Battle Graphics

[Vanya]

Well, back on the subject of Battle Graphicks. Maybe we should try putting together a list of which skills use which character poses? That way it will make it easier for people to figure out what to substitute. I know Zozma has already mentioned some before, like the empty spots under 'Parasite'. So, how 'bout it guys?

[Zozma]

ill let you know what some of the unused slots use:

Skill right below "Meteor" and just above "Blind" uses:
Spellcasting animation with the magic energy collected overhead when cast.

all the skills just below "Parasite" use the hand raising animation looks like
if you were to use "Chakra" or draw out skills. Beware the blank skill at the very bottom of the set of blanks below parasite, just above "Potion" is actually "Attack" do not change this unless u want every attack in the game to have the same property or effect.
-------------------------------------------------
most everything else is used up, but several monsters have attacks that call upon the sword strike animation without the spell look, ideal for creating new sword skills:
Small Bomb(Blue)
Small Bomb(Black)
Small Bomb(Red)
Choco Attack
Choco Ball
Choco Meteor
Eye Gouge
Bite
Beak
----------
Singing Animation:
Grand Cross
Nano Flare
----------
Dancing Animation:
Stab Up
Sudden Cry

[Lydyn]

Question, could you make Sword Skills out of the Songs and Dances at all? Or spells?

[Zozma]

if you're referring to changing the slots that are currently songs or dances... like say "ewww i hate the dancer and bard skills im going to change them" if you try to change them to a sword skill type or even a spell for that matter, they will still sing or dance, instead of swing a sword.

we currently don't have a way to edit what type of animation a specific slot has by default.

[Lydyn]

Hm, oh well. Was just curious ... though dancing or singing to cast spells could make for an interesting mage class anyways, but doesn't work so well for sword skills.

[Zozma]

well the monster skills i mentioned... ohhh i forgot to include "Knife Hand"
can be changed into perfect looking sword skills with the right gfx.

most of those are basic monster attacks like bite, or beak, and can be replaced with "Attack" anyway since they use the same formula and arent flashy anyway...

[Maluco]

http://dotchan.com/fft/effects.html

Some time ago, this guy (don't remember his name) decided to rip all the skill and battle effects. It isn't really limited to just that, though. Multiple event effects, such as Lucavi transformations, are there as well. I knew I was interested, and someone else might be, as well.

EDIT: Crap and a half! The guy took them down, and Archive.org doesn't seem to have the images anymore! >=(

I suppose we get the info we needed in the time that has passed, but... dammit, those rips were nice! I wonder how he ripped all of them?

I wanted to see this Battle effects… somebody that copied these images could upload in some place?

[Zozma]

theres a program that can let you rip them yourself actually... uhh vanya?

[Vanya]

It isn't perfect, FFTView can open the files and most of them display correctly.

[Maluco]

Where I can find this FFTview ? Here does not have http://www.ffhacktics.com/psx/downloads.php

Thanks for the help!

[Vanya]

I have it.

[Maluco]

Thanks for the help! ^^

[SydneySoul]

Is there a way to get an animated preview for these yet? It would help me a bit in deciding what skills to give certain customs along with how to name them. I suppose it would be too much to ask for someone to make recording of all the animations. x_x It's just as tedious to test them one by one when you probably won't end up using most that you test. It would be great to have them archived on the main site.


The links no longer hold the image archives either... that's a lot to look through with FFT view. Not to mention it only previews the graphics, not hwo the game uses the animation.

[LastingDawn]

Hmm... I could have sworn they were somewhere elsewhere by this point... I'm not sure about that though.

[SydneySoul]

How does one go about altering an actual effect or creating our own? Or is that not possible yet?

I'd like to:

Remove Leviathan's image from the summon
Create 4 more Soul spells (Like Ice Soul, Thunder, Wind, and Aqua but for the other four elements)
Change the color of the spell animations I've used to create Aero

Also, is it possible to make the effects show HP changes? I've used Virgo's revive (the blue one, not the red one used on Malak by Scorpio) for my Inject Spirit spell, which raises an ally from the dead. Problem is, it doesn't really show that I've done anything. Same for certain damaging and healing spells that I've chosen off-effects(animations) for. Though, it is kind of funny seeing an enemy just drop dead. >_>

[Zozma]

Vanya already made a version of Leviathan without the image.
I already made a version of Salamander without the dragon.
i have also already made recolored sword skills as well as
"Finish Touch" without the ice shards and recolored green

I have not posted all of the effects that i have edited but i can if you're interested.

http://www.ffhacktics.com/forum/viewtop ... 16&start=0

[SydneySoul]

I definitely am. A specific tutorial would be nice too. I don't know how you're able to alter the graphics without being able to extract them. Unless there's an extractor floating around that I don't know about, which seems very possible. As for hex editing graphics, I've never had to do that. Only used Hex Workshop for game savestates, so a tutorial would be needed there. x_x

I'm very interested in the fact that you were able to control the sounds and how a unit reacted to the spell. D=

[Zozma]

its kind of guesswork at the moment

I use "snespal" to change the colors of skills

and tile layer pro to change the images in the file. now copy and pasting images from one effect to another works well, but not pasting from outside sources...

[SydneySoul]

Thanks much. :3 I'll start tinkering tonight. I hate having blue Aero spells. >=[

[Vanya]

Editing Effect File Graphics:
All
Vanya

here's a step-by-step explanation of how to do this.

1) Open your effect file in TileMolester. (it can be downloaded from Romhacking.net or Zophar's Domain.)

2) Click on the view menu. Go to the Codec option and click on "8bpp linear".

3) Next click on the view menu again and go to the mode option. Now click on "2-Dimensional". Now if you scroll down the image you'll be able to make out the form of the raw image in the effect file.

4) This is the most complicated part. now you have to figure out where the palette is located for the file that you opened.

First let me explain the rules for locating the palette as read from the Final Fantasy Tactics Investigative Project.

http://web.archive.org/web/20070124055559/http://www.m-l.org/~greerga/fft/

If the effect file is larger than 70KB (71,680B)...
-the last 64KB (65,536B) of the file is a raw image 256x256 pixels.
-the palette is 1028B before the start of the raw image.
-the offset for the palette = the size of the file in bytes minus 66,564 bytes.
-NOTE to view the image correctly for files of this size you have to expand the width of the canvas to 32 instead of 16.

If the effect file is larger than 34KB (34816B) but smaller than 70KB...
-the last 32KB (32,768B) of the file is a raw image 128x256 pixels.
-the palette is 1028B before the start of the raw image.
-the offset for the palette = the size of the file in bytes minus 33,796 bytes.

If the effect file is smaller than 34KB (34816B)...
-the last 15,872B of the file is a raw image 128 pixels wide.
-the palette is 512B before the start of the raw image.
-the offset for the palette = the size of the file in bytes minus 16KB (16384B).

As an example take E161.BIN (Wish)
I'm editing it to make it look less like Esuna.

Size: 51,336B
Palette offset: 51,336B - 33,796B = 17,540B

5) Import the palette from the file. Click on the Palette menu and go to the "Import From..." option. Click on "This File...". This will open the "Import internal Palette" dialogue. In the box marked "Offset" type in the location we got for the palette. In this cast it's '17540'. Where it says "Size" always type 512 because it always used a 256-color palette with 2 bytes for each entry. then click OK and you're ready to edit!! =)

6) Make your changes. Save or Save As... You now have a brand spankin' new effect!! Woohoo!!!!!!! =)

Be warned the program is kinda finicky when undoing stuff so be careful and save often. Also, you can open multiple files to copy over stuff! =)

This is pending submission to the main site.