Important Melee, Hacks, and You -- New Hackers Start Here, in the OP!

[zankyou]

So altering meshes arent gonna happen. Theres just 1 big array and tcll is like the only one who knows how to read it. But I did find that you can duplicate meshes. Currently working on removing parts of a mesh I dont want. Accidentally did it once and now I cant replicate it.

Work in progress pic below. Gotta find the collisions I need. Hope this isnt a dud.

 

[DRGN]

So altering meshes arent gonna happen. Theres just 1 big array and tcll is like the only one who knows how to read it. But I did find that you can duplicate meshes. Currently working on removing parts of a mesh I dont want. Accidentally did it once and now I cant replicate it.

Work in progress pic below. Gotta find the collisions I need. Hope this isnt a dud.

Omg, that's sick!

 

[Ohsm]

So altering meshes arent gonna happen. Theres just 1 big array and tcll is like the only one who knows how to read it. But I did find that you can duplicate meshes. Currently working on removing parts of a mesh I dont want. Accidentally did it once and now I cant replicate it.

Work in progress pic below. Gotta find the collisions I need. Hope this isnt a dud.

HOLY MOLY, your work is insane dude

 

[zankyou]

Awesome! Trying it out now. Are you getting a flickering effect with the textures when you zoom out a bit? I see it mainly on the characters and the front of the bottom platform.

As for the camera, I think it's a offset between the bounding boxes shown below:

Yellow is blast zone, which you probably already know. Normally it and the green box are aligned concentrically, as shown below:

I think the camera uses the blast zone line for the camera, so I'm not sure what the green is used for (some kind of stage object boundary?). If the green were for the camera and that was the problem, your camera would be aiming too high rather than too low. Or I suppose it actually IS for the camera, but it's not being taken into account for some reason.

And specifically, I notice that the aspect ratio of the inner green box is different than the blast zone. This misalignment might be causing the camera issue. I know that there are modifiers for the stage's size. Are these separated into width and height, and did you use it/those?

If we can find where those boundaries are defined, we might be able to modify it there (before the camera calculations check them). There is also another way to fix it, but it would be to use ASM to modify the camera's viewport per frame. This would work, but obviously be much more inefficient for the game than pinpointing the camera's own built-in variables.

Are those color coded collision walls in that image. If so using that might make going through things a lot easier. A lot of links overlap so its hard to see whats going on except running my character over it and making educated guesses.

 

[DRGN]

Yeah. Left, right, ceiling, and floor each have a different color. I'd give you another perspective, but I'm not at home atm.

Did you see my other post about setting up debug mode? I think you would find it incredibly helpful for a lot of things. There's even more to it than what you can see in my screenshots. And if you have any trouble setting it up or using it just let me know.

 

[Achilles1515]

Been kinda getting back into Melee hacks recently..

Spoiler

So....about swapping Samus' run animation with backwards roll...

 

[Ripple]

why achilles.....would you want that

 

[Achilles1515]

why achilles.....would you want that

Because style.

 

[zankyou]

Almost...

Lowered the top plat so link could reach it from a double jump. Should have just shrink the stage a bit. No going back now. Gotta still find the camera.

 

[zankyou]

Im so hyped right now.

I fixed the camera, blast zones, and spawn points to all be usable. As in you dont spawn in the blast zone. Ill correct their positions later. Im going to go back to playing with meshes for now so that I can fix some textures later. But for now if you guys want to help me test for broken links aka walls/floors/ceilings you can jump through and parts of the ground your character gets stuck I'd greatly appreciate it. So close to being done with this stage.

http://a.pomf.se/vinxyi.dat

Oh Achilles, now that I understand what Im doing Ill change the trophy stage into something more usable soon.

 

[Steelia]

So....about swapping Samus' run animation with backwards roll...

Run as the backwards roll... Trying to make her moonwalk as a dodge? No idea how that'd turn out, but that might be fun to test.

