Author Topic: [PSX/PC] Save Editor - Black Chocobo (v1.15)  (Read 1001127 times)

Bosola

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Re: [RELEASE v1.3]: Black Chocobo - FF7 Save Game Editor
« Reply #150 on: 2010-08-21 01:05:06 »
Well, we'd need a working FF6 savemap.

How easy would this be to reverse engineer? Well, if the data structures resemble those for SNES saves, it wouldn't be a hassle. If not, it could be a lot more difficult.

Creating the app would then be an issue of simply adapting the source code Chris has been kind enough to provide as Black Choco.

sithlord48

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Re: [RELEASE v1.3]: Black Chocobo - FF7 Save Game Editor
« Reply #151 on: 2010-08-21 02:09:59 »
Yeah but he likes your interface :P.
Half of why i made the program is that the other editors were so ulgy and had bad UI's (sadly im not kidding about that)

I especially like the fact that I can increase or decrease all the character stats randomly.
what do u mean by that?
It's just SOO perfect.
thanks
Would in be hard to alter this one to be able to edit other FF game saves too?
What would you need?
Well, we'd need a working FF6 savemap.
How easy would this be to reverse engineer? Well, if the data structures resemble those for SNES saves, it wouldn't be a hassle. If not, it could be a lot more difficult.
Creating the app would then be an issue of simply adapting the source code
yes this exactly is what we need.
Chris has been kind enough to provide as Black Choco.
how do u know my name :? stalker, eh :P

Bosola

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Re: [RELEASE v1.3]: Black Chocobo - FF7 Save Game Editor
« Reply #152 on: 2010-08-21 11:35:49 »
...You emblazoned it all over your source code.

sithlord48

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Re: [RELEASE v1.3]: Black Chocobo - FF7 Save Game Editor
« Reply #153 on: 2010-08-21 13:58:30 »
...You emblazoned it all over your source code.
thats part of the gpl requirements to ensure the code stays free. it was a joke.(hence the :P ) lol.

back on topic..

im planing to relase 1.4 (just a minor update w/ psp save reading) once i can get the french translation up-to date. if anyone cares to help by completing the translation (or wants to translate to another language) let me know and i will let u know what u need to get started and how to do it.


chacyung

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Re: [RELEASE v1.3]: Black Chocobo - FF7 Save Game Editor
« Reply #154 on: 2010-08-21 18:09:43 »
Yeah but he likes your interface :P.
Half of why i made the program is that the other editors were so ulgy and had bad UI's (sadly im not kidding about that)

Tell me about! Everything else is just so horrid >.<

I especially like the fact that I can increase or decrease all the character stats randomly.
what do u mean by that?

I meant, I can seem to be able to increase clouds health and not anything else.
BTW, I'm having a little trouble getting it to save after I make the change.
I'm probably just stupidly overlooking something, but I need it to save as a PSV.
That's what my ps3 exports saves as when I copy it to my flash drive under...
"PS3/EXPORT/PSV"
Oopsy, I just read you're wiki-guide, can't do that yet huh?
How do use the edited gamesave then? (scratch that)
I need to read before asking ^^;
(helpful wiki) ^.^

It's just SOO perfect.
thanks

Just giving the credit that's due ^.^

Would in be hard to alter this one to be able to edit other FF game saves too?
What would you need?
Well, we'd need a working FF6 savemap.
How easy would this be to reverse engineer? Well, if the data structures resemble those for SNES saves, it wouldn't be a hassle. If not, it could be a lot more difficult.
Creating the app would then be an issue of simply adapting the source code
yes this exactly is what we need.

So basically I'd just have to provide an FF6 gamesave?
Would it have to be a 100% complete game, or could I stop anywhere before I send it to you?
(forgive me if I got something wrong, I know nothing about code programming) ^^;
Or is a "savemap" not the same as a gamesave?
« Last Edit: 2010-08-21 18:45:10 by chacyung »

Bosola

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Re: [RELEASE v1.3]: Black Chocobo - FF7 Save Game Editor
« Reply #155 on: 2010-08-21 18:24:16 »
It's not, no.

