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Video Tutorials To Get Started and Master Tool List


giadrosich
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UPDATED 6/11/2013

 

Hello, welcome to a list where newbies and advanced users alike can make use of.

 

The first section of this thread is specifically geared for people who don't know where or how to begin their quest in making a mod. If you aren't sure how to start your quest of making a mod, or how hex editing works, or anything really, the first section is going to be awesome for you. Don't be ashamed at what you don't know--we all gotta start somewhere, right? I encourage asking questions, but be sure your question hasn't been answered first--use the search function.

 

The second section is a Master Tool List for both advanced users and newbies. For specifically the Newbies, when you go through the program list, you'll be able to see which ones have a tutorial with a [T] and easily watch a video explaining the details of each program. Some of them range from very basic to a bit more time consuming. But each are clear, concise and have you (new to modding) in mind. If you ever have questions though, make a comment on the youtube video itself, and I will be sure to get back with you on a solution.

 

Newbie Section

 

Number one rule I've found in modding: BACK UP YOUR ROM! I have three copies of any rom I'm working on at a time in my computer, plus one that is on a flash drive I update every now and then. Whenever you make a major change that works out great and has no problems, back that ROM up right away!

 

A useful place to check out is the Z64 wiki community portal . This is where you can really dig through the documentation of the roms and learn some new things. Most entries are very technical, so for newbies I suggest digging around, but don't expect to get everything at once. Learn things a bit at a time, and after a while it'll come naturally.

 

Here's a PDF file on the map select as well as some information on cutscenes and overall debug controls. Also, check out this page on different ways to set up your emulator to get the rom to work. On a side note, if you want to learn about the Debug rom itself and how it got out, then check out this thread about it. There is some interesting stuff on it.

 

Terms to Know:

 

Actor = The code or AI for the enemy, NPC, tree, rock, or basically the model.

 

Variable = These vary between actors. It is used the specify the attributes of that particular actor, such as whether it is invisible, small, mini-boss, etc.

 

Group/Object=The actual model and (usually) animations of the enemy, NPC, tree, rock, or any other type of actor. Only one object is needed to be loaded if there is more than one actor that uses it. You might see some people call it a group, but the correct term is object.

 

Basically, the game loads the object into a segment (just think of it as general storage in which all the actors that use that object have access to) then whenever an actor needs some model data or animation, it grabs from the loaded model and uses it to fulfil it's physical or visible needs. Easy to understand: Let's say you wanted three Stalfos; you would place three Stalfos actors and one Stalfos object, not three Stalfos objects and one Stalfos actor.

 

Video Tutorials

 

To find the program to download, just skip on down to the Advanced Users Section to get your correct program for your tutorial. When you see a [T] next to a program, this means that there is a tutorial made for it. I'm hoping to one day have a clear tutorial for everything. Most tutorials deal with the debug rom as well, so be sure to have a copy of that.

 

Setting Up

 

What Should You Download? How do I make the debug rom run on Nemu64?

Check out the tutorial here!

 

Text Editing Tutorials

 

Getting Started - How to Decompress a Rom (Ignore if Using Debug Rom)

 

Hex Editor Basics - Line Breaks ||| Text Colour/File Name Usage |||

 

Scroll of Time - Getting Started ||| When Cutscenes Softlock |||

 

OOT Text Tool - Simple Tutorial (recommended over Scroll of Time if having trouble with editing)

 

 

Actor/Group (Object)/Variable Tutorials

 

Zelda Actor Placement 2 - Setting Up the Program/Changing Actor Variables (Part 1) ||| Changing Objects/Groups (Part 2) ||| Moving/Rotating Actors Real-Time

 

SayakaGL - Getting Started With Moving Actors ||| Actor Replacing Tutorials |||

 

ZAO-ADD - Adding New Objects to a Map |||

 

Custom Map/Sound Tutorials

 

Model presets: Shows the size of doors and such to use

 

Imported Link model for scale: To help with map sizes

 

SharpOcarina - Making and Importing Simple Maps ||| Collisions & Exits |||

 

Custom Sounds in OOT |||

 

Misc Tutorials:

 

Hex Editing - Start new file in different ways (more documentation here) |||

Beginner's Guide to Music - Writing Your Own Music

 

 

MISC Things That Need Video Tutorials (A.K.A. Note to self)

 

Changing Navi's Colours:

 

A quick little run-down on changing your favorite fairy's colours. This includes the inner body, the outside halo glow, as well as transparency. This is really simple once you learn how to search for offsets in your hex editor!

 

Sakura89's documentation on offsets in debug ROM along with the normal OOT colours:

00B8D134 - Navi's normal colour (white)00B8D144 - NPC's (light purple-ish)00B8D14C - enemies (yellow)00B8D154 - signs, gossip stones (green)00B8D15C - checkable spots (green)00B8D16C - bosses (yellow)

Example: Let's change Navi's normal colour.

