Archive for January, 2007
8×8 vwf progress
January 25, 2007
I got a variable-width-font for the smaller 8×8 font used in menus and battle text now working too. I think there are issues left, but it’s hard to tell since the menus are such a horrible mess. Fixing them up will be quite a task, but there is nothing I can do about it sadly.
Those of you who followed the blog closely will remember that I said I wanted to code a custom insertion utility after the vwf, which can also help with the formatting. It turned out that this is not needed, I found a working setup using TheCheat for formatting and Atlas for insertion. Result: Some days of work and much stress saved xD
I know that with all these updates these days it appears as if the project was almost finished already, but I have to tell you that this is not the case. The menus are a mess and hard to fix, and formatting the script alone will take propably weeks. So far I inserted the Prologe and the Battle Text, both only because I needed these sections to test the vwfs. The battle text script is the second largest script file in the game, counting over 12000 lines of text when I started formatting. It took me over 8 hours to get this thing into a shape in where I can insert it, and there is no fine tune been done yet, dozens if not hundreds of lines will spill over the message box.
Just a reminder not to get too excited yet, don’t let this discourage you though, you see that progress is made really every day currently.
Posted by KaioShin at 10:06pm
4 Comments »
VWF working + source release
January 22, 2007
I ironed out the remaining bugs. New lines and end of strings work flawless now, the vwf seems perfect if I may say so.
Here is a picture with the three stages of the font in comparison, beginning from the original game to the current vwf. I think the improvement is quite impressive xD
I’ve also been asked for the source code of the vwf, so I commented it (a lot) and decided to release it publically.
Posted by KaioShin at 9:12pm
10 Comments »
New Project!
January 22, 2007
So, this is the bigger news update I promised you. In the end it won’t turn out to be that big in size, but I think the content will be quite exciting for some people.
I initially planned to have a long winded explanation about my recent life here, but lets face it, that’s totally uninteresting for you. So I’ll keep it short, I’ve been fucking miserable lately >_< I decided to quit what I'm currently studying, since I realized that teaching is just not my thing. So if you've wondered where I suddenly have all this time for hacking, it's because I'm sitting around at home at the moment doing pretty much nothing. I don't consider it a big problem that I cancelled studies, it's better to quit now than notice in 10 years that I can't stand my job. The problem is that I have no idea yet what I should do now. I still have a month or so to decide, if I really want to balance over abyss I have even time until Juli. I don't know if that's enough though, I have absolutely no idea really of what to do what I'd like.
I study teaching English and Computer Science now (or rather have been). Let's forget for a moment that I'm studying teaching, most of the subjects are still the same as if I was studying Bachelor/Magister in one of these directions. I don't know if there is something like Magister outside Germany, it's basically the same as Bachelor, just for "non-technical" stuff to describe it broadly. English is really easy for me, but aside from teaching, it's pretty much useless as a career option. And Computer Science is so extremely difficult. I know I could make that if I really tried hard. But I have to wonder if that's really what I want to do if it's so difficult for me.
So yeah, I live in a bit of hiatus right now, doing pretty much nothing. I feel really useless and lazy because of that too...
Ok, enough whining - up to more exciting news.
I've taken on a new project! The game is a Japanese PC Doujin game called “Haruhi Suzumiya: Ace Attorney”.
It’s based on the extremely popular Anime series Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu. The series is absolutely insane yet pure genious, if you haven’t watched it already I suggest you do it now. In one episode there is a scene which makes fun of Phoenix Wright a bit, you know, my favourite game. This game is based on this scene, which means it’s basically a Phoenix Wright clone in the universe of Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu. So if you either love Phoenix Wright or the anime you’re going to love this game!
I’ve taken on the hacking work for Wing ZX, who was looking for help. Needless to say I couldn’t say no on this game xD I’ve written an extractor which extracts all the game’s data files, so that they can be edited freely. I’ve been told the script is now in someone’s hands for translation, but I don’t know the details. I’ve decided to focus on the hacking part only and let Wing ZX do the coordination and the other stuff. All that’s left for me is writing a tool which can rebuild the datafile, than my part is already finished. I’ve been told there is no hurry since the translation will take a while, so I’m focusing fully on Dragon Quest Monsters right now. As always, this place will be the first to get newest information about it.
Speaking of Dragon Quest, I spent most of today with continuing on it. There is not much stuff to show really, but there were some quite important under-the-hood changes, so I can say, good progress. I’m still in the process of fixing / adding some stuff to the variable width font.
I’d like to use this opportunity to say thanks to fellow-hacker Gemini. Without his help and constant exchange of experience I would not be nearly as far with the ASM stuff today.
Thanks!
(Shit, this news did got longer than I expected xD)
Posted by KaioShin at 12:03am
7 Comments »
VWF breakthrough
January 20, 2007
Wow that was quick xD
Do you guys like the new font? The screenshot doesn’t show lowercase letters, I’ll post one with those some time too.
As you can see the vwf is actually working. I think it looks fantastic in my opinion. There are a couple of smaller issues to be ironed out left as you can see at the end of line. However, now that I’ve come this far this stuff is really nothing major. Making this work with the smaller 8×8 font, used by the naming screen for example, might prove more difficult, but I’m pretty confident.
Posted by KaioShin at 11:48pm
13 Comments »
VWF madness
January 20, 2007
Since yesterday I’m working practically fulltime on the Dragon Quest Monsters VWF routine. Yes, you read that right, I’ve finally jumped over my shadow and got to work damn it xD The funny thing is that I started work after I actually decided not to do it and asked for help on the romhacking.net message board. Sometimes my motivation behaviour is a mystery even to myself^^
Anyway, writing a vwf is both easier than I hoped for but harder than I imagined. I stumble on new problems practically every hour, but every problem I solve is real progress. I wish I could show you some fancy screenshots already, but aside from boring RAM dumps there isn’t anything to show yet. Rest assured that I work like mad on it though. I wouldn’t be able to progress this much without the help from my dear romhacking.net community though 
By the way, this is not the bigger news update I promised on the comments earlier this week, that is still to come.
I’ll keep you posted on the progress, wish me luck everyone.
Posted by KaioShin at 12:41am
3 Comments »