 

[darkside1222]

Nice this guide was well written but there wasn't information for stage hacking. Does anyone know how someone would remove platforms on specific stages? Like for battlefield, the three platforms are removed

 

[CeLL]

Nice this guide was well written but there wasn't information for stage hacking. Does anyone know how someone would remove platforms on specific stages? Like for battlefield, the three platforms are removed

http://smashboards.com/threads/melee-stage-hacking-documentation-warning-not-user-friendly.328552/

 

[zankyou]

So I found out how to remove parts of a mesh and I believe its possible to add meshes from other stages but since I dont know anything about vertex arrays and display list I cant just edit the current one. Id have to add the entire vertex array from another stage and the object group I wanted from another stage and add it to the end and add the values to the relocation table. Ill probably test that theory soon. If you wished to only duplicate part of a mesh youd have to go threw a similar process.

However the problem is that there are a lot of display list for most stages especially this one and I dont have time to go threw all of them. Theres about 22 object groups for GrSh and each one has more than 10 display list. Id be a great help if others could help me go through these. You wouldn't need any knowledge of how stages work. Current Im just placing 00's for each display list and seeing what gets removed. Things like this only have to be indexed once before stage hacking becomes more accessible. Kinda how steelia list all the placements for images.

 

[Achilles1515]

Im so hyped right now.

I fixed the camera, blast zones, and spawn points to all be usable. As in you dont spawn in the blast zone. Ill correct their positions later. Im going to go back to playing with meshes for now so that I can fix some textures later. But for now if you guys want to help me test for broken links aka walls/floors/ceilings you can jump through and parts of the ground your character gets stuck I'd greatly appreciate it. So close to being done with this stage.

http://a.pomf.se/vinxyi.dat

Oh Achilles, now that I understand what Im doing Ill change the trophy stage into something more usable soon.

Just tried out the stage - It's incredibly impressive.

Here are my testing notes.

1) Phantom platform in top left portion of stage.
- the CPU found this one. lol

2) Portion of right main floor edge can be traveled through when recovering.

3) Spawn points still need to be adjusted.
- I noted the locations of each player for compatibilty with the Neutral Spawn Locations code used in the 20XX Pack.

4) Annoying textures/objects that would be better removed.
- This seems to be what you're working on right now.
- Really, all the stuff in the background is unnecessary as well.

That's all that caught my attention. It's a really fun stage! Like I said, I'm super impressed with what you're doing. You've managed to jump into the hacking scene and rekindle a lost art that, still, only one person knew how to do previously.

In regards to your last comment about how you think its possible to add objects from other stages...that sounds insanely awesome. If you could add them to the end of a stage file, then you could place every good, usable object in one file. Then you could only work on editing that one stage, and from the hack pack perspective, you could just get really good with editing that one stage into a bunch of different variations (with different filenames), and then I could write code to load certain files based on what was chosen at the stage select screen.

So something like a stage select screen page that all load Hyrule Temple, but I just switch the filename based on the selection, to load different hacked variations of it.

Run as the backwards roll... Trying to make her moonwalk as a dodge? No idea how that'd turn out, but that might be fun to test.

Lol, I really meant "replace" run with back roll, but swapping might turn out to be hilarious.

 

[zankyou]

Just tried out the stage - It's incredibly impressive.

Here are my testing notes.

1) Phantom platform in top left portion of stage.
- the CPU found this one. lol

2) Portion of right main floor edge can be traveled through when recovering.

3) Spawn points still need to be adjusted.
- I noted the locations of each player for compatibilty with the Neutral Spawn Locations code used in the 20XX Pack.

4) Annoying textures/objects that would be better removed.
- This seems to be what you're working on right now.
- Really, all the stuff in the background is unnecessary as well.

That's all that caught my attention. It's a really fun stage! Like I said, I'm super impressed with what you're doing. You've managed to jump into the hacking scene and rekindle a lost art that, still, only one person knew how to do previously.

