Super Metroid/SMILE Help Thread

2007-11-22 04:48:13 pm

Stuffs. Yar.

Be sure to click "remember" in the Edit Door window, then "Save Room" in the room editor afterwards. If you skip one or the other, then it won't be saved.

rolando

2007-11-22 08:46:25 pm

Quote from Edward_Tohr:

Be sure to click "remember" in the Edit Door window, then "Save Room" in the room editor afterwards. If you skip one or the other, then it won't be saved.

oh i did that a few times but it still doesn't save right

DMantra

(user is banned)

DMantra

Edit history:

DMantra: 2007-11-22 09:44:30 pm

2007-11-22 09:20:37 pm

Breathe in the Future, Breathe out the Past

alright final question. do all plms in a room have to have different index/unknown for the room to work and not crash?
and, by my guess, it doesn't matter what the PLM i/u is, as long as they're different. am i right?

i have a hunch this is why my game crashes now. I've already found two PLMs with the same statistics.

Edit: After carefully studying each PLM (just on the hunch that this is infact the issue), I've written all the PLMS i've used.
They go as follow, and none of them are the same:

00 01
00 ad
00 87
00 80
03 00
04 80
09 80
0d 80
10 80
3a 00
46 4d
89 93
8c 93
8c 46
8f 93
9f 93
9c 93
99 93
96 93
a2 93
a5 93
b0 92
b0 97

HOWEVER, there are still quite a few PLMS (arrows) I've left at the top of the screen I have no use for, if my hunch is corrent, I'll have to give these last PLMS unique index/unknown values. Please, someone say I'm right. My nerves are shattered after all the re-work I've done on this hack. This can't be the end, surely.

Edit: So I made each PLM unique with their i/u. I started it up and it still crashed. What is going on? What is wrong? Before I can further this hack to more rooms, I'll need to fix the landing site, and this is where all the issues lie. Do certain items require certain PLM stats? Is there certain items you simply cannot put in the landing site? This is so messed.

alright final question. do all plms in a room have to have different index/unknown for the room to work and not crash?
and, by my guess, it doesn't matter what the PLM i/u is, as long as they're different. am i right?

i have a hunch this is why my game crashes now. I've already found two PLMs with the same statistics.

Edit: After carefully studying each PLM (just on the hunch that this is infact the issue), I've written all the PLMS i've used. 
They go as follow, and none of them are the same:

00 01
00 ad
00 87
00 80
03 00
04 80
09 80
0d 80
10 80
3a 00
46 4d
89 93
8c 93
8c 46
8f 93
9f 93
9c 93
99 93
96 93
a2 93
a5 93
b0 92
b0 97

HOWEVER, there are still quite a few PLMS (arrows) I've left at the top of the screen I have no use for, if my hunch is corrent, I'll have to give these last PLMS unique index/unknown values. Please, someone say I'm right. My nerves are shattered after all the re-work I've done on this hack. This can't be the end, surely.

Edit: So I made each PLM unique with their i/u. I started it up and it still crashed. What is going on? What is wrong? Before I can further this hack to more rooms, I'll need to fix the landing site, and this is where all the issues lie. Do certain items require certain PLM stats? Is there certain items you simply cannot put in the landing site? This is so messed.

Sigfriedxx

2007-11-23 12:15:19 am

those PLM index and unknown values are pretty useless without knowing what plm's have those values, ex:
46 4d - this seems wrong for any plm's to have
89 93 - This looks like its a scroll plm, since thats a pointer it seems

The rest are pretty usless to use. you're best off just replacing your rom, and or comparing the plm's to the original room.

also NEVER add anything to a room without first moving the pointer for the data you plan to add to FREE SPACE

DMantra

(user is banned)

DMantra

Edit history:

DMantra: 2007-11-23 11:00:58 am

2007-11-23 09:37:55 am

Breathe in the Future, Breathe out the Past

Quote from Sigfriedxx:

those PLM index and unknown values are pretty useless without knowing what plm's have those values, ex:
46 4d - this seems wrong for any plm's to have
89 93 - This looks like its a scroll plm, since thats a pointer it seems

The rest are pretty usless to use. you're best off just replacing your rom, and or comparing the plm's to the original room.

