David wrote: ↑July 7th, 2018, 5:44 pm
The problem is that most graphics in PoP1 SNES are compressed. The exceptions are the menu font, and a few smaller things like the hitpoints and the princess room torch.
Now, the compression algorithm of sprites is known, and I also have a tool to extract sprites.
I just simply didn't make a tool that can import sprites.
I see. A tool that can import sprites could expand more the possibilities for more uniqueness in looks for the SNES mods. I did have a few ideas for another mod that required small sprite changes, plus more accuracy to get close to the the DOS colors mod.
Guess we"ll have to stick to the in-game palettes and sprites and push the creativity to those limits.
Shauing wrote: ↑July 7th, 2018, 6:35 pm
I see. A tool that can import sprites could expand more the possibilities for more uniqueness in looks for the SNES mods. I did have a few ideas for another mod that required small sprite changes, plus more accuracy to get close to the the DOS colors mod.
Guess we"ll have to stick to the in-game palettes and sprites and push the creativity to those limits.
After a year, I contacted the guy that was making the sprites tool. Life got in his way as I was suspecting, so I initially asked him to just give the source code for it and that I'll look around to see if anyone could complete it (pointed the concern that there's just not enough space to implement all new Prince graphics). He replied that he's cleaning the code at the moment and at least add some new code related to adding new gfx, like recalculating the pointers and gfx in the code so it won't have to be done manually. Progress will go very slow. I'll write him back in two weeks as he said if I don't hear from him.
Shauing wrote: ↑July 7th, 2018, 6:35 pm
I see. A tool that can import sprites could expand more the possibilities for more uniqueness in looks for the SNES mods. I did have a few ideas for another mod that required small sprite changes, plus more accuracy to get close to the the DOS colors mod.
Guess we"ll have to stick to the in-game palettes and sprites and push the creativity to those limits.
After a year, I contacted the guy that was making the sprites tool. Life got in his way as I was suspecting, so I initially asked him to just give the source code for it and that I'll look around to see if anyone could complete it (pointed the concern that there's just not enough space to implement all new Prince graphics). He replied that he's cleaning the code at the moment and at least add some new code related to adding new gfx, like recalculating the pointers and gfx in the code so it won't have to be done manually. Progress will go very slow. I'll write him back in two weeks as he said if I don't hear from him.
spartacus735 wrote: ↑December 27th, 2020, 7:58 pm
Any news ?
Unfortunately, it seems the cleaning up of the code is a lot of work and too much toll on him and the guy seems that has some real-life issues (he suspects PTSD) so who knows when he'll work on it again, so I pretty much said to him to let it go if it was such a toll in his head. He hasn't come back since the last time I wrote him.
What I can do is just send the incomplete software to all of you, but it is a bit pointless to use if it cannot replace existing sprites and there's simply not enough free space to implement say, all new Prince graphics, and also, the inserting of the new gfx and change of pointers has to be done manually.
spartacus735 wrote: ↑December 27th, 2020, 7:58 pm
Any news ?
Unfortunately, it seems the cleaning up of the code is a lot of work and too much toll on him and the guy seems that has some real-life issues (he suspects PTSD) so who knows when he'll work on it again, so I pretty much said to him to let it go if it was such a toll in his head. He hasn't come back since the last time I wrote him.
What I can do is just send the incomplete software to all of you, but it is a bit pointless to use if it cannot replace existing sprites and there's simply not enough free space to implement say, all new Prince graphics, and also, the inserting of the new gfx and change of pointers has to be done manually.
Ah I see.. Please share the software for the community, I want to try it so much. Although maybe David can check the code ?
spartacus735 wrote: ↑January 3rd, 2021, 11:04 pm
Ah I see.. Please share the software for the community, I want to try it so much. Although maybe David can check the code ?
Here is the link, it's a rar file with two folders. The first has some documentation he provided me back then, the second is the tool itself. Remember that it is really primitive (no undo, can only display the first palette -the Prince- but the colors you change will correspond to its actual palette, and the file it generates has to be open in a hex editor so you can copy the gfx data where there's free space and change the pointer accordingly). https://bit.ly/SNESPoPSpritesTool
I can't believe it took me almost a year to have this idea, but I gave it a try and it worked.
Knowing that the sprite tool is incomplete, and that there's not enough space to really change all the Prince sprites, I wondered, why not expand the rom and try to fit the new sprites there?
And so I did that, and it seems to work.
Only problem is that Pr1SNESLevEd expects the game to keep it's original size, and so it won't open the file, so probably these sprites changes should be done at the very end, unless there was a way to make the level editor accept opening PoP ROMs larger than the original.
Shauing wrote: ↑June 16th, 2021, 1:15 am
Only problem is that Pr1SNESLevEd expects the game to keep it's original size, and so it won't open the file, so probably these sprites changes should be done at the very end, unless there was a way to make the level editor accept opening PoP ROMs larger than the original.
David wrote: ↑July 7th, 2018, 5:44 pmI just simply didn't make a tool that can import sprites.
Is it that you simply didn't make it, or is it too difficult?
Any thoughts on this:?
Norbert wrote: ↑April 13th, 2019, 10:32 am
In 2005 Princed issued a call to arms (page still available via archive.org) to figure out a compression algorithm.
What do you think of the idea of posting a message on social media, and perhaps on Reddit or something, asking for volunteers to look into importing the bitmaps?
I'm guessing PHP and math knowledge is required, plus perhaps knowledge of the BMP file format.
spartacus735 wrote: ↑January 3rd, 2021, 11:04 pm
Ah I see.. Please share the software for the community, I want to try it so much. Although maybe David can check the code ?
Here is the link, it's a rar file with two folders. The first has some documentation he provided me back then, the second is the tool itself. Remember that it is really primitive (no undo, can only display the first palette -the Prince- but the colors you change will correspond to its actual palette, and the file it generates has to be open in a hex editor so you can copy the gfx data where there's free space and change the pointer accordingly). https://bit.ly/SNESPoPSpritesTool
Hey Shauing, after multiple attempts to figure out how the tool works, it doesn't seem to work on my computer. The tool seems not to work on my computer, I don't know why but when I load a rom, the software crashes instantly.
You talk about pointers, can you explain to me what you did for the "queen of light" character and how do you manage to add gfx date into the rom ?
