Messages

76

Support / Replacing the title screen with a completely new image.

« on: 2016-07-04 03:39:25 »

This is a follow up to the following threads:

http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=16824.0

http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=16930.0

http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=17015.0

I replaced the graphic in "OPENING_17.data" with a completely new graphic. But it only shows up for a short shot, then a completely black blank space stays there instead.

Trying to change this title screen is turning out to be a huge convoluted mess.

I suspect a CLUT problem, but I have yet to solve it.

What could I be doing wrong?

If I send someone a test file of what I am trying to replace it with, would they be so kind as to find out what is wrong and teach me the right way to do it?

77

Troubleshooting / Re: Replace 256 ".TIM" CLUT with a 256 color palette from a ".bmp" or ".PNG" file?

« on: 2016-06-27 00:23:23 »

Here's what I mean.

This is the custom generated ".TIM" that TimViewer converted from a ".BMP":



And here is the "final texture" that was ripped from the game and changed via hex editor per the "step 8" instructions:



What is going on?

78

Troubleshooting / Re: Replace 256 ".TIM" CLUT with a 256 color palette from a ".bmp" or ".PNG" file?

« on: 2016-06-27 00:12:43 »

So look at uint16 at 0x12- It's number of CLUT palettes. If your texture is only one CLUT, then just after the count a 512 bytes of CLUT data is. Therefore:
8. Copy paste from the same location the converted TIM from your BMP over the TIM you want to edit palette.
(copy 512 bytes starting from 0x20+(CLUT*512) to the same location in your final TIM texture OR if the initial texture has only one palette, then always copy from 0x20 from custom image to 0x20+(CLUT*512) in your final texture)

When I get to this step, I compare both ".TIM" files in Tim2View and see that the CLUTs do not match.

79

Troubleshooting / Re: Replace 256 ".TIM" CLUT with a 256 color palette from a ".bmp" or ".PNG" file?

« on: 2016-06-27 00:06:10 »

Also, I'm trying the steps right now and keep getting the same discolored results.

80

Troubleshooting / Re: Replace 256 ".TIM" CLUT with a 256 color palette from a ".bmp" or ".PNG" file?

« on: 2016-06-26 23:22:14 »

Thanks, but what exactly do I input here?

81

Troubleshooting / Replace 256 ".TIM" CLUT with a 256 color palette from a ".bmp" or ".PNG" file?

« on: 2016-06-18 03:35:55 »

How do I replace a 256 color CLUT in a PSX ".TIM" file with a 256 color palette from a ".BMP" or ".PNG" file?

I know Tim2View can edit the CLUT, but it seems that requires changing each and every one of the 256 entries one by one (and possible arthritis). Is there a faster way?

82

Support / Opening logo layout analysis?

« on: 2016-06-12 02:20:10 »

I ripped this with Tim2View from the PSX version from the file "OPENING_21.data" contained within "MOVIE/OPENING.BIN".

As you can see, the image is chopped up and rearranged differently when compared to the way it is seen in game.

Has anyone done an analysis on how this is arranged exactly, down to the very pixel?

I might do this analysis some day by doing the following:

1.)   Draw “border lines” on the separate the chopped up pieces into marked sections.
2.)   Reinsert this into the ISO.
3.)   Make a 320 x 240 screenshot of this running, to see where the sections really do wind up.

But I was wondering if someone has already analyzed this in the past, which would save me the trouble.

83

Troubleshooting / Re: FF7Tools lzss unclear syntax. (Posting in the right place this time.)

« on: 2016-05-30 08:53:51 »

Right now it is just for my own re-education, as I was learning how to perform PSX graphics hacking years ago, but stopped due to IRL.

I really don't know what this could snowball into.

84

Troubleshooting / Re: FF7Tools lzss unclear syntax. (Posting in the right place this time.)

« on: 2016-05-14 22:19:54 »

*Play in separate tab or window for dramatic effect.*

It worked!

