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Messages - Cyberman

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1426
General Discussion / FF10 for PC...or not?
« on: 2003-01-15 20:39:50 »
Well not diverge too much from the topic but I think Square and Enix are facing the reults of several years of 'economic' freedom and lack of focus.  Games are what they sell and have been working on for a long time 15 years?  Movies are a different animal all together, however there games have become more movies than games.  Lots of glitz but the actual meat of the game is waning. FFX is really a decent game but not a BIG one.  In a market of mediocrity (soulreaver 2 blood omen 2 ) with dozens of bad software being released, .. I suppose it will be about the same length of time before another FF7 type release will be on the PS2 from square or Enix.  

The biggest thing needed is not money, but VISION.  Vision or having a concept that is compelling is hard to get these days with instant gratification in everything including program developement.  Bottom line is RPG's are stories, they need to be as good as a novel with the interactive twist.

Square has done OK recently but I think they could do better.

Topic now, FFX PC would probably be a break even deal. I think they are making money off FF8 PC and FF7 PC because they are still in demand.

Cyb

1427
General Discussion / FF10 for PC...or not?
« on: 2003-01-14 16:48:16 »
Quote

Sir Canealot
Wtf does diffrence between the 2 codes have to do with the price of fish? From Ps2-PC they'd adapt the code, probebly changeing a hell of a lot of it to go from Ps2-Pc. Why would there bugs and diffrences? It sounds like Square tried to get FFX working on a Pc by putting it into the Pc Dvd try and hoping it worked by the way your explaining it.
Any way. That FFXI teaser works fine...

Have you ever tried porting existing code? It's not just some plug this and that and cut and paste sort of job.  It's a REAL pain, ussually you have to rewrite major portions of code. Just because you have some code in C or C++ doesn't mean it will work on another platform by compiling it with a different compilor.  Adapting CODE introduces a LOT new bugs ussually, because what you did on one platform may not work the exact same way on another, (or should I say most likely won't).
As for the later, no idea, I was refering to Alhexx comment on game programers really.
I think the economics of porting FF-X to the PC probably didn't warrent them to do it.  They have likely 2 or 3 years invested in FF-X but they will need to invest another year into the PC release but if fortunate less.  The big issue is how much they would gain by it.  FFX is pretty short by square standards of RPG play.

Cyb

1428
Scripting and Reverse Engineering / FF8 model extractor
« on: 2003-01-14 16:20:46 »
Ripping FF8 data is realitively easy on the PC when compared to the PSX. However there are several FF8 stream editors notably PSXmc unfortunately I can't read japanese to figure out how to add new 'extracted' type data to be converted for things such as battle scenes models and locations.  Would be cool to be able to do that for PSX FF8.

Cyb

1429
General Discussion / FF10 for PC...or not?
« on: 2003-01-13 21:37:45 »
Well Bugs are the nature of programing these days.
Although I would like to say all my programs are bug free, they aren't ;)

What might eliminate more bugs in games though isn't necessarily using a standard GUI or anything such as that.  Most bugs in games are of the following characteristics: they tried to do something they didn't realize would be so complicated.  Good quality software requires several 'series' of iterations between developement teams etc.  It also requires careful code reviews. MOST bugs are just bad programing habits.

Cyb
I know because I have them ;)

1430
General Discussion / FF10 for PC...or not?
« on: 2003-01-13 21:37:45 »
Well Bugs are the nature of programing these days.
Although I would like to say all my programs are bug free, they aren't ;)

What might eliminate more bugs in games though isn't necessarily using a standard GUI or anything such as that.  Most bugs in games are of the following characteristics: they tried to do something they didn't realize would be so complicated.  Good quality software requires several 'series' of iterations between developement teams etc.  It also requires careful code reviews. MOST bugs are just bad programing habits.

Cyb
I know because I have them ;)

1431
Scripting and Reverse Engineering / Need help @_@, flash and c++ expert needed.
« on: 2003-01-10 19:42:07 »
Well .. might be.. you have to have it interact with your application.  It might be simpler to just build your application with all the components you need and interactive components on it already.

I'm not sure of the details of your project, however if it's a ticket Thing.. tickets are limited in terms of time era and you need to change things often on such a machine. There was a supertickets ATM in a BANK I use to go to, it gave concert football etc stuff.  I think they used a CD with 'CONTENT' for that week on it and switched the DISK each week.  Using flash might work fine, one just needs to have it work with the application you are making to generate tickets register purchase information do credit card transactions etc. All has to be done securely.  I know most people DO NOT use MFC to develope secure things. Delphi seems popular and Borland C++ with SSI components is popular as well.  Even if it uses a modem to dial up and 'purchase' the tickets, it still has to be quite secure.

