Oh how I wish I had he skill at spotting the relevant patterns for data structures like you guys have... Even with well documented headers I can't seem to make my bytes fit right... nonetheless find a vertex pool...
but regardless, I'm glad to see I'm not the only one still interested in getting a good look at 8's graphics.
For me it's sort of like this, "I'm working on an LED luminary, how far is that half bridge from the OSMC 4.1XX, ok I have this AT91SAM7S dev kit is the JTAG drivers installed, I need to install YAGARTO to develope for the micro why is ECLIPSE CDT wiping out the ZYLIN CDT used with YAGARTO, we have 30cm of snow in the drive way. Ok which to do first" sadly that's just today. That didn't include eating getting up and the myriad of other things I think of in a single day etc.
I would spend more time on this stuff if I had more time I guess is the best way of looking at it.
The best way to look at graphics data is that it IS data. Data must be arranged in a uniform manner. Data must have certain information in it for it to function. What does FF8 do? It has polygons textures, and a skeletal system. We know this by observing the game output. So it must have UV data to map the texture. It must have a texture. It must have a list of vertex information. It must have a polygon list. I believe FF8 used all quads I can't be positive because it's been almost 3 years and 9 months since I looked at it. Unlike FF7 it's all the same data type. FF7 had a rather complex setup where it drew quads triangles and then textures. FF8 just does textures. Of course the reason why FF7 looks quite good still is because of the complex method of rendering.You are a bit further along than I was I was about where you were at the post on
2009-10-09 14:31:2.
Side ramblings, I have more FF9 data now. I suppose I should finish gathering the FF8 data as well. I need several hundred saves with detailed notes on them basically to verify what bit does what and when. One LONG boring play through.
I may put up a detailed CRC explanation as well (hmmm).
Erstwhile with the FF8 data I suggest taking a bit map and drawing on it while you render, the polygon data or while you traverse it. This technique allowed me to find and understand the UV data in FF7. IE you feed the UV coordinate data into a vector drawing routine and plot the UV drawing out on a bitmap. IF it looks right then you are probably correct in analysizing the data. Do note they do mirror the data. If you wish to get fancy you can also include numbering for each polygon drawn as well. I started doing that just to know what was done when. (I was nuts I admit).
IF you detail all of this better than I can remember good, if you have the time put it in the wiki (LOL) maybe Qgears will get FF8 functionality sooner than later.
Cyb