Metroid Prime hacking research

Edit history:

Aruki: 2015-03-18 09:12:24 pm

Aruki: 2015-03-18 06:07:43 pm

Aruki: 2015-03-18 06:01:40 pm

Aruki: 2015-03-18 06:00:55 pm

2015-03-18 04:06:43 pm

I'm starting to make some custom models to represent script objects that don't normally get rendered ingame (billboards would probably work as well, but I think models might be easier to move in 3D space, so I'm going with that). Since my models are just flat colors without any textures, they looked really bad without any dynamic lighting, so I figured I may as well implement the lights from the game. A while later after working with jackoalan and Antidote to figure out the game's light format, the material color channel data, and how GX handles dynamic lights in general, I've got a pretty good approximation (note how well the Chozo statue blends in):

I'm likely going to add some options to either turn off the dynamic lighting or use some default directional light, as well, because the game's lights can make it rather hard to pick out objects in dark rooms. (That problem could be solved with an ambience multiplier slider as well, which would have the added benefit of brightening terrain too.)

Next thing I plan on implementing is world loading... that'll give me access to stuff like layer names and the skybox model. After that I'll probably try to add some more functionality for using and manipulating script objects... would really like to get some basic editing functionality in there so I can do a preliminary release.

Also, Miles and I are working on script object loading functionality for Prime 2, so hopefully that should be implemented relatively soon as well. Dynamic lights are already implemented for Echoes since it's the same light format as Prime 1; just nothing to test it on yet. Corruption and DKCR have the same SCLY format as Echoes so adding some basic support for them probably wouldn't be too much trouble either. I'm thinking full DKCR support is fairly likely, but I'd need to spend more time with it and Corruption to be completely sure. (Also, that's kind of the plus side of Retro completely changing everything for TF... it gives me a clean split of what I should think about supporting. PWE definitely won't support TF or any future Retro games because they're too different, so it's nice to have a hard line to limit scope to the first four.)

edit: I just implemented three different dynamic lighting modes - None, Basic, World. Here's some pictures showing all three; good reference to see what I'm talking about if anyone's not quite following all my talk about dynamic lighting :P

I'm starting to make some custom models to represent script objects that don't normally get rendered ingame (billboards would probably work as well, but I think models might be easier to move in 3D space, so I'm going with that). Since my models are just flat colors without any textures, they looked really bad without any dynamic lighting, so I figured I may as well implement the lights from the game. A while later after working with jackoalan and Antidote to figure out [url=http://www.metroid2002.com/retromodding/wiki/Lights_(Metroid_Prime)]the game's light format[/url], [url=http://www.metroid2002.com/retromodding/wiki/Materials_(Metroid_Prime)#Color_Channels]the material color channel data[/url], and how GX handles dynamic lights in general, I've got a pretty good approximation (note how well the Chozo statue blends in):

[img]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CAZ5OvVUQAAw4RL.jpg:large[/img]

I'm likely going to add some options to either turn off the dynamic lighting or use some default directional light, as well, because the game's lights can make it rather hard to pick out objects in dark rooms. (That problem could be solved with an ambience multiplier slider as well, which would have the added benefit of brightening terrain too.)

Next thing I plan on implementing is world loading... that'll give me access to stuff like layer names and the skybox model. After that I'll probably try to add some more functionality for using and manipulating script objects... would really like to get some basic editing functionality in there so I can do a preliminary release.

Also, Miles and I are working on script object loading functionality for Prime 2, so hopefully that should be implemented relatively soon as well. Dynamic lights are already implemented for Echoes since it's the same light format as Prime 1; just nothing to test it on yet. Corruption and DKCR have the same SCLY format as Echoes so adding some basic support for them probably wouldn't be too much trouble either. I'm thinking full DKCR support is fairly likely, but I'd need to spend more time with it and Corruption to be completely sure. (Also, that's kind of the plus side of Retro completely changing everything for TF... it gives me a clean split of what I should think about supporting. PWE definitely won't support TF or any future Retro games because they're too different, so it's nice to have a hard line to limit scope to the first four.)

edit: I just implemented three different dynamic lighting modes - None, Basic, World. [url=http://imgur.com/tLGaiLq,6nvecuB,4yux2NR#0]Here's some pictures showing all three[/url]; good reference to see what I'm talking about if anyone's not quite following all my talk about dynamic lighting :P

2015-03-20 03:07:26 am

What a massive difference. Wow.

