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ISO Manager v1.00b

Started by Xifanie, September 27, 2016, 12:33:22 pm

Xifanie

September 27, 2016, 12:33:22 pm Last Edit: September 28, 2016, 12:09:46 am by Xifanie
ISO Manager


What is it?
[indent=2]It allows you to create a completely new File Index for PSX CD Images (not just FFT), Import/Export files, and automatically associate Files and their Sectors + Filesizes to data locations inside the game.[/indent]

Requirements
[indent=2]Microsoft Excel 2007+[/indent]

Download the latest ISO Manager
as with all programs in beta, your files might unexpectedly get corrupted; so make sure to backup first


Overview


Edit various property values of your ISO



Easily manage your file index; remove files and directories or create up to a million!



Having a hard time finding free space for your new files? Just check the Space Management sheet



Manage vital information for FFT! Easily add your own maps, SP2 files for any sprites or even Effect files



Automatically update your GNS files with the proper links to their texture/polygon files!
(Less trouble for our dear mapmakers)



And of course, a nice ASM table for our ASMers!


  • Modding version: PSX
Love what you're seeing? https://supportus.ffhacktics.com/ 💜 it's really appreciated

Anything is possible as long as it is within the hardware's limits. (ie. disc space, RAM, Video RAM, processor, etc.)
<R999> My target market is not FFT mod players
<Raijinili> remember that? it was awful

Xifanie

September 27, 2016, 12:33:33 pm #1 Last Edit: September 28, 2016, 12:02:13 am by Xifanie
Tutorial


Getting Started:

[indent=2]

1) Select your PSX Image
2) Import all the data from your Image to the spreadsheet... be patient! On my laptop this procedure takes 40-55 seconds.
* It might be good to look into those settings before you proceed further

Before creating a patch for your mod, make sure that you use CDMage or another program capable or rebuilding sectors to do so!
Why is this important? Your emulator doesn't care about Error Detection or Error Correction... but it does matter to anyone who wants to make an EBOOT of your mod to play on their PSP. Unless the sectors are rebuilt, people won't be able to play on their PSP. (And frankly, it's not nice to ask your players to do this when you should be doing it in the first place)

[/indent]

Adding Maps:

[indent=2]
#1 Load your FFT ISO's Information into the spreadsheet (See Getting Started)


#2 Get the map files and rename them
Tip: In windows you can select all the files, press F2 (rename), then type the new filename ("TWO_BOATS" in this case), then press enter and all your files will be renamed while keeping their respective extensions.








#3 In the "Index" sheet, manually add all the map files
Tip: You can either resize the table by drag and dropping the bottom right corner of the table, or you can just type in the first blank line after the table and the table will automatically expand to include your new entry.
[highlight=lime] Mandatory [/highlight]
[highlight=yellow] Optional [/highlight] (better enter the filesizes manually so you don't run into problems when trying to import the files, unless you know what you're doing)

To figure out which sectors you can use for your files, just check the "Space Management" sheet. Make sure there are no conflicts!

If you are editing the map yourself, be sure to add some extra space after the files that could expand in size! In my screenshot, you can see that I let sectors 220160 to 220176 free for MAP\TWO_BOATS.9 in case it needs the space to expand. It's better to do this than moving the file somewhere else after it gets too big.
Tip: A GNS file cannot be larger than 1 sector, and 128kb files are always texture files, which also don't increase in size. It's only potentially beneficial to give some free room to the other files that are neither GNS nor texture files.




#4 Enter the .GNS file into the Maps list under the "Table Sectors" sheet. Feel free to use a free slot or to replace another map.




#5 Create the GNS map file links

Copy the original map's links and paste them at the end of the table. The table will automatically expand to include them. After doing so, rename all of those files according to the names of the new map files.







Tip: While you still have your entries selected, you can use Ctrl+h (Replace All) to speed things up. In Excel, if you only have one cell selected, it will replace all the instances on the sheet! But if you have more than one cell selected like in this case, it will only affect the selected range.




#6 Import all files individually or through the Directory import function (Directory Files ⇒ Image) under the "Config" sheet. It is faster to use the directory function to import, but it will only import files in their respective ISO directory paths!

For example:
CD Files Directory = "C:\FFTISO\"
File Path = "MAP\TWO_BOATS.GNS"
If the file is located at "C:\FFTISO\TWO_BOATS.GNS", the spreadsheet will ignore that file. However, if it is located at "C:\FFTISO\MAP\TWO_BOATS.GNS", then it will be imported.