Cyb

1432
Scripting and Reverse Engineering / Need help @_@, flash and c++ expert needed.
« on: 2003-01-10 14:52:52 »
Well there are a number of things for you to consider here, let me shoot them at you (I hope you are wearing armor).

1: Flash requires software to run.. DOH. that's the little plugin that you get and it's stuffed where IE or NetScrap can find it (or Opera as in my case).
2: It may need to run under a web browser though I doubt it.  It runs as an OLE object from what I can tell. I suggest your application create a window that an OLE object can used and let the flash DLL do it's thing.  
3: Flash isn't a GUI, it's a packaged format for storing data that's run by a fancy DLL.  That's about the some of it. :)
4: You will need to know the plugin details for the version of the flash player you use OR if you can find a stand alone version of the flash server and use that.
5: Licensing, you may need to find out the details of licensing to use flash for your application.
6: Interface, assuming you are using something PC centric for your 'ATM' you need a 'mouse' or 'keyboard' for flash to work interactively.  Customized keyboards aren't hard to obtain (no you don't need to buy a PC keyboard and rip it apart either).  The mouse can be a driver for a touch screen, not a big deal there either.

Have fun and remember that using other peoples software may be fast, but it's also complicated :)

Cyb

1433
Scripting and Reverse Engineering / FF7 PSX CRC calculation region
« on: 2003-01-09 05:21:21 »
Ok.. I have the range right but I think the calculation is might be wrong for the PSX.  If I make no alterations of the data it comes up with the identical CRC.  I haven't seen the CRC stored twice.. so now I'm left with.. look ma no brains.. or I donno.

I perform the CRC from 2 beyond the CRC variable in the record to the end of the 7 bytes after the message speed indication byte.  If I alter anything I get 'file ruined' if I don't it calculates the CRC exactly right.  So what am I missing here, is there a second check it uses somewhere? Or do I need to finish my structured file hacking tool first? ;)

Cyb

1434
Scripting and Reverse Engineering / Battle model question...
« on: 2003-01-08 16:51:27 »
Well.. I suppose if I could have the oportunity to build a POV ray plugin one could do the following.
1: UV mapping (handled by POV with an image map)
2: Smooth triangles (handled by POV mesh with triangle points and vertex normals)
3: color gradients (more complex but a doable thing requires individual triangle objects with there own pigment that's a gradient from each vertex).

Although POV isn't the best format, you can add some texture affects to each mesh of the FF chracter. For example Clouds pants you can had a thread bump map too and make it look like denim or plaid.. in texture same color.

Smooth triangles are the biggest thing, they create a shade gadient between each vertex. You can then use Moray to manipulate your object files and export them to whatever rendering engine you want.

I suppose another posibility is if they give vertex normals one can do polygon multiplication as well. You can estimate the curvature of the mesh using the surface normals and then create new polygons in the group meshs.  IE make your own high polycount objects from the low polycount objects using extrapolation and interpolation.  Won't look as good as the original but you might get something passable.

Cyb

1435
General Discussion / FFX-2 Trailer
« on: 2003-01-07 20:46:27 »
Yes I finally got a pack that would add all possible codecs in and watched it.. unfortunately due to my japanese ignorance I have no idea what they were saying (not that they ussually say a lot in the games) :)

I think Paine's character is a 'more angst' than Lulu person.. I think :)

Cyb

1436
Scripting and Reverse Engineering / ff9 psx bin's
« on: 2003-01-07 03:19:09 »
It just works?

It seems to not like certain disk drives.. it does not like the LG CD-ROM I have I noticed on my win2K machine but it seems to like my CD and DVD Rom on the Win98 se machine

1437
General Discussion / FFX-2 Trailer
« on: 2003-01-06 19:18:22 »
As wonderful as using vorbis to encode something might be.. Winamp3 doesn't seem to support plugins or I'm clueless it doesn't HAVE a plugins director (prior versions do).  

I suppose I can watch the japanes version although I would be challenged to know what they are saying :)

1438
Scripting and Reverse Engineering / ff9 psx bin's
« on: 2003-01-06 16:22:42 »
I have them still.. I haven't played since I beat it though.

Textures etc in FF9 were extremely well done. Artistically as they said it was the most beautifully done FF.

Hmmm maybe I can play with that..