The most obvious inaccuracies with the lighting are places like this where the objects are supposed to blend in seamlessly, but don't. Bugs me, but I'm not quite sure where the problem is and I don't really want to invest the time to figure it out and fix it right now. Pretty happy with how well it's come out so far.

2015-03-21 06:16:30 pm

So we've been a bit confused about how the pirate beam trooper colors work. If you poke around through the model files, you'll end up finding models for the different trooper types: wave, ice, plasma... but no power. There's no Power Trooper model anywhere to be found. Things got even more confusing when I tried digging into the ANCS files and loading script objects; as it turns out, the ANCS file for the Space Pirates has a separate node for each trooper type, but the "power_trooper" node points to an Ice Trooper model. Further, every single Beam Trooper SpacePirate object points to the Power Trooper node, so the Wave/Ice/Plasma ones are unused, and every single trooper appears as an ice trooper. So WTF is going on?

The other day we ended up figuring it out - if the color input registers are initialized to a different color when the trooper model is rendered, then it comes out as a different color. The only question was which property on the SpacePirate objects modifies the color? It was a little tougher than expected to figure out what, because nothing sticks out as a color property.

As it turns out, there isn't one. Retro is normally good about not hardcoding things like this, but not in this case; it turns out the color is based on the pirate's weapon vulnerabilities. If the pirate is weak to Power Beam, it'll be yellow; if it's weak to Wave Beam, it'll be purple; Ice Beam, it'll be white; Plasma Beam, it'll be red. The colors are prioritized in a bit of a weird order - Plasma, Ice, Power, Wave. The colors themselves are hardcoded, so they can't be modified from the MREA files. The end result is I now have the trooper colors previewing correctly in PWE:

BTW, modifying the color registers also appears to be how WorldLightFader works, so I rigged up a light fading mechanism as well. This is done by internally tracking a "world light multiplier" value and initializing the TEV color registers to it, as well as multiplying the dynamic light colors by that value.

So we've been a bit confused about how the pirate beam trooper colors work. If you poke around through the model files, you'll end up finding models for the different trooper types: wave, ice, plasma... but no power. There's no Power Trooper model anywhere to be found. Things got even more confusing when I tried digging into the ANCS files and loading script objects; as it turns out, the ANCS file for the Space Pirates has a separate node for each trooper type, but the "power_trooper" node points to an Ice Trooper model. Further, every single Beam Trooper SpacePirate object points to the Power Trooper node, so the Wave/Ice/Plasma ones are unused, and every single trooper appears as an ice trooper. So WTF is going on?

The other day we ended up figuring it out - if the color input registers are initialized to a different color when the trooper model is rendered, then it comes out as a [url=https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CAgudpTWQAAWKTG.png:large]different[/url] [url=https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CAgvLr-W4AELTOA.png:large]color[/url]. The only question was which property on the SpacePirate objects modifies the color? It was a little tougher than expected to figure out what, because nothing sticks out as a color property.

As it turns out, there isn't one. Retro is normally good about not hardcoding things like this, but not in this case; it turns out the color is based on the pirate's weapon vulnerabilities. If the pirate is weak to Power Beam, it'll be yellow; if it's weak to Wave Beam, it'll be purple; Ice Beam, it'll be white; Plasma Beam, it'll be red. The colors are prioritized in a bit of a weird order - Plasma, Ice, Power, Wave. The colors themselves are hardcoded, so they can't be modified from the MREA files. The end result is I now have the trooper colors previewing correctly in PWE:

[img]http://i.imgur.com/6cqiNu8.jpg[/img]

