Messages

2251

Mapping Tips/Guides / RE: Mapping Tools

« on: May 08, 2006, 02:01:38 pm »

Regarding fixing animated tiles, you should ask Revned about his tile slicer program. It can break down a map in all it's various separate tiles with a file compiling which goes where. You can then view all the separate tiles and find any different one much easier (like say, you find 3 different water tiles despite being careful to always capture the same one; you can then make all three identical, and when the program will reassemble the map all the water will be the same).



---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me

2252

Map Gab / RE: Metroid Fusion (GBA)

« on: May 08, 2006, 01:58:38 pm »

Well, despite restraining my computer use at home by a large amount, I still worked a bit on these maps yesterday evening. After encountering some severe difficulties in the way the game handles the various layers and how I was mapping it (namely, Sector 4 has a transparent water layer inserted *between* two layers I was putting together from the start), I've found that I have almost no choice but to switch to Paint Shop Pro for the final map assembly if I want to be able to play with the transparencies with ease.



It *is* a chore because I basically need to go back too all three maps I've done so far and re-map everything *again* but keeping what I call the back and middle layers separate, *plus* making a separate with only the various backgrounds. My hope is to come up with a simple file for each map that would include all the necessary info on separate layers, with the ability to turn on and off whatever I want.



So far, I'm hoping to do something like this:



-Layer 1: Background (parallax scrolling). It will make it easier to go back and realign any of it without having to recompose the whole thing.



-Layer 2: Back layer. It consists of the layer of stuff that is behind the sprites but doesn't use parallax scrolling.



-Layer 3: Middle layer. This is basically the stage layout, consisting mostly of the walls, floors and ceilings.



-Layer 4: Front layer. Will include special things like moving roots and door covers, and I will probably turn it on and off to show before/after conditions.



-Layer 5: Water layer (works best at 30% transparency)



-Layer 6: Lava / acid / cold layer (all at 50% transparency, so a single layer for them)



-Layer 7: Special blocks layer. I can thus have both the original map and all the information for the special blocks in the same file.



It's going slow of course, since I basically have to re-do everything *again*, but I'll make it somehow, one day.



---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me

[My most recently played track]

2253

VGMaps Social Board / RE: I'll be less present around here for a while...

« on: May 05, 2006, 07:21:02 am »

Inty Said:

Internet > Crack

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My most recently played track

And a lot less costly too.



But anyway, it's not like I won't be posting here anymore, just not from home. Life goes on, and all that jazz...



*nothing better to date yourself than to use expressions you've heard somewhere once that are probably -years- out of style *





---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me

2254

VGMaps Social Board / RE: I'll be less present around here for a while...

« on: May 04, 2006, 07:53:57 pm »

Thanks for the tip, but church is right out for me, being agnostic and all.



As for the social circle thing, yeah I meant become part of one. I'm hoping to find some hobby or social activity that would let me meet people with whom I'd get along.



---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me

2255

VGMaps Social Board / RE: I'll be less present around here for a while...

« on: May 04, 2006, 01:41:34 pm »

Exactly right. Aside from my family and a friend or two who don't live in my city, I've been pretty much alone for the last two years. I've always been afraid of personal contact, of letting people inside my personal space, yet at the same time I need it, which makes for a nice contradiction. You know the way we humans are, we don't always make much sense.



Yesterday I just had like a divine realization that spending time on my computer has been pretty much a reflex when I'm home alone ever since I've lived alone, for two years like I said. I went from living with my best friend to having no real friend except one that I only get to see once every 2 or 3 weeks. Talking on the phone or chating no the web are nothing compared to spending time, doing anything, with someone in real life.



What I need is to try and create my own social circle, something I should have done years ago but just was too afraid to do (there's a reason I've been seeing as psychologist for the last few years; I have a lot of fear issues despite there being no real trauma being it all)



I'll keep visiting here during the day at least, but I'm afraid I won't be contributing much in actual maps for a while, not until I've learned to be reasonable in the time I spend online.



But make no mistake, I'm glad to have this place to talk with people



---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me

2256

VGMaps Social Board / I'll be less present around here for a while...

« on: May 04, 2006, 11:10:54 am »

Long story short, I'm addicted to my computer; addicted to surfing, addicted to message boards, etc. For the last few years, I've probably spent about 80% of all my free time on my computer.



Well yesterday evening, I don't why exactly but all of a sudden I just got sick to death of my computer. I *had* to turn it off, as if it was some huge bug crawling over my body that I needed to slap off and crush with my foot. It was probably the first time in I don't know how long that my computer at home wasn't open from the moment I come back from work to when I'm ready to go to sleep.



The sudden silence was almost bliss. It also made me realize that spending all my time on the computer is why I have no social life at all. I already knew it, but I guess I didn't really *accept* it. I wish I had that realization long ago.



So from now on (hopefully), I'll limit time on my computer at home to a few hours *maximum*, and even then, that might be too much, what with a possible relapse and all.



I'll still come here in my free time at work, but I won't be active much in the evening, and mapping is definitely taking a break for a while. I'm pretty sure that mapping Metroid Fusion intensely for several weeks only hastened the crisis.



Sorry guys. I won't be gone completely, but I really need to take a serious break for a while.



---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me

2257

Mapping Tips/Guides / RE: Mapping Tools

« on: May 03, 2006, 07:12:21 am »

No way that I know. I've heard of some mappers using Game Genie codes or memory hacks that stop the animation of moving tiles, but nothing automatic I'm afraid.