It turns out my error was quite the brain fart! In Tim2View, I forgot to go do "File --> Close all Files", which caused this whole confusion!

85

Troubleshooting / Re: FF7Tools lzss unclear syntax. (Posting in the right place this time.)

« on: 2016-05-10 02:44:56 »

Yeah, this is weird.

So I tried decompressing it with unlzss like you said. It decompressed it, but when I view it in tim2view, my changes are nowhere to be seen.

I'll send you the .TIM and .PNG now.

Thanks.

86

Troubleshooting / Re: FF7Tools lzss unclear syntax. (Posting in the right place this time.)

« on: 2016-05-09 02:30:27 »

So I used unbinlz on my new OPENING.BIN. Then I renamed the (supposedly) compressed OPENING_17.data to unbinlzmeOPENING_17.data and used unbinlz on that.

Unfortunately, this is the result:

python unbinlz unbinlzmeOPENING_17.data
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "unbinlz", line 68, in <module>
    archive = ff7.binlz.Archive(inputFile)
  File "C:\[my personal directory names]\ff7tools-1.3\f
f7tools-1.3\ff7\binlz.py", line 47, in __init__
    assert firstOffset % 4 == 0
AssertionError

I also noticed that OPENING_7472_0.data has suddenly gone missing after decompressing OPENING.BIN.

I would send you the modified file to reinsert it, but what I really want to do is learn how this is done. Can you PM me your e-mail address? I can send you the .png and .TIM files.

Thanks.

87

Troubleshooting / Re: FF7Tools lzss unclear syntax. (Posting in the right place this time.)

« on: 2016-05-08 10:15:21 »

I also use CDMage, with the "M2/2352 track" setting. I replaced OPENING.BIN in the MOVIE directory.

What is odd is that it doesn't show any changes at all.

I tried extracting the files from my new OPENING.BIN, and used Tim2View on OPENING_17.data, and it loads nothing.

The modified OPENING_17.data file from before compressing and recombining has my changed title screen when I view it in Tim2View. But after compressing, rejoining, and decompressing, OPENING_17.data doesn't show anything in Tim2View.

88

Troubleshooting / Re: FF7Tools lzss unclear syntax. (Posting in the right place this time.)

« on: 2016-05-08 00:47:28 »

I padded my newly compressed OPENING_17.data to 43585 bytes with a hex editor.

With a hex editor, I manually replaced the 43585 byte block at 0x11B54 in OPENING.BIN with all the data from my modified OPENING_17.data.

The game loads, but my edits are nowhere to be seen.

Kranmer, how exactly did you pull this off? I've spent my entire Saturday afternoon trying to figure this thing out with no results.

89

Troubleshooting / Re: FF7Tools lzss unclear syntax. (Posting in the right place this time.)

« on: 2016-05-08 00:07:30 »

Oh man, now it gets even weirder.

Based on the TOC info that has been posted in this thread, I tried to calculate the size of the compressed OPENING_17.data and get inconsistent results.

OPENING_17.data starts @ 0x11B54 = 72532

OPENING_18.data starts @ 0x1C59C = 116124

116124 - 72532 = 43592 bytes

But unbinlz says the file is 43585 bytes.

My head hurts.

90

Troubleshooting / Re: FF7Tools lzss unclear syntax. (Posting in the right place this time.)

« on: 2016-05-07 23:20:37 »

Okay, now things are making even less sense.

So according to unbinlz:

>python unbinlz -l OPENING.BIN
0: 7373 bytes compressed
1: 8756 bytes compressed
2: 9662 bytes compressed
3: 8877 bytes compressed
4: 7939 bytes compressed
5: 8651 bytes compressed
6: 7176 bytes compressed
7: 6856 bytes compressed
8: 228 bytes
9: 228 bytes
10: 228 bytes
11: 228 bytes
12: 228 bytes
13: 228 bytes
14: 200 bytes
15: 228 bytes
16: 5312 bytes
17: 43585 bytes compressed
18: 13943 bytes compressed
19: 32 bytes
20: 32 bytes
21: 19083 bytes compressed
22: 148 bytes

But after using lzss to compress the appropriate files, the output is LARGER.

