ROM Hack Fire Emblem Fates: ROM Hacking General Thread

[Omegablu]

is there a tutoral for this? for pointers and dlc?

No, not really.

 

[Thunder Kai]

No, not really.

then how can i do it? ;-;

 

[EmblemCrossing]

then how can i do it? ;-;

Gotta learn like the rest of us. Most of the information is in this thread, and if it isnt, you ask questions to people that do. That's apparently how everyone learns what they don't know in the Fates hacking scene lmao

 

[Dylos]

Working backwards from another dlc character helps a lot as well, even if you are using the cipher characters as a start.

 

[EmblemCrossing]

Working backwards from another dlc character helps a lot as well, even if you are using the cipher characters as a start.

Agreed.. I started out researching by looking through Omegablu's dlc and found a lot of things on my own. Especially script files and portraits. The hard part for me comes from rebulding..

On the bright side, my art major friend said she'd make my portraits for my OC, so if all goes well, my OC is going to look really well done put into Fates. Almost like a real character :o

 

[Omegablu]

@Thunder Kai
Like EmblemCrossing and Dylos said, learn from others. I started by asking Deathchaos LOTS of questions, and did several small projects (the characters in v1 of my dlc) before trying to tackle anything huge. By now, generating a character block is a piece of cake which lets me work on harder or more complex tasks. Reverse engineering helps as well, especially for anything that people don't have answers for.

 

[EmblemCrossing]

probably a dumb question, if i wanted to use Elise's dress on another character, would I be stuck using her short ass model? I've seen character's accesories moved around from one to another, like Elise's dress on Kana's body, and Kana's scarf being put on someone else, but I'd imagine it's not possible..

I guess Forrest's outfit would suffice, but it isnt poofy enough ;-;

 

[whitewolf8]

I think body models are stretched and stuff depending on the character.

 

[Roythekids5]

It was so unfair to learn by yourself xD but then i learned why i needed to learn for myself THIS DLC THINGS ARE SO CONFUSING Image if someone tell you your brain will explode
However is wonderful when you feel capable to do a Custom DLC but edit the files is so difficult...
At least for me

 

[Omegablu]

It was so unfair to learn by yourself xD but then i learned why i needed to learn for myself THIS DLC THINGS ARE SO CONFUSING Image if someone tell you your brain will explode
However is wonderful when you feel capable to do a Custom DLC but edit the files is so difficult...
At least for me

Yeah, I took like a week just to understand the basic character file with a very good diagram. Once you get the basics down everything else becomes very easy.

 

[thane98]

Okay, after spending way too much time working with sound I FINALLY managed to add music to the base game. It's still impossible to add in new sound entries, but I found a way to avoid needing to do that. The base game includes a lot of sounds which see no usage in game. By removing them from their sound set and changing their type from internal file to external file, you can convert one of these files into a music file, which you can then play in a map. For testing, I took a dummy sound effect (SE_DUMMY) and removed it from its sound set. Afterwards, I gave it an external entry in the file table and changed its audio settings to those used by the map music. To hear it in game, I just had to take a map's config and change the music to SE_DUMMY.

So, would anyone be interested in a modified BCSAR that you can use to add in custom music? I could probably throw together a version with about 40-50 new music entries by re-purposing unused sound entries. Since music files are all stored outside of the file, all you'd have to do is add your new music to the stream folder to play it in game. If you combined that with the ability to add in new voice sets through custom DLC, you could potentially add in any sound that you want for a hack.

 

[Roythekids5]

Okay, after spending way too much time working with sound I FINALLY managed to add music to the base game. It's still impossible to add in new sound entries, but I found a way to avoid needing to do that. The base game includes a lot of sounds which see no usage in game. By removing them from their sound set and changing their type from internal file to external file, you can convert one of these files into a music file, which you can then play in a map. For testing, I took a dummy sound effect (SE_DUMMY) and removed it from its sound set. Afterwards, I gave it an external entry in the file table and changed its audio settings to those used by the map music. To hear it in game, I just had to take a map's config and change the music to SE_DUMMY.

So, would anyone be interested in a modified BCSAR that you can use to add in custom music? I could probably throw together a version with about 40-50 new music entries by re-purposing unused sound entries. Since music files are all stored outside of the file, all you'd have to do is add your new music to the stream folder to play it in game. If you combined that with the ability to add in new voice sets through custom DLC, you could potentially add in any sound that you want for a hack.

