Archived Discussion + PSP Mod History

[AnthonyBF2]

Fans of the mod, just remember that even getting the game itself working on PSP was a huge undertaking, so be thankful that mods can run on it at all. Take this snippet from Wikipedia:

Peter Hirschmann, vice president of product development at LucasArts, detailed the immense efforts required to get the game to a playable state on the PlayStation Portable. "It was a huge 'pop the champagne' day if you got back one whole frame a second," he stated. LucasArts Engineers working on Indiana Jones and Star Wars development teams were brought in to help optimize game code.

Incidentally, I wrote that part of the article, so I can verify it's true. It came from the Rogue Leaders: The Story of LucasArts book.

There's always that feeling of wanting more, but frankly I'm surprised Anthony has been able to do so much with it as-is. I remember getting frustrated at the Xbox's limitations when I was doing that mod, so I can't imagine how much tougher it is for him.

one of the big things is trial and error which requires time and not giving up. I initially started off hex editing the stock PSP game's file just as the people before me did (*Cough* Broadus) - While I could do a ton of clever things with hex editor, a thing in the back of my mind always told me to try the mod tools on it. The first thing I started attacking was the map Lua files (mission.lvl) - I noticed in the stock map scripts there were only 3 varying commands. So all I did was add them to new map Lua files and bam it worked - New/Changed missions. Now look at where we are!

[RogueAssassin2488]

Hidden/Spoiler:

[quote="AnthonyBF2"]This is good to know but I am not sure what I could have changed that switched one or the other. The only sounds I've messed with are related to the core.req. (The beep and click sounds)

Edit, You know I got an idea now thanks to that information. I think the command post odf files have parameters related so sound. In the default PSP game, there's no voice overs and the music works. On the new maps I've added (or the existing maps I changed) I used the command posts odf files from the mod tools, which has the voice over functions, and guess what? The voice overs work, you hear stuff like "We captured a command post" and etc. So I am thinking I need to figure out the right odf settings for the command post files... then redo them for all the maps so the music can/may work again. Not having voice overs is also why I suspect the PSP game has the text messages added like "The Empire captured the Cantina" and etc.

Edit, Bingo! It's in the map Lua files. In the PSP mod, every single map Lua has been replaced by a custom script or a script from the mod tools assets. They have several sound functions related to sounds such as voice overs, music, and ambient streams. I did some research in the PSP game's default mission.lvl and the map scripts only have Lua functions for the music. So I know what to do do now to get the music back, but just like it is by default, there will be no command post VO or nature streams, which is fine. I agree with the others that the music matters most in a Star Wars game. There will still be sounds related to weapons, vehicles, and characters of course, they come from somewhere else.

That's great! "No music" was the only disappointing thing
I absolutely agree with "music is more important in a STAR WARS game"!
Thank you so much for continuing this project [/quote]

I also agree with music the vo was cool but not as good as music plus the VO got annoying alot like hostal reinforcement is being depleted and right after its over another we've captured a command post

[suLac]

Hidden/Spoiler:

[quote="AnthonyBF2"]This is good to know but I am not sure what I could have changed that switched one or the other. The only sounds I've messed with are related to the core.req. (The beep and click sounds)

Edit, You know I got an idea now thanks to that information. I think the command post odf files have parameters related so sound. In the default PSP game, there's no voice overs and the music works. On the new maps I've added (or the existing maps I changed) I used the command posts odf files from the mod tools, which has the voice over functions, and guess what? The voice overs work, you hear stuff like "We captured a command post" and etc. So I am thinking I need to figure out the right odf settings for the command post files... then redo them for all the maps so the music can/may work again. Not having voice overs is also why I suspect the PSP game has the text messages added like "The Empire captured the Cantina" and etc.

Edit, Bingo! It's in the map Lua files. In the PSP mod, every single map Lua has been replaced by a custom script or a script from the mod tools assets. They have several sound functions related to sounds such as voice overs, music, and ambient streams. I did some research in the PSP game's default mission.lvl and the map scripts only have Lua functions for the music. So I know what to do do now to get the music back, but just like it is by default, there will be no command post VO or nature streams, which is fine. I agree with the others that the music matters most in a Star Wars game. There will still be sounds related to weapons, vehicles, and characters of course, they come from somewhere else.

That's great! "No music" was the only disappointing thing
I absolutely agree with "music is more important in a STAR WARS game"!
Thank you so much for continuing this project

I also agree with music the vo was cool but not as good as music plus the VO got annoying alot like hostal reinforcement is being depleted and right after its over another we've captured a command post[/quote]
Jep, sometimes the VO repeats his phrase several times
That's sometimes funny ... other times it. is. not.