OPENING_00.data is now 7,375 bytes.

OPENING_01.data is now 8,761 bytes

OPENING_02.data is now 9,666 bytes.

What makes this even more confusing is that the new OPENING.BIN is smaller, even though the compressed files are BIGGER.

91

Troubleshooting / Re: FF7Tools lzss unclear syntax. (Posting in the right place this time.)

« on: 2016-05-07 22:57:16 »

So I've run into a problem.

The file I edited is "OPENING_17.data".

Uncompressed, both the original and modified files have matching size (61 KB).

I tried the method above. The original OPENING.BIN is 145 KB. The new one I made with FFSJ is 146 KB. Now the game won't load.

I don't know where that extra KB is coming from. What could be going wrong?

UPDATE:

Actually, both OPENING.BIN files are ~146 KB.

The original is 149,372 bytes.

The new one I generated is 149,165 bytes.

This makes no sense, because both the original and modified OPENING_17.data are 61,984 bytes.

How is it smaller all of a sudden?

92

Troubleshooting / Re: FF7Tools lzss unclear syntax. (Posting in the right place this time.)

« on: 2016-05-06 05:15:44 »

Interesting!

So if I understood this correctly, you:

1.) Extracted the contents of "OPENING.BIN".
2.) Used lzss only on 0-7, 17, 18, and 21 since they are all lzs compressed (according to unbinlz).
3.) Copied and pasted all the files one after the other in a hex editor.
4.) ? ? ?
5.) Profit!

Is that how you did it? I want to verify this method this weekend.

Also, are there "file mergers" (as I mentioned earlier) to make this more convenient?

Thanks.

93

Troubleshooting / Re: FF7Tools lzss unclear syntax. (Posting in the right place this time.)

« on: 2016-05-02 02:41:19 »

Interesting.

So if I get this correctly, if I use lzss on each file, but then merge each file together via a hex editor or some utility it could work?

I am familiar with file splitters, but file mergers?

94

Troubleshooting / FF7Tools lzss unclear syntax. (Posting in the right place this time.)

« on: 2016-04-30 22:36:18 »

I inadvertently posted this in the wrong forum. It would be a good idea if that thread was merged with this one.

As mentioned in that thread, the command line syntax for this program is unclear. I've tried using asterisks and plus signs, and get no desirable results.

I even tried doing "lzss [folder name]" and got this:

python lzss modifiedopeningcontents OPENING.BIN
Error opening file 'modifiedopeningcontents': Permission denied

Before someone tells me to "RTFM", I already did and it's still unclear. I scoured Google, and the only results I get are the message board posts I made on the subject! I even e-mailed cebix and and never heard back.

How do you use this program? It can't be an unsolved mystery.

95

Troubleshooting / Re: FF7Tools lzss unclear syntax.

« on: 2016-04-27 02:32:36 »

try:

Code: [Select]

python lzss OPENING*.data OPENING.BIN

Didn't work either. This is what happens:

>python lzss OPENING_*.data OPENING.BIN
Error opening file 'OPENING_*.data': invalid mode ('rb') or filename

I also just realized that I should of posted this in the Troubleshooting forum. Will the mods move this thread?

seams very strightfoward to me..

1. when you see <INFILE> <OUT> that a place holder you replace with what your doing.. so NO < or >
2. why did you use a + thats not going to work  with any cli program.
3. the error clearly states that the second file is unexpected input  . if your gonna use cli programs learn to read the errors.

Have you ever heard of this trick?

cd [dir]
copy /b my_pic.jpg + my_song.mp3 mynewpic.jpg

I'm not gonna explain to you what it does. The point is, it involves a plus sign.

