I apologize, but I can't see the logo. Could someone link the image please?
I think it was taken down.
Archived M2K2 Forum
I created a thread for the wiki here:
https://m2k2.taigaforum.com/post/retro_modding_wiki.html
https://m2k2.taigaforum.com/post/retro_modding_wiki.html
I created the AGSC page. Knowing my luck, I probably got stuff wrong already, lol
http://www.metroid2002.com/retromodding/index.php?title=AGSC_%28File_Format%29
http://www.metroid2002.com/retromodding/index.php?title=AGSC_%28File_Format%29
So you figured out how to parse ANCS files, especially the PAS4 sections. Great! Having gotten tired of tracing through the dol file, I decided to patch and execute the code directly. The following program needs to be run on a big endian PPC machine running in a unix-like OS like linux on a homebrewed GC/Wii, and qemu might work too. It shows the calling address, file offset, read data, and read function used. Seeing the same pattern of looped calling addresses shows repeating data structures.
primefactory.zip Source included as well as my crummy perl file factory finder.
It was debugged only to get ANCS working, but EVNT (on the most wanted list) also parses. Sometimes it crashes on these files, oh well. Feed it the NA 0-00 boot.dol. Other factories have different arguments and so trying to parse them crashes immediately. Illegal floating point instructions can also happen.
Example output:
If anyone uses it and/or finds the output useful, then I can take requests on where to go from here.
primefactory.zip Source included as well as my crummy perl file factory finder.
It was debugged only to get ANCS working, but EVNT (on the most wanted list) also parses. Sometimes it crashes on these files, oh well. Feed it the NA 0-00 boot.dol. Other factories have different arguments and so trying to parse them crashes immediately. Illegal floating point instructions can also happen.
Example output:
# primefactory boot.dol a5e0804c.EVNT
...
8033e370 7d 2d ReadByte
8033e370 7e 31 ReadByte
8033e370 7f 35 ReadByte
8033e370 80 00 ReadByte
802fd1a4 81 0005 ReadShort
80348e34 83 XXXXXXXX ReadFloat
80348e40 87 00000002 ReadLong
802fd1bc 8b 00000001 ReadLong
8033ece8 8f 01 ReadByte
802fd1d4 90 XXXXXXXX ReadFloat
802fd1e0 94 ffffffff ReadLong
802fd1ec 98 00000040 ReadLong
80357424 9c 0000000f ReadLong
80357430 a0 50415254 ReadLong
8035743c a4 409749db ReadLong
8033e32c a8 52 ReadByte
8033e370 a9 45 ReadByte
8033e370 aa 79 ReadByte
...
...
8033e370 7d 2d ReadByte
8033e370 7e 31 ReadByte
8033e370 7f 35 ReadByte
8033e370 80 00 ReadByte
802fd1a4 81 0005 ReadShort
80348e34 83 XXXXXXXX ReadFloat
80348e40 87 00000002 ReadLong
802fd1bc 8b 00000001 ReadLong
8033ece8 8f 01 ReadByte
802fd1d4 90 XXXXXXXX ReadFloat
802fd1e0 94 ffffffff ReadLong
802fd1ec 98 00000040 ReadLong
80357424 9c 0000000f ReadLong
80357430 a0 50415254 ReadLong
8035743c a4 409749db ReadLong
8033e32c a8 52 ReadByte
8033e370 a9 45 ReadByte
8033e370 aa 79 ReadByte
...
If anyone uses it and/or finds the output useful, then I can take requests on where to go from here.
So i looked a bit more into yEd and it can be used as a AFSM editor.
All is needed is a AFSM/graphml converter. I have written the AFSM -> graphml part, which means that for now yEd can be used as a viewer.
I'm going to work on the graphml -> AFSM part now.
A few questions though:
- Does anyone know if the order of the states and/or of the triggers is relevent?
- I've never actually shared a program before :p
If I understand correctly, I have to compile my code in every environment to get executables, but i'm not really sure of what defines an environment... For exemple, is 32bit/64bit important?
