New Tech Editor

[Mauron]

Thanks to some hacking work being allowed again, I've decided to post my tech editor here.

It was started from scratch after the C&D, and has the benefits of many more years of research.

It works as a plugin for Temporal Flux, and can take advantage of Temporal Flux's memory management. To install, place the DLL in Temporal Flux's (version 3 or higher) directory.

Some functionality is hidden under the right click menu, so be sure to check that out.

[Mauron]

New version is out.

Hi-Tech Beta 8

- Redid copy/paste to use clipboard.
- Merged two separate context menus into one.
- Fixed a save bug with Flash Screen Color.
- Fixed a crash when attempting to use the copy shortcut (ctrl+c)
- Added additional keyboard shortcuts.
- Added cut object/command functionality.
- Made keyboard shortcuts visible on the context menu.
- Fixed a potential crash when saving enemy attack or tech effect headers.
- Replaced Promote/Demote object command with move up/down

[Mauron]

Another new version.

Hi-Tech Beta 9!

- Fixed bug with reloading expanded player techs.
- Fixed bug related to support of extra techs (new techs added by user projects - limited support at this time).
- Decoded Command 60 as set palette.
- Fixed unknown command 61 and unknown command 65 groups
- Decoded Command 5F as empty command
- Removed hardcoded lengths table, replaced with call to DecodedNode.GetLength();

[TheMage]

Ah! I must try this out

[TheMage]

I = stupid does this open with TF? or go into TF? or?

[Mauron]

It goes into Temporal Flux's directory. You'll be able to open it from the Plugins menu once a ROM is open.

[TheMage]

Ahh! Thank you!

[Mauron]

Hi-Tech Beta 10!

Changes:
- Animation command 74 decoded as Set Priority variant
- Animation command 75 (reset screen color) redecoded as two byte command.
- Animation command 79 decoded as Play Sound (2-bytes) variant
- Animation command 7B decoded as Play Sound (3-bytes) variant
- Animation command 7D decoded as Play Weapon Sound variant
- Fixed glitch with support for animation command CF
- Fixed support for animation command D7
- Animation Command DA (unknown) redecoded as one byte command
- Removed support for non-existent End Tech variant DB
- Renamed a few classes to be clearer (No impact on user end).

Some notes on animation commands:
13, 14, 15 are related (Shared code)
16, 17, 18 are related (Shared code)
19, 1A, 1B are related (Shared code)
27, 28 are related (Opposite function)
2D, 2E are related (Opposite function)
47, 48, 81, 82, 83, 84 are related (same routine)
4A, 4D are related (same routine)
5D, 5E are related (Opposite function)
69, 6A, 6C are related (shared code)
6E, 6F are related (similar function)
98, 99, 9A, 9B, 9C are related (shared code)
C0, C1, C2, C3 are related (shared code)
C4, C5 are related (shared code)
D4, D6 are related (shared code)

[Mauron]

Hi-Tech Beta 11!

I've got a ton of changes for this one, mostly updating unknowns.

