Project DKC 1 Reloaded

Share and discuss DKC ROM hacks

Re: Project DKC 1 Reloaded

Postby Jomingo » April 28th, 2010, 9:20 am

Hello all, I've been following along with your project and I'm glad to see that this is actually progressing steadily unlike a lot of fan projects that pop up. It's interesting reading about your progress and all, but could somebody explain to me how I actually play these new levels? Also, be specific and take it slow because I probably will get confused.
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Re: Project DKC 1 Reloaded

Postby BlueTronic » April 28th, 2010, 9:27 am

You can also right-click a terrain tile to select it.

Scraps69 wrote:At the best point in mid air (the furthest you can go and still have the height to land on the down platform)

That's what got me. I still couldn't get through the whole thing without messing up. If I was using an SNES controller I could, but not with a keyboard. Other than that, it was loads of fun. Also, did you intend for that Enguarde crate at the beginning to be breakable? It can be broken.

Kong-Fu, I just played your lives in the mines! very funny level =D. I just had a look at youtube in re your videos: What program do you use to record videos of gameplay? They look awesome!!!! *shrugs* I don't mind if you want to upload videos of gameplay onto your youtube account otherwise I'll just do it sometime in the near/far future

Glad you liked it. :mrgreen:
I use the same thing Simion said, and I use Windows Movie Maker to put them together. Maybe I can make some kind of trailer for the project.

Simion: How much have you done on the DKCLB? Will a beta be released anytime soon? What can the DKCRE do with a ROM so far?

Does anyone know what all that other stuff does in DKedit?

Jomingo wrote:Hello all, I've been following along with your project and I'm glad to see that this is actually progressing steadily unlike a lot of fan projects that pop up. It's interesting reading about your progress and all, but could somebody explain to me how I actually play these new levels? Also, be specific and take it slow because I probably will get confused.

1) Download an emulator, if you don't already have one. (I recommend ZSNES)
2) Download a DKC ROM. If you don't know where to find one, I'll PM you one (I'm pretty sure the rules allow you to PM a ROM).
3) Download 'Lunar IPS', which is used to apply a 'patch' (a file that puts a hack on a ROM).
4) Download and open a patch from this thread.
5) It will tell you to select the ROM you want to patch.
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Re: Project DKC 1 Reloaded

Postby Scraps69 » April 28th, 2010, 10:44 am

Heh, Jomingo - I'll admit that I'm taking a small break from production because college work is just springing up like no tommorow. But rest assured I have at least two levels mapped out in my mind. But when Kong-Fu submits his level - I will then make edits to bouncy bonanza and then start work on world # 3 (haha, unless kong-fu is suddenly jumping at the chance to start on working on a level in world # 3 haha).

Ok, good to see you can beat the level Kong Fu =D

As for the enguarde crate - that's the unlimited lives issues. If you use diddy and try to break the enguarde crate - it will not work but you can proceed to get a lot of lives. That's why I included Krusha and a zinger to encourage the player to go forward with Donkey Kong and NOT diddy kong. It's there and I can't do anything about it unfortunately. ... oh... right... (just realised that you're question was something else ;)) yep, I wanted the enguarde crate to be broken but ONLY with Donkey Kong.

I use the same thing Simion said, and I use Windows Movie Maker to put them together. Maybe I can make some kind of trailer for the project.


That would be fantastic, if we can draw more interest then that's a natural motivator to make more levels (for example, you guys motivated me to get more levels done and I'm sure Simion32 is getting motivated to work on DKCLB because people actually are trying to make DKC levels (haha, though I could be wrong and maybe not when I'm asking simion32 to do stuff for this project)) and perhaps find other people who are skilled in using DKCEdit and contribute. Maybe this will make this forum alot more active - that would be fun no? :).

EDIT2: However, I'll add instructions (Copy + Paste Kong Fu) on the main post of DKC reloaded on how to use IPS. I remember being turned off because I didn't understand how to use IPS the first time I came to this website.

by the way Simion32. I'm very VERY happy with the DKCReloaded image and it does not need to be a draft (and it still looks awesome at 256kb). Maybe when Kong-Fu finishes his level and before the youtube video we can already add that to the game? EDIT: although, after implementing that, we are still able to create levels right?

