[IPS] Moemon Fire Red Revival Project (Updated 9-17-2019)

[Rache]

Noctowl version 1. Ended up not having access to the thread while making it, so just designed from scratch.

[Moetal]

@Lache

EDIT: Her upper body looks a bit funny with the ridiculously short right arm and long head, and the lower body feels NSFW. It took me like a while before I realize she had a book on her lap. At first I thought she was taking off her pantsu since you apparently decided to shade the book with the flesh tones. Design wise it's cute, though it lacks a bit of Noctowl characteristics. Try moving the top of the head down a bit, fatten the left arm and enlarge the right arm. The book below looks alright now.

[Rache]

@Lache

Her upper body looks alright, but the lower body feels NSFW. It took me like a while before I realize she had a book on her lap. At first I thought she was taking off her pantsu since you apparently decided to shade the book with the flesh tones.

I... Didn't think of that. Flesh tones were the only ones light enough to use on it. Dropped most of the darker shading to make more obvious that it's a book.

[Rache]

Re-edit: flattened head and enlarged arms.

[Moetal]

@Lache

I feel the head shape is a bit weird after your edit (I think it's the right side). The left arm/hand needs to be fatten a bit more due to the glove. The other arm is good. Comparing to your Hoothoot, I feel this is smaller size than your Hoothoot.

[Swirly]

I found this topic recently and have fallen in love (I'm quite sad the pace slowed down though...)! After reading through, I decided to try and help you guys by making a sprite.
 
OH MY ARCEUS CAN I NOT SPRITE. 

 

[spoiler]

 

WHAT EVEN IS THIS. It originally was supposed to be a yandere Sneasel-thing... It slowly transformed into a balloon. It is literally the worst thing ever.

[/spoiler]

 

If the topic ever picks back up again, I would like to TRY and help (I probably would be useless though. D:)

[SachiShimazu]

Swirly, let me just say that your sneasel is ten times better than the one I created. I'm glad that I'm not the only one who has attempted the sprite, and I've felt the same way about my being the the topic. I'm sure with the help of Moetal and Rache this could be usable unlike the one I made.

 

I think the first issue that they will address it the shading of the gijinka though.

[Moetal]

@Swirly

Plan out and organize your palette first: three tones for skin, four tones for hair, one black, one white, one gray, one background. 

[Reve]

Hey i was wondering, does anyone happen to know what software I should use to sprite swap nds pokemon games? to be more specific, D/P versions?

[Swirly]

@Sachi

Thank you for the compliment. I knew the major issue was shading. She kinda looks like plastic...

 

@Moetal

Ah, you actually responded~! I see what part of my problem was then, as I thought two skin would be fine. If I get around to it, I'll try and edit.

[BrainSlugs83]

Wow, @RacheLucario, that Noctowl is looking pretty good IMO. -- Honestly though, I kind of liked the first one best.

 

Anyway... I was wondering, how active is this project? -- and is there like a github somewhere or something... -- The first post seems to have been not updated in a long time (some of the links are dead or out of date) -- the IPS patch works great though on the English version -- I was hoping there was a source available, but the link to the source images package seems to be very out of date -- I've been playing Moemon Fire Red all week, and those don't look anything like the Moemon added by the 1.4 IPS patch... (The starter pokemon, also, Butterfree, Beedrill for sure...)

Also, in the IPS patch, a lot of things are still stock (like the opening sequence, the trainer, etc.) . . . is the IPS patch in post #1 (version 1.4) the latest version of "Moemon - Fire Red"?

 

FYI: I'm a professional software developer -- and while I have a pretty limited GBA hacking experience, I'm wondering if there's anyway I can help out with the project -- I'm pretty tech savy...

[Rache]

Wow, @RacheLucario, that Noctowl is looking pretty good IMO. -- Honestly though, I kind of liked the first one best.

 

Anyway... I was wondering, how active is this project? -- and is there like a github somewhere or something... -- The first post seems to have been not updated in a long time (some of the links are dead or out of date) -- the IPS patch works great though on the English version -- I was hoping there was a source available, but the link to the source images package seems to be very out of date -- I've been playing Moemon Fire Red all week, and those don't look anything like the Moemon added by the 1.4 IPS patch... (The starter pokemon, also, Butterfree, Beedrill for sure...)

