Resume of our work on FF7

[Kaldarasha]

This is a brief capture of bugs, To Do List, tools and needed tools. Please keep in mind that I can't test every tools entirely function, especially DLPB's Tool collection has very powerful tools and time savers, but some are made for a better Hex editing which is beyond my knowledge. Further there are some projects which already work on points on the To Do List, but sometimes it isn't possible to connect one special project to it, so I made this global. The To Do List should encourage new moders to find a project which suits his/her ability. And the tool section should help to find fast a tool they may need. It's not a list of all tools we have but a list of the most needed ones.
Further I expecting that the latest custom driver from Aali is installed, don't post a bug when you are using an older version. Specially Bootleg related bugs doesn't belong here.

Current Custom Graphics Driver for FF7:  v0.8.1b

Current Bugs of the PC Version:
- Shadows of the character/enemy models are wrong displayed
- Balloons in the Snowboard minigame are wrong rendered
- Music in Junon introduction FMV didn't have the volume change as in PSX
- Strange speed up of the FPS in Chocobo minigame
- No wave sound when Leviathan attacks
- it is currently not possible to replace the light layer in field correctly


To Do List:
- New Animation
- New background sound for more immersion
- HighRes rendered backgrounds            |
- New character and enemy models        |----> Possibly new rendering of the FMVs
- finding a way to replace the models in the Snowboard minigame
- Repositioning of the models in field
- Sound overhaul
- repainting of the magic effects
- Script improvements if necessary (what ever this means)
- 60FPS mode
- Battle balancing mode for the vanilla game
- overhauling all battle backgrounds to high res
- overhaul of the minigame textures and menus


Extra:
- Voice Over
- Footstep sound
- dropshadow for the characters on field
- New quests
- New Hidden bosses
- Overhaul of the battle system
- Fort Condor minigame seams unfinished, in the last fight you access to everything without doing anything for it
- harder Chocobo minigame, so it matters if you choose the long or the short circuit
- harder Mog Minigame!
- Events on the Eventsquare
- More dialog for the NPC
- More background information about the world of FF7
- Placing some of RedXIII kind in Cosmo Canyon
- new shader for Aali's driver
- A way to use rigged meshes for the models


Tools we have

Text and Script editors

• Makoureactor - very powerful field script editor
• BoxFF7 - Text editor which allows you to change the text in the text boxes while playing the game. It stores the edited text in a text file so you may need another tool to implement the changed text.
• ToughScript - Can nearly change any text of the game
• ProudClod - Battle editor
• Wallmarket - Editor for the Kernels
• White Chocobo - Shop editor

3D and graphic tools

• Kimera - Model editor, can import 3ds files
• pCreator - an converter of 3ds files to p files
• image2tex - an converter for Tex to BMP and vice versa
• textool - an converter for Tex to PNG and vice versa
• Palmer - a background exporter of the fields to png files
• Shinratool - allows to extract walkmesh and camera data for field files, it's needed if you want to rebuild one of the backgrounds
• Bitrun - not only FF7 related, can convert p, rsd, HRC and files of the battle models to 3ds

Sound

• A tool to replace the crappy sound system - ficedula is working on it, project name Ultrasound

Miscellaneous

• Otchu - FF7 Trainer, good for modders to test there mods or getting position values for placing objects
• FF7tk - If you plan to make a new tool check this toolkit out fist
• Black Chocobo - Save game editor
• DLPB's Tools - very useful tool collection, for examable the launcher can make changes to the FF7.exe without to make any edits to it and can inject DLL's. Please read his tool instructions!
• 7th Heaven - Great tool to install mods. Has some extra features. But sadly the project is dead. Iros is back! 
• FF7 Game Converter - Converts and unify the game to the 1998 release, it basically changes the game to the English version but keeps the foreign language intact - needs an update to DLPB's new tools

Tools needed

• A worldmap editor and a worldmap script editor
• A *working* walkmesh creator and editor for self created fields
• A new Mod injector like 7th Heaven Iros is back!
• An model and animation importer and exporter for Blender/3DMax

Other needed stuff

• An overlay for Makou Reactor which writes the script automatically. So you can place models and objects on the field map/walkmesh and be able to set event points.
• Tool Tutorials!!!
• A config-tool to edit Aali's driver and which could replace FF7config.exe

#############Final Fantasy VII - The Big List of Mods################

[WolfMan]

This is really nice man. Very well organized. I'm weak in programming but very strong in 2D graphics if you need anything in 2D I can work on it. I haven't rated myself in 3D yet as I've hit a major road block in my Were Red XIII project for now. Lol

[DLPB_]

BoxFF7 doesn't necessarily need touphscript... it's just designed to be used with it.  You can just as easily make small changes and use Makou or another editor.  The X Y H W values of the boxes should hold true.

[Kaldarasha]

This is really nice man. Very well organized. I'm weak in programming but very strong in 2D graphics if you need anything in 2D I can work on it. I haven't rated myself in 3D yet as I've hit a major road block in my Were Red XIII project for now. Lol

I have played with the thought to polish the backgrounds by hand. Using a good upscale filter and then doing some fine tuning. Many complain about the low res but the real problem is the very low resolution color palate (64 colors I guess) for a background. So maybe its possible to work out certain things by hand which get lost by the upscaling process.

BoxFF7 doesn't necessarily need touphscript... it's just designed to be used with it.  You can just as easily make small changes and use Makou or another editor.  The X Y H W values of the boxes should hold true.

I'll change that. But I think that BoxFF7 and toughscript are a great combo.

[Mayo Master]

Thanks Kaldarasha for this summary.
By the way, I suggest you add Shinratool in the 3D and graphic tools, which allows to extract walkmesh and camera data for field files. 

