PNG Story - From the idiot attempting to bring you The Dark Platform

to change the in-file format just use your hex editor and searchy.pbm. change it to whatevs.

 

Wow this is huge.
Does it work with transparencies? If so, you are my new hero.

Couldn't've done it without CE, Dave.

Would a version with gifs be possible?
Or even Animated Gifs?
That would be brilliant to use with tilesets and backgrounds.
Although it would make the file size massive.....

I'm looking into animated Gif's now.
Will report back.

 

I can't seem to get gifs working...

Has anyone else had better luck?

 

Well, static GIF's work.
Anyone care to whip up a 2-frame gif for me to test animation on? =/
Preferable an invert-revert of the first tileset you see.
Or Textbox.

 

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?wdymdn1qdto

There you go.

 

Okay. Link
This actually a background but hopefully it should do.
I hope it works although I'm guessing that it'll only be compatible with Cave Editor.
Isn't there a version of sue's workshop that can work with BMPs?
That couldn't be changed to support gifs could it?

Edit: Oh whoops,
I've been beaten to it....

 

Alright, I tried a few things (padding the files up to the same size as the original etc.) and as far as I've been able to determine, no.
You cannot have an animated Gif.
=/
Static Gifs are fine though; if a bit grainy. >_>
I'm gonna do some testing on transparency with Gif's and Png's.
If anyone can come up with a solution, I'd be happy to hear.
(I'd love to have animated tilesets. =D)

 

Well that's a shame.
I'm not aware of any other kinds of images that can be animated other than Gifs...
Good luck anyway....

 

Well that's a shame.
I'm not aware of any other kinds of images that can be animated other than Gifs...
Good luck anyway....

The only other animated format I'm aware of is APNG. =/
And that has almost no support... Yet. >_>

So, I did some trials with transparency...
And, like animations, I gots nothing. =/
So what this seems to suggest is that Cave Story cannont support anything more than basic bitmap images (I dread trying with vector graphics).
So... Yeah. Sorry Wistil.
No additional transparencies for you... Yet.
I mean, I suppose support for animated gifs and transparencies could be implimented, but it'd be very akward and ungainly to use in the context of a game.
HOWEVER.
All these things said, I still believe that PNG would be a prefered file format simply because it provides the best compression-to-color depth of the three biggies (ie. Gif, Jpg, Png - I'm not including PBM/BMP as they are non-compressed) with the smallest losses.

Final thoughts: I'm not saying I covered every angle, just the ones I know to deal with. The primary issue could lie soley in the "(C)Pixel" string requirement and how it is handled; as it was the root of 90% of the headachery.
Something I would like to know is if Cave Editor detects/appends or overwrites the last 8 bytes.
As well, if anyone (Lace, Wedge?) with a more advanced knowledge of the Cave Story assembly could look at the way the game processes images and maybe possibly determine the potential for animated Gifs or transparencies, a work-around or solution might be reached.

As for me, my mental resources are spent and I am in need of rest.

- Signing off to "Fall Out Boy - This Ain't A Scene, It's An Arms Race", Bootsy

 

to change the in-file format just use your hex editor and searchy.pbm. change it to whatevs.

Not true, that will just change what file extension it reads, but it will still treat the file data the same as a pbm (a bitmap with (C)Pixel at the end). A pbm by any other name is still a pbm. If you want it to interpret the data correctly, you'll have to edit the code that loads the pbm files so that it "translates" the png/gif/jpeg/what-have-you into raster data.

 

yes, which is what dbs problem is. (as far as I can tell)
if you didn't just swap the file extensions and eliminate (c)pixel, what did ya do, canada boy?

 

Not true, that will just change what file extension it reads, but it will still treat the file data the same as a pbm (a bitmap with (C)Pixel at the end). A pbm by any other name is still a pbm. If you want it to interpret the data correctly, you'll have to edit the code that loads the pbm files so that it "translates" the png/gif/jpeg/what-have-you into raster data.

^
What he said.
Howver, I did actually convert the PBM's to PNG's using a batch converter.

yes, which is what dbs problem is. (as far as I can tell)
if you didn't just swap the file extensions and eliminate (c)pixel, what did ya do, canada boy?

Start with the simplest possible solution, Lace.
I did swap the extensions and remove "(C)Pixel", as well as the afformentioned conversions.
I'd have no idea how to make it render animated GIFs (partially because the animated GIF format is REALY sensative to Hex changes).
I may just have to go in deep and - *Shudders* - do some greater assembly.

 

Believe me, it would be worth it though.

 

Believe me, it would be worth it though.

Hells yeah.
=D

 

The only other animated format I'm aware of is APNG. =/
And that has almost no support... Yet. >_>

Plain ol' PNGs can be animated in Fireworks, and I think in some versions of Photoshop.

 

kay, I'm trying to get you a foothold on the graphics code db. you better start learning assembly.

 

ooh, that's jerky.
as far as I can tell, npcs and weapons etc. don't ever call the graphics code, they just post a bunch of frame rects, and do some multiplying as the case may be to get the proper x and y.
the rects all seem to be posted after 0xFFFFFF00 though. your gunna have to do real selective searching to get the graphics loader tho, that number is pushed and moved a whole bunch.
(a tip, if you see and e_x, FFFFF00, ignore it, it's prolly checking quiches)

you might wanna check 0x40F350 seems to be called every single time after FFFFF00 is pushed.
note that 0x40F350 calls 0x48170A.
which calls 0x48437E.

wtf is esi?!

anyways, 0x48437E calls a few unknown functions, and then 0x487701 and then 0x481CDE.
note that this might not even be the right function.

0x487701 has a shitload of calls, which I will not go further into, and 0x481CDE calls 0x4864D1 and 0x48635A and an unknown one.

(when I say calls, it means does a few stuff, then calls, ya need to check that out too)

okay, that enough of a foothold? (maybe even in the wrong function, too!)
laFLAMESce

 

Fake.
I downloaded it and it doesn't work.

 

Fake.
I downloaded it and it doesn't work.

Well just cuz it didn't work for you doesn't mean it's fake. Plus wouldn't someone have spotted it as a fake by now?

And I'd think that DB woulda tested it himself too. Calling it "fake" seems kinda harsh ya know.

[Edit]: I would've tested it myself, but I'm too lazy.

 

He's just mad because he loves Sue's Workshop. I don't really understand the correlation myself, but maybe someone else might.