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| super:intermediate_guides:credits [2019/03/24 03:16] – Made the "names" of the parts of the editor hopefully make more sense and be more accurate+other minor changes nodever2 | super:intermediate_guides:credits [2021/10/14 02:44] (current) – nodever2 |
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| This is a page about editing credits using the credits editor. It can be a bit finicky, and I (Nodever2) was asked to put what I learned about it here. I am by no means an expert on the credits, so __**feel free to add to this page**__ if you learn more! | This is a page about editing credits using the credits editor. It can be a bit finicky, and I (Nodever2) was asked to put what I learned about it here. I am by no means an expert on the credits, so __**feel free to add to this page**__ if you learn more! |
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| The bulk of the stuff I learned will be at the end of the document, so even if you've already used the credits editor, **I highly reccomend checking out the last section of this article, "How to NOT Destroy Your Credits"**. | Special thanks to Smiley for researching the credits routines and providing more information for us. |
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| First things first, I can refer you to [[http://www.metroidconstruction.com/SMMM/credits.zip | this document]] if you want to learn more about credits editing in general. As of now, this wiki page will only contain some basic tips on actually using the credits editor. | Further reading: [[http://www.metroidconstruction.com/SMMM/credits.zip | This great resource]] can teach you more about the credits in general. It contains additional technical information about the credits. |
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| | ===== Technical Information About The Credits ====== |
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| | The credits are composed of a compressed tilemap (at $97:EEFF) which the game decompresses and precisely loads certain lines from, and displays those lines on-screen. |
| | The game chooses what lines to load based on the credits instruction list at $8C:D91B. This instruction lists' format is as follows: |
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| | ______ Instruction in $8B to execute |
| | | _ Argument for instruction |
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| | iiii aaaa |
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| | If the instruction value (''iiii'') is 0000, then the argument (''aaaa'') is a pointer into the uncompressed credits tilemap, telling the game what line of the credits to load (the line pointed to by this pointer). |
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| | My advice (Nodever2 here): SMILE RF's credits editor has.. problems. If you really want the best experience editing the credits, you might be best off doing so without the credits editor; you could use the credits editor to edit and save the credits tilemap, and then repoint the credits instruction list and manually edit it in hex. |
| | SMILE RF seems to not always save the instruction list properly and/or overwrite other data with it without telling you. (This may also be true of the credits tilemap, since it is compressed, so edit that with caution as well). |
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| | The credits tilemap is pointed to by the $D91B here: ''$8B:F6F8 dw 93D9,93D9,D91B'' |
| | If you want to repoint it, start there. (Found by Smiley) |
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| ====== Basics of the Credits Editor ====== | ====== Basics of the Credits Editor ====== |
| {{:super:intermediate_guides:creditseditorlabeled.png|The Credits Editor}} | {{:super:intermediate_guides:creditseditorlabeled.png|The Credits Editor}} |
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| - Credits Line Arranger | - Credits Line Arranger (aka Credits Instruction List Editor) |
| - Controls for Credits Line Arranger | - Controls for Credits Line Arranger |
| - Credits tilemap editor | - Credits Tilemap editor |
| - (left box): Shows currently selected tile from Credits tilemap editor | - (left box): Shows currently selected tile from Credits Tilemap editor |
| - (right box): Shows tile that is being hovered over by the mouse cursor | - (right box): Shows tile that is being hovered over by the mouse cursor |
| - Controls for placing tiles into the credits tilemap editor from the credits tile table (used in conjunction with #7) | - Controls for placing tiles into the Credits Tilemap Editor from the Credits Tile Table (used in conjunction with #7) |
| - Credits tile table | - Credits Tile Table |
| - Save/Reload buttons | - Save/Reload buttons |
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| (Names for these boxes are unofficial, if there are better names feel free to replace these names with those. The reason I am defining them here is for reference.) | |
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| ---- | ---- |
| * **MAKE ROM BACKUPS FREQUENTLY!!!** There's a good chance you'll need them, even after reading this. The credits are very finicky, not to mention how the credits editor likes to crash SMILE. Make sure all other level data edits, etc. are saved too. | * **MAKE ROM BACKUPS FREQUENTLY!!!** There's a good chance you'll need them, even after reading this. The credits are very finicky, not to mention how the credits editor likes to crash SMILE. Make sure all other level data edits, etc. are saved too. |
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| * Make sure you have at least a screen of blank space at the end of your credits (shown below) or else the screen won't clear properly, and you will still have credits on the final screens of the game (where you are shown your completion percentage, etc.) | * Make sure you have at least a screen or so of blank space at the end of your credits (shown below) or else the screen won't clear properly, and you will still have credits on the final screens of the game (where you are shown your completion percentage, etc.) |
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| {{:super:intermediate_guides:brokencreditsexample2.png|An example of credits that don't leave a screen of space at the end, and an example of those that do}} | {{:super:intermediate_guides:brokencreditsexample2.png|An example of credits that don't leave a screen of space at the end, and an example of those that do}} |
| * Edit the contents of each the Credits Tilemap Editor (box on the right) __//**SEPARATELY**//__ from editing the Credits Line Arranger(box on the left); when changing from one to the other, always save the Line Arranger and re-open the editor. Failure to do this can result in the credits editor spontaneously reverting your changes back to the last time you saved - which may mean a lot of lost progress. | * Edit the contents of each the Credits Tilemap Editor (box on the right) __//**SEPARATELY**//__ from editing the Credits Line Arranger(box on the left); when changing from one to the other, always save the Line Arranger and re-open the editor. Failure to do this can result in the credits editor spontaneously reverting your changes back to the last time you saved - which may mean a lot of lost progress. |
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| * Sometimes, when you exit and re-open the credits editor, you'll notice that the credits have been changed - typically, you'll see the vanilla bottom section of the credits repeated there, even though you didn't place it [to-do: find out why this happens and how to reproduce consistently]. However, as long as the glitch seen in the next bullet point below doesn't occur, you should be safe (probably? make backups often just in case) to delete the extra stuff that appeared there and replace it with your intended credits. **Because of this, when you're done editing your credits, re-open the editor one last time to make sure this glitch didn't occur.** Pure speculation: This may happen when your credits are shorter than that of vanilla, and the game fills all the extra space with these credits to restore it to it's vanilla length. | * Sometimes, when you exit and re-open the credits editor, you'll notice that the credits have been changed - typically, you'll see the vanilla bottom section of the credits repeated there, even though you didn't place it [to-do: find out why this happens and how to reproduce consistently]. However, as long as the glitch seen in the next bullet point below doesn't occur, you should be safe (probably? make backups often just in case) to delete the extra stuff that appeared there and replace it with your intended credits. **Because of this, when you're done editing your credits, re-open the editor one last time to make sure this glitch didn't occur.** <del>Pure speculation: This may happen when your credits are shorter than that of vanilla, and the game fills all the extra space with these credits to restore it to it's vanilla length.</del> Thanks to Smiley's research, we now know that this phenomenon is most likely explained by the following: If you edit the credits and it takes up less data than that of vanilla's, SMILE RF is likely (at least in some cases?) not correctly writing the terminating data to the credits instruction list, resulting in the vanilla data still being read by the game after your custom data ends. |
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| {{:super:intermediate_guides:brokencreditsexample3.png|An example of credits where the vanilla credits spontaneously appeared at the bottom when saving}} | {{:super:intermediate_guides:brokencreditsexample3.png|An example of credits where the vanilla credits spontaneously appeared at the bottom when saving}} |
