Parallel Worlds Maps/Guide

I just realized I hadn't ever posted this here, but for the last few years, I've been working on and off mapping Parallel Worlds via stitched-together screenshots.  It's been a painstaking process for a few reasons, not the least of which was the fact that the overworld areas never display the top and bottom pixel of the area unless you're scrolling vertically between areas, so areas that use the warp transition instead never display those lines.  Also, I made sure that every screenshot was taken on the same animation frame, and that all outside screenshots were taken at the same "time of day" for color consistency.  It took me 3 years to finally finish both overworld maps, and I only have a couple of dungeons done.  Right now the hang-up on the dungeons is that I'm trying to figure out a way to make the Google Maps API do a full refresh like when you switch overlays, so that I can switch between floors in the dungeon, especially for Nabooru's Hole and the Parallel Tower.  I also want to get it so you can load a specific coordinate/zoom level using the page query string so I can make clickable links on doors and have it load the map inside that door (e.g. click on the entrance to a dungeon on the overworld and it loads that dungeon map centered on that entrance).  But anyway...

http://zelda.qwertymodo.com/

It took you longer to create the maps then it took us to create the hack :-D

You know.. you could've always ask for a rom which you can open in HM, if you use the special HM version that allows you to see the dungeons!

Well, if you happen to have that ROM and HM version, I'd certainly appreciate them!  It would definitely help with the dungeons.

As for the 3-year thing, I got the overworld maps about 95% done in a matter of a few weeks, it was that single-pixel line on about half of the areas that took me forever, because it was super tedious doing it manually, and I pretty much gave up after awhile until I came across this thread that basically allowed me to finish the remaining areas in a matter of hours. Also, I lost a hard drive somewhere in the middle of it all, so that set me back too.

But mostly, it was my ADD kicking in. Once I had it up and working, polishing the minor details just wasn't interesting anymore and I went off and did other things instead. I really do want to get it all finished though. Fun fact, I tried rendering one additional zoom level for the overworld maps, and it took over an hour to generate the tiles, and I had to increase my heap allocation in GIMP to keep it from crashing. Unfortunately, since I'm abusing Google App Engine for site hosting, there's a file limit of 10,000, and the extra 4,096 images per map put me well over that, so that's not going to happen unless I find another free host.

Sure, I'll send you the files when I get home!

I know Puzzledude posted them somewhere, I just dunno where...

Are you mapping out PW or the remodel? Will you also map out the Conker game too? How are those custom sprites coming along?

I'm probably just going to do PW, and not remodel, but we'll see once I get the files from Seph. Maybe if HM makes the process easier than what I've been doing I might give remodel a shot. Definitely not Conker. I'm not sure what custom sprites you're talking about, I'm not working on any.

I've been working on and off mapping Parallel Worlds via stitched-together screenshots.

Nice, I was thinking of doing a similar thing, but of course using a different method.

Well, if you happen to have that ROM and HM version, I'd certainly appreciate them! It would definitely help with the dungeons.

Yes, definitely. Here you just print screen all rooms and glue together with normal picture editor. Gluing in excel is also interesting. Of course you don't really need any special versions of HM or special versions of PW. You just need to do some Hex editing, namely move the room pointers back to the original place.

I know Puzzledude posted them somewhere, I just dunno where...

I can repost the IPS which will change the Alttp to this "View decoded" PW, as I call it, if there is interest and if this is allowed by authors. Note: this version can not be played or edited, just viewed (overworlds and dungeons).

Puzzledude wrote:

I know Puzzledude posted them somewhere, I just dunno where...

I can repost the IPS which will change the Alttp to this "View decoded" PW, as I call it, if there is interest and if this is allowed by authors. Note: this version can not be played or edited, just viewed (overworlds and dungeons).

Sounds like Seph was cool with it. I have no interest in editing it, but being able to view the maps would be nice. I haven't really played around with HM much, but I don't suppose it has an image export option, does it? Or would I have to resort to PrntScrn?

I don't mind, do so Puzz!

Conker will probably be open-source anyway after I take my leave. Whatever things people don't like, will be able to do so. You wanna change Conker into Link? Remove all the bad words and sexual content? You wanna remake my hack from scratch using all the implemented asm goodies and change all graphics into something new? You will all be able to do so. I'll give the world the tools and documents to do so. Think of it as releasing Linux, its an open rom hack and everyone can help each other to remake everything they want.

I'm sure Euclid won't mind either for PW view decoded as it has been ten years already.

