SF4CMM - Street Fighter IV PC Costume Mod Manager

[Leogansky]

No i wasn’t. I unlocked the stuff then made a change to the…sound. Then it saved it so it would keep the unlocked stuff saved. I then never used the unlocker again. Anywho, after doing a fresh install, it now works, sound stays and I here the “OK” when I assign a skin. I wonder what was casuing the issue,…hm…

Have you used a previous version of SF4CMM? 0.4a is not backwards compatible…

[System_1]

No sir, did not find this mod until late this morning.

[System_1]

.NET Visual C# 3.5. I’m using Visual Studio 2008 to develop;)

I see, never learnt C#, I’m more like an idle Java programmer

Update: I’ve completed the following tasks so far:

1 - improvement: remove a color/costume/vfx and the previous list item is now selected instead of selecting the first item on the list.
2 - improvement: tried to improve character name pronunciation with the voice synthesizer
3 - improvement: skip costume announcement - now you don’t have to wait for the announcer to end what he is saying in order to select the next costume
4 - improvement: added suffixes Boxer/Claw/Dictator to Balrog/Vega/M. Bison, so they won’t be confused when using SF4CMM with the alternate Japanese version
5 - improvement: double click for bigger size preview picture
6 - improvement: edit button (edit costume, edit vfx, edit color)

Also, two bugfixes:

1 - bugfix: the tool crashed sometimes when exiting the program. This was caused by the wrongful clean-up of the temp dir (C:\Temp)
2 - bugfix: sometimes the preview image stopped showing

Remaining (trying to do it all today:P):

7 - Restore original costumes (per character and globally)
8 - Select original costume key
9 - Voice check button (in order to hear what our costume description will sound like)
10 - Assigning costumes to Alternate costume slot (in order to enable a vs battle between two costume mods with the same character)
11 - Normal/Alternate costume selection key (replicate the functionality of the Alternate Costume Toggler from RanShak - GameVixenZone, in order to give voice synth sound feedback to the user)
12 - Bulk costume import (???)
13 - Make all keys assignable

Impressive

As for the Bulk costume import, I think I had an idea on how to do it efficiently:

• a costume will be represented by a .zip file, containing
  • color file (.col.emz) - mandatory
  • costume file (.cos.emz) - optional
  • vfx file (.vfx.emz) - optional
  • jpg preview file (.jpg) - optional

The zip filename will reflect the costume mod name, for instance: “evil ryu.zip” will be converted to EVIL_RYU by SF4CMM automatically

So all you have to do is organize your costumes in zip files with this structure.

I’ll also add the possibility for you to import from a directory containing all of your zipfiles (and recurse through any subdirs too)

Finally, I’ll add the possibility for you to export your current costume mod library to this zip format, automatically.

What do you think?

Well, the zip format is even better than the subdir solution, it takes less files and less space. Great idea!

[Leogansky]

No sir, did not find this mod until late this morning.

Well, I don’t know what to say:P Glad that is working, though;)

[System_1]

By the way, the initial dialog box telling that the correct exe was found is quite annoying. Is it possible to display it only when there IS a problem with the stored path?

[Leogansky]

Guys,

I’m going to incorporate default preview images for the original costumes. Can you help me find some nice screenshots for the whole roster?

[System_1]

Hi,

I found this:

http://www.eventhubs.com/guides/2008/jul/08/street-fighter-4-strategy-guide-hints-and-tips/

Clicking on the character you want and then selecting Costume Colors gives some screen shots of decent quality. I would crop them and upload them myself but I am of to work soon ;-(

[System_1]

Oh, btw, I was wondering, and this might be a tad off topic, but is it possible to use the DLC costumes with this mod? If so, how would one go about making them functional in game?

[Leogansky]

Hi,

I found this:

http://www.eventhubs.com/guides/2008/jul/08/street-fighter-4-strategy-guide-hints-and-tips/

Clicking on the character you want and then selecting Costume Colors gives some screen shots of decent quality. I would crop them and upload them myself but I am of to work soon ;-(

I was looking for in-game screenshots for both normal and alternate costumes, like these: http://www.mahalo.com/street-fighter-4-alternate-costumes

[Leogansky]

Oh, btw, I was wondering, and this might be a tad off topic, but is it possible to use the DLC costumes with this mod? If so, how would one go about making them functional in game?

If you are refering to the alternate costumes, yes.

[System_1]

ok ty much

[System_1]

I don’t see where the difficulty lies in having an appropriate name for each costume directory. How do you find a costume on your HDD if you put it in a directory without an explicit name? Even better, some downloaded costumes are in zip format and already stored in a directory with an appropriate name. Personally, I store my costumes by character and each one is in a directory with explicit names (for Blanka, I have directories “beast”,“thundercat”, “lobo” and “berserker”, etc). Of course, if there are more than one colour scheme, the program could label the different combinations with “[Directory name]+[number]”

Well, with my proposition, it does not seem more difficult: you rename the folder (if it is not already correctly named), point it to the program and the soft generates the scheme with the appropriate name.
On the contrary, with your proposition to have random names generated, with big imports (let’s say 10 costumes for the same character), you’ll have to check manually the correspondence (you do not necessarily have a preview pic, which means starting SF4, switching costume, checking and then renaming)

You have very good arguments here, specially the highlighted ones. No matter how bad the names would sound, imported names are still a better idea than random names.

If there is a “use vfx when possible” option, you can tick or untick it. If you leave it unticked, then the vfx won’t be used, which would be the same for a “don’t use vfx” option, or am I wrong?

No, you’re completely right. I said something REALLY stupid…

GOT IT:P Damn bug! It was blowing up because I was removing the temp dir (C: emp) without checking for other dirs in there as well;) Fixed:P

Great! I should have sent the error before. Like Zora said, you seem to handle your tools quite well.