also NEVER add anything to a room without first moving the pointer for the data you plan to add to FREE SPACE

I'm perplexed, perhaps as a n00b to SMILE I shouldn't have jumped straight into the PLM stuff. But honestly, I won't rest till I have SMILE figured, thats how it was for duke nukem build :)

Now, taken what you've said into account, does this PLM list look acceptable? I've made MANY changes.

blue gate
00 00
00 80

scroll
B0 92

upgrades (PLM data taken from actual items in game)
1A 00
07 00
28 00
3C 00
0E 00
42 00
96 00
44 00
2A 00
9A 00

random missle/reserve/energy expansions
01 00
02 00
03 00
04 00
05 00
06 00
08 00
09 00
0A 00
0B 00
0C 00

Extra PLMs (arrows not in use hidden upper right screen)
0D 00
0F 00
70 00
71 00
72 00
73 00
74 00
75 00
76 00

Edit: Just gave it a test go after being refined. Still got the dreaded blackscreen. Something is seriously wrong.
The funny thing is after I realized changing the PLM set in the pointer menu had caused so much grief, I set it back to 8000,
which is what the first ship landing room had. What it gave me was something much different, way more PLMs. As if it was a completely different room. Bear in mind this is a 1 room hack and therefore I don't care if I'm eating up space from other rooms.

[quote="Sigfriedxx"]
those PLM index and unknown values are pretty useless without knowing what plm's have those values, ex:
46 4d  -  this seems wrong for any plm's to have
89 93  -  This looks like its a scroll plm, since thats a pointer it seems

The rest are pretty usless to use.  you're best off just replacing your rom, and or comparing the plm's to the original room.

also NEVER add anything to a room without first moving the pointer for the data you plan to add to FREE SPACE
[/quote]

I'm perplexed, perhaps as a n00b to SMILE I shouldn't have jumped straight into the PLM stuff. But honestly, I won't rest till I have SMILE figured, thats how it was for duke nukem build :)

Now, taken what you've said into account, does this PLM list look acceptable? I've made MANY changes.

blue gate 
00 00
00 80

scroll 
B0 92

upgrades (PLM data taken from actual items in game)
1A 00
07 00
28 00
3C 00
0E 00
42 00
96 00
44 00
2A 00
9A 00

random missle/reserve/energy expansions
01 00
02 00
03 00
04 00
05 00 
06 00
08 00
09 00
0A 00
0B 00
0C 00

Extra PLMs (arrows not in use hidden upper right screen)
0D 00
0F 00
70 00
71 00
72 00
73 00
74 00
75 00
76 00

Edit: Just gave it a test go after being refined. Still got the dreaded blackscreen. Something is seriously wrong.
The funny thing is after I realized changing the PLM set in the pointer menu had caused so much grief, I set it back to 8000,
which is what the first ship landing room had. What it gave me was something much different, way more PLMs. As if it was a completely different room. Bear in mind this is a 1 room hack and therefore I don't care if I'm eating up space from other rooms.

Kejardon

2007-11-24 07:57:36 pm

Embarrasing Fact: Power suit made by lowest bidder

From what you've said, the PLMs are not crashing the game.
Scroll PLMs can not crash the game until you touch them, and then only if they have a bad pointer. Even then, I doubt they can actually CRASH a game.
Item PLMs cannot crash the game from messing around with them in SMILE, I don't believe. Missiles, powerups, etc., are all essentially the same.
Blue gates can easily crash the game if set wrongly. It's not too likely that you messed them up though, from what you said, and you probably have to shoot them to actually crash the game.

8000 is the proper space for the ship's PLMs, and there's plenty of space after that to put stuff as well. You would need around 1,500 PLMs to manage to corrupt anything important.
If you really want, send me an ips and I can check it real fast and see if I can pin down where the crash is happening. I won't spend much time on it though, as I have a lot to do, but you'd be surprised what you can do in ~10 minutes when you know what you're doing.

