Eye of the Beholder VCN/VMP Explorer 0.1 - Page 2

DK2 · 29 April 2008, 12:11

Here, Takis work.
But of course if you get the pics from JackAsser... I'm interested too!

DK2 · 29 April 2008, 15:29

Check now, CPS export should work again. Westpak2

s.nichele · 29 April 2008, 15:34

Wow !
If only my vendor could be as fast as you to fix bugs !

But sadly, I still don't get any transparent background with png export on eob2 tiles...

Marcuz · 29 April 2008, 15:39

are you sure the supposedly transparent colour is not mapped in the table in its own position, even if the colour is the same as another one (for instance black)? if so, you wouldn't have to edit the exports, just to tweak the colour table instead.

or even, there are programs that let you set transparency to any given colour in the colour table
(i have Cosmigo Promotion, at least that does; but there should be free programs that do the same, try check on softpedia)

s.nichele · 29 April 2008, 15:47

The transparent color seems to appear black, yes !

If I rotate the palette (Rotate Pal +), the "transparent color" appears suddendly more obviously (one rotation gives a pink background, for exemple).

When I export the image into gif and and open that gif with a drawing program like photoshop, the "transparent background" is simply black - and then, melted with the real black of the image.

Did I missed something ?

s.nichele · 29 April 2008, 15:53

Well... the transparent color SEEMS to be expoted well... It appear that some of my gfx prg are buggued... more on this later once I will be back at home

Marcuz · 29 April 2008, 16:07

try this: open the png or gif with photoshop and select "color table" from the menu, then try and play with the palette tools (by memory i don't remember exactly the options, sorry) and set the black colour as transparent - if, as you say it is indeed exported.

tonite, if you'll drop me some file i will test it for you and let you know what is the trick

s.nichele · 29 April 2008, 16:10

Thanks marco.
In fact, my current photoshop is bugged ... and my IrfanView is a little bit crappy on that matter.

On the contrary, opening exported file in firefox clearly shows the transparent background. So it definetly works !

DK2 · 29 April 2008, 17:51

Yes, the 0 index color, black (0,0,0) is the transparency color, and with some program can be problematic.
I'm using Paint Shop Pro and CTRL-SHIFT-V to check transparency and work well.

Gambit37 · 20 June 2008, 14:24

Hi, I'm wondering if there's any progress on the original tool discussed in the first post, or if WestPak has been updated to read Eye of the Beholder /Lands of Lore VCN files yet?

It seems that lots of people have the wall graphics from these games, yet nobody seems entirely sure how they were extracted and current tools can't seem to manage it consistently (for example, the UnCPS-AGA tool won't display the VCN files for EOB1, but it will for EOB2 and LoL. Current versions of Westpack can't read any VCNs at all, even though it says further up this thread that it reads EOB VCN files).

It's all rather confusing!

Marcuz · 20 June 2008, 14:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gambit37

It's all rather confusing!

it is, so that i don't remember practically how to make the tools work, while i was able to make them doing what i need, at the time :/

i would like some coder would tidy up things and make up a all in ine import export utility

CFou! · 21 June 2008, 15:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gambit37

Hi, I'm wondering if there's any progress on the original tool discussed in the first post, or if WestPak has been updated to read Eye of the Beholder /Lands of Lore VCN files yet?

It seems that lots of people have the wall graphics from these games, yet nobody seems entirely sure how they were extracted and current tools can't seem to manage it consistently (for example, the UnCPS-AGA tool won't display the VCN files for EOB1, but it will for EOB2 and LoL. Current versions of Westpack can't read any VCNs at all, even though it says further up this thread that it reads EOB VCN files).

It's all rather confusing!

it's curious, i am just ttesting uncps-aga and i can read all VCN:
- EOB ECS/VGA
- EOB 2 ECS/VGA
- LOL VGA

but Warning!!! VCN files contain only gfx, they need external file to map it in walls (to see:http://eob.wikispaces.com/eob.vcn)

09 October 2008, 02:28

I'm sorry if this is not exactly on topic. I am trying to build a utility to read Lands of Lore files and I am having trouble with the VMP file type. My main resource so far has been http://myeob.wikispaces.com/ but I am apparently misunderstanding it. (I've also looked through some of the [ obsolete ] EOB 1 and EOB 2 threads here.) Are there some other resources on the web that might explain the LOL file formats differently? (How do people managed to decode these file layouts??) OR would some angel who has already figured it out mind sharing some source code? Thanks.