  • Open up your hex editor and search for the offset, usually with CTRL+G.
  • When you get there, you will see the hex colours starting with FF FF FF. This is Navi's normal colours of white. That's boring. Let's make her Tael.
  • Go to this website: http://www.colorschemer.com/online.html It will show you the hex of the colours, and you can get great customization that way.
  • Check out the hex code now. The first three bytes deal with Navi's inner body colour. The fourth byte deals with transparency of the body, not including the wings. The next three bytes deal with the "glow" halo around the body.
  • To make Navi into Tael, try this code out to get a feel how it works: 4E 00 C2  FF FF 00 00

You can also do the same thing with Link's Tunic colours. Check out these offsets:

00B9D1A8 - Kokiri Tunic colour00B9D1AB - Goron Tunic colour00B9D1AE - Zora Tunic colour

These are easier as they are only 3 bytes long instead of the 7 that Navi uses.

 

Time Flow Control:

 

In scene headers:
10 00 00 00 xx xx yy 00: Time control

x: Starting time (see Time Modifier)
y: Speed at which time moves (signed value; default is 0A)

 

Block Push Delay

The ROM address 0xF4B12E (decompressed 1.0-0x00DD2D26) is a 16-bit integer that holds the block pushing delay, in frames. The default value is 10 (0x000A).
 

Block Speed
The maximum block pushing speed is found at 0xF4AF8E (decompressed 1.0-
0x00DD2B86). It's a 16-bit number that represents the 2 most significant bytes of a float. The default value is 2 (0x4000).

 

Block Distance (wouldn't change this in case it messes up the block positions in a puzzle)

The block pushing distance works similarly and is found at 0xF4AFD2 (decompressed 1.0-0x00DD2BCE)and has a default value of 20 (0x41A0).

 

Have game check for all six medallions:

 

Write the following 2 lines at ROM address AE04A0 (decompressed 1.0 rom - 0x00ACCE20)
8E0200A4 3049003F 392A003F 1540001A
00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000

 

(thanks to fierceshinigami for the decompressed 1.0 offsets)

 

Master Tools Section

 

Here's a "quick list" of tools that you guys might want at your fingertips. When you see a [T] next to the program, that means there is a tutorial listed in the newbie section. Better than searching through the threads all day on twelve different sites, eh? Now, for you newbies, if you want to try something on this list--give it a go! Can't hurt anything really, and getting your hands dirty will help with experience. Just remember the number one rule! And don't be intimidated by the huge list, new guys. For those finished with mods: Disable Debug Options.

 

For overall debug databases for individual file downloads: Master Quest Database ||| Majora's Mask Database

 

Pierre's Ocarina Studio - The only GUI application for Custom Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask Ocarina Songs. It's buggy in some cases where it doesn't work. It supports changing the actor that the song spawns. If this doesn't work for you, stick to using a Hex Editor. If you want to be even pickier, you can try Petrie's OOT Song Builder.

[T] Scroll of Time / Majora - The only GUI application for editing text for Ocarina of Time or Majora's Mask. It doesn't support every feature and is buggy in some cases. If this is the case for you, or just merely have trouble editing, you can take a look at [T] DeathBasket's Text Tool which simply dumps the text to a .txt file where you can edit it in any program of your choosing (aka notepad).

Hylian Toolbox - An Application in it's infancy state that can currently be used to edit or create new or old hierarchies and animations. This can also be used to rotate or scale display list mesh. This is still version one, and not all bugs have been properly worked out as of late.

DeathBasket's InstEd - An advanced application for converting custom MIDI files into Zelda Sequence Files to import into Ocarina of Time. This can also be used to port custom instruments from SM64 or Majora's Mask to Ocarina of Time, and can be used to insert sequences from Majora's Mask. Say you only want to port Majora's Mask music quickly and you're on a windows OS with .NET Framework, you can use MMMusic2OoT which ports sequence files from Majora's Mask to OoT on command. Given that you sometimes have broken instruments that can be fixed with InstEd.

Model2N64 - A GUI Application for converting OBJ files to custom display lists that can be imported into either Ocarina of Time or Majora's Mask.

 

[T] SayakaGL - This is a replacement more or less for Utility of Time, an application for Windows users written by cooliscool. It can move actors and change their number and variable. There is an update that includes support for transition actors, but has not been bug tested as much. That would be SayakaGL v.011. I suggest using the newest version that supports object changing as well as a few other awesome things. To find it's location, go to SayakaGL>bin>release>then click on the SayakaGL application file.

 

SorataVSE - An actor, display list, or map viewer with proper hierarchy and matrix support. The first viewer to implement proper actor rendering. Although currently in a beta stage, it is planned to become much more, including a replacement to SayakaGL.

