »
Better.  Also these

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ZeaLitY

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Re: Ending Pic mini-project
« Reply #55 on: January 05, 2008, 03:40:39 pm »
Wow, I'm not totally sure how to best export this. But I guess I'd better get ready for release time...

FaustWolf

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Re: Ending Pic mini-project
« Reply #56 on: January 05, 2008, 03:56:18 pm »
Hehehe, actually Justin, that's another sky island off in the distance -- it appears much the same way in the original artwork. If we really want to, I could do away with it by taking advantage of the palette's multiple transparencies, but I'd recommend keeping it in I guess.

You can check the original here:
http://www.chronocompendium.com/Forums/index.php/topic,4887.msg85733.html#msg85733

I could disperse some more dark pixels in that area to make it clearer that that's supposed to be another sky island off in the distance.

Oh, and I'll need to know what Chrono'99 wants for the ending pic patch; should I make the patch such that it includes the artwork insertion and the removal of all events from the court room scene, plus scroll lock adjustments to get it centered on screen?
« Last Edit: January 05, 2008, 04:04:34 pm by FaustWolf »

FaustWolf

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Re: Ending Pic mini-project
« Reply #57 on: January 05, 2008, 04:18:25 pm »
Here's my suggested revision for the area Justin pointed out. Shall I commence with inserting it?

[attachment deleted by admin]

ZeaLitY

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Re: Ending Pic mini-project
« Reply #58 on: January 05, 2008, 05:54:56 pm »
Hm...well, if no other changes but things related to the art insertion have been made to your ROM, I guess you could just make a patch with an unmodified, unheadered ROM that could be plugged right into Prophet's Guile. That's why we picked a specific palette to replace, I'm guessing.

FaustWolf

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Re: Ending Pic mini-project
« Reply #59 on: January 05, 2008, 06:09:33 pm »
Okay, here we go. First, the final version of the ending pic as it appears in-game.

Secondly, the patch. This is already in the readme, but here's what I did:

Original Comparison ROM: An unheadered "Chrono.smc" with the loadscreen.flux file imported (so as to transport the gamer to the court room directly for testing purposes)

Modified ROM: An unheadered "Chrono Art Construct.smc" with both courtroom.flux and loadscreen.flux imported, and artwork inserted and assembled. Scrolling locks modified to make the artwork centered on screen by default.

The goal was to create a patch that retains the courtroom.flux and art insertion changes while negating the loadscreen.flux change.

By negating the "loadscreen.flux", I can't test the ending pic patch on an unmodified ROM without a savestate at some point right before the trial, so this patch is presented blindly. Let me know if any problems are encountered with it, and I'll see what I can do. The fact that I renamed my test ROM from Chrono.smc to "Chrono Art Construct.smc" doesn't make a difference, I hope?

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