Map weirdness

[Fauntleroy]

Every time I think I've completed this damn hack, I find a bug on my next test playthrough.

So, what causes this now?



As you can see, the tiles that are a solid near-black color are appearing in the wrong shade, creating a visible separation in the floor that looks weird.

This also happens sometimes with the Blackbird air duct map.

Anyone know how to fix it?

I've had to start over with a fresh ROM so many times with this project. Never had to do that before. I really don't want to do it again.

[Mauron]

I'm not sure I'm seeing the problem. It looks a lot like what I remember, and I can't find any obviously different screenshots.

[Fauntleroy]

Does this help? This shows:

* How it looks in a virgin ROM
* How it appears in my hacked ROM
* The weird area highlighted



This has happened to me with the Blackbird air ducts, where the effect is much more noticeable. The only way I've found to fix it is to start all over again. I have no idea what edit is causing this.

Chrono Trigger is such a bitch to hack!

[Mauron]

With the side by side I can see it.

Code: [Select]

3624C0 366DC1 PAL N "Location Palette Sets (89 sets, 7 palettes per set, 15 colors per palette)" 2003.07.10Has any data in this range changed?

[Fauntleroy]

Just compared against an untouched ROM, and no.  No changes here.

The only palette change I've made at all were to the two green values in palette 84, which is only used by NPC sprites.

[Mauron]

Send me a patch, I'll try and see what's going on.

[Fauntleroy]

Thank you.

I have more and more problems as I go, even when I start fresh. Is there something in Temporal Flux or one of your plugins that might be, like, holding over problems from an old attempt?  (Not even sure how that would work, but...)

For example, right now, the pointer in the Epoch time gauge is appearing UNDER the gauge. When I use my save state with a totally untouched ROM, the problem persists.

Likewise, I just tested this map issue with a save state from my hack and an untouched ROM. And sure enough, the floor is messed up.

This would also jive with my first-ever bug, where some enemies locked up when using certain abilities. You said the problem was fixed for you, but I couldn't get rid of the problem until I deleted everything and started all over.

[Mauron]

Where are these state saves? If you create a state save in a location, make some changes to that location, then reload the state save, it'll load the old version of the location, because it's already in RAM.

Temporal Flux and my plugins only have what was loaded in that particular instance. The most that can be held over is if you open a ROM, open a window or plugin, and open a different ROM. That particular window will have data from the first ROM.

I'll let you know what I find with this particular issue.

[Fauntleroy]

Here were two examples of testing with save states:

1.) Save state from this hacked ROM, but using untouched ROM. Save state created in front hall of Guardia Castle where Crono is arrested. After scene transition to courtroom, dialogue has reverted to what it was in unhacked game, but map problem is still present.

2.) Save state from this hacked ROM, but using untouched ROM. Save state created inside Fiona's Shrine. Upon exiting shrine and boarding the Epoch, my changes to the time gauge text are reverted, but the time gauge pointer is still appearing under the gauge.

If the problem is bad stuff in RAM, how do I escape it? With my latest version of the ROM, I imported ALL of my events, maps, etc. into a fresh ROM and the problems are still there.

[Mauron]

I checked the patch, and it looked right to me.

I would avoid using state saves. The fact that it's carrying over to a fresh ROM sounds like they're the problem.

1) Create a normal save if you haven't already.
2) Reset and load that save.

[Fauntleroy]

I deleted all of my save states and loaded a normal save.

No change.

I downloaded SRM save files from a repository online and tried them with my ROM.

No change.

So then I got really desperate. I downloaded a brand new ROM and matched it to the SRM files I downloaded off the internet.

I'm still getting all of the same problems.

So then I deleted EVERYTHING from my hacking folder. Put a fresh ROM and save state in a new folder with ZSNES.

No change. Time gauge pointer is underneath the gauge. Courtroom and Blackbird maps are weird. Fighting Dalton at the Zeal Palace crashes the game. Just like in my hack.

This makes no sense to me at all. Like, how is that even possible?

[justin3009]

There's no left over IPS patches with the same name as your ROM is there? Some emulators will auto-apply patches when running a ROM if it's the same name. I doubt it's the case but best to cover all grounds.

[Fauntleroy]

That was a really good thought, but no--I don't have any IPS files at all in my Emulation folder. Still, thanks for trying!

EDITED TO ADD: ZSNES is my preferred emulator, but I just downloaded SNES9x and gave it a whirl.  No errors or bugs at all.

So, it must be a ZSNES issue? Bizarre. Never had an issue in 15+ years using it.

[justin3009]

ZSNES is very inaccurate and out of date nowadays so it can cause some odd things testing anything.

SNES9X is definitely the best bet. BSNES is good too but it's a CPU hog and the requirements are insane (But it's got 'the' best accuracy of any SNES emulator). I think it's being rewritten right now (Or maybe it's Higan?, byuu's working on something anyway).

[Fauntleroy]

Cool, thank you for this. I'm going to switch to SNES9x for this and future projects.

I'm just SO HAPPY to be making progress again!!!  All I need to do is some more playtesting.  Everything else is done!