Final Fantasy VI Modding

[jshackles]

So, Final Fantasy VI released on Steam today! I decided it might be worth looking into doing character sprite replacement in this release since it's already been done for the PC version of V. In this game, characters typically use the same sprite sheet throughout the entire game, so I figured it might not be as daunting a task as V which would require every character/job combination to be replaced.

Anyway, much to my dismay it appears that unlike V, VI was released using the Android version as it's base. As such, the majority of the data is stored and encrypted using an Opaque Binary Blob[en.wikipedia.org] file (main.obb).

I've attempted decompiling this file using the Android SDK jobb utility, but it's throwing errors because the secret key (password used for encryption) is not correct.

I'm wondering if anyone else has had any luck with this or perhaps someone with more Android experience could shed some light on whether or not it's even possible to decompile/recompile this container.

[Krisan Thyme]

madsiur の投稿を引用：

All this can easily be modified with a hex editor once you know what to modify and where. I'll stat putting up a hex modding document tomorrow with the rest of the tests mentionned above.

Yep, I tested enemy (and player) stats and AI as well a couple weeks back. So I already confirmed those two. Chest contents and monster-in-a-box triggers I also can confirm, as well as moving the chest around the map - I can't fully confirm that maps as a whole are constructed based on the ROM, but the fact I moved around a chest suggests that the actors themselves at the very least are pulled from the ROM.

I'd say it is pretty clear the ROM is used for virtually everything at this point. Only a few overhead things used by the new engine aren't relying on it.

[madsiur]

Krisan Thyme の投稿を引用：

All this can I can't fully confirm that maps as a whole are constructed based on the ROM, but the fact I moved around a chest suggests that the actors themselves at the very least are pulled from the ROM.

Yes, using "map data" was a bit vague because it consist at least of the map tile arrangement, tile assembly (tilesets), tile properties, palettes. Some of these might work differently but you confirmed the first one by moving the clock.

[RiverNyxx]

Sounds great! I'm glad to see our suspicions getting confirmed-- your contributions are quite helpful madsiur! :)

Once there's a decent rom map in place, a custom editor can be put together for modding the steam version of the game specifically -- I'm excited to see what can be put together ^-^

Not to say that existing editors for the GBA version won't suffice, but they'll have features for editing things that won't show up in the steam version of the game~

[GuyInDogSuit]

This is looking exciting. Would you guys be able to use these same tools/ideas for FFV?

[pluckylump]

Since all the animations seem to be loaded from the rom, would it be possible to load new sprites added to the sprite sheets instead of flipped sprites? I'm thinking specifically of the hand waving sprites and the look right sprites which basically necessitate that the sprite be more or less semetrical since they get flipped.

[Kisai]

pluckylump の投稿を引用：

Since all the animations seem to be loaded from the rom, would it be possible to load new sprites added to the sprite sheets instead of flipped sprites? I'm thinking specifically of the hand waving sprites and the look right sprites which basically necessitate that the sprite be more or less semetrical since they get flipped.

It's far more likely that the JP GBA ROM is used only as a database, therefor only stuff the overlay engine is aware of would be editable. The developers probably know where the position of everything is in the GBA ROM from Square-Enix, and thus just used that. The probably had to re-enter the strings from the string pointers in the ROM file regardless so they could use the font scaling of the mobile/pc hardware instead of bitmap fonts.

If you've played "Monkey Island" it's the same kind of idea. The original game's logic/maps/collision data is used, but the "new" version depends on data that was already there. It's likely that adding anything that the new engine isn't aware of would at best be ignored, and at worst mess up the indexes.

Nyxo の投稿を引用：

On FLB files: I'm already working on that file format (and AKB, and PVR, etc..) so that I can add support for them in FFVI_Explore, however I don't want to discourage you from writing your own tools if you want to! :)

BTW. the AKB files are nearly straight ogg vorbis files (Most of them will play without question with MPC-HC, more will load in Audacity, but I suppose it's just how willing these programs are to overlook errors.)

The PVR files are likely PowerVR texture atlases, but I haven't a way to confirm that since tools usually only convert TO textures and never back.

The FLB files look like UI stuff to me (eg the combat menus) and I speculate that someone would need to make an editor for it.

Also, the text strings are in the FF6.EXE file.

