Metroid Prime hacking wiki + thread on Metroid2002

[Aruki]

Just thought I would post this on the offchance there's anyone here who cares and hasn't already heard about it. Last year I made a thread on Metroid2002 to discuss hacking the Metroid Prime series. Over the course of the last year we've reverse engineered nearly every format in Metroid Prime, and a bunch of the ones in its sequels. I'm in the middle of developing an editor, Prime World Editor, and Antidote's been working on his new viewer, RetroView. Among loads of other things, we can:

- Render models with full material support to a very high degree of accuracy, including texture animations
- Load levels with all terrain geometry, skybox, collision, objects, lights, and navmeshes
- Play back animations and particles
- Extract sound effects and convert them to WAV
- Export models and textures to 3D editors

Modding-wise:

- I've written a pak tool (called PakTool) which handles extraction/decompression/repacking/recompression for every Retro Studios game, including all known demos and prototypes as well as Tropical Freeze (to an extent)
- I've written a full STRG editor that allows you to view and edit any STRG file from Prime 1 or 2
- We've been able to create custom AGSC files
- We understand most of the formats well enough that we can fairly easily make small tweaks to most any format
- Miles has written item randomizers for both Prime 1 as well as Echoes, which were released last year
- I've imported Samus's suits from Metroid Prime 2 into Prime 1

All this is just the start... the best parts are still coming. All this has been happening in this Metroid2002 thread. We also set up the Retro Modding Wiki a couple months ago to document all our findings on the various formats.

We tend not to post here because this board is pretty much dead, and I don't intend to start posting here regularly either, but I thought I would make a post in case there's anyone interested here who isn't already aware of all the progress that's been made over the last year.

(and no, the game is not based on Unreal Engine 2.)

[Antidote]

RetroView is available on Github @ https://github.com/Antidote/NewMetPrimeTools

[P.JBoy]

Oh man, wow... I never knew that existed, that's some fine work you have there :O

[begrimed]

We tend not to post here because this board is pretty much dead

You realize this board is probably dead because you *don't* post here, right? If you guys are making progress, and you certainly are, then anywhere you post, people will follow and gather. Nobody's gonna hang around a hack place with no hack content to show.

[Antidote]

lol, sorry, I'll start posting here more.

[Aruki]

We tend not to post here because this board is pretty much dead

You realize this board is probably dead because you *don't* post here, right? If you guys are making progress, and you certainly are, then anywhere you post, people will follow and gather. Nobody's gonna hang around a hack place with no hack content to show.

That is true, but on the flip side, why would I want to post about my work in a place where nobody's interested in it, or around to read about it? A post I made well over a year ago linking to a list of nearly every model in the game got absolutely no response, and in fact was still the most recent post in this board until I made this thread. You don't set up shop in a ghost town and expect to get customers.

At the end of the day, though, the reason I posted on m2k2 instead of here is just because I wanted to post somewhere to post what I was working on, m2k2 still has an active Metroid Prime community, I have a lot of history there, and I thought they might be interested (they were). The little hacking community that's started forming and all the discussion/progress we've had grew from my initial "hey check out what I'm working on" thread. My intention posting this thread was mostly just to let people know about it. I don't mind posting updates every now and then here as well if it turns out people are actually interested, but I think m2k2 is probably going to continue to be the main source of discussion.

[GF_Kennon]

True that this board might not be active that much, but when Prime hacking was going on here, most of it was being discussed in the IRC channel if I remember correctly.

The IRC channel saps a heck of a lot of attention away from the forums because its just that much easier to talk to everyone on MetConst, I mean we got 50 people in the channel right now of various activity levels, and probably set to keep growing soon.

You are more than welcome to join us though!

[Aruki]

I definitely get that, but forum discussion makes it a lot easier for outsiders to watch and join in, which has proven to be immensely helpful. We've even had a developer from Retro Studios post in the thread to comment on what we were doing, and that would've never happened if all our conversation was on IRC. Might pop by later, though!

[GF_Kennon]

Yeah I can understand how it might look from an outsider, its a problem with a community thats got built up from IRC outwards, rather than reaching out to create one, the forum has always been a sort of extension to it I suppose, I could nudge people to post more but we are all lazy inside a little, especially me  :>_>:

[DSO]

I'm excited for anything Prime related going on, I'm hoping to grow the forums and scene in general, and that definitely includes the Primes and gbatroids. I intended some years ago to take a more active interest in Prime modding, but I didn't see much that I could do and now I've gone and filled my time with so many Super Metroid projects... but I'll make a concentrated effort to at least comment on any activity. If we should ever see a level editor that a pleb like me could use, I'll definitely be checking that out.

[Aruki]

I'm working on it. Today I just finished adding support for dynamic lights, so here's a screenshot of how things look so far.



I also made this video a couple months ago to show off the texture animation playback. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StRIHHbCZE4

There's no actual editing functionality yet but that should be coming soon. I'm working to get it to a point where I can do an initial release. I guess I'll make a thread for it here once I get to that point.

