Scripting question

[Izban]

I've been floating around for a while know and i have been wondering just how much power does the field script in Final fantasy 7 have for example

would it be possible to load an external program at certain point in the game  to say load a Real time Battle module or a newgame+ type thing

i know FF7music uses a hook system to override the base midi in FF7 would that sort of thing work for other things

[nfitc1]

FF7Music runs the executable internally so it's able to catch the dumped output. That's how it knows what music is playing at any given time. I thought about making a New Game+ app that would modify a save game to be like a "new game" with lots of stuff carried over from a previous game. When I get tired of Dissidia I'll get on that. Only problem is that it'll take three times to get it right. Once at the beginning, once after you get Cait Sith, and once after you get Vincent. Until you get them they don't have any actual data in the save file.

Anyway, to answer your question: no. It doesn't have access to anything outside the FF7 engine. Any new feature you'd want it to do would have to be built into the game's engine.

[Izban]

so to load something different you have to mod the .exe file

[Aali]

What exactly would you want the field script to be able to do? I could easily replace opcodes with the custom driver, as long as it's something simple programming-wise.

Also you're both wrong about FF7Music, it doesn't hook anything nor does it "run the executable internally" (what does that even mean?); it simply captures debug messages on your system, it never touches FF7.

[nfitc1]

it doesn't hook anything nor does it "run the executable internally" (what does that even mean?)

That's not really what I meant. It really doesn't make sense. I meant that FF7Music is what starts the executable.

[halkun]

The script language is a sandboxed. There are no external commands. The Battle() command runs an internal kernel command. You have to change the kernel (The executable) to change what's loaded.

[Aali]

it doesn't hook anything nor does it "run the executable internally" (what does that even mean?)

That's not really what I meant. It really doesn't make sense. I meant that FF7Music is what starts the executable.

Sure, but that's just for convenience, FF7Music doesn't have to start FF7, it makes no difference if you start it yourself some other way as long as FF7Music is running.

</offtopic>

[Izban]

next question would it be possible to rotate the camera in th field like on the world map

[blueropes]

I'm gonna go ahead and guess no?  The environment in the world map is 3D, not like the rendered environments.  For example, Cloud's entrance at the beginning of the game jumping from the top of the train, can only be seen from that angle because that's the only view of the environment rendered.

[Cyberman]

next question would it be possible to rotate the camera in th field like on the world map

Rooms have fixed camera views there are multiple camera views in some rooms but that is because the room scrolls and the fixed background is done such that either perspective will look fine.  An example is Coasta Del Sol If you walk from one side to another the screen pans and so does the camera, the actual background is fixed the camera pans depending on which section of the background is being viewed.  There is no point in doing anything else because the only things that are 3d are actors in the screen. This would be save points treasure chests and things that are walking about.  You can't see the rooms in any other angle because they are permanently rendered (hand drawn actually).

Cyb

[Izban]

but the fact it is possible means that if we were to make 3d backgrounds then we could change the view angle to suit

[blueropes]

are you suggesting replacing every rendered environment with a 3d one?....you must not like sleep

[Izban]

I don't see how that would make me not like sleep considering that halkun's experiment sort of makes it a lot more possible on a much shorter time-frame, all you really need to be able to do is trace and upgrade the models one area at a time much like with the characters.

As a rule environments have a lot less detail involved over character models and less detail = less time spent however we would need a texture artist to do it properly.

think about it we could place our own mark in midgar, put boxes places they weren't making the game more modding friendly/higher detail

[Cyberman]

I don't see how that would make me not like sleep considering that halkun's experiment sort of makes it a lot more possible on a much shorter time-frame, all you really need to be able to do is trace and upgrade the models one area at a time much like with the characters.

As a rule environments have a lot less detail involved over character models and less detail = less time spent however we would need a texture artist to do it properly.

think about it we could place our own mark in midgar, put boxes places they weren't making the game more modding friendly/higher detail

There are ways of doing this, however unless you have the expertise first you will have no idea how to do it.  As QGears is open source you should be able to experiment with adding background information to the FF7 exported data used by the QGears engine. However it is not possible to do with the original data.  Examine the battle scenes in FF7 that's the closest thing to background support you can have in the game. The original engine would require modification to add 3d scenes.  It's not impossible it's just impractical.

Then comes to the problem of creating 3d content based on the scene used.  You can use the walk mesh as a guide. However generating correct depth information is the issue.

I don't believe there is any EASY way to do it.  If your heart is set on this, I suggest experimenting with a small scene. If you don't know much about 3d and Qgears I suggest you study a bit about 3d information (modeling inclusive) on gamedev.net and spend some time learning what is going on with FF7 and how the engine works. If you understand how things work it becomes much clearer how to make what you want reality.

Cyb

[pyrozen]

I don't see how that would make me not like sleep considering that halkun's experiment sort of makes it a lot more possible on a much shorter time-frame, all you really need to be able to do is trace and upgrade the models one area at a time much like with the characters.

As a rule environments have a lot less detail involved over character models and less detail = less time spent however we would need a texture artist to do it properly.

think about it we could place our own mark in midgar, put boxes places they weren't making the game more modding friendly/higher detail

epic fail on this post. While "tracing" the backgrounds can be somewhat quick, it's still a very tedious and time consuming process. Then you have to export the model, unwrap a mesh(assuming your going for 3d rotation in game) and get an ace texture artist to basically re-hand draw the entire scene.

Now your done with the opening train scene, hopefully it only took you a month of dedication and no free time.
Repeat x100

Even re-rendering the scenes in 2d will require someone to take the completed sketchup render and create brand new textures for each face as well. Yes, this method is easier, but that still doesn't make it "easy" to do.

Download sketchup and gimp and give it a go for yourself, you'll see very quickly that your demands are quite insane. It's quite a bit harder to "trace" the image than you think.
Lee

[titeguy3]

Now your done with the opening train scene, hopefully it only took you a month of dedication and no free time.
Repeat x700

Fixed it for ya  

[nfitc1]

Now you're done with the opening train scene, hopefully it only took you a month of dedication and no free time.
Repeat x700

Fixed it for ya  

Fixed it better for both of you.