darkSpyro

For anyone who has been keeping up with the fandom lately, we recently were able to change the sky boxes for the levels, we've seen them done for the 3 first games and Enter the Dragonfly, but now, we are actually able to PLAY in the levels with the edits.
Incredible. Absolutely incredible. A lot of you guys can have some fun with this.
Here is some tips from CrystalFissure for it:
There's a HUGE problem which essentially limits the texture changing. When replacing the small low-rez textures, according to LXShadow, the file size has to be less or equal to the image you're replacing.

So essentially, if you make smaller versions of the replaced texture, in any program, a .bmp ends up at around 2 kilobytes Miraculously, the textures extracted with SpyroEdit are around 600 bytes.

If you use paint and save it as a really small file, it turns the texture into a blocky mess that is pretty much consisting of only shades of grey (heh). I've enquired to see if there's ANY way to use .jpg's, because that may fix the problem. Unfortunately, for now it just seems like the draw distance is the biggest thing getting in the way of this (so far) incredible process. But LXShadow is busy, and I don't want this getting in the way of his real life. I wonder if Kly_Men_COmpany would have any solutions? This is where the limitations of the PS1 make this incredibly annoying.

...I think I might need some context here. You guys ported the levels for something? You remade them on Unity? You're talking to who about the issues,again?

Magical!

@Bitfrost: I don't think there's porting involved from the PS1 to Unity. What the video describes is that there is a texture hack which replaces the original textures of the particular level with the new textures using a program called "Spyro World Viewer", just like these videos (oldest to newest): Sunrise Spring Home [Molten Spring], Scorch [Icy Scorch], Artisans [Dark Artisans], Winter Tundra [Morning Tundra], and Bamboo Terrace [Magma Terrace].

The breakthrough seeing this video is that unlike previous videos, with a PlayStation 1 emulator, you can play the level with custom textures due to a program called "SpyroEdit", made by LXShadow (which is created due to inspiration from CrystalFissure's texture hack videos). According to the video, The limitations of using custom textures is that is it temporary in that they revert back to the original textures upon getting a game over or entering another level; fortunately, you can manually add the custom textures back in-game (2:18 - 3:20).

Not mentioned in the video, another limitation is that in a comment by the uploader, due to the limits of how the PS1 operates, the custom textures must have the filesize that is less or equal to the original textures; failure to do so will not render the textures properly in-game.

In a related note, although this could open up the possibility of hacking the first three games to include new or modified content, trying to understand and paraphrasing from listening to CrystalFissure, LXShadow suggested that people in the Spyro community should focus on their efforts on making fan games or initiating new Spyro projects rather than completing changing the coding of the original games due to PS1 limitations (such as the textures problem), and focus on "master the coding of Spyro." (3:33-4:46)

Oh, I get it now,thank you. Didn't even cross my mind that the games didn't have modding support so many years later.

This is beautiful.

Relistening CrystalFissure's speaking on LXShadow's statement on Spyro project, I wonder if CrystalFissure has an account on this forum, because I have a feeling I might've misunderstood what is said and wanted a clarification.

Here is another one! Not as good, it is glitchy, but still great anyways. And no, I do not believe Crystal is on this website, I can suggest him to share to this website too, though.

This is what we've all been waiting for and I can't wait to see what will be done with this

I got more for you guys! Great to see these getting pumped out daily. Also, I asked Mr.Fissure, and he doesn't have an account on here, but on SpyroForum.

Is SpyroForum looked down upon here, or does it exist in harmony? Anyway, hey guys, I see Kariana has been posting quite a few of my videos here lately, which I appreciate. I wanna get all this stuff out there on a broad level and not just with the more hardcore YouTube fans. I know plenty of people would be amazed by these texture hacks. Not necessarily because of what I'm doing, but what is generally possible. Anyway, I think these three pictures may interest you in what's to come:







Full videos and links so you can actually PLAY these levels will be uploaded in the next week.

I just saw CrystalFissure's new video about Skelos Glacier (I'll put it below), and the level looks amazing. I'm happy to hear his enthusiasm about these texture hacks- he puts in a lot of work and it really shows. I'm excited to see "Industrial Glimmer" too.


Anyway, this recent ability to recolor Spyro levels reminded me of an article I read a long time ago about the importance of colors and skies and some other details about level design in the first Spyro the Dragon game. Its written by people who actually worked on the game, and it sort of lists the rules they used to make the game look the way it does. Here's the link if you want to check it out, its pretty neat: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/...ro_.php?print=1

If you don't want to read the whole thing, here are a few pictures and quotes from the article that I thought were really cool:

Quote:

Time and time again at Insomniac we have been surprised at the tremendous impact that the color and nature of the sky has on a world. Many times when we had a difficult time getting the right emotional impact from a Spyro level, someone would suggest that we try a different sky. Every time we were surprised at the extent of the change brought to the level by the new sky.