1439
Scripting and Reverse Engineering / FF7 PSX CRC calculation region
« on: 2003-01-06 14:51:09 »
Hmmm I'm porting Jenova (well it's more like rewritting Jenova but I digress) to a DLL for editing PSX memcards, Qhimm you have a clue what region of the card the CRC calculation is over?  I've diddled a while and it's got me stumped.. I've tried from just past the CRC word to message speed
This doesn't seem to work (File Ruined error).  I assume you haven't messed with the PSX version, but the CRC calculation is identical (that might be assuming a lot LOL).

Cyb

1440
General Discussion / FFX-2 Trailer
« on: 2003-01-05 22:07:15 »
That would explain why I canna view it.

1441
Scripting and Reverse Engineering / ff9 psx bin's
« on: 2003-01-04 18:22:35 »
Now... I know they filter through looking for the file header for these files in the image files... is there any sort of 'directory' in the image files so one can 'browse' the embeded files as needed?

1442
General Discussion / Rikku in bikini
« on: 2003-01-02 14:39:59 »
Hmmmm... spoilers.. I've never really been that big on them  :)
Although if I know how the story ends.. it never changes how much I enjoy the game to be honest.  If the game has a good enough story it should survive with or without spoilers.

Rubicant:
Back to the subject I was going to comment on it but your picture just was too much not to comment on and by the time I was done with that I didn't really see the point and I was being lazy :)

FF recycles a LOT of things.. for example summoning.. Shiva Ifrit etc.. all of these are in the FF's :)  I didn't see Odin.. oh well I guess wait for the interactive movie FFXII? :)

Cyb

1443
General Discussion / Rikku in bikini
« on: 2003-01-02 03:11:54 »
Quote from: Rubicant
Hmm..well cyb...I assume that Cid lives for a LONG time after FF4. The entire world's continents change during his lifetime..haha yeah right. Oh yeah, not to mention that during this, the world
Spoiler: show
gets split into two worlds
. Just because a name pops up in two games in a row doesn't mean it's the same guy.

By the way, Cid created ONE ship in FF5..the
Spoiler: show
steamship
. If he even WAS the same Cid from FF4, he already would have built airships in that game by then. But NO! Cid and
Spoiler: show
his grandson, Mid, discover an ancient airship with the main character and his friends. Cid DOESN'T invent airships in FF5, he discovers them. With that knowledge, he combines the broken airship with the old steamship to create a cooler airship that can travel air and sea
.

The only..and I mean ONLY way that those two games are related are by the
Spoiler: show
crystals
. I'm thinking that after FF4, the people in FF5 take the
Spoiler: show
crystals
and start
Spoiler: show
draining power from them
. Of course, notice the size difference between the
Spoiler: show
crystals
of FF4 and FF5. I don't see it happening, Man.

[EDIT] on another note: I think this is what Square was really aiming for in paine's attitude. I apologize if anyone finds this offensive.


LOL!

That's hilarious..
Her hair is kind of like Squalls  too.. I am not sure what they are thinking maybe they can sell more games? They sure as heck can't call it FF11  ;)
I might buy it.. but I would like to see reviews. Especially after seeing FF11 and nearly being sickened by it.  It's not FF .. I think they would have been wiser calling it FF Online instead of FFXI.

Cyb

1444
Scripting and Reverse Engineering / More technical updates...
« on: 2003-01-02 02:52:19 »
Quote from: ficedula
Eh, I'd send you a location from the game (I doubt Square'll care about us exchanging 15 files out of the 11,000 in battle.lgp) but my own computer has no net access at the moment. If noone else does, I can do so next week when I return to uni...

As for normals; P files *can* contain them but don't necessarily. HRC models do, I think always. Battle models don't. I'm not sure about the *locations* but I think they don't. Zangan doesn't read them, anyway, although I suppose they *could* be there - I doubt it, though.


Oh... hmmm good point backgrounds don't need normals.. normally ;)

It's not a big deal I wanted to see if it worked and fix bugs if there were any.
(yeah IF snicker).

Anyhow That's done I have to get some other things working I guess :)

Cyb

1445
General Discussion / Rikku in bikini
« on: 2003-01-01 14:22:21 »
Hmmm Squall's reincarnated as a femal..
she looks grumpy too (skull on sword interesting touch).
I can see it now.. a reclusive grumpy woman who likes to see how tough she is, yes that's Squall.

Squall in hi heels (LOL). Ok I'm done :)

Rubicant.. FF5 happens AFTER 4 .. a LOT longer after 4.  CID is in both and introduces flying ships in both as well.

Cyb

1446
Scripting and Reverse Engineering / More technical updates...
« on: 2003-01-01 03:35:50 »
Anyone have any data I can test with the plugin I finished?
I've got the uv_mapping (IE tex coordinates) done and the the texture dumping (amazing considering how clueless I was helps to read the documentation at least twice).