[Kisai]

Further to the AKB files, these all are Ogg Vorbis 160K VBR files AFAIK, they are shorter than their OST versions but otherwise the same music:

NAME OF AKB = Name on OST/Common or Other Name

BGM_00.akb = Final Fantasy Title Screen/Menu/Prelude
s001.akb = Final Fantasy Title Scren/Prelude
s002.akb = Omen (Logo Display)
s002_loop.akb
s003.akb = Omen (War of the Magi Text roll)
s003_loop.akb
s004.akb = Omen (Magitek Sequence)
s004_loop.akb
s005.akb = Awakening
s006.akb = Terra's Theme (Overworld)
s007.akb = Shadows Theme
s008.akb = Strago's Theme
s009.akb = Gau's Theme
s010.akb = Edgar & Sabin's theme (Figaro Castle)
s011.akb = Coin of Fate
s012.akb = Cyan's Theme
s013.akb = Locke's Theme
s014.akb = Forever Rachel
s015.akb = Relm's Theme
s016.akb = Setzer's Theme
s017.akb = ... (Slow Music-box version of Edgar/Sabin's theme)
s018.akb = Celes Theme
s019.akb = Techno de Chocobo (Chocobo Theme)
s020.akb = The Decisive Battle (Boss Battle Music)
s021.akb = Johnny C. Bad
s022.akb = Kefka's Theme
s023.akb = The Mines of Narshe
s024.akb = Phantom Forest
s025.akb = The Veldt
s026.akb = Protect the Espers!
s027.akb = The Gestahl Empire
s028.akb = Troops March on
s029.akb = Under Martial Law
s031.akb = Metamorphosis
s032.akb = The Phantom Train
s033.akb = Esper World
s034.akb = Grand Finale (Opera)
s035.akb = Mt. Koltz
s036.akb = Battle (Normal Battle Theme)
s038.akb = Wedding Waltz (Opera)
s039.akb = Aria di Mezzo Carattere (Opera)
s040.akb = Serpent Trench
s041.akb = Slam Shuffle
s042.akb = Kids run through the City
s043.akb = What?
s045.akb = Gogo's Theme
s046.akb = The Returners (Returners Hideout)
s047.akb = Victory Fanfare
s048.akb = Umaro's Theme
s049.akb = Mog's Theme
s050.akb = The Unforgiven
s051.akb = The Fierce Battle ( Atma Weapon ) (Not on OST?)
s052.akb = From that Day On
s053.akb = The Airship Blackjack (Airship theme, World of Light)
s054.akb = Catastrophe
s055.akb = The Magic house
s056.akb = Sleep at the Inn
s061.akb = Spinich Rag
s062.akb = Rest in Peace (Game Over)
s065.akb = Overture (Opera start)
s066.akb = Overture (Opera Male singer)
s067.akb = Wedding Waltz (Opera Scene change)
s068.akb = Wedding Waltz (Loop)
s069.akb = Wedding Waltz (Male and Female singer)
s070.akb = Wedding Waltz (Second loop to the rafters)
s071.akb = Magitek Research Lab (Devils Lab)
s075.akb = Floating Continent
s076.akb = Searching for Friends (Airship theme, World of Darkness)
s077.akb = The Fanatics
s078.akb = Kefka's Tower
s079.akb = Dark World
s083.akb = Balance is Restored (1/2 10:59)
s084.akb = Balance is Restored (2/2 10:35)
s088.akb = Dancing Mad (4:27) Phase I
s089.akb = Dancing Mad (3:27) Phase II
s090.akb = Dancing Mad (3:02) Phase III
s091.akb = FF VI Overture (0:31)
s096.akb = Dancing Mad (5:13) Phase IV
s099.akb = Fanfare

All the other AKB files do not have Vorbis headers in them, so I'm assuming they might be a different audio format.

[pluckylump]

Kisai の投稿を引用：

It's far more likely that the JP GBA ROM is used only as a database, therefor only stuff the overlay engine is aware of would be editable. The developers probably know where the position of everything is in the GBA ROM from Square-Enix, and thus just used that. The probably had to re-enter the strings from the string pointers in the ROM file regardless so they could use the font scaling of the mobile/pc hardware instead of bitmap fonts.

If you've played "Monkey Island" it's the same kind of idea. The original game's logic/maps/collision data is used, but the "new" version depends on data that was already there. It's likely that adding anything that the new engine isn't aware of would at best be ignored, and at worst mess up the indexes.

I don't know how much power anyone would have to do such a thing, but I was imagining listening for all the times the flipped sprites were called up by the rom and giving the new engine new instructions on what to do with that call.