Anyways, but college is hitting me in the face atm. I'll be checking this forum for replies etc.

Scraps.
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Re: Project DKC 1 Reloaded

Postby Jomingo » April 28th, 2010, 12:02 pm

Kong-Fu wrote:1) Download an emulator, if you don't already have one. (I recommend ZSNES)
2) Download a DKC ROM. If you don't know where to find one, I'll PM you one (I'm pretty sure the rules allow you to PM a ROM).
3) Download 'Lunar IPS', which is used to apply a 'patch' (a file that puts a hack on a ROM).
4) Download and open a patch from this thread.
5) It will tell you to select the ROM you want to patch.

I already have both an emulator and a ROM (I'm not that far behind) so I suppose I will do the rest tomorrow, thanks for the reply. Now, I'm off to bed. I've got AP exams next week and I've been hitting the books hard all day.
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Re: Project DKC 1 Reloaded

Postby Simion32 » April 29th, 2010, 2:46 am

Kong-Fu wrote:I'm pretty sure the rules allow you to PM a ROM
Actually as far as I know this was never defined. So I'd say no - do not attach ROMs to PMs here, otherwise they are embedded into the forum files and Qyzbud would have to delete them. If you simply must do such things, keep it off of this site.

Scraps69 wrote:I'm sure Simion32 is getting motivated to work on DKCLB
You hit the nail on the head, Scraps. Actually I'm very eager to work on NitroGUI (the interface for DKCRE and DKCLB) but I have not had time. All this hacking has me extra-motivated to get back into development!

Scraps69 wrote:by the way Simion32. I'm very VERY happy with the DKCReloaded image and it does not need to be a draft (and it still looks awesome at 256kb). Maybe when Kong-Fu finishes his level and before the youtube video we can already add that to the game? EDIT: although, after implementing that, we are still able to create levels right?
This, I'm afraid, is still an issue.

It is still a draft image because, unlike a normal image:
-There are only 128 colors guaranteed for the pallet.
-The colors themeselves are only 15-bits.
-The image is made up of several 8x8 tiles, many of which are duplicated in the original Title Screen to save space.
-Each 8x8 tile must use a group of only 16 colors from the available pallet (EG. the first 16 colors, or second 16 colors, etc.).

These image storage guidelines will make it rather difficult to come up with a way to fit that image into the ROM, and still have it readable by the game. Of course, I know of a particular offset in ROM which is probably around 0x3EF900 (near the end of the ROM data) which has some free space we could use.

This was space I used when making the Zero-Speed Patch and using it would effectively make my patch incompatible with your hack, since mine relies on there being extra space at that adress for the insertion of a few custom ASM routines.

But yes, you can still add levels after putting in the Title Screen, as they have nothing to do with each other.

...that is, once we find a way to get it into the game in the first place. :ugeek:

Scraps69 wrote:Anyways, but college is hitting me in the face atm.
Likewise. Just a few more weeks and I should have more time to do stuff, but right now I'm swamped with final assignments and studying for my exams.
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Re: Project DKC 1 Reloaded

Postby Scraps69 » April 29th, 2010, 3:21 am

Good to hear that the hacks are motivating you!!!! Can't wait to see the DKCLB when you are very happy with it :) . hmm, I wonder how Kong-Fu is going with stop and go atm.

Ok, well we'll forget about the title image until the very very end! When we are finished with the project we won't need to use the zero-speed patch space anymore right? And maybe there will be some new fancy thing we'll find or some new feature found by a hacker or yourself by the time we finish the entire Hack. If worst comes to worst at the very end of the project, we'll just add red lettering saying 'RELOADED' hehehe ;).

I'm just curious what it would look like if we reduced it to 128 kb colour . I don't have 128 kb colour but '16', '24', and '256' to save.

Good luck with your assignments and exams! Is this for a computer programming course?
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Re: Project DKC 1 Reloaded

Postby Simion32 » April 29th, 2010, 5:48 am

Scraps69 wrote:When we are finished with the project we won't need to use the zero-speed patch space anymore right?
I don't think we'll really need it to begin with. But I mentioned it just to be sure. ;)

Scraps69 wrote:I'm just curious what it would look like if we reduced it to 128 kb colour .
That's 128 different colors (Not 128 KB, as kilobyte is a measurement of memory size), in 15-bits-per-pixel.

