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Open Golden Sun: Open source recreation of the Golden Sun engine

Started by OpenGoldenSun, 15, December, 2014, 11:46:04 AM

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OpenGoldenSun

Hi all,

I'm posting a link to my channel where I'm recreating the GBA Golden Sun engine.

OpenGoldenSun Channel

Right now I have these videos up that show where I'm at with the engine.


It's currently not open source but the intent will be to open source it when it's reached an acceptable point. Subscribe if you'd like, I'll attempt to keep this post updated as I go. This has been made from the ground up with no RPG maker or anything.

I've described more details about the engine in this reddit post.

Let me know your thoughts.

Daddy Poi's Oily Gorillas

Thanks for posting this!
I was thinking about maybe some day creating an open-sourced platform from the ground up based off of Golden Sun's code for people to create Golden Sun-like games... but I wasn't sure if I'd ever go as far as copying all the maps. (I was thinking more about a collection of code-based resources.) However, if it turns out your project is the perfect replacement (which it sounds like it is.) Then I won't need to...
Since I (and Salanewt) have documented quite a bit about GS2, I guess I'll eventually look into seeing how your project is organized compared to it, and check for consistencies as well. :)
Golden Sun Docs: Broken Seal - The Lost Age - Dark Dawn | Mario Sports Docs: Mario Golf & Mario Tennis | Misc. Docs
Refer to Yoshi's Lighthouse for any M&L hacking needs...

Sometimes I like to compare apples to oranges. (Figuratively) ... They are both fruits, but which one would you eat more? (If taken literally, I'd probably choose apples.)
Maybe it is over-analyzing, but it doesn't mean the information is useless.


The only GS Discord servers with significance are:
Golden Sun Hacking Community
GS Speedrunning
/r/Golden Sun
GS United Nations
Temple of Kraden

Can you believe how small the Golden Sun Community is?

2+2=5 Don't believe me? Those are rounded decimal numbers. Take that, flat earth theorists! :)

KyleRunner

Open Golden Sun! Just like "Openmw"! Like a dream come true!

Mion Sonozaki

I would pay good money for a decent RPG maker. I'm serious, too.

Though, for my own purposes, I would need 3D support and a Z-Axis to create something with an overworld style similar to Grandia. 3D Environments with 2D sprites. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUUHBFN3QL4

I'd probably need for the battle system to be modifiable, so I could make something similar to Grandia, too.

Why am I basically asking for an Open-Source Grandia-maker on a Golden Sun Forum? >_<

I guess a guy could dream when wanting to make his own original RPG with inspired mechanics...

Rolina

Question - how editable will this be?  Would we be able to add additional stats, so as to give psynergy stat support?  How much control will we have over things like critical hit rates, unleash rates, and damage formulas?

OpenGoldenSun

#5
Quote from: Lishy on 15, December, 2014, 08:38:15 PM
I would pay good money for a decent RPG maker. I'm serious, too.

Though, for my own purposes, I would need 3D support and a Z-Axis to create something with an overworld style similar to Grandia. 3D Environments with 2D sprites. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUUHBFN3QL4

I'd probably need for the battle system to be modifiable, so I could make something similar to Grandia, too.

Why am I basically asking for an Open-Source Grandia-maker on a Golden Sun Forum? >_<

I guess a guy could dream when wanting to make his own original RPG with inspired mechanics...

I'm really not the best person to do something like that and I really wouldn't have the time, sorry (also you can't afford me  :happy: ). I'm really just making this because they're my favorite games of all time.

Quote from: Rolina on 15, December, 2014, 09:09:41 PM
Question - how editable will this be?  Would we be able to add additional stats, so as to give psynergy stat support?  How much control will we have over things like critical hit rates, unleash rates, and damage formulas?

You would be able to do whatever you want in theory. I will most likely create all the damage and stat calculations off what the game currently does and then modify from there.

Daddy Poi's Oily Gorillas

@3D support: Is it even possible to take Golden Sun's 2D maps and make them rotatable as if they were 3D? Even if it was a slight rotation like an earthquake. (Possibly using the height map in part of the equation of-course.)
It may or may not be tricky/ugly/feasible, but still, it was an idea.... You'd use sin and cos for sure. But just in-case, has anyone seen anybody try something like that?
@Ugly: Imagine how houses would work, you'd need to fix the sides and back, obviously.

