Best place to start messing with OoT Hacking/Modding?

[Armos]

Hey guys, I haven't been here lately due to being sick and having to deal with "Depression" lately. So I was wondering what would be best to start working on levels, maps, etc. Like what level should I work on, what basics should I do, etc. I can read some pointers in the maps/zscenes. Since the wiki taught me that. I'm just curious on what info I should know about making certian actors spawn and adding new ones, etc. I tried multiple tutorials. But some of them wont show up because of their groups. I try to add some groups to their map. But no actor wont show up. As far as pointers goes. I'm not certiain on how those work. Would I have to relocate the offsets and all of that pointers, etc? Some hex I can't read so I can't tell how many actors or groups there are. So I'm completely lost here and feel like a total noob. Sorry if no one doesn't understand what I'm talking about. I am familiar with hex editing. Since I've done it before. I'm kinda confused on how I can get some actors and stuff to spawn at different locations with out messing up the groups and stuff. And what would be a good map to start with? Thanks for advice. Just a question, I know I probably asked several times, is there an easy method to adding actors, groups, etc? Because I would like to keep certiain things inside the maps. So I can start working on some things that I've been trying to do for the past couple months... But I feel like I'm not getting any where... I feel like an ammature... So if anyone can help me out, that'd be great. Thanks.

[Librarian]

Anyone? I'd like to know too.

[Arceny]

Bumping this for the team; I know this stuff, anyway, you know... all right! I don't know this stuff! Anybody?

[Rinku]

Hello there,

 

Firstly I want to apologize if I didn't understand right or if I tell you something you already knew.

 

If you're asking for a map to test out adding and modifying actors, you should use one of the test rooms like Sutaru or the Chest Test Room, or you make your own test room using SharpOcarina.

If you instead want to make a hack, you should work on the dungeons, like the Great Deku Tree or the Forest Temple. Their use of multiple maps, actors and event flags are great for learning.

 

If you want to add new actors, or if you simply want to add your own maps, you should always use a ROM with JSA's NO_DMA patch applied. It prevents most of the freezes on some emulators.

 

Yes, as you already know, actors won't show up if their object, commonly called group, isn't loaded in the map. You absolutely have to add their respective object numbers. As far as I know, they're used to load their models. In fact, the objects are their models, I think.

 

The actor list and the object list have a determinated length in the zmap. Adding an actor or an object more would exceed the list size. So you have to relocate their offset pointers and move the whole list to the very end of the zmap, as you can't split the list in two.

If you only want to change actors/objects rather than adding new ones, you don't have to do this.

 

Note that if you want to add actors, you'll almost always want to add objects, too. Considering the fact that the added actor probably needs its own object, simply changing one of the present objects to the new actor's object would cause other actors to not show up, as they would miss their object.

So, if you add an actor, you should add an object for it, too, rather than modifying the existing objects.

(An exception is of course if the actor's object is loaded in the zmap by default, or if you want to modify everything.)

 

Well, relocating the offset pointers and moving the actor or the object list is the only method I can think of; it's up to you if you find it easy or not, at least, it's quite time-consuming.

 

 

If something I wrote isn't clear or if I didn't answer your questions, don't worry and ask. It would be really helpful if you could provide me an example of what you really want to do, so I could try to help you based on this example.

 

Thank you for reading!

[Arceny]

Thanks!

[Armos]

Hello there,

 

Firstly I want to apologize if I didn't understand right or if I tell you something you already knew.

 

If you're asking for a map to test out adding and modifying actors, you should use one of the test rooms like Sutaru or the Chest Test Room, or you make your own test room using SharpOcarina.

If you instead want to make a hack, you should work on the dungeons, like the Great Deku Tree or the Forest Temple. Their use of multiple maps, actors and event flags are great for learning.

 

If you want to add new actors, or if you simply want to add your own maps, you should always use a ROM with JSA's NO_DMA patch applied. It prevents most of the freezes on some emulators.

 

Yes, as you already know, actors won't show up if their object, commonly called group, isn't loaded in the map. You absolutely have to add their respective object numbers. As far as I know, they're used to load their models. In fact, the objects are their models, I think.

 

The actor list and the object list have a determinated length in the zmap. Adding an actor or an object more would exceed the list size. So you have to relocate their offset pointers and move the whole list to the very end of the zmap, as you can't split the list in two.

If you only want to change actors/objects rather than adding new ones, you don't have to do this.

 

Note that if you want to add actors, you'll almost always want to add objects, too. Considering the fact that the added actor probably needs its own object, simply changing one of the present objects to the new actor's object would cause other actors to not show up, as they would miss their object.

So, if you add an actor, you should add an object for it, too, rather than modifying the existing objects.

(An exception is of course if the actor's object is loaded in the zmap by default, or if you want to modify everything.)

 

Well, relocating the offset pointers and moving the actor or the object list is the only method I can think of; it's up to you if you find it easy or not, at least, it's quite time-consuming.

 

 

If something I wrote isn't clear or if I didn't answer your questions, don't worry and ask. It would be really helpful if you could provide me an example of what you really want to do, so I could try to help you based on this example.

 

Thank you for reading!

 

Thanks for the help Rinku, your info seems to be understanding. I'll try out with Dungeons first and work my way with other areas, like non-dungeon areas, etc.