Author Topic: Remake Inquiry (Read 21750 times)

ShinRa Inc · « **on:** 2002-04-01 09:00:00 »

Erm. Howdy. Just wondering if there's still any need for help with the FF7 Remake. The page on Ficedula's site only says to post on these here boards, so i'm'a'postin'. I've got 5-6 years worth of accumulated data, theories, and other random junk. A bunch of it can be found in and around my (under eternal construction) site at http://web.tampabay.rr.com/shinra I'm also a mediocre computer artist, mostly with design / concept type stuff, or judiicious and shameless edits of existing graphics. Not sure if any of that's relevant, or what else would be, so I'll stop rambling now.

http://members.aol.com/acaiitoarms/reno.jpg
-shamelessly butchered reno graphic

The SaiNt · « **Reply #1 on:** 2002-04-01 09:25:00 »

Well, we're always looking for more help

I would however need to know what you mean by "accumulated data"
Do you have any programming experience?
Uncanny mathematical skills, like Terence?

Amazing storywriting skills?
In fact anything relevant to the remake would be good.
I recommend you read some of the topics old topics in this forum and send me a mail with examples and details of what you think you can help us with.

Darkness · « **Reply #2 on:** 2002-04-01 22:10:00 »

< childish voice > ooh! ooh! make use of my uncanny high school mathematics skills! < / childish voice>

unfortunately, im assuming this is primarily for the purpose of decoding file formats or coding the engine. i know nothing about OpenGL, and have never attempted decoding a file format.

i like this guy's website intro with the glowing text and javascript. simple.... but cool.

Sephiroth 3D · « **Reply #3 on:** 2002-04-02 03:09:00 »

Quote

On 2002-04-01 05:00, ShinRa Inc wrote:
I'm also a mediocre computer artist, mostly with design / concept type stuff.

We could use a design/concept artist... Could you provide us with a concept, and the finished product? (Images would be fine.)

Sephiroth 3D

"I don't understand..." "You don't have to understand." - Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

Sephiroth 3D.com
[email protected]

ShinRa Inc · « **Reply #4 on:** 2002-04-02 04:52:00 »

Quote

We could use a design/concept artist... Could you provide us with a concept, and the finished product? (Images would be fine.)

Erm. I think we've got different things in mind when I say design/concept. And I'm not sure what to call my stuff, if that's not it.

....ShinRa is watching you.

Sephiroth 3D · « **Reply #5 on:** 2002-04-02 05:05:00 »

A design/concept artist, to me (for our project), would previsualize the enviroments needed for the remake by providing a final concept images. Example: You would prodive a fully detailed sketch of an area we would need so the 3D artists could build this sketch for rendering as a field file, or a section of a movie.

That's the job of a concept artist. Now what do you do?

Sephiroth 3D

"I don't understand..." "You don't have to understand." - Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

Sephiroth 3D.com
[email protected]

ShinRa Inc · « **Reply #6 on:** 2002-04-02 06:56:00 »

Ah. I hadn't thought it was limited to locations. I have a lot of Vehicle / Weaponry type stuff. I have done location stuff, but not often. Would it be possible for me to talk to you via AIM? My IE keeps crashing, and if I take the time to reboot my computer to fix it, I'll end up being online until some untold hour of the morning. Which I try not to do... -.-

Sephiroth 3D · « **Reply #7 on:** 2002-04-02 16:53:00 »

Good. Glad we got that straightened out.

Re: Aim: Yeah. I'm at school now, so could talk to you around 6pm. (Pacific time.)

Sephiroth 3D @ School

ficedula · « **Reply #8 on:** 2002-04-02 17:29:00 »

Going back to the "programmers" aspect, while new programmers would be great, the engine's actually progressing quickly without them. What we *would* find useful is:

a) People who can decode file formats. While we have quite a lot of the file formats figured out, it's certainly *not* all of them.

b) People who can do *some* programming, in the style of Javascript is fine. The engine itself has a lot of scripting in it, and that of course requires people to write scripts for it

Darkness · « **Reply #9 on:** 2002-04-02 21:33:00 »

erm. B. ill be glad to script.

ShinRa Inc · « **Reply #10 on:** 2002-04-02 21:35:00 »

Quote

a) People who can decode file formats. While we have quite a lot of the file formats figured out, it's certainly *not* all of them.

Uh...Since I'm not quite sure how to do this

, I'll assume it's beyond my mediocre skills at the moment and move on to..