(I would often look at this last picture and think about how cool it would be to play Spyro levels at different times of day... now we can!)

Quote:

One cornerstone of traditional art and great games is the careful use of color. What makes getting color "just right" so complicated is the fact that color has a powerful effect on our senses, and we're also very sensitive to subtle color changes. A little too much blue in a scene, and the mood of the whole world changes.

Quote:

I like to work in broad strokes of color, picking two or three colors that will be the foundation for the color design for each individual level. It's important to ask yourself, what emotions do I want to evoke in players when they first step out onto the playing field? The color palette you choose will naturally depend on the nature of the terrain, the architecture of buildings, time of day, and the effects of weather. However, if you're trying to evoke a particular emotion as well, you'll have to take that into account. Do you want to fill the player with awe and wonder, or fear and turmoil? Do you want them to feel comfortable and at home, or unsettled and far from home?

Love that article above. I remember reading it a while back, and a lot of it has stuck with me. In terms of colour, you have to be smart. You can't just put Scorch's background there instrad of Crystal Glacier and expect it to work. It's all quite logical, but it also has to feel right. Thanks for linking the video btw, Madison.

These are beautiful. Well done, Fissure!

CrystalFissure's "Industrial Glimmer" Spyro 2 texture hack video has been posted. Some gloom here and there to feel, industrial and gem mining.

This is awesome stuff, I'd definitely support mods for Classic Spyro games. If it one day got to the point of us making custom levels, then that would really generate buzz within the fandom.

Thanks guys. To be honest I don't think it will ever happen where we'll be able to create custom levels. And I'm actually perfectly fine with that for the most part. I mean, modifying levels is really cool. Maybe being able to switch out enemies and stuff, as well as items would be great. But to be honest, barely anyone would actually be capable of creating a good new level.

BUT, that doesn't mean there isn't potential here for some amazing texture hacks and similar stuff. I actually prefer the idea of changing the mood of levels, replacing textures and making day levels night levels instead. It's easier to do and plays on the fact that we appreciate Insomniac's stuff so much we'd rather base work around that as opposed to trying to creating an entirely new level and it not working.

Anyway, I hope you're enjoying the videos. Plenty more to come soon.

I'd like to see what Fracture Hills looks like in the day.

I agree that custom levels would be interesting, but I think it would be really neat just to place gems in different locations. I think those type of levels would be pretty successful since the level itself would stay the same but you'd be searching for gems as if you had never played the game before- an awesome experience for Spyro fans that have been playing the games for years and have the levels practically memorized. There could even be gems in some places that we're not supposed to be able to go to, like in Spyro 2 since we can get out of bounds so easily in that game. For example gems hidden on top of Hurricos buildings or needing to do a swimming in air glitch in a level like Summer Forest or Breeze Harbor, sort of along the lines of the castle skatepark hack (which CrystalFissure also did a video about).

Also, I don't think this video has been put on here. This person changed Sunrise Spring Home to "Sunset Spring":

Quote: madison-dwrd

There could even be gems in some places that we're not supposed to be able to go to, like in Spyro 2 since we can get out of bounds so easily in that game. For example gems hidden on top of Hurricos buildings or needing to do a swimming in air glitch in a level like Summer Forest or Breeze Harbor, sort of along the lines of the castle skatepark hack (which CrystalFissure also did a video about).

Totally agree. It would be awesome to have gems appear there. And have different values and amounts. Maybe each level could have more gems. The actual issue is game memory. Insomniac really pushed Spyro to the limit. The biggest annoying restriction to the SpyroEdit program is that you can't properly add skyboxes to levels a lot of the time. If the original filesize is bigger, it becomes a glitchy mess.

@CrystalFissure: A crazy idea might be porting the emulator, and relinquish any limitations that have to do with emulating the PlayStation 1, and make the software coding tailored to the Spyro games only on expanding it with the ability to add new content. It would have to cover all 3 Spyro games, all versions and it's regions the game was released. It would probably still be much more easier to make Spyro fangames than this though.

I wonder if you could import characters between different games? Like just have their model in another game, say, put Hunter in a Spyro 1 level? Or maybe have the character model of Spyro 3 in Spyro 1, and you're playing as that character model if that made any sense? Or have the Spyro 1 model skate on the skateboard in the Spyro 1 game? But I think that this stuff would be too complex to do.

