64 replies to this topic

[Fire Blazer]

This topic is for members to request a guide, tutorial, notes, or some other type of informative thing to help them with Fire Emblem Editing/Hacking.

Be nice, request what you want done with the necessary details, maybe even tell why it would be useful, whether it needs images or not, any other misc. details.

Example:

Requester: Is there a tutorial for music hacking? I haven't seen one... I'd really appreciate one. Thanks.

Responder 1: There actually is a tutorial already. *links*

Responder 2: No, we don't have one yet. I know how to do that though, I'll try and write something up over this weekend. Any specifics I should know about?

[Ryrumeli]

This is a very good idea, and a helpful thing for our hacking section. I greatly recommend this topic to be pinned, for the sake of the future of our hacking section. ^___^


If there is the need for any guide that isn't, in my personal field of expertise, I know I would be interested to help.

[Fire Blazer]

Pinned because I had planned on it because it's a pretty important topic IMO... We'll see how this idea of yours works out, Ryru...

[Ryrumeli]

Oh boy, the pressure. >___< Anyways, I will be sure to list all fields regarding FE hacking I can remember, and we can briefly see what major areas lack tutorials.

A.S. I went extra in-depth in some fields, just so we can analyze it pretty well. Some of the things I listed aren't needed for hacking.


Structural hacking:


-> (Assembly)ASM
- Mneumonics and Endian
- Debugging(Basic debbuging with NL's guide)
- Dumping



-> Patching
- IPS
- UPS
- XDelta


-> Compression

-- LZZ7
- Theory
- Practice

-- Huffman
-Theory
-Practice

-> Hex Editing
- Theory on Hex
- How to use a Hex Editor
- How to find things in a file
- How to find empty space
- Pointers


-> GBA Hardware Information(GBATek)

Graphical Hacking:
-> TSAs
- Editing TSAs
- Making TSAs

-> OAM

-> Palettes
- Uncompressed
- Compressed

-> Inserting Graphics
- CGs
- Backgrounds
- Battle Sprites(Both manual and FEditor)
- Map Sprites(Or existed, until a small while ago)
- Maps
- Mugshots(Both manual and FEditor)
- Handling Compressed Images

Music Hacking:
-> Inserting Music
- Ripping music and re-inserting
- Inserting MIDI®s

-> Sounds and Voicegroups(Should exist in the pokehacking community)
- Ripping sounds
- Inserting Sounds
- Working with Voicegroups

Text Hacking:
-> Text Suite
- How to use
- Commands

-> FEditor(Anti-Huffman)
- How to use
- Commands
- Patch-only usage info

Gameplay Hacking:
-> Nightmare and Related
- How to use
- Assigning Palettes
- Altering Attributes
- Altering Classes
- Altering Unit Graphics
- Altering Maps
- Altering a Chapter's Events
- Altering a Chapter's Units
- Altering Unit Placement and Numbers(Or atleast there was)
- Altering ...
- Creating Nightmare Modules

-> Events
- Event Assembling
- How to use the assembler
- Script Structure
- Commands
- Examples(On Event Assembler's topic)
- Hex Editing of Events(Lacking in FE8 IMO)


Underline = Wiki or some source which is google-able.

Striketrough = With guides which cover that.


P.S. Anything you want to add or remove, feel free. This is only for debate sake. I say we debate this tier list. XD

[Fire Blazer]

Tier list? Debate? You wanna elaborate on that, because I don't really get it... haha.

Anyway nice list, mind if I edit it and whatnot?

Also I think you should actually bother linking to some of those guides because I don't know of any guides or tutorials on a lot of these subjects.

I also have some things to add and once I get a list that is nice and complete and detailed IMO, I will start making guides/tutorials as necessary.

[Ryrumeli]

Nah, Tier list just in a joke. XD It is just, I wanted to see if this list is working for us to use. So "debate" and "tier-list" are just references this baby can use some popular nit-picking.


And yesh. You can use and edit it as you want, that is the reason why I made it to begin with, worry not. XD


And really? Many things I pointed out here don't have tutorials on them per see, but instead are mentioned in working ways on more complete guides we own. This list is mostly based on FEU, FEShrine, and that old FE hacking Forum whose's name slipped away from my mind. XD


Some underlines there I can't give you the guide now, all I can say is that it does exist(Since those fields are generic enough to work in any GBA game, not only FE. XD)



The ASM ones, in special, mneumonics and bios routines are mentioned in GBATek. And also, ASM is ASM, so googling ASM + Tutorial is enough to find anything. XD *Trying to learn some ASM now by watching Super Mario World Hackers, for example*

Want some documentation I have on it? I should have a few cheat lists for mneumonics, a good enough guide I found at a pokemon hacking site, and some hardware guides.(Amazingly, GBATek >>> Nintendo's official GBA hardware manual XD)



And personally, if there is a guide I would want now... Something on voicegrouups. That is the field I am the most curious about. *Just sharing something to start out*

[Fire Blazer]

"voicegroups", I much prefer the term "Instrument Map" or "Sample Groups" or "Samples Map" or something (preferably Instrument Map because the others aren't really used by anyone)

I'll get on that, what other things should I make guides for? I just want to knock them all out and quick...

EDIT: Time to tear apart that list. Sorta.