Also, any suggestion as to where to upload it?
All is needed is a AFSM/graphml converter. I have written the AFSM -> graphml part, which means that for now yEd can be used as a viewer.
I'm going to work on the graphml -> AFSM part now.
A few questions though:
- Does anyone know if the order of the states and/or of the triggers is relevent?
- I've never actually shared a program before :p
If I understand correctly, I have to compile my code in every environment to get executables, but i'm not really sure of what defines an environment... For exemple, is 32bit/64bit important?
Also, any suggestion as to where to upload it?
ATTENTION:
It came to my attention last night when I was attempting to work with DKCR files that pakextract was horribly botched, while I added a check for the version to keep it from throwing an exception, I completely forgot to add the additional checks where appropriate. As a result, EVERY mrea that was extracted is rendered completely useless. Due to this I've removed the download links for pakextract. I appologise for the inconvenience, those of you who have a copy, DO NOT extract DKCR paks until I can provide a fixed version.
It came to my attention last night when I was attempting to work with DKCR files that pakextract was horribly botched, while I added a check for the version to keep it from throwing an exception, I completely forgot to add the additional checks where appropriate. As a result, EVERY mrea that was extracted is rendered completely useless. Due to this I've removed the download links for pakextract. I appologise for the inconvenience, those of you who have a copy, DO NOT extract DKCR paks until I can provide a fixed version.
@DJGrenola: each filetype has its own "factory" defined within the dol, and that's the address that's used. One other function before hand needs to be called to set up an internal FILE structure. As the dol is loaded and executed like its a library, you can run debuggers against it - gdb works great.
Also, a long time ago (sorry!) DJGrenola asked about a (0,1,0) pattern in Echoes and beyond for soft resets. It is no longer there. In fact it is not even in the Echoes Bonus Disk.
Speaking of the Echoes Bonus Disk, I don't recall anyone testing it since Aether Jumping was found. The final portal is can still be activated when wrong-roomed. There's more tiny differences between what happens if you leave before/during/after the Ing fight than what you might expect with regular Echoes.
There is an LGPL'd version of LZO in libavcodec. If the DLL's posted earlier were LGPL then nevermind.
Does anyone else remember when a supposed QA tester for Prime came to M2K2? They mentioned having to jump at a wall in Chozo Ruins for a day testing if bad collision was fixed. Now that we can "see" this data... (This probably has been looked at extensively, like with Burning Trail.)
The face model/animations are copied over from Echoes too, right? At 2:15 when the camera passes by her face normally she closes her eyes. Here they get bigger. So the rigging is exacly opposite.
As for a question which can be asked of Mike Sneath (maybe? it's not related to his specialty): Take a look at ~0.37 in this promotional video for Prime which came on the Interactive Multigame Demo Disk #9 Kiosk_Movie_9.mp4 [2.0 MB MP4], its Invisible Drone with X-Ray! My question would be if that was originally intended. If so, what was different in the earlier item locations and/or expected route through the game?
Also, a long time ago (sorry!) DJGrenola asked about a (0,1,0) pattern in Echoes and beyond for soft resets. It is no longer there. In fact it is not even in the Echoes Bonus Disk.
Speaking of the Echoes Bonus Disk, I don't recall anyone testing it since Aether Jumping was found. The final portal is can still be activated when wrong-roomed. There's more tiny differences between what happens if you leave before/during/after the Ing fight than what you might expect with regular Echoes.
There is an LGPL'd version of LZO in libavcodec. If the DLL's posted earlier were LGPL then nevermind.
Does anyone else remember when a supposed QA tester for Prime came to M2K2? They mentioned having to jump at a wall in Chozo Ruins for a day testing if bad collision was fixed. Now that we can "see" this data... (This probably has been looked at extensively, like with Burning Trail.)
Quote from Paraxade:
Made a video to show off the Dark/Light Suits. I even threw in Zero Suit Samus at the end, who... didn't quite turn out like I hoped.
