[ASM & Hex] Help Expanding Number of Maps

esipode · Feb 18, 2017

I've been trying to create custom maps in FireRed while using an expanded amount of map names, which required many different tables to be repointed and values to be edited. The tutorials I used to expand the map names can be found HERE and HERE.

Now, creating and importing my maps went flawlessly. It works perfectly. However, all the map names for locations are wrong.

And I know that it's because something went wrong with creating the expanded maps. However, I can't for the life of me figure out what is wrong. I have octuple-checked everything and it all seems correct, so I can't figure out where I've gone wrong. I am kind of unsure as to what I'm supposed to be setting the limiting bytes to, though. So that may be the problem.

tkim · Feb 18, 2017

This is what you need good sir: https://sfc.pokefans.net/lesson.php?id=18&lang=en

There is a literal map inside the ROM in which it displays the index value of the map names' positions. You just gotta change those and put your index values in the right places.

esipode · Feb 18, 2017

(I should have clarified this a little more, but...) I can't get it to use maps 0x0-0x57, and I think that's got something to do with why it's tripping up.
I'm looking at offset 0x3F2490, where the hex version of the map is, and all the addresses match with what they are in A-Map. Only in game do they show up incorrectly.

The reason I think this is that map 0x5B is Cerulean City. When I go in-game, it shows up as map 0xB3, Trainer Tower.
0xB3 - 0x5B = 0x58 value difference.

BluRose · Feb 18, 2017

esipode said:
(I should have clarified this a little more, but...) I can't get it to use maps 0x0-0x57, and I think that's got something to do with why it's tripping up.
I'm looking at offset 0x3F2490, where the hex version of the map is, and all the addresses match with what they are in A-Map. Only in game do they show up incorrectly.

The reason I think this is that map 0x5B is Cerulean City. When I go in-game, it shows up as map 0xB3, Trainer Tower.
0xB3 - 0x5B = 0x58 value difference.

SHOOT I SAW THIS JUST LIKE EARLIER TODAY
AGH NOW I HAVE TO FIND IT FOR YOU I'LL BRB

EDIT: check this out, it might probably help probably

esipode · Feb 18, 2017

BluRose said:
SHOOT I SAW THIS JUST LIKE EARLIER TODAY
AGH NOW I HAVE TO FIND IT FOR YOU I'LL BRB

EDIT: check this out, it might probably help probably

... Ugghhhh....
That's one of the tutorials I linked in my post. {XD}

That said, if you have any idea what I might be doing wrong, I would love to hear it! I've been driving myself crazy trying to figure it out.

BluRose · Feb 18, 2017

esipode said:
... Ugghhhh....
That's one of the tutorials I linked in my post. {XD}

That said, if you have any idea what I might be doing wrong, I would love to hear it! I've been driving myself crazy trying to figure it out.

didn't mean to post zilvereyes' anyways, it was jambo's that you also linked to ehehe

Spoiler:

This post contains all the needed offsets and steps required to extend the number of available map names.
You can now have a maximum of 0xFC map names, which is a vast improvement on the previous number of 0x6C.
You MUST leave 1 map name byte (0xFD) for the background in the World Map, and the other 2 (0xFE and 0xFF) are needed to maintain support for trading with RSE. Currently, without a fairly drastic rewrite of the routines and map headers, it is impossible to support any more map names than 0xFC (253).

Anything in normal type is for a simple extension after the end of the existing map names, that is, using 0xC5 - 0xFC.
Anything in bold type is for using map names 0x0 - 0x57. This requires some thinking to implement!

Limiting Bytes:

Spoiler:

* Layer 2 Flag Reader: 0xC3882 - 0x47 (C5 - 7E: Total Names - First Non City)
*^&! Name Reader 1: 0xC4D8A - 0x6C (C4 - 58: Total Names - No of Hoenn Names)
Not 100% Sure: 0xC35E6 - 0x6D (C5 - 58)
^ Catch Location Check: 0x13B844 - 0x6C (C4 - 58)
* Sevii Islands Check 1: 0xC0080 - 0xC5
* Sevii Islands Check 2: 0xC00CC - 0xC5
* Name on WM 1: 0xC0BE6 - 0xC5
* Name on WM 2: 0xC067A - 0xC5
* Layer 1 Flag Reader: 0xC482C - 0xC5
* Black/Grey Bar: 0xC0B32 - 0xC5

Map Data Readings:
0xC3538 - 0xC5
0xC3570 - 0xC5
0xC3598 - 0xC5
0xC35CC - 0xC5
0xC41D0 - 0xC5

*0x080C0BEC sub r0, #0x58; This needs to be removed to fix name loading.

