Oddworld Forums

Oddworld Forums (http://www.oddworldforums.net/index.php)
-   Oddworld Mods & Hacks (http://www.oddworldforums.net/forumdisplay.php?f=24)
-   -   .lvl files (http://www.oddworldforums.net/showthread.php?t=15680)

mlg man 01-26-2010 01:32 AM

Check this out... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoH21GFonqM

Varrok 01-26-2010 06:56 AM

That's so awesome :D In that way you can create alternative game where your goal is to use sligs to kill as many mudokons as possible :D

MeechMunchie 01-26-2010 07:33 AM

I think you're getting closer and closer to being able to completely remake the game.

Paul 01-26-2010 08:47 AM

:

()
@Paul, I know that, I'm trying to decode the first segment.
@mlg man, try and search for character identifiers. Abe is 0x45 0x00. Now that you've found that, it corresponds to uint16_t id

I haven't looked at the AE stuff for like 2 years, I'm pretty busy lately but when I get time I'll try to rewrite a working version of the decompiled function :/

mlg man 01-26-2010 05:33 PM

It would be cool if you could make Abe Oddysee And Exoddus multiplayer. Someone is a slig with "Magical climbing powers." and 2 others are moduckens. and bird portals take you to secret places. and normal sligs can throw grenades. Just look at me. my imagenation is going wild.:) (PS) how did a bunch of hackers make multiplayer for gta vice city and gta san andreas??? They have no support for it what so ever.

mlg man 01-27-2010 10:31 PM

Hows version 0.2 of the level editor going?

Paul 01-28-2010 04:56 AM

Not too bad I'm rewriting a lot of it cause it sucks and adding more features like change segment type/id etc. I might have a release ready later today depending on how much time I spend on it.

mlg man 01-28-2010 06:28 PM

Sweet! i cant wait!

Paul 01-29-2010 07:39 AM

Prolly won't be done for a while now since I've ill and won't be on the computer too much

mlg man 01-31-2010 06:44 AM

Well I hope you get well. Its not good being sick.

Paul 01-31-2010 01:32 PM

Yeah :/ When I get the next version out it should be easy to move FG1 and Anim segments around into different cam files to see what happens, nothing amazing but it will be cool to see what happens (and change seq music id's so that you can swap the music around)

mlg man 01-31-2010 04:08 PM

Lol, chnage abe with slig. "SLIGS ODDYSEE".

NovaMan 02-01-2010 06:42 AM

For abe's exoddus.
And with these changes:

Paramites instead of sligs in necrum mines.
Glukkons instead of scarbs in mudanchee vaults.
Sligs instead of paramites in mudomo vaults.;)

Paul 02-01-2010 07:14 AM

Anything that extreme will likely just crash the game, switching FG1 and Seqs around shouldn't be a problem though

mlg man 02-02-2010 02:21 AM

Did you notice that path file in the psx demo of abe's oddysee is in 6 different parts with the filename extension .bly

Paul 02-02-2010 08:23 AM

Yeah I already said that in the other thread..

mlg man 02-02-2010 07:53 PM

In the other thread, you siad you extracted the image from the psx cam files? Can you upload the tool. cause i would like to make a psx mod. That would be cool.

Paul 02-02-2010 09:06 PM

I said it would be good to do that, I only compared the file names since the screen id's are the same

mlg man 02-02-2010 10:34 PM

I have mannaged to get into the secret part of the abes oddysee demo without dieing. its just a room with bird portal. no matter what i do. the birds fly away.

Paul 02-04-2010 01:33 PM

I think I'm gonna give up on this for a while again because once again its doing my head in :@! Anyway..

-AE Cam files, it calls mdec_rest before applying the 1kb array and doing the recursive function, the recursive function could be the one thats doing the height stretching.. so that must mean they are mdec compressed?

-Hard coded info in paths etc, it seems that there are OVL files on the psx versions, OVL = overlay which is like a windows dll which would explain the hard codedness..

-BLY files, as per the psx demo these BLY file names are in AE and AO which suggests theyre some sort of debug version of the paths/scripts? Either way the format appears to be completely different from looking at the psx demo, so who knows.

-IDX, seems these are also removed from the PC version? S1.LVL has many IDX'es for each of the other levels in the psx version.

