Final Fantasy Hacktics

Ok, sure, I'll ask Xif for an account on the Wiki.

Oh right, I forgot to mention, I might do more work on FFTA hacking as I know Darth really wants me to, but I doubt I'll do that much.

I was hoping to add resource patching capabilities to LivePatch to allow mod creators to easily make mods for WotL, and maybe some smaller other things, but as far as FFT itself goes, this was my goal. So I guess I move onto the next unrelated project?

The versions.txt file is unrelated. I'm not entirely sure what it's for.

The only thing I can think of is that there's a problem with filenames being all caps or all lower on the filesystem, and that confusing the PSP. I'll test to see if this is a problem, and if it is I'll see what I can do to fix it.

E] Filename case seems to be irrelevant. What model PSP do you have?

E2] If someone can get PSPLink/pspsh/usbhostfs working on their PSP ( http://forums.pspslimhacks.com/threads/tutorial-how-to-setup-psplink-debug-psp-apps.5200/ ) I can send a debug version of LivePatch that will print stuff to the pspsh terminal, and you can tell me what prints out. That will help me immensely with figuring out what's gone wrong.

The patches go in the ms0:/livepatch folder (e.g. fftpsp goes there, so you get ms0:/livepatch/fftpsp/fast.live) and wherever you put the PRX is what you put in GAME.TXT (e.g. if you put the prx in ms0:/livepatch/livepatch.prx, you put in seplugins/GAME.TXT the line "ms0:/livepatch/livepatch.prx 1")

Hopefully that's clear, but I guess it can get a bit confusing. While the PRX doesn't have to be in any specific location (GAME.TXT just has to know where it is), the patches HAVE to go in ms0:/livepatch and the folder inside of ms0:/livepatch HAS to be fftpsp.

Quote from: Mega_Tyrant on March 01, 2012, 01:07:29 pm
Alaris, I'll give you a quick breakdown of how to install it using the new 0.1.2

1) Extract the "dist" folder from "LivePatch 0.1.2.zip" file to the root of your memorystick.
2) Extract the "fftpsp" folder from the "wotl-patches.zip" file to your "dist" folder
3) Add the following to your game.txt

ms0:/dist/livepatch.prx 1

Whoops, there wasn't supposed to be a dist folder, that was a packaging error. The "fftpsp" folder should be in ms0:/livepatch/

I've reuploaded the zip with that fixed.

Beta 5 is now LivePatch 0.1.2 (which is the same thing except I've packaged the source and readme back into the zip). It should be functionally equivalent, though. As this is a stable release, I've removed the old betas.

I cleaned up the code a lot while investigating the crashes that I'm still not getting and in the process did three things;
1) Replaced the synchronization methods with something cleaner, in the hopes that that fixed crashes (it won't)
2) Disabled some debugging code and found a problem with my directory listing code (that are actually Sony bugs, not mine), so I fixed that
3) Found out that the way it was compiled was leading to my code stomping on top of another module. Namely, the module that makes the volume buttons, the home button (and the display for when the home button is pressed), and a few other things work. Now it's compiled in a way that will hopefully prevent that from happening again.

As such, I've uploaded a beta 5. This will hopefully eliminate those crashes once and for all. At least, it'll probably get rid of those crashes st4r was talking about. No idea if it'll fix the other ones that I still haven't been able to reproduce.

And Alaris, I'm sorry but I don't know why it's not working for you at all I can send you a debug version and some instructions for figuring out how far it's getting before it fails.

Good news! Maybe. I think I found the bug, and Beta 4 (which hopefully fixes it for real this time) is now attached. It fixes the crash I experienced on 5.00 M33, which was a problem with timings relating to threads. Fun. Anyway, that's fixed now and hopefully that'll fix your crashes.

Well, I can't reproduce the crashes at all, so I'm only operating on guesswork, which isn't getting me very far. If I'm going to flatten out the crash when closing the game, I'm going to need someone who will let me tinker with the program remotely, either through relayed instructions (which will be very difficult!) or a remote shell of some sort (which would require giving me remote access for a little while, something that is understandably undesirable). Someone who has knowledge of PSPLink is better, but either way I'll need someone who is very responsive so I can do this in a fast way.

