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Aruki: 2015-02-05 11:12:05 pm
Aruki: 2015-02-05 11:11:09 pm
Aruki: 2015-02-05 08:42:40 pm
Aruki: 2015-02-05 08:40:24 pm
Aruki: 2015-02-05 08:19:06 pm
Aruki: 2015-02-05 07:46:24 pm
Aruki: 2015-02-05 07:44:49 pm
Aruki: 2015-02-05 07:42:26 pm
Aruki: 2015-02-05 07:41:23 pm
Aruki: 2015-02-05 07:19:42 pm
Aruki: 2015-02-05 07:17:51 pm
Aruki: 2015-02-05 07:09:47 pm
Aruki: 2015-02-05 06:48:50 pm
Working on implementing the ANCS dependency parsing that I said I was going to do four days ago. >.>

I've just parsed the first table in 8169653a.ANCS. Just wanted to post that I've found out Skippy's incorrect about type 3 being null. It's like type 4 in that it contains a number of substructs. It's structured like:

Code:
u32 count;

for (count) {
  u32 StructType;
  struct that type
  u32 unknown;
}


The funny part is that I'm seeing a lot of type 3s that contain type 4s which contain type 0s... there's definitely some level of recursion, lol.

dump of the contents of the first footer table in 8169653a.ANCS

I'm finding it kinda confusing to follow all the posts here to understand the format, lol. Will put some info up on the wiki once I've got this working properly.

edit: Running into a problem. In the second table in this file, at 0x1633A, the table entry has type 0 marked, but there's an extra long before the anim ID. Any idea, Skippy?

edit 2: I think I figured it out... the struct types in the second table aren't the same types as the one from the first table. 0 is a container (guess) - long type, struct thattype. 1 and 2 are the ones we already know. 3 is null, like Skippy said. I seem to have been able to parse the second table correctly by doing that.

edit 3: Oh I think Skippy already mentioned something like this.

edit 4: There was another piece missing of the third table. In the long/float/float/long, the first long is another count value which is followed by a number of 12-byte-long structures. That count/table is in every file, while the second one (after the floats) is only in 3/4. The ANIM/EVNT pairs are only in 4. I've been able to parse the whole file now, and I'm running it on other files as well with no issues so far.

Do you think you could point me to where this code is in the demo disassembly, Skippy? I've got most of the functions labeled so I might be able to find what some of this data actually is. Also, how many unknown struct types are there, if you know?

edit 5: I've added this stuff to the dependency parser. No issues encountered, at least for Metroid1.pak! All ANIM and EVNT files are now accounted for! I think what the parser is mainly missing now is A. a few script objects and B. some stuff in particles. Once it successfully detects every file, the next challenge will be to figure out how to trim the unnecessary duplicates.

edit 6: just throwing out there.. wonder if these ending tables might be specifying animation blends? It definitely seems to be an animation sequence of some sort at the very least. The entries that have multiple animations listed seem to be animations that you'd expect to play sequentially:

Quote:
        TYPE 0: ddc07e1a.ANIM - A_intoleanstandl_pirate
        TYPE 0: 66ff3245.ANIM - A_leanstandl_pirate
        TYPE 0: e03ac5a.ANIM - A_outofleanstandl_pirate


edit 7: also I hate when I get to the point of editing my posts this many times
Quote from Paraxade:
edit 7: also I hate when I get to the point of editing my posts this many times

well, just post again then!
I think this is the only forum I've ever been on where the mods encourage people to double post
it's also probably the only forum that updates in real time.
Edit history:
arkarian: 2015-02-06 01:21:55 pm
red chamber dream
no double posts is also literally the stupidest forum rule ever

maybe i'm just used to tf where there's no huge fucking signatures though

Quote from BioSpark:
it's also probably the only forum that updates in real time.

i very much doubt this is true now, but maybe ... it's possible no one really cares about forum software anymore. i haven't looked into other forums since writing taiga though. >_>
Edit history:
Baby Sheegoth: 2015-02-06 01:54:08 pm
if I recall correctly double posting was largely a thing from the past where 56k modems would load pages at a snail's pace and having a user's avatar and signature load twice added much time to the page for absolutely no reason... maybe I'm wrong about that. I certainly remember that to be the rationale on SCU.

