FF3usME 6.7 beta cycle

[LordJ]

Hey guys, you can download the latest beta from my site, under the utilities category. I've also added the DLLs needed as a separate ZIP further down on that page. I've tested the download and it was giving me hiccups... again. Fortunately, it would seem that the download picks-up where it left.

Now with the fun stuff . From the readme:

Code: Select all

BETA 1: 2010-06-xx
* New for Sound Editor: BRR Editor
* New for Battle Editor: Battle Command Editor with renamer
* New for Battle Editor: Blitz Move Editor
* New for Battle Editor: MagiTek Commands Editor
* New for Battle Editor: Dance Editor with renamer
* New for Battle Editor: Misc Editor with renamer for in-battle statuses
* New for Item Editor: Rare Items name/description renamers
* New for Item Editor: Misc. section with Item Type renamer (FF3us only)
* New: 14-byte animation structures Editor for Magic (Magic Editor)
* New: 14-byte animation structures Editor for Tools (Item Editor)
* New: 14-byte animation structures Editor for Consumable Items (Item Editor)
* New: 14-byte animation structures Editor for Battle Events (Battle Editor)
* New: 14-byte animation structures Editor for Sprites (Battle Editor)
* New: 8-byte animation structures Editor for Enemy Special Attacks (Monster Editor)
* New: 8-byte animation structures Editor for Weapons (Item Editor)
* Facelift to many Description Renamer (aka the new Renamer)
* Small Font Renamer: we're still using the this thing here and there, but at least this time, it won't start with blanks
* Item Description: added warning for lines having more that 31 chars, leading to pricing corruption (thanks Lenophis)
* Location Renamer: corrected a glitch happening when using "Delete all captions" button
* DTE Symbol Renamer: corrected a problem with the registry when using FF3us, then FF6j (FF3us as a max of 128 symb. and FF6 has a max of 16 symb.)
* Monster Editor: fixed a bug where changing Special Attack Look and then selecting a different tab would lose the new selection (since ???)
* Formation Editor: gathered Monster Formations, Form. Packs and Zoning Editors under the same button


The animation editor is still at a very early stage. I should manage to make something better based on the thread documenting the structure.

As always, every bit of feedback about bugs, UI issues, feature ideas are more than welcomed.

[Lenophis]

Looking at your release notes, it looks like I omitted something regarding expanding the special names. Here's the routine in question:

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C1/9728:   A90C       LDA #$0C      (from C1/956B, X = 11)
C1/972A:   20C498     JSR $98C4
C1/972D:   206199     JSR $9961
C1/9730:   A97E       LDA #$7E       ($7E in memory)
C1/9732:   8DD988     STA $88D9
C1/9735:   A2D557     LDX #$57D5     (address in memory)
C1/9738:   8ED788     STX $88D7
C1/973B:   A9CF       LDA #$CF       (bank location of special name)
C1/973D:   8512       STA $12
C1/973F:   A00100     LDY #$0001
C1/9742:   C220       REP #$20       (set 16-bit accumulator)
C1/9744:   B176       LDA ($76),Y
C1/9746:   0A         ASL A          (* 2)
C1/9747:   8510       STA $10        (save it for now)
C1/9749:   0A         ASL A          (* 4)
C1/974A:   0A         ASL A          (* 8)
C1/974B:   18         CLC
C1/974C:   6510       ADC $10        (* 10)
C1/974E:   18         CLC
C1/974F:   69D0D0     ADC #$D0D0     (address of special name)
C1/9752:   8510       STA $10
C1/9754:   7B         TDC            (clear accumulator)
C1/9755:   E220       SEP #$20       (set 8-bit accumlator)
C1/9757:   A8         TAY            (set Y = 0)
C1/9758:   B710       LDA [$10],Y
C1/975A:   C9FF       CMP #$FF
C1/975C:   F009       BEQ $9767      (if we found an FF, it means the name has ended)
C1/975E:   99D557     STA $57D5,Y
C1/9761:   C8         INY
C1/9762:   C00A00     CPY #$000A     (length of special name?)
C1/9765:   D0F1       BNE $9758      (did we do 10 letters yet?)
...