We need the offsets for different classes of data. We need to know which bytes represent what.

Ideally, I'd like to see a SNES FF6 and PSX FF6 save together. It's always possible the savemaps are quite similar, so we can use what we know about the former to decipher it.
« Last Edit: 2010-08-21 18:37:41 by Bosola »

chacyung

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Re: [RELEASE v1.3]: Black Chocobo - FF7 Save Game Editor
« Reply #156 on: 2010-08-21 18:41:31 »
It's not, no.

We need the offsets for different classes of data. We need to know which bytes represent what.

Ideally, I'd like to see a SNES FF6 and PSX FF6 save together. It's always possible the savemaps are quite similar, so we can use what we know about the former to decipher it.

Unfortunately I don't have the SNES version of FF6 (or any games for that matter)
So how would I go about getting a "savemap" and what exactly is it?

Anyone know how to get a .ff7 onto my PS1 memory card?
« Last Edit: 2010-08-21 19:07:43 by chacyung »

Bosola

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Re: [RELEASE v1.3]: Black Chocobo - FF7 Save Game Editor
« Reply #157 on: 2010-08-21 23:46:26 »
It's not really something you can "give" us.

Essentially, we need to look at the save to determine which data does what. Is equipment data stored here? Character names there? We would then experiment to confirm this. The Savemap is effectively a description of which savefile bytes affect what in-game. It is a 'map' of a save file, as it were.

It's hard to guess how much work this may need. It's possible it has already been done. It's also possible that the SNES save files are very similar, so we can guess from there. However, FF6-PSOne might use some kind of compression, which we'd have to reverse engineer. It might also use a checksum, that we'd need to learn how to generate.

chacyung

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Re: [RELEASE v1.3]: Black Chocobo - FF7 Save Game Editor
« Reply #158 on: 2010-08-22 00:31:58 »
It's not really something you can "give" us.

Essentially, we need to look at the save to determine which data does what. Is equipment data stored here? Character names there? We would then experiment to confirm this. The Savemap is effectively a description of which savefile bytes affect what in-game. It is a 'map' of a save file, as it were.

It's hard to guess how much work this may need. It's possible it has already been done. It's also possible that the SNES save files are very similar, so we can guess from there. However, FF6-PSOne might use some kind of compression, which we'd have to reverse engineer. It might also use a checksum, that we'd need to learn how to generate.

oh, I get it.

So basically, you'd need multiple saves all just slightly different...
So you could compare the data and see what string of code is for what.

I don't think it has been done.
I searched the web for hours, and nothing.
The best one I could find, I couldn't get working at all.

And this checksum thing is WAY out of my league >.<

Bosola

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Re: [RELEASE v1.3]: Black Chocobo - FF7 Save Game Editor
« Reply #159 on: 2010-08-22 02:18:33 »
Well, comparison is one thing you could do. There are lots of methods. You can look for headers and blocks of data. You can look for strings and make reasonable assumptions about what groups of bytes might do. You can also look for evidence that the file is or isn't compressed, and you can easily verify whether there's a checksum by simply altering a string and seeing if it loads or not (FF7 displays the infamous 'File is ruined' message should the checksum fail).

We can obtain the files themselves fairly easily. The question is, who will do the work? I don't really have the level of skill to do it, to be honest.

chacyung

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Re: [RELEASE v1.3]: Black Chocobo - FF7 Save Game Editor
« Reply #160 on: 2010-08-22 05:07:11 »
Well, comparison is one thing you could do. There are lots of methods. You can look for headers and blocks of data. You can look for strings and make reasonable assumptions about what groups of bytes might do. You can also look for evidence that the file is or isn't compressed, and you can easily verify whether there's a checksum by simply altering a string and seeing if it loads or not (FF7 displays the infamous 'File is ruined' message should the checksum fail).

We can obtain the files themselves fairly easily. The question is, who will do the work? I don't really have the level of skill to do it, to be honest.

