Post subject: tutorial on hexediting a movie?
nesrocks
He/Him
Player (246)
Joined: 5/1/2004
Posts: 4096
Location: Rio, Brazil
i am a newb at programming, can anyone give me a tutorial or show me the way for hexediting a movie so i can try to use work that is done without having to redo it all? i know it's hard, but any help is aprreciated
Post subject: Re: tutorial on hexediting a movie?
Editor, Active player (297)
Joined: 3/8/2004
Posts: 7469
Location: Arzareth
1. You need a binary safe editor that can insert/delete bytes in the file, not just replace them. 2. You need to understand the file format of the movie file you are editing. 3. You need to know which frame you need to edit, and which kind of edit you want to perform. Everything after step 2 is all about experimenting. I'm afraid this is all I can say without more experience. * Binary safe refers to an editor that does not force its views about text file contents, such as the representation of linefeeds or line lengths.
Former player
Joined: 3/19/2004
Posts: 710
Location: USA
There three things that you may try to do: Change a keypress Add a keypress Remove a keypress Of course, you can do several of them at once. To do so, you must know the EXACT frame that you want to edit. If you are a replacing a part of a move with another, you must know the EXACT frame that you want. If you are off by even one frame, the movie desyncs. In the case that you want to change a keypress you must know what bits correspond do what keys. Anyway, one of the major problems with hex editing movie files is the randomness. Removing something, adding something, even removing a bullet that you accdidently fire might change the randomness, almost certainly desyncing your movie. But, its still possible. Have fun! :)
nesrocks
He/Him
Player (246)
Joined: 5/1/2004
Posts: 4096
Location: Rio, Brazil
i want to take all my keypresses from let's say, after i start level 12, for example, and paste them after the last frame of end of level 11 on another movie. if i can get the exact frames, is it possible to "cut" and "paste" sequences of keypresses? thanx a lot :D
Former player
Joined: 6/27/2004
Posts: 550
Location: New York
Even if you get it precise to the frame it can desync. I was fooling around with the mega man x2 video, I went through the intro level sloppily so I could test, hex edited what followed in the movie that is already made at the end of that video, and it progressed through wheel gator for awhile, even successfully completing the frame-specific jump up to the upgrade. right after this jump however it desyncs, and for some reason pushes start too early, pausing the game rather than rapidly moving through dr light's text. I plan on fooling with it more in the future.
Editor, Active player (297)
Joined: 3/8/2004
Posts: 7469
Location: Arzareth
It is possible to copy&paste sequences of keypresses if you know the source and destination frame numbers exactly.
Former player
Joined: 3/19/2004
Posts: 710
Location: USA
Yes it is. First, make copies of each file. End the longer movie in Famtaisa at a certain frame that you can easily identify from level 12 (the first frame of the level, or something). This will cause the file to truncate. Then check out how many bytes are in the file. Then copy your back up of the movie onto the now short one. Open it up in the hex editor, and go to the byte that was the length of the shorter one. Copy everything from this point and on. Go to the 11 level movie. Go, play it, and end it at the same frame that you has originally ended the long movie. Now, open this one in a hex editor, and paste the data that you had copied before. That should be it. You might have one more or less extra bytes in the data that you are copying, so if the movie desyncs, just try pasting it starting from a differnt byte. Remember, that things still might go wrong because of randomness. It depends on what game you are playing. Edited for readability. Edit2: Someone said you are using Gens. I haven't really read it, but it should work the same way.
Former player
Joined: 6/27/2004
Posts: 550
Location: New York
I tried some form of that awhile ago, and the problem was that I think the length of the movie is hidden somewhere in the first lines of hex crap. so if you add stuff at the very end, it will still stop at the same place(or that happened for me at least). My solution was to keep the video going in turbo for awhile, and paste the real movie data over the 0000's.
Former player
Joined: 3/19/2004
Posts: 710
Location: USA
Read this Blechy: http://tasvideos.org/fmv.html Don't know what your problem was. Edit: Wait....you didn't use famtasia >_< Edit2: Apparently smvs do have a frame count. Huh.
Former player
Joined: 6/27/2004
Posts: 550
Location: New York
yeah... fmv format may be different from smv format(posted before his edit2)
Former player
Joined: 10/27/2004
Posts: 518
sorry to revive this rather old topic, but what hex-editor is most user friendly (best for someone who is new)? im in pretty much the same sitch that FODA was in in his original post. EDIT: hex workshop... okie doke, ill try that. if anyone has any other suggestions, i welcome those as well.
Former player
Joined: 5/4/2005
Posts: 502
Location: Onett, Eagleland
Hex Workshops.
I think.....therefore I am not Barry Burton