Also, in the IPS patch, a lot of things are still stock (like the opening sequence, the trainer, etc.) . . . is the IPS patch in post #1 (version 1.4) the latest version of "Moemon - Fire Red"?

 

FYI: I'm a professional software developer -- and while I have a pretty limited GBA hacking experience, I'm wondering if there's anyway I can help out with the project -- I'm pretty tech savy...

The main/best spriter we have currently isn't working on this unless I'm mistaken, and I'm usually pretty busy. Perhaps I'll find some time to work on fixing some of the ones I didn't get around to making backsprites for soon. Maybe we'll see a new version if I complete them all - who knows?

 

The main/probably-only source for the images in the patch are in the thread and rom itself as quite a few were made specifically for this. 1.4 is indeed the latest patch.

 

The rest of the answers I'll leave to Moetal~ More spriters are always appreciated though~

[Moetal]

@Brain

I'm not a very skilled spriter, and I rather not waste other's time making sprites that won't go anywhere. Magi is undead again, so the project is snail-pace for a while now. The opening sequence was never changed, nor the trainer. Those are optional changes you can do personally.

 

Moemon 1.4 is the latest patch at the moment. 

 

Can you try to code a program to import and export both 64x64 pixel and 160x80 pixel images for Heartgold rom?

 

Heartgold has four sprite sheets, all 160 wide x80 tall. Each sheet is as follow:

1. Male front x2 (for animation)

2. Female front x2 (for animation)

3. Male back x2 (for animation)

4. Female back x2 (for animation)

At least two palette for each Pokemon

 

I'm looking for a program that can import the sprites in or out of the rom as 64x64, 128x64, 256x64 or 160x80, autosync palette for normal/shiny variation, and to position them.

Edited December 12, 2014 by Moetal

[BrainSlugs83]

@Brain

I'm not a very skilled spriter, and I rather not waste other's time making sprites that won't go anywhere. Magi is undead again, so the project is snail-pace for a while now. The opening sequence was never changed, nor the trainer. Those are optional changes you can do personally.

 

Moemon 1.4 is the latest patch at the moment. 

 

Can you try to code a program to import and export both 64x64 pixel and 160x80 pixel images for Heartgold rom?

 

Heartgold has four sprite sheets, all 160 wide x80 tall. Each sheet is as follow:

1. Male front x2 (for animation)

2. Female front x2 (for animation)

3. Male back x2 (for animation)

4. Female back x2 (for animation)

At least two palette for each Pokemon

 

I'm looking for a program that can import the sprites in or out of the rom as 64x64, 128x64, 256x64 or 160x80, autosync palette for normal/shiny variation, and to position them.

 

Maybe.  Are you looking for a Windows application? -- I'm assuming you want a GUI, and not like a command-line tool (not a big deal, but just confirming). -- I'm assuming you have no preference if I make the tool open source or not (I'm a proponent of open sourcing these types of things, so that if I fall off the planet, someone else can pickup where I left off).

 

I haven't googled anything yet, but in the interests of not duplicating the effort, do you already know:

Are the technical details of this process available somewhere? (Is someone already doing this? Is the way the images are stored in the ROM documented somewhere? -- or am I pioneering this from scratch? -- if the latter it could take a bit longer, and has a lower chance of success as IT may involve some low-level crazy debugging and such, and I might not necessarily be able to figure it out in a timely manner...) -- working with low level bits and bytes is not a big deal for me, as long as I have a document/map of how those bits and bytes should be interpreted; reverse-engineering on the other hand could be a little more painful.

 

 

EDIT: Also, I haven't done any DS emulation yet, what's the best emulator for playing the games (in your opinion), [and if different: what's the best emulator for doing technical stuff, debugging, dissassembling, etc. -- or are there any tools available right now for any of this?)

 

 

Almost Finally:

I found a copy of the Heart Gold ROM; but I want to make sure we're using the same version -- can I confirm the following with you?