I was afraid you'd say that.
The reason I started looking into editors for FF games, is because of my sister.
She loves the FF series, the animation, the story, the gameplay... all except for one thing...
The hours and hours of constant grinding. (running in circles to level)
She completely gave up ALL FF games because of that.
Said she would neve touch one ever again, unless there was a way to level faster.
I figured simply editing the stats would be the best way.

I found this editor because I just wanted a way to see if I had missed any of the turtle's paradise flyers. But when I saw how good it was, I thought maybe I could find one for FF6, because that was the one that my sister was playing when she quit.

But the only FF6 save editor I could find, I couldn't get working.
I kept dumping more and more DLL files onto my computer because the error messages said that the program needed it. But then it said that there was a missing string in one of the DLLs. I didn't know how to fix that, so I gave up on that one V.V

And that's when I started asking if this one could be tweeked.
Figured that if one needed to be made, it should be made from the best.
Would it be possible to look at other editors code to see if this one CAN be changed to do it?
« Last Edit: 2010-08-22 05:21:41 by chacyung »

Bosola

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Re: [RELEASE v1.3]: Black Chocobo - FF7 Save Game Editor
« Reply #161 on: 2010-08-22 16:57:18 »
If there are already PS-FF6 save editors and their source code available, then go right ahead. That makes our work far easier.

If there are SNES-FF6 editors / source around, it *might* help us - but it might not if PSOne-FF6 save files are organized in a different way.

chacyung

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Re: [RELEASE v1.3]: Black Chocobo - FF7 Save Game Editor
« Reply #162 on: 2010-08-22 19:44:02 »
If there are already PS-FF6 save editors and their source code available, then go right ahead. That makes our work far easier.

If there are SNES-FF6 editors / source around, it *might* help us - but it might not if PSOne-FF6 save files are organized in a different way.

This is the only editor that I could find for FF6.
http://ostatic.com/ff6edit/home/1
But I think it's for the original and not the PS remake because it says "FFIII in US"
I can't confirm ANYTHING though because I could never get it running.
Heck, the project might even be dead already V.V

Miseru

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Re: [RELEASE v1.3]: Black Chocobo - FF7 Save Game Editor
« Reply #163 on: 2010-08-22 20:22:26 »
...
The reason I started looking into editors for FF games, is because of my sister.
She loves the FF series, the animation, the story, the gameplay... all except for one thing...
The hours and hours of constant grinding. (running in circles to level)
She completely gave up ALL FF games because of that.
Said she would neve touch one ever again, unless there was a way to level faster.
I figured simply editing the stats would be the best way.
...

 I know this post will not help, in making any editor, but why you just don't let your sister play on emu?:P Or load the game on emu edit anything you want pretty easily, save and convert save to psx format. I yet didn't found any psx rpg that would be hard to find values for at least exp. Belive me you don't need to edit stats for your sister if you make her characters 20-30 lvls above she should be by normal play:P + stat editing is easy too. Just use PEC plugin on epsx and search the memory for exp values during few fights with saving game whenever you want in emu, that's ultra easy and can be found jumping between two saves. I find looking for it myself faster than checking any pec code database for a ready one. >.> + it'll work on any version you have. With snes games it's even easier as ZSNES have built in memory search without any plugin. You will make sister happy and it's far less work than making, nah even by trying to find any ready one editor. Probably the easiness of finding codes for psx games is the main reason that it lack of editors:P.(Well it's not like pc rpg's are much harder with cheat engine...)

chacyung

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Re: [RELEASE v1.3]: Black Chocobo - FF7 Save Game Editor
« Reply #164 on: 2010-08-23 22:17:00 »
...
The reason I started looking into editors for FF games, is because of my sister.
She loves the FF series, the animation, the story, the gameplay... all except for one thing...
The hours and hours of constant grinding. (running in circles to level)
She completely gave up ALL FF games because of that.
Said she would neve touch one ever again, unless there was a way to level faster.
I figured simply editing the stats would be the best way.
...

