Lufia 2 - Rise of the sinistrals

Project finished:
https://www.zeldix.net/t1833-lufia-ii-rise-of-the-sinistrals

Edit (Conn):


MAP: $2004 W hook
There are two patches inside, the
luf2_msu1_music_for_mapping.ips
leaves the music intact. Otherwise it gets boring to play and you won't see if a track loops or not
luf2_msu1_music_fullmute.ips
hardcore mutes the spc audio (for testing the pcm)

Tipp: to map quickly apply the patch uf2_msu1_music_for_mapping.ips
and use 80942E with X hook
$80/942E 85 54       STA $54    [$00:0054]   A:000D
Then replace the theme in A:000D with the theme you want to hear

Patch:
v1, added fade to zero
v2, added mute
v3, outro bug fixed
Link

PCMs: Link

Spreadsheet: Link

I added this title (in a post at least) to the wishlist thread because I whole heartily agree!

*looks around sheepishly*...*cough* bump *cough*

Sooner or later this one will follow. As someone in another forum said, most games worth the MSU patching already are done, so things slow down here. ^^ Regardless of the fact that some ppl even seem to patch games not worth anything like Hong Kong '97

Well, not much to say here. WONDERFUL game with an AMAZING soundtrack. There are nice remixes out there which will make things even cooler. That's all I needed in the past when I tried to find someone making me a DKC2 hack for my already close to be done Remix pack ^^

So i requested once Mario RPG, a very good title in my opinion, and didnt find a taker for a rom hacker despite my willingness to do a portion of the work and the entire pcm set. The problem isn't that rom hackers don't want this title, or even lufia because this title is also mentioned often, its that rom hacking is a lot of work and rpg titles tend to be the hardest to do. Sometimes a rom hacker will take on a lesser known small title because it is easy to do and there is a huge difference in the time spent on those titles compared to a rpg title. Wouldn't surprise me if these two titles get done eventually, but it might take several years. We either have to wait for a new rom hacker to take the scene, wait for existing rom hackers to come out of retirement which may never happen, or do it ourselves.
Here is a link if you want to learn the rom hack, but fair warning, it isn't easy and i have been failing to learn.
https://www.zeldix.net/t1608-was-there-a-tutorial-of-how-to-hack-for-the-msu1

RPG titles are not much different than the action games. What makes them a pain to patch is that the patcher him/herself has to play the game the long way round to test the hack for bugs. You can’t just cheat through like other faster action titles. I had to deal with that pain in doing Ys4 and that’s barely a full RPG.

MarioRPG was largely ignored cuz at the time Sd2Snes had no support for it with MSU features. Once the SA1 and MSU1 bugs get ironed out for Sd2Snes, someone will surely do it. I believe Kurrono is working on it but don’t quote me on that.

I’m not a real fan of full RPGs (DQ, FF, etc). So, sadly, it is not my cup of tea to put in the effort to patch one. But I do hope someone steps up for you guys and makes your hack come true.

@ JUD6MENT
I owed you something - it's not much tested (play bsnes with breakpoint 2004 write hook to map the themes).
Also the loop table needs to be filled up with 01 for non-loop tracks.

You can start a new topic with that if you like. Dunno how much I will help in the progress (except bug-fixing I guess, but only if you provide savestates).

Everything else, pcm, release is up to you

https://www.zeldix.net/t1800-super-mario-rpg#28520

Conn wrote:@ JUD6MENT
I owed you something - it's not much tested (play bsnes with breakpoint 2004 write hook to map the themes).
Also the loop table needs to be filled up with 01 for non-loop tracks.

You can start a new topic with that if you like. Dunno how much I will help in the progress (except bug-fixing I guess, but only if you provide savestates).

Everything else, pcm, release is up to you

Oh wow, you are awesome Conn, thank you so much. Yeah i can do this project, it will take me some time because i signed up for college recently but i will work on this on my free time and map the tracks and get the pcm done. Im excited, thank you.

@Conn
Hey Conn, sorry I can be such a noob at this stuff. i have never used xkas before and I am trying to get it to work. I tried following some youtube tutorials but that didn't seem to get me anywhere.

https://www.zeldix.net/t1690-wishlist-pcm-packs

Just a heads up before anyone starts any hacks/PCMs. The April 28th post in that thread, I did a PCM pack for lufia2 already based on this version...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJg0NzAFCJU&list=PL8562AEE927859E04

I'll re-upload it again if it ever gets going.

