Sonic Heroes/Particle Editing
From Sonic Retro
| SCHG: Sonic Heroes |
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| Main Article |
| Mechanic Editing |
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DOL Editing |
| Model Editing |
| Collision Format Model Format |
| Level Editing |
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Camera Editing |
| Particle Editing |
| Particle Editing |
| Sound Editing |
| Music List |
| SCHG How-Tos |
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Custom Object Material Effect Tutorial |
Particle effects for certain objects are set in the cmn_ptcl.bin and sLL_ptcl.bin files located in the dvdroot folder. They are big endian binary files that defines particles assigned to the object by the EXE.
Heroes Power Plant includes a Particle Editor tool which allows you to edit these files, albeit the tool is a bit incomplete as not everything is known about them.
Contents
File layout
Each _ptcl.bin files contains 0x80 byte entries for a variety of different effects that emit when something has triggered or as a background object.
The entry for the files follows this:
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00 05 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
| Offset | Type | Description | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0x00 | Byte | Spread/UV Type | |
| 0x01 | Byte | UV Frame type? | |
| 0x0C | Long | RBGA Color | |
| 0x0F | Byte | Fade time? | |
| 0x11 | Byte | Particle birth delay | |
| 0x13 | Byte | Amount of particles | |
| 0x15 | Byte | Unknown | |
| 0x17 | Byte | Unknown | |
| 0x19 | Word | Unknown | |
| 0x1C | Word | Particle Velocity | |
| 0x20 | 3 Bytes | Always 00 05 00 | |
| 0x23 | Byte | Blend Mode | |
| 0x24-0x27 | Byte | Particle rotation | |
| 0x28 | Word | Rotate animation speed | |
| 0x2A | Word | Rotate animation | |
| 0x2C | Float | Particle Life time | The lower the float value is, the more time the particles will stay; higher float values will make the particles disappear quicker. |
| 0x30 | Float | Particle Life threshold? | |
| 0x34 | Float | Unknown | |
| 0x38 | Float | Unknown | |
| 0x3C | Float | Unknown | |
| 0x40 | Float | Spread speed rate | |
| 0x44 | Float | Velocity rate | |
| 0x48 | Float | Unknown | |
| 0x4C | Float | Unknown | |
| 0x50 | Float | Unknown | |
| 0x54 | Float | Unknown | |
| 0x58 | Float | Particle Size | |
| 0x5C | Float | Unknown | |
| 0x60 | Float | Spread Size? | |
| 0x64 | Float | Same as above | |
| 0x68 | Text | Particle texture name to be used. | Although the maximum length of the texture is 0x20, particle names in each entry are limited to 0x18 in length. |
Particle settings
There are some options for one or more items in the files. A list of settings are available to any particle files and the EXE:
| Offset | Parameter Type | Hex Values | Options | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0x23 | Blend Mode | 00 02 04 06 08 10 |
Alpha (Z-buffered) Alpha (with Alpha Testing) Additive Alpha Additive Alpha (with Alpha Testing) Alpha Subtractive Alpha |
     
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Importing Textures as Particles
The binary files use texture names to call for the texture that is in the cmn_effect.txd files. Stage textures use the "sLL_effect.txd" and/or "stgLL_effect.txd" for textures that are imported into those archives. Not only stage particle binary files can read textures stored in the stage particle texture archives, it can also read the texture names in the common effect archive for the specific particle being customized. Textures made as particles can be imported into the files using a TXD archive editor such as Magic.TXD. If you have added a texture to one of the effect archives with another texture name, type the name in at the entry where the name is read in and then the EXE will read the imported texture when the particle starts emitting.
Custom Blend modes
Blend types can be customized by editing the codes that provides the source and destination factors based on the type of alpha the particle uses. There are three blend types stored in the EXE.
| Address (EXE) | Address (RAM) | Blend Factor | Default (Hex) | Blend Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3131E 3132E |
43131E 43132E |
Source Destination |
05 02 |
Additive |
| 31381 | 431381 | Destination | 04 | Subtractive |
| 313A9 313B9 |
4313A9 4313B9 |
Source Destination |
05 06 |
Alpha |
If you'd like to customize the blend factors for your desired blend combination, replace one of the bytes with your value. The Renderware engine supports the following blend factors used in this EXE:
| Value | Blend Factor (RW name) | Blend Factor (Standard Name) |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | rwBLENDZERO | Zero |
| 02 | rwBLENDONE | One |
| 03 | rwBLENDSRCCOLOR | Source Color |
| 04 | rwBLENDINVSRCCOLOR | Inverse Source Color |
| 05 | rwBLENDSRCALPHA | Source Alpha |
| 06 | rwBLENDINVSRCALPHA | Inverse Source Alpha |
| 07 | rwBLENDDESTALPHA | Destination Alpha |
| 08 | rwBLENDINVDESTALPHA | Inverse Destination Alpha |
| 09 | rwBLENDDESTCOLOR | Destination Color |
| 0A | rwBLENDINVDESTCOLOR | Inverse Destination Color |
| 0B | rwBLENDSRCALPHASAT | Source Alpha Saturate |
Note: The source factor for the subtractive mode requires a code injected in the EXE in-order to be customized with your own mixing modes on that section.
| Address (EXE) | Address (RAM) | Original Bytes | Replace With |
|---|---|---|---|
| 31521 | 431521 | CC CC CC CC CC CC CC CC CC CC CC CC CC CC CC | C7 82 A4 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 E9 45 FE FF FF |
| 3136F | 43136F | 89 9A A4 00 00 00 | E9 AD 01 00 00 90 |
The highlighted byte shown below is where the blend factor will be located once you have paste written the code at 0x31521 in this array:
C7 82 A4 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 E9 45 FE FF FF
EXE defined particle settings
See Sonic Heroes/EXE Editing for information about particle settings that are stored in the EXE.
Special Stage particle blend options
See Sonic Heroes/EXE Editing for information about blend options for the particles in special stages.
References