There's no telling what the original image would look like when converted to SNES. I might have to create a small C++ program to do the data conversion, because the SNES format, although very small, is vastly more complicated than a simple *.bmp image (well I actually saved the draft as PNG to save space, but any image on a PC generally expands into bmp format when loaded into video memory anyway).

Scraps69 wrote:Good luck with your assignments and exams! Is this for a computer programming course?
Yes, although what I'm being taught there (Visual Basic) is ironically not being used for the Delta Project due to compatibility and speed issues.
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Re: Project DKC 1 Reloaded

Postby Scraps69 » April 30th, 2010, 10:00 am

Heh, I wonder if we can use the zero patch for a or some levels? That might be interesting. Though from what I understand you need to start another program to get the zero patch running anyway.

Hmmm, so it makes you wonder how Rare got the original Image in. Heh, I have a redesign in my mind if worst comes to worst... It's just a black screen with stripper lights saying Donkey Kong Country Reloaded. Maybe We'll have a stripper lights with our current images (kinda like DKvine - it's really a coincidence but I saw their website after I came up with the stripper logo 'RELOADED' though we could ask them for DK stripper light images).

On other news, I finally got my car back from the mechanic yesterday! woo! Huge bill though cause I overcooked the engine because the radiator hose fell off.

EDIT: We have 8 people that have downloaded the latest DKC Reloaded patch which surpasses our previous record of 5 :D.

EDI2: Though it would be nice to get feedback from those people too! :D
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Re: Project DKC 1 Reloaded

Postby Simion32 » April 30th, 2010, 10:49 am

Scraps69 wrote:Though from what I understand you need to start another program to get the zero patch running anyway.
No, as long as you have the empty space at that offset I mentioned (which is always there in the original ROM obviously) and it's US v1.0 of DKC, you can just patch it to the game and it will work without any extra tools or cheat codes (although when using the patch for messing with the original game, I do recommend having a complete game save, as some levels become completely impassable).

Scraps69 wrote:Hmmm, so it makes you wonder how Rare got the original Image in.
I've been doing some research and what rare used seems to be some complex form of image quantization in which it (1) compares all 8x8 tiles to find which ones fit one of 8 particular 16-color pallets, (2) finds the appropriate pallet colors for each pallet, and (3) revises this until the image looks decent.

I might be able to find a way to do this, but we'll have to see. ;)
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Re: Project DKC 1 Reloaded

Postby BlueTronic » April 30th, 2010, 12:30 pm

Wait, so you can put an image into the ROM? That's awesome! We should put our names into the logos. :mrgreen:

I started on Stop & Go Station, but it's going slowly because the things I am doing in the hack are complicated and have to be tweaked right to work. I have about 4 screens done so far.

Also I have a really awesome idea for a trailer, whenever we decide to make one.
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Re: Project DKC 1 Reloaded

Postby Scraps69 » April 30th, 2010, 1:49 pm

Ok Simion32, well, it sounds like quite a bit of time and work - so we'll save it for the end. and by that time we'll have the complete list of contributors to include in the ROM piccy.

Good to hear you're about 33% done the level Kong Fu =D

As for the trailer... I was thinking that maybe you could please start on that after you complete stop and go station? From there, we already have two solid worlds (and an 'extra') done which is enough content to get people excited when they see the video. While you are making the trailer, I'll make the fixes to jungle hijinx (regarding that zinger) as well as smooth out the 'appearances bugs' in bouncy bonanza as well as hopefully including hordes of zingers and enemies in the steel keg section. I will also begin creating the next level in world # 3. By the time the youtube trailer is up, the fixes will be already downloadable and maybe the first level in world #3 is complete.

I'll leave the creative freedom to you. My idea for the trailer was kinda lame by having a 'powerthirst' voice (check youtube) ('you think you've played Donkey Kong Country? Think again loser' hahaha) and then a montage of gameplay videos.
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Re: Project DKC 1 Reloaded

Postby FrankMorris » May 1st, 2010, 10:02 am

Scraps69 wrote:EDIT: We have 8 people that have downloaded the latest DKC Reloaded patch which surpasses our previous record of 5 :D.