The face model/animations are copied over from Echoes too, right? At 2:15 when the camera passes by her face normally she closes her eyes. Here they get bigger. So the rigging is exacly opposite.
As for a question which can be asked of Mike Sneath (maybe? it's not related to his specialty): Take a look at ~0.37 in this promotional video for Prime which came on the Interactive Multigame Demo Disk #9 Kiosk_Movie_9.mp4 [2.0 MB MP4], its Invisible Drone with X-Ray! My question would be if that was originally intended. If so, what was different in the earlier item locations and/or expected route through the game?
Yeah, heh, the rig's not perfect. There's some issues. :P I basically had to swap the Echoes bone IDs with the corresponding MP1 ones by hand to get the MP2 rig working with the MP1 skeleton, and it's a bit of a pain to test whether the rig's any good that way, so I didn't do a whole lot of revisions to get the little things right.
Also, I already sent Mike a few more questions a few days ago; he might not get back to me for a little while, since he previously only had time to respond because he had a day off thanks to the holiday. Will post here about it when he does, though.
It's not. Just make sure all the state IDs match up correctly.
I don't really think you need to worry about that too much. Just compile it as a 32-bit application and let us know which OS you've compiled it for. You can try making it open source if you'd really like it to be available on every platform possible. Easiest place to upload it would probably be to attach it to your post, though you can find somewhere to upload it if you want.
Also, I already sent Mike a few more questions a few days ago; he might not get back to me for a little while, since he previously only had time to respond because he had a day off thanks to the holiday. Will post here about it when he does, though.
Quote from skysurf3000:
- Does anyone know if the order of the states and/or of the triggers is relevent?
It's not. Just make sure all the state IDs match up correctly.
Quote:
- I've never actually shared a program before :p
If I understand correctly, I have to compile my code in every environment to get executables, but i'm not really sure of what defines an environment... For exemple, is 32bit/64bit important?
Also, any suggestion as to where to upload it?
If I understand correctly, I have to compile my code in every environment to get executables, but i'm not really sure of what defines an environment... For exemple, is 32bit/64bit important?
Also, any suggestion as to where to upload it?
I don't really think you need to worry about that too much. Just compile it as a 32-bit application and let us know which OS you've compiled it for. You can try making it open source if you'd really like it to be available on every platform possible. Easiest place to upload it would probably be to attach it to your post, though you can find somewhere to upload it if you want.
Edit history:
skysurf3000: 2015-01-26 11:32:23 am
skysurf3000: 2015-01-26 11:31:59 am
skysurf3000: 2015-01-26 11:21:57 am
skysurf3000: 2015-01-26 11:21:13 am
skysurf3000: 2015-01-24 12:54:36 pm
skysurf3000: 2015-01-24 12:53:52 pm
Well here you go then :)
-- UDPATED 26/01/15 --
http://m2k2.taigaforum.com/post/metroid_prime_hacking_research_889.html
-- UDPATED 26/01/15 --
http://m2k2.taigaforum.com/post/metroid_prime_hacking_research_889.html
Edit history:
Antidote: 2015-01-24 03:26:53 pm
Antidote: 2015-01-24 03:26:47 pm
Antidote: 2015-01-24 03:26:08 pm
Antidote: 2015-01-24 03:25:53 pm
Antidote: 2015-01-24 03:24:58 pm
Antidote: 2015-01-24 03:13:03 pm
Antidote: 2015-01-24 03:12:40 pm
Antidote: 2015-01-24 03:10:13 pm
Antidote: 2015-01-24 03:02:44 pm
Linux users unite!!!
thanks skysurf I'll check it out.
EDIT:
Nice :D
I do have one gripe though, It's kinda hard to tell how many states are actually there, some files have more than one of a specific state, case in point: Metroid Prime's AFSM which has 5 copies of "// retreat wait" states.
A decent solution is to stick it in the first referenced state, then store the index for the referenced states in each trigger after that.
thanks skysurf I'll check it out.
