Help Thread: Quick Questions & Answers

[Kimonas]

Could someone explain to me the connection between the People Event Data and the Overworld Sprite Data?

I know that at 0x39FDB0(Fire Red) there are pointers for the OSD of each OW but I can't figure out where the People Event Data structures are stored. Are they created at the runtime, or is there a 'template' for each ow stored somewhere in the rom?

Thank you in advance :)

 

[Aethestode]

So rams reset when you close/or restart your gameboy/VBA. Is there a way to reset the ram through script?

 

[Cam]

Im looking for a download of FPE to edit footprints, but the only one i can find is on this page:
https://hackromtools.altervista.org/foot-print-ed/
and the 7zip is password protected for some unknown reason.

Does anyone have this program or another download somewhere where there's not a passworded 7zip?

 

[IceGod64]

We DO have the resource section, deviantart and google. Searching is quite easy, but looking the quality you ought for is not. Try searching using the given three :)

I think you misunderstood. I'm not looking for a GSC tileset. I'm looking for coding help changing the tilesets built into the game. So, a ROM hacking guide or something for working with them.

I eventually DID find what I was looking for, which is a tileset repointing guide, thanks to a better-worded google search.

 

[Alex Taylor]

First time hacker here.

I already have most tools I need, but I was wondering, for B/W hacking, is there a tool to edit items' locations?

For example, say I want to change a Revive that's just sitting on the ground, to a Hyper Potion.
Same for gift items, like on Route 3, change the gifted Heal Balls to Dusk Balls (just an example).

If not, is there an easy to follow guide on how to do this in a hex editor?

 

[Geodude6]

Im looking for a download of FPE to edit footprints, but the only one i can find is on this page:
https://hackromtools.altervista.org/foot-print-ed/
and the 7zip is password protected for some unknown reason.

Does anyone have this program or another download somewhere where there's not a passworded 7zip?

Pretty sure anything password-protected from that site has the password "HackRomTools"


A question of my own: How do I edit Oak's starting spiel in Fire Red (ie "Hi! Welcome to the world of Pokemon!")

 

[PokéMew1]

Is there any documentation anywhere on expanding the length of a pokemon's name? (Or if anyone happens to know themselves). It will be in a wild battle basically, and it wont be able to be captured so really it just needs to be expanded for the battle.

 

[Uncommon]

A question of my own: How do I edit Oak's starting spiel in Fire Red (ie "Hi! Welcome to the world of Pokemon!")

Use LockSmithArmy's Intro Text Editor.

 

[Blah]

Is there any documentation anywhere on expanding the length of a pokemon's name? (Or if anyone happens to know themselves). It will be in a wild battle basically, and it wont be able to be captured so really it just needs to be expanded for the battle.

yes, so you need to rework the string with a hook similar to this: https://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?t=352399

except for Pokemon names. The battle strings have enough space for an expanded name depending on how many characters you intend to have. I suggest reworking how the name is stored in RAM to just using a pointer to the name instead.

ASM help thread if you need more guidance.

How fun would it be to implement a new weather?
How much more fun would it be just to replace the current cloudy weather (which just turns everything a little darker) with a legitimate cloud system in which the clouds have their own shadows?
And, lastly, how would one go about making the lighter snow (not the one labelled "three snowflakes" in A-Map) also turn everything dark? Could it possibly be as simple as just using a command whenever the aforementioned snow is active?

Those effects are created by objs moving around on the screen. Making things darker would be a little more difficult. I suggest looking into the Day and Night system source code to figure out how to darken the BGs/objs effectively. OAM manipulation for a weather effect is not trivial in my opinion. If there is more interest on the subject I can maybe help out.

Could someone explain to me the connection between the People Event Data and the Overworld Sprite Data?

I know that at 0x39FDB0(Fire Red) there are pointers for the OSD of each OW but I can't figure out where the People Event Data structures are stored. Are they created at the runtime, or is there a 'template' for each ow stored somewhere in the rom?

Thank you in advance :)

Person event data is in the map header for the map. It's loaded on map load, and for NPCs it references the tables which you've mentioned (for a template) to build the OAM with. It only takes an ID however, rather than a whole template.

 

[Kimonas]

Person event data is in the map header for the map. It's loaded on map load, and for NPCs it references the tables which you've mentioned (for a template) to build the OAM with. It only takes an ID however, rather than a whole template.

Thank you very much! :)

Also, from looking at knizz's and touches databases the function that does this job is the rom_instanciation_something (since its first parameter is a rom_npc struct) ? If yes, the function calling it is named show_sprite. So, show_sprite is called for every sprite in the map when the map is loaded? I'm trying to understand the general process

 

[Blah]

Thank you very much! :)

Also, from looking at knizz's and touches databases the function that does this job is the rom_instanciation_something (since its first parameter is a rom_npc struct) ? If yes, the function calling it is named show_sprite. So, show_sprite is called for every sprite in the map when the map is loaded? I'm trying to understand the general process

yes, that's correct. Showsprite will spawn the NPC given the ROM ID of the NPC.

