Quick Modding/Hacking Answers Thread

It doesn't work.

edit: yeah wait technically it does work, I lied. If you don't actually use the function to change anything, it'll work!
otherwise you just get the black bkg.

CE can edit map backgrounds but if you try to create a map using "New map" it will always show up black ingame no matter what you set it to.

If Noxid ever decides to integrate my guide, it would be pretty easy for you to learn.

well I mean, nothing's stopping them from reading it now in the meantime

 

create

ohrite, that's what it was thanks

 

You can't change them to PNGs. They MUST be bitmaps (bmp). The original files pixel used (.pbm) are actually just renamed bitmaps (bmp), but PNGs are a different file format entirely, and thus Cave Story is unable to read them

Actually, you can use PNGs. In fact, you can rename them to anything including *.txt or even *.docx as long as you configure the .exe to use them, such as the Game Settings in Cave Editor!

 

Actually, you can use PNGs. In fact, you can rename them to anything including *.txt or even *.docx as long as you configure the .exe to use them, such as the Game Settings in Cave Editor!

no...
PNG is a completely different file format from BMPs. You'd need to do a hell of a lot more than go to Game Settings and change the extension. File extensions mean just about nothing - they're just appended to a filename to aid in identifying a file type. You don't even need a file extension, it just allows you to link certain programs to certain filetypes and stuff and to make everything easier. But they're just part of the filename. If you change a file extension, you don't change the file's format or the file's type, just its name
You'd need to modify the executable so that it can properly load PNG files or GIF files or JPG files if you wanted to use those.

 

Actually, you can use PNGs. In fact, you can rename them to anything including *.txt or even *.docx as long as you configure the .exe to use them, such as the Game Settings in Cave Editor!

Ok here let me rephrase this.

You can use files with the extension .PNG, but if you use an actual png file the game will not read it.

The only reason .pbm files work is because the .pbms Cave Story uses are just renamed .bmps. That is, they have the same file format as a bitmap (not the same file extension, but the same file format). So if you saved your bitmap and then renamed it to .txt (and set cave story to look for the extension .txt), it would read the file, as long as it was a bitmap.

A PNG is NOT a bitmap. It is an entirely different format that is compressed (but still lossless). If you try to get Cave Story to read .pngs for its image files, it will try to read it as a bitmap and then it will probably crash or throw an error since it's not a bitmap. If you saved a bitmap and then ONLY changed the file extension for that file to .png, it would work, but the file extension would just be lying since it's still a bitmap.

So no, you are wrong, very very wrong. You can't use .pngs for Cave Story's sprites (and god help you if you try to save a .docx file in Word and feed that to Cave Story). Just because you change the file extension that Cave Story looks for doesn't mean it's not going to try to load the files as a bitmap.

 

I've got another quick question! How do I infinitely use the <QUA command to shake the screen forever?

Use the quake generator entity(Forgot the number) . You can find this entity in the balcony 2 map (where you follow Sue).

 

Thanks!


When I try to delete Ballos this happens:

Spoiler

View media item 1747

EDIT: Also, the <FLA command doesn't work until all the commands on that event have finished running. Any help?

EDIT: I think I fixed the <FLA problem. I used <PRI and not <KEY

EDIT: I still can't fix Ballos.

Give us a copy of your TSC stuff you used to delete Ballos?

Ok here let me rephrase this.

You can use files with the extension .PNG, but if you use an actual png file the game will not read it.

The only reason .pbm files work is because the .pbms Cave Story uses are just renamed .bmps. That is, they have the same file format as a bitmap (not the same file extension, but the same file format). So if you saved your bitmap and then renamed it to .txt (and set cave story to look for the extension .txt), it would read the file, as long as it was a bitmap.

A PNG is NOT a bitmap. It is an entirely different format that is compressed (but still lossless). If you try to get Cave Story to read .pngs for its image files, it will try to read it as a bitmap and then it will probably crash or throw an error since it's not a bitmap. If you saved a bitmap and then ONLY changed the file extension for that file to .png, it would work, but the file extension would just be lying since it's still a bitmap.

So no, you are wrong, very very wrong. You can't use .pngs for Cave Story's sprites (and god help you if you try to save a .docx file in Word and feed that to Cave Story). Just because you change the file extension that Cave Story looks for doesn't mean it's not going to try to load the files as a bitmap.

Well then, that'll help stop people stealing your files, won't it?

 

Well then, that'll help stop people stealing your files, won't it?

no, one can just change them back to the bmp extention. it really doesn't prevent people from stealing.

 

Really, it's to prevent people from looking at potential spoilers, but now these days, who really gives a shit about CS mod spoilers?

 

Question: Is there some way to change the ORG played at the main menu of CS without simply replacing the assigned "CURLY" organya?

Question 2: I know this happened on Jenka's Nightmare, so it made me wonder: How might one have more than 2 character arts (ex. Quote, and Mimiga Mask Quote)?

 

Question: Is there some way to change the ORG played at the main menu of CS without simply replacing the assigned "CURLY" organya?

Question 2: I know this happened on Jenka's Nightmare, so it made me wonder: How might one have more than 2 character arts (ex. Quote, and Mimiga Mask Quote)?

For Question 2, you can use the <MIM hack (you can insert the offsets from this post, and it should work).

