Author Topic: Information on FF7.exe (Read 73181 times)

Srethron Askvelhtnod · « **Reply #25 on:** 2001-01-24 02:54:00 »

Probably true, but I try not to underestimate Ficedula.

The Skillster · « **Reply #26 on:** 2001-01-24 05:00:00 »

well, trying to make vincent turn into cloud.dat for a limit break didnt work either

any general rule as to what you can n cant edit?

Srethron Askvelhtnod · « **Reply #27 on:** 2001-01-24 07:32:00 »

You haven't been changing the length of ff7.exe have you? Maybe the problem is that you're trying to replace a certain type of file with a different type? I'm really not sure.

ficedula · « **Reply #28 on:** 2001-01-24 14:45:00 »

Never underestimate the Ficedula! I'm uploading Cosmo 0.45 now - compresses to slightly smaller files and only takes a few seconds (<5 secs).

Qhimm · « **Reply #29 on:** 2001-01-24 15:41:00 »

Wha...? As in smaller than the original?

The Skillster · « **Reply #30 on:** 2001-01-24 16:26:00 »

wha! Fice's da man! joking

Seriuosley I shouldnt doubt him either

he seems to produce quicker then i can ask

but he seems to have FF7 on the run

The Skillster · « **Reply #31 on:** 2001-01-24 16:30:00 »

Nooo! tripod's down again

Ficedula: where was your mirrored site again?

ficedula · « **Reply #32 on:** 2001-01-24 16:38:00 »

Qhimm: No! tho that would be cool. Smaller as in smaller than the files Cosmo *used* to produce. We're talking < 1/2 KB bigger than the originals. I think Square used the format to it's maximum and there *is* no more compression to be had.

Skillster: I've just been to Tripod and downloaded the file just to check it - worked fine and wasn't even slow. Sure it wasn't your connection? Or maybe it was just down for a few minutes.

The Skillster · « **Reply #33 on:** 2001-01-24 17:00:00 »

it must be win2000 then

Srethron Askvelhtnod · « **Reply #34 on:** 2001-01-24 20:38:00 »

Ficedula: Aha! I knew it! Great news. Downloading right now.

The Skillster: Let's hope we do get FF7 on the run.

The Skillster · « **Reply #35 on:** 2001-01-25 02:13:00 »

I think as a general rule of thumb:
the cloud.dat reference (thats what ill call em from now) refers to a data selction (collection of files) that are specific to their functions. Ie if the exe asks for choas.dat its expecting a set collection of motions, tex files and details, where as the cloud.dat has the collections of motions/images for attacks,magic,summon motions.
so changing a limit reference to a player reference causes the game to crash because the info or collection of files differs to the limit collection
anyone get that? anyone know some more...
look for neo, see the all the special effects function calls?

Srethron Askvelhtnod · « **Reply #36 on:** 2001-01-25 06:03:00 »

Thanks for the info. Therefore, wouldn't we have to swap the cloud.dat with the vinsent.dat to do what you want?

ficedula · « **Reply #37 on:** 2001-01-25 15:42:00 »

Skillster: I believe you're right. Haven't got any proof for it tho.

As for Cosmo: Sorry all! Internal editor had a major bug in it that caused it to ignore all your changes ... fixed now.

The Skillster · « **Reply #38 on:** 2001-01-25 15:46:00 »

ah, the update of the day...
any ways as i said b4; the vincent.dat and the cloud.dat collections have similar files in their collections thus swapping them would be possible, what i was trying was the suggestion in the original post to turn vincent into cloud for a limit break

but swapping cloud.dat and vinsent.dat in the limit break section might or might not have some surprises...

Srethron Askvelhtnod · « **Reply #39 on:** 2001-01-25 19:41:00 »

Ficedula: Thanks for the info. Maybe I'll be able to actually use the editor again.

The Skillster: I guess we'll have to find out then.

The SaiNt · « **Reply #40 on:** 2001-01-26 10:16:00 »

I'm back!!!
Wow, I've only been away for a few days and you guys have made the thread so long that i'll have to take some time to read everything through.
Another assumption that I'll think I'll make.
The .DAT files should be within the EXE file.
In fact I think there are many files in the EXE file and I think they are combined in the same format as the .P files.