ASM-

NL's debugging tutorial isn't very elaborate, in fact it's more of a walkthrough on how to do a specific example of debugging, more details on debugging is necessary IMO, also you misspelled the word in your list.

Patching-

We need to get standard tutorials for IPS, UPS, and XDelta patching, both creating and applying them, so far we have tutorials in various hacks and other stuff but we need to make like... a final version, sorta.

Compression-

What do you mean by theory and practice? Also why not an explanation of compressions in general? Also, what happened to explaining uncompressed data? And what about RLE's? Missing some aspects there.

Hex Editing-

Once again, what do you mean by theory? Also we need to establish a unified hex editing tutorial instead of bits and pieces of people learning hex editing from various places. Also there are quite a few more parts to hex editing than what you have...

TSAs-

Although there is your "guide" of sorts and random notes here and there and Kate's stuff... we need a really good guide on it to explain what it is, how it works, how each part of it works, what is its significance in hacking, there are a lot more aspects and an in-depth guide on editing is needed before I consider it "complete". As for making, I myself, am not sure how to make TSAs, never bothered, although in theory it shouldn't be too hard. I don't really care enough to go try and find out how to make maps/TSAs, I don't think it is useful enough information and besides, Xeld is making a program to make TSAs anyway.

OAM-

I got nothing to say on this.

Palettes-

Links to tutorials? What about covering how palettes work in combination with TSAs? Also, information on palette viewer, limits of palettes, RGB, reducing # of colors, etc.?

Inserting Graphics-

Pros and cons of various programs? What is capable and what isn't? List of offsets for graphics or offset ranges for graphics? ALso, I don't know of tutorials for most of the things on that list except for portraits, I know there are tutorials for portraits... :\

Music Hacking-

I obviously covered some of it, although at some point I'm going to need to update my tutorial on inserting custom MIDIs, and update it with new parts on instrument maps, WAVs, ripping songs from other GBA games and inserting them, etc., I haven't gotten to that stuff unfortunately...

I guess I could end up covering all of the music hacking area once I get the time, including both insertion and sounds and instrument maps and stuff...

Nightmare & Related-

I don't completely get what you mean by this, and the subcategories are vague to me and I don't get them... I can't write guides on stuff I don't get. Altering events? Isn't that the Event Assembler's job? And isn't editing graphics under the Graphical Hacking area?

Event Assembling-

I don't get the general term of "Event Assembling" under this category, IIRC commands don't have enough explanations for them and how they work but then again I don't care, I like having the advantage of fully understanding everything I'm doing when I make events... makes my events superior to everyone elses...

There done...

-------------------------

What about battle animations and spell animations? I don't recall seeing those there. Amazingly enough I think most everything else is accounted for (besides specific details for hex editing and ASM and stuff, e.g. a guide on how to corrupt ROMs or making use of VBA and its capabilities) so good job with listing everything and getting all that detail there.

[Old_Man_Zangetu]

I sorta need an easier to use (yet-in depth guide) on how to make Events. Thats really the only part I need any sort of major help on at this point, and I havent found one that helps me enough. :/

[shadowofchaos]

[Old_Man_Zangetu]

Well I found a guide that linked to it. But it didnt work. :/

[Fire Blazer]

http://www.feunivers...?showtopic=4742

There is a small tutorial on event editing using a hex editor made by Icy Toast. However it only teaches the very basics and was made a very long time ago. Also the EA (Event Assembler) is preferable over using a hex editor.

[Haku]

Hi!

Is there a hack or mod to a Fe7 rom that will allow Merlinus to have infinite storage place? I've been looking around for one, yet haven't been able to find anything. Thanks!

[Ryrumeli]

Infinite storage space? ...you see, the problem with the term infinite, is that something like a list of things to be put in the memory slot, it needs to be stored somewhere, so infinite slots in a finite space is something tricky.


So yeah, I don't have any idea of how the memory is used for the merchant, but if it is as the rumors said it, the space for memory in the FE rom is indeed limited, it is somewhat tight to increase it a bit, let alone in an infinite way. ...sorry I can't give you a better answer than "Most likely impossible/More trouble than it is worthy" >__<

[Fire Blazer]

^^No there isn't an already made patch or mod, Haku. Infinite space is impossible anyway. Even a big amount (like say 1,000 items instead of 200) hasn't been done and can't be done without huge hacking.

[Zeldaicflame]

I was wondering if there was a tutorial about custom statsheets (with items, supports, weapon levels and stats).

I was also wondering if there was a tutorial on have custom battle things (where HP, name, hit%, Dmg and crit are seen).

Thanks.

[Fire Blazer]

Custom battle things? You mean like a custom battle template?

For custom statsheets, umm, you can't really change how it is set up without ASM and tile hacking (complex stuff, I know I can't do it). You can change any of the existing stats though, but that's just using Nightmare.

[Lord Glenn]

They might be referring to the process of inserting the templates, not necessarily altering what they display.

[Zeldaicflame]

Yeah, custom battle template.

And Lord Glenn is right, just changing the template, not the whole sheet.

[Fire Blazer]

Oh I see. Well perhaps Ryru could do a tut on that. Which game are you looking to edit? They kinda work differently. FE7's graphics are a lot more spread out, IIRC.

[Zeldaicflame]

Both fe7 and fe8 would be awesome, but I'm currently only editing fe7 however I do want to try some things in fe8. I'm not planning on ever doing fe6.