DMantra

(user is banned)

2007-11-24 08:52:58 pm

Breathe in the Future, Breathe out the Past

Quote from Kejardon:

From what you've said, the PLMs are not crashing the game.
Scroll PLMs can not crash the game until you touch them, and then only if they have a bad pointer. Even then, I doubt they can actually CRASH a game.
Item PLMs cannot crash the game from messing around with them in SMILE, I don't believe. Missiles, powerups, etc., are all essentially the same.
Blue gates can easily crash the game if set wrongly. It's not too likely that you messed them up though, from what you said, and you probably have to shoot them to actually crash the game.

8000 is the proper space for the ship's PLMs, and there's plenty of space after that to put stuff as well. You would need around 1,500 PLMs to manage to corrupt anything important.
If you really want, send me an ips and I can check it real fast and see if I can pin down where the crash is happening. I won't spend much time on it though, as I have a lot to do, but you'd be surprised what you can do in ~10 minutes when you know what you're doing.

Can't thank you enough Kejardon. I've already sent an email, the ips is called 'screwed' heh. I know you must be very busy with your own hack. I just really want to pull off this one room concept. And the extensive level design I've added since the first version is, well, let's say I hope all those hours haven't gone to waste. Thankyou again.

[quote="Kejardon"]
From what you've said, the PLMs are not crashing the game.
Scroll PLMs can not crash the game until you touch them, and then only if they have a bad pointer. Even then, I doubt they can actually CRASH a game.
Item PLMs cannot crash the game from messing around with them in SMILE, I don't believe. Missiles, powerups, etc., are all essentially the same.
Blue gates can easily crash the game if set wrongly. It's not too likely that you messed them up though, from what you said, and you probably have to shoot them to actually crash the game.

8000 is the proper space for the ship's PLMs, and there's plenty of space after that to put stuff as well. You would need around 1,500 PLMs to manage to corrupt anything important.
If you really want, send me an ips and I can check it real fast and see if I can pin down where the crash is happening. I won't spend much time on it though, as I have a lot to do, but you'd be surprised what you can do in ~10 minutes when you know what you're doing.
[/quote]

Can't thank you enough Kejardon. I've already sent an email, the ips is called 'screwed' heh. I know you must be very busy with your own hack. I just really want to pull off this one room concept. And the extensive level design I've added since the first version is, well, let's say I hope all those hours haven't gone to waste. Thankyou again.

Fano7

2007-11-24 08:59:50 pm

Every Bit Counts

how do you edit the secound form of of a room. An examples are old Tourian escape shaft, old Mother Brain room, and n00b toob.

Black Telomeres

2007-11-24 09:45:35 pm

To the upper right of the SMILE window, there's a dropdown box that says "standard" or something like that, click on it and it'll show you the various states the room has. Select whichever one you want to edit and then the main SMILE window will show that one instead of the normal state for that room.

DMantra

(user is banned)

2007-11-24 09:49:08 pm

Breathe in the Future, Breathe out the Past

Kejardon:

Thankyou so much for the help. It worked. I'll have to change the location of the ship slightly as to not have that blank streak across it.
As you were saying about making the planet explode, I suppose it's just not a possability now, not even with two rooms since I messed with the PLM Pointers for the landing site.

Anyways, I'll figure something out. Maybe theres a way to make that map station crash the game, thus ending it lol.

Bah, I'm writing too much. Just wanted to say thanks!!!

Fano7

2007-11-24 09:57:51 pm

Every Bit Counts

thanks.

DMantra

(user is banned)

DMantra

Edit history:

DMantra: 2007-11-25 02:53:48 pm

2007-11-25 01:55:12 am

Breathe in the Future, Breathe out the Past

I have three issues that some of you may know how to fix.

a) I moved the ship at one point during my hack and it's been a glitchfest since.
(still does everything right, just looks shite, esp after recharging/saving)

b) Some items appear as others now, yet they still have the proper attributes.
(bear in mind I have many PLMs not in use, now just arrows offscreen)

c) I've noticed in 1 or 2 hacks where the intro text has been altered. Can I do this?
It would make all the pieces fall together if I could just get the plot down straight
for a legit hack. We all know an ISP file with a txt document about the story is a bit silly.

