Mini-game Fixes

No one has touched it program wise from what I can see...  not sure where the code is for that, very likely ff7.exe.  That's where the submarine game is  

Some of the fixes are done to flevel like the battler 3d odds.

hm, well, I did all my personal edits after the bootleg install so I assume that includes most fixes
the minigamefolder has files for chocobo, coaster, condor, snowboard and submarine. are those all just graphic related?
also, suprising just how much crap is stored in the exe

When they ported to PC they placed a lot of the programming into ff7.exe.  Menu values and so forth... but they also shipped a ton of stuff from the minigames too.  The submarine game is entirely in ff7.exe with only the graphics remaining in the Minigame folder.

The submarine game is by far the worst coded thing in FF7.exe.  It has huge tables in the exe which although accessed and written, are then superseded by identical hardcoded data which is also placed into identical tables at run time.  It  makes absolutely no sense. A HUGE area of the exe has been wasted.

OK I lied.  But I am excited.

Today the final values were found and I have reprogrammed the last of the data  This means each new minigame level has its own:

time limit
enemy submarine speed settings
enemy submarine health settings
enemy submarine fire rate
enemy submarine Missile speed
enemy submarine missile chasing timer
Enemy submarine missile strength
Ally submarine missile chasing timer
Mine strength

Level 1 is piss easy but...
Level 4 is deadly.  I have modelled it after Euro Extreme mode on MGS2.  You are allowed to be hit by 2 mines, but 1 enemy sub missile and you are a goner.  These missiles travel faster and longer.  It really is like a proper war game now!  Release sometimes in next 2 days I reckon.

Also note, the original submarine game had an issue.  The enemy subs were firing all 4 of their missiles in 1 go.  This has also been fixed.

Does the wireframe mode still have to be enabled manually, or is it enabled by default now?

Manual, though I guess I can probably set it to be default.

Well, having the wireframe by default would sure be easier when playing with a controller, which has no F2 button.

Also, wireframe mode is better for the overall feel. Having only the blue geometry to navigate with felt like I'm trying do squats in a mailbox. Wireframe offers a lot more relief and breathing space.

Now remember the extended mini-game programming I have done is OPTIONAL.  The new scorer and the International version movement are separate and can be used with the original AI and values.

This video is a test showing different missile programming.  I now have to use trial and error to get all the difficulties gelling properly and the AI working better (enemy ship speeds etc). A few niggles to sort out but even at this early stage it is more fun to play with  8)

The wireframe is now on by default and is in green.  A very nice green it is too.

The wireframe has 4 modes
which are set from 0077F731

00: No wireframe, smooth area.
20: No wireframe, Unsmooth area
40: Wireframe, smooth area
60: Wireframe, unsmooth area

Originally only 00 and 40 were used.  I have made 20 and 60 the used versions, with 60 as default.

00 and 40 do not smooth out the area, but personally, I think it looks far better as sharp.

Well done DLPB... you finally made it!

yup!  I am experimenting now with the colours.   The PSX uses a much darker green to me but my green looks better   I will give a few options with this mod probably when done.

I do believe I now have the holy grail for editing this game.  The international PSX version does have 1 or 2 other minor differences, like better missile colour... I can look into that if I get bored.

That's awesome.  And now that this is done, why not tackle increasing draw distance in all areas...

I could probably do that, however, that's a game breaker because the limited draw distance for uncovering things is what gives an element of surprise.  Of course, wireframe view gives a full look at the map.

This is how the wireframe is looking (I have allowed option for the dark green look)

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/36889302/FF7/wire.PNG

I may edit the blue colour slightly too.

mainconcept encoder and vegas seems to make this darker than it is.  Nvm.  (if anyone knows why, let me know).

Next time you hear from me will be a main release.  8)

I lied again.  I would have been making good progress with the minigame but Luksy reminded me how crap the original mine graphic colour is... so I hunted about like an idiot until I finally closed in on it... and with the help of adobe to pin point exact colours I managed to locate the colours for the column and mine.

The mine was a nightmare, but after ages searching I located a table.  The table starting 00987458 sets the colour for each of the diamonds 8 sides.  Now I can finally get to work finalising all this.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/36889302/FF7/Minecolour.PNG

Must admit, when I gave up on this minigame before I never thought I'd manage all this.

Quick update about the Submarine text.  It took me a while to suss what was going on here, I always thought the sub game used textures for the words, but it has its own font.

For anyone who wants to translate the text it may prove hard... each letter is hardcoded.  As long as you don't need to add letters it should be possible with trial and error changing the values for the font offset. 

See this:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/36889302/FF7/Subtext.PNG

As you can see I have altered 2 letters of the word TARGET by changing the X offset value for letters T and A.  Trial and error is the only way you can make it look nice.  It takes experiment.  The programmer who made the game obviously had to create his own programming for text and thus we get this.  The TARGET word starts at memory 007976DE.  This sets the words at game start for each letter.

Above and below this are the rest of the words TIMELIMIT, SCORE etc.  Changing TIMELIMIT to GAME OVER would be no problem because they are the same number of characters... but making more letters would require considerable work.  For this reason, anyone who wants to mess about with this for foreign translations will need to work within the current framework (Assuming foreign games haven't already corrected this minigame).

DLPB, we had the text locations figured out a long ago. It was freaking hard to find how it worked but we never got around to translate it in our work. What we did tough is use the spanish version of the exe for the italian translation which had longer text. You might want to poke around that to see how they implemented it. Just my 2 cents

I don't need the text   It didn't take me that long to find it either luckily  8)

DLPB, i meant compare it to the english one to understand how to expand it... if there is an easy way...

There isn't...  If you want to expand it you have to add in programming and that takes a lot of messing.  But the English game is fine and doesn't need any text changes.