What map-making feature would you like emulators to have?

[ReyVGM]

Like the title says, what features helpful to map-making you wish emulators would have?

I'm working with the author of SuperSNES9X (who has already added a ton of improvements over the regular snes9x) and I can push to get new stuff added to it.

So, what would your dream emulator be like for map-making? What helpful features would you like to have?

It could be tiny things obscure emulators already do, but more popular ones don't; or even features from external programs that could realistically be implemented in an emulator.

I think there's a tool that takes screenshots of games and auto stitches them together? It would be awesome if something like that could be implemented natively.

[dark_lord_zagato]

Emulator features that are helpful to video game mappers:

1. A hex editor/access to the game's memory. Good hex editors show you what's going on live and let you change/freeze values right there.

2. A pop out map viewer that can take screenshots. For SNES games, a toggle that controls which BG layers are used in the screenshot.

3. The ability to change a game's background color. (Some games have map tiles with pixels that are the same color as the background. Black on black is a problem when you need to rip background layers separately.)

4. The ability to screenshot Mode7 data as a 2D image. It is impossible to map some SNES games without this. ZSNES had a special tool called vSNES. It was a stand alone program that could load ZSNES savestates and display Mode7 data in a flat plane. It would let you screenshot this data all at once. As an example, the Human Cannonball map from American Gladiators is something I took with just ONE screenshot in vSNES.


Also, the Super FX chip...

Games like Stunt Race FX use this chip. It generates 3D objects and environments. As far as I know, no one has ever figured out a way to extract any maps from these games. It's not the same thing as Mode7 so vSNES can't do anything with it either.

[ReyVGM]

Emulator features that are helpful to video game mappers:

1. A hex editor/access to the game's memory. Good hex editors show you what's going on live and let you change/freeze values right there.

2. A pop out map viewer that can take screenshots. For SNES games, a toggle that controls which BG layers are used in the screenshot.

3. The ability to change a game's background color. (Some games have map tiles with pixels that are the same color as the background. Black on black is a problem when you need to rip background layers separately.)

4. The ability to screenshot Mode7 data as a 2D image. It is impossible to map some SNES games without this. ZSNES had a special tool called vSNES. It was a stand alone program that could load ZSNES savestates and display Mode7 data in a flat plane. It would let you screenshot this data all at once. As an example, the Human Cannonball map from American Gladiators is something I took with just ONE screenshot in vSNES.


Also, the Super FX chip...

Games like Stunt Race FX use this chip. It generates 3D objects and environments. As far as I know, no one has ever figured out a way to extract any maps from these games. It's not the same thing as Mode7 so vSNES can't do anything with it either.

Thanks for the reply.

1) A Mesen styled debugger is planned for SuperSNES9X, so that should cover that.

2) ss9x already has a titlemap viewer and you can right click to save the image. There's also hotkeys to disable layers (but that's in regular snes9x too).

3) That's already in snes9x as a hotkey.

4) That's doable in ss9x through the titlemap viewer. Verified the Human Cannonball event, and yes, you can save a picture of the entire image.

5) Will add it to the requests. Let see what the author can come up with. So basically you want a way to view polygonal characters and the 3d map as a flat image or as a 3d image?
I don't know if that's possible, but I'll add it anyway.

[dark_lord_zagato]

5) Will add it to the requests. Let see what the author can come up with. So basically you want a way to view polygonal characters and the 3d map as a flat image or as a 3d image?
I don't know if that's possible, but I'll add it anyway.

Yes, i'm thinking maybe we can make maps that depict what these race tracks look like from above if there were a way to rip data directly from the Super FX chip.

This might be too much to ask. If they say it's impossible i'll understand.