[FF8PC] Restore the debug room (2013-03-11)

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myst6re

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On Final Fantasy VIII PC, the field called start is broken. I rebuilt this field from the PlayStation version, here is how to integrate it in the game:

1342710370-debug_room_start.png



[list type=decimal]
[*]Download this archive (other mirror)
[*]Open the "start.fl" file (in the zipped archive) with a text editor to adjust the file language (see this post)
[*]Open "Path\to\your\Final Fantasy VIII\Data\field.fs" with Deling
[*]Go to "Import/Export" tab
[*]Go to "c:\ff8\data\eng\field\mapdata\st\" path
[*]Replace start.fi, start.fl and start.fs by my files in the zipped archive
[/list]

Remarks:

  • FF8 must be completely installed
  • Create a backup of your field archive (field.fs, field.fi and field.fl) before the operation!
  • With Deling, you can replace files one by one, or delete the three files together, then add my files
 
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very nice!

but how does one access the debug room on PC using this? is the all-buttons-except-start combo still the way to do it?

I know some things in the debug room caused the PSX to hang/crash when the proper CD was not being used (ie, trying to go on an event for disc3 while still running on disc1).
I'm curious what happens on PC...
 
You can save in the debug room on your ps emulator and use Hyne to convert ps save to pc save.
 
It's a great job, but it only works in french version.

If you wanna use this in other language you have to modify the file "start.fl" and change the "fre" part of the link for the language of your ff8 (ie: "eng" for english or "spa" for spanish).

By the way...

Is there a posibilty to add other fields that are not included in the pc version like the "laguna" fields of the CD4?? (Laguna's photos)

Sorry for my bad english!
 
Someone asked how can we enter the debug room... Can someone please reply? Thank you very much!
:)
 
I entered just like myst6re said.

First go into the debug room in a psx emulator with a gameshark code (using PEC or CEP):

Code: [Select]
Code: 
D00705E8 010F800704A8 0001D00705E8 000F800704AA 0049Pressing L1+L2+R1+R2 to enter (this code just for NTSC-USA)
Save the game there.

Then convert that save to pc save with Hyne. It's easy.

Sorry again with my bad english, I'm a stupid spanish and I need more practice.
 
Can you upload the save somewhere so as other people don't have to do this again? Thanks!
 
Ok, here you have! Save01

The save is at the start of the game, so you have nothing (but in the debug room).
 
Oh! Thank you so much!

Ok I even modified the field.fs and renamed "fre' into 'eng". When I load the save it freezes. Shows the loading icon and stays there... I'm on windows 7 non Geforce patch. Everything else works great!

Ok this was a mix of my mistake and misinformation... When you import or replace the files with Deling editor select compress and do not change the name of the files to start0.fs etc.. Leave it as it is. I was confused because when I saw my files they had the digit "0" after "start". So just replace the files with the current name. It works now. Though I cannot understand qhat the debug room is used for... haha... and how do I quit the game without alt+f4 :) I needed to clear this out because advanced users might be confused when they see the file name.

Ok... as I imagined... now it cannot begin a new game...:
Code: [Select]
Code: 
INFO: FF7/FF8 OpenGL driver version 0.7.11bINFO: Auto-detected version: FF8 1.2 US EnglishINFO: NVIDIA Corporation GeForce GTX 550 Ti/PCIe/SSE2 4.3.0INFO: Using PBOINFO: Found swap_control extensionINFO: Max texture size: 16384x16384INFO: Number of texture units: 4INFO: Original resolution 640x480, window size 1920x1080, output resolution 1920x1080, internal resolution 11520x6480INFO: FBO extension detected, using fast scaling/postprocessing pathINFO: Loading external library RaWMATRIX INITIALIZE INITIALIZING SOUND...  initializing direct sound  EAXDirectSoundCreate  creating primary buffer  initializing audio data  OK  initializing streamingSOUND INITIALIZEDDIRECT MUSIC - Enumerating Ports...PORT 0: Microsoft MIDI Mapper [Emulated]GUID={0x71951757,0xa58a,0x43de,0x95,0x62,0x9f,0x68,0xd6,0xe7,0x4a,0x76}PORT 1: Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth [Emulated]GUID={0x3cceaa76,0xbe14,0x4339,0xb3,0xdf,0xdf,0xf,0x7a,0xda,0xa8,0xba}PORT 2: Microsoft SynthesizerGUID={0x58c2b4d0,0x46e7,0x11d1,0x89,0xac,0x0,0xa0,0xc9,0x5,0x41,0x29}Creating Port1...    Microsoft Synthesizer  Port1 supports XG dataBinkCloseGLITCH: missed palette write to external texture data/eng/menu/iconSdMusicPlay ()sd_music_play (number=0, song_id=79, volume=0)midi_play...Stopping PerformanceLoading DLS...midi_play FAILED!:  returning 0Can't open file: \ff8\data\eng\field\mapdata\st\start0\start0.mim Can't open file: \ff8\data\eng\field\mapdata\st\start0\start0.pmp Can't open file: \ff8\data\eng\field\mapdata\st\start0\start0.pvp Can't open file: \ff8\data\eng\field\mapdata\st\start0\start0.id Can't open file: \ff8\data\eng\field\mapdata\st\start0\start0.map
So how can I edit the start.fl? Maybe if I edit the names it will be fixed...

