GTA London - Dreamcast port (using GTA2 DC) looking for help

Anything to do with GTA1/GTA2 modding (tools, scripts and more).
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RetroFox
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GTA London - Dreamcast port (using GTA2 DC) looking for help

Post by RetroFox »

Hi there.
As the dreamcast community is back I went ahead and decided to make something for it
So far I have managed to get the GTA london map to load in game and also scripts

I have one problem though

The STY file never seemed to take.

The dreamcast STY file opens up fine in all the mod tools available but contains extra images for the buttons ect.

I stripped out all the london images from the PC STY and imported them into the dreamcast one to try avoid any problems.
But when loading the game it seems to have called textures from another STY instead of the one I gave it. (tested dreamcast STY in PC and in map maker and correct textures appear)

Is there anyone around with a good understanding of STY files who could examine both the dreamcast and the PC for differences? Maybe theres a header code that is removed when the PC tools save?

Im going to try removing a ton of the original DCast files and rename everything and edit the "test1.seq" and try again but im sure theres a problem with the STY

Any help would be great and credit will be given =)
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Re: GTA London - Dreamcast port (using GTA2 DC) looking for

Post by Sektor »

I've read the DC files before but I haven't attempted to use modified GTA2 data on the DC, just modding the PC version takes enough of my time. It's possible it ignores test1.seq and has the filenames hardcoded and yes there could be incompatibilities with PC editors. I'll take a look.
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Re: GTA London - Dreamcast port (using GTA2 DC) looking for

Post by RetroFox »

Theres an extra file with each map and I was worried this was causing the effect "WIL.RAW" ect

Original attempt I simply replaced the original WIL files to "play it safe"

This new attempt Iv gone ahead and removed everything else and changed the Test1 file so theres no chance it can pull up another STY file.
There two effects im waiting for
1) Loads black/no tiles
2) freeze.

If im lucky it will work but im expecting theres somthing different to the file. Everything loads into the PC mod software perfect and saves.

Thanks for the extra help, This could be great for the dreamcast community! We can at least mod using original textures at the current time =)
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Re: GTA London - Dreamcast port (using GTA2 DC) looking for

Post by RetroFox »

Update.

The new attempt failed, I imported everything with original names changed the test1 file to only include the wanted files , removed uneeded stuff - Full freeze on load.

Iv been looking at all the files n folders and inside the WIL folder is a load of extra files names starting with "car" "ped" "del" and one called "bulk" that as it sounds is the bigger of them all.

Im thinking these may be the actual texture files used (compressed for dreamcast use)
wile the STY is just a left over un-used file like many games have
..expecting some kind of dreamcast icon format? As the frontend images are in PVR format , a well known dreamcast image format

These are ".DSG" files ,
excluding "Ped.psg"
they are coupled with other files of very small size
EG.

CAR1.DSG
CAR1.SPX

PED.PSG
PED.DPL
PED.SPX


Not sure if this is any use? Hoping theres some people with more of a tech mind then my self
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Re: GTA London - Dreamcast port (using GTA2 DC) looking for

Post by elypter »

Your theory sounds plausible. gmp files created by the dma editor include a compressed version of the map as well as an uncompressed (junk) version. thats why some gmps are one or two magnitudes bigger in filesize than other. there is a tool for stripping off this junk and TMs editor also can delete it.
About gta2 file and data types TM is probably the person here who has the most knwoledge about. maybe he can help.
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Re: GTA London - Dreamcast port (using GTA2 DC) looking for

Post by RetroFox »

Im new here so I dont really know the crowd =)
Could you direct this TM person to the post? Maybe he will be interested

Iv been messing around with the dreamcast copy alot recently and found out whats capable right now

It seems I cant add any new files to the disc without the boot failing.
Im only able to overwrite whats already there.

Also extra files (excluding main dreamcast binarys)
With each map there is an extra file with a .RAW extension (WIL.RAW)
In a text editor this is not a basic file like a .MIS or the .SEQ Its all hex coding of some kind
its not large enough to contain any textures or anything important so I currently think these may be some sort of basic control &or datacheck file

Inside the Map specific folders is were i find all them suspected texture packs. Im pretty sure of this one since they are named as such
Bulk.dsg im expecting to be the main map tile set
wile Ped+Car is self explanatory

Lets hope these are just a sliced up form of the original or a known compression type as this is currently the key to GTA London DC

Thanks for the packs you been posting up , really helpful
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Re: GTA London - Dreamcast port (using GTA2 DC) looking for

Post by elypter »

RetroFox wrote:Im new here so I dont really know the crowd =)
Could you direct this TM person to the post? Maybe he will be interested
i havn't seen him for a while. you could post in his editor thread or send him a pm. that usually leads to an email notification
RetroFox wrote:It seems I cant add any new files to the disc without the boot failing.
Im only able to overwrite whats already there.
if that also happens with files that are completely unrelated to gta this is probably a dreamcast image problem. about the other structural stuff it would be helpful if you could post the directory tree of the dreamcast gta2.

Code: Select all

tree /A ["directory path"] > tree.txt
on windows commandline or use Directory Opus if you have it
RetroFox wrote:With each map there is an extra file with a .RAW extension (WIL.RAW)
In a text editor this is not a basic file like a .MIS or the .SEQ Its all hex coding of some kind
its not large enough to contain any textures or anything important so I currently think these may be some sort of basic control &or datacheck file
RAW & SDT files are for sfx audio storage on the pc version
RetroFox wrote:Inside the Map specific folders is were i find all them suspected texture packs. Im pretty sure of this one since they are named as such
Bulk.dsg im expecting to be the main map tile set
wile Ped+Car is self explanatory
Lets hope these are just a sliced up form of the original or a known compression type as this is currently the key to GTA London DC
sty tool has the capability for raw & semiautomated bulk import & export. you could ttry to find out the filetype with irfanview and try to convert a non dafault car or something eg from ddvor tyty army. if colors are wrong then it might get a bit more complicated as pallettes are involved.
RetroFox wrote:Thanks for the packs you been posting up , really helpful
glad they're useful.
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Re: GTA London - Dreamcast port (using GTA2 DC) looking for

Post by RetroFox »

Hi guys. I havnt done any work on this for quite some time but the idea keeps popping back into my mind.

What would be Ideal for a first release is a single player script thats in English so im able to port it over quickly (and hopefully gain some more help from it)

I managed to get the "Capital city" map loaded no problem. But if I attempted to get the scripts loaded... it would crash appon trying to recall from the GXT file. Im sure there is somthing about how GXT works that I dnt know of.

Its also one hell of a job attempting 2 translate it =/

Im considering using the capital city map as a base and programming new scripts, if anyone has some good documentation to read on that, and if anyone is interested in joining in, let me know =) .
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