Quote

b) People who can do *some* programming, in the style of Javascript is fine. The engine itself has a lot of scripting in it, and that of course requires people to write scripts for it

Well, I made the site myself. I'm not good at writing javascript coding from scratch, but I can judiciously edit it....somewhat (Like I did for the intro Darkness mentioned), but then again when I started on the site I was basically doing the same kind of thing, but I'm able to do stuff from scratch now. I'd have to take a look at the scripting language and all that before I could figure out how fast I could pick it up.

Quote

Re: Aim: Yeah. I'm at school now, so could talk to you around 6pm. (Pacific time.)

Due to reasons that don't need exploring at this juncture, needless to say I'm online an insane proportion of the time. Unless my friend drops by, or I go out to get my dinner, I should be availible.

As a bonus, here's a graphic I made the other day, based on a roleplaying session log I'd found recently. And just in case anyone's offended by such things, be forewarned that it contains graphic language.
http://members.aol.com/acaiitoarms/rearl.jpg

Brought to you by the fine folks at:

(Edit

Unless it's trial&error opening of files as different formats and hoping the wrong combination doesn't end up causing your computer to shake violently, scream at you in latin, and cause all small animals within twenty miles to begin shreiking in agony... /

Also, needed edit our the seemingly disabled html / bbcode tags. -.-)
[edited] 346 2002-04-02 22:40

ficedula · « **Reply #11 on:** 2002-04-02 22:20:00 »

Quote

(Edit Unless it's trial&error opening of files as different formats and hoping the wrong combination doesn't end up causing your computer to shake violently, scream at you in latin, and cause all small animals within twenty miles to begin shreiking in agony... /

Yep, you have the right idea about decoding file formats

Well, add in the "ages using a hex editor and trying out stuff in a program you've written to try out stuff in", and you've got it totally

Scripting: Heh. Well. I suspect there's an insane number of people on these boards who *could* do scripting. After all, Javascript/HTML isn't that hard to learn, and a lot of people here have a webpage, and though not all of those will actually know much JS/HTML ... well.

The point I'm getting to is: a lot of people who couldn't write full out programs could cope with scripting. Just in the same way that a lot of people *could* write fanfic ( => storyline for the Remake). Therefore, in order for someone to get onto the team, I suspect we might want something more than "Well, I can possibly do a bit of scripting".

If it's "I can probably do scripting", and "I'd like to do storyline", and "I'll definitely have enough free time to actually spend on this", and so on ... perhaps we could use you, yes.

Hmm. Scripting. Well, I may as well post up a simple example or so.

This is the script for a save point in the game:

Code: [Select]


Model=defsave
Flags=5
OnEnter=SaveEnter()
OnLeave=FieldMenuMask Off 512
Name=Save Point
Target=Field
Creator=Ficedula

BEGIN_SCRIPT

ShowSaveMsg := TRUE

function SaveEnter {

    If $ShowSaveMsg then
        FieldMenuMask On 512
        EnterDialogue
        NewText st 2d -100/100/0 DLG_TRANS LeaveDialogue
        Dialogue "[Col:Purple]SAVE POINT[Col:White]" "Enter the menu and choose [Save]" "to save your game"
        ShowText
        ShowSaveMsg := FALSE
    EndIf
}

Fairly simple ... the lines at the top set up some basic properties, using values you could look up in the reference files. The actual script does only one thing (really); the first time you "enter" the save point during a given field location, it displays a message ("Enter the menu..."), then sets a variable so that really does happen only once.

Anyway ... I guess I should discuss this further with the other team members...

ShinRa Inc · « **Reply #12 on:** 2002-04-03 02:59:00 »

Quote

If it's "I can probably do scripting", and "I'd like to do storyline", and "I'll definitely have enough free time to actually spend on this", and so on ... perhaps we could use you, yes.

Well, I can't say anything more than that about the Scripting... I don't want to say "Sure, I can do it" and then realize I can't. Though from what you just posted, I don't think I'd have any problems picking it up. As for the rest, I'm one of those sad and wretched souls with an inordinate amount of free time. For the forseeable future, anyway.

Now, if only IE would stop crashing every five minutes....

Brought to you by the generous folks at:

Sephiroth 3D · « **Reply #13 on:** 2002-04-03 06:37:00 »

"Qhimm's Forums" Brought to me by Netscape 6!

I need Alhexx to help me get a 3D engine running in VB so I can continue working on Kefka...