I edited the names but now both the debug room and game intro freezes... I'm going to revert to the original files... what the heck...!
 
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There are "start" and "start0" files. You have only to replace the "start" files. To edit "start.fl" I used a hex editor like WinHex.
 
My apologize, I must clarify that. As Xinlus say, there are "start" and "start0" files in the field archive, and you have only to replace (or add if they don't exist) the "start" files.
And... yes you must edit the "start.fl" file with a simple text editor (notepad in Windows is enough) by replacing all occurrences of "fre" by your game language, e.g. "eng".

Here are some "start.fl" files in different languages:

C:\ff8\Data\eng\FIELD\mapdata\st\start\start.msd
C:\ff8\Data\eng\FIELD\mapdata\st\start\start.jsm
C:\ff8\Data\eng\FIELD\mapdata\st\start\start.sym
C:\ff8\Data\eng\FIELD\mapdata\st\start\chara.one
c:\ff8\data\eng\field\mapdata\st\start\start.ca
c:\ff8\data\eng\field\mapdata\st\start\start.id
c:\ff8\data\eng\field\mapdata\st\start\start.inf
c:\ff8\data\eng\field\mapdata\st\start\start.map
c:\ff8\data\eng\field\mapdata\st\start\start.mim
c:\ff8\data\eng\field\mapdata\st\start\start.mrt
c:\ff8\data\eng\field\mapdata\st\start\start.pmd
c:\ff8\data\eng\field\mapdata\st\start\start.pmp
c:\ff8\data\eng\field\mapdata\st\start\start.pvp
c:\ff8\data\eng\field\mapdata\st\start\start.rat
c:\ff8\data\eng\field\mapdata\st\start\start.tdw
Click to expand...
C:\ff8\Data\fre\FIELD\mapdata\st\start\start.msd
C:\ff8\Data\fre\FIELD\mapdata\st\start\start.jsm
C:\ff8\Data\fre\FIELD\mapdata\st\start\start.sym
C:\ff8\Data\fre\FIELD\mapdata\st\start\chara.one
c:\ff8\data\fre\field\mapdata\st\start\start.ca
c:\ff8\data\fre\field\mapdata\st\start\start.id
c:\ff8\data\fre\field\mapdata\st\start\start.inf
c:\ff8\data\fre\field\mapdata\st\start\start.map
c:\ff8\data\fre\field\mapdata\st\start\start.mim
c:\ff8\data\fre\field\mapdata\st\start\start.mrt
c:\ff8\data\fre\field\mapdata\st\start\start.pmd
c:\ff8\data\fre\field\mapdata\st\start\start.pmp
c:\ff8\data\fre\field\mapdata\st\start\start.pvp
c:\ff8\data\fre\field\mapdata\st\start\start.rat
c:\ff8\data\fre\field\mapdata\st\start\start.tdw
Click to expand...
 
Thank you so much! I just added the files that come with your fix and everything is working fine! Anyone knows if I can close the game without alt+F4. Is there a quit option?
 
I encountered a limitation with using this patch with FF8 Steam. If you warp back to the beginning of the game to do a New Game+ the game will crash when you try to leave Balamb Garden to get Ifrit. It isn't caused by having items in your inventory, GFs, etc. because I modified a new save file to have everything else exactly the same and it did not crash. That is the only problem I've encountered using the debug room with FF8 Steam thus far.
 
as you can see we all have troubles with this patch , you should try to solve them , i am sure that you just like us want the debug room to work even in the steam version
 
TrueOdin said:
For anyone crossing this thread, if you use Junction VIII we've released this as a separate mod which now which works on both FF8 2000 and Steam 2013 editions. More information can be found here: https://github.com/tsunamods-codes/the-debug-room
Click to expand...
Oh wow, didn’t expect to see a more modern solution for this, thanks for sharing that link!

I’ve been trying to get the old method working on the Steam version and kept running into the same freezes/crashes people mentioned earlier in the thread, so this sounds way more reliable.

Quick question though — with the Junction VIII version, does it still require manually editing/replacing the start field files like before, or is everything handled through the mod loader now? Also, have you tested if things like warping back to early game (like the Balamb Garden issue mentioned above) are fully stable with this version?
 
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