QuoteI'm really not the best person to do something like that
Just to make sure, does some of that time you would need have to go into figuring out how to go about it, or would you already have an idea, but the work to do it is difficult?
Golden Sun Docs: Broken Seal - The Lost Age - Dark Dawn | Mario Sports Docs: Mario Golf & Mario Tennis | Misc. Docs
Refer to Yoshi's Lighthouse for any M&L hacking needs...

Sometimes I like to compare apples to oranges. (Figuratively) ... They are both fruits, but which one would you eat more? (If taken literally, I'd probably choose apples.)
Maybe it is over-analyzing, but it doesn't mean the information is useless.


The only GS Discord servers with significance are:
Golden Sun Hacking Community
GS Speedrunning
/r/Golden Sun
GS United Nations
Temple of Kraden

Can you believe how small the Golden Sun Community is?

2+2=5 Don't believe me? Those are rounded decimal numbers. Take that, flat earth theorists! :)

Rolina

Will we be able to manage things such as accuracy, evasion, and move priority?  Would we be capable of handling Criticals and Unleashes as separate entities, or would they be folded into a single thing like they were in Dark Dawn?

OpenGoldenSun

I like how you guys are already trying to hack an un-built project.  :happy:

@Rolina, the thing with coding something from the ground up is, you can do anything you want.

@Fox, I'm really just going to focus on rebuilding the GBA engine as-is. I'm sure adding a pseudo 3D affect would be cool, but I'm not looking to reinvent the style of the game.

MaxiPower

Looks sweet, you have the full attention of all members of this board!!!

This is the greatest news seen on this site in years!! I'd almost gave up on the idea of a golden sun Fan game.

WOW! :happy: :heart:

Atrius (He/Him)

It's looking pretty convincing so far, I'm impressed with how well you've replicated the game's engine.
[sprite=220,4,0]I'm shaking my head in general disapproval of everything[/sprite]

OpenGoldenSun

Quote from: MaxiPower on 22, December, 2014, 06:03:11 PM
Looks sweet, you have the full attention of all members of this board!!!

This is the greatest news seen on this site in years!! I'd almost gave up on the idea of a golden sun Fan game.

WOW! :happy: :heart:

Thanks! I look forward to seeing where this goes.

Quote from: Atrius on 22, December, 2014, 07:08:03 PM
It's looking pretty convincing so far, I'm impressed with how well you've replicated the game's engine.

I take that as a huge compliment, especially coming from you, so thank-you.

Daddy Poi's Oily Gorillas

Quote@Fox, I'm really just going to focus on rebuilding the GBA engine as-is. I'm sure adding a pseudo 3D affect would be cool, but I'm not looking to reinvent the style of the game.
Okay, fair enough. Sticking to just the Golden Sun engine, is probably what I would have done as the focus point as well? ; And then when the GBA project would be complete, perhaps look to see what Dark Dawn had to offer, and implement optional things from there, but I dunno.

Looking good so far. Have you worked on the battle system yet?


Oh and...
Quote@Rolina, the thing with coding something from the ground up is, you can do anything you want.
Well, you are still limited by the programming language and hardware, but that's little to be concerned about considering how limited hacking the GBA was. (It's like hacking the GBA is only worth it for collecting data? That, and maybe translations/difficulty hacks, anything minor.)
Golden Sun Docs: Broken Seal - The Lost Age - Dark Dawn | Mario Sports Docs: Mario Golf & Mario Tennis | Misc. Docs
Refer to Yoshi's Lighthouse for any M&L hacking needs...

Sometimes I like to compare apples to oranges. (Figuratively) ... They are both fruits, but which one would you eat more? (If taken literally, I'd probably choose apples.)
Maybe it is over-analyzing, but it doesn't mean the information is useless.


The only GS Discord servers with significance are:
Golden Sun Hacking Community
GS Speedrunning
/r/Golden Sun
GS United Nations
Temple of Kraden

Can you believe how small the Golden Sun Community is?

2+2=5 Don't believe me? Those are rounded decimal numbers. Take that, flat earth theorists! :)

OpenGoldenSun

#13
Quote from: Fox on 23, December, 2014, 08:02:38 AM
Looking good so far. Have you worked on the battle system yet?

Not yet, I think that will come later. Sorry, I know it's one of the more interesting parts but it's also one of the hardest. I'm comfortable with the structure I've built for doing field psynergy. While doing Move & Growth I think I was able to come up with a pretty decent structure so now it's just a matter of finishing up a bunch of the field psynergies. I'll probably focus on a couple more field related items such as: jumping, pushing, and cliff-edge sliding.

