09-10-2019, 07:49 AM
(This post was last modified: 09-13-2019, 06:23 AM by tombmonkey.)
I'm gonna try and map Legend of Mana, 20 years later and it's still one if not the most gorgeous game ever made. I want to try and get every unique room and the dungeon bits.
Just starting and don't expect anyone to jump in but I will keep updating it with my progress.
Progress:
- Home: all maps submitted except the attic and the house map with the "teardrop crystal" event cutscene palette and sky.
- Luon Highway: complete and submitted.
Currently Working on: Domina
Up Next: Gato Grottoes (caves uses chobin hood caves and a reduced different palette clone with a new background)
Notes:
Mindas Ruins
Ulkan Mines: core is the same as chobin hoods caves)
Mekiv Caverns: water cave base
Tutorial on how to rip LoM backgrounds ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm writing this tutorial mostly for myself, so that when eventually I take a break and inevitably forget how to rip the backgrounds, I can just remind myself reading it, but if anyone else is willing to help with mapping the game this would be a good aid. The method is taken from Davy_Jones, making this so I have an easier time finding it than searching the forums for every post he ever made regarding LoM to remind myself how to do it.
Using ePSXe. go to the room you want to rip and save a state, F1 to save a state, F2 to switch state slot, F3 loads a state.
Go to ePSXe's "sstates" folder, there should be a file named something like "SLUS_010.13.000" or .001, .002 depending on the state slot, extract this file using 7zip, you will get a file with the same name and no extension.
Drag and drop this file on psx V-ram. (download)
this is what the window should look like
PSX V-ram controls:
1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 0 for compression mode, for LoM use 9 and 0 mode
WASD to move the red rectangle which is the area being visualized
arrow keys to move the red cross which is the current palette being used
shift + arrow keys to move the cross by one pixel
This is where the background elements are located, the rest is sprites and interface stuff
The items to the left are in 9 compression mode and use the small palettes, these are the far off background elements, lights, small props and animated props
To the right of that are the foreground elements which are in 0 compression mode and use the long palettes this is how it's setup most of the time, however you may sometimes see stuff on 9 compression mode on the right end, these still use the small palettes
These are the relevant palettes for background assets. The rest of palettes are for sprites and other non background related things. You may have more palettes than in the current scene if the past scene had more palettes, the extra palettes are left there
From left to right, palette order corresponds to the order things appear in the image, this is useful to determine the correct palettes since a lot of the time things can look very similar with an incorrect palette you may also have leftovers from the past screen to the furthest right, ignore these
The same ordering applies to things in 0 compression mode, but going from up to down by 1 pixel
In photoshop, go to "edit" - "preferences" - "guides", "grid & slices"
Set your grid to 16 pixels and 1 subdivision, then go to "view" and activate "snap", then set "snap to" only to "grid".
Take a screnshot of psx_vram, align the image to the grid and use the marquee tool to start taking pieces out, stuff is put together from left to right, you can start from and edge and move leftward/rightwards or grab a piece from the middle and start moving left and right.
I recommend taking screenshots of all the elements with the correct palettes first before starting to piece anything, then start by piecing together what looks like the biggest piece, so it helps with piecing together smaller stuff, you can also take a screenshot of the game (F8 to take a screenshot on ePSXe) and work on top of that.
Dungeons are made up of a handful of chunks that are pieced together to lay out dozens of rooms using only a few assets.
If the background uses sprites, an easy way to find palettes of sprites is to use glintercept (download) to get an image with the correct palette and use the color picker to find where the color palette is on psx V-ram.
Notes on ripping dungeons:
Save a headache and lots of wasted time by just going from left to right, naming every object and noting where it is and what palette they use, so it's impossible to get lost and lose count on what uses what palette, plus be able to find any object easily in case they have the wrong palette.
Objects can use more than one palette, if so then the tiles of each palette will be grouped together.
Several objects can use the same palette, when there are then there will be an extra palette (used by nothing) with very few colors for each additional object that uses the repeated palette.
It would appear that the game will always load every dungeon asset in ram in the same order, and do it only once for any one section as v-ram stays the same upon changing rooms/exiting and reentering dungeon and reloading game (these are prebaked texture pages, they will always be the same, each dungeon section "style" (inside/outside) have it's own prebaked texture page).