EDIT:
Nice :D
I do have one gripe though, It's kinda hard to tell how many states are actually there, some files have more than one of a specific state, case in point: Metroid Prime's AFSM which has 5 copies of "// retreat wait" states.
A decent solution is to stick it in the first referenced state, then store the index for the referenced states in each trigger after that.
I'm documenting some stuff about it on the wiki. Other than that, no. I'd like to figure out textures, but it's complicated and I have a lot of other things to work on. Right now I'm really just focused on getting the wiki up and running smoothly, and getting it up-to-date.
Also, Mike's just sent me another response:
I've gone ahead and sent him Skippy's and Bearborg's questions.
Also, Mike's just sent me another response:
Quote:
Q: I'm hoping to create some mod tools for Prime, so I'm interested to know how things were done over there. The main thing I want to ask you is, what kind of workflow and tools did you use to create assets for the game at Retro Studios?
A: The only off the shelf tool we used was Maya while everything else was proprietary. In a nutshell environments/characters/animation, etc. all made in Maya and then exported to the in house tools. To be honest I rarely ever used any of the proprietary tools as after I finished a character model it went to the animators and programmers so basically it was out of my hands.
Q: Was there anything else you thought would've been cool that ended up being cut from the game that we don't know about yet?
A: As for other things being cut- This website covers pretty much all the content that I know of that was cut. http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=470310
Q: I'm not really asking about this one, since I think we already know the details thanks to another interview you did, but I thought you might be interested to know; one of the creatures that was cut from the game, the Ripper (which I'm guessing you modeled), actually still has all its assets on the disc. It's pretty easy to put it back in the game, too: https://tcrf.net/images/4/4d/MetroidPrimeGC_RipperIngame.png
A: The ripper character. I may have modeled that but I am not sure that one could been Gene.
A: The only off the shelf tool we used was Maya while everything else was proprietary. In a nutshell environments/characters/animation, etc. all made in Maya and then exported to the in house tools. To be honest I rarely ever used any of the proprietary tools as after I finished a character model it went to the animators and programmers so basically it was out of my hands.
Q: Was there anything else you thought would've been cool that ended up being cut from the game that we don't know about yet?
A: As for other things being cut- This website covers pretty much all the content that I know of that was cut. http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=470310
Q: I'm not really asking about this one, since I think we already know the details thanks to another interview you did, but I thought you might be interested to know; one of the creatures that was cut from the game, the Ripper (which I'm guessing you modeled), actually still has all its assets on the disc. It's pretty easy to put it back in the game, too: https://tcrf.net/images/4/4d/MetroidPrimeGC_RipperIngame.png
A: The ripper character. I may have modeled that but I am not sure that one could been Gene.
I've gone ahead and sent him Skippy's and Bearborg's questions.
Hello, everyone. Been lurking on this thread for a while and figured I should make an account and join in. Modding and Metroid Prime are two things in my life that I've needed together for a very long time.
Side question: have any of the world viewer/editor tools that have been mentioned here been publicly released yet (such as Paraxade's tool, the previously mentioned RetroView, etc)? Specifically, I'm interested in getting the level geometry of Metroid Prime 1 exported into something editable in 3dsMax.
Side question: have any of the world viewer/editor tools that have been mentioned here been publicly released yet (such as Paraxade's tool, the previously mentioned RetroView, etc)? Specifically, I'm interested in getting the level geometry of Metroid Prime 1 exported into something editable in 3dsMax.
I'm looking at it... holy crap this script is old. Will try to get it set up for you soon though.
edit: Actually screw this script I'm just going to copy paste the CMDL one and make some changes to it here and there so it'll work with MREA. Same geometry format.
edit 2: Why the hell are there materials that only have a lightmap and nothing else
edit: Actually screw this script I'm just going to copy paste the CMDL one and make some changes to it here and there so it'll work with MREA. Same geometry format.
edit 2: Why the hell are there materials that only have a lightmap and nothing else