Edward_Tohr

2007-11-25 02:01:59 am

Stuffs. Yar.

a) I seem to recall someone (Kejardon?) mentioning that moving the ship can lead to glitches... then again, IIRC, he did say that it'd freeze the game when you tried to land with it, so...

b) Change the items from being out in the open to being inside one of the item-balls, or a shot block. For some reason, that seems to help.

c) tools -> text editor

Cardweaver

2007-11-25 02:10:12 am

Quote from Edward_Tohr:

b) Change the items from being out in the open to being inside one of the item-balls, or a shot block. For some reason, that seems to help.

Well, I was actually going to suggest the opposite. If they are in the orbs or shot blocks, they sometimes tend to act as other items. In Gravy, the morph ball used to be in an orb, but everytime I got it during testing, it was actually the springball, which was useless without the morphball. So then I made it just a plain old visible item and voila! no more problems.

MoogleEmperor

2007-11-25 02:13:33 am

I have a few questions...
- When I used the graphics editor, I had some problems... when I modified the pallets of tiles in graphic set 2, it also changed tile pallets from graphic set 1 to the same thing. Is there any way to avoid this? I also had some problems getting some changes to be applied, though this may have been some error on my part...

- I'm trying to get a door to be a different facing door than before (ie from a door going left to a door going down). But, any new door tiles are automatically set as door 0, and I can't find any way to change this. Copying the existing door doesn't help, because I want to change the tile's graphic as well, and it doesn't seem to be possible to do that without creating a new tile... is there any way to get around this problem?

- Can i get some more specifics on adding doors to a room? From what I've read it seems like it involves creating your own door pointers in free space and altering the door out pointer to the new address, but I don't know what form that would be in..

Thanks for the help.
This program is awesome. =)

I have a few questions...
- When I used the graphics editor, I had some problems... when I modified the pallets of tiles in graphic set 2, it also changed tile pallets from graphic set 1 to the same thing. Is there any way to avoid this? I also had some problems getting some changes to be applied, though this may have been some error on my part...

- I'm trying to get a door to be a different facing door than before (ie from a door going left to a door going down). But, any new door tiles are automatically set as door 0, and I can't find any way to change this. Copying the existing door doesn't help, because I want to change the tile's graphic as well, and it doesn't seem to be possible to do that without creating a new tile... is there any way to get around this problem?

- Can i get some more specifics on adding doors to a room? From what I've read it seems like it involves creating your own door pointers in free space and altering the door out pointer to the new address, but I don't know what form that would be in..

Thanks for the help. 
This program is awesome. =)

DMantra

(user is banned)

DMantra

Edit history:

DMantra: 2007-11-25 03:02:08 pm

2007-11-25 02:36:52 am

Breathe in the Future, Breathe out the Past

Quote from Edward_Tohr:

b) Change the items from being out in the open to being inside one of the item-balls, or a shot block. For some reason, that seems to help.

That actually doesn't make a difference in this case. I've tried all 3 variations to the item tiles (reg/orb/hidden)
and it makes no difference.

Quote from Edward_Tohr:

c) tools -> text editor

Perhaps I have an outdated version of SMILE? I don't see that option.

Fano7

2007-11-25 10:40:36 am

Every Bit Counts

I have another question. how do you make a door grey until you do something like kill a certain amount of enemies or do something like kill Kraid?

Edit: Also, how do you do stuff with gates. Like how to place them and change from blue to red, green, or yellow. Thanks in advance.

Edit 2: Now when I edit a room and save it, there is no change in the room when I test it.

Sigfriedxx

Edit history:

Sigfriedxx: 2007-11-25 11:02:09 am

2007-11-25 10:58:15 am

you can only have 2 (or was it 4) different suit upgrades in any one room. the game only loads 2 (or 4?) sprites for those pickups into memory at a time. if you have morphball, xray grapple and spazer, the grapple and spazer will look like morphball or xray

Fano7:
1) Look at other gates and other doors in SM that behave as you want, rather than always asking how to do something.
2) your room has multiple events, you need to make the same cahnges to all event states.

Cardweaver

2007-11-25 12:11:25 pm

Quote from Fano7:

I have another question. how do you make a door grey until you do something like kill a certain amount of enemies or do something like kill Kraid?

Edit: Also, how do you do stuff with gates. Like how to place them and change from blue to red, green, or yellow. Thanks in advance.