DK2 · 14 October 2008, 11:11

Hi gamerecycler,
I've some code in asm/C to decode LoL wallset; with this code, I've only maked a primitive and incomplete decoder.
I'll post the code later, maybe you have time to create a better tool.
Meanwhile, you can also check CFOU tool uncps-aga.

21 October 2008, 03:24

I found the uncps-aga tool at http://eob.wikispaces.com/page/diff/Tools/37133941 but resources on that page seemed to either not deal with the LOL flavor of VMP or did not provide the source code.

It's been a loooong time since I did any assembler (I do Java now) but I would love to see your code. Thanks in advance.

CFou! · 21 October 2008, 19:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by gamerecycler

I found the uncps-aga tool at http://eob.wikispaces.com/page/diff/Tools/37133941 but resources on that page seemed to either not deal with the LOL flavor of VMP or did not provide the source code.

It's been a loooong time since I did any assembler (I do Java now) but I would love to see your code. Thanks in advance.

here uncpcs_aga 6800xx sources but please can you don't distribute it... I am not relased it as free.... i want to finish it before....

more interessent for you are:
.unVCN_VMP.i

but for a better understanding, you should not forget that conversion 'chunky2planar' VGA graphics is necessary to display amiga ....

DK2 · 29 October 2008, 14:36

Hi again,
I've find some time to gather some docs+sources about Lands of Lore; sources are a mix of C and ASM files.
Hope someone with more time can make a LoL dungeon explorer

31 October 2008, 03:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by CFOU!

here uncpcs_aga 6800xx sources but please can you don't distribute it... I am not relased it as free.... i want to finish it before....

more interessent for you are:
.unVCN_VMP.i

but for a better understanding, you should not forget that conversion 'chunky2planar' VGA graphics is necessary to display amiga ....

Thanks! Unfortunately, I wasn't able to understand the Amiga assembler, but I did try to fix my problem again and was able to solve it and read all the LOL background graphics. (Although there are still some light grey pixels that I don't think belong.) Now I am stuck on the walls. Some of the tile block indeces are out of range by several thousand. (For example, MANOR's VCN has 1240 8x8 blocks but the first tile of wallset 2's B-south wall section is 7656.) And the walls that don't error out still don't look right. Grrr!

Can anyone clarify how the baseOffset works (as described on http://eob.wikispaces.com/eob.vmp?) It says it can be negative, but other values will add to this base making sure the array is accessed within bounds, but farther down in the pseudo code for rendering a wall, NOTHING is added to the offset.

CFou! · 02 November 2008, 12:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by CFOU!

here uncpcs_aga 6800xx sources but please can you don't distribute it... I am not relased it as free.... i want to finish it before....

more interessent for you are:
.unVCN_VMP.i

but for a better understanding, you should not forget that conversion 'chunky2planar' VGA graphics is necessary to display amiga ....

here amiga code:

;**********************
;**********************

_DisplayVCN_VMP_32

; ;A0 VCN Base ADR
; ;A1 VMP Base ADR
; ;A2 Screen dest Buffer 320*200*5
; ;D0 Number of start Wallset (0-6)
; 0: Background 1-6 Wallsets
movem.l d0-a6,-(a7)
move.l a1,a4 ; VMP
move.l d0,d6 ; Num of WallSet

move.l a1,a3 ; idem
cmp.l #0,d6 ; num Wallset
bne .Wallset
add.l #2,a3 ; start Tiles Wallset X in VMP

;--------- Draw BackGroud & WallSets
;A0 VCN Base
;A1 DEst Screen Buffer 320*200*8
;A3 VMP adr of Background datas
;D0 Number of Block to display
;D1 X pos 0-39 ($28-1)
;D2 Y pos 0-24 ($19-1)
;D3 Width of window
clr.l d1
clr.l d2
move.l a0,a0
move.l a2,a1
move.l a4,a2

bsr _VMP_Draw_BackGround32
bra .end

.Wallset

;A0 VCN Base
;A1 DEst Screen Buffer 320*200*8
;A2 VMP Base
;D0 Number of Block to display
;D1 X pos 0-39 ($28-1)
;D2 Y pos 0-24 ($19-1)
;D4 Num WallSet
move.l a0,a0
move.l a2,a1
move.l a4,a2
clr.l d1
clr.l d2
move.l d6,d4
bsr _VMP_Draw_Wallset32
lea _VCN_BaseAdrNewVGA(pc),a2
clr.l (a2)

