Ballcocks

I've lost my programs to extract vdx files from gjd files. This is rubbish. All the details of the file format are on the web (see the links section), and we can already play back vdx files. But the vdx playback is incomplete (can anyone say "transparency"?), so I'm trying to figure out what the exe file is doing at that point, and damn it it would be really helpful if I had them. Why didn't I put them in svn?!

Progress. Like *real* progress.

Wow. Given that this time last week we had absolutely no idea about the file formats of the .grv files, we have come a loooong way. Our opcode list is now more complete than not, and jvprat has implemented a skeleton script interpreter which we can now go about adding opcodes to one by one.

It's still going to be quite some time before anything is playable, but it's on its way! In the meantime, here's a photo of some of my working...

Excitement

It's got to the exciting bit of the disassembly where stuff starts to make sense! Almost. And thanks to coding and words of wisdom from jvprat, we're really starting to get somewhere. Here's the proof:

http://code.google.com/p/t7gre/wiki/Opcodes

There's still a long way to go (there are 88 opcodes in all), but at least now I feel like I'm getting somewhere when I'm doing it. And it certainly helps to bat ideas around with someone!

Text

It's been a while. A lot has been going on in RL, but little in t7gre world.

But things change. Yesterday I had a play with reversing some of the font code, and actually got somewhere. I now have a (very) basic idea what the format of the font file is. Here's a picture, which proves nothing (I could have figured this bit out just from looking at the file in a hex editor).

It's an "A", in case you can't quite figure it out.

Caring and sharing

I'm find it difficult to completely separate myself from the project. I guess that's the problem with stuff you do out of interest. I don't have as much time as I used to though, so progress will be even slower than it was before.

By request, and because I may find myself dragged away from the project completely at some point, I've put the code that I've managed to get working on Google Code. Not intended for general consumption though.

Sadness

Well, unfortunately this project is going to have to be put on hold. Don't blame me, blame my employer: I'm having to spend all my spare time working stuff that will help me get another job. Hopefully one day I'll come back to it, but I don't have any idea of the timeframe for that. Any animation / digital effects companies want to give me a job as a pipeline software engineer?

Rollercoaster

You know those tight little rollercoasters that surprise you when they make an incredibly sharp turn that you weren't expecting? I'm trying to follow the t7g exe file in OllyDbg, and it's a bit like that. I'm not really at the stage where it's useful, it's just for fun and to try out OllyDbg. Though hopefully it'll all soak in by diffusion as I stare at the screens of assembly language...