So there’s 761 files on the Dreamcast disc… what are they all?
ADX_.bin are the sound files
PL00-PL39 are the character data files
S_PL00 - S_PL39 are the shadings for each character selection option
So given that, I think I’ve figured out the basics of “fixing” character shadings (as any monkey should be able to quickly guess). So my next question is: has anybody associated the characters to the files? I can potentially brute force through that, but given my trouble burning Marvel CDs AND the fact that Chankast doesn’t seem to like me too much, this could take me way way too long. So if anybody has any data here, that’s be awesome.
The problem specifics for “recolor characters and make it so I know which Cable is mine” would seem to be:
1: Map characters to their respective shading files
2: Identify what controls the shading
3: Identify shading valid value bands
4: Edit
So presumably #2 is straight-forward, and #3 should be easy enough to fudge. In theory #1 is the next stage, which would take up to 56 Marvel burns if nobody knows these yet. But I was hoping somebody might already know that data.
Well if youre gonna test in chankast wich would be the best optiion as yu can use cdrdubs in chankast.
This sounds dope cuz now I can get my all black scrub or msp teams I have always wanted.
As far as I can tell there are 354 of the S-PL.bin files.
And if these are character costumes or whatever there should be 336. 56x6 diff color selections. Are you sure these are the approriate files?
How ould you go about openeing these files. I tried with photoshop and nothing, tried renaming the ext and nothing. So Im at a loss to this point. Once I find out how Im all over it dawg.
ive got an idea of how you guys should go about doing this. this is assuming the afforementioned files are not encrypted in ANY WAY.
first of all, grab a good hex editor.
second, grab an (accurately ripped) sprite of the character whose pallete you want to edit(also, make sure that the sprite uses the DEFAULT pallete of the character for easier testing later).
third, copy down the ONE of the rgb values of a single color from the sprite(this works best for a unique value).
fourth(and probably the trickiest), open up your hex editor and search the files for that value, and edit it to a different value. now try booting the game to test it. if you find nothing at first, divide the color value by 8, and try again (capcom games usually have only 32 values in shades of rgb ranging from 0-31).
this is the method used to find the color values from SFIII3S, 2I, and NG.
hope that helps.
EDIT: dammit, reading is win. didnt realize you already found the palletes preppy. i highly doubt anyone other than the most hardcore mugen creators knows what files/parts of files are assosiated with the characters.
also, metrock, just use a hex editor.
EDIT EDIT: maybe the pallete files are in the same order that is showed in the in-game shop?
It’s all conjecture at this point, which would need to be verified. There appear to be 59 sets, which may map to 56 characters + Abyss x 3 forms. (I don’t know why Abyss would have six shading files per form.)
I don’t know what the magic number or byte sequence for these files (gp??) would map out to, and I don’t know but would LOVE to know how to edit these files.
But even without that knowledge, you can establish the basic differences between the shading files (binary compare) and verify edits to those bytes. If there ARE six shading/graphics files per character, the only difference between those files should be the coloration, right? So the differences would/should be the color scheme. Editing only the differences should reshade a character.
It’s definitely a stretch, but the first interesting stretch here that I know of. I would die for a file editor here. Failing someone else’s genius input, this brute force method at least seems like an interesting avenue. And if I can represent a black-suited Cable at Evo, I WILL DO SO. :tup:
Damnit Preppy, I had deleted all of the dreamcast stuff off my drive when I finished TDC Final 2 and now I gotta put it back on cause Im a sucker for a puzzle.
Alright, a little mental masturbation before I fire up the hex editor. If we assume those S files are the color pallettes, then we know that everyone has the same size pallette data at about 16k. That’s a bunch, so likely one 4 byte set (assuming 8 bit each Alpha as well as RGB. Maybe 3 byte RGB, maybe any number of combinations. Doesn’t matter) for each color (16 or 256) for each frame of animation, and each frame of ‘other’ associated sprite like projectiles. So, it might help to find one with a low number of animation frames; Abyss definitely, Kobun maybe. They likely just assumed 16k pallette data for each character so they wouldn’t haveto do any memory shuffling. Either way, there should be repeated patterns that should be found easily; there’s no need to change the color palette for the repeated standing animations.
Hmmmmmmm
Whoops, that was wrong. THe S files are the same size for each of the colors, but vary greatly in size between characters.
It looks like there’s a lot of non-pallette data in the file as well. I wonder what that is? shrug. Butthe repeating patterns that are likely pallette are in 4 byte chunks at the end, and there is NOT enough for one set per frame. Just a normal pallette. Now to compare them to see how many colors in a pallette.
Im just too awesome sometimes. I was hoping the character number would match the shop number, just like rogueyoshi. It ain’t. Here’s the mapping I found in the 1ST_READ.BIN. Im testing it now to verify Cable specifically for Preppy, but I believe its right; the S files for the first two forms of Abyss are PUNY.
00 Ryu
01 Zangief
02 Guile
03 Morrigan
04 Anakaris
05 Strider
06 Cyclops
07 Wolverine
08 Psylocke
09 Ice-Man
0A Rogue
0B Cap. America
0C Spider-man
0D Hulk
0E Venom
0F Dr. Doom
10 T. Bonne
11 Jill Valentine
12 Hayato
13 Ruby Heart
14 Son Son
15 Amingo
16 Marrow
17 Cable
18 Abyss 1
19 Abyss 2
1A Abyss 3
1B Chun-Li
1C MegaMan
1D Roll
1E Akuma
1F B.B.Hood
20 Felicia
21 Charlie
22 Sakura
23 Dan
24 Cammy
25 Dhalsim
26 M.Bison
27 Ken
28 Gambit
29 Juggernaut
2A Storm
2B Sabretooth
2C Magneto
2D Shuma-Gorath
2E War Machine
2F Silver-Samurai
30 Omega Red
31 Spiral
32 Colossus
33 Iron-Man
34 Sentinel
35 Black Heart
36 Thanos
37 Jin
38 Captain Commando
39 Bonerine
3A Kobun
Well, my conclusion so far is that palette data is not in those S files. I checked some pairs for different characters, most notable S_PL17A.BIN and S_PL17C.BIN. Bit for bit, byte for byte, the ONLY differences between the files are instances of 0xE4 being replace by 0xE3. There is no way you could have a whole new palette just by twiddling the least significat bit of only one color.
Before this, I took the F files for PL17, and copied over the rest (A-E) with it. The thought was, that if this was the 6th color palette and all of the palettes were identical, then we’d know they’d work, and I could get a nice screencap of two Cables with identical palettes. It didn’t work so hot. Trying to go into training with Cablex3 versus Cablex3 would crash chankast at the same point selecting the second dummy character. If I did Cable, whoever, whoever vs Cable, whoever, whoever, itd crash after the versus tunnel. And lastly, the little character sprite during character selection would always have the default color.
Sorry, palette’s not in the S files. Ima gonna sleep now, but will look as time permits.
When I open with a hex editor what exactly am i looking for? And is the only way to test the colors by burning or would I be able to open using an image program? Once we find what we are looking for.
Interesting: I didn’t think to look there. So now you’re one of the voice actors?
That’s disappointing. I’ve seen the character art files swapped before (the Scodolfy Glitch Video) so I’m hopeful that it’s possible to swap shadings around too. I’m envious that Chankast works for you. Hopefully I can sort out my local problems with it and get hopping on this too. =P
I was hoping the character number would match the shop number, just like rogueyoshi. It ain’t. Here’s the mapping I found in the 1ST_READ.BIN. Im testing it now to verify Cable specifically for Preppy, but I believe its right; the S files for the first two forms of Abyss are PUNY.