Homebrew How to make this?

[Inunah]

I have a lot of stories... I like DSReader, but I was wondering how I could make a .nds file for the purpose of reading these instead.. I think it would be a LOT better than just reading all the text on both screens, no line breaks or something to keep my eyes from completely bugging out over nothing but text.

What I'd like to do is make something that's similar to the format of Multipleption's "PokemonGhostBlackReTold.nds" thing. With white text on black on the bottom screen and a picture on top, as well as there being occasional music.... Maybe a story choice screen, too.


But because I have no knowledge of homebrew creation other than with that shitty DS Game Maker I couldn't figure out, I need some help..
But if I DO ever get this made, I'll probably release it to the public then allow requests so I can make more.

 

[Magmorph]

Are you asking how to make this or wanting someone to make it for you? If you want to make it yourself you would have to start learning C or C++.

 

[Inunah]

Are you asking how to make this or wanting someone to make it for you? If you want to make it yourself you would have to start learning C or C++.

Tried learning it once, but after 3 weeks I was still on the first lesson. I never understood it....

I was hoping to make it myself.... I was actually hoping for a premade program that makes what I want to make... But, alas, I guess I'll have to stick with DSReader. (Though, fuck that program. No sound or images.)

 

[nasune]

Well for story choice, pic on top screen, music etc. you can try vnds (visual novel ds). Problem is though, that you'll have to convert all your stories by hand, and I think that's quite a chore.

 

[Inunah]

Well for story choice, pic on top screen, music etc. you can try vnds (visual novel ds). Problem is though, that you'll have to convert all your stories by hand, and I think that's quite a chore.

Yeah... Plus I can't find any tutorials on how to make VNDS stories..... EDIT: found a wiki... Way less complicated than I thought, but... It's still too complicated than what I could ever manage right now.

And then there's the fact that even 1 VNDS story takes up more space than I can hold presently on my Micro SD.

 

[nasune]

Well, they are smaller soundless (fate/stay) is 'bout 77 mb I believe and here is the documentation for porting http://digital-haze.net/files/vnds/script_format.txt (still seems like a lot of work to me though, you)(you could try to modify an existing one though (replacing text/images etc.).

 

[Inunah]

Well, they are smaller soundless (fate/stay) is 'bout 77 mb I believe and here is the documentation for porting http://digital-haze.net/files/vnds/script_format.txt (still seems like a lot of work to me though).

That's a lot more work than it should be, plus 77mb is A LOT OF SPACE compared to how much space is left on my Micro SD... I know if I did it in vnds the size would be double that (I have a lot of stories), even without sound... So I don't think I want to use VNDS for such a thing.

EDIT: Plus, it would take me weeks to make something with VNDS. I was just originally hoping for something I could use that could take me around 30 mins to 1 hour to fix my stuff.

 

[nasune]

True, but honestly I think that's the closest you're gonna get at the moment unless you make it yourself (I don't know of any other similar programs to be honest), and if you want to make it yourself it's going to take even longer. You can try another reader though (I recommend DSlibris, it reads like a book, and the files are xhtml so it's easy to convert

)(oh and it has a reverse mode, ie white letters on a black background if I remember correctly).

 

[Inunah]

True, but honestly I think that's the closest you're gonna get at the moment unless you make it yourself (I don't know of any other similar programs to be honest), and if you want to make it yourself it's going to take even longer. You can try another reader though (I recommend DSlibris, it reads like a book, and the files are xhtml so it's easy to convert

)(oh and it has a reverse mode, ie white letters on a black background if I remember correctly).

.....DSReader has both too... But....

I wanted just one big file where that didn't have any external files to load from, where it could display pics and play music related to the story.

I haven't heard of one damned .nds file that can display specific pics and play specific music depending on the story and where you are in the story...Which is why I wanted to make my own .nds file...

But I guess not.

This sucks. It's hard enough reading all my stories without their respective pics and music, but now knowing that there isn't a way to fix that problem, I'll probably end up deleting DSReader, stories and all......