Print-Screen works well enough. Much better then making hundred of screenshots and glue them together

The potential problem with Print Screen is whether or not the application displays things at native resolution or if it tries to scale them to look nicer at whatever resolution you're viewing it at. Emulator screenshots, at least, are exact native resolution every time (assuming scaling/interpolation/filters/etc. are turned off).

HM is the same exact 1:1 resolution of the game; meaning if you copy all areas of one world together you have an exact 4096x4096 pixels image.

Since Seph doesn't mind, I've PMed you the hex addresses.

The reason why I don't post it publicly is because other people may want to use the same trick to lock the ROM in the future.

Note saving in HM will corrupt the rom so make sure it's read only. The game will still work with those changes perfectly, as nothing would be referencing the old locations.

Not sure about Remodel since Puzzledude may have moved the addresses.

There you go qwertymodo
http://www.bwass.org/bucket/Zelda3-Parallel-Worlds-View-Decoded.ips

Patch this IPS to original Alttp US, non headered rom and you will get PW, which you can open in normal HM, to see overworlds and dungeons.

Note: do not try to save or edit this rom with HM, it will just corrupt it. Do not try to run this rom in an emulator or otherwise, it will not load anything.

Once a certain room is opened, you can print screen it and paste it into any picture editor capable of making the file based on print screen (I use the office picture editor). Scroll to another room and repeat. Then select all and Crop all to exact size in one step.

Note: in Impa's ways you might want to change all 0D8 elements (walkable black) to something else which is visible, while the file is read-only, before print screening, since HM will not display the flashing red floor (visible only in-game).

It looks like it's not rendering some of the tiles correctly (specifically, green borders around a lot of the tiles).  Is this something that can be corrected?  I've tried changing a bunch of the options, but haven't managed to figure it out.

This is like that because I changed the hardcoded grass palette.

It loads the new palette only in-game, while HM still reads the old grass palette.

You just need to take print screens and use the fill option to change those corners in the right color (goes for both worlds)....but yet again, this is much more simple to do then your method of taking pics and glueing them.

For my Conker hack, this is even more tedious to create overworld maps because of the two layers of the world and the palette patch by area by euclid. HM doesnt display most of my hack right, but its fine in game ;-)

Hmm... it's simple until something doesn't display right and I don't realize that it isn't displaying right so I don't know to fix it. I'll see if I can work something out.

HM can not display this otherwise. The border will always be the default green. And since the PAL for grass was changed, this happens. Even more problematic is the dark world, where default is brown, but now changed into white (snow).

Similar problem with the triforce shrine, which does not display the water correctly. What you see here is the diference between theory and practice. In HM its all theory (which is ok in game), but still "flooding" the light green with correct green is much simpler than screenshoting every small frame.

When I was doing this, I never bothered with the small leaves and other small sections, I only corrected the big light green sections.

All those problems originate from the fact that this game is very edited, yet HM can not "grasp" all the changes done and makes false displays which are fine in game. For similar reasons you can never see the floor in Impa's ways through HM. Basically: you see a non-executed game.

It certainly makes sense, and I definitely appreciate the help and getting the patch to view it this way. Of course, there was never going to be a magic one-click "Export all maps to .png" solution, so I'll take what I can get

You should totally do this for the Conker game too!

I'll most probably do the overworld map for Conker and release it together with the hack. If people want to add the sprites/heart pieces and items location, they will be free to do so using my template map.

In fact I already have a full map of my overworlds as they are currently and I update it often. Its my greatest tool to build them without errors.

I also have a complete and shitty ass big dungeon map of all the rooms, altough its a little outdated but will most probably finish it too before release.

Here's a GIMP script I wrote to generate tiles for Google Maps, if anybody wants to do something like my site with the Conker maps (or any other maps).

http://blog.qwertymodo.com/2015/05/generating-tiles-for-google-maps-api.html

Finally managed to get map tile reloading working, so I can switch between floors within a single map.  Still some minor issues (mostly that my current code doesn't play nice with non-square maps), but here's my first successful multi-floor dungeon map, pretty happy with how it turned out.

http://zelda.qwertymodo.com/dungeons/naboorushole/

Nice. I was once doing a similar thing, but I used Excel and basically pasted screens in it (pretty much like you see it in HM).

There's always been one thing I was wondering. Using any glitches possible, can the game be beaten swordless (up to the fight with Ganon)?

Devan2002 wrote:There's always been one thing I was wondering. Using any glitches possible, can the game be beaten swordless (up to the fight with Ganon)?

ive actually not looked into this in detail, but im quite positive the answer is yes, you can beat all the dungeons up to ganon swordless provided you use things like EG/DG/OoB. it might actually be doable without EG too but that would require more work