I don't see anything in the notes about the CPY, so it's likely I forgot to mention it initially. To expand it to 16 letters, it'd look like so:

Code: Select all

C1/9728:   A90C       LDA #$0C      (from C1/956B, X = 11)
C1/972A:   20C498     JSR $98C4
C1/972D:   206199     JSR $9961
C1/9730:   A97E       LDA #$7E       ($7E in memory)
C1/9732:   8DD988     STA $88D9
C1/9735:   A2D557     LDX #$57D5     (address in memory)
C1/9738:   8ED788     STX $88D7
C1/973B:   A9Fx       LDA #$xx       (bank location of special name)
C1/973D:   8512       STA $12
C1/973F:   A00100     LDY #$0001
C1/9742:   C220       REP #$20       (set 16-bit accumulator)
C1/9744:   B176       LDA ($76),Y
C1/9746:   0A         ASL A          (* 2)
C1/9747:   0A         ASL A          (* 4)
C1/9748:   0A         ASL A          (* 8)
C1/9749:   0A         ASL A          (* 16)
C1/974A:   EA         NOP
C1/974B:   EA         NOP
C1/974C:   EA         NOP
C1/974D:   EA         NOP
C1/974E:   EA         NOP
C1/974F:   EA         NOP
C1/9750:   EA         NOP
C1/9751:   EA         NOP
C1/9752:   8510       STA $10
C1/9754:   7B         TDC            (clear accumulator)
C1/9755:   E220       SEP #$20       (set 8-bit accumlator)
C1/9757:   A8         TAY            (set Y = 0)
C1/9758:   B710       LDA [$10],Y
C1/975A:   C9FF       CMP #$FF
C1/975C:   F009       BEQ $9767      (if we found an FF, it means the name has ended)
C1/975E:   99D557     STA $57D5,Y
C1/9761:   C8         INY
C1/9762:   C01000     CPY #$0010     (length of special name?)
C1/9765:   D0F1       BNE $9758      (did we do 16 letters yet?)
...

I hope this is more readable than the blob I posted at Gamefaqs.

Also, when you get the BRR editor going, I think you're going to have to explain how it works. I feel stupid cause I'm not sure what to do.

[Odbarc]

I love you, Lord J.

[Warrax]

The new editors are great! good stuff

[LordJ]

Alright, I should get to work with the Attack Name expansion during Beta 2 with this info.

About the BRR Editor, it should already be working. The interface looks a bit funny, but to the right you import either a BRR file (binary file extracted from ROM or SPC), all the BRRs from an SPC file or a WAV file. There is even a button to scan a SNES ROM, running with Snessor Technology!

Then, the right side list will get populated with one or many BRRs. You then select a BRR to the left that is to be replaced. Hit the replace button and if enough blocks are available (1 block = 9 bytes), the sound sample will get replaced.

The sample rates radio buttons are there only to listen to sample properly, nothing is altered in the ROM when making a selection.

[LordJ]

Lenophis, do you know where I could get my hands on a public patch that uses this Monster Special Attack Name patch? I'm going to do some tests with it.

[TimeSpaceMage]

Oh wow, a new version!
In the Dances section of the Battle Editor, selecting "FF3usME background" from the Display dropdown crashes the program.

[Lenophis]

I have some bad news for you, Lord J, and worse news for everyone else. The Magitek editor in the battle section is bugged for v1.1 of the rom. And it appears there's some general breaking with v1.1 going on. First the big one:

When editing the magitek layout, Terra's 8 commands are correct, but the "other actors" are not. It's reading the wrong bytes for v1.1. The magitek command and targeting data is shifted left 3 bytes, starting at C1/9101 instead. Empty commands in battle are also showing up as long strings of "????????????," and checking the data 7C is in the "empty" spots instead of FF.

Because of the above, some code is being changed, which causes the game to reset abruptly when you do pretty much anything. The code starts at C1/9119 in v1.1.

[LordJ]

Oh crap! Thanks Leno for the info. I'll come up with an IPS to fix this soon enough.

Speaking of bugs, don't use the Rare Item text editor! The pointers are not saved, leading to corrupted Rare Item descriptions.

I should be able to make a new build in 1 or 2 weeks.

Edit: so yeah, the patch repairing the code surrounding M-Tek data for FF3us version 1.1 is included in this post
Edit2: I'm also adding patches to restore the Rare Item Descriptions (one for FF3us and one for FF6j)

[LordJ]

I've released Beta 2 on my web site to fix the above problems. There aren't many new things but with this build, a much needed export and import feature was added to the Battle Scripts.