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Just starting and don't expect anyone to jump in but I will keep updating it with my progress.
Progress:
- Home: all maps submitted except the attic and the house map with the "teardrop crystal" event cutscene palette and sky.
- Luon Highway: complete and submitted.
Currently Working on: Domina
Up Next: Gato Grottoes (caves uses chobin hood caves and a reduced different palette clone with a new background)
Notes:
Mindas Ruins
Ulkan Mines: core is the same as chobin hoods caves)
Mekiv Caverns: water cave base
Tutorial on how to rip LoM backgrounds ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm writing this tutorial mostly for myself, so that when eventually I take a break and inevitably forget how to rip the backgrounds, I can just remind myself reading it, but if anyone else is willing to help with mapping the game this would be a good aid. The method is taken from Davy_Jones, making this so I have an easier time finding it than searching the forums for every post he ever made regarding LoM to remind myself how to do it.
Using ePSXe. go to the room you want to rip and save a state, F1 to save a state, F2 to switch state slot, F3 loads a state.
Go to ePSXe's "sstates" folder, there should be a file named something like "SLUS_010.13.000" or .001, .002 depending on the state slot, extract this file using 7zip, you will get a file with the same name and no extension.
Drag and drop this file on psx V-ram. (download)
this is what the window should look like
PSX V-ram controls:
1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 0 for compression mode, for LoM use 9 and 0 mode
WASD to move the red rectangle which is the area being visualized
arrow keys to move the red cross which is the current palette being used
shift + arrow keys to move the cross by one pixel
This is where the background elements are located, the rest is sprites and interface stuff
The items to the left are in 9 compression mode and use the small palettes, these are the far off background elements, lights, small props and animated props
To the right of that are the foreground elements which are in 0 compression mode and use the long palettes this is how it's setup most of the time, however you may sometimes see stuff on 9 compression mode on the right end, these still use the small palettes
These are the relevant palettes for background assets. The rest of palettes are for sprites and other non background related things. You may have more palettes than in the current scene if the past scene had more palettes, the extra palettes are left there
From left to right, palette order corresponds to the order things appear in the image, this is useful to determine the correct palettes since a lot of the time things can look very similar with an incorrect palette you may also have leftovers from the past screen to the furthest right, ignore these
The same ordering applies to things in 0 compression mode, but going from up to down by 1 pixel
In photoshop, go to "edit" - "preferences" - "guides", "grid & slices"
Set your grid to 16 pixels and 1 subdivision, then go to "view" and activate "snap", then set "snap to" only to "grid".
Take a screnshot of psx_vram, align the image to the grid and use the marquee tool to start taking pieces out, stuff is put together from left to right, you can start from and edge and move leftward/rightwards or grab a piece from the middle and start moving left and right.
I recommend taking screenshots of all the elements with the correct palettes first before starting to piece anything, then start by piecing together what looks like the biggest piece, so it helps with piecing together smaller stuff, you can also take a screenshot of the game (F8 to take a screenshot on ePSXe) and work on top of that.
Dungeons are made up of a handful of chunks that are pieced together to lay out dozens of rooms using only a few assets.
If the background uses sprites, an easy way to find palettes of sprites is to use glintercept (download) to get an image with the correct palette and use the color picker to find where the color palette is on psx V-ram.
Notes on ripping dungeons:
Save a headache and lots of wasted time by just going from left to right, naming every object and noting where it is and what palette they use, so it's impossible to get lost and lose count on what uses what palette, plus be able to find any object easily in case they have the wrong palette.
Objects can use more than one palette, if so then the tiles of each palette will be grouped together.
Several objects can use the same palette, when there are then there will be an extra palette (used by nothing) with very few colors for each additional object that uses the repeated palette.
It would appear that the game will always load every dungeon asset in ram in the same order, and do it only once for any one section as v-ram stays the same upon changing rooms/exiting and reentering dungeon and reloading game (these are prebaked texture pages, they will always be the same, each dungeon section "style" (inside/outside) have it's own prebaked texture page).
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