This is not the same thing as hacking textures but I'm sure everyone here would also be interested in this- hopefully this is not terribly off topic. In response to the current texture hacks of classic Spyro levels, Desert Monkey on Youtube put up a video a few weeks ago showing his own method of editing Spyro levels, something he calls vertex colors (I'm not going to pretend I know anything about this). Of course, you can't play this level, but it just goes to show you how many dedicated and creative Spyro fans are working to change the familiar levels into something new. The end result is just amazing.

@madison-dwrd: I was curious of how put in so much color within the levels with such limited textures. What a secret it is, squeezing the best out of the game by stretching out the potential possibilities! I wonder if there's a limit to how many types of vetrex colors can you put in the level before it lags or something.

Speaking of that video, there are a couple of videos from the same user (Desert Monkey - YouTube user:dessertmonkeyjk) that go beyond texture changes and vertex color changes on modifying Aquarium Towers.

While the first video focuses on lighting changes, the second video focuses on actually modifying the geometry of the level and adding some sort of monorail after removing the water from the level. The user noted in the description that it might be changed back to a vehicle or something similar, and note that the user is performing the project with spare free time.

The curious question on this is will this modification actually work within the game?

Quote: iSO

@madison-dwrd: I was curious of how put in so much color within the levels with such limited textures. What a secret it is, squeezing the best out of the game by stretching out the potential possibilities! I wonder if there's a limit to how many types of vetrex colors can you put in the level before it lags or something.

Speaking of that video, there are a couple of videos from the same user (Desert Monkey - YouTube user:dessertmonkeyjk) that go beyond texture changes and vertex color changes on modifying Aquarium Towers.

While the first video focuses on lighting changes, the second video focuses on actually modifying the geometry of the level and adding some sort of monorail after removing the water from the level. The user noted in the description that it might be changed back to a vehicle or something similar, and note that the user is performing the project with spare free time.

The curious question on this is will this modification actually work within the game?

Unfortunately, this will not work in-game. However, I have some good news. Kly_Men_COmpany, creator of the World Viewer and Castle Skatepark has got in contact with me, and he's sharing what he's up to. Not too much to say yet, but he actually was working on texture-based stuff before he knew about LXShadow's texture changing procedure. He wants to get collision working properly so he can export a ramp into the skatepark. Among many other things that may, just may work. It's very interesting. The guy's still working hard.

Funny story about Dessertmonkeyjk actually. He changed it to "Desert Monkey" because so many people in the community back in the day erroneously called him "Desert" instead of "Dessert" in the Speedrunning tournaments. Good times.

Sorry about the double post, but I think Ape Escape fans will appreciate this:



I mixed Hurricos with Ape Escape textures! I plan to do more of this. I also plan to try and see if a Cloud Spires version of Cloud 9 would work, and vice-versa. Also, mixing Twinsanity and Nitro Kart with Spyro. Because GameCube textures are easy to extract!

Its so cool that you can use textures from other games, I didn't know that was possible. Even before I knew this I thought the possibilities were limitless, now I guess the sky's the limit. Actually I guess this is literally true since you couldn't change the skybox because of the file size... Unintentional pun.

^ Heh, good one. I find the skybox thing the most restricting, almost more-so than the textures. It just gets in the way.

But also, some good news: someone else has made a texture hack! Check this out:



As I noted in the comments, there are a few flaws such as the skybox glitching and it needing to be a bit darker, but honestly this was an excellent first effort and I'm glad more people are getting into this. I'm gonna try my hand at making my own "Midnight Alps", because it's a good idea. Maybe "Snowy Alps" too.

This may be a silly question, but does someone know if the reason we haven't seen a speedway or boss arena edited is because it is tough to do/ not possible, or is it just a coincidence? Also, I'm pretty sure if you exit a level the textures return to normal, does this also happen if you enter a night-time sky in Spyro 3?

Just a coincidence, but they sorta can be difficult to come up with ideas for. And yeah, it's all reset when you exit the level, unfortunately!

CrystalFissure posted his version of the last texture hack, Midnight Alps.
Here is "Sunset Alps":

I noticed that some of the texture hacks are showing more noticeable repeated textures that make it seem unnatural. For instance, CrystalFissure's "Sunset Alps" texture hack video shows the inside the cave, and looking at the walls, it just looks unnatural seeing the textures noticeably repeat. The artists that worked on levels had to acknowledge the limitations of the PS1 and try to make sure the textures look natural without the perception of textures being repeated.

