FFVI: Divergent Paths

What is the best way for me to update from 1.0 to 1.1 without losing my progress? 

You don't want to patch DP 1.1 over DP 1.0.  You want to make a copy of a clean FF3, patch it with DP 1.1 alone, and then rename it to whatever your ROM of the previous version was named.  That will keep the save data pointed in the same place.  Or... you can make a copy of your save data from the emulator folder and name it to match the new ROM.

What is the best way for me to update from 1.0 to 1.1 without losing my progress?   I've heard in the past with other games that patching on top of a patched rom may result in unintended side effects.

Patch to a clean rom, and then load your save file. If you're past the Opera Scene, Setzer's letter will still appear, since this is tied to the save file and not the rom. The other bugs will be fixed though.

I'm gonna miss that like, 1 in 2 chance of a desperation attack. But it really needed to go.

Hello everyone,

Finally I reached in WoR, but I think I did too many changes... lol

Sometimes occurs graphical glitches in the overworld map and the Falcon Sprite is glitched. Few nightmare fuel pics :






A World in Ruin... Literally!   Saving and reseting fix the graphical bugs (minus Falcon, Falcon always looks like this, I don't know what happened here). 

Depending of the emulator the game sometimes freezes (I'm using a PS Vita to play), but overall it's not a total bummer because I'm really happy about all the game changes I did (new portraits, changed some enemies to recurring ff monsters, changed espers to better sprites and/or changed to more popular ones). Unfortunately even with the expanded rom I cannot use a full dialog (NPCs with names) archive because the World of Ruin map gets all glitched /pink/crushed palletes (only happens in WoR).

A few decent screenshots below :








Utilized AbyssalWolf sprites and edited Dissidia FFOO art to portraits and Record Keepers/Brave Exvius for monsters/Espers. (Redid Leo face dozens of times, it was the harder portrait for me to edit/recreate)

PowerPanda thanks for the mod, all your changes turned the game so refreshing, it's going to be hard to return to base game, I think your version is the definitive version of FFVI for me.

Edit: sorry for the big images I don't use forums regularly.

Hello everyone,

Finally I reached in WoR, but I think I did too many changes... lol

Sometimes occurs graphical glitches in the overworld map and the Falcon Sprite is glitched. Few nightmare fuel pics : <Redacted>


A World in Ruin... Literally!   Saving and reseting fix the graphical bugs (minus Falcon, Falcon always looks like this, I don't know what happened here). 

Depending of the emulator the game sometimes freezes (I'm using a PS Vita to play), but overall it's not a total bummer because I'm really happy about all the game changes I did (new portraits, changed some enemies to recurring ff monsters, changed espers to better sprites and/or changed to more popular ones). Unfortunately even with the expanded rom I cannot use a full dialog (NPCs with names) archive because the World of Ruin map gets all glitched /pink/crushed palletes (only happens in WoR).

The scrambled flight map might be something in the Mode 7 loading or decompressing incorrectly, and it looks like you overwrote either the falcon graphics pointers or the graphics themselves.  These things are all stored in the $EE bank, so perhaps you mistook a block of something as freespace when it wasn't?

Code:

Decompression Pointers
EE/74D3:    AF51B2EE    LDA $EEB251    (Pointer to Falcon graphics, low byte)
EE/74D7:    85D2        STA $D2        (Set source for decompression, low byte)
EE/74D9:    AF52B2EE    LDA $EEB252    (Pointer to Falcon graphics, middle byte)
EE/74DD:    85D3        STA $D3        (Set source for decompression, middle byte)
EE/74DF:    AF53B2EE    LDA $EEB253    (Pointer to Falcon graphics, high byte)
EE/74E3:    85D4        STA $D4        (Set source for decompression, high byte)

...

Falcon GFX Pointers
EE/5802:    F011          (Smallest Falcon sprite)
EE/5804:    1D12          (Small Falcon sprite)
EE/5806:    5612          (Normal Falcon sprite 1)
EE/5808:    9312          (Large Falcon sprite)
EE/580A:    EC12          (Normal Falcon sprite 2)

...

Falcon GFX Data
Smallest Falcon sprite (7E/A7C0)
EE/6A06:    0BFAF0F91202F0FA120AF0FB1212F0FC12FAF8FD1202
F8FE120AF8FF1212F8AE120200BC120A00BD121200BE12

Small Falcon sprite (7E/A7ED)
EE/6A33:    0EF6EFE512FEEFE61206EFE7120EEFE81216EFE912F6F7EA12FEF7
EB1206F7EC120EF7ED1216F7EE12FEFFEF1206FFF6120EFFF71216FFF812

Normal Falcon sprite 1 (7E/A826)
EE/6A6C:    0FF4EAD612FCEAD71204EAD8120CEAD91214EADA12F4F2DB12FC
F2DC1204F2DD120CF2DE1214F2DF12F4FAE012FCFAE11204FAE2120CFAE31214FAE412

Large Falcon sprite (7E/A863)
EE/6AA9:    16F6E8C012FEE8C11206E8C2120EE8C31216E8C412EEF0C512F6F0C612FEF0C
71206F0C8120EF0C91216F0CA12EEF8CB12F6F8CC12FEF8CD1206F8CE120EF8CF1216F8D012
F600D112FE00D2120600D3120E00D4121600D512

Normal Falcon sprite 2 (7E/A8BC)
EE/6B02:    0FF4EAD612FCEAD71204EAD8120CEAD91214EADA12F4F2
DB12FCF2DC1204F2DD120CF2DE1214F2AF12F4FAE012FCFAE11204FAE2120CFAE31214FABF12

So if you stored some of your graphics replacements in the $EE or $EF banks, you'll want to find somewhere else to put them.