-PSX cam images, the demo and full version of psx AO have some other mdec or whatever related compression it would seem.

mlg man 02-04-2010 08:22 PM

Dont give up yet! At least make level editor 0.2 before you take a LONG break. I want something to at least toy around with for a couple of weeks.

Paul 02-07-2010 03:25 PM

The cam files in the PSX version of AO are MDEC compressed, I'm 100% sure of this (wrote a noddy ps1 app and managed to display some of the image)

Which leads me to think that "Bits" means "bit stream" since thats what the DCT decoder uses. I don't have a copy of AE for PS1 anymore but I'd put good money on that also being in the same format. The pc uses some werid hacked MDEC variation of the compression, hopefully someone can do something with this info ;)

Jango 02-21-2010 06:40 AM

Hi, I know that you are working really hard on this but I am just wondering what you are actually doing here as I am quite interested. If it is some sort of level editor, how long do you expect until you have finished it/if you finish it?

RayOni 02-21-2010 07:56 AM

:

()
The cam files in the PSX version of AO are MDEC compressed, I'm 100% sure of this (wrote a noddy ps1 app and managed to display some of the image)

Hello! You can create a patch to add subtitles (English) in AO and AE?
I hope you have understood.:fuzzle:
I have written to you in pm.
http://www.oddworldforums.net/showpo...postcount=1482

Versus 02-21-2010 08:56 AM

Do you mean a subtitles only for FMV?

Jango 02-21-2010 01:05 PM

Please can someone answer my question. ^^

I don't mean to be rude or anything, I would just quite like a response please.

RayOni 02-21-2010 01:46 PM

:

()
Do you mean a subtitles only for FMV?

Yes.:fuzzle:
Only for FMV.
The alternative answer - Da.
Such patch is necessary to me.
Tak kak ia nixrena niponimay cho oni govoriat!!:D

Versus 02-22-2010 01:02 AM

I think this patch isn't needed and is very difficult to make.
Here it is some video transcripts. I wonder they are to be filled all.
http://oddworld.wikia.com/wiki/Abe%2...ne_Transcripts

PS. Write in English or you will recieve a warning from admins.

Namida 02-22-2010 07:54 PM

Um... question...
Why are you looking at the PSX versions at all?
It'll be near impossible to ever edit them due to how PSX works, better to worry about PC...

ThibG 02-22-2010 10:19 PM

Jango, the initial goal (at least mine) was to reimplement the game engine. If we can do that, we sure can do a level editor. But either way, it'll take a long time to go. I don't know myself if I'll continue, since what's remaining is some hardcoded things in various places.

RayOni, unfortunately, we don't have much info about FMV's format. But well, if we get to reimplement the A.L.I.V.E. engine, we could add support for subtitles :P

Namida, well. You have a copy of the PSX game, but no more PSX, and you want to play AE on your old computer. That's an example. Another answer is that their are only a few differences between the two versions, and that the A.L.I.V.E. engine is clearly optimised for PSX.

Namida 02-22-2010 10:39 PM

That is a good example, but shouldn't decoding the PC files be a higher priority? (At least the sprites, so that even if not perfect and not compatible with the original game, some kind of editable remake is possible)

While there are sprite rips, they're all either low quality or missing some sprites (such as the ones earlier on this topic)...

ThibG 02-23-2010 02:10 AM

Namida, noone's trying to stop you from reverse-engineering the Anim format ;)

Ridg3 02-23-2010 03:25 AM

Was just looking through, Paul...you have some fantastic work done. I was just wondering if you could possibly round up all the tools (AO) in one zip folder for me please.

Namida 02-23-2010 03:49 AM

:

()
Namida, noone's trying to stop you from reverse-engineering the Anim format ;)

I'm not exactly known for being good with *graphic* formats... although I don't see why I can't give it a try. Any existing information, Paul? (Just a tip... I don't know C/C++. At all. I know the concepts of bits, bytes, hex editors, etc, and the general idea of programming, just not C specifically.)

ThibG 02-23-2010 04:03 AM

Namida, I, personnaly, am working with AE, PC version.
You can have a look at my tools and doc (http://hg.sitedethib.com/oddworld-formats/), and try to find how the Anim format works.
However, according to Paul (who've lost is work about this), there are several "types" of this format. I think that as well since UXB uses an external colour palette.
Sprites themselves could be simple bitmaps, use some RLE encoding, or even MDEC. Have fun :)

Paul 02-23-2010 09:47 AM

:

()
Was just looking through, Paul...you have some fantastic work done. I was just wondering if you could possibly round up all the tools (AO) in one zip folder for me please.