EDIT: and also as a general rule to discourage threadshitting/post count bumping.
red chamber dream
yep. good thing that was 10 years ago.
Yeah it's very 2002
metroid 2002
red chamber dream
since 2003.
shhhhhhh we don't have to let the kids know
Anywhere, everywhere
"It'll say life is sacred and so is death but death is life and so we move on"
Edit history:
Aruki: 2015-02-07 04:23:23 pm
In case there's anyone watching this thread and not the wiki one, I've posted in the wiki thread asking for feedback on how we should structure pak file directories on the wiki: https://m2k2.taigaforum.com/post/retro_modding_wiki_30.html

edit: By the way I'm working on the PakTool rewrite. I've just about finished implementing unpacking mode for every known pak format; it's a significant performance improvement over the old PakTool and there's a couple nifty new features. Plus Tropical Freeze support isn't shit now! I'm going to add repacking next - for now it'll work the same as the current build but I'm going to implement it for both the MP1 and MP3 pak formats. Stay tuned over the next couple days for a release.
Excellent. If I could just get the TF ISO to use said not shit support, I could get you-know-who's model and maybe textures lol.
Hi,

I really don't know where I had to post this since this seems to be the only thread on this forum which is about hacking.

Donkey kong Country returns is one of my favorites so I decided to hack this game. I made a tool which is able to Export, Export with decompression, and import files into a pak. Although its not without bugs it works perfectly. So I just wanted to say that I am grateful for the wiki you guys made, Althought I found it out too late (I had to find out DKCR pak out of my own), Some information on that wiki saved my tool. I kinda was hoping to get some support here... since no other forum cares about DCKR hacking (I already posted this on other hacking forums), and Paraxade seems to understand a few of it files.

If you wonder, Here is the download link for my tool.
Edit history:
Aruki: 2015-02-08 09:48:07 pm
Aruki: 2015-02-08 06:31:07 pm
Aruki: 2015-02-08 06:30:38 pm
Aruki: 2015-02-08 06:24:14 pm
Aruki: 2015-02-08 06:14:35 pm
Hey, awesome to see someone new interested in this stuff! We're mostly interested in Metroid here but there's definitely some interest in DKCR since there's a lot of similar formats between the games. I tried your tool; looks nifty, though the functionality overlaps with my own PakTool which I've been working on a rewrite of the last couple days.

If you're interested in looking at DKCR files you might be interested in Metroid Prime 3 as well, since it shares a lot of formats with DKCR (including the pak format). I think for the most part neither of those games has been looked into too extensively yet, so if you wanted to that would be pretty cool. I know a decent chunk of the DKCR CMDL format and the TXTR format is identical to MP1/2/3.. there's no DKCR CMDL page on the wiki yet but I could probably write one up if you want. Aside from that I'm not sure what else is known about DKCR... I think Miles has worked out the SCLY/collision parts of MREA, as well as MLVL, and I think Antidote may have spent some time with DKCR's MREAs as well, but I'm not sure. (Other than pak, MLVL is the most thoroughly documented DKCR format at the moment.)

By the way, I think a lot of DKCR's structure is probably basically leftover from Metroid Prime 3; there's stuff in there that makes sense for Metroid but not so much for DKC. The MLVL/MREA formats are a good example of that. In Metroid, MLVL defines a world and MREA defines an area/an individual room, which makes perfect sense. But DKCR has a separate MLVL for every single level, so it's not quite as useful. I think there were other instances of things like this but I can't think of them off the top of my head. In DKCTF they kinda trimmed the fat a little, eg. by getting rid of both MREA and MLVL and replacing them with a single ROOM format.

If you do come up with anything please put it on the wiki! :P Good to have all the info in one place.

By the way I wouldn't say you found out about the wiki too late, considering I only just made the MP3/DKCR pak page last night, lol.

Quote from Lord Fredrik:
Excellent. If I could just get the TF ISO to use said not shit support, I could get you-know-who's model and maybe textures lol.


has anyone worked anything out about GX2 textures yet? I think people have mainly been using the SDK tool to convert them so far, but I'm more interested in finding out how to convert them myself... TF doesn't use the SDK texture format either so I don't think it would work without at least rearranging the data into a GTX.
I know I'm always harping on the same topic, but it's because I need Lord Fredrik for my fan-game to turn him into frame-by-frame sprite animation. Thanks a million for the help with his voices, by the way.