[RiverNyxx]

Kisai の投稿を引用：

BTW. the AKB files are nearly straight ogg vorbis files (Most of them will play without question with MPC-HC, more will load in Audacity, but I suppose it's just how willing these programs are to overlook errors.)

The PVR files are likely PowerVR texture atlases, but I haven't a way to confirm that since tools usually only convert TO textures and never back.

The FLB files look like UI stuff to me (eg the combat menus) and I speculate that someone would need to make an editor for it.

Also, the text strings are in the FF6.EXE file.

Yeah, the AKB files are just a container format (composed of a variable sized header) around an already existing audio file format. The game supports 3 files types, altho only 2 file types are actually used. As you noted, there are a lot of OGG files, 79 to be exact. And there are 290 VOX files, which is the remainder of the audio files. The 3rd format, I suspect, would be PCM, but since it's not used by the game, I haven't looked too much into it. I'm thinking I should have support for these files in FFVI_Explore soon.

My knowledge on the PVR files is about the same as yours -- I have a few tabs open with some resources, but I literally haven't even opened one up in a hex editor to look at them yet. There's so few of them, they're low on my priority list.

The FLB files _do_ contain UI stuff, but by far there are more FLB files for visual effects, such as magic, weapon slashes, esper summons, etc.. Each FLB can contain more than one image, which is usually different frames of an animation. I can read the graphical data out of the FLB files just fine, but I haven't figured out all of the other data in the file yet -- it's crazy complex, and strikes me as complete overkill, considering what the files are actually in control of. I have a bad feeling that it's going to take a long time to fully understand the format. Your suspicion would be correct, that a custom editor of some sort would be required, just as the AKB files would require.

[Kisai]

Nyxo の投稿を引用：

The FLB files _do_ contain UI stuff, but by far there are more FLB files for visual effects, such as magic, weapon slashes, esper summons, etc.. Each FLB can contain more than one image, which is usually different frames of an animation. I can read the graphical data out of the FLB files just fine, but I haven't figured out all of the other data in the file yet -- it's crazy complex, and strikes me as complete overkill, considering what the files are actually in control of. I have a bad feeling that it's going to take a long time to fully understand the format. Your suspicion would be correct, that a custom editor of some sort would be required, just as the AKB files would require.

My thinking is that the FLB stuff is akin to the "resource" UI stuff in Windows program development, or the NIB files in Apple software, there's a bunch of different "types". Just casually looking through one with a hex editor suggests something like an animation timeline.

[madsiur]

Nyxo の投稿を引用：

Once there's a decent rom map in place, a custom editor can be put together for modding the steam version of the game specifically -- I'm excited to see what can be put together ^-^

Working on the ROM map right now and documenting data formats :)

We can already forecast a general data editor (similar maybe to FF3usME[www.romhacking.net]) and a event editor. I'm also thinking a map editing module (similar to Zone Doctor[www.romhacking.net]) could be possible if we understand how maps are assembled and find data related to NPC and event triggers/tiles.

We could also make an event dump (readable event data) generator module similar to the SNES one with proper items and summon names once we identify which event commmands works the same and/or if some are overlooked by the exe.

[madsiur]

Double post as well as somewhat lame post that doesn't deserve a thread, but could anyone send me or post a link to a savefile where you have control of the airship (WOB or WOR). I need such a savefile for testing purpose. Thanks!

[pluckylump]

madsiur の投稿を引用：

Double post as well as somewhat lame post that doesn't deserve a thread, but could anyone send me or post a link to a savefile where you have control of the airship (WOB or WOR). I need such a savefile for testing purpose. Thanks!

I have a save file for you.

[madsiur]

pluckylump の投稿を引用：

I have a save file for you.

Thanks you! You saved me a lot of time!

For those who want to see my progress, here's a list of data identified in the rom file. So far everything tested in the rom is confirmed being used by the game.

"T" = succesfully tested
"U" = unconfirmed yet

http://madsiur.net/rom_bin_map_V3.txt

[Hydra Spectre]

Can someone convert the Orchestral Game Concert version of Opera Maria and Draco to .akb and apply it to the PC version?
You can go Google "Opera Maria and Draco Orchestral Game Concert" FLAC but I won't tell you exactly where to get it because of copyright reasons.
I thought up this idea after watching the Sound Restoration patch for Final Fantasy VI Advance on YouTube. They reverted every song to their SNES versions except for the opera tracks which became fully orchestrated and with real performers.