 

File Name (not necessarily relevant): 4780 - Pokemon HeartGold (U)(Xenophobia).nds

 

Important:

• File Size: Exactly 128 MB (134217728 bytes)
• One of the following:
  • SHA1 File Hash: 30793E274FB4C7BA070AE226EDBDFE355504B1F5
  • MD5 File Hash: AE2A483D0A5E8130D39F44F41A86DF57
  • SHA256 File Hash: 2767E2CB80ACC206074232C10A3B74A479E45A472F2EF9F84BBFC55E36AD962D

(As long as we have the same file size and one of the file hashes matches, we know it's very high probability that we have the same exact file.)

 

 

Finally-Finally:

Is there another thread more appropriate for discussing this heart-gold work or is this thread okay?

Edited December 12, 2014 by BrainSlugs83

[Moetal]

@Brain

This thread is fine for the heart-gold work; some activity will keep it looking alive.

 

I've been using programs called Nitro Explorer 2 and PokeDSPic DP, but they're both not very user friendly. Maybe you can look into those two and see if you can improve upon it? 

 

The program itself should be pretty universal for most Heartgold rom, but mine is just named as Pokemon - HeartGold.nds with 128 MB (134,217,728 bytes) like your. I actually don't have an emulator for Heartgold, so I rely on PokeMMO (although to be honest I've barely scratched the surface in modding HG roms).

[Swirly]

@Brain

Unfortunately, the thing with HGSS roms is that they are never very easy to use. Due to the anti-hacking measures put into the games (and probably some other things too), the roms will be volatile. I think some hacks can try to make them more stable, but crashing and such will still occur. The emulator rarely effects stability as well. You just have to be careful when trying to do things with it. 

[BrainSlugs83]

@Brain

This thread is fine for the heart-gold work; some activity will keep it looking alive.

 

I've been using programs called Nitro Explorer 2 and PokeDSPic DP, but they're both not very user friendly. Maybe you can look into those two and see if you can improve upon it? 

 

The program itself should be pretty universal for most Heartgold rom, but mine is just named as Pokemon - HeartGold.nds with 128 MB (134,217,728 bytes) like your. I actually don't have an emulator for Heartgold, so I rely on PokeMMO (although to be honest I've barely scratched the surface in modding HG roms).

Interesting.  Yeah, I hadn't realized there was a file system in there.  Embedded development has come along ways since I last looked at this stuff. -- I spent today spinning up a quick application that can at least read the NitroFS in the pokemon HG rom that I have -- it's a little bit hacky and will need a bit of improvement to work with other roms or with modified HG roms, but I think this is a good start to verify I'm at least getting the same data out of the NitroFS as ndstool.exe is . . .

 

@Brain

Unfortunately, the thing with HGSS roms is that they are never very easy to use. Due to the anti-hacking measures put into the games (and probably some other things too), the roms will be volatile. I think some hacks can try to make them more stable, but crashing and such will still occur. The emulator rarely effects stability as well. You just have to be careful when trying to do things with it. 

 

Interesting.  When you say anti-hacking measures, are we talking technical obstacles (like cryptographic digital signatures and such) -- or are you meaning something like copy protection (like it makes you register your email or Nintendo account or something? -- or even those super old games, like C64 days, would have you type in the Xth word from the Yth paragraph on the Zth page of the manual, or you had to use one of those spinning paper wheels with the symbols, etc...)

 

I'm a little worried as is, that I can't just write modified data back to the ROM, I'll need to at the least re-generate some checksums or hashes somewhere, so that will take some digging, but if there's specific cryptographic protection or something we have to worry about, then things get even more painful...

Edited December 13, 2014 by BrainSlugs83

[Swirly]

@Brain

I've only heard it being anti-hacking, the phrasing never really going any deeper than that. But I assume the measure are for things like no illegal downloading (AKA: Downloading it from anywhere), of course I could be wrong . From what I've seen, when the measures activate, sprites explode into glitch-y blobs and freezes are more likely to occur by doing anything. I've yet to see anyone be able to get around those problems except with resetting the rom. However, I'm not sure if that could effect the spriting of the pokemon but I'm telling you just incase. :D

[SachiShimazu]

I feel like i should have a go at another sprite to make myself feel useful on this, but last time I tried that... it didn't turn out that great. I was thinking Sudowoodo would do with a slight update, slightly better shading and features but the same design. I'll make an attempt, but it's probably not going to look nice.