 

[nasune]

Well there are some story nds thingies that do have pics (I think molblins magical spear has it, and music) but those are all dedicated to one story (you could ask the programmers from those things to help, but honestly I doubt they'll help unless it happens to be stories they like too).
But you say you want a single nds file without any external files, I don't think that would be a good idea for it would be horribly constricting (the file would be dedicated to those stories and those stories alone, so everytime you'd want to add one story you'd have to rebuild the entire thing). As for filesizes, I don't think you'll get out of those (images and sound take quite a bit of space).

 

[Inunah]

Well there are some story nds thingies that do have pics (I think molblins magical spear has it, and music) but those are all dedicated to one story (you could ask the programmers from those things to help, but honestly I doubt they'll help unless it happens to be stories they like too).
But you say you want a single nds file without any external files, I don't think that would be a good idea for it would be horribly constricting (the file would be dedicated to those stories and those stories alone, so everytime you'd want to add one story you'd have to rebuild the entire thing). As for filesizes, I don't think you'll get out of those (images and sound take quite a bit of space).

Well, I'd obviously have a build that allows external files so I can add and subtract when needed...

But yeah, Molblin's Magic Spear was made by Multipleption, who made Pokemon Ghost Black ReTold.... Which is what made me want to do such a thing as make my own homebrew...

Also, I don't think that Multipleption will help someone without any knowledge of any programming languages make a homebrew similar to one of his..

EDIT: Much argh over this. First I can't hack my Wii, now I can't make something for myself. It's easier to buy a stolen car!

 

[nasune]

But then we'd get back to a vnds like system (perhaps with a different way of storing/encoding the stories though) in which case it might be simpler to try and create an automating tool for the converting for vnds.
Still I think that the problem with the space remains either way, unless you want to use (the same) stock sounds/images for all the stories in which case the whole ballgame changes and you would be better off trying to create your own version. Do keep in mind though that I am no programmer myself, so I can't tell you if there would be a more efficient way of storing the images/sound to reduce filesize.

 

[Inunah]

But then we'd get back to a vnds like system (perhaps with a different way of storing/encoding the stories though) in which case it might be simpler to try and create an automating tool for the converting for vnds.
Still I think that the problem with the space remains either way, unless you want to use (the same) stock sounds/images for all the stories in which case the whole ballgame changes and you would be better off trying to create your own version. Do keep in mind though that I am no programmer myself, so I can't tell you if there would be a more efficient way of storing the images/sound to reduce filesize.

You just lost me.

 

[nasune]

What I mean is that by creating a homebrew program which can use external files to create the story with text and images you get a program that is very similar to vnds itself, although by doing it yourself you can implement a different way of storing the data (text images and sound). If this happens it might just be easier to create a program to automate the process of converting for vnds (you do not have to create a new program, decide how you are going to store the data, and create a converter to easily convert your stories into the format you've chosen).
The space on the other hand will remain to be a problem due to the fact that images and sound simply takes more space then simple text files. There are ways to decrease the size of the files through reduction of the quality of the sourcefile, or through compression (I'm not sure if the DS is powerfull enough to do so on the fly while running the rest of the program).
The final way to reduce the amount of space needed would be to use stock images/sounds for all your stories (meaning that you will use the same generic images or pieces of music for all your stories (for example the pokemon sprites in the first pokemon games (when you check on your party)). This would allow you to only use different (external) text files while you only need a couple of images and a few pieces of music which can be embedded in the program, thus saving space. The problem with this however is that you'll be forced to use only those few images/sounds. (remember I'm no programmer so I have no idea how to implement any of this, I can merely speculate on it)

 

[Inunah]

That's sort of what I wanted to do in the first place..... *Yawn*

This is starting to get complicated though....

Most of the time I never finish anything complicated. Like puzzles. Or games like Professor Layton.

....Damn, it sounded so simple when I thought of it... I guess I'll have to abandon this project.

EDIT: Unless someone knows of a 30 minute C++ course for stuff like this that I'll understand?