ROM Hack Fire Emblem Fates: ROM Hacking General Thread

[Dylos]

Trying to figure out the fst.bin because I can't get the python script that is supposed to build it to work.

Ok, so I realize what the first set of bytes is, it's file size, like just about every other file in Fates, but 0x4, 0x8, and 0x20 confuse me a little. 0x8 and 0x20 are the same value, am I correct in assuming that this is the number of entries in the fst.bin? And 0x4 seems to be a pointer for the end of the pointer table?

Are both these assumptions correct?

 

[DeathChaos]

Trying to figure out the fst.bin because I can't get the python script that is supposed to build it to work.

Ok, so I realize what the first set of bytes is, it's file size, like just about every other file in Fates, but 0x4, 0x8, and 0x20 confuse me a little. 0x8 and 0x20 are the same value, am I correct in assuming that this is the number of entries in the fst.bin? And 0x4 seems to be a pointer for the end of the pointer table?

Are both these assumptions correct?

Every bin file has the same structure, and yes, 0x8 and 0x20 should be the same.

0x0 is filesize, 0x4 is a pointer to start of pointer region, 0x8 is the amount of pointers in pointers region.

If 0x20 is used, it is the amount of entries, which is usually the same as 0x8.

The file is composed of pointers to labels at the end of the file, all these labels are the filepaths of every single file packed within the DLC.

Every file needs a pointer, and every pointer needs a pointer to it in the pointers table.

You should read the main post for the wiki where it explains the bin file format.

 

[Dylos]

So I got halfway through making my fst.bin before I realized the python script did work...

Guess I only need to work on the local folder now...

 

[Dylos]

Ok, I got my DLC to install, YAY, but something is wrong with recruitment. The files transfer to ExData and then the game crashes rather then recruiting the characters.

Here's pictures of Lyn in my game, with the right picture (It needs to be edited for better placement) there's another character in my DLC as well, but since the recruitment script didn't work I need to either add him manually using FeFTwiddler or fix my script to recruit properly.

I've also included my DLC, which as I've said doesn't work properly currently, but the characters can be added with FeFTwiddler, Lyndis is 4c 79 and the other character is 52 6f.

EDIT:Inserted the second character into my game, his image is improperly done -.- he crashes the game.

 

[Dylos]

Ok, now this one doesn't crash, and the additional character works now.

Small issue, the characters aren't auto recruited, the DLC just installs them into the ExData. 7z is the DLC, and the Rar contains both characters at level 1 .

 

[Omegablu]

Ok, now this one doesn't crash, and the additional character works now.

Small issue, the characters aren't auto recruited, the DLC just installs them into the ExData. 7z is the DLC, and the Rar contains both characters at level 1 .

Recruitment has to deal with the files in the Local\Dispos folder. Replace a PID in one of those files with the PIDs of your characters and repoint as necessary if you added or removed bytes.

 

[Dylos]

Recruitment has to deal with the files in the Local\Dispos folder. Replace a PID in one of those files with the PIDs of your characters and repoint as necessary if you added or removed bytes.

The thing is, I thought I did. I'll have to check, there's another small issue too, the game thinks Roy is female.

EDIT: And Roy's map sprite is headless as a mounted class...kinda bad since I have him cavalier. Also Roy and Lyndis both have the wrong hair colors...

EDIT2: And Roy's portrait is misplaced in a few places...oddly Lyndis doesn't seem to suffer from this.

 

[BeFondOfJohn]

So I'm pretty garbage at this. Not really following how to find certain characters or classes? I am trying to make a boss playable and also edit classes stat caps so I can essentially make my own personal boss with the stats I want. And maybe edit the actual text of the class? Like maybe replace mozu's PID (wherever I'd find that) with Garon's, and have already edited garon's class or starting stats to have with what I want? Would someone mind pointing me in the right direction? Would I need to hack the ROM to achieve this or can I just use a save and replace one of my current characters PID with Garon's? Then Find the current stats and modify them without evening dealing with the class? Sorry for all the questions/ideas. I'm just trying to think of any possibilities I can.

 

[Omegablu]

So I'm pretty garbage at this. Not really following how to find certain characters or classes? I am trying to make a boss playable and also edit classes stat caps so I can essentially make my own personal boss with the stats I want. And maybe edit the actual text of the class? Like maybe replace mozu's PID (wherever I'd find that) with Garon's, and have already edited garon's class or starting stats to have with what I want? Would someone mind pointing me in the right direction? Would I need to hack the ROM to achieve this or can I just use a save and replace one of my current characters PID with Garon's? Then Find the current stats and modify them without evening dealing with the class? Sorry for all the questions/ideas. I'm just trying to think of any possibilities I can.

