Basic Questions and Answers Thread

Discussion in 'Discussion & Q&A' started by Malevolence, Jul 7, 2009.

  1. DevEd

    DevEd A lol who occasionally doge nothing Member

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    I tried using a song from this SMPS pack by nineko, but it was PAL-optimized. Is there some way I can remove the optimization without breaking it?
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 2, 2013
  2. nineko

    nineko I am the Holy Cat Member

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    ... oh crap, I completely forgot that I couldn't find a suitable NTSC tempo for my conversion of Splash Hill Zone, so I recorded it in PAL mode since I didn't plan to use it in a hack anyway. I shouldn't have included it in that pack, sorry bro, my fault this time :(


    The best thing you can do is change the "0207" right at the beginning of the file to either "0203" or "0204", but they will be too slow and too fast respectively. Still, better than "0207", which is way too fast in NTSC mode.
     
  3. Sonic master

    Sonic master Well-Known Member Member

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    You could try Retro Graphics Toolkit it supports the same mapping format (native VDP format) just as PlaneEd does but allows you to edit the tiles and much more.

    Source code: https://github.com/ComputerNerd/Retro-Graphics-Toolkit

    Windows Binary: https://github.com/ComputerNerd/Retro-Graphics-Toolkit/blob/master/RetroGraphicsToolkit.exe.7z to download the windows binary click view raw.

    Here is the my topic about it http://sonicresearch.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=3480 I have screenshots there if you want to see some before downloading.
     
  4. Galagoid

    Galagoid Newcomer Trialist

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    Seems like an extremely useful tool, especially since you don't have to switch between PlaneEd's VDP mapping tool, and SonMap's art editor. I'll have to try it out sometime! Anyways, thanks for the help everyone. The title screen is almost done, all I have to do is edit Tails' title art and mappings.


    EDIT: I'm looking at Tails' title screen art and the pallete line 1 is purple. I have to change the pallete line to 4 to make Tails' colors correct, but when I export the sprite, he is cyan colored. Can I edit the sprite as normal or is there another step I have to take?
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 3, 2013
  5. Animemaster

    Animemaster Lets get to work! Member

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    It should be fine but if you want to make sure, go to settings in SonMapED, then tile rendering, then choose the palette line you want. This way it should when you export it, come out in the proper palette line. If you've done this already however ignore everything I just said, heh.
     
  6. JoenickROS

    JoenickROS ROS (bug fixing in progress) Member

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    Does any one have a clue on why the third character option in my hack now refuses to load the level, It hangs on a black screen? All I have been editing is the music and fixing some branch errors and it always is the 3rd option no matter what character is that option.

    Edit: I have looked in the initplayer routines and the byte routines for the character options but nothing I have tried has worked.

    Edit2: Fixed, curse my branching mistakes.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 7, 2013
  7. Mike B Berry

    Mike B Berry A grandiose return Member

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    Isn't there a hex to palette converter around? I'm getting tired of converting raw code into palettes by closely observing each and every rotation.
     
  8. rika_chou

    rika_chou Adopt Member

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    Hex to palette? Maybe I am just too tired but that doesn't really make any sense.
     
  9. Mike B Berry

    Mike B Berry A grandiose return Member

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    What I'm getting at; is there a program that can read the input and produce a binary file without the ease of unnecessary trial and error? I only said palette because it'd seem more precise than saying hex to binary. which are identical on so many levels. I'm tired, and I know I won't have this one answered, so its best to trash the question.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 7, 2013
  10. Sonic master

    Sonic master Well-Known Member Member

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    ^ I still don't understand. Maybe you should try explaining more when you feel less tired.
     
  11. MarkeyJester

    MarkeyJester ♡ ! Member

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    Define "input", as it stands, "input" could mean anything, typing on a keyboard, changing values via a program (such as SonLVL or SonED), so on and so forth.
     