The individual file import overrides this. Your choice.


#7 Save your table sector and map sector edits to your ISO! "Table Sectors ⇒ Image" and "Map Sectors ⇒ Image" respectively. Or just use "Everything FFT ⇒ Image" if you're feeling lazy, but that will take more time as this will also write the new index to your ISO. You may or may not care about this, but either way, I recommend that you at least save your spreadsheet somewhere for later use.


#8 Enjoy!








NOTE: If you (accidentally) import an unedited GNS back into the ISO, make sure you save the Map Sectors edits again (Map Sectors ⇒ Image), otherwise it will probably load the map you edited was based on in-game!

NOTE 2: By going through these steps, you will permanently alter the GNS file (the one in the ISO anyway)! If you want to share your map using that GNS file, you'll have to give the data for it under the "Map Sectors" sheet along with your map files. Either way, it's better to give people that information. Write a readme or something. Anyone will then be able to use that information in their own ISO Manager. Or, y'know, just tell people which map you originally edited so they can copy/paste/edit that.

In this case, I simply copy/pasted the cells from the sheet:
MAP\TWO_BOATS.GNS   8   MAP\TWO_BOATS.8
MAP\TWO_BOATS.GNS   1C   MAP\TWO_BOATS.9
MAP\TWO_BOATS.GNS   30   MAP\TWO_BOATS.12
MAP\TWO_BOATS.GNS   44   MAP\TWO_BOATS.13
MAP\TWO_BOATS.GNS   58   MAP\TWO_BOATS.13
MAP\TWO_BOATS.GNS   6C   MAP\TWO_BOATS.13
MAP\TWO_BOATS.GNS   80   MAP\TWO_BOATS.13
MAP\TWO_BOATS.GNS   94   MAP\TWO_BOATS.13
MAP\TWO_BOATS.GNS   A8   MAP\TWO_BOATS.13
MAP\TWO_BOATS.GNS   BC   MAP\TWO_BOATS.13
MAP\TWO_BOATS.GNS   D0   MAP\TWO_BOATS.13
MAP\TWO_BOATS.GNS   E4   MAP\TWO_BOATS.13

[/indent]


On Subheaders:

[indent=2]
Subheaders are extremely important! They tell which kind of data each sector holds. Unless you want to mess with STR or XA files, you probably don't need to know any more than this: Just use "00000800|81" for regular files. For those who wish to know more, the format my spreadsheet uses is: {Subheader #0}/{Subheader #1}/{Subheader #2}/[...]|{3rd subheader byte flags for the final sector}. When importing a file, it will loop through all the aforementioned subheaders for every new sector, and finish by applying the final sector flags for the last one.
[/indent]
  • Modding version: PSX
Love what you're seeing? https://supportus.ffhacktics.com/ 💜 it's really appreciated

Anything is possible as long as it is within the hardware's limits. (ie. disc space, RAM, Video RAM, processor, etc.)
<R999> My target market is not FFT mod players
<Raijinili> remember that? it was awful

Pride

  • Modding version: PSX
Check out my ASM thread. Who doesn't like hax?

Xifanie

Wrote the "Adding Maps" Tutorial!
  • Modding version: PSX
Love what you're seeing? https://supportus.ffhacktics.com/ 💜 it's really appreciated

Anything is possible as long as it is within the hardware's limits. (ie. disc space, RAM, Video RAM, processor, etc.)
<R999> My target market is not FFT mod players
<Raijinili> remember that? it was awful

nitwit


3lric

A bit more than impressive, I'd say more like fucking amazing!

Coming from the standpoint of someone who actually NEEDS to add more files to make Jot5 work, as well as from a map maker, this is one of Xif's greatest tools yet (it's hard to rate best when her tools are so diverse)!

Great job as always Xif! Thank you so much for taking the time to make this for all of us in need :D
  • Modding version: PSX

Twinees

Awesome stuff! Great work Xifanie!
  • Modding version: PSX

Xifanie

Thanks guys, that's nice and all but what would be even better would be people reporting that they've used my tools either successfully (hopefully) or unsuccessfully, or even just ask questions on how to do this and that... suggestions for new features and stuff.
  • Modding version: PSX
Love what you're seeing? https://supportus.ffhacktics.com/ 💜 it's really appreciated

Anything is possible as long as it is within the hardware's limits. (ie. disc space, RAM, Video RAM, processor, etc.)
<R999> My target market is not FFT mod players
<Raijinili> remember that? it was awful

Emmy

I opened up this sheet, loaded my mod into it, pressed the Index and Properties => Sheet button; and it's saying I have conflicts and to resolve all conflicts before continuing.  How do I fix this?