 

[BluRose]

Those effects are created by objs moving around on the screen. Making things darker would be a little more difficult. I suggest looking into the Day and Night system source code to figure out how to darken the BGs/objs effectively. OAM manipulation for a weather effect is not trivial in my opinion. If there is more interest on the subject I can maybe help out.

By the legitimate cloud system, I mean something sort of like this:

This isn't from an actual hack (just a concept, I believe), but credits go to Zik on WaH for making the image.
It's basically where "clouds" darken a portion of the screen with their shadows. This probably heavily complicates things...
As for making things darker, examples of weather that make it darker would be the cloudy weather effect, the rainy weather effect, the "Three snowflakes", and the rainy with thunder weather effect (don't know what they are called in A-Map). I do not believe it should be much harder to just duplicate the effect from one of the above three to the steady snow in order to make it darken the screen.
I'll have to get IDA someday, haha...

 

[wally-217]

Does anyone have a complete list of features capable of being implemented into Emerald? Or perhaps know the best order to add new functions to Emerald, for example, is it best to expand pokemon last or Add Megas after expanding for instance.
(Running indoors, GenV style TMs, DPSS, Expanded Pokemon, Working Mega/Primal Evolutions, Fairy Type, Expanded Moves, Expanded Abilities, Expanded OWs, Wild Double Battles, New Pokeballs, Expanded items, Day/Night/Seasons and any that I've missed) Thank you.

 

[surfer treecko]

Can anybody link me to either a tool that does or a tutorial for doing the following things on Black?

Editing gift Pokemon (eg. pan trio in Dream Yard)
Editing the Larvesta egg
Editing overworld encounters (eg. changing the Virizion encounter to a different Pokemon)
Changing the Reshiram encounter to a different Pokemon (I'm not expecting to be able to edit the cutscenes or anything, literally just the battle where you fight and catch it)
Changing the roaming Genie to be something else

For a 3rd gen hack things like this you'd do with Advance Map and XSE, but I've no idea where to start in Black and White.

 

[Aethestode]

Is it possible to make sprite fade away in a script? Sure, I could use "hidesprite", but it's kinda instant.

 

[The0dark0one]

I'm planning on making a rom hack of something from gen III that includes all 721 pokemon as well as new maps, tile layouts, npc names, and text. Would it be a good idea to use Epsilon's Artificial FireRed base for this? Will tools like Advance Map and XSE be compatible with it? Should I use Advance Map 1.92 or 1.95?

 

[Vendily]

I'm planning on making a rom hack of something from gen III that includes all 721 pokemon as well as new maps, tile layouts, npc names, and text. Would it be a good idea to use Epsilon's Artificial FireRed base for this? Will tools like Advance Map and XSE be compatible with it? Should I use Advance Map 1.92 or 1.95?

I can't speak for the creator of the rombase but A-Map and XSE should remain compatible.
A-Map 1.92 is considered more "stable" but has no support for the other half of expanded ROMs. 1.95 does have support but apparently slowly corrupts your ROM.

 

[The0dark0one]

I can't speak for the creator of the rombase but A-Map and XSE should remain compatible.
A-Map 1.92 is considered more "stable" but has no support for the other half of expanded ROMs. 1.95 does have support but apparently slowly corrupts your ROM.

I'm pretty sure that Epsilon's Artificial FR base is an expanded 32mb ROM so that puts me in a little bit of a pickle... I'll give 1.95 a shot and see if it works. Thanks for the info.

 

[thedarkdragon11]

I'm planning on making a rom hack of something from gen III that includes all 721 pokemon as well as new maps, tile layouts, npc names, and text. Would it be a good idea to use Epsilon's Artificial FireRed base for this? Will tools like Advance Map and XSE be compatible with it? Should I use Advance Map 1.92 or 1.95?

I believe Epsilon will provide an A-Map 1.92 that is compatible with his base... And I think you will only be having a problem using A-Map 1.92 when the Pokémon table is located at the 2nd half of a 32 MB ROM... As for A-Map 1.95, there are rumors that it may corrupt your ROM (though I'm not sure because I haven't tried it)...

For XSE, it is compatible for almost (haven't heard a case where it is incompatible to a ROM) every ROM...

Most updated and newer tools are flexible enough to support Epsilon's base... Though there might be some that doesn't but very minimal, and most of the time their features can be done better using hex editing...

 

[FSBS]

Working on a 386 Fire Red hack with some extra features, using MrDollSteaks Attack and Decap patch as a base. I googled this and didn't really find any answers but I got this when I booted up the Rom:

I have it set on 64 bit save or whatever. Can I ignore it, or will it cause long term problems? Also, my base is Fire Red (U) but when I start it Professor Oak pops out a Seadra. I don't think this is normal and indicative that I am working with a previously patched rom. Thanks in advance for the help.