CT Foreign Tileset Insertion: Development of a Guide

[Edward]

Shouldn't be too hard to count the sub-tiles. Next step is to get as many tiles as possible without overwriting the next packet. I think we will have to put the tiles in directly as they appear from SD3 and then arrange them in TF as they appear in the savestate. It seems it would be easier to do it that way than to try to match ground tile for ground tile, cliff edge for cliff edge.

Here is a picture of how the tiles are arranged in the SD3 savestate from VSNES, so we insert the tiles as shown and arrange them pretty much like this in TF. That's my plan at least, the hardest part may be arranging them in TF as shown. Not hard perhaps... just tedious. Worth the effort if it all works out though. Once this project is done, we can possibly create an archive of patches that replace tilesets or something, or donate tilesets to hacks in progress, like CE.

[attachment deleted by admin]

[FaustWolf]

Here's a brief rundown of what you'll need to do in Flux, Edward.

Each tile in Flux is composed of four subtiles - Northeast, NW, SE, SW - which are labeled according to an index that runs from 100 to 3FF I think. You may want to insert the subtiles into your test ROM such that they are arranged as close to what's attached to your post as possible, because you need to find out which subtile corresponds to index 100, 101, etc. once you've got it in Flux. The only example I have on hand to illustrate is this screencap from the Prophet's Guile ending art insertion process:



Let's say you want a tile that shows the top-left corner of this image. You need to create a custom tile in Flux that consists of subtiles 100; 101; 110; and 111. So you have to build your tile set from scratch, which is extremely tedious. On the other hand, you could get lucky and the tile assembly info that exists by default for Truce Canyon will be such that things fall right into place for you.

[justin3009]

Not really anything to do with Chrono Trigger or Foreign Chipsets but...

- Editing savestates do come in really handy now and then to actually test stuff.  Tis an example.

I find it odd how it won't let me load Chrono Trigger's savestates though.

[FaustWolf]

Heheh, I'm not even familiar enough with Breath of Fire to know what all's been changed there. Obviously the stats are way more than maxed, but is that "Yua" character supposed to be in there?

[FaustWolf]

Better late than never. Check the first post. Happy Nu Year to all at Kajar Labs!

[justin3009]

Very nice!  Will DEFINITELY be needing this for what we have in mind on our couple projects going on =p

[FaustWolf]

I worry that there's likely some points in the guide at which things just become confusing, so we'll use this thread to clarify certain concepts as necessary.

I'd really like to get my paws on info regarding animated tiles. BROJ supposed that palette shifts may be used to simulate animation in many cases.

[justin3009]

So it seems.  If you try altering a tiles palette that animates, it won't animate at all once you do.  It's rather odd.

[FaustWolf]

Note to self when updating this guide: overworld tilesets work just the same as background tilesets, only the subtile swatch range goes from 0 ~ 3FF as opposed to 100 ~ 3FF. Also, overworld palettes have eight full shifts apiece, are compressed, and the palette shifts are stored in the scheme dec 0 ~ 15, color #0 being transparent. The other 15 palette positions are fully functional.

[TheMage]

BUMP

I'm curious what the original attachment was in the first post to this thread and if anyone still has it.

Was it what I've attached?  The CLGRH Vol I backround insertion?

I'm exploring inserting tiles into the CT rom and having a hell of a time figuring out why my last subtitle turns to garbage. I'm thinking i'm putting too much data in the subtile(s) before it.

Random bit of info i've discovered: 1999, 1000, and 600 A.D. all share the same subtile for Guardia castle, so if you were to change the castle in one era, it changes it in all eras. However the forest tile (at least for 1999) is separate from 600 and 1000. (1000 might share the same subtile as 600, I haven't checked)

anywho if anyones still around i'm rather curious about that guide.


Also if someone were to...er... want to rewrite over another subtile to have their own separate version of 1999 Guardia Castle for...educational purposes, does anyone know how one would get that subtile to 1999 A.D? Like say if I were to put what I wanted for guardia 1999 over a blackbird dungeon subtile how would I send that to 1999? I'm sure i'd have to reassign a packet number? Or a pointer?

[TheMage]

Figured it out. <3

random info:

1. You can't replace an overworld graphics pack with a Locations graphics pack.

2. 1999 A.D.'s 'mountain' graphics Pack (packet 7, under subtile L1/2 Tileset 2) although identical to the other era's mountains (packet 2) is its own unique packet. So this means you can delete the mountains and replace it with whatever sprites/buildings you want to insert.

You can replace packet 6 (tileset 6) (Guardia castle) with packet 7 (our mountains we've replaced) while changing tileset 2 (packet 7) to packet 2 (other era's mountains) and vola you still have your trusty mountains in 1999 and you get rid of guardia castle and plug in whatever tiles/sprites you may need-

Making 1999 A.D. have two 'empty/usable' packets: A (completely empty- though repointing is needed) & 7 (replace the mountains) for overworld tile insertion.

[TheMage]

Alright so I have a question about Repointing. Mauron has been a big help with this stuff. and these are the instructions given:

Repointing is a lot like filling out the post office form that says you've moved (comes to mind since I'm moving soon), but more technical.

You need a hex editor, and the file address of the new packet. If the file address is 0x000000-0x3FFFFF, you'll need to add 0xC00000 to it to make it an SNES address. If the file address is 0x400000 or higher, it's fine as is.

So say the file address is 0x010023. You add 0xC00000, resulting in 0xC10023.

You need to reverse the byte order, so Chrono Trigger will read it properly. A byte consists of two hex digits, so 0xC10023 would be stored in a hex editor as 23 00 C1.

Once you've done that, you can insert the value at 0x06FE3E, save the ROM, and it should work right in Temporal Flux.

For the question I originally asked Mauron these instructions were for packet A in 1999 A.D (completely empty but the graphics I tried inserting were much to large I think because of compression? So repointing was necessary).

I think it also would have been possible to switch Packet A with one of the empty packets in the ROM that already exist. My question is, is there a list of the empty packets with in the Rom and do they need to be re-pointed too?

Also in my previous post I had discovered that I couldn't replace location graphics packs for overworld graphics packs In TF. (Because I wanted to cheat and just replace something I wasn't going to use rather than repoint) out of curiosity is this doable in a hex editor and TF and im just missing something?

Hope my questions are clear I don't understand most of this stuff 

[Mauron]

CT's compression is based on repeating patterns that have been found in the ROM. Packet A is a solid color, all 0s, so it compresses nicely. I'm not sure which, if any, of the other graphics packets are empty, but you'll easily exceed their size on anything with content.

Moving the packet at all requires repointing. I think there are a few unused packets - default pointer is all 0s - in the game. Those can be used by Temporal Flux for mix and match packets.

[TheMage]

Very late Thank you!!!