Speaking of repeated textures, would it be cool just to just replace all the textures in the level with wireframe-like grids (with colors differing from other types of textures, maybe differing features like lines and polka dots if there are two or more textures overlayed each other)? Not only we can appreciate how the textures are placed together under the limitations of the PS1, but also texture hackers can try to better understand the effects of the textures that are rendered in the levels during in-game so they can craft their own texture hacks with a better understanding. The reason I said this is that CrystalFissure's "Future Hurricos" texture hack video has textures that are warped due to the level's polygon geometry; note the metal square tiles, the textures made them wrap the tiles into irregular shapes!

Good point. The thing is though, is that even Insomniac repeated textures in weird spots, but it was just less noticeable because we're used to the environment. Some of them don't even match up properly entirely. I work very carefully within Fireworks to make sure things match up. For example the mountain snow at the top (which is unfortunately hindered by the weird draw distance).

The warping texture is a PS1 thing, as well. We'll pretty much never be able to fix that issue within the game unless someone ports it to PC or something. The technical limitations are frustrating, but it does make sense given the tech. Good idea about the wireframe type thing. One thing that a commenter suggested was to change around the skatepark. That sounds like a fantastic idea.

@CrystalFissure: Curious, what examples can you point that have noticeably repeated textures? It's been a while since I played one of the three Spyro games. Also, note that playing the game on an actual game console instead of an emulator might've hidden those marks cleverly due to the game being designed for the CRT televisions, with the implementation of dithering.

Wait! If you're making a video on this wireframe textures idea, listen to this: Let's expand on it by including arrows into the wireframe textures (while trying to have distinct shapes and colors to differ from other wireframe textures), because I realize textures can be plastered at their own different directions, and not having the arrows would mean less info on how they are rendered in-game. Make all the wireframe textures have arrows straight down for consistency as well.

Porting to PC? I suggested the crazy idea to just do that in the last few posts, and you sent me a message about it via private message on the person Kly_Men_COmpany working on making an effort to do so (although you said not to take on word-by-word yet). Reverse engineering can be something of an eye opener indeed, who knows about the countless games or even programs on how they function behind the scenes, since there's no source code released to the public.

@iSO

It's hard to just pinpoint one example. But it's just noticeable when you're looking closely. But I mean it's to be expected because ePSXe is basically running the game at a better setting than a regular TV / PS1 ever could. The down arrow thing sounds like a good idea too. Not sure when I'll be able to work on this, but yeah I'll certainly look into it. Kly hasn't got back to me yet, but I hope he does, because he's a beacon of knowledge, that guy.

BTW, here are two new texture hacks. Both a little glitchy, but a good effort from both Najvyexi and Brandondorf Raguz!

I wonder if it will ever be possible to edit the textures for entities such as enemies, NPC's and rockets and stuff?

I'd love to be able to do that. As it would help the authenticity of some of these texture hacks, particularly regarding the weather/climate. But we can't as of yet.

That Frozen Fireworks Factory gives me more of a Dream Weavers vibe.

Quote: SuperSpyroFan

That Frozen Fireworks Factory gives me more of a Dream Weavers vibe.

Yeah I see what you mean. But also, it illustrates just how crucial lighting is in certain levels. He's never going to be able to get the full effect of a more neutral colour, as there are too many conflicting lights that make it look all rainbow-y.

Quote: CrystalFissure

Quote: SuperSpyroFan

That Frozen Fireworks Factory gives me more of a Dream Weavers vibe.

Yeah I see what you mean. But also, it illustrates just how crucial lighting is in certain levels. He's never going to be able to get the full effect of a more neutral colour, as there are too many conflicting lights that make it look all rainbow-y.

Yeah, I see what you mean. It doesn't look all that "right" in the distance, the colours don't blend together nicely.

Ripping characters will not be easy, AFAIK Spyro uses vertices for the 3d models of characters. It's gonna be hard to try and extract the models. They will be somewhere in the WAD files. The WAD file contains pretty much everything except speech. It can be split into files which some of them are 3d objects, but there are still some files which contain logic as well as models. Check my post at Xentax

http://forum.xentax.com/viewto...=106876#p106876

Quote: 1jn14r

Ripping characters will not be easy, AFAIK Spyro uses vertices for the 3d models of characters. It's gonna be hard to try and extract the models. They will be somewhere in the WAD files. The WAD file contains pretty much everything except speech. It can be split into files which some of them are 3d objects, but there are still some files which contain logic as well as models. Check my post at Xentax

http://forum.xentax.com/viewto...=106876#p106876

I saw that thread. Interesting stuff. I hope you guys continue your work. Kly_Men_COmpany is trying something similar I think, but he also wants to take the entire game out and make it self-contained, I'm pretty sure. But I haven't heard from him in a few weeks.