BTW, modifying the color registers also appears to be how WorldLightFader works, so I rigged up a light fading mechanism as well. This is done by internally tracking a "world light multiplier" value and initializing the TEV color registers to it, as well as multiplying the dynamic light colors by that value.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HKNvMzvFuY

2015-03-21 06:24:38 pm

Also, of note is that fact that every trooper is weak to the Phazon Beam, even though you never have access to it unless you're fighting Core Essence, or use a cheat to enable the Phazon Beam

Edit history:

Antidote: 2015-03-22 11:24:34 pm

Antidote: 2015-03-22 11:23:09 pm

2015-03-22 11:21:56 pm

Over the past couple of days I've been working on experimenting with MP3 materials, and with great results. I've mostly figured out the workings of the underlying system and things are really starting to resemble their in-game quality. The most recent thing I've worked on was TexGen, and I'm now working on adding material animations. Now enough waffling, here are some pics:

And for a bit fun, spot the problem with this pic:

MrSpEeDrUn

2015-03-23 11:48:26 am

MP2 also a bit MP1 speedrunning

Lord Fredrik

2015-03-23 03:24:53 pm

@Antidote: Looks to me like transparencies aren't quite supported yet, amirite?

2015-03-23 03:58:32 pm

I think he does have some transparency implemented (see Samus's hair and the Docking Bay 5 glass), but yeah not everything (Ridley's wings).

MLSTRM

2015-03-23 04:15:08 pm

The arm cannon is wrong? At least it doesn't look like the in-game power beam model.

wowsers

2015-03-23 05:12:09 pm

(my first post here but don't mind me)
I'm pretty sure that arm-cannon is twisted 180 degrees if I'm not to mistaken

Edit history:

Antidote: 2015-03-23 05:21:17 pm

2015-03-23 05:20:57 pm

@LordFredrik, no not quite yet, still working on it
@MLSTRM it's the same one used in the game
@wowser CORRECT! however, it's not just the canon, it's her WHOLE arm.

MLSTRM

2015-03-23 05:39:29 pm

Ah ok I thought it was twisted initially, then I decided I was being silly >_>

2015-03-23 10:28:23 pm

Skybox

Baby Sheegoth

2015-03-24 12:41:47 am

Fuck, this game is beautiful.

wowsers

2015-03-24 03:05:11 am

^ yes

@antidote It was kinda obvious when the elbow protection was on the front of the arm instead of the back.
Also, I did not realize you could not log in to this forum from a smartphone until about 30 minutes ago

2015-03-24 05:32:02 pm

Beta Phazon Suit has made a triumphant return!!

Video:

wowsers

2015-03-24 05:35:11 pm

that arm-cannon looks really awesome with the greenish armor

2015-03-24 05:36:52 pm

Dang, gets me every time I see it, she really turned out great. Took me about a day and a half to properly reskin her.

2015-03-24 05:36:59 pm

yea, i'm also pleased with how well it complements the ship's color palette

Baby Sheegoth

2015-03-24 09:05:40 pm

Is there anyway I could get a hold of this reskin? :D

2015-03-24 09:24:53 pm

My data-modding tools are kinda kludgy to pack into a PAK-patch right now.. this is the result of some serious modding

Edit history:

jackoalan: 2015-03-27 03:35:23 am

2015-03-24 11:53:22 pm

OK, here's a behind-the-scenes look at Beta Phazon's restoration:

The original Beta Phazon mesh from the disc was roughly constructed, yet it comes with a complete set of materials and textures

The roughness is very noticeable with solid shading

Metroid Prime uses skeletal-rigging to animate meshes. The 'skinning' process involves 'weighting' parts of the mesh to a skeleton structure. The original mesh was accompanied with an empty set of skinning rules, which means it's not able to be animated as-is. Instead, Antidote's great skinning efforts have restored its ability to animate. The colors here show how the 'Spine_1' bone affects Samus' torso.. yellower areas are 'blended' with surrounding bones so it naturally flexes with the animation.