96

Troubleshooting / FF7Tools lzss unclear syntax.

« on: 2016-04-24 23:33:21 »

I extracted "MOVIE/OPENING.BIN" from an FF7 PSX disc. I used "unbinlz" to decompress it, and managed to edit one of the ".data" files that came out to my liking.

But how exactly do I compress all those data files back into "OPENING.BIN"?

The README says this:

lzss / unlzss
-------------

Usage: lzss [OPTION...] <fromfile> <tofile>
  -V, --version                   Display version information and exit
  -?, --help                      Show this help message

Usage: unlzss [OPTION...] <fromfile> <tofile>
  -V, --version                   Display version information and exit
  -?, --help                      Show this help message

The 'lzss' and 'unlzss' tools compress and decompress individual files
compressed with the game's version of the LZSS algorithm.

Examples for such files are the field maps (FIELD/*.DAT) and all files
having the .LZS extension.

The command line seems to specify a single file, and not a bunch of files (or a whole directory). How do I compress all the ".data" files back into "OPENING.BIN"?

I tried doing this, but got this:

>python lzss OPENING_00.data + OPENING_01.data + OPENING_02.data + OPENING_03
.data + OPENING_04.data + OPENING_05.data + OPENING_06.data + OPENING_07.data +
OPENING_08.data + OPENING_09.data + OPENING_10.data + OPENING_11.data + OPENING_
12.data + OPENING_13.data + OPENING_14.data + OPENING_15.data + OPENING_16.data
+ OPENING_17.data + OPENING_18.data + OPENING_19.data + OPENING_20.data + OPENIN
G_21.data + OPENING_22.data + OPENING_7472_0.data OPENING.BIN
Usage: lzss [OPTION...] <fromfile> <tofile>
  -V, --version                   Display version information and exit
  -?, --help                      Show this help message

Error: Unexpected extra argument 'OPENING_01.data'

So I try putting it in brackets, and got this:

>python lzss <OPENING_00.data + OPENING_01.data + OPENING_02.data + OPENING_0
3.data + OPENING_04.data + OPENING_05.data + OPENING_06.data + OPENING_07.data +
 OPENING_08.data + OPENING_09.data + OPENING_10.data + OPENING_11.data + OPENING
_12.data + OPENING_13.data + OPENING_14.data + OPENING_15.data + OPENING_16.data
 + OPENING_17.data + OPENING_18.data + OPENING_19.data + OPENING_20.data + OPENI
NG_21.data + OPENING_22.data + OPENING_7472_0.data> <OPENING.BIN>
< was unexpected at this time.

I scoured Google and there is no information on the command line syntax for this program. It can't be unknown. How do you use this thing?!?

97

Troubleshooting / Re: Still image data for FF7 PSX opening?

« on: 2016-03-27 00:57:11 »

Who is the admin that I should e-mail about sending PMs?

I'm not a spambot, nor am I an advanced artificial intelligence that can outsmart the Turing test in a scheme to spam the boards.

98

Troubleshooting / Re: Still image data for FF7 PSX opening?

« on: 2016-03-27 00:14:48 »

Hahaha! Thanks!

[Play in separate tab or window for dramatic effect.]

Now my next hurdle is editing and re-inserting.

How do I turn my ".bmp" files back to ".data" files?

99

Troubleshooting / Re: Still image data for FF7 PSX opening?

« on: 2016-03-27 00:01:46 »

Aight, I've sent the e-mail.

100

Troubleshooting / Re: Still image data for FF7 PSX opening?

« on: 2016-03-26 23:56:38 »

Sure thing! Can you gimme an e-mail address?

I can't send PMs on this board, but I'm hoping I can receive them (I'm gonna assume you don't want your e-mail posted for everyone to see).

I'm also in the chat room right now, if you want to tell me your e-mail address there.

Also, I used TimViewer and it couldn't open the files.