Author Topic: My gift to you guys and myself and FF7 (Read 8955 times)

jeffdamann · « **on:** 2010-05-24 23:01:03 »

Well I've been checking out all the projects that have been going on all these years while I have been quietly sitting in the background playing my psx version.

I stand to make a lot of money in october at harvest time...I have 5 acres of corn planted and have set up 4 85-gallon ethanol stills to proccess the grain.Anyways...

I was thinking of taking some of this profit and using it to fun a ff7 project...Yeah I know "what idiot would pay 1000$ to improve ff7 without any monetary return"
Well sirs, that Idiot would be me! I'll spend my time till harvest brushing up my programming skills and hunting for the right team of programmers to do this.

The question is....what should we work on? I like the q-gears project very much,but to me it's a step in a direction that wouldn't be sensible to me if I have to pay for services.The way I would like to take it is to first deconstruct the game...break it down and discover all the little workings,then do away with the entire old code and code the game in a way that would not only make it very compatible,but also EASILY modded.I'm talking mainly just drag-and-drop file replacement and stuff.

My ultimate goal would be to remake all the textures(not myself, but get the project to where someone else could do it easily)in the entire game and even change the way they are displayed and rendered. Hell multi-core and sli and crossfirex support would be nice too.I may be dreaming big...but I WILL fund 1000$ into this in october and see where it gets me...

Jaitsu · « **Reply #1 on:** 2010-05-25 02:58:41 »

so basically reconstruct and remake the game?

i think it might take a bit more than 1000 bucks, but hey, i wouldn't mind this, so if you really want to put up the money for that, all the power to ya. good luck man, and good job for taking initiative (i need to take lessons from ya man)

jeffdamann · « **Reply #2 on:** 2010-05-25 05:36:57 »

Well I mean even if the resulting fruition of the project is only something not fully usable(cause believe me it won't be),at least it will be a step in the right direction and I can release what gets completed and maybe other people will try and help me in my efforts when the funding runs out...(Plus I know I can get 40 hrs a week in programming for like 100-150 bucks(still gotta negotiate)and all that time I'll be working myself, so just with the money alone at top cost would be equivilent to 260 hours into the project,ad the tireless work I'll do when I have more spare time,and any contributions anyone else would make, and the effort would have produced something that is awe inspiring, at least I hope so.

There'll be more exact details on my plan later,this idea has just came to me yesterday, and I believe it would be the best thing that ever happened in my book lol.
I could sit here and tell you what I want to do, but...that's not exactly what is gonna be able to happen lol.(I have a wild imagination) With that limited amount of funds you have to think conservatively ya know?

Timber · « **Reply #3 on:** 2010-05-25 06:22:50 »

Quote from: jeffdamann on 2010-05-24 23:01:03

My ultimate goal would be to remake all the textures(not myself, but get the project to where someone else could do it easily)in the entire game

It is already easy to insert new textures into the game, Team Avalanche are doing it as we speak.
I don't see how it could get any easier, the real timesink is just remaking the textures, and there is no way around that.

Sure you could fund some sort of q-gears thing, but like you say, it probably wouldn't get to the stage where it is usable, and in the end, that doesn't even help achieve your 'ultimate goal' of remaking the textures and such.

In my opinion your monies would be best spent on remaking models and background textures (assisting Team Avalanche), because that will be instantly usable by everyone, and will still be usable if an alternate FF7 engine comes further down the line.

sl1982 · « **Reply #4 on:** 2010-05-25 06:34:45 »

I dont understand. How does modding the game textures or even remaking the engine require money?

jeffdamann · « **Reply #5 on:** 2010-05-25 06:50:34 »

Well I may not have been active in this board for long, but ive read thousands of posts, and one thing I can see is Lack of willing volunteers so to fix that, a little monetary gain can become worthwhile motivation...As I said, I will think on this more as I'm just now formulating ideas.

nikfrozty · « **Reply #6 on:** 2010-05-25 07:07:07 »

So you're going to pay people to help you with your project?? And then are you going to release it?? That's a total ripoff man, but if you're determined then Good Luck man but be sure to the people who helps you deserves your money and is really good.

