[Jinroh]

Hi All,

This has grown from a curiosity to a full blown project.

It's called DNA Hacker and it will be a full hacking utility for Duke Nukem Advance when it's done.

Current Functionality
*Text Hacking

That's all it can do right now, it can pull out the entirety of the text data form the ROM, edit it, and replace it with the new updated text. ^^ I've been looking at the locations of sprites and such and creating a memory map and database for the program. Tomorrow it should be able to rip at least one sprite and replace it. So it'll grow fast as I research where everything is. ^^

It's also written in plain WinAPI for those who use WINE should be able to run it just fine too.

Stay tuned!

[RazorZ]

Great, sounds interesting, but still bit pointless, too. I would like to initialize Duke Nukem Advance to play it in Eduke32 (like a mod). That would kick ass (but of course DNA´s limited nature on GBA is bit so and so, so... )! But I like to hack things, so this is nice way to spend some time.

Good luck! I would like to see the source code, too, because I´m trying to learn C++ and using WINAPI with it may be helpful, if you are using C++ of course... aren´t you, right, or just Visual Basic or C#?

[Player Lin]

Whooa! Jinroh, you did great job! Good luck and keep work on it please!

Quote

Great, sounds interesting, but still bit pointless, too. I would like to initialize Duke Nukem Advance to play it in Eduke32 (like a mod).

Or maybe a PC port of DNA is a good fucking idea.

I still don't like play FPS on console platform, I always feel like play shit, even DNA is really fucking awesome.

[ReaperMan]

Player Lin, on Sep 9 2010, 08:08 AM, said:

Or maybe a PC port of DNA is a good fucking idea.

Now that would be awesome

BTW every time i read the title of this thread i think about genetics.

[Nacho]

Player Lin, on Sep 9 2010, 04:08 AM, said:

Or maybe a PC port of DNA is a good fucking idea.

Not possible. DNA is not made using the Build engine so the only way you could 'port' the levels would be to actually recreate the levels by hand using the Build Editor. The textures would also have to be remade since the ones in DNA are too low res... then you run into scripting issues due to the dialogue and then there's the new enemies that would have to be coded... redone in higher res.. blah, blah, blah...

Could it be done... yes. But in the end it would be a total conversion and not a port.

As for this project... I'm excited. I can contact the Technical Artist that made this game though I highly doubt he'd be able to help with this. Anyways, keep it up. It just so happens I've been working on the DNA section of my wiki which is why I'm loving the timing of this.

[ReaperMan]

Nacho, on Sep 9 2010, 01:29 PM, said:

The textures would also have to be remade since the ones in DNA are too low res...

They look fine to me.

[Nacho]

ReaperMan, on Sep 9 2010, 08:42 AM, said:

They look fine to me.

Blow that up to full screen like you would in Duke 3D and it just doesn't look so great. Think, DNA is played on like a 1 inch screen.

[Jinroh]

Hey guys!

Quick update!

1. DNAHacker can now directly edit and save the Text Strings in the ROM right in the program. A text editing dialog box allows you to edit and save the strings right back to the ROM without leaving the program. It's very handy.

2. I wrote code today to load all the sprites in the game. All the HUD/Weapon/Font stuff I can load. I just have to do a little more work on the dump function and we'll be able to just dump all those sprites. I have a good hunch about the character sprites and the textures so I'm confident I'll be able to load those soon. After I have dumping the sprites finished I'll work on a Dialog to edit them right in the program. So you can use Duke Hacker to hack all that stuff.

I expect somebody to hack in some BLOOD weapons once I have graphics editing right in the program.

That's a quick update, I'll post some screenshots later. ^^

Thanks for the support!

As for what I'm using to code this, C with WinAPI. ^^ My compiler/IDE of choice is Visual Studio 6.0.

Nacho said:

Blow that up to full screen like you would in Duke 3D and it just doesn't look so great. Think, DNA is played on like a 1 inch screen.

Yeah I understand what you mean Nacho, but those textures that I found are the same size as other FPS of the Classic Era, Duke, Doom, Wolf3D, etc. So with the Classic Renderer they should look not out of place. ^^ They'll look shitty at high resolutions, but that's why we have Texture Filtering right? ^o^

[ReaperMan]

Jinroh, on Sep 9 2010, 06:47 PM, said:

Yeah I understand what you mean Nacho, but those textures that I found are the same size as other FPS of the Classic Era, Duke, Doom, Wolf3D, etc.

Thats what i mean, they don't need to be fixed they are made for classic FPS's

[Jinroh]

ReaperMan, on Sep 10 2010, 07:24 AM, said:

Thats what i mean, they don't need to be fixed they are made for classic FPS's

Exactly! It'll still look good if we use them in Classic Renderer. ^^

UPDATE:
*RAW TILE DATA DUMPED TO SCREEN
*SCROLLING THROUGH RAW TILES

TODO:
*Load Palette
*Replacing Tiles

[ReaperMan]

Look at all the wonderful colors

Also look at all the amazing progress you have made

[Jinroh]

ReaperMan, on Sep 10 2010, 10:07 AM, said:

Look at all the wonderful colors

Also look at all the amazing progress you have made

Tomorrow those wonderful colours will look correct. ^^ I just found the object palette. ^o^ I need to get some rest and spend time with my wife and kid so I should take a break.

