Expanded palette hack

Hi.

Some of you may remember me from about a year ago when I posted here.

I don't want to give a long story / excuse, but basically I quit because of a combination of real life drama, and the fact that the hack I was working on had reached a frustrating impasse.

Things have recently gotten to the point where I've gotten interested in ROM hacking again, and have started to get back into it.

Gi Nattak just got in touch with me (after I registered at romhacking.net), and reminded me of the work I'd been doing here. So I've decided I should try to "resolve" things as much as possible.

Now, the code I wrote before was to allow the use of extra colors for PC palettes. This allowed for more freedom in creating sprites for custom PCs.

I had a basically complete and working version, and posted the IPS patch here, calling it a "beta" or something like that.

Then I started to do even more with it, to expand the palette options even more. It was then, working on the more advanced version, that I gave up.

Now, I want to at least release the working version I did have. I want to make it available here and on romhacking.net.

The problem is, I don't have that version of my code anymore. I luckily do have my code still -- I saved it, even though I've switched computers. But it is in a sort of "non-working" state, with new features only half-implemented, so some things look messed up.

I didn't keep a copy of the last stable version. Which was stupid of me.

So, I'm wondering if anyone here downloaded and kept the IPS patch when I posted it.

If so, could you upload it somewhere where I could get access to it? Then I'll try to make it widely available on the internet.

As for completing the even more advanced version I had been working on, I am thinking vaguely about trying to do that. But I cannot make any promises. The thing is, I haven't looked at the code in a long time, and have forgotten a lot. So, it would be difficult to get back into it, and it intimidates me a bit. But I might try to do it. But, like I said, I can't promise anything.

Sorry about dropping out like I did, and I hope someone can help me salvage my old work.

Thanks,
Eggers

Glad to see you back here!

I'm fairly sure this is the one, there's another one (or maybe it was just code) that you made for Edrin that moves the code to F4/E000 but I think this must be the "public" one:
header: http://www.mediafire.com/download/27178z...r-0.01.ips
no header: http://www.mediafire.com/download/am12gv...r-0.01.ips

We'd be happy to host it if/once it's ready, when you submit it officially in other words.
I must say though, the next slew of fixes you had planned for it was amazing. But don't get me wrong, it's still an incredible patch how it currently is.

Thank you, Gi Nattak.

It turns out I actually did have the latest stable version of the patch, along with a readme and supplementary files, in a compressed archive.

About the more advanced version I was working on: I agree those additions would be good, and I was at least 75% done with them. It would be a shame to let that work go to waste. Like I said: I cannot make any promises, but I will try to regain my lost momentum and complete what I started. I'm not sure when that will happen, but I do want to do it.

But, for now, I want to just make the 1.0 version available. I can replace it with the 2.0 version, if that version is completed.

Remind me again how I officially submit a patch to this site? I don't seem to be able to directly post to the "IPS Patches" forum. How do I create a post there, and how do I have the files moved to this server?

Here is a link to the zip file that contains the IPS patches and other files:

http://www.bwass.org/bucket/expandedpalettes-1-0.zip

Here is how I would like the post to look, beginning with these screen shots at the top:

~~~~~~~



This is a hack intended for those who are themselves creating ROM hacks. For those who are not themselves hacking the FF3/FF6 game, this patch will be of no interest. In fact, it will probably be difficult for non-ROM hackers to even understand what this patch does.

Specifically, this patch is intended for those who are creating or using new, custom sprites for new or altered playable characters. It allows the use of colors that, for strange technical reasons, were in the past not usable by any character who would participate in battle.

The included screen shots show the game's characters with altered colors. These characters are not using new or altered palettes. Each sprite is still using its original 16-color palette. However, these sprites are now using colors within that palette that previously were unusable. For instance, the pink color of Locke's shirt: in an unaltered ROM, if one tried to change Locke's clothing to this color by altering his sprite, his new sprite would not show up correctly in battle. It would show up with random, glitched colors. This patch allows these colors to show up correctly in battle, as pictured.

In essence, this patch expands the number of colors you can use for PCs, which gives you greater freedom in creating custom PC sprites.

Although this patch is easy to use in principle, the precise details of what it does and how it works are complicated, and are explained in greater detail in the readme file.

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Wow, my submission was approved like instantly when I submitted it to romhacking.net. Are you on the staff there Gi? Or someone else who reads this forum? My much less complicated Dragon Warrior III bug fix patch took a day to receive approval, but this very complicated patch was approved literally within minutes.

Hmm yes, creating a thread in the IPS section seems to be having some technical difficulties. If you'd like to create the thread like you did here but minus the first posts obviously again in hacking discussion, we can then move it into the IPS section. Or I could make the post for you, either or. =)

And that's funny about the speedy submission, I am not with the staff there but maybe the one who saw it is a FF6 fan lol.

Posted the new thread. I assume you have the capability to save the file locally and attach it to the post (also the screen shots maybe?)

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Or do you not save the files to this server? For some reason I thought you did, but looking at the other posts in IPS patches, it looks like you do not.

I'll edit the post to include the link to the patch.

I'm curious I remembered you were working on enabling palettes 7 through 9 to make them usable as well (or you wanted to at least) any chance that going to make it into your next installment?

Yes. Making those palettes available is exactly what the next version was / is going to do. That, plus a .bat file to aid users in assembling and installing the patch in any location of the ROM they choose.

The .bat file is already done. I'd been using it to aid in my own development for a while.

In order to make palettes 7 and 8 fully usable for PCs, three screens have to be changed: the save screen, the party-change screen, and the shop screen.

In the current version in development (which I haven't worked on in a year), the save screen is already working.

The party-change screen is almost working, but with a small glitch. Whenever you move a character's position, there is a split-second (one frame to be precise) where everyone's colors are wrong. The update in the palettes lags behind the update in the sprites.

That small bug was proving frustrating to fix. The relevant sections of the code work in a VERY complicated way. It was hard to track down exactly what I needed to change. It was in the middle of fixing that bug that that I gave up. Unfortunately, since I haven't looked at the code in a long time, it will be even harder to track down now, since I don't remember everything I used to know.

After that, all I would have to do is the shop screen, which I remember thinking would be relatively easy. The party-change screen was going to be easily the hardest of those three screens to fix (or so I guessed, and still believe). The shop screen would go quickly I think. I'd be able to reuse a lot of my code from the party-change screen.

So basically, I've already done most of the work. It would be a shame to let it go to waste, and I don't want to.

Even after fixing these screens, palettes 7 and 8 still won't work correctly in all circumstances. In some locations where those palette locations are used for NPCs or objects -- like Kefka's tower -- there would still be glitches. There would probably be possible to work around that somewhat by editing the sprites and maps with the available tools. But I would need to provide a tutorial on exactly what needs to be done.

So anyway, that's what I still need to do. I hope I can bring myself to do it.

if anyone can do it its you that's for sure

you've done amazing work I'd love to see it to its completion

Thanks for the encouragement.