[PSX/PC] Save Editor - Black Chocobo (v1.16)

[sithlord48]

This will most likely not happen either since i have no way to correctly predict where ff7 is installed

Surely you can program your app to look at the registry value?  This will tell your app exactly where the game is installed.  Me and Kranmer did a similar thing with our installers.  You just have to make it look at the registry and at the correct value which is the path string.

HKLM/Software/square soft, inc. /Final Fantasy VII/AppPath  I think that's correct for 32bit windows.  You would need to look at another for 64bit.

lol,that will only apply to windows.. i would be easer to have you pick a path on first run. unless i can somehow figure out how to use wine's 'registry'  from out side of wine... , then that leaves only bottled version for mac os to figure out. thats why im thinking a cfg file is the way to do when /if i do that.

 

[DLPB_]

Sure, well, most end users will be Windows, so at least it is something...  It is just irritating to have to keep finding it, and yeah, the best way of all is to have an ini type file remember the last folder.  Simples

 

[sithlord48]

its possible but its really just not needed. its simple enuff to point it at a save folder. also since it does not only edit pc saves where do i look exactly? cause if it starts in the installed save folder (if one) and you want to edit a psx or mcr save you still need to browse. this is why i think its best the way it is.(this is what i should have said before. instead of only stating install location as an example.)

 

[Bosola]

Black Chocobo now as a (mostly finished) user guide. check it out let me know what u think. the link is also added to the main page.. as well fixed in the projects web page it should be easy for people to find..

There's a very good introduction to technical writing at Wikiversity. I'm trying to enter tech. authoring myself - I don't really have time to go through the whole of your document right now, but I think the Wiki article might provide some useful advice.

 

[sithlord48]

oh you no like the guide ? :'(

 

[sithlord48]

just a small progress update...

PSP Save's Can Be opened (currenly only read only). We will see about writing.

 

[chacyung]

WOW, this editor is AWESOME !!!
Great work man.
Only one that's any good IMO.

BUT I have one question.

Do you have save editors for any of the other PS based FF games?
Like "origins, anthology, and FF4 from chronicals" ??

 

[sithlord48]

Do you have save editors for any of the other PS based FF games?
Like "origins, anthology, and FF4 from chronicals" ??

no i don't but thats ps related stuff can be done with a gameshark or something similar.

 

[Mako]

Yeah but he likes your interface .

 

[chacyung]

Do you have save editors for any of the other PS based FF games?
Like "origins, anthology, and FF4 from chronicals" ??

no i don't but thats ps related stuff can be done with a gameshark or something similar.

The only problem is that my gameshark doesn't have anything for FForigins, and nothing that's useful for chronicles, anthology, 8, 9, or tactics.

BUT YOURS !!!
Your editor can change/add anything I could want and make it so simply and easily understood as well. (he's right, I like the interface) It can even read PS3 saves as well, which is what I work best with.

I especially like the fact that I can increase or decrease all the character stats randomly.
It's just SOO perfect.

Would in be hard to alter this one to be able to edit other FF game saves too?
What would you need?

 

[Bosola]

Well, we'd need a working FF6 savemap.

How easy would this be to reverse engineer? Well, if the data structures resemble those for SNES saves, it wouldn't be a hassle. If not, it could be a lot more difficult.

Creating the app would then be an issue of simply adapting the source code Chris has been kind enough to provide as Black Choco.

 

[sithlord48]

Yeah but he likes your interface .

Half of why i made the program is that the other editors were so ulgy and had bad UI's (sadly im not kidding about that)

I especially like the fact that I can increase or decrease all the character stats randomly.

what do u mean by that?

It's just SOO perfect.

thanks

Would in be hard to alter this one to be able to edit other FF game saves too?
What would you need?

Well, we'd need a working FF6 savemap.
How easy would this be to reverse engineer? Well, if the data structures resemble those for SNES saves, it wouldn't be a hassle. If not, it could be a lot more difficult.
Creating the app would then be an issue of simply adapting the source code

yes this exactly is what we need.

Chris has been kind enough to provide as Black Choco.

how do u know my name :? stalker, eh

 

[Bosola]

...You emblazoned it all over your source code.