The Wiki is an interesting read. I just wish I could help decode stuff, I feel kinda useless and annoying when it comes to this stuff.
Edit history:
Aruki: 2015-02-08 06:56:07 pm
I was asking because I haven't really been keeping up with any developments on Wii U stuff, I thought maybe you were.

if you want to make sprites why not use the game as a reference? wouldn't seeing him just as he looks ingame be more useful than a model that may or may not have textures, no rigging/animations, and no shaders?
I use BrawlBox, a Brawl modding utility, that shades the models itself. You can manipulate the lighting and shadows in the scene which is really useful. I can animate at 60 fps, rig and texture/UV myself if needed. I won't get worked up if I absolutely can't get his textures. Shaders and normal and specular maps aren't necessary.

I know I sound desperate, but I'm adamant on getting his model. I made a custom one, but I'm not satisfied with it anymore, I absolutely loathe the fucking thing now. I prefer using the real thing, unless I can re-create it, but I suck at doing recreations. I far prefer the real one, as it looks way, way better. I will also be using DK's and Tiki Tong's models right from Returns. DK just needs custom/edited eye textures and a new, clean rig. As a retired SSBB modder, I can use that knowledge.

My hideous custom: http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w271/T_C_Rhade/Screenshot%20102_zpstcdollzz.png

And no worries about Wii U stuff. We're mostly focusing on 3D World and Smash anyway.


That model doesn't look that bad honestly.

Didn't know you just wanted the model... I already have it. Not textured, rigged, or UV-mapped (didn't bother with UVs since they're useless without textures) but I have the geometry at least. I'll send you a PM I guess.
Hey, if you can't get the textures, don't worry about it, Parax. Don't do it unless you want to. :)
would be great if you could write a DKCR CMDL page up. The STRG file from DKCR is different then the now documented version, is that page also going to be split up?

on a side note; MLVL doesn't really have a function in the PAK for DKCR. The game can run fine without it, according to my tests.
Edit history:
Aruki: 2015-02-09 10:53:41 am
DKCR uses the same STRG format as Prime 3, which yeah, there's no article on. I've never looked into that version of the STRG format myself. I think Antidote has but I'm not sure he's completely cracked it either.

I'll look at writing a DKCR CMDL page soon I guess.

edit: are you completely sure the game runs without the MLVL? It's somewhat redundant in DKCR but it's still one of the most important files in the pak; it basically defines the level. It's also the only named resource for the paks; my understanding of how the pak format works is that that means the only resource the game will directly access is the MLVL file, and everything else will be accessed indirectly as a dependent of the MLVL (including the MREA file, which contains all the level geometry/collision/object data/etc). If it truly runs without the MLVL, then I'd be surprised, since that means I'm either wrong about something or they changed how it works for DKCR... but I would double check that either way.
I double checked it again, and yes it runs without the MLVL.

however I did not remove the "file" from the pak. I basically replaced every byte in the MLVL file with 0x00. so yeah, no changes. Earlier when I was changing values in the MLVL, nothing would happen either. I guess the MLVL was just put there because it was automatically generated or something?
Edit history:
Aruki: 2015-02-09 12:14:36 pm
Aruki: 2015-02-09 12:03:44 pm
Aruki: 2015-02-09 12:03:34 pm
Aruki: 2015-02-09 12:02:02 pm
Aruki: 2015-02-09 11:56:29 am
yeah that sounds really strange to me. The MLVL is a really important file, it's kinda hard to believe the game would be perfectly fine without it. Lemme try this myself...

edit: Bizarre. I get the same results. Wouldn't have expected that...

edit 2: OH I see what's going on. It's not that DKCR doesn't use the MLVLs, it's that it doesn't use the particular ones in the world paks. All the MLVLs are duplicated in Areas.pak, and it's using those ones instead. I tried removing one of the MLVLs from Areas.pak and now the game doesn't even get past the Wiimote startup screen, which is the same thing that happens with a bad MLVL in the Metroid Prime games.

They're probably duplicated due to how the tools work; it probably generates a list of the MLVL's dependencies and writes the pak accordingly. For Areas.pak they're all marked NODEPEND. I'm not sure why it uses Areas.pak instead of the ones that are actually in the world paks, though. Maybe it's just easier to load everything at startup that way.