So my adventure begins...

[Musical-Phoenix]

Firstly I would like to apologise if this is posted in the wrong section but I saw no place to introduce myself, and seeing as the description states "General FF/Square topics belong here, along with stuff that doesn't quite fit in elsewhere." I thought this would be the best place to start.



I have been browsing this form for many weeks now and have been testing out loads of the mods created by you fantastic coders.
One of the things that made me become hooked to this site was the fact that I love FF7. Its story line has to be one of the best in a long time and nothing quite grasps my mind like this one. Its pure brilliant.

I currently have FF7 for PSX, PS3 and PC, both me and my brother enjoy it and have spent many, many hours playing it and trying to complete it 100% 


Over the past few years (6+) I have had a huge interest in coding and designing and have learnt HTML, PHP, C++, Ruby, basic... not to a advanced level but enough to create small applications. I have also messed about with 3DSM, Panda, and a few other 3D programs.

I started modding games at a early age starting with simple editing of .txt files in worms and theme park world, and am now studying a course in C++ games development with Train2Game.

However I always love to have a side project that I can learn from and explore along side. 

After seeing the amazing things you have all created I thought to my self... "I can do this" Not in a "this is easy any one could do it" way but more of a "this is the kind of challenge i need and could pull off with my skills and passion for the game" way.

I have read through the wiki about how the files are stored in locations like 00F etc and how the 6 modules run alone mainly linking to the field and would like to now embark on a learning journey on how to mod this wonderful game myself.

I know it wont be easy to start off but seeing as I'm very eager to learn how its all done, and would love to see a remake just like the many other thousands out there, I think its a nice goal to set myself.



If possible I would like to use this post as a log of problems I encounter and hopefully I can get a few answers leaving a great thread that others can read and follow if they too wish to learn and start modding like me.


Feel free to tell me im crazy or daft at any time, as some of the things I might try to achieve may sound extrema at times. But I hope you all see how although my ideas may be crazy they are just a young man hoping to achieve something great here 


Thankyou for reading my little... (ok not that little) introduction, hopefully I shall soon be bringing new things to you all.

I first plan on learning how to decompress all the files using the tools provided and then open them up ready to mod.

Feel free to throw tips at me if you feel I may benefit from them.

Thanks everyone.
 

[sithlord48]

my only suggestion is to check out the wiki

wiki.qhimm.com.

personally i think the best help would be  breaking the signing algurithum of the PS3/PSP so programs like  Black Chocobo or Hyne can save correctly to a ps3 or psp. idk if this is something that you can help work on but i don't even know where to start with it.

[nfitc1]

After seeing the amazing things you have all created I thought to my self... "I can do this" Not in a "this is easy any one could do it" way but more of a "this is the kind of challenge i need and could pull off with my skills and passion for the game" way.

This is EXACTLY why I created WM and PrC. I will now expect equally great things from you.

Feel free to ask (politely) if you want any help with anything programmatically or with the mechanics of the game.

[Musical-Phoenix]

 
Thankyou for the replies.

@Sithlord48.. I have browsed through the Wiki and have started using it as a structure to my learning of how this works. Starting with the basics of learning about how the engine works for this game, then the kernal and following on from there.

I know quite a bit of the basic stuff as it is due to learning about it in my spare time whilst browsing forums related to the PSP Hen, PS3 CFW and many other modding topics. They have all helped me learn how things are done and have all had me very interested.

As for "breaking the signing algurithum of the PS3/PSP so programs like  Black Chocobo or Hyne can save correctly to a ps3 or psp."... well... If I knew where to start I would start work now and would end up so addicted to trying to figure it out that I wouldn't stop.. I have been following the Geo case along with many others and how they managed to home brew. Its interesting. (Note I don't condone Piracy and that from my point of view home brew is a completely different thing)

So this would be something I would love to try and achieve when (Not if) I become experienced enough in code. (I see you said something that you can help work on... Is it already in progress here? )

@NFITC1 Im glad im not the only one with this passion. I wont go as far as saying I know exactly how to code as I have no idea how to create a GUI however when it comes to creating a application I can create nearly anything i can think of.. It may just take me time and research that im prepared to do... and may end up running in dos lol.

I dabbled with .bat files and cam make some ok C++ programs like encoders/decoders with complex formulae and even a character stats editor for my custom characters (not for FF) and I have made many programs that hunt, create, destroy, but all in all I still need to perfect GUI 


Hopefully things shouldn't take me too long to grasp the code side of it and I hope to be creating/editing very soon.

Again.. thankyou ^_^

[yarLson]

any thoughts on what your first project will be?

[Musical-Phoenix]

Honestly I have no idea.. I think i'll start off simple and just get to grips with the lay out of the files and how they work first , then move on to reading the code. After that the only main thing I want to do is clean it up.. which is what you all seem to want.

I was reading about the game engine and kernal and how it only loads up small sections of information at a time. From what I can tell it only loads up small chunks and has a max load up size of 4,340 bytes.. correct me if im wrong as im still looking into this. (it does seem very small)

What I plan on trying to do first is to extend the size read and used so that larger files can be used.. eg even higher res files and more of them. better sounds without the need of a extra feature and a few other things.

