So, I got further along in my hack, not that anyone cares... LOL.
Now, I'm reaching a point where I would like to be able to control more precisely how the camera works in scenes rather than just reusing existing setups. It seems like that just isn't going well because it requires me to load up the scene in the game every single to view the results of making blind changes to numbers that I don't really understand.
This means that in some cases, switching to a different "field" makes it nearly impossible to predict where the characters are going to wind up on it, or where I need to define the camera or the spots... like, there's no visuals here whatsoever... I have to go entirely by the numbers and what I can see in the engine after a random script edit to change these things. It would probably be fine if I were better at thinking in three dimensions, but I'm not. At this point I just feel grateful if I wind up creating a scene on accident where the characters happen to walk into view of the camera.
Another thing I was interested in somewhat is editing these TLP things that are technically stored as BCH files, but don't work like normal BCH files at all. They're used for scenes like when Takumi or Elise get sick, and 2D artwork fills the screen. It's turning out that those files are remarkably resistant to being edited... you can't change the position of the images within the file, and it seems like it's hard to do anything other than replace an existing image with another image, and even that takes a lot of work and has to be done "just right," with lots of weird restrictions that don't seem to apply to the "normal" BCH files that people usually edit.
So basically I feel a bit stuck because I really don't want to wind up with falling back to standard, dialog-only conversations and ripping out every single unique or cool cutscene in the game, but that really would be the easiest way to continue. :/
Like it was fine accepting that most of the FMV stuff would have to go, but it looks like even more is now going to be on the chopping block to make this work.. I'm willing to give up on editing the TLPs, but I really think there has to be a better way to figure out the X/Y coordinates I need to setup a scene with existing models and fields... or maybe I just need to get good through trial and error, I don't know.
Now, I'm reaching a point where I would like to be able to control more precisely how the camera works in scenes rather than just reusing existing setups. It seems like that just isn't going well because it requires me to load up the scene in the game every single to view the results of making blind changes to numbers that I don't really understand.
This means that in some cases, switching to a different "field" makes it nearly impossible to predict where the characters are going to wind up on it, or where I need to define the camera or the spots... like, there's no visuals here whatsoever... I have to go entirely by the numbers and what I can see in the engine after a random script edit to change these things. It would probably be fine if I were better at thinking in three dimensions, but I'm not. At this point I just feel grateful if I wind up creating a scene on accident where the characters happen to walk into view of the camera.
Another thing I was interested in somewhat is editing these TLP things that are technically stored as BCH files, but don't work like normal BCH files at all. They're used for scenes like when Takumi or Elise get sick, and 2D artwork fills the screen. It's turning out that those files are remarkably resistant to being edited... you can't change the position of the images within the file, and it seems like it's hard to do anything other than replace an existing image with another image, and even that takes a lot of work and has to be done "just right," with lots of weird restrictions that don't seem to apply to the "normal" BCH files that people usually edit.
So basically I feel a bit stuck because I really don't want to wind up with falling back to standard, dialog-only conversations and ripping out every single unique or cool cutscene in the game, but that really would be the easiest way to continue. :/
Like it was fine accepting that most of the FMV stuff would have to go, but it looks like even more is now going to be on the chopping block to make this work.. I'm willing to give up on editing the TLPs, but I really think there has to be a better way to figure out the X/Y coordinates I need to setup a scene with existing models and fields... or maybe I just need to get good through trial and error, I don't know.
Last edited by jeremy1988,