  • Modding version: PSX

Xifanie

October 28, 2016, 05:48:14 pm #9 Last Edit: October 28, 2016, 11:24:28 pm by Xifanie
What is CHARMAP?

"Index and Properties ⇒ Sheet" ignores conflicts because it will overwrite the index anyway... I just tested it.

"The BATTLE\99.SPR, File Path" I also get on a Shishi restructured ISO. I'm looking into it.

EDIT: The "File Path" thing is caused by Shishi restructuration not allowing enough sectors. You need to change the total number of sectors to 234992 in the Properties sheet.
  • Modding version: PSX
Love what you're seeing? https://supportus.ffhacktics.com/ 💜 it's really appreciated

Anything is possible as long as it is within the hardware's limits. (ie. disc space, RAM, Video RAM, processor, etc.)
<R999> My target market is not FFT mod players
<Raijinili> remember that? it was awful

Emmy

October 28, 2016, 11:40:23 pm #10 Last Edit: October 29, 2016, 02:44:23 pm by Emmy
I have no clue what CHARMAP is. :(  Tried with a different file though and it didn't have it.  Changing to 234992 worked to fix the other file path. :)

Yay! I got it to work (I think...)



However there are still a few things slightly screwed up with this map that I'm not sure if they're problems with the map or with the iso manager (was my first time playing around with these programs).



It doesn't show movement range, attack range, or anything like that properly. :(

**EDIT** Got everything to work properly, thank you for the help in getting everything running. :)
  • Modding version: PSX

Adhelbert

Hi Xifanie :D

I don't fully understand what is this spreadsheet supposed to do but i've two Quistions for you:

1) can i add new modified effect files in place of unused ones like (E487.bin-E508.bin), if the answer is no, what it actually does?

2) are you going to make a tutorial about effects section soon?

Thanks :mrgreen:
  • Modding version: PSX

Xifanie

If you don't understand what this spreadsheet is for, I'm not quite sure why you're posting in this topic...

1) yes
2) Create a new file in the index of the right size in some free space, type that file name in the slot that you want in the "Table Sectors" sheet. Import the Effect file. Save Table Sectors to Image.
  • Modding version: PSX
Love what you're seeing? https://supportus.ffhacktics.com/ 💜 it's really appreciated

Anything is possible as long as it is within the hardware's limits. (ie. disc space, RAM, Video RAM, processor, etc.)
<R999> My target market is not FFT mod players
<Raijinili> remember that? it was awful

CONMAN

I keep trying to play around with the iso manager, but I seem to keep having the number of sectors double every time I try to make an edit.  I just tried to simply expand the sectors by one (234992) to remove the shishi conflict that pops up.  I also started over from scratch and attempted to ignore it (fft sheet> everything) to make one spell effect addition and had the same error pop up.

Any idea?
  • Modding version: PSX

CONMAN

I know i'm replying to my own previous post, but i'm doing it anyway... I tried to play around unsuccessfully when this was originally released and failed.  I recently gave it another round and failed a lot again!  Between mistakes on my own part, attempts make on the sheet after I had already borked it, I finally succeeded!

Absolute pure joy being able to finally tweak and add a new spell effect after several crashes and freezes! This is just so awesome (now that I'm not fuckin up!)

:mrgreen:THANK YOU XIF!

Maybe I'll get the courage to edit map files at some point! For whatever reason I needed to expand my sectors to 234993.
  • Modding version: PSX

Xifanie

You're welcome. I didn't reply to your question/bug because I was extremely confused by your problem and just had no idea of what could be happening...
It is also a fair amount of stuff to mess with and learn, but once you understand how it works, my spreadsheet can be quite useful.

And you had to expand because of Shishi moving all the sprite files and resizing them. Shishi simply doesn't do it "properly" as far as the CD file index is concerned.
  • Modding version: PSX
Love what you're seeing? https://supportus.ffhacktics.com/ 💜 it's really appreciated

Anything is possible as long as it is within the hardware's limits. (ie. disc space, RAM, Video RAM, processor, etc.)
<R999> My target market is not FFT mod players
<Raijinili> remember that? it was awful