INSERT DISTANTS SKIES ROY FROM FE6 AND ATTACK THEME <3
LOVE THIS INFORMATION

 

[FlappyFalco]

Okay, after spending way too much time working with sound I FINALLY managed to add music to the base game. It's still impossible to add in new sound entries, but I found a way to avoid needing to do that. The base game includes a lot of sounds which see no usage in game. By removing them from their sound set and changing their type from internal file to external file, you can convert one of these files into a music file, which you can then play in a map. For testing, I took a dummy sound effect (SE_DUMMY) and removed it from its sound set. Afterwards, I gave it an external entry in the file table and changed its audio settings to those used by the map music. To hear it in game, I just had to take a map's config and change the music to SE_DUMMY.

So, would anyone be interested in a modified BCSAR that you can use to add in custom music? I could probably throw together a version with about 40-50 new music entries by re-purposing unused sound entries. Since music files are all stored outside of the file, all you'd have to do is add your new music to the stream folder to play it in game. If you combined that with the ability to add in new voice sets through custom DLC, you could potentially add in any sound that you want for a hack.

CUSTOM VOICE SETS?!?! MY HALF UNDUB WILL SOON BE COMPLETE!!

So yeah, I'd be willing to test whatever you put out. Great work getting to this point.

Also, did you happen to see this?

https://github.com/soneek/NW4ArchiveTools

Granted, it hasn't been touched in two weeks, but it's still very interesting. However, judging by the name it'll involve copyrighted code, so your method might be better if you intend to release a ROM hack.

 

[thane98]

CUSTOM VOICE SETS?!?! MY HALF UNDUB WILL SOON BE COMPLETE!!

So yeah, I'd be willing to test whatever you put out. Great work getting to this point.

Also, did you happen to see this?

https://github.com/soneek/NW4ArchiveTools

Granted, it hasn't been touched in two weeks, but it's still very interesting. However, judging by the name it'll involve copyrighted code, so your method might be better if you intend to release a ROM hack.

I actually didn't see that project. To be honest, I set up something similar to help with my editing. Looking through the code, it looks like we're at roughly the same point in terms of actual sound editing. The only limiting factor is the second part of the STRG section - you need to add a block there for the archive to process names correctly, but it's not a particularly easy block to add.

 

[Grima]

I know I ask a lot of questions regarding hacking Fates, and I appreciate all knowledge I get from everyone. So I want to apologize in advance for souding so ignorant.

I was working on a custom version of the Astral Dragon class for DeathChaos's human Lilith DLC. I made it so she can wield Shuriken, Staves, and Breath weapons. I am attempting to assign the class the Maid animations for Shuriken/Staff usage, as of right now, she uses what the game uses as a default animation. There's also the porblem with the breath weapons not having any effects, but that's an issue for another day. Anyways, I was in the ROM2 file, and I believe I edited what set of animations the class uses. I changed the name of the data from "uAnim_N_Lilis_non" to "uAnim_F_MaidL_non". I took the maid animations and named them accordingly. However, these animations aren't used in the game. She still uses the default ones, unfortunately. Is there something forgot to edit in regards to the animations? Thank you so much, and again, I apologize for asking so many questions.

 

[thane98]

Alright, I threw together an edited version of Fates' BCSAR with 40 unused sounds converted to external files. You should be able to simply take one of the names listed in the readme and use it to add custom music to your hack. Instructions/sound names are given in the readme, though the usage should be pretty simple.

Here's a download for anyone interested: link

 

[TildeHat]

I know I ask a lot of questions regarding hacking Fates, and I appreciate all knowledge I get from everyone. So I want to apologize in advance for souding so ignorant.

I was working on a custom version of the Astral Dragon class for DeathChaos's human Lilith DLC. I made it so she can wield Shuriken, Staves, and Breath weapons. I am attempting to assign the class the Maid animations for Shuriken/Staff usage, as of right now, she uses what the game uses as a default animation. There's also the porblem with the breath weapons not having any effects, but that's an issue for another day. Anyways, I was in the ROM2 file, and I believe I edited what set of animations the class uses. I changed the name of the data from "uAnim_N_Lilis_non" to "uAnim_F_MaidL_non". I took the maid animations and named them accordingly. However, these animations aren't used in the game. She still uses the default ones, unfortunately. Is there something forgot to edit in regards to the animations? Thank you so much, and again, I apologize for asking so many questions.

The label to use the maid animation is uAnim_F_Order2_Maid_non.

 

[Grima]

So even if I made a custom label for the animations and renamed the maid animations accordingly, it wouldn't work?

 

[TildeHat]

Labels for animations need to be in the aset file to be used. So unless you rename all the labels there(which will in turn prevent the maid from using those animations if you don't change the label in ROM2) it won't work.

It's just easier to change the pointer to the label in ROM2 to be the same as the one as the maid's.

 

[Grima]

Unless I'm misunderstanding you, I believe I did what you're saying. I changed the label in the Astral Dragon part of the asset file. Then I copied and pasted the maid animations and renamed them to what I changed the label to. The normal maid still uses the correct animations. But Lilith isn't.