[Lunick]

Jinroh, on Sep 10 2010, 12:44 PM, said:

Tomorrow those wonderful colours will look correct. ^^ I just found the object palette. ^o^ I need to get some rest and spend time with my wife and kid so I should take a break.

Sweet Dreams

[Player Lin]

Jinroh, on Sep 10 2010, 05:47 AM, said:

Yeah I understand what you mean Nacho, but those textures that I found are the same size as other FPS of the Classic Era, Duke, Doom, Wolf3D, etc. So with the Classic Renderer they should look not out of place. ^^ They'll look shitty at high resolutions, but that's why we have Texture Filtering right? ^o^

Texture Filtering or not, I still prefer old classic 'pixel' shit even in higher resolutions when I play those old classic games, but whatever, I don't really care if those texture is too low res.
Yeah, if someone want make a high resolution version of those DNA textures, it's not bad.

[Hendricks266]

Player Lin, on Sep 10 2010, 06:55 AM, said:

Texture Filtering or not, I still prefer old classic 'pixel' shit even in higher resolutions when I play those old classic games, but whatever, I don't really care if those texture is too low res.
Yeah, if someone want make a high resolution version of those DNA textures, it's not bad.

QFT.

[Jimmy]

I approve.

[Jinroh]

Yeah that's true. I like the old style pixelated too. ^^ I was just saying for Nacho's benefit that we have those texture filters now. It would be great to see high res versions of the DNA textures too.

Anyway, Updates.

*Palette: Loaded, and some of the weapon pieces are using the correct palette. See how many weapon pieces you can recognize.


I know the first 16 colours in the palette are correct, I have to verify the rest.

I updated the infrastructure of the code a lot to allow easier editing by the user in the future. When you edit the graphics you'll be editing the ROM directly without having to use any external programs. ^^ You'll also be able to view the entire sprite as it looks put together rather than a bunch of different sprite pieces.

[Lunick]

I see shotgun and thats about it XD

[ReaperMan]

I see a shotgun, RPG and Shrink ray.

[Jinroh]

It'll be easier once they're together in the sprite detail view with the correct palette.

I also think I see the MP5. ^^

SIZABLE UPDATE COMING TOMORROW

[ReaperMan]

Jinroh, on Sep 10 2010, 09:17 PM, said:

SIZABLE UPDATE COMING TOMORROW

I'm waiting...

[Jinroh]

Working on it now. ^^

It's sizable in the regard that it actual provides you with things you can edit. ^^

[ReaperMan]

Jinroh, on Sep 11 2010, 04:52 PM, said:

It's sizable in the regard that it actual provides you with things you can edit. ^^

Sweet, can't wait.

[Jinroh]

Ok.

Update Time:

I've added editors for the Attributes of the Sprites and the Textures. I have the forms created and you can edit the attributes of the sprites and save it back to the ROM, however, I'm still investigating on what all the values do for the Sprites and I'm not sure about any of the Texture ones yet. ^^

I have the texture and sprite image data loaded too, but I'll investigate their graphics formats after these forms and investigating the attributes are done. ^^



The sprite attributes tell how the sprite is displayed. The width, the point at which the center of the drawing is, and how much of the sprite is drawn on the x axis. ^^ All the unknown values I'm not sure they do yet, so I have to investigate. hehe.


I'm kinda burned out after Obsessive Compulsively working on this for the past few days. I'm gonna take a break for a day or two. ^^ But don't worry starting Monday I'll be back on the wagon.

[Hendricks266]

Jinroh, on Sep 11 2010, 06:08 PM, said:

I'm kinda burned out after Obsessive Compulsively working on this for the past few days. I'm gonna take a break for a day or two. ^^ But don't worry starting Monday I'll be back on the wagon.

It's always a good idea to come back to a project with fresh eyes.

[Jinroh]

Hendricks266, on Sep 12 2010, 11:48 AM, said:

It's always a good idea to come back to a project with fresh eyes.

Yeah I worked on it for like 15 hours yesterday and like 5 hours today. I need a little break from it. A lot of that time was research too. >_>

Tomorrow I'm ripping textures with extreme prejudice.

[Jinroh]

Well I did what I said.

I ripped some textures with extreme prejudice and then replaced them.

I improved the texture viewer it can actually view the uncompressed textures. The other ones are proving harder to crack, I'll get them though.

Here's one of the un-compressed textures we're familiar with, the ventilation grate. ^^


Here it is replaced with my JinrohDev Wolf. ^^


It is actually saved back to the ROM so you can view it in-game. I've just not been able to have the time to play and get a screenshot it for you. ^^ I'll do it later tonight or tomorrow. You can import bitmaps from your PC and replace the textures in-game through DNAHacker. That's how I replaced this one. ^^

We're getting closer. ^^

[Lunick]

Good work there.

[Jinroh]

Here it is in game:
JinrohDev - Duke Nukem Advance Texture Hack

I'll also have to put a flip texture, cuz I had to flip mine manually.

[ReaperMan]

Alright a dog vent!