EDIT: For Question 1, you can edit this in the assembly for the title screen music.

CPU Disasm
Address   Hex dump          Command                                  Comments
0040FECA  |>  6A 18         PUSH 18                                  ; /Arg1 = 18

Arg1 = 18 is for the CURLY org. 18 is hex for 24 (which is the org number in the musiclist file that comes with Booster's Lab), so what you really need to do is to convert the song number for the song of your choosing from the file to hex and put that in the offset.

 

So I want to inatall the <ML+ hack. (this one, in case you can't find it.)
But when I go to 00422730 to enter in the last line of assembly that makes it work it takes me to 0042272C. And, in fact there is no 00422730.
Does anyone here know how to get that assembly address? I asked Noxid and he said it wasn't an easily fixed problem...

:
You don't need the hack to subtract health - just use the negative numbers in ascii characters, for example, <ML+000/ would be the same as subtracting one max health, <ML+000. for -2, <ML+000- for -3, etc. <ML+00/0 would be the same as -10, <ML+0/00 as -100 etc. <ML+00/6 would also be the same as -4.

Also, if you need to set the max health to anything, just do a <ML+9999 and then <LI+9999 (just so that the max health becomes 232, the highest possible value), then subtract whatever you want from 232 to get it. For example, I want to set my max HP to 100. I do a <ML+9999<LI+9999<ML+0/-. and I'm done.

I just did a simple <DNP comand on him.

Why don't you try a <DNA

 

So I want to inatall the <ML+ hack. (this one, in case you can't find it.)
But when I go to 00422730 to enter in the last line of assembly that makes it work it takes me to 0042272C. And, in fact there is no 00422730.
Does anyone here know how to get that assembly address? I asked Noxid and he said it wasn't an easily fixed problem...

From what I tried right now, maybe you should put in the call for 00422730 before putting in the hack at 00419CA6. The new CALL function stayed in the same place when I did that.

 

From what I tried right now, maybe you should put in the call for 00422730 before putting in the hack at 00419CA6. The new CALL function stayed in the same place when I did that.

But you really don't need the hack, it just makes your system really weird and glitchy. I prefer my negative method as it never crashes the game. Also, with that system you can work with numbers higher than 1000, and for that matter you can work with numbers up to 32,767 (I think) down to -32,768.

EDIT: Actually, you can work with numbers up to 65,535, just set asm address
0x0419CD6 - MOV WORD PTR DS:[49E6D0],0E8 up to 0FFFF.

 

...Huh. I tried your method and it works just as well without the hack. I never really did either method with <ML+ before, so I guess it's a matter of preference for zxin, then.

 

Meanwhile setting your health to 0 or negative makes you die in 1 hit from everything lol

Also, you can use the above method to subtract a specific amount of AMMO from a weapon! BTW, negative ammo equals 1 ammo.

I haven't tried any of this yet, but it may also allow you to do stuff such as giving a weapon with ID -1, setting negative flags, spawn negative entities, play negative music and set a negative map tile! I wonder what these would do to your game!

 

It's missing the assembly address before I even install any of the hack.

Which version of Olly are you using? The address was there when I tried installing the hack.

 

2.0.1.
It's because of a prior hack (unsure which one) that the address is missing.

I don't think that is how addresses work, try the older versions

 

Question: Is there some way to change the ORG played at the main menu of CS without simply replacing the assigned "CURLY" organya?

Question 2: I know this happened on Jenka's Nightmare, so it made me wonder: How might one have more than 2 character arts (ex. Quote, and Mimiga Mask Quote)?

1. Yes, it can be done with a simple edit in Ollydbg. Here's RuneLancer's comments on that part of the EXE:

            //    Change the title screen music based on the title screen mode.                                              
            switch(L011C_Mode)
            {
40fe76            case 1:
                {
40fe7f                push 0x00000024                                                    //    Music: Running Hell                  
40fe81                call 420EE0::change_song
40fe89                break;
                }

40fe8b            case 2:
                {
40fe94                push 0x00000028                                                    //    Music: Toroko's Theme              
40fe96                call 420EE0::change_song
40fe9e                break;
                }

40fea0            case 3:
                {
40fea9                push 0x00000029                                                    //    Music: King's Theme                  
40feab                call 420EE0::change_song
40feb3                break;
                }

40feb5            case 4:
                {
40febe                push 0x00000002                                                    //    Music: Safety                      
40fec0                call 420EE0::change_song
40fec8                break;
                }

                default:
                {
40feca                push 0x00000018                                                    //    Music: Cave Story                  
40fecc                call 420EE0::change_song
                }
            }

So if you want the change the song that plays be default, you'll go to address 40feca, and change the push value to the ID of the song you want to play instead. Just be sure to convert it to hexadecimal first.


2. This can easily be done using Lace's infinite Mimiga mask hack that Hina ported for use by the hackinator in Booster's Lab. here's the link. @Noxid, I remember you saying you'd put this hack in the next version of BL over a year ago, but it looks like the latest version doesn't have it. Maybe it would be a good idea to make a release with this hack since people ask about this so much.

 

I probably forgot about it.. been a bit busy with the mod-db stuff but I wanna take a look at the unicode issue and then push the next release.