.end
.bad
movem.l (a7)+,d0-a6
rts

;******************
;******************
;******************
;******************

_VMP_Draw_BackGround32

;A3: VMP datas pointer
move.l #22*15-1,d7

.enc
move.w (a3)+,d0

; and.w #$3fff,d0
;A0 VCN Base
;A1 DEst Screen Buffer 320*200*8
;D0 Number of Block to display
;D1 X pos 0-39 ($28-1)
;D2 Y pos 0-24 ($19-1)
bsr _DisplayVCNBlock32
add.l #1,d1 ; x=x+1
cmp.l #22,d1 ; next line? 22
bne .skip
clr.l d1 ; x=0
add.l #1,d2 ; y=y+1

.skip
dbf d7,.enc
rts

;******************
;******************
;******************
;******************

_VMP_Draw_Wallset32

clr.l d0
move.l #9-1,d5 ; nb of wall in a Wallset
lea _VMP_TableWallset(pc),a4
lea _VMP_TableDecXY(pc),a5
add.l #4,a5
move.l d4,d0 ; Num of wallset
sub.l #1,d0
mulu #431*2,d0
add.w (a4)+,d0 ; offset
add.l d0,a3
clr.l d3

.next
add.w (a4),d3 ; X width
move.w (a4)+,d0

move.w (a4)+,d7 ; Y
mulu d0,d7
sub.l #1,d7

.enc
move.w (a3)+,d0

; and.w #$3fff,d0
;A0 VCN Base
;A1 DEst Screen Buffer 320*200*8
;A2 VMP Base
;D0 Number of Block to display
;D1 X pos 0-39 ($28-1)
;D2 Y pos 0-24 ($19-1)
bsr _DisplayVCNBlock32
add.l #1,d1 ; x=x+1
cmp.l d3,d1 ; next line? 22
bne .skip
move.w -4(a5),d1 ;clr.l d1 ; x=0
add.l #1,d2 ; y=y+1

.skip
dbf d7,.enc

move.w (a5)+,d1 ; pos x
move.w d1,d3
move.w (a5)+,d2 ; pos y
tst.w (a4)+ : skip offset ; not needed
dbf d5,.next
rts

_VMP_TableWallset:

dc.w 331*2,3,15 ; offset in VMP / width/ height
dc.w 376*2,3,12
dc.w 412*2,2,8
dc.w 428*2,1,5
dc.w 433*2,3,5
dc.w 448*2,2,6
dc.w 460*2,6,5
dc.w 490*2,10,8
dc.w 570*2,16,12
dc.w -1

_VMP_TableDecXY

dc.w 0,0
dc.w 3,1
dc.w 6,2
dc.w 8,3
dc.w 9,4
dc.w 12,0
dc.w 14,0
dc.w 20,0
dc.w 20,8
dc.w -1

;**********************

07 November 2008, 02:46

Sorry, I really do not understand that. I even read a few web pages about Amiga assembler, but your code seems a quite a bit beyond the basic examples I found.

Can you explain in pseudo-code (or C, or Java) how to render wall sets from Lands of Lore VMP and VCN data? As I said, I am trying to follow the http://eob.wikispaces.com/eob.vmp page, but there seem to be a few flaws with it (or I am not understanding it).

If you actually have Lands of Lore and can provide exact examples (e.g. the first 2-byte word in this record should be 204, which means blah blah blah) that would be perfect.

If I ever get beyond this point, I'll post my code.

Thanks for your patience.

07 November 2008, 02:46	#40
gamerecycler Posts: n/a	My brain is too small for your Amiga code. Sorry, I really do not understand that. I even read a few web pages about Amiga assembler, but your code seems a quite a bit beyond the basic examples I found. Can you explain in pseudo-code (or C, or Java) how to render wall sets from Lands of Lore VMP and VCN data? As I said, I am trying to follow the http://eob.wikispaces.com/eob.vmp page, but there seem to be a few flaws with it (or I am not understanding it). If you actually have Lands of Lore and can provide exact examples (e.g. the first 2-byte word in this record should be 204, which means blah blah blah) that would be perfect. If I ever get beyond this point, I'll post my code. Thanks for your patience.