EDI2: Though it would be nice to get feedback from those people too! :D

I just finished the whole .022 (including unedited levels).
What can I say.. Real challenge. I quess that is the point of this hack.

Millstone Mayhem was SICK. ONE HELL OF A PUZZLE!! :shock:
I can confirm, it IS possible to finish that level.
Other custom levels are only insane difficulty. :)

But I enjoyed a lot playing it. Great work. Looking forward to see 1.0 someday.
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Re: Project DKC 1 Reloaded

Postby Simion32 » May 1st, 2010, 12:46 pm

I'm doing a little investigating. I just re-downloaded vSNES to check out a title-screen savestate.

Great news: We have all 256 colors, not just 128, to work with. All other previously mentioned limitations apply, though. So at least it won't look entirely horrible if/when I manage to convert the Reloaded draft image.

EDIT: Each of the first colors in the first 8 palletes are all black. Probably the "transparent color" limitation. IDK.
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Re: Project DKC 1 Reloaded

Postby Scraps69 » May 1st, 2010, 1:57 pm

Ok, cool. the 256 colour is awesome news! Though I don't quite understand the transparent colour issue hmmmm... Are the first 8 colours black because of the image that was created (the DKC reloaded draft image) or is it black by default?

Here's a good temporary idea I think. After Kong-Fu submits his level. We can just do a temporary black and red 'DKC Reloaded' logo with the contributor names (according to our login names) and the website link so that people can find this website and also can't pass this 'hacked' part of the work off as their own. If we have that temporary logo, I think it will help build our confidence (and essentially a small step) so that we can include a graphic title screen in the future. What do you think?

EDIT: I think in essence for the final image, the photoshop will have to keep revising that image to patch up donkey kong with basic colours over and over again so that we would finally be able to apply the 8 (16 hopefully) colours to that image. Sounds hard but I think if rare did it we can probably manage it :).

EDIT2: Just had a brilliant idea: of course!!! A classic black and white look would solve all those issues re colours. Like turning that image into a 'photo' look with a photo 'white boarder'. And then maybe apply the 'RELOADED' in red stripper lights. What do you think? Maybe we can even make it look more like a photo with a table after the white photo boarders.

Image

This image is the basis of where this idea comes from.

EDIT3: Ala alternative potential and more doable version of the title screen (though I havn't sized it properly)

Image

We can ignore the wood completely and just have the photograph. And in the photo, the RELOADED is the only thing which is not black and white (I couldnt do it via paint) but a bright red.
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Re: Project DKC 1 Reloaded

Postby Simion32 » May 1st, 2010, 2:50 pm

Of course this needs to be converted to SNES format, but...

[See Updated Version Below]

Temporary TitleScreen Image for BETA usage.
Grayscale in 13 Colors, plus two Reds and one Orange.
Fits one 16-color pallete perfectly, and should be convert easily.
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Re: Project DKC 1 Reloaded

Postby Scraps69 » May 1st, 2010, 2:54 pm

awesome! That looks hot.
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Re: Project DKC 1 Reloaded

Postby Simion32 » May 1st, 2010, 3:15 pm

(was going to reply then the power went out. severe thunderstorms.)

Yeah, I think I have found a way to convert the color image to fit into SNES format. However it is quite involved and may take a bit of time to code a converter.

We should also add the version number to that screen (which I'll do) as well as a text that says "BETA" in a blue color. I'll get those onto the image in just a sec (if the power doesn't go out on me again).

I'll still have to code a very simple converter just to get the temporary one in, though. ;)
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Re: Project DKC 1 Reloaded

Postby Scraps69 » May 1st, 2010, 3:41 pm

Awesome :) I'm very happy :))). That code can be very useful for future projects by others if they're trying to do something like this as well.