EDIT: Here are a few more texture hacks created by Ravensfan5927/YFourteen:





EDIT EDIT: New one by Najvyexi:



Loving the creativity.

@1jn14r: It will definitely be interesting to see how the game's insides function. Checking your posts in a video game hacking forum that you linked, it is nice to see more people trying to dig into the code of those Spyro games. Wish I could help you or someone else involved in hacking the game code.

Your idea of using a debugger to see what files are accessed during in-game would be a nifty idea to go through the contents; I can be sure there are a lot of variables involved in the game such as loading content that is relevant to the current level, what movement paths the enemies take and react when not interrupted by Spyro, how much RAM the game is using at the current time, all that variables.

Did you try using a program called "no$psx"? From looking at the page, it seems to have a robust debugger (as far as I know). I tried messing around the stuff, but lack sufficient knowledge to see how the insides function. For continued discussion, I think the work should be discussed behind closed doors. I recall a few years ago of Activision trying to take down some of the videos of a canceled prototype of a Crash game that was previously in the works (probably to smother the view count enough to make people checking the untouched videos considered unworthy and be made forgotten). It remains to be seen how antsy they are to protect their revenue streams.

@CrystalFissure: Even more graphically-edited levels! Some sore thumbs that weren't point out is:

• 2nd video of YFourteen work on the rendering of the distance textures of the water. The transition isn't smooth as you can see two distinctive colors easily.
  
• Najvyexi's "Canyon Craters" Spyro 3 video by seeing how the lava textures are rendered when they move the polygons to make it like it's active.
  

Any progress on the arrow textures idea? I think I recall seeing one of your videos mentioning that you're busy, and outputting less videos over a certain duration. Is that correct?

One more suggestion to improve this idea is for the stick part of the arrow to wide end at the start, and as you go through the line, it narrows down towards the arrow point. This is because we can have even more info on how stretched or squished the individual textures are. Lacking this idea makes judging how the individual textures are sized is and rely on distance (which is unreliable because when playing in-game, we have no idea what is the exact size of the polygon models are that are wrapped with textures), rather than knowing with a visual indication.

By the way, editing your post does not bump the topic back up in the forum listings. A new post must be made in order for the topic to be bumped.

I actually realised that you can see the shape of each texture block within the world viewer by pressing control + right or left. It's one of those, I can't remember. Also, for now, enjoy this video:



It's kinda what you're talking about.

Regarding some of those errors in the texture hack videos, this is due to them not doing things properly I'm pretty sure. Sometimes SpyroEdit can be buggy and you have to try a few different things to fix these water errors. I've managed to fix most of my own problems. I think the issue in Canyon Craters can be fixed too; I just have to download it and try.

Another new one! This one is really great, apart from a few usual glitches that YFourteen comes across (he needs to delete some of those "animated" textures as SpyroEdit can screw them up).

Thought you guys may want to see what I'm working on. Having huge issues with the water though, and it's really annoying. Everything is glitched.







And here's the water glitch featuring the unfinished level:

@CrystalFissure: Oh, wow! I can now see how the textures are utilized, arranged, and morphed within that level, and now the number attached to each texture. I can bet that the most interesting thing that I want to know is how two or more textures are merged together under a translucent angle, particularly on Hurricos from Spyro 2.

And nice, even more skins to come! Now only if there's a skin that's inspired by Spyro and not just taking combining two skins into one. Perhaps creating new textures inspired from those GBA Spyro games?

Yeah I'd like to make more original ones or take stuff from non-Spyro games, but I also love the vibe of merging concepts. For now, I made a new one based on my original World Viewer creation:

@iSO Someone should be releasing a debugger for Spyro soon. Although I'll try no$psx. But everything's is in MIPS assembler so it's not going to be nice/easy to decompile. Also as long as you do not redistribute moded games it should be OK. BTW thanks for the no$psx suggestion

Quote: 1jn14r

But everything's is in MIPS assembler so it's not going to be nice/easy to decompile.

Well aren't we lucky. Kly_Men_COmpany is working on run-time code tracing for SpyroEdit and wrote his own assembler/disassembler. He's been pretty busy so he's not too active, but I'll send him another email soon to get some updates.