They're all in this thread somewhere ;) However I'd wait a few weeks until I update my GUI tool to replace cam images if thats what you're after...

As for the translation stuff that could be possible although I won't be doing that since my goal is a completely new engine based on ALIVE.

The reason I'm looking at the PS1 version is because the PC version is a horrible hacked up version of the PS1 code. Looks like they couldn't get MDEC decompression working in the first game so they just fudged it by using raw 16 bit images.

If anyone can understand the how the AO's VB sounds are constructed from the VH that would be cool, it looks like they kept the same as PS1 info but the stuff in the VB is not the same :(

If I had sounds and music I would start working on writing a new engine :)

Edit: Btw those "low quality sprites" are the real/actual sprites the game uses.

Also here is the path script for the first couple of screens:

------------ + R1P15C15

load_hosit_rocks
load_portals
load_mud
load_null_1
load_hosit_rocks
load_hosit_rocks
load_switch_bans
load_trap_bans
load_null_35
load_slig_bans
load_hosit_rocks
load_null_2
load_slig_bans2
load_slig_bans2_proxy
load_glow_bans
load_glow_bans
load_glow_bans
-----------------------------
load_null1
load_hosit_rocks
load_hosit_rocks
load_switch_bans
load_hosit_rocks
load_unknown_bans1
load_mud
load_unknown_Bans1
load_hosit_rocks
load_unknown8
load_switch_Bans
load_null_35
load_meat_saw
load_meat_saw
load_meat_saw
load_unknown_11
load_unknown_4
load_glow_bans
load_mud
---------------------------------- - R1P15C15 + R1P15C16

load_hosit_rocks
load_portals
load_mud
load_null_1
load_hosit_rocks
load_hosit_rocks
load_switch_Bans
load_trap_bans
load_null_35
load_slig_bans
load_hosit_rocks
load_null_2
load_slig_bans2
load_slig_bans2_proxy
load_glow_bans
load_glow_bans
load_glow_bans
----------------- - + R1P15C16

The names are functions, I've created these names myself by looking at what each function does.. can't see where its getting the placement info or linking up switches or anything either.

mlg man 02-24-2010 02:56 AM

If anyones interetested, i have a ton of values for exoddus and oddysee. By values i mean like x or y position of abe, scrab, paramite, mudokon, doors, levers, orbs. And so on... Its pretty handy, the values i found corrospond to the object on the current page, only. If you go to the next page, the program automaticly changes the address. Using pointers of course. I can even open any door. Change colors of all sprites, health, emotion (Muds), and size. Heres a bit of the file (For Cheat Engine, amazing program.), only some of the values, i have included. Its strange because scrabs, orbs, particles, and levers and doors use the same pointer. They probobly use some kind of identifier. Here is exoddus file. Still working on oddysee. Its funny, because all i have to do is change the pointers. Addresses for x and y are in the same offset. Goes to show how Exoddus was built on top of oddysee. What terrible coders.

ThibG 02-24-2010 07:41 AM

Paul, so you've been playing with the Path files? Could you document the structure you've understood so far? Have you checked if it's the same format in AE?

mlg man 02-26-2010 02:00 AM

ThibG, I was wondering how do you run the python scripts you made? How can i edit the fg1 files and stuff. It would be realy cool to know.

ThibG 02-26-2010 06:06 AM

mlg man, well, this is not really a set of scripts, but a python module to handle Oddworld files. The only script here is extract_files.py, which lets you:
1°) List the content of an Indx archive (./extract_files.py l file.lvl)
2°) Extract the content of an Indx archive (./extract_files.py x file.lvl)
3°) Rebuild an Indx archive from an existing one (./extract_files.py r file.lvl).
4°) Build a modified Indx archive from an existing one (./extract_files.py ir file.lvl). It'll bring a python console in order for you to alter the content of the archive (presented to you as python objects).

But in order for you to do interesting things with the oddworld_formats module, you'll need to know python (well, it really isn't an hard language, if you don't. Finding some tutorial around the web shouldn't be that hard).

Oh, and it needs python 3, not python 2.x, as it uses, along with other things, the bytes object to handle binary data.

Edit: the oddworld_formats module should be pretty well documented, but if you have any question, don't hesitate to ask ;)