I actually have two issues here, but the first is, well, not solved, but worked around.
Issue #1: Background 0x35 (Black) doesn’t work properly.
If you look at it in GBAGE, it’s just 1 8x8 black tile. People who know more about this than I say the TSA that tiles it isn’t working; presumably, IntSys saw no reason to fix it since it’s never used. I tried to copy the TSA from FE7, but that actually has a 240x160 black background, so no dice.
My workaround: I took an image I’m reasonably sure I’ll never use in this hack, 0x16 (Castle_Outside_Past, plays during certain flashbacks), and zeroed out the palette block. Unless someone has an idea how to actually fix the TSA, I’m just going to leave it like this. I can just copy the block from a vanilla ROM if I need to.
Issue #2: CG transitioning is weird.
FE8 doesn’t have a nice FADICG, as far as I could tell. The command to transition between backgrounds, as used in Ch 14 Eirika route, is:
SETVAL 0x2 0x2A //id of first bg
CALL label30 //loads the bg, basically
...(Show a conversation depending on whether Joshua is alive or not)
_0x2141 0x2B 0x1 0x4 //does the transitioning. Parameters are backgroundID, unknown, speed of transition
_0x1A21 //no idea what this is, but is necessary
So I tried it out in my own events. Using the same backgrounds as in vanilla works fine. However, when I try to transition to a cg of my own, I get this as the end result:
Here’s what it’s supposed to look like:
Here’s the event file, if it helps:
[spoiler]
//Made by Camtech075 of SerenesForest
//Modified by Nintenlord
#include EAstdlib.event
EventPointerTable(0x07,ThisChapter)
ORG 0xB2BE10
ThisChapter:
POIN TurnBasedEvents
POIN CharacterBasedEvents
POIN LocationBasedEvents
POIN MiscBasedEvents
POIN Dunno Dunno Dunno
POIN Tutorial
POIN TrapData TrapData
POIN Units Units
POIN $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0
POIN BeginningScene EndingScene
TurnBasedEvents:
TURN 0x00 BeginningScene [00,01] 0x00
END_MAIN
CharacterBasedEvents:
END_MAIN
LocationBasedEvents:
END_MAIN
MiscBasedEvents:
CauseGameOverIfLordDies
END_MAIN
Dunno:
//DO NOT TOUCH
WORD $00
Tutorial:
//DO NOT TOUCH
WORD $00
TrapData:
ENDTRAP
ALIGN 4
Units:
UNIT
//SET BACKGROUND
label21:
EVBIT_CHECK 0x8
IFEQUAL 0x80D2 0xC 0x0
FADI 16
ENIF 0x80D2
_0x1A21
_0x2140 0xFFFF 0x0 0x0
ENDA
BeginningScene:
SETVAL 0x2 0x37 //starting background
CALL label21
FADU 16
STAL 60
//NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR
//_0X1A23
//SETVAL 0xB 0xFFFFFFFF
//TEXTSHOW 0xD4C
//TEXTEND
//REMA
//DEATH'S SOLILOQUOY
//SOLOTEXTBOXSTART
//SETVAL 0xB 0x68FFFF //center bottom
//TEXTSHOW 0xD4D
//TEXTEND
//REMA
//LOAD DEATH CG
SETVAL 0x2 0x36
//CALL label21
EVBIT_CHECK 0x8
IFEQUAL 0x80D2 0xC 0x0
//FADI 16
ENIF 0x80D2
//_0x1A21
//_0x2140 0xFFFF 0x0 0x0
_0x1A21
_0x2141 0xFFFF 0x1 0x3
STAL 120
//SOLOTEXTBOXSTART
//SETVAL 0xB 0x68FFFF //center bottom
//TEXTSHOW 0xD4E
//TEXTEND
//REMA
FADI 10
EVBIT_T 0x7
MNC2 0x1
ENDA
EndingScene:
ENDA
MESSAGE Events end at offset currentOffset
[/spoiler]
On a completely unrelated note, I had an idea regarding the first issue. I made a 240x160 black background and uploaded it as a CG using the method detailed here (this is also how I got the skull background that’s glitchy): [FE8] Using CGs
So there’s normally 0x35 backgrounds in vanilla. Skull is 0x36, black background is 0x37. As you can see in my events file, I loaded 0x37 as the first one, so you’d expect to see a pitch black background, right?
Wrong.
I know it’s one of the vanilla backgrounds, but I’m not sure which one. What it most definitely isn’t is a black background. I’ve double-checked the pointers, and I dunno what to do at this point.
I’d upload a video of the transition because there’s some garbage data that appears during the transition and vanishes afterward, but I don’t know how. EIther way, anyone got any ideas?
EDIT: Took a look in GBAGE to make sure I’m not going crazy about the black background:
