Final Fantasy VI SDK - Going Social!

[MagitekElite]

Wow, wonderful screenshots, Dargor! It looks so organized, it kinda scares me :lol: But they look great! :thumb:

Yea, the screen tone could be used. Someone earlier said the battle backgrounds would have to change? I'm pretty sure you can do that with a quick recolor or something....right? lol

Yes, that feature would be nice and very useful

 

[Imzogelmo]

Yes, making paths is one of the more annoying and tedious things to do, so having it be done visually would indeed be very nice.
That should speed up event editing considerably.

 

[Celesinator]

Yessssss I was thinking about that in a RMWindows 7 XD

 

[Dargor]

It's time for another update!

I had 3 days off this weekend but I didn't work on the Editor.
Well, not directly at least.

I spent some time thinking 'what could make the FF6 SDK more awesome?'.
Remember I once spoke about having a ROM to FF6SDK importer?
Well, thanks to Imzogelmo who kindly gave me tons and tons of useful info
about the game and how it works from the inside, I've been able to create that ROM importer!

Right now, I have a fully working Esper importer. I can also retrieve much more
information but I'll stop here for now. This was just a test to prove that it was doable.
Eventually, this importer will get a lot bigger.
I don't know exactly what I will be able to import (Maps? Graphics?) but anything relevant
that I can import will be imported.

I have created a New Project Wizard in the editor and in this wizard, you'll be able to specify a ROM to import from. So to all of you ROM hackers, it is now possible to continue your work on the FF6 SDK!

Now, to make this even better, I found someone who's been able to port Ruby to the PSP! He create a library called Joyau which is similar to RGSS used by RPGXP/VX.

The library is open source and I spent a couple of hours looking at it.
There is still a lot of work to do but I'm pretty sure that eventually, I will be able to port RPGXP and FF6SDK Games to the PSP!!

I won't lose any time trying to make this real right now but once the SDK is finished, this will be the next step.

However, there is some limitations on the PSP. Things such as game resolution, graphic and audio format will be a bit limited.
This actually gave me an idea! Since the PSP Screen can't do 640x480, which is the max resolution for RPGXP games,
I will have to add an option the change that resolution. So in the New Project Wizard I spoke about, you will also be able to
specify the game resolution (SNES or PC). SNES resolution will obviously be the SNES resolution, with 16x16 tiles, while PC will be 2 times bigger.

So if I'm ever able to export to PSP, the game's resolution will have to be the SNES one. Otherwise you'll lose a big part of the screen.
But, even if I'm not able to port on PSP, it doesn't matter. Having the choice between the real resolution or a bigger one is a plus.
That also means that you don't need to stretch all your graphics so they can fit in the game.

Hehe, I said a lot!
I think that's all for now.

Take care,
- Dargor

 

[Daxis]

you are a god man
good job
:thumb:

 

[Eidolion]

That little update made me quite happy :D!

 

[DDR]

This really is amazing. First posted was created in '06, obviously, you haven't been working on this every single day since then, but still, 4 years is a large gap. You have commitment

 

[Imzogelmo]

This is really looking good. Any chance you'll let the editor out into the wild sometime soon?

 

[Closedworlds]

:heart: Would it be possible to have SNES resolution... but wide-screen? Like FF4 The After Years? Currently I am very annoyed when my rm2003 and rmxp games are stretched by my TV and monitor. Will there be an aspect ratio option? 4:3 old TVs. 16:9 wide screen. Theoretically making more tiles visible on the right and left hand sides of the screen.

 

[MagitekElite]

Amazing update, Dargor! Its going to rock! The new features and updates is going to make this editor the coolest thing ever. :heart:

I really like the Reso updates, especially about the PSP. It would be nifty

I can't wait to hear more. :grin:

Good luck, Dargor!

 

[Dargor]

@Daxis, Eidolion, DDR
Thank you very much giys, I'm glad you like it

@Imzogelmo
I doubt it, it's not complete enough yet. I wouldn't see the point of releasing something that can't be used for real.
Buuuuuuuuuut, I'll see what I can do. I would really like you guys to see it.
However, I have a date in mind (and it will stay in my mind!) and I would really like the editor to be finished by that date.

