Final Fantasy Hacktics

So I have come across some effects that seem to be impossible to mod they are usually the ones that are grayed out when you look at the effect rip. I was wondering if anyone knew the why to this conundrum of mine?

Some effects use a different palette setup. more specifically, some are 16 palettes of 16 colors while others are 1 256 color palette. This also affects the bpp - bits per pixel of the bmp image. If the original image is 16 bpp and you edit it in 8 bpp, the resulting bmp will be much larger than the original.

To make matters more complicated, some frames are colored through alternate means - the data of which is stored in another part of the effect.

What exactly do you mean by "Impossible to mod" though? does it crash? does it not change color? does it not change graphic?

The graphic and the color on salamander just kept messing up. Two examples are Climhazzard and Omnislash as for the graphic not changing. I didn't change the palette though for those, just wanted to add stuff.

ya, its probably the encoding of the pixels. There should be a way around it but I can't work it out at the moment. I'll try to revisit it and figure it out.

Thanks! I really appreciate it. I have some fun ideas I would like to try out using sprites and effects in tandem to create seemingly new ways of performing animation skills for specific characters.

Here are what I am trying to do with some of the others. implement Cloud into the actual effect animation. In the Cross Slash animation I have him disappear and he reappears very briefly for the skill attack. For Braver I have just add some slashing effects to give it more of the original FF VII feel .

The two bins are below for anyone who wants to use them and both versions of Cross Slash. For some like Meteorain I just have Cloud jump, it creates a cool effect. 

Braver E0247


Cross Slash E0249

Cute Cloud frames.

Could you record these in action?

As soon as I figure out how to do that I will Elric.

I have two versions of the Cross slash. one I am testing out right now. Ill see what I can do about a video tomorrow.

EDIT:
Anywho, here is a video of Braver and a different version of Cross Slash than the one I uploaded with two Cloud frames instead of one in action. I also uploaded the different version up.

I saw the Terra effects on Youtube, must admit, both of those look pretty awesome.
However for Cloud, I couldn't really see the difference in the first attack, and having him
disappear for such a long time for the second attack seems a bit off, though I can tell
what you were going for.

Good job so far on these.

EDIT: One other thing to mention, you should make the Buster Sword 2 sided, FFT does
not have 1 sided blades. I'll attach the sheet we use for Jot5 which has a FFT version
Buster Sword on it.

Not too shabby! I'm pumped somebody is working on effects =)

Thanks y'all! :)

Okay so Elric, you were right about Braver, I mean I could see it, but that's because I knew what to look for. As for the disappearing act, it doesn't really bother me, but of course that aspect is entirely optional. However about the Buster Sword, I am guessing you are referring to the regular swords, not to like the Katana and Nodachi since those are one sided blades. Besides I already started modding all of my effects using the original buster sword... sooo... yeahhh... :P 

I am still looking to modify Omnislash and Climhazzard those are the other two Cloud effects that irk me as to their original conception. This is on the Help board after all, I know Choto said you'll look into it, but if anyone can help out with figuring out how to mod those type of effects that would be awesome possum. Annnywho, here is a reworked version of Braver, which you can definitely see. I also redid the Omnislash sprite frames using the OG buster sword and yes he is a little taller than usual, that is for the effect of power and I uploaded the final version of Braver and Cross Slash up and got rid of the others.


Braver V4


EDIT: I also have another question and this may seem silly to ask but is all the information for how a skill is performed, the direction it comes in, what colors gets saturated or highlighted for effect etc. all found in the bin file?

Yes, I'm referring to normal swords, neither the Buster Sword nor the Materia Blade are Katanas.

I see whats going on for Braver now, so my other concern is for the sake of consistency, why does he
not disappear for Braver as he did for Blade Beam (i think that was it?)

I checked out your videos on YouTube.  Are the effects for Terra's Riot Blade and Summon available?

http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=10468.msg198937#msg198937

Here you go Atma there is the summon and a few others I have worked on. I haven't put out Riot Blade because I am not done with Terra's sprite sheet just yet. When I finish her I will put it all out as a bundle on my Terra sprite Sheet post.