Edit 2: Now when I edit a room and save it, there is no change in the room when I test it.

Well, for the door that requires all enemies killed, You have to change the unknown to 0C, and thne select the amount of enemies to clear room by right clicking on any enemy and going into the species window. Doors for bosses.... I just looked at doors that behaved that way and copied the unknown value. Also If you want a door to be grey until you pick up a certain item, then make its index number the same as that item.

For the gates, I know that blue and green have values that you can see in the original SM, but as for red/yellow.... good luck with that. Also the unknown for the shot part of the gate is dependant on which way its faceing and what color it is. The shutter part should be w/e it is in SM.

If you load a savestate in the room you want to be tested after changing it, you have to leave that room and come back to see the changes.

[quote="Fano7"]
I have another question. how do you make a door grey until you do something like kill a certain amount of enemies or do something like kill Kraid?

Edit: Also, how do you do stuff with gates. Like how to place them and change from blue to red, green, or yellow. Thanks in advance.

Edit 2: Now when I edit a room and save it, there is no change in the room when I test it.
[/quote]

Well, for the door that requires all enemies killed, You have to change the unknown to 0C, and thne select the amount of enemies to clear room by right clicking on any enemy and going into the species window. Doors for bosses.... I just looked at doors that behaved that way and copied the unknown value. Also If you want a door to be grey until you pick up a certain item, then make its index number the same as that item.

For the gates, I know that blue and green have values that you can see in the original SM, but as for red/yellow.... good luck with that. Also the unknown for the shot part of the gate is dependant on which way its faceing and what color it is. The shutter part should be w/e it is in SM.

If you load a savestate in the room you want to be tested after changing it, you have to leave that room and come back to see the changes.

Fano7

2007-11-25 12:54:50 pm

Every Bit Counts

Thanks Cardweaver. I know you need to leave the room and come back, but it still doesn't work. I've tried restarting too, but no luck there. Also, I did make sure that it's the same rom and I saved, but nothing works. Also, when I load it in Smile, it shows the changes. And finally, I made sure all the events had the same thing.

DMantra

(user is banned)

2007-11-25 04:45:23 pm

Breathe in the Future, Breathe out the Past

Lot's of thanks to Kejardon for fixing my initial problem.
My refined one room hack is finished and you can find the update in the thread.

Back on topic to this thread, I think I may be using an outdated version of SMILE.
A few of the suggestions I've been given during help requests aren't features on the editor I have.

Cardweaver

2007-11-26 01:37:19 am

Quote from Fano7:

Thanks Cardweaver. I know you need to leave the room and come back, but it still doesn't work. I've tried restarting too, but no luck there. Also, I did make sure that it's the same rom and I saved, but nothing works. Also, when I load it in Smile, it shows the changes. And finally, I made sure all the events had the same thing.

I don't know if you can PM files (if so... how?) but you could PM me the patch and I'll see what I can do. As long as it doesn't involve changing pointers(mostly door locations/destinations) or graphics, I'd like to think I'm pretty good with SMILE.

Fano7

2007-11-26 06:05:24 pm

Every Bit Counts

I don't think you ca PM files any more. :( Anyways, I tried againg, and it worked. Shocked

So, how do you edit what enemys are weak to? And secound, what's the most recent version of smile? And where can you get it?

P.JMan

2007-11-26 07:02:07 pm

I like Big Butts and I can not lie

1. Right click the enemy, go into species, scroll the horizontal scroll bar to the middle, click Edit next to vulnerability
2. It's homepage of course http://jathys.zophar.net/ v1.0

Zanno

2007-11-26 07:17:11 pm

I had a few questions about memory management. I have a good idea of how to use a hex editor and pointers but my knowledge of super metroid is close to zero.

The $A1 bank is purely enemy location data, correct? So, if i were to completely blank it, I won't have any problems down the road barring that I'd need to put the bosses back in their proper positions?

Also, how does the BG_Data pointer work? There doesn't seem to be any pattern to the data it is pointing at. Is the data they're pointing to compressed because I'd like to be able to create my own backgrounds if it's possible without too much effort, otherwise I'll just stick to the ones I've been handed.