 I know this post will not help, in making any editor, but why you just don't let your sister play on emu?:P Or load the game on emu edit anything you want pretty easily, save and convert save to psx format. I yet didn't found any psx rpg that would be hard to find values for at least exp. Belive me you don't need to edit stats for your sister if you make her characters 20-30 lvls above she should be by normal play:P + stat editing is easy too. Just use PEC plugin on epsx and search the memory for exp values during few fights with saving game whenever you want in emu, that's ultra easy and can be found jumping between two saves. I find looking for it myself faster than checking any pec code database for a ready one. >.> + it'll work on any version you have. With snes games it's even easier as ZSNES have built in memory search without any plugin. You will make sister happy and it's far less work than making, nah even by trying to find any ready one editor. Probably the easiness of finding codes for psx games is the main reason that it lack of editors:P.(Well it's not like pc rpg's are much harder with cheat engine...)

I guess I didn't considder having her play an emu version because I have all of them on my Playstation, so I was looking for editors for that ^^;

chacyung

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Re: [RELEASE v1.3]: Black Chocobo - FF7 Save Game Editor
« Reply #165 on: 2010-08-24 03:46:02 »
Hey guys, I have an idea!
I used your program and imported a PSV save, then I used the "Export PSX save" function.

I then used a program of mine to compare the 2 files and there are only 2 small differences.
Would the knowledge of what those 2 differences are, be enough to reverse engineer a way to figure out the PSV files?

sithlord48

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Re: [RELEASE v1.3]: Black Chocobo - FF7 Save Game Editor
« Reply #166 on: 2010-08-24 15:10:40 »
Hey guys, I have an idea!
I used your program and imported a PSV save, then I used the "Export PSX save" function.

I then used a program of mine to compare the 2 files and there are only 2 small differences.
Would the knowledge of what those 2 differences are, be enough to reverse engineer a way to figure out the PSV files?
kinda, but i need to game i can't work on it with out the game. besides. this is off topic for this thread. please start a new thread if you want to work on a ff6 save editor.

chacyung

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Re: [RELEASE v1.3]: Black Chocobo - FF7 Save Game Editor
« Reply #167 on: 2010-08-24 19:49:45 »
Hey guys, I have an idea!
I used your program and imported a PSV save, then I used the "Export PSX save" function.

I then used a program of mine to compare the 2 files and there are only 2 small differences.
Would the knowledge of what those 2 differences are, be enough to reverse engineer a way to figure out the PSV files?
kinda, but i need to game i can't work on it with out the game. besides. this is off topic for this thread. please start a new thread if you want to work on a ff6 save editor.

Oh sorry, I was talking about your FF7 editor.
I was trying to solve your "can't save as a PSV" problem.
I'm going to try something.
See if I can splice the original file and the edited one back together using the HEX code.




OK, I took my "FF7 save01 PSV" and used your program to open it and save it without editing anything.
(I saved it as a PSX file)

Then I compared them and found 2 lines that were different....
(these are the 2 lines and their differences under them that I extracted)
[would this help? - I'm not surebecause my computer doesn't know what some of these symbols are]
Note that in the original file, the code actually labels it backwards as "VSP" - LOL

==========================================================================

Mod edit...

What you posted is garbage. If you are going to post daw data, please use hex-dumps






When I created a PSX file and just renamed it PSV,
my PS3 displayed a black cube and labeled it as "corrupted data"

But then I had a new idea.
I took my PSV file, made a PSX file, then edited it and created a new PSX file.
Then I compared the second 2, and edited ONLY the differences from the 3rd one, into the original PSV.
Doing this made my PS3 realize that it was a game save.
Even gave it the appropriate FF7 icon and label.
It didn't realize that the data had been changed until I tried to copy it to the HDD.
Only THEN, did it tell me that the data had been corrupted.

