GoldenEye 007 Nintendo 64 Community, GoldenEye X, Nintendo 64 Games Discussion

[Wreck]

This is one aspect of GE modding that isn't touched on too much. I figured we should maybe have a thread that discusses what we can do with it.

To start, I put together a little video showing one of the most recent animations I did, while trying to get 64x64 4-bit colour images to render correctly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmW-OZvQtbQ

This took seven images. The original gif file (Zoinkity's avatar, of course!) used eight, but I was able to "merge" together two (his centered images) to cut one out. It starts at the first image, and runs through to the seventh. Then, it goes back again until the second, at which point it loops. There is a very short holding period between each image.


Anyway, if you want to use a 64x64 4-bit colour image as a screen, make sure of the following...

The image type must be 400A type, which the Editor mentions as interlaced. My attempts with a 460A type gave me really bad results, where the palette was completely wrong.


Under the Screen Bank, you need to set the following values for the image...

Width: 40
Height: 40
# Levels: 00
Unknown: 00
Flags: 02000000


Remember, you can add more images to the screen bank, so you don't need to replace any. But, space is super tight in the animation table, so chances are you will need to replace something. I would recommend the Skateboarder (12), as it is the biggest, and only used a single time in all of GE. You can also do some stuff to the Aztec randomizer series, which spans from 16 to 2D! Here's what I had to do in GoldenEye X to shorten the Skateboarder, so more stuff could fit in...


GE-X modified version, reduced to 0x70 size (saving 0x20C space)...
0D (RGBA 0A960AFF T: 00000000)
07 (Use Image: 00000024)
08 (Hold time: 00000005)
07 (Use Image: 00000025)
08 (Hold time: 00000005)
07 (Use Image: 00000026)
08 (Hold time: 0000000A)
07 (Use Image: 00000027)
08 (Hold time: 0000000C)
07 (Use Image: 00000026)
08 (Hold time: 0000000A)
07 (Use Image: 00000025)
08 (Hold time: 0000000A)
0B (Loop)



And another tip, if you want to switch between monitors, like my video shows. It goes from 14 Off, to 28 Aztec Screens. The problem is that 14 Off uses an RGBA setting, to make the image almost pure black. When you switch to another image, that colour setting is maintained. You need to set your own RGBA value on your custom animation, otherwise the previous one will affect your image(s). Start at FFFFFFFF for your colour / alpha, and your time should be 00000001. You can set whatever colour you want, though, which is great for greyscale images.


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Open up 10 monitor slots without replacing / breaking anything in the Aztec series...

While looking over the series of screens that the Aztec randomizer uses, it looked as though you could probably merge some of them together, which would open up more slots to use for custom stuff. With the following update to one monitor entry, you can free up ten screens. Here is what you'll need to do...

Screen Set 17 (True Digit 17 Aztec Screens (17))

0A (Jump to Routine 17 0C If Random # < 1999)
0A (Jump to Routine 17 0F If Random # < 1999)
0A (Jump to Routine 17 12 If Random # < 1999)
0A (Jump to Routine 17 15 If Random # < 1999)
0A (Jump to Routine 17 18 If Random # < 1999)
0A (Jump to Routine 17 1B If Random # < 1999)
0A (Jump to Routine 17 1E If Random # < 1999)
0A (Jump to Routine 17 21 If Random # < 1999)
0A (Jump to Routine 17 24 If Random # < 1999)
0A (Jump to Routine 17 27 If Random # < 1999)
08 (Hold time: 00000064)
0B (Loop)
07 (Use Image: 00000011)
08 (Hold time: 00000014)
0A (Jump to Routine 22 00 If Random # < FFFF)
07 (Use Image: 00000012)
08 (Hold time: 00000014)
0A (Jump to Routine 22 00 If Random # < FFFF)
07 (Use Image: 00000013)
08 (Hold time: 00000014)
0A (Jump to Routine 22 00 If Random # < FFFF)
07 (Use Image: 00000014)
08 (Hold time: 00000014)
0A (Jump to Routine 22 00 If Random # < FFFF)
07 (Use Image: 00000015)
08 (Hold time: 00000014)
0A (Jump to Routine 22 00 If Random # < FFFF)
07 (Use Image: 00000016)
08 (Hold time: 00000014)
0A (Jump to Routine 22 00 If Random # < FFFF)
07 (Use Image: 00000017)
08 (Hold time: 00000014)
0A (Jump to Routine 22 00 If Random # < FFFF)
07 (Use Image: 00000018)
08 (Hold time: 00000014)
0A (Jump to Routine 22 00 If Random # < FFFF)
07 (Use Image: 00000019)
08 (Hold time: 00000014)
0A (Jump to Routine 22 00 If Random # < FFFF)
07 (Use Image: 0000001A)
08 (Hold time: 00000014)
0A (Jump to Routine 22 00 If Random # < FFFF)

Once done that, delete everything out of screens 18-21. This does not add anything to the table size, and only changes where data is located within. You can put your own custom screen animations in those slots afterward. Just watch how much space you have to work with in the table. I always suggest doing something with "12 Skateboarder" before anything else, due to its size and one time appearance in normal GE.

Last edited by Wreck on Fri May 29, 2020 9:23 pm; edited 3 times in total

[CrashOveride]

Heh, I had actually done something like this a few years ago, but it wasn't animated:


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[Wreck]

All you'd need is that annoying sound effect to play from the monitor location and you're set.

I added some information on how to actually get 10 slots opened up, by merging some of the Aztec series of animations together into one. I ended up redoing the GE compilation pack with this data, so everything is supported again, plus some new screens included. Just the skateboarder has been modified for size. Though, I do wonder, if you could use a RAM pointer within an entry to go to another spot in 21990 where you'd store a screen animation? That's basically what the Jump to Routine types do. I should run a test.

Edit: Gave it a whirl, and it worked. I copied out the Bond Silhouette animation to an unused spot in 21990 (after the image table), and set a screen to only use a 09 Jump to Routine entry. I had to use a GameShark code to update the RAM address, as the one I wrote in 21990 was overwritten by the Editor, but it ended up working just fine, even with a loop. So you can actually get even more out of the animations by directing to another spot in 21990. That could be very helpful, but would require support in Editor as to not reset your RAM addresses.

[Thundera8589]

Would that make it possible to get full skateboard animation screen onto GE-X as well?
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[Wreck]

Should it work the same way (which is highly likely), than yes. But PD has less space in its 39850 file to store new stuff in, when compared to GE's 21990 file. And when you are fighting for space, 0x27C is no small amount. I would have to look into it once progress on GE-X resumes. It has been some time since I setup the screens in GE-X, and I'm not sure how much (if any) space was leftover in screen animations area.

[SubDrag]

Trevor gave me the actual parameter meanings of the screen bank for beta editor, so hopefully that makes it a little easier to do. When you change image # it should try and auto-set the type/size as well. There's only a couple combinations that would be normally used though. I didn't update Edit Model except names, because it really doesn't read those parameters at all.