[Squall_FF8]

Excellent work, DarkSamus993! I was holding my breath from posting till you finish it up 

Quick opinion poll: Should I remove the empty space between sprites? My code ignores it anyway, but I also realize without it editing becomes a tiny bit more involved. It's not like we're hurting on space at the moment, but it would optimize the code a little (not having to calculate the 'true' start address of the sprite). This is just something I thought of to save ROM space and a few CPU cycles.

Yes remove it. In general specialize editors should take care for the heavy lifting when you change something. Besides, the game is heavy enough, so reducing even a cycle for each frame is huge deal.

[SCD]

I updated the music tracks for the maps: https://www.sendspace.com/file/usr4tp

I changed the track list for the maps back to how it was originally, but I switched the tracks of maps 1-1 & 1-2 around and I also switched the tracks of maps 6-2 & 6-7 around as well.

It's the UncutV6 patch, but with the updated music tracks added to it.

[Fire-WSP]

Uh, looking very good.
Yeah, lets remove it.
In this case i think performance is more important than editing comfort.
Looking forward to the test version 

[DarkSamus993]

Patch: https://drive.google.com/open?id=178GHx9GBq1kbuxuv8tUNEoJQ78le2w_A

I got some bad news, there is definitely more lag with uncompressed sprites (due to having to loop through more code/data). It was worth a shot, but it seems it isn't going to work out. And if that's any indication, I doubt 64x64 wall textures are going to be possible either due to extra lag (I suppose we won't know until we try, but I wouldn't get my hopes up).

There's two ways to go from here:
1) go back to the way it was with compressed sprites, coordinates, column lengths, etc.
2) same method as #1, but keeping sprites uncompressed.

You might as go with method #1 as it would have the added bonus of saving space, but I'll let you guys decide.

[Fire-WSP]

@DarkSamus
I just tried the patch and played the first 3 levels.
The lag was not to bad to me but I want to hear also the feedback from the others.
There are people out there who had played the original more than I did.
Also if I recall right, somebody mentioned, that there is quite some lag in the originl game in later levels.
This could be a place to check and see if it is still playable there.


About the 64x64 walls, well with the new information now, I think it would end up like Jurassic Park.
In JP it was no problem because the action was different. I am not sure if we really should try it.
There are a few other cool things to try like a few aditional faces in the HUD, More/different mission briefing screens.
This is propably less risky too.

About your proposed solution:
1) you mean go back to the way it was original?
That would mean we need a tool for decompress and recompress?

2)with uncompressed, would space the only "problem" with that or there are other side effects?
I still think that rom size does not matter that much today. !6Mbit is no problem at all.
I doubt we would hit 32 Mbit and even that would be no problem.

In general, even if there is this lag problem, it was a awesome job! I doubt it was easy in any way.
Thanks for your work on the project!

[Gemini]

The thing with literal sprites is that rendering them takes way too long, while only dealing with effective pixel writes via tables is muuuuch faster. Instead of using literal sprites, it's best to write a converter, Tile Molester is a not a very practical editor anyway.

[DarkSamus993]

Also if I recall right, somebody mentioned, that there is quite some lag in the originl game in later levels.

The lag is very noticeable on later levels when there's a bunch of enemies on screen at once.

About the 64x64 walls, well with the new information now, I think it would end up like Jurassic Park.
In JP it was no problem because the action was different. I am not sure if we really should try it.
There are a few other cool things to try like a few aditional faces in the HUD, More/different mission briefing screens.

Yeah, I'm not going to worry about walls right now and instead focus on adding the other features we want.

About your proposed solution:
1) you mean go back to the way it was original?
That would mean we need a tool for decompress and recompress?

Yep, working on one now unless Squall_FF8 beats me to it.

2)with uncompressed, would space the only "problem" with that or there are other side effects?
I still think that rom size does not matter that much today. !6Mbit is no problem at all.
I doubt we would hit 32 Mbit and even that would be no problem.

Functionally it would be the same, it would just eat up more ROM space. But it would be pretty pointless as you would still need a tool to be able to change anything (because all the column data, ptrs, etc. would need updated as well).

The thing with literal sprites is that rendering them takes way too long, while only dealing with effective pixel writes via tables is muuuuch faster.

Yep, I can see why they did it that way now. Even if what I did was a waste of time, at least it was good learning experience.

[Shadowhazard]

great work!

About the lag, compared to the normal version its there and its kind of hard. I think Death Knight Level will be a struggle. I will test this later.

I hope there will be a way dealing with those lags or that we can compress the uncensored sprites in a way.

Putting in the Mac Dogs was a very good choise 

[Fire-WSP]

The lag is very noticeable on later levels when there's a bunch of enemies on screen at once.
Yeah, I'm not going to worry about walls right now and instead focus on adding the other features we want.
Yep, working on one now unless Squall_FF8 beats me to it.
Functionally it would be the same, it would just eat up more ROM space. But it would be pretty pointless as you would still need a tool to be able to change anything (because all the column data, ptrs, etc. would need updated as well).
Yep, I can see why they did it that way now. Even if what I did was a waste of time, at least it was good learning experience.

I don't think it was a waste of time. It was worth a try and it created lots of new information.
So it will be a tool then. Fine with me. The uncut Sprites looked good in the game.

[SCD]

I checked out the uncut sprites patch, I also noticed the slowdown when there's a bunch of enemy sprites on screen, including on the cast roll screen as well.

I did noticed two errors that need to be fix:

The Guard Dog is off-centered:


The brown shadow for the dog food is too bright:


The new sprites for the backpack & the ammo box are both cool, but I think the chaingun should be changed back to its original sprite.

