Miscellaneous Forums > Scripting and Reverse Engineering

FF7 - Part 1: Is it even possible?

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Srethron Askvelhtnod:
Ok, The Skillster asked me, so I guess I'll start the post. I won't be surprised if this is one of those that doesn't get any replies though. It really seems like a lot of work.This is about remaking FF7 in case you didn't know. This is a good time for those who aren't interested to quit reading. Also, keep in mind that this goes against the copyright and end-user agreement, so we'd be risking the wrath of Square.The first order of business is to figure out what we want. What do we want to do? Do you we just want to change some of the dialogue and maybe a location or two? Maybe modify some limits? Enhance the graphics?If that's all we're doing, it probably wouldn't be near as hard, but is it worth doing? I'm going to treat this discussion as if we've decided to go for a lot more. Does this seem feasible? I'm very skeptical, but it would be fun if we could.Let's say we're going to:
-Improve or change some or all graphics, dialogue, sounds, and music
-Add completely new parts to the story
-edit the .AVIs
-Edit existing locations and add new ones
-Other (Heck, be my guest here. I really don't want to go overboard, but with some of the stuff I've mentioned, I think I already have. Multiplayer *would* be an interesting feature...)Ok, we know what we want to do (a lot). How the heck are we going to do it? I see three options right off the bat on how to proceed.1. Use the existing game engine(s) and modify it where necessary to suit our purposes.
2. Create our own engine(s).
3. Use existing engine(s).|_If we choose #1, we need to be able to edit and/or create:
-Character/NPC models, .a files, etc.
-All aspects of the level files (images, scripts, locations, text)
-Sounds and music
-.TEX files
-All aspects of the battle files (models, enemies, limits, spells, items, etc.)
-The World Map
-The menu systemOut of this currently we can do:
-Text
-Music (and probably sounds with a little more work)
We're getting there with the 3d models and a few other things, but we can't really do much at the moment.|_ If we choose #2, we'll have to do a *ton* of programming as we're practically making a game (think about as long as Legacy). We'd need a 3D engine or five for the Field, World Map, Battles, and Minigames. We'd also have to recreate the menu system, among numerous other things. Then, we'd have to copy and/or import 3D models, sounds, create our own scripts, AI and program routines, etc., etc.|_ If we choose #3, we'd be doing many of the same things if we were doing #2. First we'd have to find an existing engine that suited our purposes, maybe even several of them. Then, we'd have to figure out how to implement FF7's Field, Battle, World Map, and Menu Systems. Next order of business would be copying/importing the character and Battle models. Then, remaking each scene of the game. After that, Minigames and so on.In conclusion, none of these options sounds very fun -or feasible. At least not at the moment. What do you think? I'm not trying to be discouraging, but this does seem rather unlikely. Thoughts? Opinions?[This message has been edited by Srethron Askvelhtnod (edited February 02, 2001).]

The Skillster:
hmm, till we can edit/extract/import/export all the info in ff7 i recommend 'testing' a remake by editing the text and dialogs...

dagsverre:
Well, I can tell you remaking the thing is not as much work as Legacy. The graphics rendering will be much easier because of the pre-rendered backgrounds.Wait...scrap that. The battles still needs to be totally 3D. Not too advanced...howevever the special effects are pretty stunning. You could of course replace the battles with old SNES style battles to make things simple ;-)Worse is the entire script engine. You would probably need to use the story format made by Squaresoft, which should hopefully take care of most things (just cross your fingers and hope that the game doesn't do too many dirty tricks but keep things nice and tidy seperated between the game scripts and the executable code).What I would go for in your case is probably creating a DirectX inbetween layer as I've told you before...that way you would be able to heighten the resolution of the battles. Then supply higher resolution textures, and perhaps hack all the backgrounds to 1024x768. This can be done by emulating the filesystem so that when FF7 requests a file, we give a bogus file with textures the right size, but which only really contains a handle at the beginning and the rest is zeroes. Then, we also intercept the outgoing calls, and recognizing the singature we load our texture/background instead. This way, there are no restrictions set by the Squaresoft formats, just create one set of files which translates everything into a directory structure where the backgrounds are nicely stored as BMP or JPG. In essence, create a virtual (though very fast) machine which FF7 runs to, and whenever FF7 does something you understand what it tries to do and do it better.Just a suggestion. Why do you want to do this anyway? FF7 is a finished product, and while it's fun to hack it a little, I would think that when you are going to put all this effort into a game you're better off finding some artists and story writers and create a new (but perhaps similar) game from scratch. Wait until Legacy is released and you'll have a state-of-the-art extremely customizable engine capable of doing anything in RPG... it's a principle we have, it shouldn't be necesarry to hack *anything*, everything sits in nicely documented data files. In theory, a new game should be able to be created without even recompiling anything.You're always welcome to join, too.

halkun:
You guys could whip me now for being negitive. But would a mac or linux port be better and easier to do. Or better yet, amke ff1 or ff6 with the engine.

Sir Canealot:
IF some body would edit the midis to make em sound more like psx then I will be happy. And if any one wnat to re render the backgrouds to 1024/768 and all the textures to 1024/768 and the AVIs to 640/480/1024/768 be my guest.

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