[nfitc1]

I started on a shadow editor, but realized that it's the same shadow for every battle actor. It's just a circle that the model has some control over the x and z diameters to make it big/small/elliptical. I think this data is stirred in the AB file of the battle model, but I'm not sure which value it is.

As for the 60 fps problem, I think the only remaining issue is the interpolation of the magic effects. I've experimented with this and it's no simple thing to fix. Every effect animation handler is compiled into the exe so it's not as easy as "increase the incremental steps by a factor of four" like it was with the camera scripts. This is more like "alter all 400~ effects one-by-one and slow them down by a factor of four." They're all handled differently and need to be considered in conjunction with the animation scripts that use them such as when and where in the animation sequence some of them occur. For the multi-hit like Ultima or Pandora's box this isn't as big a deal. For the grunt's Beam Gun though...
I should make a proof-of-concept adjustment on the Ultima effect and make a video of it...

[luksy]

I started poking around in the wm script again, I have about 20/100 ops done but those are the easy ones.

[Kaldarasha]

I started on a shadow editor, but realized that it's the same shadow for every battle actor. It's just a circle that the model has some control over the x and z diameters to make it big/small/elliptical. I think this data is stirred in the AB file of the battle model, but I'm not sure which value it is.

The texture is probably Kage.dat (at last the translation of it is 'shadow'). I would assume that the **AB files give the battle module relevant information about the model, like you said the size of the shadow, but also where is which animation in the  **da file. Maybe also how to apply a shader to the model like for the berserk status, but that's only wild speculation of me.
I'm not entirely sure if the shadow is wrong rendered, but all effects seems to be wrong displayed, which need the average shader.
Here is an example: I had attached to Clouds hip bone a textured plane and moved it down to his boots*. I applied a roughly made drop shadow texture on it and then I started the game with it. Well the first result was like expected, only the spaces with a alpha value of zero are transparent (the shadow was a quadrate with round corners). After that I had changed the shader for the plane from normal to average and this had worked, BUT it also had added an unwanted translucence to it, so it displayed all alpha values of the texture correctly but made the texture also 50% transparent. I guess this wrong behavior of the average shader causes the transparent looking eyes of some battle models.

*It was only a test to see how it would look, if the game has dropshadows in field for the characters. As you might guess this will only look good for standing and walk/run animations.

[nfitc1]

You are correct that it's in the Kage.dat file. I edited that a little a while back and got it to not look like a circle, but it was the same shape for all characters.. I'd have to start looking at it again to see if I can get more out of it.
I think all it does is render a fraction above the ground at each actor's x,z coords ( y is height). I don't know if it can be colored or blended differently than it is in vanilla, but I only played with the shape before giving up.

[Kaldarasha]

I remember to have seen shape modified shadows. I guess it was in connection with the 60FPS project.

[obesebear]

I remember to have seen shape modified shadows. I guess it was in connection with the 60FPS project.

Speaking of which, I just quit my job and will have nothing but time on my hands for the next 2 months.  You can expect to see a little movement in that thread in the next couple of days

[Kaldarasha]

I have decided to make a list of problems that remain with Final Fantasy VII.  Hopefully this will kick start some action.  If you have anything to add, please post here.

1. Submarine Minigame is incomplete.  It was left in a really crappy state. It was also left with the original Japanese defaults, and not the later tweak for the International version. I am currently fixing this up and giving it some life via the Reunion.

2. Credit screen has no frame limiter.  It will run at vsync, and if this isn't on, it will run as fast as your PC will allow.  Aali added a frame limiter for the battle swirl, and this needs one too.

3. Battle is not 60fps (like PSX), meaning menu items run 4x less smooth.  I have created a quick fix for this, but the project started by Obesebear will be a more complete solution.

4. Some models have not been updated by Kaldarasha.  The vast majority have.

5. Sound effects sometimes play when the volume is set to 0. 

6. The eyes of the characters are still visible after summon fade outs...  This may have happened with PSX.

7. Field scrolling has a bug.  Every second or so, it will skip a few pixels (observe the scroll the first time you enter Wallmarket).  This is present with PSX version.  I am going to look into it.

8. Frame limiters are a joke.  Something is seriously wrong with PC version.  It seems to have been thrown together.  Frame rate seems to suffer with some (including me) when vsync is enabled. Even when it isn't, I don't think it's quite reaching 15fps, 30fps or 60fps.  It is falling short.  Dziugo was in the process of fixing this issue when he got busy a long while back.

9.  Probably related to 8.  When recording with Fraps/DXtory, or anything else, there is a frame loss of around 3fps.  It's almost as if the game is designed to do it.  It's very annoying, and the only way to stop it happening is to let fraps/dxtory do the limiting by setting ff7 to run at a higher speed.  Please note this "bug" exists regardless of OS, computer spec, or recording software.  I am not sure how it fared without Aali's driver, but I am guessing probably the same or worse.

---in progress---

http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=15414.msg216357#new

[dkma841]

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[Kaldarasha]

Only a small idea but it would be nice if we could change the staff roll through a video where the important scenes are viewed again with an old film effect and the original chibi models. As a kind of a tribute for the development team back then.

[sithlord48]

on the topic of tool creation .. now would be a good time for others to contribute to  FF7tk. Its now hosted on git hub now with mostly complete documentation for exsisting items.

[Dubular]

Only a small idea but it would be nice if we could change the staff roll through a video where the important scenes are viewed again with an old film effect and the original chibi models. As a kind of a tribute for the development team back then.

I could put that together no problem. My question is this, would it be possible to have a video play in place of the credits? If that's do-able, I'll start working the video.

[Kaldarasha]

We could expand the ending 2 video at the end or the ending 3 video at the beginning with the credits. But I guess the command to use these videos is hard coded in the exe. I can only find in the field script a play credits command, so I think this triggers the ending videos and the staff roll.