And Elric I was just testing it out when I put up the video to see how it looked, and forgot to have him disappear. Again though that whole aspect is optional. Do you think that there should be a consistency with the sort of after image modifications? I guess that makes sense, Haha. Also, if you wanted to use these Elric, for JotF I can make them so they have the Buster Sword on the sprite sheet :)

So I have tried replacing some Bins with others and I take it that the bins have to be the same size and almost have the same effects. Here I replaced dark holy but had to use the information in the bin of the regular Holy spell in order to work. I didn't want to get rid of Holy altogether since I like it. I just wish I new a bit more about the bin information, how the game reads it and what's what. Are there any programs that will allow me to know the timing, or what part of the image it is going to use etc.

Anywho, here is my version of Omnislash. ENJOY! One replaces Holy the other Dark Holy.. sooo yeahh!

That Omnislash is awesome :o Cool stuff Valk

I like it, but I still can't get down with that Buster Sword. Especially considering that it would have to take over
his singing frames, and it would make no sense if, lets say, he was a mage chanting a spell. The effect itself
is pretty cool though.

Thanks Jumza :3

And yeah, I totally get that Elric, again, that aspect is totally optional, weapon strike would work just as well. However I am getting rid of the dancer and bard class. Spells I believe do in fact use a different sprite animation than the singing but of course if he were a Bard class there would be some issues... that or you can say he's using the sword like a mic! lol

Now, I have a question, is there anyway of making this an area of effect attack with it not constantly reanimating on each new hit? Possibly with some ASM hacking so that it hits all at once with just one animation?

I'm loving this Valk! 

QuoteHowever I am getting rid of the dancer and bard class

Did this same thing!

QuoteSpells I believe do in fact use a different sprite animation than the singing

Yup- they are different

QuoteNow, I have a question, is there anyway of making this an area of effect attack with it not constantly reanimating on each new hit?

I'm not sure on this, but I know several spells are hard coded to only display once when given aoe (but the rest are affected anyway- i think).  I'm pretty sure Choto made an ASM to do the opposite and have single-display-spells strike multiple times.  I think he might know this.

Thanks Con!

Yeah, my issue is that it leaves open that Omnislash slot, which is a real shame and takes up one of the Dark/Holy Slots. I am also working on Climhazzard using a Sword Skill and that would yet again take another spot not designated specifically to Cloud. Though I did read somewhere on the forum hunting around for clues on trying to resolve this stuff that the Oracle spells (I believe) could be replaced with sword skills.

On that note, if you read this Choto, some help would be greatly appreciated, both for figuring out how to mod seemingly un-moddable effects and how to make single attacks hit multiple targets at once without repeating. :D

EDIT: Two versions of Climhazzard using Split-Punch and Elrics JotF Buster Sword

Honestly, none of these are professional looking, which is a big issue to me... I understand it's not an issue for everyone, but JotF wouldn't look nearly as nice if it wasn't of my criticism.



You should really avoid stretching graphics in such strange ways, it's very obvious to the eye and not so pretty.

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The buster sword in the singing frames is just a bad idea. It might not even be Cloud's currently equipped weapon (unless the Buster Sword is the new Materia Blade, if so: ow ow ow), looks bad because you can barely use any colours for it, and just feels off overall since the game isn't designed with the idea of holding weapons while charging... I mean, it's ridiculous that only Cloud does it and nobody else.

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Unless you figure out how to edit the sounds, you should try to edit the graphic data so that when animated, the sound still fits.

Example:
Pretty much my first effect edit ever; raining swords still fit Stasis Sword's original sounds. Made it in not even 5 minutes.
(http://zodiac.ffhacktics.com/SCUS_942.21_19072010_164044_0406.png)(http://zodiac.ffhacktics.com/SCUS_942.21_19072010_164044_0625.png)(http://zodiac.ffhacktics.com/SCUS_942.21_19072010_164044_0984.png)

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Your latest climhazzard has a weird sound bug.
I know what you were trying to do with Cloud and all, but not only does it mean the ability becomes unusable for anyone else (when making a mod, sometimes sharing abilities is a great way to save ability space) and yeah, having 2 Clouds on the screen is kinda odd... It would work better if you could find out how to hide all the maps and units that aren't targeted, but I'm not sure if that is even potentially an option.



Also, it's totally possible to use an effect into another slot, though it requires hex editing... And the target file being big enough.

O.M.F.G...

Xifanie, that looks amaaazing. Do frigging want.  :more:

QuoteThe buster sword in the singing frames is just a bad idea. It might not even be Cloud's currently equipped weapon (unless the Buster Sword is the new Materia Blade, if so: ow ow ow), looks bad because you can barely use any colours for it, and just feels off overall since the game isn't designed with the idea of holding weapons while charging... I mean, it's ridiculous that only Cloud does it and nobody else.