In regards to your last comment about how you think its possible to add objects from other stages...that sounds insanely awesome. If you could add them to the end of a stage file, then you could place every good, usable object in one file. Then you could only work on editing that one stage, and from the hack pack perspective, you could just get really good with editing that one stage into a bunch of different variations (with different filenames), and then I could write code to load certain files based on what was chosen at the stage select screen.

So something like a stage select screen page that all load Hyrule Temple, but I just switch the filename based on the selection, to load different hacked variations of it.

Lol, I really meant "replace" run with back roll, but swapping might turn out to be hilarious.

That platform at the left haha. I think I removed that and the castle in the one I posted in the texture hack thread. Also I might have changed the blast zone/camera. Cant remember. As far as those floating rocks, they come with the top platform and the top platform doesn't reach the ground so I added another one of the meshes and turned it upside down. Basically most of the annoying textures are tied to important ones like the ground has a float 'growth' below it and I have to find them and remove them.

Edit looks like I may have also fixed the right ledge in that one. Here it is.
http://a.pomf.se/nygukr.dat

I could do the spawn positions now but not the floating textures unfortunately.

 

[zankyou]

Hey guys so about adding larger images into the game. Seems to work for me on dolphin but not with dios mios. If any of you could try it out and see if it works for you that would be great. Particularly interested in if it works for nintendon't.
Download link
http://a.pomf.se/tqyyrl.dat
Here's what it should look like.

 

[Doq]

Hey guys so about adding larger images into the game. Seems to work for me on dolphin but not with dios mios. If any of you could try it out and see if it works for you that would be great. Particularly interested in if it works for nintendon't.
Download link
http://a.pomf.se/tqyyrl.dat
Here's what it should look like.

Doesn't look right to me.
Using latest Nintendont.

 

[zankyou]

Doesn't look right to me.
Using latest Nintendont.

Hmm, wonder why it works on dolphin. guess ill try moving the data around.

 

[zankyou]

So its not the location that I inserted the image. Which is a relief because I never want to edit the relocation table again. I believe it is the fact that I changed the image type and that there might be more to that than I was thinking. Still strange that dolphin renders it fine. Ill try shrinking the image back to the normal size and see if that fixes it but I suspect its the image type.

 

[zankyou]

Hey guys so about adding larger images into the game. Seems to work for me on dolphin but not with dios mios. If any of you could try it out and see if it works for you that would be great. Particularly interested in if it works for nintendon't.
Download link
http://a.pomf.se/tqyyrl.dat
Here's what it should look like.

YES!!!!
I have no idea why it worked on dolphin and not the wii but that doesnt matter. I changed the texture flag and it now works... I think. Try it out and let me know if it works for you.

http://a.pomf.se/lywmoc.dat
This is great news because it means that adding high res images and possibly meshes and other nodes might still be possible.

edit: forgot to say you have to rebuild your iso for this

 

[Goxplex]

YES!!!!
I have no idea why it worked on dolphin and not the wii but that doesnt matter. I changed the texture flag and it now works... I think. Try it out and let me know if it works for you.

http://a.pomf.se/lywmoc.dat
This is great news because it means that adding high res images and possibly meshes and other nodes might still be possible.

edit: forgot to say you have to rebuild your iso for this

When fully tested please let me know how you did this. I want to update the green green background of my Dreamland texture hack with a higher resolution image.

 

[Doq]

YES!!!!
I have no idea why it worked on dolphin and not the wii but that doesnt matter. I changed the texture flag and it now works... I think. Try it out and let me know if it works for you.

http://a.pomf.se/lywmoc.dat
This is great news because it means that adding high res images and possibly meshes and other nodes might still be possible.

edit: forgot to say you have to rebuild your iso for this

It's beautiful. I now have a reason to use this track. <3

 

[zankyou]

It's beautiful. I now have a reason to use this track. <3

Did it work for you. Please tell me it worked for you.