In order to extend the table to include values below 0x58, there are MANY steps required, including some ASM.

World Map Location Data:

Spoiler:

After some fairly extensive research, I can confirm that there appears to be NO layer 2 location data. It simply reads layer 1's location data. The table of data is at 0x083F1E60.

This uses the SAME routine as the World Map's movement bytes routine, so all you need to do is repoint and appropriately extend the table.

World Map Movement Bytes:

Spoiler:

This is the data which controls how the player's head symbol moves along a route as the player travels.
Located at 0x083F2178 and lasting for 0x318 bytes again.

To allow the game to support more at the lower end, you need to insert 0x160 bytes before the repointed table. Then navigate to 0x080C3CA0 and replace the first 2 bytes with 00's.

Flight Data Controller Data:

Spoiler:

This is hard to explain, but is important nonetheless. This data controls how the game shows the map, and indeed, whether or not it has a flight spot attached to it.

Located at 0x083F2EE0 and lasting for 0x144 bytes.

To change for use from map name 0x0 instead of map name 0x58, open up the rom in a hex editor, and navigate to 0x080C5280 and replace the first 4 bytes with 00's. This changes the code, allowing it to use map names beginning from 0x0 instead of 0x58. The repoint the table mentioned above, and BEFORE the repointed table, place 0x108 0x00 bytes. Then change the original pointer to the location where the 00's start.

Names data:

Spoiler:

Speaks for itself. The actual names of the world map.
The table is stored at 0x083F1CAC and contains 0x6D entries at 4 bytes a piece. Meaning the table contains a total of 0x1B4 bytes.

To make this support map names below 0x58, you need to navigate to 0x080C4D86 and replace the following 2 bytes with 00's. This removes the lower limit on map names. Then repoint the table for the names, and put in the extra 0x58 names.

Spoiler:

World Map Flag Data:

Spoiler:

The first table for the WM flag data is at 0x080C3654. This is just for layer 1. The limiting word (yes, word) is 0xFFFF0000. This can be different based on whether or not you have used A-Map to hack the world map. A-Map modifies the limiting word of the table, changing it from 00 00 77 77. So use the appropriate one for your rom. DO NOT CHANGE THIS. All you need to do to extend this table (and the following table) is simply insert a new flag slot over the top of the end of the table, and then put the limiting word at the end of the table. You obviously need to repoint the table to extend it however. It's 0xDC bytes long. So copy and paste away.

In other words, end the table with FF FF 00 00.

The second table for WM flags is at 0x080C38C8. This table starts at Viridian Forest, rather than Pallet Town, so it considerably shorter, coming in at 0x90 bytes. This is layer 2's table. This controls when the small dots become bigger dots, as well as the colour of the text on the WM screen. They also control whether or not the map's name has a white background or a black background on the WM. I have no idea why, but I can confirm that is the case.

What I elected to do with these, was to create full tables instead of shortened tables for the 2 layers of flags.
So I repointed layer 1's table, and inserted 0x58 entries before it in the table. This allows for layer 1 flags to be assigned to any map name.

For layer 2, I inserted 0x7E entries before the existing table (after repointing of course), and made the routine read the entirety of both tables.

To modify the routines, navigate to 0x080C3880, and change the following bytes to 00 00 C4 28. Then go to 0x080C35E4, and change the next few bytes to 00 00 C4 28. The go to 0x080C35EC, and change the byte here to 0x63. That should be it.

EDIT: SHIT I STUPID PLS DON'T RESPOND I'M NOT THINKING STRAIGHT

EDIT2: did you do the "flight data controller data" thing?

esipode · Feb 18, 2017

BluRose said:
didn't mean to post zilvereyes' anyways, it was jambo's that you also linked to ehehe

EDIT: **** I STUPID PLS DON'T RESPOND I'M NOT THINKING STRAIGHT

EDIT2: did you do the "flight data controller data" thing?

Haha don't worry about it. :) And yes I've repointed all the tables and changes the pointers to direct to them.

Referring to Jambo's post though, I have no idea what I should be changing those limiting bytes to? I've done everything else correctly (I think) it's just that one thing that's kind of vague?

BluRose · Feb 18, 2017

esipode said:
Haha don't worry about it. :) And yes I've repointed all the tables and changes the pointers to direct to them.

