how to change the level name in sdk2 editor

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how to change the level name in sdk2 editor

Postby LucasRangel » February 8th, 2016, 3:53 pm

I'm using sdk2 editor to create a rom hack and when I change the names of some levels appear this error message . if anyone can help me I appreciate it.
sorry for my bad english

Image
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Re: how to change the level name in sdk2 editor

Postby Kingizor » February 8th, 2016, 5:27 pm

The editor is originally designed for the Japanese version of the game, which only has Japanese text. USA and Europe versions have multiple languages where the area names are stored together sequentially. When the editor runs out of space for the English name, it starts to overwrite the foreign name. I don't know how the editor determines how much space it can use for a given name.

Image

Red - Length of name in bytes
Blue - English name
Green - Alternate name



The three values in your image are:

1) The final address the editor can use for this area name.
2) The address where the original name stops.
3) The address where the new name would stop.

The second and third values should therefore be less than the first value, but they are not. I think this is caused by an error in the "rominfo.ini" file. There is a value specifying the end of the name data that is overriding the length detection technique used by the editor.

In the "rominfo.ini" file, there will be a line that says "AvailableEnd=0xDA77". Change "0xDA77" to "0xE690" if you are using a USA v1.0 ROM, or "0xE6D8" if you are using USA v1.1 or (Rev A).
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Re: how to change the level name in sdk2 editor

Postby LucasRangel » February 9th, 2016, 10:44 am

Thank you , I guess now I will solve my problem :thumbs:
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Re: how to change the level name in sdk2 editor

Postby LucasRangel » February 9th, 2016, 12:19 pm

Can you tell me , how do I get more space for sprites and map?
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Re: how to change the level name in sdk2 editor

Postby OneOf99 » February 9th, 2016, 12:53 pm

From what I know, it is technically impossible to get more space for sprites and maps. All you can do is replace things. Besides, I believe that the number of enemies for each level is hardcoded into the rom, so you can't change that. Also, it would take a mind boggling amount of time to create a new map from scratch.

I don't mean to be a downer, but don't expect to be able to change everything right away. This takes time, and if you fool around with the hex editing you might find something new :)

EDIT: Also, thank you Kingizor for showing the offset too. This should prove helpful to many others too.
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Re: how to change the level name in sdk2 editor

Postby Kingizor » February 9th, 2016, 1:25 pm

For sprites there is only limited space for each level, which makes it difficult to add more. There is some extra space that theoretically could be used, but it would mean having to rewrite pointer for each level so they don't overlap. The SDK2 editor cannot do this and it would be too difficult to do manually, so unless someone writes such a tool, it's not really possible just yet.



It is however possible to increase the space available for maps. In Platinum, if you go to Tool->Resize, you can change the size of the canvas. Any extra space will be added when you import the data back into the game.

The game orders tile data by row OR by column, so changing the size of the dominant axis will cause the data to be decoded differently.

This can be done by changing the one of the "?" boxes in the Map Information box via "Map->Map Editing". Changing the dominant value will offset everything. I don't know if the other value does anything.

For example, the Ship Deck archetype is 32 tiles (512px) tall and the tiles are stored in columns.

Image

If you were to add a row by changing the decoded height from 512px (left) to 544px (right), it would offset each subsequent column by one. Th area CAN be used. but you'd have to compensate for this beforehand. You would be able to add more columns without having to deal with this problem, since it won't mess with the tile ordering. For tall levels that order tiles by row instead of by column, the opposite is true; you can add rows without it affecting everything else.

Be careful, because adding too much space might make it too big to fit back into the rom, even compressed.



There are several different camera modes and these have hard limits on what sizes can be used.

Image

The different options affect how things like cameras are positioned. Depending on the selected option, they cannot be positioned past a certain point:

Code: Select all
[choice]   [x]    [y]
0000 =   16384,   512
0400 =    1024,  8192
0500 =     512, 16384
0600 =    4088,  4088
0700 =    4088,  4088
0800 =   32768,   512


Complicated. :krool:
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Re: how to change the level name in sdk2 editor

Postby LucasRangel » February 9th, 2016, 3:51 pm

Thanks for your help , it's really complicated.
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