ROM Hack [WIP] The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes - Purple Link

[HelpTheWretched]

[Release/WIP] The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes - Purple Link restoration project
Bring our beloved Vio back into the fold.

[Edit: Feb 28, 2020]
Official release has been updated to v0.9!
https://mega.nz/#!PsJFAA5I!592-g2-4p6UOqSKHcUilupB8T9JIY6B_Ix-brxqcoHE (27.4 MB)

I've just updated this patch after 2 1/2 years, thanks to Switch Toolbox finally allowing me to edit .PTCL (particle) files. This update fixes about half of the Green Link remnants from the previous version, so there's still a bit left. More information in the README.txt included.

I actually made the update about 2 months ago and forgot to post it until now.


[This patch was originally released in April 2017 as a texture pack for Link's outfits. All textures have been updated, pre-encoded and manually reinserted to the game's data for this RomFS release.]

 

[YugamiSekai]

Honestly the best mod we didn't know we needed

 

[HelpTheWretched]

Honestly the best mod we didn't know we needed

Thanks, it's quite fun to use online.

I added some notes about enemies to the "To Do", in case anyone can offer help.

Something else I could use feedback on is Purple's hue - I already adjusted it once from being too red/magenta. If anyone thinks it's still a bit off, even just in on certain outfits or in certain lighting, please say!

 

[YugamiSekai]

Thanks, it's quite fun to use online.

I added some notes about enemies to the "To Do", in case anyone can offer help.

Something else I could use feedback on is Purple's hue - I already adjusted it once from being too red/magenta. If anyone thinks it's still a bit off, even just in on certain outfits or in certain lighting, please say!

You can use this mod online?

 

[HelpTheWretched]

You can use this mod online?

Yep. It just changes the textures on your end, so the other players don't see it, and there's no ban risk. Unless you post screenshots on Miiverse or something.

 

[HelpTheWretched]

Quick update: I've only been working on this a little bit since the last release, but I've made some progress.

• I can now use 3DStex to convert the textures to higher-quality compression, then insert them into the .BCH files with a hex editor.
• It appears the texture mipmapping may actually use more than 4 sizes, which might explain the stray green pixels. [Edit: Correct! There was room in the file for exactly 1 more mip and it solved the stray pixel problem.]
  
• The emoticons, loading screen animations, outfit images, etc. that were .TGA files are mostly raw ETC1A4 images as well, so 3DStex does those too.
• The region-specific emoticons are not showing up in-game when I replace the files, so they must be duplicated and stored somewhere else in the RomFS. [Edit: It's working now! I'm not sure why it didn't before. Of note: The offscreen "Over Here" emoticons exist for each language in the ROM, but the game just uses the Japanese one in the "Common" set, with the larger language-specific "Over Here" shrunken and pasted on top.]
  
• Some of them are BFLIM images. I'm not too familiar with the conversion but I've got a couple tools for that. [Edit: No problems so far.]
  
• I've made the purple outfits slightly more blue-ish; they looked fairly magenta in some lighting. [Edit: They still look a bit magenta in certain light, but plenty blue in other light, so it's final now.]
  
• Most of the colour-specific stuff like Poes, platforms, Prismantus's orbs, The Lady's umbrellas and magic ball, are all just varying textures in the .BCH models and will be easy to replace.

The main thing that's taking a while is that many of the extracted images/textures have borked colour-saturation from the compression, so I have to do a lot of touch-ups while editing them. It's kind of a pain, but I'm getting there. Hopeful for a release in May.

 

[HelpTheWretched]

New updates and Help Requests

• Nearly all texture edits are completed. (Yay!)

• Here's a look at the Communication Icons! Their quality was touched-up before re-encoding. Only the English ones are done, but I saved "no text" versions so they won't take very long to complete.
  
• This image (and others in this post) was saved through Miiverse, so the colour quality is slightly downgraded, especially in the reds.
• The small "Link's face" icon has been edited but not implemented here yet; I'm having trouble with the bflim.py script simply not working at times.
• The green part of the player panel seems to be hard-coded, as the only related images I could extract were all white.. There are several files in the RomFS that may be related to such colours, but that needs to be investigated.

