about FF8 background format

[bsp]

Thanks to mirex's biturn, I can view the raw image data of .mim files of FF8 background image, but the real image data and sprites are all messed up with weired palettes. After reading about Ficedula's "FF7 Field File documentation", I found there're something familiar with FF8 background file format. Like the FF7 field file, there may be a size of the background image and a table indicating which 16 x 16 block will be blt onto which position of the background image, and some palette for sprites as well. Is there someone know how they are stored?

[Cyberman]

Thanks to mirex's biturn, I can view the raw image data of .mim files of FF8 background image, but the real image data and sprites are all messed up with weired palettes. After reading about Ficedula's "FF7 Field File documentation", I found there're something familiar with FF8 background file format. Like the FF7 field file, there may be a size of the background image and a table indicating which 16 x 16 block will be blt onto which position of the background image, and some palette for sprites as well. Is there someone know how they are stored?

For the playstation Snail Rush knows. If I bug him he won't tell me he won't tell me if I don't ask him either.  Simply put he doesn't want to share it.  With 8mimic you can extract the background images from FF8 at least.
When I have something that views the FF7 backgrounds etc clearly I'll start with FF8.  please note FF9 is close to FF8 in format but not identical.

Cyb

[bsp]

What I am working on is the PC version. Don't know if it's the same format with PS version. But at least the resolution will be the same.
I' ve asked him once but was refused. Maybe the format is cost him so much time that he don't want to share it.
However I 've found the right palettes, each points to a small part of tiles. They are at the offset 0x1000 of the .mim file, with the size 0x200.

[Alhexx]

                                 

1. Smilies have a place in a message board, but too many can be annoying. If the amount of smileys you post is more than 1/5 of your word count, you may consider cutting some of them.
2. Post counts are simply used to show how much a member participates in discussion. "Spaming" the board (repeatedly posting messages without any content) to raise your post count could get you reset (Your post count goes to zero.)

I remember someone called cHiBiMaRuKo, whose post count has been reset to 0 for that.

So I'm making use of my mod power and deleting this one.

 - Alhexx

[Cyberman]

What I am working on is the PC version. Don't know if it's the same format with PS version. But at least the resolution will be the same.
I' ve asked him once but was refused. Maybe the format is cost him so much time that he don't want to share it.
However I 've found the right palettes, each points to a small part of tiles. They are at the offset 0x1000 of the .mim file, with the size 0x200.

I believe Qhimm had something that allowed you to get at the backgrounds on FF8.
In FF7 the screen i s stored as 8 bit bitmaps into VRAM then the palettes are used on each bitmap.  I believe the identical technique is used for FF8.  Remember these are ports of the playstation game so there will be some similiarities of data.  For the PC version I'm sure they converted the 128x128 16x16 block groups into data before viewing the background and then pasted to the screen as needed. (I could be wrong though).

Cyb

[snailrush]

3 posts in 6 monts... spamming you say?
And I don't see how *1* line is annoying, plus it was not out of context. Unlike your post which breaks the topic with your memories.

I remember someone called cHiBiMaRuKo, whose post count has been reset to 0 for that.

You people are cruel!! （ ´,_ゝ｀）ﾌﾟｯﾌﾟｯﾌﾟｯ

Make use of your head, man. With discernment.

[Micky]

In FF7 the screen is stored as 8 bit bitmaps into VRAM then the palettes are used on each bitmap.

I've seen both 8 bit and 16 bit bitmaps in FF7 PSX. There is a table in the DAT file, 8 byte for each tile. So far I have not spend terribly much time with it. I don't know how the start address is calculated, but you find it quite easily in a hex editor.

Code: [Select]


s16 - target x (on screen)
s16 - target y
u8 - source x (in MIM file)
u8 - source y
u8 - attr 1
u8 - attr 2

page = attr1 >> 6

The page seems to decide over the palette as well. Just copy one 16x16 block for each entry in the table.
I looked at the FIELD description in Gears, and it says that the PSX file is like the PC file but with an additional header. Maybe I'm looking at it the wrong way, but it looks totally different in my (US/NTSC) version. Can someone verify that?

[halkun]

That's only for the fieldscript code. (Section 1 of the Field file and the entire PSX DAT file are the same, save for a small header)

[Micky]

That's only for the fieldscript code. (Section 1 of the Field file and the entire PSX DAT file are the same, save for a small header)

Ah, that is why I was confused...
The PSX DAT file contains at least section 9 which is the background, and I guess a lot more. You can easily see this yourself: The last thing in section 1 is the text, if you check that in a DAT file, there is still a lot of data after that.

[halkun]

I stand corrected, an amendment will be forthcoming in GEARS

[Cyberman]

That's only for the fieldscript code. (Section 1 of the Field file and the entire PSX DAT file are the same, save for a small header)

Ah, that is why I was confused...
The PSX DAT file contains at least section 9 which is the background, and I guess a lot more. You can easily see this yourself: The last thing in section 1 is the text, if you check that in a DAT file, there is still a lot of data after that.

Yes... it contains a LOT of things.  The MIM files contain the raw data to be used in the background.  However I don't really understand the PSX format too well.

Cyb

[Alhexx]

snailrush: I didn't say that 3 posts in 6 months are spamming, that was just a  quote from the rules.
I just remember the discussion about posts which only contained smilies, and I can tell you that such post are not seen likely here.
I wasn't going to punish you or anything, I just had to do my job as a mod, and I thought it would be better to delete those smilieys instead of waiting for more trouble.

End of discussion.

 - Alhexx

[bsp]

I've found something more interesting:

In .tdw file, the first 2 dword is pointers, what the second points is a tim picture with 16 palettes, some Japnese characters there. There is a sysfnt.tdw in menu.fs as well, which is the game font, guess it wasn't used.

The .map file stored the tile table from .mim to background, 16 bytes per tile. The format is a little different from the FF7 field table which Ficedula had described.

Code: [Select]

struct TileTable{
signed short destX; //background position, can be negative
signed short destY; //can be negative
unsigned short layerOrder;
unsigned char srcPageIndex; //source page index of .mim file, minus 0x90
unsigned char unknown2;
unsigned short paleIndex; //palettes index, minus 0x3c00 then divide by 0x40
unsigned char srcX;
unsigned char srcY; //source position of page in .mim file
unsigned char unknown3[2]; //sfx related?
unsigned char optionalTile; //00: addable tile
unsigned char bgLayerIndex; //background layer index
};