Those portraits are pretty cool.  I tried something like that, but they didn't turn out nearly that nice.

Hi C-Dude,

I'm really new into the FFVI modding, basically I use the tools the community created (mainly ff3usme) and watched some video tutorials by B-run.

Used the search a lot on this forum and learned a lot. About the code this is a little new to me, but I want to try to fix this issues. You recommend to try to change with a hex editor?

About the Portraits and others sprites I changed, I want to create a thread in the sprite sections to share with you guys.

I love Amano art but I actually always disliked the translation of his artwork to the portraits in this game.

I'm really new into the FFVI modding, basically I use the tools the community created (mainly ff3usme) and watched some video tutorials by B-run.

Used the search a lot on this forum and learned a lot. About the code this is a little new to me, but I want to try to fix this issues. You recommend to try to change with a hex editor?

I take it the tutorial by B-Run was about changing field sprites?  If you used a hex editor to place a change like that, you might have put it at the wrong spot.
Also, of the programs available to edit FF6SNES, make sure you DON'T use ZoneDoctor.  It's fine as a resource but it has a disastrous save bug that ruins the ROM.

What I recommend is this:

(1) Take Lunar IPS and make a difference patch between Divergent Paths 1.1 and your altered Rom.  DP should be the original [unmodified] ROM you pick for the file selector, and your changed ROM should be the one you pick when the program asks for the modified file.
(2) While Lunar IPS is still open, click on the check box that says "Create a Log File".  This will generate a list of rom addresses that are changed by a patch, every time you use a patch.
(3) Make a copy of your ROM and apply the patch you just made.  This shouldn't change the file at all because the IPS patch only contains values that are different between DP 1.1 and your changed file.  Keep this copy, we'll be doing hex editing in it later.
(4) Open the text file that was generated as a log of this patching.  Look for addresses that are six digits long and start with 2E [That's the $EE bank].  They will be listed as an address and a length of difference, so you might see something like 2E7786, 14.  That means that 0x14 bytes were changed by the IPS file.
(5) Open both your modified file and Divergent Paths 1.1 in a hex editor [I use HxD personally].
(6) Use the search function to go to the addresses you saw in the text file, the six digit ones starting with 2E.  Do so in both files.  Copy the number of bytes from the DP 1.1 file into your modified file that matches what the IPS log states.  Hopefully the amounts will be short, but you should be able to just safely copy a bunch of bytes anyway because we're trying to repair ROM damage.  In fact, you could hypothetically select the block $2E0000 to $2EFFFF in DP 1.1 and paste it on your modified copy [Paste write, not paste insert, starting at $2E0000].
(7) Load your save file and see if the falcon is still broken.  Check for other graphics that might have been reverted to Vanilla by this change.

I finally got around to giving this romhack a proper try. Really enjoying it so far! I'll give some more in-depth feedback later :-).

For now, I have a quick question. IIRC Cyan's dream scene gave you the Aura (Masamune) weapon in the original game.
However, when I opened my inventory after completing the sequence I didn't find the katana there.
I know that you made some pretty big changes to Cyan's dream so I was wondering if you purposely moved the Aura somewhere else, or if this is a bug?
(Not that the weapon was actually very good, but I'm a bit of a completionist so I'd hate to miss out on anything.)

My apologies if this has been asked or explained before.

I'm gonna miss that like, 1 in 2 chance of a desperation attack. But it really needed to go.

Can I get an AMEN!!!!!!!!

---

Hi C-Dude,

I'm really new into the FFVI modding, basically I use the tools the community created (mainly ff3usme) and watched some video tutorials by B-run.

Used the search a lot on this forum and learned a lot. About the code this is a little new to me, but I want to try to fix this issues. You recommend to try to change with a hex editor?

About the Portraits and others sprites I changed, I want to create a thread in the sprite sections to share with you guys.

I love Amano art but I actually always disliked the translation of his artwork to the portraits in this game.

I'm glad to hear it.  Some of the portraits and esper pixel art in vanilla FF6 have NOT aged well.  I'd be down for a group of portraits for DP (or hell any FF6 hack) that mimics Amano's art style but reinterprets it...there used to be an .ips file for that very thing on romhacking.net, but I wasn't able to find it.  In that case, you should see if you can make portraits in different art styles.  The ones you made (on display) are SOLID!  

I'd love to see the changes you've made to Shiva.

Thanks C-Dude for the detailed explanation. I'll give a try soon.

To anyone interested I created a Thread in Owzer's Mansion forum sharing the sprites/portraits I created for my Divergent Paths playthrough. (this is the correct way to do it, correct? Lol) 

Next time you play FFVI please give a try! (Specially you PowerPanda!!! )