So I guess the extra info at the start of the file, really does need to be changed ^^;
Silly me for trying to edit the HEX code V.V


A triple post?  Jesus, you have to be kidding me.  Merged for sanity purposes.  Check the rules out, fella
« Last Edit: 2010-08-25 01:18:20 by athleticbear »

Tekkie.X

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Re: [RELEASE v1.3]: Black Chocobo - FF7 Save Game Editor
« Reply #168 on: 2010-08-24 22:58:02 »
Whoa there, chill with the multiposting, there is an edit/modify button for a reason.

chacyung

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Re: [RELEASE v1.3]: Black Chocobo - FF7 Save Game Editor
« Reply #169 on: 2010-08-25 23:03:41 »
Whoa there, chill with the multiposting, there is an edit/modify button for a reason.

Oops!
Sorry, my-bad ^^;

Also, what's a "hex-dump" ??

pyrozen

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Re: [RELEASE v1.3]: Black Chocobo - FF7 Save Game Editor
« Reply #170 on: 2010-08-25 23:30:33 »
Also, what's a "hex-dump" ??

a hex-dump is a six-sided piece of poo.
your welcome.

*apologies for the snarky comment, i couldn't resist*
« Last Edit: 2010-08-26 02:57:54 by pyrozen »

halkun

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Re: [RELEASE v1.3]: Black Chocobo - FF7 Save Game Editor
« Reply #171 on: 2010-08-26 02:51:23 »
pyrozen, you are not helping  >:(

You can see what a hexdump looks like here.

sithlord48

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Re: [RELEASE v1.3]: Black Chocobo - FF7 Save Game Editor
« Reply #172 on: 2010-08-26 12:45:53 »
about psv & vmp files:

These files have massive 160-but checksums (but not using any common method to make one, nor all bytes of the files). In order for me or anyone else to properly generate a checksum. The checksumming algorithm has to be figured out. This can be done by looking at LOTS of properly signed psv files and compairing the checksums and data. If you are a crypto expert then you prolly know an ezer way , but simply hexediting the file with out correctly generating the new checksum the ps3 or vmp it will show them there but they will always be corrupt. now i can get a ps3 to sign a psv save.please see the Faq for more info on how to do that. as for opening psp files (.vmp) you all have to wait until someone steps up to update the french translation.

Bosola

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Re: [RELEASE v1.3]: Black Chocobo - FF7 Save Game Editor
« Reply #173 on: 2010-08-26 19:10:00 »
I would appreciate more info on how you cracked the checksum, if you don't mind. What was the first step you took once you had the data available?

chacyung

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Re: [RELEASE v1.3]: Black Chocobo - FF7 Save Game Editor
« Reply #174 on: 2010-08-26 21:33:59 »
a hex-dump is a six-sided piece of poo.
your welcome.
*apologies for the snarky comment, i couldn't resist*
pyrozen, you are not helping  >:(

You can see what a hexdump looks like here.

Arigatou *bows*
WOW, that's interresting, but I don't know how to do that V.V

Also...
LOL, don't worry about it dude.
The way I figure it, everyone's intitled to at least one stupid joke per day ^.^

about psv & vmp files:

These files have massive 160-but checksums (but not using any common method to make one, nor all bytes of the files). In order for me or anyone else to properly generate a checksum. The checksumming algorithm has to be figured out. This can be done by looking at LOTS of properly signed psv files and compairing the checksums and data. If you are a crypto expert then you prolly know an ezer way , but simply hexediting the file with out correctly generating the new checksum the ps3 or vmp it will show them there but they will always be corrupt. now i can get a ps3 to sign a psv save.please see the Faq for more info on how to do that. as for opening psp files (.vmp) you all have to wait until someone steps up to update the french translation.

I read your instructions and I can't do them.
Mainly because I don't have any of the "FMCB" or "ULE" items that you listed.

As for that checksum thing...
You said you would need "ALOT" of PSV files to compare and figure out the algorithm.
Would they all have to be created by the same PS3?
Or can you just download other peoples gamesaves off of gamefaqs?

And do they have to be completed games?
Or just the first savepoint in the game that you reach?