Once I'm comfortable with those items I'll move onto to either the world map or battle system. Once those are in a good spot, I'll probably do a major code refactor.

Here is a screenshot of the Class View for the engine (large image), this is completely subject to change and I'm posting this mostly because you seemed interested: http://i.imgur.com/xqeGWVm.png

Daddy Poi's Oily Gorillas

That's fine. As a small hint, though, I believe the game uses two angle values that can be found at addresses 0x02030034 and 0x02030036. So I don't imagine that setting up the base battle system would be too difficult (Basically skin and bones), but actually making it a playable feature with properly working animations/etc might take a whole lot more work.

The World Map should be pretty easy...

That image looks great!  Keep up the good work.
Golden Sun Docs: Broken Seal - The Lost Age - Dark Dawn | Mario Sports Docs: Mario Golf & Mario Tennis | Misc. Docs
Refer to Yoshi's Lighthouse for any M&L hacking needs...

Sometimes I like to compare apples to oranges. (Figuratively) ... They are both fruits, but which one would you eat more? (If taken literally, I'd probably choose apples.)
Maybe it is over-analyzing, but it doesn't mean the information is useless.


The only GS Discord servers with significance are:
Golden Sun Hacking Community
GS Speedrunning
/r/Golden Sun
GS United Nations
Temple of Kraden

Can you believe how small the Golden Sun Community is?

2+2=5 Don't believe me? Those are rounded decimal numbers. Take that, flat earth theorists! :)

jjppof

Very nice work! I am very impressed!  :happy:

Looks like you are using xna, right? C# is a lovely language.
That's a very hard and professional work and you have already done lot of stuff.
Can't wait to see the source!!  :happy:

Rolina

I'd love to see some behind the scenes stuff, so as to better see what bit of code corresponds to what.  Or, alternatively, if there's a UI functionality built into it like with Atrius' Editor, I'd like to see that.

Daddy Poi's Oily Gorillas

Same.  I'd like to know how the map data is done, myself. What is this TileAndHexUtilityForm?

-Is it just 16x16 tiles without the four split 8x8 tiles like how the game works?
-Are the tiles done in 16bpp? Without an indexed pixel format?
Golden Sun Docs: Broken Seal - The Lost Age - Dark Dawn | Mario Sports Docs: Mario Golf & Mario Tennis | Misc. Docs
Refer to Yoshi's Lighthouse for any M&L hacking needs...

Sometimes I like to compare apples to oranges. (Figuratively) ... They are both fruits, but which one would you eat more? (If taken literally, I'd probably choose apples.)
Maybe it is over-analyzing, but it doesn't mean the information is useless.


The only GS Discord servers with significance are:
Golden Sun Hacking Community
GS Speedrunning
/r/Golden Sun
GS United Nations
Temple of Kraden

Can you believe how small the Golden Sun Community is?

2+2=5 Don't believe me? Those are rounded decimal numbers. Take that, flat earth theorists! :)

Rolina

I'm interested in how the field effects are done.  I'd love to add more (say, fireball functionality from DD), so seeing how Move and Growth were handled would be kinda neat.

Daddy Poi's Oily Gorillas

I imagine the basics of field effects are simple enough to understand... but as for the entirety, probably plenty of work to implement? (You have to also remember the less obvious things like how Douse will do snowflakes in cold places.)

-You generate the graphics in front of the character.
Something like this... (If assuming facing right is a 0 degree angle.)
Utility_x = PC_x + (distance * cos(PC_angle))
Utility_y = PC_y + (distance * sin(PC_angle))

-Interacting with objects is likely tile based, so x/16 and y/16  (Or was it /8 each?) or something like that... And different utilities measure out different distances in tiles.
Frost could work 1 tile away, Move could work 2 tiles away, for example.
Golden Sun Docs: Broken Seal - The Lost Age - Dark Dawn | Mario Sports Docs: Mario Golf & Mario Tennis | Misc. Docs
Refer to Yoshi's Lighthouse for any M&L hacking needs...

Sometimes I like to compare apples to oranges. (Figuratively) ... They are both fruits, but which one would you eat more? (If taken literally, I'd probably choose apples.)
Maybe it is over-analyzing, but it doesn't mean the information is useless.


The only GS Discord servers with significance are:
Golden Sun Hacking Community
GS Speedrunning
/r/Golden Sun
GS United Nations
Temple of Kraden

Can you believe how small the Golden Sun Community is?

2+2=5 Don't believe me? Those are rounded decimal numbers. Take that, flat earth theorists! :)