Mode 7 research

[Mauron]

Current Notes

So far I've determined 0-1F are unique scenes, and 80 and 20 are options flags. 40 is likely an option as well, but I haven't seen it used so far.

A packet at C31313 is decompressed into RAM at 7E3000, which contains most of the mode 7 code and game credits.

[Mauron]

0-F are unique scenes. 10 is not cleared before the jump, but there aren't pointers to 10-1f, so things will crash.

I've seen 40 set in a few mode 7 sequences on the title screen, but haven't gotten that far in the code yet.

[Zakyrus]

Is the possibility that a "Credits Editor" as an early working plugin a reality?

~Z

[Mauron]

Most likely yes. Data storage for the credits is fairly straight forward, but there are few parts that need to be clarified first.

[Zakyrus]

Most likely yes. Data storage for the credits is fairly straight forward, but there are few parts that need to be clarified first.

Most likely {delay XX} seconds, line break and others (OR some kind of simulairity variant of the EVENT Commands are used). ...?

~Z

[Mauron]

A lot of Mode 7 stuff is in a single compressed packet, including credits. I'm mapping out as much of the packet as I can before I start playing with it.

[Mauron]

Credit data: Mostly ASCII, somewhat redundant. Three control codes, plus special routines for 0x20 (space character).

Mode 7 event command:
00-7F: Opens Mode 7 packet at 0x031313
80-8F: Wormhole scenes. 80, 81, 82, and 83 are definitely unique. 84-8F are duplicates of 83.
90-A3: Special purpose commands. Partial list in Temporal Flux. A0-A3 trigger the Color Crash event command.
A4-FF: Invalid, will likely crash.

Mode 7 Scenes (from packet):
80: Unknown Flag, can't be set normally. If set in the event command, will open a wormhole instead.
40: Unknown Flag, mostly seen in load screen events. Definitely seems responsible for the Jet Bike race's demo mode.
20: Unknown Flag.
10: Unused flag. Setting will cause the command to crash.

00: Jet Bike Race with boosts.
...
09: Jet Bike Race with rotation.
0A: Fireworks.
0B: Fireworks. Specific settings change based on which one is loaded.
0C: Ending Credits
0D: Ending Credits (fast)
0E: Fireworks, invalid. Will crash.
0F: Fireworks, invalid. Will crash.

I haven't confirmed 1-8 yet, but at this point I'm assuming Zakyrus's notes are accurate, except for a value of 00.

Edit: Found a couple more details.

[Zakyrus]

This is excellent news, great work Mauron!

~Z

[Zinx]

Is there any info on how the DS version did "Mode 7"?.
It's not using the 3D engine of the DS for that but the 2D engine instead which is curious.
Also I noticed that they messed it up a little at the bike race comapred to the SNES version.

[Mauron]

I'm not sure exactly, but some of the DS version is emulating the original SNES code. The data format in a few areas is identical.