 

[sithlord48]

...You emblazoned it all over your source code.

thats part of the gpl requirements to ensure the code stays free. it was a joke.(hence the ) lol.

back on topic..

im planing to relase 1.4 (just a minor update w/ psp save reading) once i can get the french translation up-to date. if anyone cares to help by completing the translation (or wants to translate to another language) let me know and i will let u know what u need to get started and how to do it.

 

[chacyung]

Yeah but he likes your interface .

Half of why i made the program is that the other editors were so ulgy and had bad UI's (sadly im not kidding about that)

Tell me about! Everything else is just so horrid >.<

I especially like the fact that I can increase or decrease all the character stats randomly.

what do u mean by that?

I meant, I can seem to be able to increase clouds health and not anything else.
BTW, I'm having a little trouble getting it to save after I make the change.
I'm probably just stupidly overlooking something, but I need it to save as a PSV.
That's what my ps3 exports saves as when I copy it to my flash drive under...
"PS3/EXPORT/PSV"
Oopsy, I just read you're wiki-guide, can't do that yet huh?
How do use the edited gamesave then? (scratch that)
I need to read before asking ^^;
(helpful wiki) ^.^

It's just SOO perfect.

thanks

Just giving the credit that's due ^.^

Would in be hard to alter this one to be able to edit other FF game saves too?
What would you need?

Well, we'd need a working FF6 savemap.
How easy would this be to reverse engineer? Well, if the data structures resemble those for SNES saves, it wouldn't be a hassle. If not, it could be a lot more difficult.
Creating the app would then be an issue of simply adapting the source code

yes this exactly is what we need.

So basically I'd just have to provide an FF6 gamesave?
Would it have to be a 100% complete game, or could I stop anywhere before I send it to you?
(forgive me if I got something wrong, I know nothing about code programming) ^^;
Or is a "savemap" not the same as a gamesave?

 

[Bosola]

It's not, no.

We need the offsets for different classes of data. We need to know which bytes represent what.

Ideally, I'd like to see a SNES FF6 and PSX FF6 save together. It's always possible the savemaps are quite similar, so we can use what we know about the former to decipher it.

 

[chacyung]

It's not, no.

We need the offsets for different classes of data. We need to know which bytes represent what.

Ideally, I'd like to see a SNES FF6 and PSX FF6 save together. It's always possible the savemaps are quite similar, so we can use what we know about the former to decipher it.

Unfortunately I don't have the SNES version of FF6 (or any games for that matter)
So how would I go about getting a "savemap" and what exactly is it?

Anyone know how to get a .ff7 onto my PS1 memory card?

 

[Bosola]

It's not really something you can "give" us.

Essentially, we need to look at the save to determine which data does what. Is equipment data stored here? Character names there? We would then experiment to confirm this. The Savemap is effectively a description of which savefile bytes affect what in-game. It is a 'map' of a save file, as it were.

It's hard to guess how much work this may need. It's possible it has already been done. It's also possible that the SNES save files are very similar, so we can guess from there. However, FF6-PSOne might use some kind of compression, which we'd have to reverse engineer. It might also use a checksum, that we'd need to learn how to generate.

 

[chacyung]

It's not really something you can "give" us.

Essentially, we need to look at the save to determine which data does what. Is equipment data stored here? Character names there? We would then experiment to confirm this. The Savemap is effectively a description of which savefile bytes affect what in-game. It is a 'map' of a save file, as it were.

It's hard to guess how much work this may need. It's possible it has already been done. It's also possible that the SNES save files are very similar, so we can guess from there. However, FF6-PSOne might use some kind of compression, which we'd have to reverse engineer. It might also use a checksum, that we'd need to learn how to generate.

oh, I get it.

So basically, you'd need multiple saves all just slightly different...
So you could compare the data and see what string of code is for what.

I don't think it has been done.
I searched the web for hours, and nothing.
The best one I could find, I couldn't get working at all.

And this checksum thing is WAY out of my league >.<

 

[Bosola]

Well, comparison is one thing you could do. There are lots of methods. You can look for headers and blocks of data. You can look for strings and make reasonable assumptions about what groups of bytes might do. You can also look for evidence that the file is or isn't compressed, and you can easily verify whether there's a checksum by simply altering a string and seeing if it loads or not (FF7 displays the infamous 'File is ruined' message should the checksum fail).

We can obtain the files themselves fairly easily. The question is, who will do the work? I don't really have the level of skill to do it, to be honest.