[GF_Kennon]

I'm excited for anything Prime related going on, I'm hoping to grow the forums and scene in general, and that definitely includes the Primes and gbatroids. I intended some years ago to take a more active interest in Prime modding, but I didn't see much that I could do and now I've gone and filled my time with so many Super Metroid projects... but I'll make a concentrated effort to at least comment on any activity. If we should ever see a level editor that a pleb like me could use, I'll definitely be checking that out.

I think both of us are hoping to grow the forum more, I think a lot of people were also waiting and lurking around for any kind of editor to pop up, I know I was waiting for something to pop up so I could play around with the models (back when I did doom modding)

[FPzero]

I'd imagine this board would/could get more active now that you and others are really making progress on hacking tools and editors.  I've been silently watching all your work on m2k2 in awe since I have no experience with coding and reverse-engineering stuff.  If I did I would be contributing for sure.  Prime's my favorite game of all time and you bet that had I the ability I would be helping discover its secrets with the rest of you.  One day we'll be able to modify this game heavily and it will be great.

[Antidote]

And then there is me who never posts, XD

[SlyPork]

Oh damn, Metroid Prime Hacking?! I've been wanting to play the series for years but now that hacking is becoming a thing I'll definitely have to get to playing it  :^_^:

[Black Falcon]

Parax: Welcome to Metconst!
Glad to see you posting here now too, I've actually been following your thread on m2k2 for quite some time now.
After I first discovered it, I've literally been browsing and reading every single page like a book for any new content/discoveries made, and damn you guys really are doing a great job!

About replying in this Prime board: Well I don't really have any knowledge when it comes to the inner workings of the Prime games (or any other games besides Super Metroid), so having a list of all Prime models is great and all, though TBH I wouldn't bother making a reply just stating that I couldn't make use of it. I'm sure some people feel the same way.
I think the board was quiet for some time because of that, so hardly anyone here actually knew how far you guys have gotten with Prime hacking. And since necrobumping an old thread is a no-go without actual content, dust started to pile up.
If you'd post more screenshots/videos like you did on m2k2, I'm almost 100% certain people would gain interest and start replying more.

Just my two cents.
Anyway that being said, I'm happy that you're willing to keep us up to date, can't wait to someday play a Prime hack!
Keep up the good work!  :^_^:

[Quietus]

can't wait to someday play a Prime hack!

Just maybe not the first batch, because they'll likely be hard type hacks, with tougher enemies and mandatory tricks left, right, and centre. :grin:

[Zero One]

I'd go /nuts/ if I could start hacking Metroid Prime. I remember wanting to help out after seeing some of the stuff that Antidote has done, but with a minimal knowledge of C++ and Uni eating up a ton of my time, I never got around to it, much to my annoyance. I'd be quite interested in seeing how Metroid Prime works, because I want to recreate the engine in Unreal Engine 4. I'd love to see more stuff here!

[Cpt.Glitch]

MY life would be complete if metroid prime hacking becomes a thing.

[Lunaria]

The reason this board was dead was mostly due to the metroid prime hacking scene was non-existent before you guys started up. I find it kind of backwards to think that this place is not active and then not post here. Considering you guys are the current central backbone of metroid prime hacking, that kind of means that people will group to where you bring the discussion, not the other way around. Metconst is supposed to encompass hacking any and all games in the metroid series, so of course we'd love to have prime hacking here too. However, if you're expecting instant gratification then you have chosen your field of interest poorly. (Referring to you being critical to the rather lukewarm interest previous threads have gotten.) A hacking community around a game is not something that springs up over the night, it takes years before it properly gets going. And often a game requires some sort of case hack in order to bring in some real interest to the scene. (Much like Redesign was for Super metroid, or Return to dinosaur land was for SMW. (Might have been an earlier SMW hack, my memory is failing me.))

If you guys prefer the m2k2 community then that's perfectly fine. (A few of our users here regular there too.) But this is a hacking focused place, and you're always welcome to stick around and post your findings/progress! :P

Good luck~

[DSO]

Are atmospheric effects global or tied to specific areas? For instance, could I make it rain in Phendrana or snow in Magmoor if I wanted? (As lulzy as that would be... unless the snow was colored black and was more like soot)

[Aruki]

Retro's actually really good about not hardcoding stuff like that... pretty much nothing pertaining to specific worlds is hardcoded. So yeah, you could make it snow in Magmoor if you wanted to.

[passarbye]

Retro's actually really good about not hardcoding stuff like that... pretty much nothing pertaining to specific worlds is hardcoded. So yeah, you could make it snow in Magmoor if you wanted to.

That's amazing. I'm going to be checking out the randomizers for 1&2, as this is the first i've heard of any head-way in prime hacking.
really interested to see what kind of mods/changes you guys are making, and an editor would be a great first step to a bigger and better prime hacking community.

[Quietus]

A lot of the stuff they've been discovering and figuring out is well-over-my-head techy, but it's still been cool to see their progress.  It's almost like you can see the game being dismantled one step at a time. :^_^:

[Scooterboot9697]

Although Super Metroid is my favorite, Metroid Prime was the first Metroid game I ever played. I'm looking forward to any and all Prime hacks that might be presented in the future!

(Heh. Imagine Metroid Prime: Project Base :heheh: )