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Converting hacks in the section

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Hi everyone.

Since I have quite a bit of free time on my hands, I thought I could do something productive and convert all of the hacks in the SM64 hack section from .ppf to .bps. This way, applying hack patches will be much easier and the whole patching process with .ppf patches is quite annoying.

So while I'm doing this, I'd figure I could get some help with some hackers around here. So far, I've converted the missing stars, Super Mario 74, Super Mario 64 Kirby Edition, and Sky Stories. I need help with Super Mario Rainbow Road and Super Mario 64 Star Revenge, because they always end up playing in an infinite loop no matter what I do with the patch.
Pretty sure those rom hacks were made with an older version of the level importer. It used to expand to 48mb instead of 64. So you need to patch the ppf to a 48mb rom instead. Use an older version of the importer, linked below. Should work.

https://sites.google.com/site/messiaen64/level-importer
New layout by RanAS!
Thanks MilleniumLuigi, with the older version of the importer I got Rainbow Road to run in Project64. Now hopefully I should be done with the conversion sometime at the end of the day. Then I guess I'll link the patches here and/or submit it in the section.

Edit: On the other hand, Star Revenge works differently. I got it to run, but after the file select, it white screens for me.
Edit 2: There are a lot of old hacks on here... SM64 Grand Star loops for me, regardless of which rom I use.
  Nice!

Hope you will use .bps patches because they're x20 times better than .ppf

    See my hack development here!: Super Mario and the missing memories.
Yeah, I am converting the patches to .bps(dunno if you saw but I said that in the original post). If I cannot get the hacks to work though, then we have a problem.
Originally posted by Mayrio
Edit: On the other hand, Star Revenge works differently. I got it to run, but after the file select, it white screens for me.
Edit 2: There are a lot of old hacks on here... SM64 Grand Star loops for me, regardless of which rom I use.

I still need help with these hacks. In fact, I stopped working because of these hacks and another one(xMAS).
dont touch mine, ppf patches work just fine if the creator is capable of life.
Well we should keep the ppf versions and have the bps versions as well.
Team CornersoftYoutube
BPS verifies it's given the right input ROM. Judging by this thread, PPF doesn't. (I think I saw verification in the PPF specification, but if it's off by default, it's going to bite newcomers, and therefore counts as not existing.)
PPF requires the ROM to be expanded first. BPS doesn't.
BPS is smaller.
PPF is intended for PlayStation ISOs, and (as far as I know, couldn't check because romhacking.net now demands login for downloading - actually, that counts as an advantage for BPS) our PPF patcher defaults to only showing ISOs. The BPS patcher is perfectly happy with .z64.
Our BPS patcher has an automatic ROM picker and an emulator auto-launcher; combined, this allows you to double click a BPS and run it. I haven't seen either feature in any other patcher, except maybe "use same ROM as last time".

So why do you guys prefer PPF? (e: okay, apparently some of you don't, but Kazeshin and Luigixhero do.)
<blm> zsnes users are the flatearthers of emulation
most of us don't prefer PPF, 90% of us switched to bps forever ago.
New layout by RanAS!
Originally posted by MilleniumLuigi
most of us don't prefer PPF, 90% of us switched to bps forever ago.

Which is exactly why I wanted to do this in the first place.

If the bps patches do get put in the section, you could always just still include the original ppf patch for those that prefer it for some reason.
PPF doesnt need the original rom to be patched before, ppf patches are capable of doing all the work, including making the rom bigger.
aside from that, there is an automatic batch patcher that does all the work, the user just has to move the rom into the folder and doubleclick the file. also i prefer .ppf because the formatting is known and i have no clue what .bps patches do exactly. if theres a documentation on how .bps is read out by the patching program anywhere, i dont mind switching over.
> PPF doesnt need the original rom to be patched before, ppf patches are capable of doing all the work, including making the rom bigger.

Yet all the patches here are made for extended ROMs. PPF can theoretically extend ROMs, but in practice, not really.

> aside from that, there is an automatic batch patcher that does all the work, the user just has to move the rom into the folder and doubleclick the file.

