[NDS] NITRO: FILES EXPLORATION AND MODDING
Jun 2, 2019 22:16:28 GMT
Trypticon8, ktoplay, and 1 more like this
Post by pseudopourri42 on Jun 2, 2019 22:16:28 GMT
[EDITING IN PROGRESS (that will probably go on for a long time, if I ever finish it, so be patient)]
[MODDING WILL COME LATER]
INTRODUCTION
So we are going to take a look at the EU version of the game on the nds, when we extract the files of .nds we can see that at the root there is a bunch of uninteresting .bin files, in the data folder is present the "vfs.zip" file (and also a sound archive) that will mainly be what we will explore, this .zip has sub-folders, each section will cover a different sub-folder.
1.BITMAPS
This is a folder where there is a lot of the game UI screen stored in.
TL;DR: It seems like the developers were initially going with a more "dirty" UI, resembling the WII version, also the theme/color of some cars changed during developpement, and it also seems like a demo was supposed to be released, and finally an online functionality was cut.
I hope you appreciate this image as it was a HUGE pain in the butt to make, if you are having problems click here
2.GRAPHICS
This folder contain a lot of sub-folder, so this section will divided in sub-sections.
There is also one file in this folder, called testRGB.nsbmd, it is just a house colored in Red, Green, Blue, probably to test the custom color feature (Green is the main body color, Blue the secondary, and Red the rims color) that we will see in the Cars folder.
2.1)2dMaps
Inside this folder is only one folder, named "common", inside this one, is 4 folders, BE (BackEnd), FE (FrontEnd), hud (Head Up Display), Splash (start-up splash screens).
TL;DR: There seems to be 4 UI test files that developers probably did during a tutorial on how to make UI files (just a theory), other than that there was a Firebrand games logo, and an ESRB logo (that confirm an online mode was cut) that are both unseen in the final game.
if you see some "(IMG)" instead of actual images click here
Also the image that are "stored in strips" (firebrand games logo for example) are made of variable sized strips, so I can't automatize the process to edit them, and I don't want to waste my time manually editing theses images, if I ever find a way I'll edit.
2.2)2dSprites
This folder isn't really interesting, it just contain a lot of small UI element seen in the final game, also I am having a hard time getting an image out of the majority of files.
This folder has 2 sub-folder, common and fr, common has also 2 two sub-folder BE and FE, fr has only FE as sub-folder, all of the bottom level folder (BE, FE, FE) have a sub-folder called Cell this is where the UI files are.
TL;DR: The only curious files that I have found (and I can't get images/interesting stuff out of them, unfortunately) are in common->FE->Cell there are files called Lock, LR, and Test, just the names are interesting, nothing more.
2.3)Cars
Basically this folder contain a sub-folder for each car in the game (cops included) but there is some really weird/interesting stuff.
Before we start here is technical tl;dr about cars:
-cars each have their own folder
-racer cars have a flame 3d file+ animation file (when you use nitro), a shadow file, the car body in 4 LoD (Level of Detail) from 0(best) to 4(worse), same thing for the wheel file
-cops cars have 3 LoD for the car body from 1 to 3 and an animation file for each LoD (because cops have flashing lights), 3 LoD too for the wheel file (but no animation), a shadow file, no flame file (they can't use nitro), but there is also another car body file called lodone.nsbmd with an animation file, this 3d model of the car's body is sometimes more detail than the LoD 1 file (lod1.nsbmd) sometimes less detailed, it depends on the car, I have no idea if these lodone file are actually used in-game, but the naming scheme is weird.
First off we have a folder called AceFX, inside it is a shadow file and 5 folders, whose names are just 0 to 4, inside each one of these folder is a front wheel and back wheel file (usually cars in this game have a unique file for wheels), and 4 LoD files that represent a lego car, specifically this one the only difference between the folders is the color of the car, 0 is red, 1 is blue, 2 is yellow, 3 is green and 4 is orange. Also something unusual is that the car model itself contain wheels and that the model file's wheels are actually more detailed than the wheels in the wheel files (that I didn't bother taking pictures of, as it is just a black and a white cylinder), Firebrand game didn't seems to have made a lego racing game (and there are no lego racing game on the nds that I know of), maybe a lego racing game was cancelled for the ds, and they used these files to test stuff ? It is just a theory but it explains it.