As I personally am not a fan of singing- I feel that the sing frames are wasted if a mod is removing them altogether (obviously not for everybody).  Also, as long as an ability required the materia blade (or buster) this would never be a problem....all the normal charge/spell cast frames would be normal for everything else.

QuoteYou should really avoid stretching graphics in such strange ways, it's very obvious to the eye and not so pretty.......yeah, having 2 Clouds on the screen is kinda odd..

Yeah, I do have to say I like the look of the sing/sword frames, but I don't think they quite look right with "spells" in which cloud attacks with his sword.  It's one thing to have him do that and cast a regular cloud-only magic attack, and another to have multiple clouds on screen.  I'm not crazy about all you new effects, but I think if you changed the animation tab to "disappear" for say braver4 (i think that was it) and omnislash- it would look damn good.  I would have to watch the actual frame by frame but I assume cloud isn't exactly the same color- but I feel that could be attributed to moving at warp speed!

...I'm not a FF7 fan- but I just about wet myself when I saw your omnislash!

Hmm, I find it very difficult to respond to this as a lot of this comes from a purely subjective stand point. There are so many things in the Vanilla FFT that I see that look odd or un-professional or lazy. I mean one quick very simple example is the translation, the writing in certain parts, flat characters not a lot of development for them. etc. SO when it comes to the "not professional" looking aspect I can't help but giggle at that. Also, none of us are getting paid. I am having a ton of fun creating these and I think that yeah, some of them need work, like I can definitely work on the slashing sprite a bit in my omnislash, sure. My Split punch Climhazzard is horrifying! I am well aware of that, but this is in the help section for a reason, I have been trying to ask for advice, things I can do etc. Not for the sake of some ill defined goal, but for the sake of being part of a community that enjoys a game, that I thought left me/us wanting more.  However this isn't about presenting a developed finished product , this is about uncovering the untapped potential and getting creative. This is more about showing off the possibilities to new comers so someone might be able to do it better, they see my defective products and maybe they can improve upon it, have at it Hoss. This is my first time EVER, modding for a game and it is fun. However, some of these, given the tools at my disposal, the time that i have dedicated and the level of my lack of expertise; I think some of these look pretty darn good. I mean did you take a look at my silly Ultros in my summoning post? Tentacles everywhere! lol

Look I am just having fun and I get it, you want things to look a specific way for you. It isn't your cup o' tea and that's cool, I am going to keep doing what I am doing. And be unprofessional, because I didn't go to school for this, I don't get paid for this and just barely picked up any sort of sprite editing. I just want to finish by saying that so much of what you said is subjective and has merit for sure, but I am not doing this for you. (Also the recording messes with the way my emulator runs, so sounds start beeping and booping everywhere lol)

And thanks CON! I am glad that my abominations please some folks! ;)

Hey whatever man, if you don't want other people to use your effects that's your choice. Don't worry we'll stop bothering you with that nasty criticism of ours. Won't kill your fun again.

I don't mind criticism, I have taken the criticism in other places, but you hardly gave me any actual criticism. You just basically expressed, no, not good, me no likey.

And all I really have to say about that is... okay! You pointed out all of the things I was very well aware of, all of this has been experimenting with how things looks etc. I mean I have been looking all over for more modified effects for things to take from and I have really not found all that much, or anything that is really willing to break the mold. LET'S BREAK THE MOLD! BWAHAHA! ;D

So Xifanie, what do you think is an actual possible solution to the issue surrounding the sound effects? Do you know if they are found in the bin file or if it points to the actual file? If so, where are the sound effects hidden? Because I can play around with that...

BTW! I have also possibly figured out the issue with the file effects that just dont want to seem to want to mod.

No dude, you cannot take the writing which has already been proved to be half mistranslated, this is the reason WotL exists.
Giggle all you want, but that was a crappy example.

We are talking about effects here, what was stated was that they don't flow correctly with the rest of the game. The example
above that Xif showed was to display how a good modded effect CAN look correct in game.

As for the Ultros, you mean the one you did with all the non-transparent balls everywhere? That doesn't look very good IMO.
The only summoning one that really does fit currently IMO is Terra.