@Closedworlds, MagitekElite
I was thinking about it yesterday and yes, I will probably be doing this. But I have to do some testing before on my TV.
Note that this feature would be available only for the SNES resolution since the game window on PC can't be bigger than 640x480.
(Unless I code something to break these limits? :O)

 

[FenixFyreX]

If you break those limits, you are completely limitless D:

I don't know of a coder / programmer yet that has stripped rmvx / xp of it's resolution restriction of 640x480 o.0

 

[MagitekElite]

It would make PSP fans of the game (whoever made it and whatnot) very happy :D

I have a question though. If you manage to do the PSP feature, would it be for non-hacked PSPs, or hacked PSPs? Or both? From what I gather (someone correct me if I'm wrong) wouldn't it have to be like an emulator of some sorts? Or just like getting a demo of a game off the official Sony site? :crazy:

 

[Celesinator]

:heart: Would it be possible to have SNES resolution... but wide-screen? Like FF4 The After Years? Currently I am very annoyed when my rm2003 and rmxp games are stretched by my TV and monitor. Will there be an aspect ratio option? 4:3 old TVs. 16:9 wide screen. Theoretically making more tiles visible on the right and left hand sides of the screen.

...Your games are stretched? Mine aren't... RM2003 or XP... and I have wide screen too. And yes, even when I go to full screen mode they aren't stretched.

 

[Dargor]

@FenixFyreX
It is possible, using Win32APIs. It has been done before but it might cause problems with transitions that use grayscale images.
But I don't think it's really worth it.

@MagitekElite
It's would not be an emulator but a 100% independent game. But yes, it would work only on hacked PSP since this is a homebrew/non official PSP project.
The Ruby library is not an official Sony PSP Library either.

@Celes
I guess it depends on the TV. Anyways, I'm still adding the option to have it in 16:9 format.
As MagitekElite said, it'd bes very nice to have it, especially for the PSP to get rid of black borders.
But thinking about it, it would apply for the map screen only. Menus and battle screen won't be stretched... :/

 

[MagitekElite]

@MagitekElite
It's would not be an emulator but a 100% independent game. But yes, it would work only on hacked PSP since this is a homebrew/non official PSP project.
The Ruby library is not an official Sony PSP Library either.

Kay! Sparked my interest because I've been learning about hacked PSPs lately and the restrictions of non-hacked and I was gonna be major surprised if you found out how to get pass that on a non-hacked. :lol:

It might be a simple question, but if it were made to be able to be used on PSPs, would the controls be shifted, or could the owner of the game set it up normally?

 

[Dargor]

I'm not sure what you mean about the controls, but the default controls on the PSP would obviously be adapted properly.
Of course it won't be possible to use F*, CTRL, ALT, SHIFT or any other keys added by a custom Input module, but anything else that is compatible with a gamepad related will be usable.

It will most likely look like this:

Spoiler: RGSS2

DOWN - Move Down
LEFT - Move Left
RIGHT - Move Right
UP - Move Up
A - UNUSED
B - Menu/Cancel
C - Confirm
X - UNUSED
Y - UNUSED
Z - UNUSED
L - Page Up
R - Page Down

Spoiler: FF6

DOWN - Move Down
LEFT - Move Left
RIGHT - Move Right
UP - Move Up
A - Confirm
B - Cancel
X - Menu/Switch Right
Y - Change Parties/Switch Left
L - Page Up
R - Page Down
SELECT - Page Down
START - Menu

Spoiler: RGSS2 to PSP using FF6 Mapping

DOWN => DOWN
LEFT => LEFT
RIGHT => RIGHT
UP => UP
A => CIRCLE
B => CROSS
C => START?
X => TRIANGLE
Y => SQUARE
Z => SELECT?
L => L
R => R

 

[MagitekElite]

Ah, okay. I only asked because if (on the hacked PSP ) you put the GBA FF6 on, the buttons are set up differently. I was only wondering if it would have a set up instead of random inputs :>

 

[Dargor]

Inputs won't be random at all I'll make sure they reflect the SNES one as much as possible.

Another very nice update! (for me at least :P)
I've been working a lot on optimizing the map editor yesterday and I'm happy to say that there is no more lag when working on big maps!
Well, there is still some annoyance like the grid, it is not cached so it takes longer longer to draw on larger maps but this is a minor issue and easy to fix.

I've implemented some zooming functions!
It's now possible to zoom on a map with the following levels: 2/1, 1/1, 1/2, 1/4 and 1/8.

Also, since I want to support both 16x16 and 32x32 tiles, I had to fix another annoyance, introduced with 16x16 tiles.
Creating a map using this tile size on a 1/1 ratio is a pain because it's too small! So by default, the editor will check the tile size and if it's 16x16, it will automatically scale the tileset and tilemap 2 times it's original size. So it will look like you're working with 32x32 tiles but they will in fact be 16x16.

I still have a couple of bugs to fix with the zooming but once this is done, the next target is the event editor.

More to come soon!
- Dargor

 

[Imzogelmo]

Oooh, support for both 16x16 and 32x32 tiles... nice!

As you know, I'm anxious to see the event editor. So, we need to see some screenshots when you get to working on it. Also, a list of commands that can be used in events would be great. I'm sure that it is still evolving, but I think the more flexible the event script can be, the more powerful the SDK will be. So, I'd like to see it jam-packed with options.