Prince Lex · « **Reply #7 on:** 2010-05-25 11:24:23 »

People help with projects here as a hobby - because they love the game and because it can be fun. In my opinion, if you throw money at them it'll suck all the fun out of it.

jeffdamann · « **Reply #8 on:** 2010-05-25 14:25:26 »

You completely misunderstand.

I am aware ppl do projects here as a hobby, and so do I.But not everyone has the time or motivation to do such things.I have a couple of friends who live in my same small town(pop, 15,000)and they are out of a job right now, and prolly will be for quite some time cause they are lazy lolMoney proves GREAT motivation for them.

I've worked with them on many things before, hell we even made a top-notch rpgmaker game when I was like 13(I'm 22 now) that had custom scripting and everything(custom 3d battles etc.(Those were done by my buddy cole tho...)

So I 'm just saying....maybe I wasn't clear enough in my original post, but It was late at night and I had just decided on this,there will still be a lot of planning to be done on what will actually be worked on and done, and what the goals are.Seeing as I have till october until I get my crops in,I won't have any funding until then, so it fives me some time to think.

nikfrozty · « **Reply #9 on:** 2010-05-25 15:22:08 »

Hmm if that's the case, good luck then.

Wish to know more of you're project. If you'd like to start a project can I suggest something?? Since Team Avalanche will remake the Main Cast. Why not try you're hands at NPC's?? Or you can help neocloudstrife with the backgrounds. But I'd imagine that it is hard but I think its the project that really needs many workers.

Covarr · « **Reply #10 on:** 2010-05-26 00:40:19 »

This is a bad idea. The moment money gets involved, Square Enix will throw a fit.

It'll take longer when everybody is working for free, but ironically it's more likely to get finished that way because SE is more likely to leave us alone.

Mendelevium · « **Reply #11 on:** 2010-05-26 00:50:42 »

My voice may be of very little consequence, but I agree with Covarr completely.
Money has a loud voice, one that will most likely be heard by Square Enix...

And they aren't too happy with modding, from what I have heard; or whatever takes away from there profit.

. And from what I have seen they are still milking FF7 for what its worth...

This project can, and most likely will draw even more unneeded attention to our modding community. And in turn, that means it is more likely for Square Enix to shut down our operations; and that means VERY BAD.

Just my thoughts on the matter.
>.>;;

sithlord48 · « **Reply #12 on:** 2010-05-26 00:56:19 »

why not use that monies to provide people w/ tools they need to do this faster, there are always items that need to be gotten for some mod's. i had to get a ps3 w/ ff7 on it and a memcard reader for it so i can even make an decent attempt at saving psv files.(and no i don't want monies) i know that there are a few artists here that could prolly use some more ram or a wacom tablet to draw with. i'm just saying if u feel that you have to toss monies at people here, then maybe you should put it towards things that will help get the Aali's Driver,TA overhaul, and other IMPORTANT projects completed.

i do agree w/ covarr , monies + ff projects = square w/ panties in a bunch.

now im off to respond to your other thread., oh and u should learn Qt, its a C++ based cross-platform toolkit under the gpl.

nikfrozty · « **Reply #13 on:** 2010-05-26 05:44:02 »

If you do make a program can you make another tools like lgp tools that can compile the magic .lgp with those .d files?? I'd like to experiment with it. Hehe just a suggestion though.

obesebear · « **Reply #14 on:** 2010-05-26 06:04:21 »

Aali's LGP/UnLGP decompiles and compiles the magic.lgp perfectly

jeffdamann · « **Reply #15 on:** 2010-05-26 06:08:31 »

All comments read and thought out, I do agree that square would not like money involved, but actually I only really planned for post #! to say anything about it, it's not like I was gonna offer money to ppl I dont know across the internet lol. I have a few ppl that are lazy,but as I said, motivated by money.

