.lvl files -

ParamiteSurprise · #91 08-30-2007, 11:45 AM

Yeah, no entry till tomorrow - lol MWAHAAHAHAHAHA WAHAHA... erm..

sorry..

Paul · #92 09-01-2007, 11:14 AM

trying to figure out these file formats is PISSING ME OFF and thats an understatement, however I can read fonts, although dont know which palette to use or even how to read palettes, and managed to figure out how to read some frames from the gamespeak, thats all the news there is for now :/

Admiral Zaarin · #93 09-15-2007, 01:04 AM

What kind of tools do you use besides HEX editor? Sorry for such a question, I'm not too much experienced in programming.

Paul · #94 09-15-2007, 04:32 AM

some stuff I made myself for quick hex>dec or hex>binary etc or swapping the byte sex
and I use OllDbg for the disasm.. and any c/c++ compiler for making quick tools

oh and as an update on this topic, Im somewhat close to figuring out type 3 ban files, they have some werid pesudo compression

Admiral Zaarin · #95 09-15-2007, 06:30 AM

Thanks! I hope you'll be able to make the level editor as fast as possible! Sometimes I was also trying to work on this problem but seized all the work due to some reason (and I had not enaugh patience

).

Paul · #96 09-15-2007, 06:33 AM

a level editor is still way off, understanding the resource formats is my 1st task, if you want to make a level editor get to work on reversing the files called [levelname]path.bnd

Admiral Zaarin · #97 10-06-2007, 12:36 AM

Hey, Someone here??? I'm just interested if there is some progress.

Paul · #98 10-06-2007, 04:21 AM

sort of, not had much time lately though, gonna work on it a bit more today, it seems there are diffrent types of frames, most sprites use type 3, which are actually kinda hard to figure out because they have some weird encryption or compression
so basicly im figuring out that HUGE function, then I'll beable to get most of the sprites in greyscale ( because the palt hasnt been applied )

edit: I've managed to convert part of the algorithm and applied it to a frame in HIGHLITE.BAN and it worked

theres still a way to go but this is good progress, now I just need to find out how to apply the palt to it and try it on other sprites

edit again: heres a pic of the un-palt'ed hilite.ban frame (its the pink thingy around the menu items at the start of the game)

last edit for now: converted a few more things over, seems the palt files are NOT used to colour these things... hmmmm

Paul · #99 10-14-2007, 03:19 PM

woohoo, figured out the palletes, only a few things let to figure out for type 3 sprites

check the attached image for a couple of frames I converted ( note that I did change the brightness slightly after converting them )

edit: heres one of elum too

SligStorm · #**100** 10-14-2007, 11:30 PM

Awsome work Paul, Keep it up!

***Xavier*** · #**101** 10-15-2007, 06:09 AM

Really Impressive Paul, keep up the good work!

Paul · #**102** 10-16-2007, 10:11 AM

Thanks guys

Just gotta figure a few more things out and I can write an SDL app to view most of the animations/save the frames and such. Its gonna be a one way thing though, re-encoding these suckers would take too much time (for now)

MeechMuncher · #**103** 10-18-2007, 11:16 AM

It works fine!

This is what I managed to do:

I seriously hope this will lead to something!!!

Paul · #**104** 10-19-2007, 12:21 PM

very.. artistic

MeechMuncher · #**105** 10-19-2007, 01:31 PM

Thanks, I just wanted to see if I could make the files work in the game.

The backgrounds are fantastic by the way! You seem to have a really nice understanding of file-compositions, so do you think that you could be able to
decode the .ddv-movies?

It would be really cool to be able to view them without opening the game and doing the "view all movies-cheat".

***Xavier*** · #**106** 10-19-2007, 02:06 PM

like this?
http://oddworldlibrary.net/archives/cinema/AO/FMVs/

abe is now! · #**107** 10-20-2007, 01:29 AM

I went to that site, Xavier, but I cudn't see the video .avi. I only listened the audio. It didn't find the codec... why this?

Admiral Zaarin · #**108** 10-20-2007, 03:24 AM

Paul, you're making an outstanding work!!! When are you going to give us some new tools? Besides, do you know some good tutorials on dissasembling and, may be, on encoding analysis (how to analyse the encoding of different extensions)? I've lost my book and virtually I don't remember anything now, just need to revise and refresh this stuff.

Paul · #**109** 10-20-2007, 05:58 AM

I'd google up some stuff if you want to get into dissasembling... its like coding... massive area. Plus to disasm stuff you need to know both, AO was written in c/c++ so you need to have a rough idea what kinda machine code the compiler would produce from it.
Also @ MeechMuncher, yeah but not for a while, doing the formats first because they're more important, videos & music would be one of the last formats to do. (although I dont think they should be too hard)

Admiral Zaarin · #**110** 10-20-2007, 07:31 AM

I'd be very glad to you if you'll find smth.

MeechMuncher · #**111** 10-20-2007, 07:33 AM

NICE!

You are the greatest on this forum so far!

Keep up the good work!

By the way, Xavier, those movies require some strange codec.
What do I need to view them?

Edit:
Never mind. I found the codecs here:
http://www.free-codecs.com/Indeo_Codec_download.htm

But the site seems to be missing the good and bad endings for AE, so a movie-converter would be good to have.

***Xavier*** · #**112** 10-20-2007, 10:44 AM

I ripped them straight from the game with PSX ripper or something like that, he's the one to "blame" for the strange codec

Paul · #**113** 10-21-2007, 05:09 AM

The playstation videos shouldnt be too hard to get unless they made a custom format for those too, although I dont think there is too much you can change because of how the psx's mdec works.
I didnt look at every vid, but some of the file sizes seem quite small, is that like the intro vids and everything too? Or just the screen/level switch vids?
BTW i'll try and get a viewer written to view type 3 & 4 animations/sprites soon (maybe not today cause I won't be home for the rest of the day).

diablo vt · #**114** 10-21-2007, 02:39 PM

I came in late sorry. Paul, from what i've seen so far, this is excellent work mate!

***Xavier*** · #**115** 10-21-2007, 10:23 PM

Heh, if you figure out how to decrypt the videos in a better way I'll happily host the new versions on TOL too. Along with those animations you are talking about

Paul · #**116** 10-22-2007, 10:32 AM

I dont know if they'll look better, I just thought some where missing from the current collection? :P

Chubfish · #**117** 10-23-2007, 05:35 AM

I love the progress of this so far, keep it up!

***Xavier*** · #**118** 10-23-2007, 05:43 AM

:

I dont know if they'll look better, I just thought some where missing from the current collection? :P

I've put all the files the program ripped, I don't think any of them is missing...

I simply don't have an English AE disk at the moment so I can't toy with it.

Paul · #**119** 10-23-2007, 02:59 PM

Ran into a problem with the palletes again, seems I dont quite have them figured out

diablo vt · #**120** 10-23-2007, 05:54 PM

Keep going Paul... You're doing well!^^

You'll get there! =D