To not hijack this topic, I opened a new topic for Super Mario RPG:
https://www.zeldix.net/t1800-super-mario-rpg#28520

I also explained there how to use xkas. I'm not sure how many bugs you will encounter, the code is complex (many hidden fade ups/downs e.g.). I only played to the first bowser.... so there are most likely many surprises

@Relikk, yeah saw your PCM pack. Lufia Curse of Sinistrals (DS one) in better original I would say ^^

I tried to find a decent quality version of it at the time of making the original set, couldn't find anything.

Ok, I checked a bit the code:

Lufia2 msu1 notes:
hardcore mute (another one is not possible):
rom: 0x84091: F0 -> 2f
xkas

Code:

lorom
org $90C091
db $2f

code to map the tracks:
Hook here:

Code:

$80/9520 AE 40 21    LDX $2140  [$80:2140]  A:0000 X:0000 Y:248E
$80/9523 8E 86 05    STX $0586  [$80:0586]  A:0000 X:8AFA Y:248E

The track number is in X, it is unique, but I'd use the first byte (8A in this case, the second one is at least in one case reused).

The rom has about 92 tracks if I am correct looking at youtube. So, I could write the asm (and anyone else with above notes), but honestly I have no time... if anybody else wants to code it, you are welcome!

Ah well, I quickly did it, attached is the asm and ips.
Use Lufia II - Rise of the Sinistrals (U).smc, no header

Edited, see patch in first post

100% speedrun on YouTube... 9hrs 46mins.

Track map sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1BVfKwYdaaLiwrh6HGQVIOooC_6EopNWxf28sLZ9JK7o/edit?usp=sharing

PCM's: https://mega.nz/#!FvJQjCIS!i4rGv3zVNCe2uoZFoRDZZZ18yDZ3OoWbMfNL4QI7Zhc

Conn wrote:There's a high chance that some tracks are shared.

Seems so. I only have 58 PCM's and I'm pretty sure I covered all of the available SPC's.

Uh oh, I started with your dox sheet and looked for some entries. Unfortunately, the values I use to map the themes, are not working
I need to look further.

As for the playing it gets worse. If the game is muted you won't see whether a track is muting or not. I think I will also make a patch that does not mute the spc, for mapping purpose.

Phew
I was able to find the hook for theme mapping. The patch is now in the very first post!
(EmuandCo, I moved your videos 3 posts below)


MAP: $2004 write
There are two patches inside, the
luf2_msu1_music_for_mapping.ips
leaves the music intact. Otherwise it gets boring to play and you won't see if a track loops or not
luf2_msu1_music_fullmute.ips
hardcore mutes the spc audio (for testing the pcm)

Tipp (only works with the patch leaving the music intact of course): to map quickly use 81FD10 with X hook
81FD10 85 54 STA $54 [$00:0054] A:000D
Then replace the theme in A:000D (red box) with the theme you want to hear:



If you e.g., write A:0017 you hear the dungeon theme during the intro. You should use this technique in the name select screen however, since this screen is unlike the intro not auto-advance (so you can figure out whether the track is looping).

Relikk, I think you can map all themes this way without having to play through the complete game

Wheeeee, sooo, my two cents about the number of spcs. If you check the packs you can find containing the SPC discogrphies of SNES games, I see around 63 files. But there are sound effects inside too. Like adding party member or casino lose and stuff. https://www.zophar.net/music/nintendo-snes-spc/lufia-ii-rise-of-the-sinistrals-[lufia]

I just checked since I looked for a mute track to add spc fallback. There are exactly $3E tracks (=62 files, + the 00 track = 63 files), so you're correct Emuando.

I tried to give several values for a mute track $3F and whatever, but all lead to graphical distortions, so a complete pcm set with all 63 tracks including the "sfx" like themes is necessary unfortunately.

I've got it covered.

If needed you/me could make these replacements from the original SPC @44100 kHz and with Cubic interpolation instead of Gaussian. That way I made my DKC II test pack and other stuff like missing track in my experiment with SOM2 Remaster from the Steam game in the past and the difference is far from a real remaster track, but noticeable.

BTW... I LOOOOVE these PCMs posted by Relikk. I follow the youtube channel of Sour Jovis a while now ^^

If I listen to this Final Battle track I am sure he might be the first one making a really good remaster of The Oracle from Secret of Mana...

Here are the mapped tracks so far if anyone wants to help test the patch for bugs.

The spreadsheet is open again if anyone wants to fill in any information regarding the locations.

PCMs: Link

Spreadsheet: Link

Oh wow, I think this was the fastest msu project ever.

Here's the final patch with the loop table done:
http://bszelda.zeldalegends.net/stuff/Con/luf2_msu_patch.zip

Relikk, the release is yours if all goes well

Dang, this morning there was no lufia 2 msu, that was fast. You guys are awesome.