'BETA' is cool. Re version number - that's okay but I don't want to make you keep re-editing the image version each time me or Kong Fu release a level. Maybe we'll change the title screen versions on a 'world by world' basis with the beginning of World#3 being regarded as v 0.1. But we'll also have level/download versions as we progress without changing the screen (so, 0.11, 0.12, 0.13 etc) until we reach that next icy world (v 0.2).
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Re: Project DKC 1 Reloaded

Postby Simion32 » May 1st, 2010, 3:54 pm

DKC-Reloaded-Temporary-TS-v2.png
This updated temporary Title Screen uses 3 pallets instead of just one.
DKC-Reloaded-Temporary-TS-v2.png (33.57 KiB) Viewed 85636 times

EDIT: At the very most, the entire SNES image (color or not) will take up 0x7800 of space total, including pallete.
EDIT2: I really wish I could find a way to expand the DKC ROM size - it would help tremendously with hacking.
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Re: Project DKC 1 Reloaded

Postby Scraps69 » May 1st, 2010, 4:07 pm

That looks very awesome. I was vey happy before but can't be happier now. It's good that the names and version is more visible.

Thank you so much!!

I can't wait to see it in-game!

EDIT:

Re Simion32, well, asides from the title page, i doubt we need that free space for anything else at least in regards to project DKCR. So it's all good :)

Re FrankMorris! Good to hear you enjoyed it :). Did you manage to find the shortcut to the Industry level? (no need to explain how ;)).
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Re: Project DKC 1 Reloaded

Postby FrankMorris » May 2nd, 2010, 12:57 am

Scraps69 wrote:Did you manage to find the shortcut to the Industry level? (no need to explain how ;)).

No. Not yet, but after ~2 hrs of search I'm dying to know where it is!? I even took Rambi and went back to beginning of level, tried everything.. Any hints? :)

By the way: It's probably intended, but beginning of 3-2 there's that barricade, which I believe is blocking the way to the barrel shortcut. However, there is a way to round this.

Quick GIF to demonstrate what I mean:

Image


EDIT: I found a shortcut in Jungle Hijinx, but that took me to Rope Bridge Rumble :|

EDIT2: Hmmm.. Nevermind that probably was it :)
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Re: Project DKC 1 Reloaded

Postby BlueTronic » May 2nd, 2010, 2:46 am

Yeah, I saw that when I went to hack Mine Cart Carnage. Scraps must've put it there.

So you found the shortcut I put in? Did you get into it by jumping through the wall while holding a barrel?

I have an idea: For the bosses, we can make them have 100 HP. Simion can probably do this with a hex editor.
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Re: Project DKC 1 Reloaded

Postby FrankMorris » May 2nd, 2010, 4:45 am

Kong-Fu wrote:So you found the shortcut I put in? Did you get into it by jumping through the wall while holding a barrel?

Yup. I wanted to throw a barrel to the safe house entrance just to try something, but i fell through the wall.. :)
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Re: Project DKC 1 Reloaded

Postby Scraps69 » May 2nd, 2010, 10:03 am

Re Kong Fu - Is the 100 HP an aesthetic addition or to prolong the battle? Im not sure if this would make battles longer as the enemies probably are programmed to die at the default 5 hits... Simion32 is currently having issues re ROM space and we may have other 'hex' ideas. Though a time limit to beat the boss would be a pain in the ass no? But we'll hold these for ideas for Simion32 and see what he says. We should also save all these for the very end so we can have the pick of the best hex idea(s).

Though...

I think I know how to make it harder which is something I already had in mind...

Spoiler!
For the necky battle (I havnt experimented yet) but I was thinking of getting rid of the bouncy tyre. (or maybe add the queen bee in this stage if it's possible which will make it interesting because it's so small). Or maybe instead maybe make half the necky stage platformless. bla bla bla.
For the Zinger battle in world #3. Add gaps in the stage so you may die by accident.

In the industrial stage boss (dumb drum), I doubt we can determine what dumb drum can spit out. But if so, I'd make it spit out krusha's so that diddy would definitely be screwed if he was by himself.

The ice level boss, very gnawty. I think I will make the side of the stage very small so that gnawty's long jumps are unpredictable.

and the necky? maybe no tyres again but with senior necky spitting out heaps of rocks.


Re FrankMorris - well, that's a little bug I'm going to have to fix then eh? ;)
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Re: Project DKC 1 Reloaded

Postby Simion32 » May 2nd, 2010, 11:28 am

The HP hack would be relatively easy and would not take up any space.

WARNING: Any edit applied to the large/small boss levels will show up in all boss levels that use that size!