The next folder is called addons, there is only one file called lod0.nsbmd in it, that is just a weird RGB square, I don't actually know if we can add cars to the game as add-on but from I know of the game it seems unlikely, it is maybe add-on as in car customization, it makes more senses but still undercover for nds was made by Firebrand games too the year before, it uses the same "vfs" system but doesn't store customization that way, so I don't know.
Here is an image with from left to right and top to bottom: the lego "AceFX" car, the addons folder's lod0.nsbmd, lod0, 1, 2 and 3 of the F1-150, lod0, 1, 2 and 3 of the F-150's wheel, the F-150's shadow.nsbmd, the dodge challenger and its wheel model, the F-150 flames, the tesla flames, and there is also a bunch of information about the images throughout.
[MODDING WILL COME LATER]
EXPLORING FILES
INTRODUCTION
So we are going to take a look at the EU version of the game on the nds, when we extract the files of .nds we can see that at the root there is a bunch of uninteresting .bin files, in the data folder is present the "vfs.zip" file (and also a sound archive) that will mainly be what we will explore, this .zip has sub-folders, each section will cover a different sub-folder.
1.BITMAPS
This is a folder where there is a lot of the game UI screen stored in.
TL;DR: It seems like the developers were initially going with a more "dirty" UI, resembling the WII version, also the theme/color of some cars changed during developpement, and it also seems like a demo was supposed to be released, and finally an online functionality was cut.
- CarSelectBG0.bmp to CarSelectBG6.bmp: are the bottom screen UI of the car selection menu, the first (BG0) image feature only 4 cars leaving to believe this was for the demo (apparently never released as I didn't find anything online) or from beta also notice that the bottom part of the image is a concrete texture (different from the final game), and some cars have a different theme/color than in the final game.
- ColourPicker.bmp: pretty self explanatory: bottom screen color picker UI except the bottom part is different in the final game.
- CreditsBG.bmp: apparently a credits background, same as before it does not appear in the final game.
- DemoHelpBtm.bmp: Here I thought the "Btm" stupidly meant bitmap but it actually mean bottom, anyway, this is probably from the tutorial you do when you first start the game but from the demo, it does not appear in the final game.
- DemoHelpTop.bmp: Same as before only this time for the top screen, still doesn't appear in the final game.
- EventSelectTop.bmp: pretty self-explanatory, does not appear in the final game (I thought it did at first but notice there is no "bar" at the top like in the final)
- FEMenuBG.bmp and FEMenuBG2.bmp: Front End Menu BackGround 1 and 2 pretty self explanatory again, does not appear in the final game.
- HelpScreen.bmp: top screen from the help-screen ? There is no "help-menu", weird, still I think it probably does appear in the final game.
- HelpScreen0.bmp and HelpScreen1.bmp: seems to be duplicate of DemoHelpBtm.bmp and DemoHelptop.bmp respectively and like them don't appear in the final game.
- HelpScreen2.bmp to HelpScreen6.bmp: I don't think they appear in the game, not sure though, the trophy (HelpScreen5.bmp) does but it is not the same file, HelpScreen2.bmp and HelpScreen4.bmp I really don't remember seeing, HelpScreen3.bmp and HelpScreen6.bmp seems to also be duplicate of HelpScreen.bmp
- KeyboardBG.bmp: this keyboard is not the one from the final game.
- LoadingScreenBG.bmp: not the loading screen from the final game too.
- MainMenuTop.bmp: not seen in the final game.
- N2O_BLACK.bmp: honestly I don't really know if it is used, but I think it is when you launch the game, I didn't even think they would an image for that, also notice the name "N2O" is for nitro of course, and that all of the files starting with "N2O" seems to be used in the final game.
- N2O_Bottom.bmp: bottom screen of the main menu, and maybe other menu too, appear in the final game.
- N20_CarSelect.bmp: they appear to have redone the demo car selection UI with the final style, however it doesn't appear in the final game, and as I said I can't find anything about a nds demo.