But I could also see lending a hand to some fellow modders out there(the really ambitious ones) But keep in mind, none of this will be possible until october(my crops are done then,I'm converting it to ethanol) Until then I will probably have some things released, and when my ethanol-money making project is over, ff7 modding will take its place on a full time basis until other more pressing matters come into light.

nikfrozty · « **Reply #16 on:** 2010-05-26 07:23:29 »

Quote from: obesebear on 2010-05-26 06:04:21

Aali's LGP/UnLGP decompiles and compiles the magic.lgp perfectly

I was working with it and I couldn't get it to work even with all the tricks like dragging the magic.lgp to the unlgp.exe it does not unpack the magic.lgp. Well at least for me. I think I need a .bat file but I'm still googling about it.

Kranmer · « **Reply #17 on:** 2010-05-26 08:16:38 »

Quote from: nikfrozty on 2010-05-26 07:23:29

Quote from: obesebear on 2010-05-26 06:04:21
Aali's LGP/UnLGP decompiles and compiles the magic.lgp perfectly
I was working with it and I couldn't get it to work even with all the tricks like dragging the magic.lgp to the unlgp.exe it does not unpack the magic.lgp. Well at least for me. I think I need a .bat file but I'm still googling about it.

ok well if you just drag the LGP onto unlgp it will extract but not to the same folder, it usually extracts to the C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME (USERNAME will be your user name) or your systems variation on that.
If you want to use it properly you can just create a .BAT file to do it for you. Or you can use command line,
If you want to use a commandline its very easy, first click on your start menu and
"RUN" (or search if your on vista)
then type
CMD
a DOS box will come up, now type cd and the path of where UNLGP is like this
cd "C:\Program Files\Square Soft, Inc\Final Fantasy VII\Data\field"
and then you will be in that folder (just replace the path with your own)
then make sure UNLGP is in the same folder and then type
UNLGP flevel.lgp
and that would for example extract flevel.lgp to the same folder (just replace flevel.lgp with whatever LGP you want to extract)
then delete the LGP (backup first before deleting)

Now assuming you left the CMD window open.
To remake the LGP create a new folder and put all the files into it then run (the example here is just a folder called NEW but you can rename this to whatever you want)
LGP NEW flevel.lgp
and that would create a new flevel.lgp

nikfrozty · « **Reply #18 on:** 2010-05-26 09:38:04 »

Quote from: kranmer on 2010-05-26 08:16:38

Quote from: nikfrozty on 2010-05-26 07:23:29
Quote from: obesebear on 2010-05-26 06:04:21
Aali's LGP/UnLGP decompiles and compiles the magic.lgp perfectly
I was working with it and I couldn't get it to work even with all the tricks like dragging the magic.lgp to the unlgp.exe it does not unpack the magic.lgp. Well at least for me. I think I need a .bat file but I'm still googling about it.

ok well if you just drag the LGP onto unlgp it will extract but not to the same folder, it usually extracts to the C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME (USERNAME will be your user name) or your systems variation on that.
If you want to use it properly you can just create a .BAT file to do it for you. Or you can use command line,
If you want to use a commandline its very easy, first click on your start menu and
"RUN" (or search if your on vista)
then type
CMD
a DOS box will come up, now type cd and the path of where UNLGP is like this
cd "C:\Program Files\Square Soft, Inc\Final Fantasy VII\Data\field"
and then you will be in that folder (just replace the path with your own)
then make sure UNLGP is in the same folder and then type
UNLGP flevel.lgp
and that would for example extract flevel.lgp to the same folder (just replace flevel.lgp with whatever LGP you want to extract)
then delete the LGP (backup first before deleting)

Now assuming you left the CMD window open.
To remake the LGP create a new folder and put all the files into it then run (the example here is just a folder called NEW but you can rename this to whatever you want)
LGP NEW flevel.lgp
and that would create a new flevel.lgp

Hey man thanks for the help!!