To fix Minecart Carnage, you should just replace the barrel below the cliff with one that shoots up, far enough to force you into the one that shoots you to the mine cart. Then, get rid of the extra tiles. ;)
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Re: Project DKC 1 Reloaded

Postby Scraps69 » May 2nd, 2010, 5:39 pm

Heh, aright. If the HP thing is easily possible than that's cool. It'll definitely be a cool novelty! Though it's something I'd rather schedule sometime after I finish level # 2 in world # 3 (note: though I keep saying that, I havn't yet started bug fixing or level production on boss # 2, or the levels in world #3) or sometime later if that's cool with Simion32... Hmmm, though if it's that *easily* appliable, i don't see the harm in doing it along with the temp. title picture. If it's not easily done (or Simion32 is busy (exams I beleive)), than we'll schedule it for later.

Spoiler!
Heh, Aright, terrain warning noted. Removing the tyre will definitely make Necky jnr and then Necky Snr more challenging regardless.

Also, if terrain is co manipulated (so im assuming the gnawty levels and the queen bee levels are all connected to the one stage). well... small 'opps I fell in holes' in the ground should provide that small extra challenge without the gnawty or queen bee bosses falling through the ground no? For the necky stages, I plan on replacing the tyre with that 'fall through ground' bug (provided that you dont actually don't fall through the ground :| ) which should make for some psychadelic play.
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Re: Project DKC 1 Reloaded

Postby aperson98 » May 4th, 2010, 6:28 am

Hmm having some problems with the title screen Simion32 no problem I fixed up by converting it to the palette of the original DKC title screen.

Image
DK came out pretty well in the conversion Diddy needed a little sprite work however.

I also made a comparison of the original and the converted screen.
Image
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Re: Project DKC 1 Reloaded

Postby Simion32 » May 4th, 2010, 7:44 am

Sorry, unfortunately the image conversion to ready it for SNES is not that simple.

You can't have all 256 colors over the entire image:
There are 16 separate pallets, each with 16 colors. Each 8x8 block in the picture can use only one of these pallets.

As I've already explained, this is vastly more complicated than common compuer image formats, and normal color-reduction techniques won't work! :ugeek:
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Re: Project DKC 1 Reloaded

Postby Scraps69 » May 4th, 2010, 9:03 am

Re Kong-Fu, hey dude, how's stop and go progressing?
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Re: Project DKC 1 Reloaded

Postby BlueTronic » May 4th, 2010, 9:52 am

10 screens.

Sorry to take so long, but it's going slow because of school. Once school lets out, I'll be able to finish levels faster.

@Simion: do you know why it doesn't show all the golden letters in the bonus games when I put them in a bonus?

Here's some snapshots!
Attachments
Donkey Kong Country (U) (V1.0) [!]_00005.png
Donkey Kong Country (U) (V1.0) [!]_00005.png (21.95 KiB) Viewed 85565 times
Donkey Kong Country (U) (V1.0) [!]_00006.png
Donkey Kong Country (U) (V1.0) [!]_00006.png (18.12 KiB) Viewed 85565 times
Donkey Kong Country (U) (V1.0) [!]_00004.png
Donkey Kong Country (U) (V1.0) [!]_00004.png (18.97 KiB) Viewed 85565 times
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Re: Project DKC 1 Reloaded

Postby Scraps69 » May 4th, 2010, 10:22 am

Awesome work Kong-Fu :)

Heh, it's cool. Great game makers always take their time with games because they want to make the experience as great as possible. And I don't want you to burn out of DKC :| .

Personally, I just like knowing how things are going even if you were still less than 20% done. Though, it's fantastic to hear though that you are nearly finished :)
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Re: Project DKC 1 Reloaded

Postby aperson98 » May 4th, 2010, 10:56 am

Sorry Simion I read what you said but I had a brain fart I guess that will not do after all sorry. I made a grid based on the 8X8 tiles the title screen has I think these are the areas of interest
I made a picture of the whole colormap of the screen If only I knew which order and which colors the 16 palettes have then I could make a more perfect conversion.


Image

Edit: for some reason the map seems to only have about a hundred colors rather then 256 I don't know why that is
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Re: Project DKC 1 Reloaded

Postby Simion32 » May 4th, 2010, 11:22 am

Actually...