Okay, if you say so. I wasn't able to grab a copy of PPF Studio to check what new features it has, so I based the comparison on PPF-o-Matic, which I agree is a bit unfair.

Still, relying on tools not hosted here isn't anything I recommend.

> also i prefer .ppf because the formatting is known and i have no clue what .bps patches do exactly. if theres a documentation on how .bps is read out by the patching program anywhere, i dont mind switching over.

A valid concern. That would be this one. (byuu keeps deleting his pages, so I'll link an archived version.)

Personally I often find source codes more readable than specifications (though the combination is even more powerful). In case you agree, and you don't like Flips, here's another one.

tldr of features: Supports infinite file sizes (though actual patchers are limited to 2^64), by encoding sizes and positions in some variable-width scheme; checksums (I think PPF has that too, but judging by this thread, they're not used); and can move data around in the output file, not just change random bytes here and there like PPF.

Unfortunately, this variable-width scheme makes it unreadable in hex editors, which is an advantage IPS has over BPS. (Not sure about PPF, I think it's readable. I've poked its spec a bit, but I forgot most of it.) But it's not like our hack patches need to be hex edited.


As for Luigixhero, I'd guess he's just afraid of change. Or he's trying to help others who are afraid of change. Or something like that.
<blm> zsnes users are the flatearthers of emulation
Originally posted by Alcaro
> PPF doesnt need the original rom to be patched before, ppf patches are capable of doing all the work, including making the rom bigger.

Yet all the patches here are made for extended ROMs. PPF can theoretically extend ROMs, but in practice, not really.

SM64 ROM extending doesn't just make the ROM bigger. It also decompresses the existing MIO0 blocks to the extended area which contain texture, collisions, and display list data (e.g. HUD textures). Including this data in a patch sort of puts it in the grey area of including copyrighted material. I think this is why one should create a patch (either BPS or PPF) from the extended ROM, unless you replace or remove all of the original assets.
Originally posted by Alcaro
Still, relying on tools not hosted here isn't anything I recommend.


BRB deleting sketchup and blender
Convert them for console compatibility
Your layout has been removed.
Why would the patching format have anything to do with console compatibility? The emulator or console sees only the patched ROM, which is the same.

It's a valid topic, but has nothing to do with this thread.
<blm> zsnes users are the flatearthers of emulation
I'm pretty sure he was joking based on the emoticon and how relevant it is to the current topic.

Anyway, I've been slacking off on converting the patches, probably because of those few hacks that refuse to work. I'll resume working and convert some other hacks tomorrow.

Also, when I'm finished with the conversion, do I need to submit all the bps patches as an update in their separate submission pages or can I just submit all of them as one submission?
Originally posted by Mayrio
I'm pretty sure he was joking based on the emoticon and how relevant it is to the current topic.

I've seen someone raise the topic of console compat in irrelevant threads before... this guy, maybe.

aterraformer, consider this a warning. I don't want to see you mention console compatibility in irrelevant threads again. Keep it where it belongs.

Quote
Also, when I'm finished with the conversion, do I need to submit all the bps patches as an update in their separate submission pages or can I just submit all of them as one submission?

Submitting them all as one submission would mean we have one submission containing every single SM64 hack, which would be quite silly. I doubt the site would accept it, either; there's a file size limit.

The Submit Update button may be boring, but someone has to do it.
<blm> zsnes users are the flatearthers of emulation
Every Single Hack? What about simple TT64, or Texture hacks? Wouldn't that mean you'd also have to find really "remote" hacks too, such as the one "Olympic" mini Hack Skelux made before Star Road was even released? Alot of the "remote" hacks aren't even published on this site, and are instead on other sites, such as one's YT channel. Also, to point out if limits are made defining a Hack, say TT64 or Frauber's Patch's and or Kaze's patches for custom levels don't count; what about simple character Hacks? Wouldn't that mean if you missed even one, Kirby 64 and the rest would not count either? I think there might need to be limits on what defines a "Hack" Hack.
I promise to never cancel my hacks
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