- N2O_CarSelect1.bmp to N2O_CarSelect6.bmp: car selection UI seen in the final game, also like the previous image notice the cars theme/color change from the beta one (CarSelectBG0.bmp to CarSelectBG6.bmp)
- N2O_ColorPicker.bmp, N2O_EventSelect.bmp, N2O_NameEdit.bmp,N2O_PlainGray.bmp, N2O_ScoreTable.bmp, N2O_Top.bmp: They are all pretty self-explanatory and all appear in the final game, I don't remember seeing N2O_PlainGray.bmp but that might be because it is so bland.
- N2O_TopArt1.bmp to N2O_TopArt11.bmp: when you select an event depending on the type one of these images will appear on the top screen, all are present in the final game.
- N2O_TrophyCase1.bmp and N2O_TrophyCase2.bmp: bottom screen UI for the trophy menu, I didn't remember them being like that but whatever my memory is kind of fading, present in the final game.
- NetworkBGBtm.bmp and NetworkBGTop.bmp: bottom and top screen of what appears to be a cut online mode, it would have been interesting playing online, in the release you only have local multiplayer with one or multiple nds cartridges, theses images don't appear in the final game.
- noTag.bmp: pretty self explanatory, since theses images are bmp (no transparency) pink seems to be used for transparency in this game, image present in the final game.
- pl0tag.bmp to pl33Tag.bmp: player tag 0 to 33, the game use the green color for "custom color" (like when you paint your car) you will also see that on car models, images present in the final game.
- RaceNowBG.bmp: A beta background for the quick race mode probably, doesn't appear in the final game.
- RewardScreen0.bmp to RewardScreen9.bmp: I don't remenber RewardScreen5.bmp and RewardScreen9.bmp, theses images appear when something special happens like beating your points record for example (RewardScreen0.bmp), RewardScreen1.bmp is also the same as HelpScreen5.bmp it seems, anyway they all appear in the final game I think.
- ScoreTableBG.bmp: it seems to be the same image as N2O_ScoreTable.bmp but from beta, it doesn't appear in the final game I think.
- TagSelectBG.bmp and TagSelectBG1.bmp: both of them don't appear in the game.
- TopArt_Circuit.bmp, TopArt_HDS.bmp, TopArt_Paint.bmp, TopArt_Smash.bmp, TopArt_Sprint.bmp: Like I said in the final game depending on the type of event you select different a different car will be display (ford mustang for elimination for example) this seems to be the beta version of that, that would also explain why the images are dark, also TopArt_Circuit.bmp and NetworkBGTop.bmp seems to be duplicate, they doesn't appear in the final game.
- TrophyCaseBG1.bmp to TrophyCaseBG3.bmp: the beta version of N2O_TrophyCase1.bmp and N2O_TrophyCase2.bmp it seems, they aren't visible in the final game.
- TrophyRoomTop.bmp: It is probably the image that was supposed to be displayed on the top screen alongside the previous ones in the trophy menu, can't be seen in the final game.
I hope you appreciate this image as it was a HUGE pain in the butt to make, if you are having problems click here
2.GRAPHICS
This folder contain a lot of sub-folder, so this section will divided in sub-sections.
There is also one file in this folder, called testRGB.nsbmd, it is just a house colored in Red, Green, Blue, probably to test the custom color feature (Green is the main body color, Blue the secondary, and Red the rims color) that we will see in the Cars folder.
2.1)2dMaps
Inside this folder is only one folder, named "common", inside this one, is 4 folders, BE (BackEnd), FE (FrontEnd), hud (Head Up Display), Splash (start-up splash screens).