- Fixed a crash when saving a tech that has already been relocated.
- Fixed a glitch when selecting a player attack, the wrong attack type was chosen.
- Added support for player attack graphics headers.
- Fixed support for Enemy control headers in pre-release ROMs.
- Fixed support for various player tech related addresses in Japanese and pre-release ROMs.
- Deleted a few unused addess entries. (no change on user-end)
- Removed a few effect header bytes that were listed incorrectly
- Removed Stealing Unknown 02 - Confirmed unused despite being read.
- Updated  effect header 7.02 to has chance to steal (this effect does not work properly in game)
- Removed Multi-Hit Unknown 02 - Confirmed unused despite being read.
- Removed effect header 7.01 and 7.08 - unused.
- Removed effect header "Non-Physical Attack" flag - now calculated by enemy status bitflags. "HP 1/2 and death fail" is not used by this calculation.
- updated effect header 7.20 to ignore hit and evade.
- updated effect header 7.40 to ignore shield status.
- updated effect header "Include Unknown 0x0A" to ignore barrier status.
- replaced effect header 8.01 and 8.02 with damage modifer (values 0-3)
- removed effect header 8.04, 8.08, 8.10, 8.20, and 8.40 - unused
- updated effect header 8.80 to load weapon effect.
- updated effect header 2x Evade to 2.5 Evade (This is what the Third Eye actually does)
- updated effect header Unused 3.01 to 2x Evade
- moved support for unknown 0B to always used; set as true/false options for bits 40 and 80.
- updated status impact unknown 05 to base success chance.
- updated status impact unknown 06 to bonus success chance.
- updated enemy attack control header unknown 01 to display possibly unused.
- updated enemy tech control header to a value up to 7, and unknown 1.40
- updated player tech and attack control header to a value up to 7, unknown 1.20, and unknown 1.40
- removed player tech and attack control header unused 0.80
- Fixed an incorrect description of one of the hit effects.

[Dark_Ansem]

Subscribed and will watch!
Will also try

[Mauron]

Excellent, a new beta tester!

Hi-Tech Beta 12!

Biggest change this release: Super commands are viewable.

- Updated one targeting value to be consistent with others.
- Updated animation command save check to use status bar instead of a message box.
- Updated animation command save check to indicate saving was cancelled on failure.
- Updated animation command save check to include hit and miss objects, instead of just the current setting.
- Removed incorrect marking of a record as modified when saving item animations
- Changed a few cases of checks against command index to checks against node type (code readability)
- Began support for 8th character hack.
- Redecoded Unknown commands 99, 9B, and 9D as two bytes.
- Added read only support for super commands.
- Removed non-existent super command 4e
- Decoded commands C0, C2 as Circular Sprite Movement (5 bytes)
- Decoded commands C1, C3 as Circular Sprite Movement (4 bytes)
- Removed unknown 5 bytes group
- Added support for unused player tech packets 117-127
- (Pre-Release) Fixed a bug where too many enemy attack graphics packets were loaded.

[Dark_Ansem]

I'm having difficulties in actually Creating new dual\triple techs and adding new user groups, is that normal?

[Mauron]

New techs or performance groups are a pain to add, and go beyond what the editor supports. At the moment there is not a way to alter performance groups in the editor, but it is something I will contemplate for the future.

At some point I may allow a configuration file that would alter the limits of what is read in the editor - at the moment I'm doing a check for my project to give dual techs to Magus, and will eventually add a check for the 8th character patch.

The difficulty in automatically handling data is that it's hard to guess where the data ends - I can semi-reliably check for the last tech index, but the method for checking the last performance group or animation packet is less reliable.

If you want my notes on creating new dual or triple techs, I can share them, but it will take a lot of manually fiddling with the data to add them. If you do, I'd be happy to add a conditional check for however many you add.

[Dark_Ansem]

New techs or performance groups are a pain to add, and go beyond what the editor supports. At the moment there is not a way to alter performance groups in the editor, but it is something I will contemplate for the future.

At some point I may allow a configuration file that would alter the limits of what is read in the editor - at the moment I'm doing a check for my project to give dual techs to Magus, and will eventually add a check for the 8th character patch.

The difficulty in automatically handling data is that it's hard to guess where the data ends - I can semi-reliably check for the last tech index, but the method for checking the last performance group or animation packet is less reliable.

If you want my notes on creating new dual or triple techs, I can share them, but it will take a lot of manually fiddling with the data to add them. If you do, I'd be happy to add a conditional check for however many you add.

you read me like a book. I was trying to give Magus all dual techs that require either a Fire2, Bolt2 or Ice2 spell. It would lead to duplicates, for sure, BUT at least everything is already there and they make him more useful

[Mauron]

I'll do a little more work on my patch for that and send it your way.