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29 April 2008, 12:11	#21
DK2 Registered User Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Italy Posts: 24	Here, Takis work. But of course if you get the pics from JackAsser... I'm interested too!

29 April 2008, 15:29	#22
DK2 Registered User Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Italy Posts: 24	Check now, CPS export should work again. Westpak2

29 April 2008, 15:34	#23
s.nichele Registered User Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: france Posts: 13	Wow ! If only my vendor could be as fast as you to fix bugs ! But sadly, I still don't get any transparent background with png export on eob2 tiles...

29 April 2008, 15:39	#24
Marcuz Registered User Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: . Age: 48 Posts: 5,562	are you sure the supposedly transparent colour is not mapped in the table in its own position, even if the colour is the same as another one (for instance black)? if so, you wouldn't have to edit the exports, just to tweak the colour table instead. or even, there are programs that let you set transparency to any given colour in the colour table (i have Cosmigo Promotion, at least that does; but there should be free programs that do the same, try check on softpedia)

29 April 2008, 15:47	#25
s.nichele Registered User Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: france Posts: 13	The transparent color seems to appear black, yes ! If I rotate the palette (Rotate Pal +), the "transparent color" appears suddendly more obviously (one rotation gives a pink background, for exemple). When I export the image into gif and and open that gif with a drawing program like photoshop, the "transparent background" is simply black - and then, melted with the real black of the image. Did I missed something ?

29 April 2008, 15:53	#26
s.nichele Registered User Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: france Posts: 13	Well... the transparent color SEEMS to be expoted well... It appear that some of my gfx prg are buggued... more on this later once I will be back at home

29 April 2008, 16:07	#27
Marcuz Registered User Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: . Age: 48 Posts: 5,562	try this: open the png or gif with photoshop and select "color table" from the menu, then try and play with the palette tools (by memory i don't remember exactly the options, sorry) and set the black colour as transparent - if, as you say it is indeed exported. tonite, if you'll drop me some file i will test it for you and let you know what is the trick

29 April 2008, 16:10	#28
s.nichele Registered User Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: france Posts: 13	Thanks marco. In fact, my current photoshop is bugged ... and my IrfanView is a little bit crappy on that matter. On the contrary, opening exported file in firefox clearly shows the transparent background. So it definetly works !

29 April 2008, 17:51	#29
DK2 Registered User Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Italy Posts: 24	Yes, the 0 index color, black (0,0,0) is the transparency color, and with some program can be problematic. I'm using Paint Shop Pro and CTRL-SHIFT-V to check transparency and work well.

20 June 2008, 14:24	#30
Gambit37 Users Awaiting Email Confirmation Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: xxx Posts: 25	Hi, I'm wondering if there's any progress on the original tool discussed in the first post, or if WestPak has been updated to read Eye of the Beholder /Lands of Lore VCN files yet? It seems that lots of people have the wall graphics from these games, yet nobody seems entirely sure how they were extracted and current tools can't seem to manage it consistently (for example, the UnCPS-AGA tool won't display the VCN files for EOB1, but it will for EOB2 and LoL. Current versions of Westpack can't read any VCNs at all, even though it says further up this thread that it reads EOB VCN files). It's all rather confusing!

09 October 2008, 02:28	#33
gamerecycler Posts: n/a	I'm sorry if this is not exactly on topic. I am trying to build a utility to read Lands of Lore files and I am having trouble with the VMP file type. My main resource so far has been http://myeob.wikispaces.com/ but I am apparently misunderstanding it. (I've also looked through some of the [ obsolete ] EOB 1 and EOB 2 threads here.) Are there some other resources on the web that might explain the LOL file formats differently? (How do people managed to decode these file layouts??) OR would some angel who has already figured it out mind sharing some source code? Thanks.

14 October 2008, 11:11	#34
DK2 Registered User Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Italy Posts: 24	Hi gamerecycler, I've some code in asm/C to decode LoL wallset; with this code, I've only maked a primitive and incomplete decoder. I'll post the code later, maybe you have time to create a better tool. Meanwhile, you can also check CFOU tool uncps-aga.

21 October 2008, 03:24	#35
gamerecycler Posts: n/a	I found the uncps-aga tool at http://eob.wikispaces.com/page/diff/Tools/37133941 but resources on that page seemed to either not deal with the LOL flavor of VMP or did not provide the source code. It's been a loooong time since I did any assembler (I do Java now) but I would love to see your code. Thanks in advance.

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