Topic: DS Sprite-ripping simple question

[Lelygax]

You're creating this system with game maker to rip things faster or it just a test project? I'll try it in CV games soon then, thanks, now Im trying to rip SOTN from Saturn (without sucess), maybe I'll need to rip them in the old fashioned way, using a emulator that removes layers and pressing printscreen

I only want these exclusive enemies and areas, even if no one likes them.

[TheouAegis]

Well from my experience, sprites aren't too hard to rip using GGD. It's the bigger graphics that I always had issue with.

Also, try using instead of Tiled GGD, use the original GGD. The UI is much more basic and most of it is in Japanese, but I find it a little easier to work with. That could just be me, though. I'm using GGD for Front Mission DS instead of Tiled GGD.

[Lelygax]

I've searched for the classic GGD but I couldnt find it, you have a link? :-/

[TheouAegis]

No. I'm surprised I even have it.

And the GM program's just to help me compile the images, but it's not going very well. In order to write the program, I need to know how to combine this:

52 45 43 4e ff fe 00 01 7b 00 00 00 10 00 03 00 
4b 42 45 43 48 00 00 00 01 00 01 00 18 00 00 00
02 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 
04 00 14 08 00 00 00 00 2f 00 3f 00 00 00 00 00 
30 80 28 00 00 00 08 80 28 40 01 00 08 80 00 40 
02 00 00 80 08 c0 03 00 4c 42 41 4c 17 00 00 00 
00 00 00 00 43 65 6c 6c 41 6e 69 6d 65 30 00 54 
58 45 55 0c 00 00 00 00 

with this:



To yield this:



(Well, just the body part, not the arms and legs. Those are in separate files.)

[Lelygax]

You can PM GGD to me or them share it here in this topic?

[TheouAegis]

http://randomhoohaas.flyingomelette.com/ai/spriterip/GGD-e.zip

Download it when you can. It's rare. I have the Japanese version. This is the version translated into English by Dazz, the host of Spriters-Resource.

[Lelygax]

Thanks, I've found it in spritedatabase or something like that and shared a link too, I think its on saturn sprites thread.

[TheouAegis]

It ain't much different from TiledGGD, but I don't think more is always better. GGD is simple and that's all I want. Once you learn how to read NCLR and NCGR files using CrystalTile, you can view the files in GGD pretty easily. For example, byte $1C in the NCGR file should tell you if it's 4bpp (03) or 8bpp (04). Byte $04 tells you if it's Big or Little Endian (FFFE is little endian and I think FEFF is big endian). Also, annoyingly and I'm working on a program to fix this, GGD and YY-CHR (yes, YY-CHR works with DS sprites too with some tweaking) read the spec data as sprite data. I think GGD or TiledGGD had an option to ignore all that. Or maybe I was in Tile Molester. One of the programs had an option to calculate where spec data (I guess I should call it the header) would be ignored. Not ignoring the header makes NCGR files hard to work with in YY-CHR. Might cause some nuisances in GGD.

NCLR files (palettes) are similar. Byte $04 is the endianness. Byte $18 should be the palette depth 4bpp (03) or 8bpp (04). Byte $20 should be the size of the palette. Byte $30 should be the start of the palette, but that could change from file to file.

[Lelygax]

Thanks for these lessons, if when I try something with DS again I somehow understand all that you explained it can help me finding their bpp and endian types, thanks.

[KaZudra]

when you or anyone gets to ripping OoE tiles and maps thou would be so awesome...

[TheouAegis]

I'll use this thread for posting my stuff as I get around to finishing it.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/24sig1sddkqa486/nclr2pal.exe

The first file share should convert up to four 4bpp NCLR (palette) files into .PAL files which would be compatible with YY-Chr and other programs. The code is definitely in its alpha stage, as I haven't tested on anything other than a couple Front Mission DS NCLR files. So if you find any games that this doesn't work right for, please let me know the game and NCLR file(s) you were trying to convert.

To view an NCGR (graphic) file in YY-Chr, you may need to extract it (they are often compressed), then YY-Chr will be able to view it using the GBA 4BPP setting. As I said earlier, there is some junk data that prevents you from viewing the NCGR files correctly in YY-Chr. I'm working on another alpha-level program to compensate for this, as I much prefer YY-Chr over GGD (and GGD over TiledGGd).

[Lelygax]

Wow, you did it with Game Maker, I will check that and comment about it after using, thanks
I plan to rip SOTN (PSX) holy water now, since I can rip Saturn things later (I've ripped somethings already, like Maria shots, owl, dragon, heal and fire. I cant do this thing that summon all for animals in a keyboard for now, since this emulator is giving some delay.)

I heard you about OoE BGs, Kaz. Which one you need?

edit: LOL, forget about Maria invicibility, it only changes her pallete to yellow and green, since I was ripping her effects and not Maria itself, Im almost done with her (I will rip these balls that protect her in her boss fight agains Alucard).

[TheouAegis]

CrystalTile won't let me open most games. I don't know why. So it's manually dumping every file for now, I guess.

Order Of Ecclesia file findings:

I haven't found the palettes yet. So far, I have sound data (obvious) and various sprites. In the data subfolder under sc and sc2 is sprite data. Sprites are simple, so 4bpp and 8bpp both work. It should be 4bpp, but I had issues seeing some sprites at 4bpp whereas at 8bpp I could make them out.

SC
Door
Map
Sky
Barrel
Damned Floating Spikes
Enemies and Parts
Icons
Explosions
Bosses
Walls
Candles
Chest
Pretty much anything not in SC2


SC2
Albus
Area Titles
Castlevania
Dracula
Ending Graphics
Cat and Chiropteran forms
Prologue (16bit)
Spells and Effects
Smoky Effects (look cool in greyscale!)
Shanoa
Other..... stuff? (Holy Water, Giant Roast, Grand Cross, male puppet?)

[Lelygax]

Nice find

Other..... stuff? (Holy Water, Giant Roast, Grand Cross, male puppet?)

Why...? No one uses them, maybe they planned more modes or used PoR as a base?

[Lelygax]

Ok, I've failed miserable at using these high-tech programs, this makes me dumb right? :p

I've tried to acess some OoE things and find the Richter's and Alucard's holywater gfx in SOTN without sucess (I've used PSX-VRAM for SOTN ripping, I can see all tiles in the area from the savestate though, but with incorrect palletes or black and white only).

It seems that I will need to continue ripping DS sprites using No$GBA Debugger unless someone have a good tutorial and a little of patience. I've already extracted all internal files from the OoE ROM, so it will be easier to work with them.

Hey Theou, this article can be interesting for you and everyone that is interested in these sort of things
http://badderhacksnet.ipage.com/badderhacks/index.php?option=com_agora&task=topic&id=1037&Itemid=3