VPW Studio

[AIKIDOBRO]

This is amazing Freem. I cant wait to see what the community will do with this.

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Will this program allow us to alter the controls of the game? Such as adding a 2nd strike button like the def jam games or perhaps a combos for the light strikes. Or taps and Holds for ground grapples and will new moves that are added to the game be selectable in to CAW like normal. thank you and keep up the good work.

 

[freem]

Will this program allow us to alter the controls of the game? Such as adding a 2nd strike button like the def jam games or perhaps a combos for the light strikes. Or taps and Holds for ground grapples and will new moves that are added to the game be selectable in to CAW like normal.

No, that would require changing the game's code, which requires creating a disassembly that can be rebuilt into a copy of the game. That's outside of the scope of this program.

Edit: I just noticed the last portion of this question was different from the rest...

<blockquote class='quote\\_blockquote'><dl><dt>AIKIDOBRO</dt><dd> </dd></dl><div>will new moves that are added to the game be selectable in to CAW like normal[/quote]

I am really hoping I can get this to work, but it may also require code changes.

 

[AIKIDOBRO]

That is what i thought, but a guy can dream can't he lol. Oh mythical source code where are you? I think we need to hire a guy with a fedora to track it down.

I hope the CAW thing works out it would be amazing to expand rather then break the CAW, piece by piece as we do now.

Keep up the Good work :withflair:

 

[MisawaGuy]

Oh mythical source code where are you? I think we need to hire a guy with a fedora to track it down.

I emailed the former AKI Corporation (in Japanese) asking very nicely for the source code a couple weeks back. They haven't gotten back to me.

 

[KWG]

Oh mythical source code where are you? I think we need to hire a guy with a fedora to track it down.

I emailed the former AKI Corporation (in Japanese) asking very nicely for the source code a couple weeks back. They haven't gotten back to me.

A few people have tried that before, the answer is that they don't have the source code anymore, it's just lost.

 

[AIKIDOBRO]

I would not give some random Guys that e-mailed me the source code either. Lost or not who could blame them.

Will be able to expand the roster & Stables like S.K. Stylez's tool?

Aki On Dude!!!!!!

 

[freem]

If it requires using activators, it's probably not going to happen. VPW Studio does edits directly to the ROM and not with GameShark codes. This doesn't rule out some other method, though.

Essentially, I have to reverse engineer the game to do anything really out of line, and doing that somewhat cuts into development time.

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2018/06/26 (June 26th, 2018) update:
Back to work again after a month or so off.

Jordy managed to get me the info for the No Mercy default costume data, so I've implemented that as a class. Nothing user-facing is available yet, but it will be eventually.

As you may have seen elsewhere, I got menu background image importing working in a roundabout fashion:

Right now, you have to manually convert the file and make the Project FileTable changes yourself, which is not reasonable for most people to do. (manually changing 40 entries sucks) I'll find some way to fix that in the future.

 

[Deleted User]

This is so freaking cool!

 

[marillmau5]

If the 40 entries were talking about is the background textures you can easily make a Photoshop template with an action code that will slice it into the 40 pieces automatically.

 

[freem]

The best case scenario would be for people to not need to split up the background into multiple pieces before importing. I already have this part implemented; it's the ProjectFile that needs updating to point to the new MenuBackground that takes forever.

I'll explain the current process for background conversion, as well as my ideal solution to the problem.

1) Danger Zone -> PNG to MenuBG
2) Select image to convert, target game (WM2K uses 320x24 slices, VPW2 and No Mercy use 64x30), and output directory.
3) Go into FileTable editor and manually change 10 or 40 entries to the exported background files.

Ideally, it'd work like this:
1) Right click on MenuBackground item in FileTable editor, choose "MenuBackground Replacement"
2) Select input file, select output directory, and convert.
3) (this is the important step) Set the specified number of entries in the FileTable to the new MenuBackground files.

edit: currently working on getting this implemented; watch this space for more information

edit 2: got it; next version released to testers will include the ideal steps, aside from needing to choose the output directory.

 

[asarkis621]

Have any of you guys tried a hack to make lime green a selectable color in WM2K, VPW2, or No Mercy?

 

[Deleted User]

Yep. Wrong topic to ask. Warned. Please check out our rules!

 

[sdot_thadon]

Just seeing this...... :10 amazing development. I'll definitely have something to keep my eye on, these games will never die. :"":

 

[freem]

This project is still alive. Here's a WIP shot of the WWF No Mercy default costume editor:

 

[freem]

first pass of a VPW2 RRS viewer/eventually editor:

(champion ID2s are different from the default because I'm working on a pre-hacked ROM...)

 

[freem]

Still alive; here's a shot of the VPW2 Move Damage viewer:

 

[AKIFan1998]

Wow...all of this is REALLY AWESOME! The amount of work you put into this project is substantial! Awesome work! ^w^

I can't wait to edit WWF No Mercy without having to use a BUNCH of codes...xp

 

[wweiran]

Wow , this is very nice.
can't wait to see it out and running!

 

[G.M.Spectre]

This is one hell of an ambitious projejt and I look forward to the release.  I've been looking at this post as well as the VPW2 Freem previews and really think this would help out with distribution of AKI mods, since an IPS patch would take care of the graphics and move modding.  I had a quick question about how graphics are stored. 

Currently, texture modding using emulators is based on replacing a combination of a unique texture (for example a face with beard and glasses) with a texture for that one specific combination.  I'm assuming that it may be possible to edit the specific pieces so for example if you changed a Shawn Micheals face into a John Cena Face, the John Cena face would always show up instead of changing as soon as a pair of glasses or beard is added.

Also, if it is that style, would the base sprite be changed for all colors, or would each color have it's own base texture.  I ask this because I remember trying to edit Raw for the PC back in the day, and noticing that each color had it's own graphic.

Anyways, thanks for taking the time to make and share this project.

 

[freem]

an IPS patch would take care of the graphics and move modding.

Sadly, IPS only supports files of over 16MB... I plan on releasing patches as xdelta format, but there are other solutions as well.

I had a quick question about how graphics are stored. 

Currently, texture modding using emulators is based on replacing a combination of a unique texture (for example a face with beard and glasses) with a texture for that one specific combination.  I'm assuming that it may be possible to edit the specific pieces so for example if you changed a Shawn Micheals face into a John Cena Face, the John Cena face would always show up instead of changing as soon as a pair of glasses or beard is added.

Yes, that is correct.

Also, if it is that style, would the base sprite be changed for all colors, or would each color have it's own base texture.  I ask this because I remember trying to edit Raw for the PC back in the day, and noticing that each color had it's own graphic.

The VPW series heavily abuses palettes to allow color swaps to happen.

For costume items, there are two palettes stored: the ones to use with color 0,0 (a.k.a. default colors), and a green/blue mapped palette used for changing colors.

Faces have a shared set of palettes (in games up to No Mercy, at least... in No Mercy, each face contains its own palette, which is usually consistent between items? I haven't checked.), so that as long as you limit yourself to the first skintone, the color indices can properly map to the other skin colors.

I'm not sure that's going to properly explain it, but hopefully this gives some insight into the process.