PART1
But I don't feel like configuring a whole new emu.
Other than to select which button does what there is nothing else to do. It is a matter of seconds.
Exlorom IS supported by Higan. Star Ocean runs just fine.
No. Exlorom is NOT supported by Higan (I tested this out, not even 5MB Exlorom is loading), since Star Ocean is Not Exlorom. Star Ocean is simply a SA-1 6MB rom. It is not really the size alone, it is the mapping. Original hardware did not have the Exlorom or Exhirom mappings.
The problem is that Exlorom apparently caps out at 6 MB.
No it doesn't. There is no mapping difference between 5MB, 6MB, 7MB and 8MB Exloroms. Higan doesn't run any size of Exlorom or Exhirom.
You are not obeying that restriction. So what you are doing is not Exlorom. But is some custom thing that is totally fabricated.
Ho, ho, ho (and it is not even Christmas).
Wrong all the way. What I'm doing is exactly Exlorom!
and never actually existed on any SNES cartridge.
You got that right though. Exlorom never existed on real hardware, since this format is the future and was invented right after the millenia, around 2001, SPECIFICALLY FOR ROMHACKS.
That kind of thing will not be supported in future emulators. If anything, emulators will go out of their way not to support it as more emphasis tends to be put on accuracy as time goes on.
The Exlorom format IS THE FUTURE. It is the real hardware, which is extinct and outdated with its old Lorom format. Real SNES hardware died in the 90s.
How difficult it is to make an emu, which runs like original hardware and also throw in something like save stating! (not supported by real hardware!) and BG layer deactivation (not supported by real hardware!). How difficult it is to add another mapping system. I checked the source code of Snes9x - easy to do).
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Read the page you linked to. Nowhere does it say Exlorom or Exhirom support 8MB. It specifically says 6MB. The code in official Snes9x was not a mistake -- it was implementing proper behavior.
The code in official snes9x WAS a mistake. Look at the source code (a dumb mistake was done, a "typo" basically). Snes9x 1.48 supported 8MB Exloroms, and 1.51 suddenly not. Fusoya corrected this with no more than a cuple of lines changed (to correct this "typo").
Standatd Lorom size is 0-4MB. Exlorom starts the code at 4MB (while having 0-4 empty for repointing data into it). Can't you sum 4+4? That makes it 8MB, don't you think... specially if Hirom.
So:
Lorom 1MB, expands to 5MB Exlorom
Lorom 2MB, expands to 6MB Exlorom
Lorom 3MB, expands to 7MB Exlorom
Lorom 4MB, expands to 8MB Exlorom
Hirom 0.5MB, expands to 5MB Exhirom
Hirom 1MB, expands to 6MB Exhirom
Hirom 2MB, expands to 8MB Exhirom
PS Star Ocean is not either of the above, since it doesn't have a Lorom or Hirom base.
The definitive test here would be to take an existing ExLoROM cartridge.
Which doesn't exist, since it was never made, since the format was invented around 2001, Specifically for Advanced Romhacking.
ExLoROM doesn't support 8MB.
You clearly don't know what Exlorom is. How many original games are 4MB - so many 8MB Exloroms can be made.
Don't you get it - this is an "EXPANSION" method, not a standalone format.
Exlorom means= expanded Lorom, so something that used to be Lorom.
Ex can also refer to "previous", so "previously" a Lorom.
Star Ocean was nothing "previously". It simply is a Lorom, which has more than 4MB.
If not? You're busted and your hack gives a big 'FU' to emulation accuracy.
I'm assuming you did not perform this test -- so at best you are playing with fire. And again... since no emulator actually officially supports this... that's a huge red flag telling me that this hack is not legit.
It is very legit and Unique as well. You know what they say: the best is also the most rare. Exlorom was invented for advanced romhacking after real hardware was already being replaced by 64bit era.
And what is an official emulator? All emulators are unofficial and based on the statements of original author an act of piracy.
And don't make me laugh with the "emulation accuracy", an invisible thing, which is completely irrelevant, since no normal person can see the difference between hyper-minor performance changes between real hardware and proper SNES emulation on PC (or any well designed emu).
However some other (non PC) emus really are poor, like DS SNES emu. This thing really is a mess. But such poor emulation performance is due to average nature of people who made it.
October 06, 2015, 06:41:24 am - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)
PART2
This hack will not run on my RetroN5 and I suspect it won't run on flash carts as well. That's the future of 8/16-bit emulation so it not being compatible with those devices cuts out a portion of the audience.
The devices that you mentioned support only what the original hardware supports, since they are all phisical devices, designed for original SNES games.
If it runs on real hardware, it's legit. If it doesn't, it's bogus.
And how do you play a hack on real hardware. You need to make a cart then, which is by defalut an illegal act of cart making.
If it runs on real hardware, it's illegal. Because then you can make a cart and sell it (and it works). If it doesn't run on real hardware, it's legal.
If it runs on real hardware, it's old and outdated. If it doesn't, it is advanced, unique and futuristic.