DKCTitleScreenWithPAL.png
Original Title Screen with corresponding palletes straight from the SNES CGRAM.
This sample image was taken using vSNES.
DKCTitleScreenWithPAL.png (28.03 KiB) Viewed 85555 times

Obviously we could do an in-depth analysis for just the Reloaded screen but (1) it will take way too long and (2) what if someone else needs to insert a highcolor image as the title screen? I need to code a utility for this type of conversion, it should be the best thing to do.

I have a few ideas on how to go about coding a conversion algorithm, but I don't have the time to work on it at the moment.
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Re: Project DKC 1 Reloaded

Postby aperson98 » May 4th, 2010, 11:36 am

Oh yeah I do not think I should trust a png Image for colors anymore no sooner I posted that I realized there was only about 100 colors on it so it was not a full map after all. Anyway I would not mind taking my time converting it but you could do the same job and do it much better Simion so I will just leave it you. Still I would not mind editing the image itself a little to look more like Snes graphics.
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Re: Project DKC 1 Reloaded

Postby Simion32 » May 4th, 2010, 11:42 am

No, generally you should trust PNG. That isn't the problem.

There probably are less than 256 actual colors, that's only because the colors have to overlap between some of the pallets (see all those greens in the bottom? there's gotta be a few duplicates).
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Re: Project DKC 1 Reloaded

Postby Mattrizzle » May 4th, 2010, 4:03 pm

Actually, the Title Screen can only use the first 128 colors of the palette, as it doesn't use one of the 256 color modes (Mode 3 or 4).
dkc_title_palette_mod.png
dkc_title_palette_mod.png (53.49 KiB) Viewed 85547 times

As you can see in this screen capture from vSNES, setting all of the colors in the bottom half of the palette to black has no effect on the image.
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Re: Project DKC 1 Reloaded

Postby aperson98 » May 5th, 2010, 3:19 am

Interesting Mattrizzle, Why did Rare make so many palettes when they only used half of them for the screeen.

I tried my luck again for laughs at converting some of the title screen this time using the resrictions Simion32 told me about
the results are lukewarm at best
-Conversion of tiles to 16 color palette-
Image
[img=http://imageshack.us/thumbnmail.png]
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Re: Project DKC 1 Reloaded

Postby Simion32 » May 5th, 2010, 3:07 pm

@ Mattrizzle: Ah well, I though it was 128 colors at first but I was not aware that the bottom half were just "garbage" colors.

@ aperson98: Nice try, although I'm fairly certain now that doing it with a normal image editor or such will not get the best results. No program I know of can do exactly this (other than, that is, the SGI workstations Rare used), because no one has ever needed one designed which can do something so obscure. So I'll probably be the first to tackle this issue. If I can get a utility made, I can have source code and a binary put on romhacking.net for other hackers to use.

aperson98 wrote:Interesting Mattrizzle, Why did Rare make so many palettes when they only used half of them for the screeen.
These 16 pallets are a builtin feature of the SNES, and were added by Nintendo in the hardware design. Rareware was only able to use 128 of the colors because the game doesn't switch to a graphics mode that supports it (kinda like how PC graphics cards support different things, only on a very small scale).
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Re: Project DKC 1 Reloaded

Postby BlueTronic » May 6th, 2010, 10:22 am

Kong-Fu wrote:@Simion: do you know why it doesn't show all the golden letters in the bonus games when I put them in a bonus?

Does... Anyone know? :|
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Re: Project DKC 1 Reloaded

Postby Simion32 » May 6th, 2010, 12:26 pm

Err..... too many sprites onscreen, thus causing some to disappear? I can't think of any other reason.
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Re: Project DKC 1 Reloaded

Postby Mattrizzle » May 6th, 2010, 2:37 pm

You can still make a utility, Simion, but...







Surprise!!






dkc_reloaded_title_snes.png
dkc_reloaded_title_snes.png (24.5 KiB) Viewed 83780 times

I've successfully implemented the color version of the title screen! Let me offer an explanation, since someone will likely ask anyway.

First, I copied the DKC Reloaded title screen image to an image editor (Paint Shop Pro 4.15) and incorporated aperson98's modified Diddy graphics into it.

dkc_reloaded_title_palettes.png

As seen in the image above, I then made 8 more copies of the image and applied a different palette from DKC's title to each one.

