Survey: Interest Check: A better hex editor for Gen 3

[haven1433]

I've started working on a new tool for working with .gba pokemon files, and I'm getting close to the point where I may need some usability testers: people who are actually trying to make ROM Hacks, who can provide feedback on things I can improve about the tool.

The tool is a custom Hex Editor with features that help recognize and work with data within the pokemon games:

• Standard Hex Editor features (data entry, Find/Goto, Copy/Paste)
• Multiple simultaneous open files
• Automatic pointer recognition / navigation
• Moving data
• Forking / joining data

Would such a tool actually be useful? Would anyone be interested in helping me test / improve the tool as I add features?

 

[Delta231]

It should be platform independent too. I use Bliss Hex Editor for Linux and its amazing. It would be amazing of the hex editor would like Crystal Tile 2.

 

[haven1433]

@Delta231 Do you mean Bless Hex Editor? Googling didn't find Bliss.

Crystal Tile 2 does seem to have some useful features. I'll see if there's places in my app where it makes sense to provide a similar interface.

Unfortunately, I'm coding it in .Net with WPF, so it won't be cross-platform for now. I may look into porting it to .Net Core, but building up an entire new UI would be a very big project, and I'm still just working on core features. Are a majority of the hackers in the community not using Windows?

 

[AkameTheBulbasaur]

I don't know if it is the majority, but I know quite a few (including myself) don't have Windows as their main computer. I have access to Windows via Virtual Machine, so I can use Windows programs, but if there is a cross platform version of the thing I need then I will prefer that as it is generally easier to work with.

So if it was cross-platform, then it would be usable by anybody (including those with Windows), but you'd have to decide for yourself if it would be worth it.

Since you've seemingly only just started it might be easier to port it to .NetCore now than it would be if you had already made the whole thing? I am not experienced with that sort of thing, so I'm It 100% sure, but that is my hunch.

Thus far the concept sounds like a good idea, as I really only use the Hex Editor for ROM hacking, and a tool that made little things easier to do might be of interest.

 

[Delta231]

@Delta231 Do you mean Bless Hex Editor? Googling didn't find Bliss.

Crystal Tile 2 does seem to have some useful features. I'll see if there's places in my app where it makes sense to provide a similar interface.

Unfortunately, I'm coding it in .Net with WPF, so it won't be cross-platform for now. I may look into porting it to .Net Core, but building up an entire new UI would be a very big project, and I'm still just working on core features. Are a majority of the hackers in the community not using Windows?

Yes, Bless.

Majority of the community uses Windows but cross-platform should be a thing and Disassemblies are having rapid progress and hex editor wouldn't be needed in the future as most of people will use decomps. However, there will be people who will binary hack so Windows would be fine.

 

[Pinta77_2]

Lol not just the community. Majority of the planet uses windows

 

[Blah]

I'm not seeing the impact this would have on a binary hack workflow. What are people actually opening a hex editor for? I think most of the time, it's for inserting ASM routines into free space or to write a few bytes to some address as instructed in a resource (does this tool really aid in that?). Most tables that someone who needs a smart hex editor for are repointed and edited in older tools, and it makes sense for most data to be looked at in conjunction with other data. For example, when editing Pokemon names, users would also want to edit Pokemon stats, move pool ect. This is efficient in comparison to editing these things individually in a hex editor. Features like "Automatic pointer recognition / navigation" are included in programs like IDA, which also disassembles code and gives a decent decompilation too.

I suppose if your goal is just to make a hex editor for hackers and people use this instead of a hex editor, sure. IMO your time is better spent developing other tools. We still need an XSE replacement (probably keep the syntax) which allows room customization of the script engine/smart error checking ect. There is also the need for an AMap replacement, but I realize that's an ambitious project.

Anyways, I appreciate your effort and reaching out to the community for opinions :)

 

[haven1433]

@FBI What happened to MEH? Wasn't it supposed to replace AMap?

I'm mostly making a hex editor because I was unhappy when working with some of the existing tools (granted, this was 5 years ago when I first got the idea for this project, and several tools have improved since then). I didn't like having many different tools open at the same time, each which showed me a sliver of what was going on inside the ROM. I wanted to break down the barrier separating me from the data and actually see everything going on.

While I understand your concern about wanting to edit related data together, I'm interested to see if a wider view of the data counteracts the loss of related things now longer being displayed together as in some other tools. If I actually manage to see my plan all the way to completion (which is unlikely, given the large scope), when I'm done, I'd be able to do any relevant editing using only the HexEditor, without needing to break out into additional tools.

 

[Anthroyd]

Hi Haven,

I haven't thought too much about how much I'd use a new hex editor, but I will say that I've come across several hackers who don't use Windows as their primary OS. My belief is that cross-platform portability is a necessary feature, not only in the domain of ROM hacking, but in all of computer software that's meant for a universal audience.

BTW, I like your profile picture dude. Wicked stuff.

 

[haven1433]

Anthroyd,

Microsoft recently announced that they're making a cross-platform version of the tools I'm using (.Net / C# / WPF) so making a cross-platform version of my tool will indeed be possible.

However, while I plan to design it with cross-platform in mind, I've realized that my primary concern has to be getting in the unique features that will make my tool useful. That means focusing on only one operating system for now, and potentially branching out once the first release is done and I start getting feedback about how to improve it.

Still, I'm collecting data from different hackers I talk to about what operating systems they use, and I am indeed finding what you're claiming: not everyone uses Windows as their primary OS. I don't want my userbase to be limited due to something as mundane as an operating system difference. I'd rather people not use my tool because they don't like it, not because they can't.

 

[MazdoTechno]

So how is this different from the current Hex editing software available?
Are you making your program more user friendly? With information on what things mean for beginners?

 

[Hellscythe789]

Hi so I decided to test HexManiacAdvance on a ROM of Touhoumon World Link to check the learnsets as the wiki didn't have enough data. But the tool doesn't seem to be able to read the hex values and extract the table data. I've tried it on a vanilla Emerald ROM and it works just fine. Could you look into this?

 

[kujavahsta]

I've done modding with multiple games in the past, and there are usually some fundamental things I've always looked for. One of the big limitations for new modders is the inability to easily expand on various lists, whether they be more adding in more usable text (or giving npc's more dialogue options), adding in more items in addition to whatever standard set there might have been (to give an example, making a 255 item list into a 510 one), more options for changing item properties and details, adding in more creatures (doubling or tripling the pokelist or monster moveset), changing plot pointers for story events, and tools for checking to see if there will be code conflicts (such as two bits of coding using the same space and one overwriting the other).

These are the sort of useful things which are never given easily usable tools for new users to help modify things, not just for pokemon games but in general.

 

[haven1433]

@Hellsythe789 HexManiacAdvance reads data from a rom using a .TOML metadata file that matches the name of that rom. If a .TOML file isn't found, it'll generate a "best guess" that can get some of the data right. But at the end of the day, that's all it is: a guess. If the ROM in question has been heavily modified (for example, if the Jambo hack was used), then the data won't be understood correctly.

You can hand-modify the generated .TOML to fix these issues, but that requires that you know how the data is organized within that game.

 

[haven1433]

@Blah just an update on this... HexManiacAdvance has grown past my original vision for it, and now includes an image editor, a script editor, and a map editor. I've got most of the core features of the map editor done at this point, and the script editor is shaping up nicely. So I guess I was able to try some of those "ambitious projects" you mentioned ;)

 

[Five-Gate Omega]

I actually have no computer,only an android phone which I binary Romhack using only a Hex Editor and a Spreadsheet containing my edits.

So I'd be interested in something like this if it was using something like this for Android in the future.