By going against what SNES hardware dictates, this hack is destroying its playability.
A very true and unfortunate side effect of keeping things legal and a very true and unfortunate side effect of the advanced/future romhacking, on which the old original gives up, since it is limited.
Also, do note, that Exlorom is VALID AND KNOWN MAPPING SYSTEM (which however DID NOT EXIST ON REAL HARDWARE). This mapping system was already taken into the regard by Snes9x developers (and yes up to 8MB on verison 1.48).
Any future versions of Repron, sd2snes, flashcart, emulator etc could easily add this mapping system.
Besides, you clearly like puzzles, so here one is, get it under 6mb.
Doesn't really matter if it is 6MB. It would behave the same as now.
SNES emulators simulate SNES hardware.
How very true. But note: WHAT IS THE GLOBAL GOAL? The answer is logical -
to play a SNES game on a device, which is not SNES hardware - since those are extinct.
So if someone wants to play a SNES game on a PC, he needs a program. The emulators were the easy way out!: a pragmatic solution to the problem - it is easier to scan a cart into the file and emulate it, rather then to adopt the game into a Windows based game, to run it with a new OS depended .exe application.
I wish it would be the latter by the way. The irony is that such applications exist! and game looks like a poor copy of the original (authors of the app did a poor job obviously) - which makes emulation even more popular, since it actually has more qulity. That's we have emulators.
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THE MORE IMPORTAINT PART
An accurate emu, on the other hand, will simply always work. It does what the hardware does, so it can't ever be wrong.
True, but it can never be better either. What if I want to make a game that uses better and more gfx, than the original hardware would allow. Original Alttp has the gfx space limited, why not expand it and make a better game with more wall blocksets (currently only 4 allowed). What if we want each dungeon to have its own unique walls? We can't - not "allowed" by real system. GFX space limited and compressed.
What if we want the enhanced MSU-1 sound? (very popular today). We can't - not "allowed" by real system.
What if we want 500 dungeon rooms, instead of 295 as the original. We can't - not "allowed" by real system.
That's why so many advanced SMW hacks don't run on real systems.
We can change that with the emulators. And that's what I did.
The warp maze in this game uses so many room header properties to make all of those room transitions, that the real hardware would not allow, because it's outdated. Each room now uses maximum room header (original game can only dream of this).
The original rom is squezeed into 1MB! which is absurd. The original game should at least have 3MB. Imagine what we could do with 8 (and obviously on this size we will still have free space).
Note: we must distinguish between a bugged rom hack, which runs only on Zsnes, since it is bugged and poorly made; and an advanced and unique romhack, which uses modern futuristic methods, which can not be handled by old real hardware.
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Besides, it's not like what PD has done here isn't strange given that there isn't 8MB of content. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the ROM is mostly empty space (I only looked through about half in a hex editor so I am assumming when I say "mostly").
Exactly, since obviously this is a shorter hack and does not implement all the new ideas with advanced hacking (for instance I expanded the gfx space, but didn't fill it all). With this size, you will surely not use all the space, so that the game "can breath", rather than to squeeze it all in, like the original. That's the main problem of Alttp, which disallows and limits romhacking. The first thing you want to do with original when modding is expansion of the rom.
Also do note, that it is the mapping that it's importaint. A standard Exlorom made from Alttp (original game) would have the same amount of data as original - ie 1MB actual data - but mapped into 5MB Exlorom. The rest is 00 bytes, untill you start hacking and thus filling this empty space, or simply reorganize the data to be much less "squeezed".
Since all of this thread has been arguing/debating about formats and definitions: Just play the hack, people. It's great.
Yea. And you got the Green Pendant! - good job (that's difficult to get!).
By the way, nice self-promotion there Puzz
I was testing the ASM with Hex here and could make it so that custom tiles get loaded into menu, and didn't know what to write. In the bata it was: MAIN ITEMS.
October 06, 2015, 07:26:25 am - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)
PS
This game uses some prodigy-ASM by Conn. The original game can only dream of this: brand new item was made! (I will not spoil it for you which one it is!) Multipushable block was implemented, water block, "brown" block, stone block. Can not push block if standing in shallow water ASM etc etc. It is highly questionable that the old system (ie not Exlorom) would allow such an update.
Original gfx was compressed. I used the non compressed method with a least 4 times the amount of that the original uses (I didn't know if you noticed the new Armos gfx SGP), but obviously I didn't fill all the space.
Maximal room header-properties used (original game can only dream of this). Same for all indoor data actually - all repointed to expanded space to use maximum data possible -
IE I can add so many sprites that any emu would go to infinite lag! Can you imagine this: No More Sprite Limitation! (original game can only dream of this).
The potential of this format is endless.
So as you can see, the game is better in any way. This is how the original should be done and any Alttp hack actually, the original however was "viciously" squeezed into 1MB (for financial purposes), since distribuing such carts was easier.
This advanced romhacking, however, has side effects regarding compatibility.