As for which frame to use like with water, the choice is up to you. Usually, I find that there's one frame that looks better so I use that one, but it's really your prerogative.



Sometimes it's hard to capture every animated tiles at the right time, so some of us will go back to a finished map to correct mistakes, which is often easy since tiles are almost always a round number of pixels like 8x8, 16x16 or even 32x32. For every map I work on, I always keep a folder with clean sprites files for items, enemies, bosses and animated tiles. That way I can be sure that the water, flowers, lava or anything else like that always looks consistent across all the maps.



---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me

2258

VGMaps Social Board / RE: im not new, i just havent posted anything yet...

« on: May 03, 2006, 07:06:59 am »

Hey, welcome aboard (again, it would seem)!



---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me

2259

Mapping Tips/Guides / RE: How do you guys make these maps?

« on: May 02, 2006, 02:25:11 pm »

MrBlank Said:

Wow! Thanks for the replies.



I've mapped a bit of Legacy of Kain because it was easy with screen grabs, but it took a long time.



I also tried some ROM hack programs, but couldn't make heads or tails out of what they were doing. Don't emulators have some sort of edit mode feature where you can scroll through levels and get screen grabs? Maybe I need to find some gameshark codes that let me go into edit mode ...

Nope. There's no standard data format for games, except maybe when a company reuses the same code. Either a level editor is hidden in the game and can be accessed with a secret code (like Debug Mode in the various Genesis Sonic games) or a cheat code, or someone needs to program such an editor to be able to display the maps from a rom. Needless to say, doing the later requries an in-depth knowledge of the game in question and really good coding skills. Nothing comes easy unfortunately, and using a hacking program takes time and skills and is not intended for beginners.



The best I've seen is in VisualBoyAdvance which has a Map Browser. It basically shows you the content of what I'd call the map buffer, which is the portion of the map loaded in memory. You can cycle through the various layers but it doesn't show really far beyond the screen borders, and things are not always in order because of the way it's refreshed I guess (for example, you might need to remove a 'blue screen' color, or split the area in two and paste the second part before the first; it'S really hard to explain without a picture).



---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me

2260

VGMaps Social Board / RE: Revned, come here...

« on: May 02, 2006, 01:09:06 pm »

Speaking of XP, when the hell do we finally get to edit our posts and put links and pics? I mean, all things considered, not being able to do these is severely limiting my participation to the board. I like posting visual previews of my projects damnit! Plus, I'd like to post some new TF pics instead of just a text link



---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me

2261

Mapping Tips/Guides / RE: How do you guys make these maps?

« on: May 02, 2006, 01:06:14 pm »

On the other hand, anyone can edit a wiki entry and the staff may decide that the extra tutorial information is not warranted.



And I'm not sure this is what I was talking about. The tutorial I remember showed how to assemble screenshots for the foreground and background, and to combine them to make a finished map.



Personally, I'd prefer to have tutorials either on  VGMaps or on some private space or other if it's feasible. I should really consider getting some webspace of my own just in case.



---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me

2262

Gaming / RE: Gaming as a diversion

« on: May 02, 2006, 12:23:09 pm »

Inty Said:

I didn't say it too be mean. It's just from the other side (skinny) i get jealous of people being overweight. It's me being biased but i've always thought it easier to lose weight, than to gain it.



But if i were fat overweight, i'd say it the other way.



I'm just bitter about being so damned small. I'm like 5ft 9" and 125lbs.



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I remember being skinny as a teen, having about your proportions. Sure, my lower risb would stand out on my abdomen, but it's not like I was doing it on purpose. Heck, I wasn't exercising at all and I was eating unhealthy, like most teens too. I never had a problem with it unlike everyone else who knew me and kept saying I needed to put more meat on my bones.



Then I turned 20 and family genetics on both sides conspired to give me a bit of a belly. I'm sure if I actually worked out and ate better I could lose a bit but it's stable at least. Sucking in my guts is enough to make it disappear but it's not like that works when I'm alone in my briefs in front of a mirror...



---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me

2263

Mapping Tips/Guides / RE: How do you guys make these maps?

« on: May 02, 2006, 12:18:36 pm »

I can't wait for us to be able to gain basic abilities like editing posts but mostly posting real links and pictures. Otherwise it's kinda hard to make a visual tutorial.



What sucks is that I'm pretty sure the old board had a link to a basic tutorial for making a screenshot map with a parallax-scrolling background (meaning it moves slower than the stage itself), from a Wiki site, but I don't know the link unfortunately.



---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me

2264

VGMaps Social Board / RE: Spread the word, sign this petition!

« on: May 02, 2006, 12:11:57 pm »

Never saw that movie sadly. In fact, being from Quebec means taht a lot of american pop culture goes right over my head. I also misinterpreted the "over my head" thing, and assumed you basically said I carpet-bombed you or something



---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me

2265

Mapping Tips/Guides / RE: Mapping Tools

« on: May 02, 2006, 07:13:39 am »

Sorry, I confused your remark about zoom with the actual size of the pixels. When assembling in MSPaint, I mostly keep it zoomed at 2x. I only go closer when playing with individual pixels.



However to my dismay, I found out yesterday that I might need to switch to Paint Shop Pro more to continue Metroid Fusion because the game's layering system is simply too complex for parts like water and having a file with every layer separately will end up being easier than a separate file for each. I'll probably still assemble things in Paint though, as it's just more convenient. I know all the keyboard keys for the functions I need the most and I'm not prepared to learn a new set.



---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me