 

[T] Zelda Actor Replacement 2 (ZLE2) and Zelda Level Editor 2 (ZAP2)- Applications for making on-the-fly changes to the game in real time while your emulator is running. These tools only have support for Nemu 64 and are recommended by multiple users.

 

[T] ZAO-ADD - An application that automatically adds extra actors and objects to a room quickly and simply. Being updated when it can be, it's more efficient than using a Hex Editor and can automatically insert your edited files so you can get to playing your mod as soon as you're finished with it.

 

[T] Navi Colour Changer - A CLI Program to change Navi's colors in Ocarina of Time. You can also try out this program: Zelda Colour Editor. Tutorial is for hex editing.

 

N64Rip - Imports and exports textures.

 

DLViewer = An Application to view display lists within Ocarina of Time or Majora's Mask files. Also has support for SM64, though unthroroughly tested.

 

[T] SharpOcarina - The only GUI Application that supports converting custom OBJ files into Custom Maps for Ocarina of Time or Majora's Mask. Works well in tandem with Google Sketchup Pro, Blender, any 3d program that can export obj files. Download the latest version.

 

z64dump - A command line program that dumps information about a rom such as its makerom info, file table location, actor and object table locations, the number of actors, and actor descriptions telling the actor group / actor / object number and their corresponding object files. All information is obtained using some advanced searching techniques and nothing is hard-coded, so it works on any Zelda rom. The rom must be decompressed though for it to work.

 

n64conv - A command line program originally written as a replacement for the n64gfx program that comes with ZLE2 because it's 16-bit and doesn't run on 64-bit pc's. It converts raw texture data to .tga files. The format of the texture data is determined by the file name, which has the format 'name_WWxHH_fmt.raw', where 'name' can be anything, WW is the width (in decimal), HH is the height (in decimal), and fmt is the format, which can be i4, i8, ia4, ia8, r5g6b5, rgba16, or rgba32. CI (paletted) formats are not supported. Just drag and drop files on the program to convert them.

 

Airikita's Value Editor - "This is a value editor for both Zelda: Ocarina of Time (OOT) and Majora's Mask (MM), and can be used for any version and type! Different values can be found to be modified... while there are floating-point and integer values, there are a range of other useful values that can have an effect on just about anything!"

 

[T] N64 Sound Tools - An open source sound tool for N64 ROMs, which lets you play standard format waves, and lets you add/change waves that are in the game already. Use alongside TableDesign and Adpcmenc to make your own custom sounds for the game.

 

If you can think of anything else to add, just list it in the thread, and I'll add it up here.

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I cant seem to find any tutorials on how to use this:

Petrie's OOT Song Builder

 

Can anyone give me the rundown?

I can't get it to work for me either. Petrie wrote a little thing on it in another thread, if you can get it to work, please let me know. I can get everything but the song sequence after playing it to change.

 

Anyways, the thing is asking for the pitch of the note you want, not the button in question.  For the record, here are what numbers the buttons correspond to and the notes they produce

 

A - 02 (D4)

Cv - 05 (F4)

C< - 09 (A5)

C> - 11 (B5)

C^ - 14 (D5)

 

But this program isn't limited to just the button notes.  You can use any notes in between, too, as well as several outside that range.

 

More detailed posting on it: http://www.the-gcn.com/topic/2087-ocarina-song-editor/?p=32415

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Added some misc offsets for people who would be interested in changing the block speed as well as six medallion check. (Also added fierceshinigami's decompressed 1.0 offsets - I have not checked those personally, a verification of this would be appreciated. Not saying it's wrong, but just want it verified so accidental wrong information doesn't get passed along.) :)

 

Eventually I'll get around to adding all the misc stuff into one tutorial video so it doesn't clutter the first post. :P

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The OOT text tool works with Majora's Mask right? Because I absolutely cannot use the Scroll of Time. I actually think using notepad with the OOT text tool is easier then that weirdly enough.

 

It doesn't, sorry. I didn't get around to making a version for MM as I didn't really find the time and Majora's Mask's text format is quite different.

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Nothing against the tool, just some feedback for it to make it better: The main problem I had with Scroll of Time was the search function actually. For some reason, I think it only searches for the first box in a string of text, vs the Text tool where you can search anywhere in the string (at least in OOT, have not done any testing whatsoever in MM). When working with Scroll, I had a text dump open in one window as well as the game, that way I could search the first box of text.

 

The tool can also get rid of some important things in the coding, and I'm not quite sure why it does it when you aren't editing any of the hex. There needs to be some bug testing with the tool to figure out why it does that. Multiple times I've had softlocks happen because of the program getting rid of the "go to the next text box" coding, and then I had to compare in hex what exactly went wrong.