[Lordawesome23]

I just got a weird message. I went to the main screen of SWBF (modified) and I hear the Emperor. He says this. "Lord Vader has issued an order to kill Tusken Raiders on Tatooine Dune Sea." He said something like that, just out of know where says that at the home screen. I go into Tatooine Dune Sea and I am greeted with a crash. I restarted the game. No random Emperor voice. What happened?

[AnthonyBF2]

I just got a weird message. I went to the main screen of SWBF (modified) and I hear the Emperor. He says this. "Lord Vader has issued an order to kill Tusken Raiders on Tatooine Dune Sea." He said something like that, just out of know where says that at the home screen. I go into Tatooine Dune Sea and I am greeted with a crash. I restarted the game. No random Emperor voice. What happened?

Dune Sea may be broken for version 5 of the mods because of the Sarlaac which I couldn't get to work properly.

About the Emperor voice over bug: I got it one time too when coming from a map to the save screen. It's a one in a thousand kind of thing, that happens when the game just scans a certain part of the memory card at the wrong time and triggers some sound data.

[RogueAssassin2488]

You've told me you've gotton some charachters qui gon and IG 88

Is it possible that the republic commandos form the BFX would make a character?

[Lordawesome23]

I read somewhere that the developers of the PSP SWBFII had many framerate issues and only included the maps that lagged the least. The game was released in 2005. The same year Sony gave the power to developers the access to change the overclock speed to the individual game. If that was possible and the modified maps seem to play fine at 333/166, why didn't the developers add the rest? I get they were rushed but they literally have all unused stuff hidden in the game files so...




????

[commanderawesome]

You've told me you've gotton some charachters qui gon and IG 88

Is it possible that the republic commandos form the BFX would make a character?

They might be too high-poly.

[Lordawesome23]

You've told me you've gotton some charachters qui gon and IG 88

Is it possible that the republic commandos form the BFX would make a character?

They might be too high-poly



I think it would be possible but would take lots of time and effort to do

[AnthonyBF2]

You've told me you've gotton some charachters qui gon and IG 88

Is it possible that the republic commandos form the BFX would make a character?

I keep telling you custom made models tend to be too much for the PSP engine. I can't even get stock characters (remunged) to work.

[Lordawesome23]

Anthony, when you are done with this mod, will you be making more PSP SWBF mods?

[AnthonyBF2]

Anthony, when you are done with this mod, will you be making more PSP SWBF mods?

Um, SWBF... as in SWBF1? There is no SWBF1 for PSP. If you're referring to ES or RS, no I won't. Those games run a different game engine that I know nothing about nor care to learn. ES was terrible for me and all I like from RS was the space combat.

[giftheck]

You can't mod them anyways, so the point is moot.

[RogueAssassin2488]

yeah i suppose your right

but only if swbf1 was for PSP that would be sick but lucky all swbf1 maps are in the PSP Mod

[giftheck]

I'd love to see them release it on PS Vita, actually. Now it has a touchscreen and a second stick, it could work very well on that system.

[AnthonyBF2]

The default SWBF2 Geonosis is finally playable and almost done.
The following changes may or may not have helped:

Conquest:
-Only one vehicle, AT-TE for clones
-No Droideka for CIS
CTF:
No vehicles period
No Droideka for CIS
All Modes:
-No sky domes (fake moving vehicles)
Campaign:
-Only vehicles, AT-TE for clones, and roller tank and walker tank for CIS (required by objectives)
-Campaign currently isn't finishable. The next objective isn't starting after capturing the hill command post.

Added Hero Asssault mode which works well. Overall the map is mostly done, the sky dome is really buggy and the terrain won't always appear correct.
Edit: Sky and terrain fixed. Going to give the CIS the Geonosian to replace the Droideka slot on CTF and Conquest.

Note: I think the Droideka is what easily overloads the CW era of the game because it has lots of animation and model data.

[RogueAssassin2488]

Im glad to hear Geonsis working its by far my favorite battlefront map of all time

[AnthonyBF2]

After more work SWBF2 Geonosis can be considered done but I am not personally done. I want to get some vehicles back and maybe the fake ships in the sky. Just maybe we can load up the LAAT without it breaking the game.

[RogueAssassin2488]

What about the other campaign maps?

[AnthonyBF2]

What about the other campaign maps?

I am optimizing them one at a time in chronological order. Geonosis is first but I started with Mygeeto first because at that time Geonosis wasn't working. Mygeeto is good to go and I'm still doing Geonosis campaign.