FYI, None of the Jot5 team gets paid, but we are very strict on quality, because in the end that's what people want, we do
things on a professional level, because that's how things should be. If you start messing with the graphic style of the game
and don't care about coming off professional at all, then you end up with a LOL Patch. Which is fine, if that's what you are
aiming for I guess.

I can switch a multi target effect to single target, but the effect would only occur on one unit and wouldn't display damage or anything on any other targets. The type of single target spell you want to change it to would involve doing things beyond my knowledge. I have an idea of how to do that, but I don't think it would be easy at all.

Professional looking or not, I think it is WONDERFUL that someone is at least trying to do something new and is having fun with it. Effects haven't ever gotten a whole hell of a lot of attention in the past and these forays into shallowly-tread waters might just inspire someone to try and dive deeper.

Maybe it's just a kindred spirit sort of thing to me where I can't help but embrace someone having fun with hacking/patching FFT regardless of the output. While quality is of course always commendable as is attention to detail, the days of using a derogatory term like "LOL patch" should be well behind us. Doing something for the sake of having fun should also be commendable in its own way. I know my patch started from the ideas of "this looks like it might be fun to do" and "just because it is OP and broken doesn't mean I shouldn't make it anyways." If everyone had shit on it by saying it was a "LOL patch" and they hated how it looked because it wasn't FFT-looking enough, I probably would have been discouraged enough to not even try. But there were enough voices sounding off that said doing something for fun wasn't a bad idea. I would generally believe that we all gathered here in the first place because something about hacking FFT or playing hacks other people made would be fun. I'm pretty sure we didn't sign up with enjoyment at the prospect of putting in hundreds of hours of mind-numbing work. Seeing the comments both here and in another thread or two I think, I'm left wondering if maybe too many of us have forgotten that initial joy of finding (or even founding) FFH - a joy that Valkirst seems to be embracing wholeheartedly. I worry when I don't hear as many voices of encouragement for someone going wild with something they love. Many great things spawned from something a lot of people felt was extremely silly at the start, but there were always some folks willing to support those newcomers who had a different vision than the old pros. Few succeed, this is true, but I wonder if maybe we are sometimes worse off for having lost others who didn't get enough support.

None of us get paid to do this. This isn't a job, but it can definitely be hard work. We all love the source material here for various reasons, each our own. But when it's all said and done, if we're not having fun doing this then I feel like we've missed something more important than any amount of professionalism.


Valkirst, keep it up. I'm rooting for you and I want to see what else you can dream up.

Thanks Choto, it was just that when I did my Omnislash as an AOE it performed it every single time. I felt it got kind of redundant lol. I guess I can just make it single target, doesn't really bother me, I was just curious if it was possible or if anyone knew how to do that.

And thank you Celdia, that means a lot. I didn't mean to diminish anyone's hard work in saying that "I personally" don't have an axe to grind in seeming professional. I understand that some do and have worked really hard on their patches and well in some cases even whole games without ever seeing one red cent and that is commendable and shows a real passion for the thing they love. Forget professionalism, that is, it's own form of artistic expression in it's most pure. Again, thank you Celdia for your kind words and Choto for looking into one of my issues for me.

Now, that that is behind me. Here are just a few ROUGH DRAFTS of some personalized Mods that are meant to inspire ideas as to what can be done. Here is Climhazzard and Cherry Blossom

Effects are literally the field in FFT we know the least about, although we pretty much don't know anything about the sound effect format AFAIK.
I've been hacking FFT since 2007 and am one of the few people who has researched the game in many areas, allowing people to edit many more things.

Effects have always baffled me to no end.
Choto is now the one who knows the most about it, but even so, nearly everything confuses the hell out of him.
The only things I know about are palettes, block coordinate/sizes, print coordinate/size and changing the header location to be able to use any effect in any slot (providing the filesize is great enough).

Even if you say it might attract people to do more fancy stuff, I highly doubt it. I might be pessimist, but it's wishful thinking. If someone researches that stuff, it certainly won't be you either because I doubt frustratingly trying to decode egyptian glyphs is your idea of fun.

Still, I wish.

Indeed, what Xiffy says is true. See: http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=9897.msg191174

If you can figure that out you'll be off and running. There's also a .txt file of effect data that I wrote as a working copy and which can serve as an explanation of the file structure. I think it's in the ASM starter kit thread. The reason I haven't kept up with the effects editor though is because it's so complicated to learn how to do things. It just can't be made simple at this point. So now I just use it for my own purposes.

Edit: I attached the effect data file here just for fun ^_^