Sephiroth 3D

"I don't understand..." "You don't have to understand." - Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

Sephiroth 3D.com
[email protected]

Skillster/RedSarg99 · « **Reply #14 on:** 2002-04-03 08:10:00 »

i thought u was going to move it to c++?

ficedula · « **Reply #15 on:** 2002-04-03 10:08:00 »

Seph3d: As far as Kefka goes, 3d is a good move; for the original FF7 backgrounds, the Remake tools can position the 2d segments automatically, so it's only 3d that needs to be done manually, as it were...

mirex · « **Reply #16 on:** 2002-04-03 10:31:00 »

Seph: Kefka - funny name .. in my language it means 'tooth brush'

Format hackers: how are you all doing in ff7 formats ? Some advance in something (mainly battle models) ? Im trying on battle skeleton movements, but im moving about 1 byte understood in a day

Does anybody knows where is some info about field skeleton movement ?

ShinRa Inc · « **Reply #17 on:** 2002-04-04 04:12:00 »

Yarg. I don't know if I was supposed to IM you, or vice versa, Seph. If I was, my bad. I copied your AIM name into my buddylist wrong... -.- And since my IE has been acting up the past few days, if anyone else wants to get a hold of me, I'm on AIM for a good portion of the day. Just let me know who you are, so I don't think it's another week-old AOLster asking me what TOS means... -_-

Also, been browsing the forums and people's websites for the past few days, like Saint suggested (Actually, I'd been doing that before I posted, but some of the stuff is Greek to me. Picking up on more of it as I fiddle with the programs I can actually get working...9.9);

I read somewhere that a better site for the remake is being planned...not sure what that means, exactly, but That's something I'm almost certain I could do / help with, or whatnot.

The section on Ficedula's site says the World Map hasn't been worked on at all... even if my graphicing skills aren't up to your standards, I could work on the layout, detailing, and all that. That pretty much applies to anything along those lines. Might not be that helpful, but maybe it'll save the people who know what they're doing five minutes when they get to it, or something. x.x

Detailing the storyline, if that's still needed. I dunno how exactly to show that I'm "good" at that, really...

ficedula · « **Reply #18 on:** 2002-04-04 09:05:00 »

The problem with the world map is we need the 3d mesh for the terrain, one way or the other, and we haven't got it. Obviously the best thing would be to decode the wm files from FF7 original so we can reuse them, but we do need the 3d mesh for it one way or another...

ShinRa Inc · « **Reply #19 on:** 2002-04-04 09:35:00 »

Quote

The problem with the world map is we need the 3d mesh for the terrain, one way or the other, and we haven't got it.

That would be for the final product, wouldn't it...? From what I've read, you'd be using the same map, but with added locations. Wouldn't it be useful, even if you can't do the editing on the actual 3d mesh, to first plot out where things are going to go, and how they'll look? And/or changes to the existing landscape to reflect the earlier time (ie Rocket Town not having a town....or the rocket, depending on the exact time. The scale of Midgar / Junon's completion/expansion. )

ficedula · « **Reply #20 on:** 2002-04-04 09:54:00 »

As it happens, stuff like towns and so on are separate 3d models to the actual terrain mesh, and in fact we can already view/edit them (they're just normal HRC/P models). Like I say, though, we really need the original world map mesh; even if we modify it, obviously we need something to start from!

That is a ways in the future though, yes. At the moment, it's not a priority ... it's getting the storyline done - and into actual field locations - that needs doing at the moment.

mirex · « **Reply #21 on:** 2002-04-04 10:19:00 »

Hey i think i saw some picture of wireframe of terrain here on board, some time ago. I think Saint posted it. Ill try to find that topic ...

ShinRa Inc · « **Reply #22 on:** 2002-04-04 19:22:00 »

Yeah, I found that thread while browsing last night, but it's probably easier to just look at RPGamer to find them. In fact, lemme get the link...

http://www.rpgamer.com/games/ff/ff7/ff7loc.html
I don't think they like direct-linking to the graphics, so just scroll to the "World Map" links down at the bottom.

ficedula · « **Reply #23 on:** 2002-04-04 21:19:00 »

Well, um - that's cool and all, but it doesn't give us the 3d mesh. Just shows some other Â£*%&$ (probably a Square developer) had access to it.

ShinRa Inc · « **Reply #24 on:** 2002-04-04 21:39:00 »

o.o Uh, I was just posting the link because Mirex mentioned it... I didn't mean to imply anything by it. I'll just keep quiet until I hear back from Saint... -.-