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Posted 26 May 2010 - 08:27 AM
So letsee... Where to start.... Since version 0.2 of the editor a number of new features have been worked on. I'd finally cracked the issues in the way of a text editor, so that'll make it into the next version. In fact, this entire video was done with an in development version of the editor:
What you can do with NPC's is still fairly limited. You can't add new ones yet, just edit the ones that are already there. Here are a couple screen shots from the Map Viewer/NPC editing interface, click on the thumbnails for the full sized image.
From left to right:
1) Text editing is possible from within the NPC editing interface, which is still a work in progress ("Finished", and a "Finished Too" button?) Only dialogue that is directly linked to the NPC will show up here, so no cutscene dialogue unfortunately although there is a separate all inclusive text editor for anything that isn't accessible anywhere else in the editor's interface.
2) Assembly script viewer. Although you can't edit them yet, you can view assembly scripts linked to the NPC's.
3) Idle script viewer, basically what the NPC does when the player isn't interacting with it. Golden Sun uses it's own format for these, which the editor kindly translates to easy to understand text for us.
Data Viewer
The way some of GS TLA's data is arranged is very peculiar, yet helpful at the same time. At the end of the ROM file there is a large array containing various types of data ranging from graphics, to the games code itself. Although it may not make it into the next version of the editor because of how much work it will take to get it to a presentable state, the idea of the data viewer is to be able to browse through ALL of this data. A few sample images are located below, click for full view.
Again, left to right:
1) Palette viewer, pretty simple, just colors used for a map.
2) Tileset, eventually you'll be able to load them with a palette to view them in color.
3) A graphic. The interesting thing to note here is that the editor was unable to identify it initially, it did however realize it was compressed, and decompress it for us. By switching the data viewers mode over to image viewing we're able to now see the graphic.
4) Hex editing mode. Yes, even though the editor is designed for user friendliness it will allow you to do some low level hex editing if that's your desire.
Now then, as I mentioned this data array also includes pointers to the game's code. What's quickly become one of my favorite new features of the data viewer is it's ability to scan the code for data pointers. Oh yes, you heard that right, the editor has a built in assembly code scanner that locates pointers to data in the games programming.
As you can see it labels already identified data, but not only that, as it performs this scan it keeps track of where it is, and where it came from. In short, not only does it automatically find data for you, it also tells you where it's used in the game's programming.
I imagine this feature will be extremely useful if you know how to use it. It's already become invaluable to me.
Experimentation videos
These are videos I created while experimented with editing various data in the game. It won't be possible to do this kind of stuff in the editor yet, but it's proof that it is possible, and I am actively looking into how to achieve it for future versions.
Oh yes, the unleash of the mythical wheat sword. For this video I took Flora's summon, changed the background, edited the flower petal palette, and replaced her graphic.
Cutscene editing, a fairly simple example, but hey, editing ASM code with nothing but a HEX editor is tricky!
Another custom sprite insertion demonstration, this time with music to match!