After this the long, grueling process of manually picking out the tiles that looked the best in each palette could be undertaken. These were combined to make the composite image.

The tiles were then pasted into the ROM using YY-CHR, and a different palette was made in Paint Shop Pro so that I could easily tell which tiles used which palette line. (as seen below)
dkc_reloaded_title_tileattrib.png
dkc_reloaded_title_tileattrib.png (24.5 KiB) Viewed 78946 times

This image was used as a reference to build the tilemap, resulting in what you see in the patch.

A few things were left out, but this is essentially what I did. The whole process took two days!

[Outdated patch removed. Download the updated version below.]
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Re: Project DKC 1 Reloaded

Postby Simion32 » May 6th, 2010, 2:44 pm

Woah. Mattrizzle, I really didn't think you were going to take the time to do all that, let alone manually. Two days? :P

Thank you for the help! Now all we have to do is wait for Kong-Fu to get his level (Stop-& Go) finished.

Ah well, I'll still continue with said utility anyway, as a tool for this purpose would make things worlds easier (and take a matter of seconds).
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Re: Project DKC 1 Reloaded

Postby Scraps69 » May 6th, 2010, 3:30 pm

wow Mattrizzle! That's fantastic!!!! :mrgreen:

hehe, if we're still including credits in that title page I think both yourself and aperson98 deserve a place in there :) Two days! Wow. hehehe, though hopefully we can still fit names in the title screen. If not, maybe we can put names and versions into the '(C) 1994 Nintendo screen?' after the title page.

Thank you all very much :) . You guys make DKC Reloaded that much cooler ;).
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Re: Project DKC 1 Reloaded

Postby Simion32 » May 6th, 2010, 3:50 pm

That, and to do all of that manually with the help of YY-CHR is hardcore hacking. Seriously Mattrizzle, this is simply awesome! 8-) [I do know what this involves because I was once an SMW hacker, but that game just became boring rather quickly]

OK, now this has me really motivated! Expect some PROGRESS from me in about a week (after which, I'll be done with exams). In fact I may just decide to clutter up my pre-summer-break schedule with occasional NitroGUI development, since I need to get back into the "groove".
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Re: Project DKC 1 Reloaded

Postby Mattrizzle » May 8th, 2010, 12:23 am

Glad all of you like it. :)

Scraps69 wrote:If not, maybe we can put names and versions into the '(C) 1994 Nintendo screen?' after the title page.

I have just the thing for that. It's currently just a mockup though, as I need to expand the tilemap in order to implement it.
Attachments
dkc_reloaded_credits_mockup.png
dkc_reloaded_credits_mockup.png (3.31 KiB) Viewed 78946 times
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Re: Project DKC 1 Reloaded

Postby Simion32 » May 8th, 2010, 2:32 am

It looks great to me, even if only for a beta version. And yeah, that would require a tilemap expansion, I'm sure.
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Re: Project DKC 1 Reloaded

Postby aperson98 » May 8th, 2010, 3:24 am

Wow nice opening credits Mattrizzle they look great so far cannot wait to see more
I'm glad you liked the Diddy graphic tweaking I did as well.
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Re: Project DKC 1 Reloaded

Postby Scraps69 » May 8th, 2010, 9:11 am

that looks awesome :) and it should be easy to do compared to the DKC reloaded page :). Though we're dumping the current version 0.022 for v0.2. But *shrugs* it doesn't matter we're updating the v status for each world completed so we can do it whenever.
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Re: Project DKC 1 Reloaded

Postby Simion32 » May 8th, 2010, 9:17 am

You might want to keep the sub-versions in the file names though, as it helps me keep track of the patches in my DKC data archive. ;)
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Re: Project DKC 1 Reloaded

Postby Scraps69 » May 8th, 2010, 9:51 am

Yep. It helps me too. So, from now on for each subsequent update in world #3 it is 'v 0.21', 'v 0.22', '0.23' etc... but the title screen version won't be updated.

WHen we reach the next world (world # 4 i.e. the snow one :P) , the update automatically goes to v 0.3 and we try to update the title screen and then updates in that world is v 0.31, 0.32, 0.33 etc... but for the additional 0.01's, we don't update the title screen.

I think that's a co-herent system no?
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