 

If working with OOT, the Text Tool with notepad is the best way to do it if you're editing large amounts of text. I would use Scroll for a very small amount of text.

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@Giadrosich,

 

First off I would like to say thank you for these amazing tutorials, I have just successfully modified my first Rom thanks to you! I do have a quick question if you don't mind me asking and I don't believe it's been asked before, when trying to edit Navi's colors through hex I seem to be unable to change her inner body color. I tried the code you provided and the halo around the body changed and the inside of the sparkle's or whatever you want to call them when Navi comes out from your tunic, but the inner body remains the same. When changing the colors of targeted enemies I have the same problem, the circling arrows change to the color specified but Navi remains unchanged. Any idea what I may be doing wrong?

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No problem, glad they helped! The only thing I can suggest is make sure your offset is typed in correctly or try out the secondary program (Navi Colour Changer) for it instead of doing it in hex. I have not used that program, so hopefully it'll work for you. If it still doesn't work, post up a screenshot of the offset you are editing.

 

Remember to look at the first three bytes, that deals with the inner glow, it's easy to mess up and click on the wrong byte, so just double-check what you're doing.

 

Are you having trouble with any other offsets, or just the normal body and enemy offsets?

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Well, I successfully changed some tunic color's around using hex no trouble with those offsets but I am very new to it still. I carefully searched for navi's normal color offset and re edited it starting from the byte that is highlighted after searching just to double check, same effect. I also tried the navi color changer which did the same thing as when I tried hex which is what really confuses me since it mostly takes my novice out of the equation. I must note that what I edit does have some effects, like I said the outer ring and small sparkles change. The hex originally reads FF FF FF FF 00 00 FF I changed it to 00 00 00 FF 5C 00 5C (black and purple with 100% opacity or so I thought). This is the exact offset I'm searching for Cut and Pasted from the search window directly B8D134.

 

*edit*

 

Sorry, I'm trying to upload a pic like you asked but I'm crazy new to this site and I'm not sure how (I'm a noob I know)

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Figured it out. You aren't doing anything wrong. It's the plugin you're using. Are you using Jabo3D6 1.5.2? If you are, it won't display the colours directly. If you switch to Rice's video 6.1.1 plugin (the one I use *ducks things thrown at me*) the colours will come out right. Here's what you'll see if you switch:

 

navicolour_zps111d5653.jpg

 

If you've taken advice from how to set up your rom properly, I need to update that with the correct items, and I apologize.

 

EDIT: Yeah, I need to update that setting up tutorial. I've learned a few things since then about the best setup.

 

As for uploading a picture, I just use photobucket, then use the IMG brackets the website provides for you.

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Wow you are amazing! Couldn't get 6.1.1 to work for some reason but got 1.5.1 and it fixed the problem, even got my tunic's collar to match! Only thing is the Debug menu is all fuzzy haha no big deal though. Now to figure out why my custom collision models come out all screwy :D.

 

P.S. No need to duck, I never would have gotten this far without you and this awesome community!

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To get rid of the "fuzz" on the debug menu, open up the rom, then go to plugins-->current game options (make sure your advanced options are shown) then click on TMEM emulation, and that should fix the problem. Uncheck hid advanced options in the general options tab.

 

Hopefully that'll fix the problem, and your rom should be good to go at that point. (I duck because Rice is an old plugin, but it works for me. XD)

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@giadrosich (again) I don't know if anyone else is having a problem with this, but I followed your tutorial on importing custom obj. files step by step and something isn't working for me. Basically half of my textures don't show up if I use the push/pull tool in Sketchup for anything. I'm sorry to bombard you with questions, but I'm confused, and this is one of the sides of modding I'm interested in the most.

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@giadrosich (again) I don't know if anyone else is having a problem with this, but I followed your tutorial on importing custom obj. files step by step and something isn't working for me. Basically half of my textures don't show up if I use the push/pull tool in Sketchup for anything. I'm sorry to bombard you with questions, but I'm confused, and this is one of the sides of modding I'm interested in the most.

You're okay, this is what this thread is for. When you ask a question, then someone else might come along and need an answer as well if they are having the same problems, so I encourage it.

 

As for your problem...are you putting textures on after or before you use the push/pull? I've never attempted to actually use that tool after texturing, so if that's what's going on, use the tool before you texture your map.

 

When you import your map, I'm assuming that's where the textures aren't showing up? If you can, take a screenshot of what you've done (usually there's a prnt scrn button on the keyboard you can use and then upload that up to photobucket) so I can take a look.

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Thank you for being supportive. I am applying the textures after using the push and pull tool. Everything appears fine through sketchup, once I open the .obj with sharp ocarina however the textures appear like this:

 

Posted Image

Hope you can see, if not please tell me ill re-upload. thanks!

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