I’m opened to suggestions about changing the default key layout;) Use only keys that are listed in the tool.

I’m thinking about using shift + keys for the top three rows of characters and ctrl + keys for the bothom rows of characters. That way I would keep everything centered on the qwer - sdfg - zxcv rows. Seth can be any other key. Don’t know about using it as default though. Maybe it is too confusing. Anyway, I think it will work for me.

That’s strange. I’ve just tried it and F8 worked fine here… Aren’t you using F8 as a global shortcut somewhere else, like a silent running app?

As far as I know f8 isn’t used by other programs, I’ll make some tests and let you know about it later.

As for the Bulk costume import, I think I had an idea on how to do it efficiently:

• a costume will be represented by a .zip file, containing
  • color file (.col.emz) - mandatory
  • costume file (.cos.emz) - optional
  • vfx file (.vfx.emz) - optional
  • jpg preview file (.jpg) - optional

The zip filename will reflect the costume mod name, for instance: “evil ryu.zip” will be converted to EVIL_RYU by SF4CMM automatically

So all you have to do is organize your costumes in zip files with this structure.

I’ll also add the possibility for you to import from a directory containing all of your zipfiles (and recurse through any subdirs too)

I think it is a valid idea only if you support the several archive formats out there. There are rars, zips and 7zips. Mostly rars, so it is important that the program handle at least rars. Don’t forget that usually the archives provided by the modders has very different kinds of organization. I’ve seen a lot that use subfolders too. That would require the user to organize archives too, and that would kind of “escape” the purposes of a bulk import.

The support for archive formats is great, but I thnk you should be an extra. For me the essential should be directory support.

[System_1]

Oh, btw, I was wondering, and this might be a tad off topic, but is it possible to use the DLC costumes with this mod? If so, how would one go about making them functional in game?

Since I love this tool I’m doing the following to use alternate costumes:

• open color file manager
• add new color
• go to your “battle/chara/character folder”
• choose any xxx_02_xx.col file
• give the color a name

That’s it! You’ll have an alternate costume for that character.

[Leogansky]

Since I love this tool I’m doing the following to use alternate costumes:

• open color file manager
• add new color
• go to your “battle/chara/character folder”
• choose any xxx_02_xx.col file
• give the color a name

That’s it! You’ll have an alternate costume for that character.

Now you’re making me blush, lololol:P Now THAT IS WHAT I CALL SUPPORT!!! VALEU!!!

[Leogansky]

Ok, guys, sorry it took so long, but I wanted to make sure you had the most bug-free possible new version of SF4CMM, and here it is: v0.5;)

Since I did a number of improvements on this one, it is possible that you encounter some bugs, so please test it and let me know;)

For the next version, I will implement:

14 - Add preview pictures to the original costumes
15 - Single/Bulk costume import and export functions (zip format)
16 - Assigning costumes to Alternate costume slot (in order to enable a vs battle between two costume mods with the same character)

Number 16 on the list is very tricky… I’ll need some time to think in order not to cause too much overhead by file editing and swapping while in-game… Tomorrow I’ll think about it, but right now I need to rest my head for a while:P

If someone could find me those images, or take snapshots of the game, it would really help a lot, since I’m all packed up just developing the tool. But don’t worry, I’ll figure something out if you can’t;)

That’s all for now;) Enjoy!

[System_1]

Ok, guys, sorry it took so long, but I wanted to make sure you had the most bug-free possible new version of SF4CMM, and here it is: v0.5;)

Since I did a number of improvements on this one, it is possible that you encounter some bugs, so please test it and let me know;)

For the next version, I will implement:

14 - Add preview pictures to the original costumes
15 - Single/Bulk costume import and export functions (zip format)
16 - Assigning costumes to Alternate costume slot (in order to enable a vs battle between two costume mods with the same character)

Number 16 on the list is very tricky… I’ll need some time to think in order not to cause too much overhead by file editing and swapping while in-game… Tomorrow I’ll think about it, but right now I need to rest my head for a while:P

If someone could find me those images, or take snapshots of the game, it would really help a lot, since I’m all packed up just developing the tool. But don’t worry, I’ll figure something out if you can’t;)

That’s all for now;) Enjoy!

WOW! Great job!

Which resolution you want the images for original costumes?

Also, I tested the key functions of 0.4a and guess what, Zora was right, there is no problem using ctrl+a or ctrl+b, the game identifies these keys only if you press them alone.

Forget about the f’s I mentioned before. They are working. Don’t know what happened earlier though.

Thanks a lot for this tool!

[Leogansky]

WOW! Great job!

Which resolution you want the images for original costumes?

800x600 will suffice. Normal and Alternate pictures, where you can see the whole costume, preferably.

Also, I tested the key functions of 0.4a and guess what, Zora was right, there is no problem using ctrl+a or ctrl+b, the game identifies these keys only if you press them alone.

Great;) I’ll re-assign to my old defaults using the Ctrl, then;)

By the way, suggestions are welcomed to the final default keying!

Forget about the f’s I mentioned before. They are working. Don’t know what happened earlier though.

Thanks a lot for this tool!

Glad it’s working;) Don’t mention it! Without users like you guys, a tool is nothing;)

[stupid_nerd]

I won’t touch these designs until they become lag and bug free, if ever and forever.

[Leogansky]

I won’t touch these designs until they become lag and bug free, if ever and forever.

I fail to see the point in this observation. Care to elaborate?

[stupid_nerd]

Oh, sorry if I am labeling wrong information here. I thought the game crashed often and lagged spiked because of those fan made costumes. I didn’t read anything at all.