So say for instance a image takes up 100 bytes now, then we could upgrade the res of the image to end up being 1Mb and still be able to use it.

No idea if this has been done but personally it seems like a good thing to start on.

All in all if it was to be properly redone it would need a new engine as the graphics are very limited from what I see.
I have seen the hi res cloud mods etc but again I have no idea how they did this at the moment unless its just don to the texture and not the actual model.

I may be taking the complete wrong approach at this but I have no idea until I try.

[sithlord48]

So this would be something I would love to try and achieve when (Not if) I become experienced enough in code. (I see you said something that you can help work on... Is it already in progress here?  )

well psp and ps3 saving are 100% working other then the checksum in BC. umm my lack of a psp/ps3 kinda makes the signing part a tad difficult .

edit:fixed quote bracket

[yarLson]

So say for instance a image takes up 100 bytes now, then we could upgrade the res of the image to end up being 1Mb and still be able to use it.

hmm sounds interesting but are you sure it would be necessary. I mean in my field upscale project I am upgrading the background images and pretty much every single base layer is well over 1mb. Of course they can only be loaded using Aali's driver, but I don't see his driver be replaced any time soon. As for a new game engine, check the QGears section, sounds like you might just have enough know how to help. Also check sourceforge for the latest SVN of QGears.

[Musical-Phoenix]

@Sithlord48
I thought it wasn't possible to get things running on the PS3 without it being signed. And to my knowledge the only way to sign it at the moment is if you have CFW with a key in it that allows the use of extra PS3 content developed by others than sony.

So out of curiousness...What exactly do you meant by "ps3 saving are 100% working other then the checksum in BC"?
Or am I just reading this slightly wrong and what you mean is it works but only with CFW?

@yarLson
Hmmmm seems like iI need to look into this a slight bit more before i crack on.. which funny enough is what I was going to do first 

So Aali's driver can load up any image into the game? At any size? does this also work with the models that are textured?

Im still sniffing about the way the original game works ad how tat could be improved without add-ons but by changing the code its self. Maybe that the wrong way to go about it and the best way would be to just create new mods for it and then replace the existing parts with those mods permanently.

For example... changing all the game textures and images then adding Aali's driver to use them thus rendering the original code for output needless and removing it all to gether to only have Aali's driver running the image output functions?

[yarLson]

you can use any model you want using the direct folder in aali's driver without ever having to pack anything. I don't think their is a size restrictions, but I could be wrong. As for getting familiar with the original game coding, I would say learn as much as you can, but ultimately rather than trying to edit old code and having such a limited realm of possibilities, take that knowledge and contribute to the QGears project. As of right now I think there is only one person working on it, so I think your help would be greatly welcome, and if you really want to change the game at its core, you'd probably be better off helping the creation of a new engine rather than tinkering with old machines.

[Musical-Phoenix]

Thanks for the input.

I'll do some more research on the make up of the game code so that I know what I'm working with and how it all fits then when I feel ready to code things that will work along side its code I'll let the QGears project member(s) know. hopefully it shouldn't be too long as im ding to get started on something 
Im currently looking at the checksum code in http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=4211.msg60545#msg60545 and seeing how it works. Also adding a few other things to it to make it into a exe that you can just run with a few simple questions rather than having to use CMD checksum.exe sourcefile.ff7 destinationfile.ff7.

I know its probably not something needed as it already exits.. Its just my way of learning how things work by adding stuff and seeing how it works.

[yarLson]

well at this point, I just wanna wish you luck in your endeavors and I hope to see some awesome contributions from you someday 

[Covarr]

@Sithlord48
I thought it wasn't possible to get things running on the PS3 without it being signed. And to my knowledge the only way to sign it at the moment is if you have CFW with a key in it that allows the use of extra PS3 content developed by others than sony.

So out of curiousness...What exactly do you meant by "ps3 saving are 100% working other then the checksum in BC"?
Or am I just reading this slightly wrong and what you mean is it works but only with CFW?

I'm fairly certain save signing and application signing are not the same. Not only that, but fakesigned homebrew doesn't necessarily need a CFW; it should also work in older PS3 firmwares from before they changed signing.

Of course, I highly doubt they are worried too much about PSX memcard security. I'd be willing to bet it's much simpler than with full-fledged software.

[sithlord48]

@Sithlord48
I thought it wasn't possible to get things running on the PS3 without it being signed. And to my knowledge the only way to sign it at the moment is if you have CFW with a key in it that allows the use of extra PS3 content developed by others than sony.

So out of curiousness...What exactly do you meant by "ps3 saving are 100% working other then the checksum in BC"?
Or am I just reading this slightly wrong and what you mean is it works but only with CFW?

well i can enable my saveps3 function and it will create a .psv file that will be correctly formated other then the ps3's 160-bit checksum that it tacks on to the file. (so a ps3 won't load it or will see it as corupt)

psp saving is enabled in BC now, but only works for CFW psp's (i've been told as i don't own a psp to test on)