I got it to work now. Do you know how to make .bat files?? If you're busy its ok but it would be much appreciated if you told me how.

I think its faster if I just drag it with the use of .bat files.
EDIT:its all ok now thanks for the help kranmer.

Kranmer · « **Reply #19 on:** 2010-05-26 09:58:49 »

oh its easy to make .bat files, it works just like command files, just open notepad and type in the commands, he is a quick example
here is an example i use when i want to create a installer, this example will extract world_us.lgp into a temp folder.
For this following example all you will need is UNLGP.EXE, LGP.EXE and the .bat file's we are going to create to be in the same folder as the LGP you want to extract.

open notepad and type this

Code: [Select]

mkdir temp
copy world_us.lgp temp
copy unlgp.exe temp
cd temp
unlgp world_us.lgp temp
del /q unlgp.exe
del /q world_us.lgp

then in notepad click SAVE AS and save it as a .bat file (to save as a .bat file just click on where it says TEXT DOCUMENTS .TXT and change it to ALL FILES then name the file somthing like "extract.bat"
now all you need to change is the folder and the LGP to match whichever folder and LGP you want to extract from and save it in the .bat.

and now to remake the LGP you do this in a new .bat file

Code: [Select]

lgp temp world_us.lgp

just save that into a .bat and call it somthing like rebuild.bat and that will recreate the LGP archive from the extracted one we made above.

EDIT-
try using the .bat files i have posted above and it should hopefully fix the problem your having with LGP.exe.
The error your getting is proberly because you arnt doing it right, make sure you put all the extracted files into a sub folder
my examples above extract to a folder called TEMP so to remake the LGP i have to run LGP.exe on the TEMP folder by using the command
"LGP temp flevel.lgp"
EDIT2- fixed the code

nikfrozty · « **Reply #20 on:** 2010-05-26 10:03:43 »

I'll try it right away!

I'll just change world_us.lgp with magic.lgp right?? I'll try. And the cmd.exe method also worked for me so thanks man. I can finally mess with summons now. Hehe

Kranmer · « **Reply #21 on:** 2010-05-26 10:12:12 »

opps i think i made a small mistake on the script before (i am doing this from memory), im very sorry it should have been

Code: [Select]

mkdir temp
copy world_us.lgp temp
copy unlgp.exe temp
cd temp
unlgp world_us.lgp temp
del /q unlgp.exe
del /q world_us.lgp

and for magic.lgp you just do this

Code: [Select]

mkdir temp
copy magic.lgp temp
copy unlgp.exe temp
cd temp
unlgp magic.lgp temp
del /q unlgp.exe
del /q magic.lgp

Also nice to hear you got the CMD line working.

nikfrozty · « **Reply #22 on:** 2010-05-26 10:44:31 »

I tried using the .bat files and I tried dragging magic.lgp over to the unlgp.exe but it just flashes fast and it closes fast and nothing happens. I also have the extract.bat the same folder as magic.lgp and unlgp.exe and I made a new folder named temp also in the same folder. Wonder what I'm doing wrong??

Kranmer · « **Reply #23 on:** 2010-05-26 10:53:28 »

could you post a screenshot of the folder where you are doing this, also try these .bat files,
just extract all of this to the folder where magic.lgp is
http://www.mediafire.com/?2nmdgtunwty
just put those 3 files in
the data/battle folder then run extract.bat and it should extract magic.lgp to the TEMP folder

nikfrozty · « **Reply #24 on:** 2010-05-26 11:11:30 »

Wait I'm not going to drag the magic.lgp to the temp folder?? How stupid of me. I just tried to double click extract.bat and it worked. Hell sorry to be such a pain man it already worked. Many thanks.

Can't believe its that simple.