From the readme:

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* Monster Editor: now, when dealing with bugged hand hex-edited scripts, other panes are accessible
* Monster Editor: new import function for Battle Scripts, new export files too
* Monster Editor: fixed a bug where canceling wouldn't reload monster names and special attacks names (since 3.0)
* Battle Editor: fixed a bug where ROM corruption would occur with FF3us v1.1 (thanks Lenophis)
* Item Editor: fixed a bug with the Rare Item Description where pointers would get saved and not the data, leading into incoherent description (thanks Poco Loco)
* Item Editor: separated huge main pane in two, should be more netbook-friendly
* ROM Manager: added anti-patch for battle scripts
* ROM Manager: added patch/anti-patch for Special Attack names (FF3us only)
* BRR Editor: cancel now work
* UI: repaired the vanishing headers for checkbox lists
* UI: now using comctl32.dll v6, enhanced integration with Windows XP and 7


[Lenophis]

I may have stumbled across an error, but I can't put my finger on it. After having a near-panic attack tonight with some dialogue, I checked FF3usME and the dialogue editor says there's 3082 strings (3083, cause it's 0 based). But there should be 3083 strings (3084 with 0 based). What makes this strange is the last string is the right string.

I don't know what to make of it, but as someone that finds weird things, I have to point that out.

[LordJ]

I would suspect that one of the dialog caption got splitted. For example, the control code <EV$00> could have been interpreted as <$00>, for some reason.

If you have an older version of the dialog, then performing a file compare on both script export could point out the problem.

[Lenophis]

You know, I just thought of something. Where's the first string? It's unused, so it'd be very easy to overlook it as a null entry, or an invalid entry. I'm pretty sure it's safe for use, though I haven't actually tested that yet. I'll get back to you on that.

[Warrax]

I wanted to make an Avenger sword but noticed that Berserk status doesn't work on weapons (only tried swords) but works on relics. I dunno if it's another FF3 bug or just an error with the editor, anyone know? Other statuses works well on weapons.

[Lenophis]

That could potentially be a game bug, some investigation is needed. I have a feeling it's intentional, though, but that's what testing is for.

[Warrax]

After some testings, it seems that all status effects found in the Status 2 section in the Item Editor are ignored by weapons and only works on armor/helm/shield/relic so yeah, it does look intentional.

[LordJ]

Beta3 (last one before closing V6.7) has been uploaded on my web page. From the readme:

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* UI: better readability of combo boxes in some animation editors
* Animation Editors: filled-in many blanks (thanks Poco Loco)
* Core: everything has been converted to unicode
* Core: intoducing the x64 build
* Text Editor: fixed the $FE vs $FF space char / placeholder char for static length strings for many new renamers (mst atk, Sw Tech real name & In-Battle Esper Text)
* Text Editor: fixed a problem where *NIX text file gave problems when importing them (since 6.6)
* Palette Editor: the classic Palette Editor has beed removed, now palettes will be editable througout the Gfx Editor
* Gfx Editor: introducing the Big Font Editor
* Gfx Editor: introducing the Small Font Editor
* Gfx Editor: introducing the Wall Paper Editor
* Gfx Editor: integrated FF3SpriteEd into FF3usME, added lots more nifty features to it


You'll probably need the latest standard runtime DLLs or the x64 runtime DLLs from MS.

[Lenophis]

Now that you have FWF editing in, I would recommend the renamers getting access to the first 0x80 letters of that font.

[Imzogelmo]

I just found this and was playing with it. It looks good. I haven't found any problems yet, but I do have a usability suggestion for the Shop editor:
How about adding in a user-editable label tied to the index, so that the user can have some way of knowing which shop is which? I'm just suggesting a text label so that we don't need an outside list open when editing. If that's not practical, then no problem, I just thought it would be handy.

Looking forward, what ideas do you have for the future direction of FF3usME?

[PurplePoison]

I love the new version, so much more user friendly if that was even possible.

Amazing work.


Two suggestions ( though I don't know if they're possible)

1) Any way to make more slots for items? I know there's a way to expand said rom to include more data, so would there be a way in the future to make more rooms for armors/relics?

2) With the whole "Weapons" thing I noticed that if you take a current armor/relic/helmet/item and turn it into a weapon you cannot edit the animation of it (for obvious reasons) any chance in later versions you'll be able to? Or is that coded somewhere?