Posts for TerraEsperZ

Posted: 4/12/2020 6:08 AM
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TerraEsperZ
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 4/2/2008
Posts: 6
Location: Quebec
As for converting an existing graphic's colours from the old method (ZSNES, vSNES) to the new one, the operation is rather easy (each result is rounded *down* to the nearest integer) : R = R / 248 * 255 G = R / 248 * 255 B = R / 248 * 255 In essence, you're simply adjusting the colour scale from 0-248 to 0-255. So far, every file I've run through my little program comes out with the exact same colours that BizHawk displays. If anyone thinks I'm making a mistake, be sure to tell me!
Posted: 4/11/2020 7:13 PM
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TerraEsperZ
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 4/2/2008
Posts: 6
Location: Quebec
Thanks for the fast reply! I'll take a more in-depth look at your suggestions later today to see how I can put this information to use. *** EDIT *** After looking on the GitHub, I found that WDude already mentioned that the BSNES core made the CGRAM accessible so I was quickly able to make a cheat code to produce a pink background (CGRAM address 0000, value 7C1F) that I can toggle on and off as needed. One problem solved!
Posted: 4/11/2020 5:28 PM
(Edited: 4/13/2020 1:19 AM)
Post subject: BSNES Core color calculation & background color
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TerraEsperZ
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 4/2/2008
Posts: 6
Location: Quebec
Hi everyone! My main hobby is making accurate screenshot maps for various game and to achieve this, I'm looking for emulators with as many tools and features as possible. In fact, I discovered VBA-ReRecording on this forum and it has helped me achieve my greatest work so far (full maps for Castlevania: Circle of the Moon and Aria of Sorrow). I've done maps for many different systems but one system I've been mostly avoiding for the longest time is the SNES. I was so used to using ZSNES that for the longest time I *dreaded* shifting to a better emulator. 8 years ago (in 2012), a regular poster here, feos, tried to get the members of the VGMaps forum excited for BizHawk and to get us to suggest features for future development. A few were made but nobody on our end (including me) really followed through and our forum has been extremely quiet for a few years now. It's probably too late to make any suggestion now but I figured asking a few questions about issues we had at the time wouldn't hurt... 1) Color rendering One of the problem we had is that BizHawk (both cores at the moment) doesn't render the color the same way as older emulators and tools did, namely ZSNES and vSNES. There are things right now such as capturing the content of the graphic buffer for a Mode 7 map that I can't do in BizHawk but can in vSNES. Except, the colors don't match (I think it's because the 15-bits to 16-bits color conversion isn't done the same way) so while trying to map Equinox, the colors of the overworld map captured with vSNES don't match with the sprites' as captured in BizHawk. I'm not asking for a option to render colors the old way (though it would be nice) but if anyone could share the formula for the way the colors are rendered in BizHawk, I could probably write a small program to convert the colors for the few graphics that would require it. 2) Background color This is one of the most essential feature for mappers like me, i.e. being able to change the background color in order to make sprites and layers easier to capture. Usually, that color is black and since many other graphical elements also feature black, being able to alter that color makes it trivial to capture specific graphics while playing instead of having to use the Graphical Debugger (which is still very useful). Not being very knowledgeable about the SNES itself, I have no idea if the background color is always located at the same address in memory and thus, could easily be altered with a simple memory cheat that would work for every game. I remember doing that in VBA-RR with a Lua script and it seemed to work without any change for many different games. Is that something that already exists in BizHawk but I just haven't found it? Or could I implement a similar effect through a Lua script or simple memory hack? Any help at all would be greatly appreciated!
Posted: 10/4/2013 11:54 PM
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TerraEsperZ
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 4/2/2008
Posts: 6
Location: Quebec
MUGG wrote:
VBA 24m is the latest version and is a merge between VBA-rr and VBA-m which fixed a lot of glitches in games. But I don't know about your memory problem.. Maybe your emulator is set to "disable" cheats.
Thank you for this information. From what little I've tested with VBA-RR 24m, editing memory finally works with GBx games, which was sorely needed for many of my projects.
Posted: 10/4/2013 9:00 PM
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TerraEsperZ
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 4/2/2008
Posts: 6
Location: Quebec
Ha, I knew I read about something like that a while ago. I figure this might be related to if not the exact same thing that I've described. Below I'm posting a link to a patch for VBA-M about this problem; it might help you guys see if the same thing is happening with VBA-RR. http://sourceforge.net/p/vbam/patches/23/
Posted: 10/3/2013 2:42 AM
Post subject: Memory Cheat not working for GBx games in VBA-rr 23.6 svn480
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TerraEsperZ
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 4/2/2008
Posts: 6
Location: Quebec
Hi everyone. I'm a big fan of VBA-RR which I regularly use to capture and assemble screenshot maps for GBx and GBA games. However, there's a rather persistent bug which I've observed that seems to go back all the way to the original VBA. Namely, I can't seem to edit the memory when playing GB or GBC games. I can search the memory fine, and even add as many cheats as I want, but they never seem to actually do anything. No matter the game I play, cheat codes simply don't work, either codes taken online or codes I made myself by searching RAM. Since I'm not a regular poster here or even all that aware of the development for VBA-RR, I don't know if the version I've been using, v23.6 svn480, is supposed to be the latest stable build or if v24 is better (or worse). Maybe this bug has been fixed but so far, after so many years, it seems to have eluded everyone. If it hasn't, is this a bug that is known? I've taken a look at the various threads here and the list of issues on the code.google.com page for VBA-RR and I haven't found anything related to this. I'd really appreciate if someone could shed some light on this issue and if there's a chance it might be fixed someday. Or, failing that, if there are other GBx/GBA emulators without this bug but with the same awesome features as VBA-RR. Thanks in advance for everything and I hope I don't come off as too needy, whiny or demanding. You guys are great.