Referring to Jambo's post though, I have no idea what I should be changing those limiting bytes to? I've done everything else correctly (I think) it's just that one thing that's kind of vague?

c5280 - 00 00 00 00
when you put the 0x108 0x0's before your table, it's just teling you to put in data for the first 0x58 entries

esipode · Feb 19, 2017

BluRose said:
c5280 - 00 00 00 00
when you put the 0x108 0x0's before your table, it's just teling you to put in data for the first 0x58 entries

I know. My problem is that in A-Map, there are no maps below 0x58, or above 0xC5. I'm trying to figure out why I it's still using the default values.

tkim · Feb 19, 2017

OH! Open A-Map, go to header and go into professional header view by pressing ctrl+h. From there look at the map header carefully. You will find the map index value that you gotta change. Keep in mind though, you won't be able to open that map the next time you use A-Map unless you remember which offset you changed that byte. So every time you want to access that map in A-Map, revert the byte to the original one. It'll act like a lock/unlock. Hopefully this helps ya. I myself looked at that thread before in an attempt to port Faraway Island to FireRed.

Edit: I probably am still misunderstanding, but if you haven't tried, try it out anyways.

esipode · Feb 19, 2017

tkim said:
OH! Open A-Map, go to header and go into professional header view by pressing ctrl+h. From there look at the map header carefully. You will find the map index value that you gotta change.

I tried that, and it does allow me to change it to map 0, however it still shows up as map 0x58 in A-Map's world map viewer. The selection never goes below 0x58, and I don't know how to get access to maps 0x0-0x57. I've gone through both tutorials at least a dozen times now and I still can't figure out where I'm going wrong? I still think it's because I have no idea what the limiting bytes are supposed to be changed to, if anyone knows for sure.

BluRose · Feb 19, 2017

i mean if it shows upcorrectly in-game then screw amap amirite?
probably something in the .ini maybe or in the executable itself...

esipode · Feb 19, 2017

BluRose said:
i mean if it shows upcorrectly in-game then screw amap amirite?
probably something in the .ini maybe or in the executable itself...

Because if A-Map shows the wrong data (wrong map number, wrong location, no flight data) then I can't know if what I'm doing is right or not. And if something goes wrong I'll have no idea what is wrong except through extensive trial and error.

tkim · Feb 19, 2017

Did you... repoint the names data: 0x3f1cac and also add offsets for 0x0-0x58 to the beginning of that table?

esipode · Feb 19, 2017

tkim said:
Did you... repoint the names data: 0x3f1cac and also add offsets for 0x0-0x58 to the beginning of that table?

There is an offset for 201 (or 0xC9) maps in there.

Is there maybe some 'end of table' byte I'm missing here?

tkim · Feb 19, 2017

There's no ending bytes for that table. I don't know what else to say... I feel like you'd have to change a 0x58 somewhere to 0x00 but otherwise I haven't got a clue. You will have to go through trial and errors.

edit: what did you put at Name Reader 1: 0xC4D8A? What about 0xC0BEC?

esipode · Feb 19, 2017

tkim said:
what did you put at Name Reader 1: 0xC4D8A? What about 0xC0BEC?

C4D8A is 0xC4. I assumed I was to add 0x58 to 0x6C. No idea if that's correct.

C0BEC is 0x0. Again, no idea.

BluRose · Feb 19, 2017

extensive trial and effort = checking in vboy and if one of them is correct the rest are likely to be correct too but hey
you do you, good luck in your endeavors~

esipode · Feb 19, 2017

BluRose said:
extensive trial and effort = checking in vboy and if one of them is correct the rest are likely to be correct too but hey
you do you, good luck in your endeavors~

I feel like we're not on the same page here. If I try to do it without A-Map, then each map has to have several things changed individually. And (albeit hypothetically) if one thing is mis-aligned, then that's 200 maps that have to be changed one by one. (And again and again depending on my own propensity for mistakes) I am adamant about needing A-Map because I have little free time and it will speed up the process.

esipode · Feb 20, 2017

Okay, so I think I might have found the cause of my problems?

Jambo's tutorial says:

To modify the routines, navigate to 0x080C3880, and change the following bytes to 00 00 C4 28. Then go to 0x080C35E4, and change the next few bytes to 00 00 C4 28. The go to 0x080C35EC, and change the byte here to 0x63.

I've found that upon editing the world map in A-Map, the values sometimes reset. Any idea why that is happening/how to make it stop?

[ASM & Hex] Help Expanding Number of Maps

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