I can continue to upload versions that work by guesswork, but I can't really guarantee that that'll fix any related crashes.

E] Scratch that, for now. I think I managed to reproduce it on 5.00 M33, so I'm gonna plug away at that.

Quote from: Alaris on February 27, 2012, 03:39:32 pm
Edit #3: Does LivePatch require a specific Custom Firmware? Because I'm getting no effect using it.

I've tested LivePatch on 5.00 M33 and 6.60 Pro-B 10, so presumably it works on anything in between too. Are you sure it's enabled and the patches are in the right place? The patches (*.live files) should go in ms0:/livepatch/fftpsp

I've uploaded a fixed version of the unstretch patch, and a beta version of LivePatch 0.1.1, which hopefully fixes all those nasty crashing issues st4r was having. The beta doesn't include directions or the like, so if you need those still, I've left 0.1 up.

Ok, I've fixed the cut-off text problem. Turns out there was an 0x0E where there should have been an 0xE0. Not sure how that happened, but I'll upload that fix after more feedback comes in.

E] I went over the rest of that patch and it LOOKS intact...so I'm not sure why that would be crashing. However, I'm pretty sure I know why exiting the game is crashing so I'll fix that soon.

Hey guys, have some patches to test. Make sure to report back if they work, and especially if they don't.

I've heard that rumor. Unfortunately, I don't have any friends who also have a copy of this game, so I can't test it out.

...although, I DO have two PSPs, and the game is downloadable on PSN these days.

The FuSa thread told me that the slowdown was fixed by something that tinkered with graphics code, and possibly graphics code that tinkered with timing. So I started looking at more graphics code, especially the ones that were related to timing. Wouldn't you know it, one of them was only called from one place, and when I messed with that one function...magic happened. So now I'm trying to figure out EXACTLY how that function works and what it does so I can replace it with one that works PROPERLY.

Right now it looks like the slowdown was caused intentionally. The function usually returns a value with bits 9:11 set to 0b001 or 0b000. When the framerate is halved, it's set to 0b010, and when it's thirded, it's set to 0b100. If I make it always return a value with bits 10 and 11 unset...it doesn't slow down. Sometimes it seems to speed up!

Turns out I was on the wrong track entirely. I want to thank this thread for pointing me in the right direction: http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=6650.0

I'll get some real results for you guys soon enough. Until then, maybe I should just tease you guys with a video.

Having almost completed my research, I have put together two patches for WotL, for unstretching the screen and speeding up the game. Although I did not personally test on the PSN version or any regions other than US, I've gotten reports that it works on the PSN release as well as the EU versions. A separate JP version is included, as well. As these are only preliminary patches, you might expect some bugs. However, I've found that in general, they work pretty well. The patching utility will require a PSP with custom firmware, and additional instructions are included. However, you won't need ISOs or any messy patching utilities on your computer. Everything is done when the game is run on the PSP!

An early version of the patching utility as well as the patches are attached. Please post feedback and bugs you find! You probably will not need the debug version of the utility (the only noticeable difference to a user is that it dumps a log), so download the regular version unless I ask you for a log.

Now in native 340x240 glory.

No, I don't have a patch, I'm editing memory on the fly. If you have PSPLink, there's a script for resetting the screen size in the git repo at tools/disable-stretch.

In case people don't realize, I've been rather perpetually updating the last few posts and putting stuff in the git repository usually multiple times a day. I have over 1000 lines of reverse engineered code at this point, and although it's rather aimless (like I just reverse engineered part of the event system because I didn't know where the program counter was going), I'm making progress all the time. I can post every time I add a function to the repo with information, but that might end up with me flooding the thread a bit (which is why I haven't been posting ever).

If anyone has the expertise, I could use a lot of help. Current estimates put me at needing 10 years if I have to reverse engineer the whole game! Hopefully I won't, because I don't think 10 years worth of my time trying to fix slowdown in one game for the PSP is a very good use of time.

This will be useful if I am able to prepare a patch for WotL. I was planning on writing something like this is I couldn't find a tool like this, so this will hopefully be able to be adapted for what I'm trying to do.