TL;DR: There seems to be 4 UI test files that developers probably did during a tutorial on how to make UI files (just a theory), other than that there was a Firebrand games logo, and an ESRB logo (that confirm an online mode was cut) that are both unseen in the final game.
if you see some "(IMG)" instead of actual images click here
- Inside the BE folder there seems to be the real view mirror UI (RearView), a back-end main file ?? (BEMain0), both of them aren't interesting visually, there is however 4 "TUT" file, the first: TUT_1, is mostly a black bar, however the 3 others are gradients. From left to right, TUT_2, TUT_3, TUT_4:
- Inside the FE folder there is only 4 files, mostly menu UI, from left to right, DecalDesignerBottom, N2O_CreditsBtm, N2O_CreditsTop, NFS_editor_menu_TOP_01:
- Inside the hud folder is another folder: Maps, which contain another folder: Screen. This folder seems to contain the maps of all the circuits as well the UI for displaying the race's results as well, here are from left to right, ResultsBG, rio, tut:
- Inside the Splash folder is the Screen folder, and inside it is all the splash screens (EA logo, legal text, etc...) that are displayed upon startup, for each screen containing text there different version for each language, only the text change though, also there are 3 unseen ESRB files saying (in different language) "Online Interactions Not Rated by the ESRB" which confirm that an online mode was cut, there is also a firebrand games (the studio that made the DS version) logo not seen in the game, here are from left to right, ACTImagine, EALogo, ESRB, Firebrand, TitleScreenBottom_FR, TitleScreenTop.NCGR:
Also the image that are "stored in strips" (firebrand games logo for example) are made of variable sized strips, so I can't automatize the process to edit them, and I don't want to waste my time manually editing theses images, if I ever find a way I'll edit.
2.2)2dSprites
This folder isn't really interesting, it just contain a lot of small UI element seen in the final game, also I am having a hard time getting an image out of the majority of files.
This folder has 2 sub-folder, common and fr, common has also 2 two sub-folder BE and FE, fr has only FE as sub-folder, all of the bottom level folder (BE, FE, FE) have a sub-folder called Cell this is where the UI files are.
TL;DR: The only curious files that I have found (and I can't get images/interesting stuff out of them, unfortunately) are in common->FE->Cell there are files called Lock, LR, and Test, just the names are interesting, nothing more.
2.3)Cars
Basically this folder contain a sub-folder for each car in the game (cops included) but there is some really weird/interesting stuff.
Before we start here is technical tl;dr about cars:
-cars each have their own folder
-racer cars have a flame 3d file+ animation file (when you use nitro), a shadow file, the car body in 4 LoD (Level of Detail) from 0(best) to 4(worse), same thing for the wheel file
-cops cars have 3 LoD for the car body from 1 to 3 and an animation file for each LoD (because cops have flashing lights), 3 LoD too for the wheel file (but no animation), a shadow file, no flame file (they can't use nitro), but there is also another car body file called lodone.nsbmd with an animation file, this 3d model of the car's body is sometimes more detail than the LoD 1 file (lod1.nsbmd) sometimes less detailed, it depends on the car, I have no idea if these lodone file are actually used in-game, but the naming scheme is weird.
First off we have a folder called AceFX, inside it is a shadow file and 5 folders, whose names are just 0 to 4, inside each one of these folder is a front wheel and back wheel file (usually cars in this game have a unique file for wheels), and 4 LoD files that represent a lego car, specifically this one the only difference between the folders is the color of the car, 0 is red, 1 is blue, 2 is yellow, 3 is green and 4 is orange. Also something unusual is that the car model itself contain wheels and that the model file's wheels are actually more detailed than the wheels in the wheel files (that I didn't bother taking pictures of, as it is just a black and a white cylinder), Firebrand game didn't seems to have made a lego racing game (and there are no lego racing game on the nds that I know of), maybe a lego racing game was cancelled for the ds, and they used these files to test stuff ? It is just a theory but it explains it.
The next folder is called addons, there is only one file called lod0.nsbmd in it, that is just a weird RGB square, I don't actually know if we can add cars to the game as add-on but from I know of the game it seems unlikely, it is maybe add-on as in car customization, it makes more senses but still undercover for nds was made by Firebrand games too the year before, it uses the same "vfs" system but doesn't store customization that way, so I don't know.
Here is an image with from left to right and top to bottom: the lego "AceFX" car, the addons folder's lod0.nsbmd, lod0, 1, 2 and 3 of the F1-150, lod0, 1, 2 and 3 of the F-150's wheel, the F-150's shadow.nsbmd, the dodge challenger and its wheel model, the F-150 flames, the tesla flames, and there is also a bunch of information about the images throughout.