  12. Galagoid

    Galagoid Newcomer Trialist

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    Sorry for all the posts but I edited Tails' art and mappings and saved the nemesis compressed tile graphics but the title screen didn't change at all. What am I doing wrong? Here is a photo of the graphics imported into SonMapEd: [​IMG]
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 8, 2013
  13. rika_chou

    rika_chou Adopt Member

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    Did you build after saving?
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 8, 2013
  14. redhotsonic

    redhotsonic Also known as RHS Member

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    Did you build the right disassembly? Or make the changes in the right disassembly? The amount of times I've made changes, built it, and nothing had changed, eventually realising I was just building a back-up over and over =P
     
  15. Galagoid

    Galagoid Newcomer Trialist

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    I know I'm building the correct disassembly and made the changes in the right disassembly but still, nothing changes on the title screen. Something does change for the fade out frames in the "Sonic and Miles Tails Prower in" text for some strange reason. This is what it looks like when the text fades out: [​IMG] 

    The image fades, but the mappings are screwed up. Also, the nemesis tile graphics are being save to "Sonic and Tails from Title Screen.bin."
     
  16. SuperEgg

    SuperEgg I'm a guy that knows that you know that I know Member

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    From the look of it, you're title screen art is overlapping your VRAM locations. You may want to check and insure you aren't using way to many tiles.
     
  17. Galagoid

    Galagoid Newcomer Trialist

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    Ok thanks.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 10, 2013
  18. fdswerty

    fdswerty Well-Known Member Member

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    Aight, I've recently finished porting Tails' to my new Sonic 1 hack, which is nothing more than a Sonic clone with Tails' sprites (It actually replaces Sonic as the main character-- I've wanted to use other character as the main one in my new hack). I actually can't get his Tail to display, ending up with this:

    [​IMG]

    So, how would I go ahead making Tails' tail display? I tried everything and its not working...
     
  19. amphobius

    amphobius spreader of the pink text Member

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    What would be the easiest way of porting the S3K PSG flutters to Sonic 1? I have MegaPCM setup to give me the entire S3K DAC library and I have also gotten smps2asm set to easily port the music from the games in. I'd like to get the PSG flutters in to my hack so I can get super accurate ports from game to game, as well has having a bit more luxury with volume envelopes for custom music I'm importing myself.

    I'm asking because I've tried a couple times before and the PSG ended up a bit bugged, the noise channel in particular wasn't very nice to listen to. As it stands now, with my buggery with the flutters, it's ended up destroying the PSG and having static in Gens (whereas in every other emulator I've tried it's played perfectly fine).
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 19, 2013
  20. ValleyBell

    ValleyBell Well-Known Member Member

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    Sonic 1's sound driver has a different internal format for PSG envelopes. (It's one of the many things it does differently to every other SMPS game I know.)

    In S3K, PSG envelopes can end with $80, $81 and $83, in Sonic 1 you only have $80.

    For S3K, the envelope termination byte works like this:

    • $80 resets the flutter index to 0, so it loops over the complete envelope (used in a few envelopes that use weird values and won't sound at all)
    • $81 keeps the envelope at the current volume level (same as Sonic 1's $80)
    • $83 stops the note instantly (i.e. sets the volume level to $F, the PSG's minimum volume level)
    So if you want to convert S3K envelopes, you need to convert all $81 bytes to $80. Since you can't convert $83 correctly, you need to simulate the behaviour with $F, $80.Example:



    PSGTone_00:    db    2, 83hPSGTone_01:    db    0,   2,   4,   6,   8, 10h, 83h

    PSGTone_04:    db    3,   0,   1,   1,   1,   2,   3,   4,   4,   5, 81h



    becomes


    PSGTone_00:    dc.b    2,  $F, $80PSGTone_01:    dc.b    0,   2,   4,   6,   8, $10, $80

    PSGTone_04:    dc.b    3,   0,   1,   1,   1,   2,   3,   4,   4,   5, $80