Ficedula: About FF7.EXE making a it's own library of files, I have to agree with you cause if you look in the .EXE file you will notice them refering to files in the LGP with directory structures like flevellibblabala.cpp or such, I think. (This is coming out of my head so don't blaim me if something is wrong)

The Skillster · « **Reply #41 on:** 2001-01-26 11:43:00 »

I have to agree with you
There is more evidence to support internal files/libararies;
there is reference to s3d.cpp and s2d.cpp files which are similar in name to the temp files in the ff7 root directory; 2 of them are s2d.p and s3d.p !

ficedula · « **Reply #42 on:** 2001-01-26 13:48:00 »

Erm ... yes. I wouldn't take .CPP files as proving this theory (though I think it's right!) since they're the names of the source code files that the EXE was compiled from. They're probably in there so if something f***s up, an error message pops up telling the programmers which source code file the error occurred in.

Srethron Askvelhtnod · « **Reply #43 on:** 2001-01-26 22:39:00 »

I wish I had something to add. Unfortunately, at the moment I don't really have anything. Just thought I should welcome The SaiNt back and encourage you three to keep up the good work. I am going to study over this theory, btw.

[This message has been edited by Srethron Askvelhtnod (edited January 26, 2001).]

The Skillster · « **Reply #44 on:** 2001-01-27 01:48:00 »

congrats on the freak status srethron

ficedula: if they (the temp files) arent libaries/code then what in your opinion are they? if you dont know what they are ive posted the link to then on the first page of the cosmo topic

ficedula · « **Reply #45 on:** 2001-01-27 17:35:00 »

Skillster: I've no idea. All I'm saying is, just because you find filenames like FLEVELFIELDWHATEVER.CPP it doesn't prove FF7 makes it's own "virtual files" to hold data in - CPP files are the source files it was compiled from. I think it probably DOES do that, but nobody's proved it yet.

The Skillster · « **Reply #46 on:** 2001-01-27 18:13:00 »

my question still stands;
what are/do the temp files?

The SaiNt · « **Reply #47 on:** 2001-01-29 19:01:00 »

Since this topic is so hot now, I might as well post my question here.
About the .P files do you guys think they are compressed? Although the file size is small it is not unlikely that they have compressed it. Some savegames are still compressed though they are small in size.

ficedula · « **Reply #48 on:** 2001-01-29 20:16:00 »

Unlikely. They tend to compress files either to:

a) Save disk space. Hence the levels are compressed since they're quite large (>100MB for thewhole game)

b) Prevent hacking - hence the savegames!

The SaiNt · « **Reply #49 on:** 2001-01-30 09:15:00 »

While I was analysing the hex data of aaac.p today(I printed it out cause it was too tedious to read it on the screen), I noticed something that might interest some of the people here. Maybe some of you might already have noticed it but I wouldn't know so I'll just tell you guys just in case.

Here's a snippet of aaac.p from address
00000270 - 000002E0
**********************************
0200 0000 0000 0300 0300 0100 0000 0400
0400 0300 0000 0500 0500 0600 0600 0000
0200 0500 0100 0700 0700 0800 0800 0100
0700 0900 0900 0800 0300 0700 0800 0200
0400 0700 0400 0900 0500 0A00 0A00 0600
0A00 0B00 0B00 0600 0A00 0C00 0C00 0B00
0D00 0C00 0C00 0500 0500 0D00 0C00 0900

**********************************

Here you can obviously see that a hex value of '00' appears after every one value.

Refering to the example of a .PLY file,
the #poligon section contains no. that are alternated by spaces. This is what I think the hex represents. Any other opinions?

If the .P files are in fact "not compressed",
then the .PlY, .GRP and .MAT files should only be combined into one file and their text would be written in a different ASCII order(assumption again).

If this proves to be the case, then all I have to do is do a statistical appearance of all characters in the .P file. Then, I can check for characters that occur less than 3 times, since the '@' can only appear a maximum of 3 times as a header to describe the version of the .PLY, .MAT or .GRP file.

Anyone have any other opinions on how the files would be combined?