All I really need is some data to debug it with. (and later give a screen shot of the output).

One question did come to mind I take it that no normal information is available at the vertices of the triangle?  That would stink but I'll live if nothing like that exists. I suppose I could try and create normals to it but I would have to make a lot of assumptions.

I suppose I could send it to someone to try except for the fact that it's not debuged yet.

1447
Scripting and Reverse Engineering / Erg... he said!
« on: 2002-12-31 21:42:26 »
Code: [Select]

//---------------------------------------------------------------------------
typedef union
{
   struct { float X, Y, Z; } Point;
   float Data[3];
} Point3d;
//---------------------------------------------------------------------------
typedef struct
{
   float S, T;
} TexCoord;
//---------------------------------------------------------------------------
typedef struct
{
   TexCoord    TexC;
   int         RGBAColor;
   Point3d     Vertex;
} IntVertex;
//---------------------------------------------------------------------------
typedef struct
{
   int   Tex;
   int   Min, Max;
   int   RSV;
   int  *Indices;
} Group;
//---------------------------------------------------------------------------
typedef struct
{
   int         TexCnt, VertCnt, GroupCnt;
   int        *Texs;
   IntVertex  *Verts;
   Group      *Groups;
   int        *IndCnts;
} Part;

Ok .. here are my 'structures' etc. for this.. somehow something doesn't make sense with the Groups.. is the Indice Count the same as the Group Count or is it the number of Indices in the group? And for the Indices in the group they are just an array of ints which indicate... what? Min Max those are? First and  Last Vertexs? Indices are a vertex list as well? These values point into the Verts?

As for what I'm doing (as if it were interesting ;) ) I'm moving groups into Meshs.. and then applying the textures however I suspect this is not correct because the Verts have a point to the Texture and a 2d Offset into that Texture where it seems to 'apply' to the object.. hmmm.

Cyb

1448
Scripting and Reverse Engineering / More technical updates...
« on: 2002-12-31 18:30:41 »
Quote from: ficedula

Ack! No, it isn't, it's TInterleavedVertex ... serves me right for calling the same thing different names. Each vertex in the list has multiple pieces of information; position, colour, texture coordinates ... so, TInterleavedVertex should be used.

Oh... hmmm I am just going to dump the textures after I enumerate them (sigh) by going through each Part and finding the highest and lowest Texture ID. Then reiterate and make copies of the textures convert them to Bitmaps and dump the bitmaps to files (wee).  After that comes the fun part of using the image maps that were just defined.
I do have one problem, this thing is expecting files from the PC FF7 which I don't have.  Are there equivalent files I can yank from the PSX version to use with Zangan?
It would be cool to be able to test the plugin I made (grin).

Quote from: ficedula

Well, the animation almost *has* to work by doing skeleton bone rotations; it's the only decent way to animate a skeleton, and it is how the HRC (field) models do *their* animations. The trick is finding out how they've encoded the frames...


Well that goes without saying.. hehehe
I would hazard to say that from there prior use of structures it might be LZS compressed and they might have made the animation by store frame differences in the end points of each skeletal member. IE the meeting points being common locations between bones they have a list of all points (individually) and store a change per each bone per frame. Some positions won't change.  Since bone length won't change they might have included rotation information as well but not likely. It's simpler to store the differences and less space consuming.
So for the animation format they would have a link to a 'bone file' or data or have the bone information in it. Each frame likely indicates what 'joints' or ends are being moved with respect to the last frame as well.

Cybie

1449
General Discussion / Rikku in bikini
« on: 2002-12-31 13:49:58 »
Hmmm No FF5 doesn't have a sequel it is one.. to FF4 I'll have to replay 4 and see what happens to be sure (darn ;) ). It has CID the airships he made etc. from FF4 :)

Yes the evil turtle cult there you go (blink). hehehe

Cybie
I think FF10-2 might be targeted at teenage girls maybe they noticed a big demand from teenage females for FFX and talored a sequel for them?

1450
General Discussion / Rikku in bikini
« on: 2002-12-31 02:37:22 »
Perhaps what you get with bored game artists who hate programers? ;)

They make Rikku look as sexy as possible!

Hmmm probably should fiinsh FF10 so I know how Tidius dies (I kind of figure he's going to bite the big one since they don't have him in FF10-2).

It's rare they have a sequel too, not since FF5 has there been one.  Perhaps they decided FFX wasn't enough? :)

Row Row Row your boat gently down the stream.. merrily merrily merrily spira is but a dream :)

Cyb

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