• Prismantus' orbs are coloured via textures in its .BCH model, but the glow is produced elsewhere and I haven't found it yet. This green-glowing purple actually looks pretty cool in motion but is obviously not the desired effect. XD

• The same problem occurs with The Lady's magic orb. Its purple colour and contrast is a little bit off since it was done without a clear idea of how it would appear in the game. I'll be adjusting it slightly; same thing goes for Moldorm's "sight" when it's chasing Purple Link.
• For both The Lady and Moldorm, I edited the red orb/sight as well to be a bit more distinct from the new purple.
• In the 1st picture, you can also see the purple arrow when you switch players!
• The 2nd picture shows that the "lightning" is also colour-specific. It seems to be a repeated texture, thus not procedurally-generated, so it's probably stored somewhere with other common textures. I'll have to find it in order to tell if the colour is hard-coded.

• The Lady's "alert" also hasn't been found yet.

• On the other hand, the umbrellas are looking pretty good! The same texture is used for both sizes as well as closed umbrellas.
• Do you think it needs to be slightly more blue-ish? It seems to match Link's tunic, but I want to make sure it's distinct from the other colours. That's been a bit difficult because my laptop's screen is stuck ajar, and the hue looks a bit different when I can't view it straight-on.

If anyone would like to help, please contact me and I can send you more details and/or the relevant files.

In addition to finding the sources of those green graphics, I could use help with:

• .PNG to .BFLIM conversion (ObsidianX's script doesn't always work)
• Banner editing
• Creating an installer; some batch files could work, but it'll need to go in steps. I want to check that the user has all the correct files, etc., then perform some decoding/unpacking, then modify the files, then re-encode/repack.

Don't forget about the custom Miiverse stamps!


[Edit]
I tried saving some images with different .PNG encoding settings, and eventually the BFLIM converter worked! However, they're appearing a bit glitchy in some parts. I'm seeing weird "interlace" lines of Link's face on all the level/challenge selection buttons, where the other players' faces appear when they vote. [Edit: Got them working. Turns out they were just ETC1A4-encoded images with BFLIM footers. Who knew!]

I've also learned that BFLIM images are for "Layouts"; menus, UIs, etc. and have corresponding BFLYT files that contain the "Layouts". A lot of the stuff that's still appearing green is probably controlled through these, but at the moment I have no knowledge of how to edit them.

[Edit]
Okay so I'm just looking for RGBA values in the archive of BFLYT/BFLAN files that look like green. We'll see what happens... XD

 

[HelpTheWretched]

4th consecutive post! Please don't yell at me -- I waited over a week between each post and had a significant update in each one!

This time? See the OP for an official release of the patch!

 

[TakashiShaw]

Ahhh! I hope you can get this into a CIA format soon! (I don't trust myself to not fuck this up xD)

 

[HelpTheWretched]

Oh hey! Didn't see your message. My computer with an FTP connection to my webspace is in the shop, and I'm about to head out of town for a week. I'll see about getting a CIA uploaded when I'm back!

The current LayeredFS release needs to be updated anyway, I forgot to change a few "green" quotes from the Doppel Master and castle guard.

 

[TakashiShaw]

Oh hey! Didn't see your message. My computer with an FTP connection to my webspace is in the shop, and I'm about to head out of town for a week. I'll see about getting a CIA uploaded when I'm back!

The current LayeredFS release needs to be updated anyway, I forgot to change a few "green" quotes from the Doppel Master and castle guard.

Awesome! I love me some Vio, so I'm really excited about this! I can hardly wait XD

 

[HelpTheWretched]

Hey everyone! I thought this post was worth another bump since I've updated the patch several times.

The included README.txt contains a changelog. The lastest update adds Purple Link to the ending artwork and has communication icons for all three US language settings (English, French, Spanish).

The last few bits are proving difficult to patch, so I'm going to make a thread soon which details them. I hope there are some true heroes ready and able to help!

 

[HelpTheWretched]

It's been 2 1/2 years and I finally got the means to edit particle files, so this patch has been updated! See the original post for details and download link.

 

[Siyar]

Can you make a Eur version? Thanks!

 

[LeedleFace]

Could you make a tutorial? I'd really like to know how to do this.