Or you could just use Deathchaos' dlc that gives you Garon, Mikoto, Sumeragi, Arete, Lillith, and a generic witch to save yourself a ton of headache.

 

[BeFondOfJohn]

Or you could just use Deathchaos' dlc that gives you Garon, Mikoto, Sumeragi, Arete, Lillith, and a generic witch to save yourself a ton of headache.

Sure but that won't help me in the long run. So if I use the DLC, how do I go about making the stats what I want?

 

[Omegablu]

Sure but that won't help me in the long run. So if I use the DLC, how do I go about making the stats what I want?

Do you want to edit caps or current stats? Either are possible with a save editor called FEFTwiddler.

 

[thane98]

Has anyone else tried retexturing Fates character models? I've noticed some odd behaviors while trying to swap out textures.

Strangely enough, I can swap out map textures without issue. I tried a couple of different maps, and each time my changes showed up perfectly in game. Here's an example of some small edits to one of the My Castle maps:

Spoiler

On the other hand, editing character textures leads to some odd results. Some aspects of the changes show up fine, but others lead to black textures in game. As a result, the changes look pretty bad in game - if you want to see what the changes look like, I'll leave a screenshot below.

Spoiler

I'm not sure how other textures would behave given these inconsistencies. For all we know, everything but character textures could be easy to swap out, but it's tough to tell. Has anyone else tried doing some retexturing with Fates yet? More specifically, has anyone found a way to change character textures without such a huge quality loss in game?

 

[Grima]

I've done a few attempts at texture editing character models...
https://imgur.com/a/mAs5h
I used Ohana for the face texture and the portrait changing method for the hair. Both didn't quite go as planned as they're glitchy and shiny.

 

[DeathChaos]

Don't use Ohana's bch replacer, you get this;

But if you do an actual texture edit, like so, the textures seem to be "glossy" and shiny, also note that to make this a bch file, since I only know how to make a bch from 1 texture, I had to delete the "injured" texture to test this which would cause the game to crash if the injured texture ever got called;

The textures look awfully transparent and non viewable because they are compressed, you need to use this to decompress the normal textures and be able to view them properly;
http://www.vg-resource.com/thread-26680.html

 

[BeFondOfJohn]

Do you want to edit caps or current stats? Either are possible with a save editor called FEFTwiddler.

Oh really? Mind to tell me how to edit the caps on there? I messed around with the hex editor for a while and couldn't figure it out. I really appreciate the help you've given me so far too by the way. EDIT: Nevermind! got it! Finally. aye yi yi

 

[thane98]

snip

Yeah, I avoided using Ohana's texture replacer with my edits. I exported to png with Ohana, converted the png images to tga, then ctex, then compiled them into a single bch file.

What method are you using for creating your .bch? With the official tools, you can just input multiple arguments during conversion to compile with multiple textures. That's how I recompressed the map textures without running into issues.

That tools looks interesting though. I wonder if editing the uncompressed textures led to the issues I was having. Is there any way to recompress the textures after you're done editing them?

 

[DeathChaos]

Oh? Yes I'm using the DevTools, what would the argument be for multiple files in a single bch?

And no, I didn't compress the textures again, or rather, I simply don't know how, but I think they might just look like that regardless of whether or not we compress them.

 

[thane98]

Oh? Yes I'm using the DevTools, what would the argument be for multiple files in a single bch?

And no, I didn't compress the textures again, or rather, I simply don't know how, but I think they might just look like that regardless of whether or not we compress them.

I get the feeling that the textures might look different if they were recompressed, though I guess that I'll have to look into that.

All you need to do for recompressing multiple components into the same bch is list every file you want in the command. So if I wanted to recompress both textures for Azura, the command would look like:

h3dbincvtr -o=output.bch uBody_F_star_0_cl0n_P.ctex uBody_F_star_0_cl0d_P.ctex

Edit: Okay, recompressing the textures is actually pretty simple. All you really do with Texture Remix is split the image into two images, one for the alpha channel and one for the RGB channels. To recompress, you just recombine the split images by using the channels from the corresponding images. I'm going to test these edits in game and see if I get better results.

 

[TildeHat]

I did this by throwing the png into an image editor and splitting up the alpha channel there.
Worked out pretty well but some textures end up getting messed up through file conversions(Gunter's Great Knight's doesn't want to cooperate).

 

[thane98]

snip

Well in that case, I guess Azura's textures just don't want to cooperate. How did you go about replacing your textures after editing? I'd like to see if I can edit some sort of character texture without it looking messed up in game.