 

[Doq]

Did it work for you. Please tell me it worked for you.

If I told you it didn't work I'd be a fraud.

 

[Achilles1515]

YES!!!!
I have no idea why it worked on dolphin and not the wii but that doesnt matter. I changed the texture flag and it now works... I think. Try it out and let me know if it works for you.

http://a.pomf.se/lywmoc.dat
This is great news because it means that adding high res images and possibly meshes and other nodes might still be possible.

edit: forgot to say you have to rebuild your iso for this

Good stuff. And when you say you changed the flag, are you referring to the flag that represents the type of image it is (like a CMPR or a palette, etc..)?

 

[zankyou]

If I told you it didn't work I'd be a fraud.

Thank you so much for helping me test this.
So I used a _14 image just so I wouldn't have to mess with any palette data. I changed the image to a RGBA type _6 so it looks better since its not a compressed imaged.

Not as many artifacts in the background.

Good stuff. And when you say you changed the flag, are you referring to the flag that represents the type of image it is (like a CMPR or a palette, etc..)?

No what you're talking about is in the image header which I changed as well. This is in the texture header.

 

[zankyou]

Had a free hour before my exam so I made this. Ill probably add some platforms after I study a bit more.

 

[101pie101]

Had a free hour before my exam so I made this. Ill probably add some platforms after I study a bit more.

That is sick,dude.make one for Great Bay!

 

[Achilles1515]

Had a free hour before my exam so I made this. Ill probably add some platforms after I study a bit more.

Umm I love you. Before you add platforms, can you make a version like this that is roughly as wide as final destination? Maybe I can make an omega mode for the 20xx pack. Hopefully that's not too difficult. And if you can do this **** in an hour....

Also, for the pink ring platform and for the stage edges of the trophy stage, can you tell me what bits you changed to make those drop throughable and grabbable. (I realize these aren't real words lol). I want to try and find these values in the RAM

 

[zankyou]

That is sick,dude.make one for Great Bay!

Thanks. Im not really at a point where I can start taking request but I plan to try a create a noob friendly guide soon.

Umm I love you. Before you add platforms, can you make a version like this that is roughly as wide as final destination? Maybe I can make an omega mode for the 20xx pack. Hopefully that's not too difficult. And if you can do this **** in an hour....

Also, for the pink ring platform and for the stage edges of the trophy stage, can you tell me what bits you changed to make those drop throughable and grabbable. (I realize these aren't real words lol). I want to try and find these values in the RAM

Lol so I already did it. Don't worry though, I still have the one without the platform. Increasing the size is simple enough since its in the groundparam area but Id have to find the spawn points if you want to make it balanced. The worst part about this process is that the editing is relatively quick. Its the loading dolphin to see what each object is thats the pain. Hopefully one day all of the objects will be indexed. Ill try to do it tonight for you though. And find my garbled notes on the trophy stage. It was before I understood lol.


Anyone know why falcon has his auto-doraki jumps from the ledge. On this stage its just the left which is annoying me. That and the fact that the blastzone needs to be lowered is why I havent uploaded the stage yet.

 

[Doq]

Thank you so much for helping me test this.

Not a problem at all.

Can I get one without whispy? That ominous face bothers me. Or possibly put the tree part back? Either one works. Thankies <3

 

[Steelia]

Thanks. Im not really at a point where I can start taking request but I plan to try a create a noob friendly guide soon.


Lol so I already did it. Don't worry though, I still have the one without the platform. Increasing the size is simple enough since its in the groundparam area but Id have to find the spawn points if you want to make it balanced. The worst part about this process is that the editing is relatively quick. Its the loading dolphin to see what each object is thats the pain. Hopefully one day all of the objects will be indexed. Ill try to do it tonight for you though. And find my garbled notes on the trophy stage. It was before I understood lol.