Overall the uncut sprites came out great, including it was cool to see my cross sprite in this patch.

Maybe the slowdown will stop if we compress the sprites.

[Shadowhazard]

i will correct that but the chaingun is the same as the one bj holds on the snes titlepic. If also other people share your opinon to have the pc chaingun i will change it back.

[Squall_FF8]

There's two ways to go from here:
1) go back to the way it was with compressed sprites, coordinates, column lengths, etc.
2) same method as #1, but keeping sprites uncompressed

If I understand well, #2 mean keep sprites uncompressed, keep structures for compressing from #1 but instead of pointing to compressed data, point to uncompressed? Is that it?

[DarkSamus993]

I got sprite decompression working, working on the compressor now.

It also decompresses the 'zero' compressed data at $CFC000 (text, sprite ptrs, etc.) so now that can be freely edited as well. I already have a compressor coded for this type of data (I had needed it previously when working on making sprites load as uncompressed).

If I understand well, #2 mean keep sprites uncompressed, keep structures for compressing from #1 but instead of pointing to compressed data, point to uncompressed? Is that it?

Yep, keep all the pointers and column data but use uncompressed sprites. You would still have to update all the ptrs & column data when something needs changed, so it would just be a waste of space. I don't even know why I mentioned it.

[Squall_FF8]

Yep, keep all the pointers and column data but use uncompressed sprites. You would still have to update all the ptrs & column data when something needs changed, so it would just be a waste of space. I don't even know why I mentioned it.

Actually its not that bad as it may looks. As we talked space is not a factor (for now). The only downside is that it needs a tool to make the pointer/column info. But if we fall back to the origin, the compressing tools should do that, so no extra work and we still have the benefit of editing sprites with external editor.

If you continue at the same direction, instead of making an external tool for the tables, the game can create that on the fly as a part of initialization code, but that would require some RAM space, so ... probably not

I got sprite decompression working, working on the compressor now.

Woah you are fast I also have decompression working

I don't think it was a waste of time. It was worth a try and it created lots of new information.

I second that 

[Fire-WSP]

Woah you are fast I also have decompression working

Yeah he is but you have it working too
Well it seems we should have a tool quite soon
The game should be quite editable this way and also opens the door for more modding.

Now that the Sprites are no problem anymore,
I would like to list the following things, which would be cool to have in
the Uncut Hack and conclude the hack with it:

- a few additional pictures for the HUD Like Zombie BJ or God Mode. Shadowhazard made some.
- the possibility to display a different background picture at the Mission briefing for each episode.
- check why walls are mirrored and see if that can be changed for a few walls with specific symbols
- check the Picture of BJ in the Level / Episode result screen and see if we can give it more colors
  to add the blood and chaingun picture. The player will most likely finish a episode or the game
  with the chain gun since the player can not change the gun back to pisol by original design.
  So That Picture at the end would make sense.
- adding the Umlauts ÄÖÜ and ß for text
- adding the unlimited sign for the knife in the HUD
- add the dog enemy as a additional enemy and keep the rat in the game for the later levels with experiments
- Check if we can change or add voices for the endboss guys /Dog/Rat
- This is a longshot but add back Gretel Grosse and give her a new short episode for her revenge attemp on BJ.
EDIT: forgot this:
- Rename the difficulty Levels Easy, Normal, Hard to the names from the PC version like "Don't hurt me.".

Propably not everything will doable but I just wanted it to bring it on the table for dicussion.

@SCD
I actually like the new chain gun gfx because it fits much better to the chain gun on screen.
Would like to keep it.

Shadowhazard fixed a few sprites. The developers of the game left in a few wild pixels here and there.
It is mostly the pink color they used as transparency color on the pc. They must have forgot.
Will include the fixes once the tool is ready.

The weapon change hack was not mentioned above. It was not that important to me
because the game works without it good also. We could check again at the end?

[Shadowhazard]

The Ideas sounds good.

I have an ad idea to the dogs and to some wall textures.
The snes version features only a few walls and only one version of it.
For Example the Cage (orginal without skeleton) Idea is to give the game a rougelike feature. everytime you start a NEW game some walls could be different. The same with the Dogs/rats or even the doberman watchdogs from those spear of destiny return to danger games.
its no must have its just an idea

Weaponswitch would be nice because this orginal solution makes a feel of not full control but with free switch it would be perfect.

about the Faces, i try to get all faces snes ready.

[SCD]

@Fire-WSP

Alright, it's no big deal, we can always make a optional patch that would keep the original chaingun sprite intact.

Another wall texture that should be edit is add the skeleton to the cell door texture like the one from the PC version:


Including add dots on both the top & the bottom parts of the metal wall texture to make it more like its PC counterpart as well:

[Shadowhazard]

the skeleton wall is already in, but its very pixelated and there is no way to make it better. firewsp did it and i tried also and came to the same result. but i like it.
April 23, 2018, 12:31:41 pm - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)scd, do it if you like. scale those metalwall spites down and see if it works with skrews. when its look good why not. but i think there is not enough space for the skrews on 32x32.

https://ibb.co/nbrXRx
the orginal snes tile, it has the skrews already

[SCD]

Alright, that's good to hear that the skeleton has been restored back to the cell wall texture.

About the screws, I wasn't talking about the ones that appear on both sides of it, I was talking about the ones that go across on the top & bottom parts of it.

Here's my edit of the SNES metal wall texture with the screws restored back to it:

[Squall_FF8]

How are you guys? 

@Fire-WSP, what is the last decision on where are going and what needs to be done?