[BrainSlugs83]

@Brain

I've only heard it being anti-hacking, the phrasing never really going any deeper than that. But I assume the measure are for things like no illegal downloading (AKA: Downloading it from anywhere), of course I could be wrong . From what I've seen, when the measures activate, sprites explode into glitch-y blobs and freezes are more likely to occur by doing anything. I've yet to see anyone be able to get around those problems except with resetting the rom. However, I'm not sure if that could effect the spriting of the pokemon but I'm telling you just incase. :D

 

Nice, I'll remember to name all my HGSS-pokemon, "Missing No.". XD -- Do these glitches happen if you play the modded rom on a real DS? (I have a 3DS and am thinking of purchasing a Gateway 3DS cartridge . . .)

 

FYI: @Moetal, Christmas and work are eating up my time right now, but after Christmas, I should have more time to focus on this.  The comment about using "Nitro Explorer 2" was helpful, I found a copy and it was built using the .NET framework (which is my preferred dev. stack -- .NET is awesome) -- so I was able to peek at the decompiled source code and see how it works (using a tool called ILSpy). -- I haven't looked at the other tool yet.

[Swirly]

@Brain

I'm not actually sure. I think they might work better, but I've never seen anyone play a HGSS rom on a handheld.Sorry I can't be more helpful with that.

[Reve]

@Brian

STOP last time i heard from nintendo, they updated the software on the 3ds to pretty much brick itself when illegal cartriges are put in it, such as the gateway one.
then again i also saw that the people making the gateway cartriges were looking for a way around this update to prevent the 3ds from locking itself.

 

 

Also, i think its only with the rom and not the physical cartridge were things go missingno mode. I was playing a HGSS rom in my ds emulator on my pc aaaaaaaand next thing i know after playing past the rival battle everyone turns into missingno. I have a friend with an actual HGSS game and he hasnt told me this happens.

[BrainSlugs83]

@Brian

STOP last time i heard from nintendo, they updated the software on the 3ds to pretty much brick itself when illegal cartriges are put in it, such as the gateway one.
then again i also saw that the people making the gateway cartriges were looking for a way around this update to prevent the 3ds from locking itself.

 

 

Also, i think its only with the rom and not the physical cartridge were things go missingno mode. I was playing a HGSS rom in my ds emulator on my pc aaaaaaaand next thing i know after playing past the rival battle everyone turns into missingno. I have a friend with an actual HGSS game and he hasnt told me this happens.

 

Yeah, I'm just wondering if it's the rom that's bad, or the emulator (or a combination of both) -- i.e.: I wonder how the Rom would play on real hardware... -- But, man, 3DS flash carts are fucking awful (I used to have a GBA SP + Flash cart and it worked pretty well... kind of wishing I had that back now. XD)  ... anyway...

[Asakano]

Yeah, I'm just wondering if it's the rom that's bad, or the emulator (or a combination of both) -- i.e.: I wonder how the Rom would play on real hardware... -- But, man, 3DS flash carts are fucking awful (I used to have a GBA SP + Flash cart and it worked pretty well... kind of wishing I had that back now. XD)  ... anyway...

I've played a good bit of HG on an emulator and never ran into this issue, I was only told about it when playing a romhack of it with a friend, he just told me to save and restart if it happened. Apparently the rom (And save file) will be perfectly fine after that reset.

[Swirly]

KLRJWELFIJEWLFNWELKF. Spriting is more difficult than it needs to be! Shading is also very evil. :(

 

[spoiler]

Yandere Sneasel V2. It looks very little like the first one. It was to loom less like the Glameow base. I've gotta say I personally like the eyes, they actually came out well.

 

[/spoiler]

 

On a seperate note, I slightly changed the Muk's face so it'll look less... Uh, whatever it was.

 

[spoiler]

 

I simply extended the eyes down one/two extra pixel(s) and added a bit of a smirk to the mouth. I personally think it looks a bit cuter.

 

By the way... THE RED. IT HURTS. BUT I CAN'T FIND ANOTHER COLOR I COULD USE AS A BG. Sorry for caps.

[spoiler]

Not really.

[/spoiler]

[/spoiler]

Edited December 20, 2014 by Swirly