Anyone know why falcon has his auto-doraki jumps from the ledge. On this stage its just the left which is annoying me. That and the fact that the blastzone needs to be lowered is why I havent uploaded the stage yet.

Hey, you probably already know this... but... to save you some time on the Dolphin loading, use save states. (Shift+F1~F8 to save a state, and press F1~F8 to load a state). When I'm making textures, I save on the debug menu screen for easy access to characters *and* stages. Just like....

bam! F1, and I'm on that screen once the game loads in. Skips by the intro and navigating the menus

 

[TerryJ]

Thanks. Im not really at a point where I can start taking request but I plan to try a create a noob friendly guide soon.

Please please pretty please!

 

[DRGN]

Hey, you probably already know this... but... to save you some time on the Dolphin loading, use save states. (Shift+F1~F8 to save a state, and press F1~F8 to load a state). When I'm making textures, I save on the debug menu screen for easy access to characters *and* stages. Just like....

View attachment 33020

bam! F1, and I'm on that screen once the game loads in. Skips by the intro and navigating the menus

Yup. This.

Though, Steelia, do you know about the 'Load Custom Textures' feature in Dolphin? It's amazing! For testing/working with textures it's even easier than savestates, because it updates them in real time, while the game is running! The option is found under the Advanced tab in the graphics config. Basically you put textures into "\Dolphin Emulator\Load\Textures\<GAMEID>\", and give them the exact name that Dolphin gives the texture when it dumps it (so you could just copy/paste the original file and then edit it). Now whenever that image is changed, it will be reflected in-game instantly.

 

[zankyou]

Umm I love you. Before you add platforms, can you make a version like this that is roughly as wide as final destination? Maybe I can make an omega mode for the 20xx pack. Hopefully that's not too difficult. And if you can do this **** in an hour....

Also, for the pink ring platform and for the stage edges of the trophy stage, can you tell me what bits you changed to make those drop throughable and grabbable. (I realize these aren't real words lol). I want to try and find these values in the RAM

Found my garbled notes.
For the ledges at offset 1bba6 change 00 to 02 and at 1bac6 change 00 to 02. For the center platform change 1bab6 from 00 to 01. As far as the lips go its not as easy as changing a flag and the blast zone needs to be changed as well.

Also I finished Yoshi Island (GrYt) and remembered you wanted an omega stage so I'll add it to the texture thread with the other one in a bit right after Im done testing them for another 5 minutes. Im giving up moving lakitu and fixing the doraki. Maybe Ill come back to it.

 

[Achilles1515]

Found my garbled notes.
For the ledges at offset 1bba6 change 00 to 02 and at 1bac6 change 00 to 02. For the center platform change 1bab6 from 00 to 01. As far as the lips go its not as easy as changing a flag and the blast zone needs to be changed as well.

Also I finished Yoshi Island (GrYt) and remembered you wanted an omega stage so I'll add it to the texture thread with the other one in a bit right after Im done testing them for another 5 minutes. Im giving up moving lakitu and fixing the doraki. Maybe Ill come back to it.

Awesome! Thanks a bunch. Yeah and I knew the ledges weren't as straightforward which is why I didn't ask (yet!).

Btw, you should start thinking about making your own thread to house all of your stage hacking documentation and files. I think it's become that time....

 

[zankyou]

Awesome! Thanks a bunch. Yeah and I knew the ledges weren't as straightforward which is why I didn't ask (yet!).

Btw, you should start thinking about making your own thread to house all of your stage hacking documentation and files. I think it's become that time....

Yeah theres a few more things I want to test before i do though. Mainly the addition of meshes. They might have to be inserted into the middle of the file. The stage is in the other thread now.

 

[Achilles1515]

--removed--

 

[zankyou]

If anyone is curious, a character dies when the center of their orange diamond passes beyond the blastzone.

(I hacked the left camera limit so you can visually see the character dying)

Is that Yoshi story? I might try to replicate the ledges and walls to see if the stops falcon from doraki wall jumping.