Custom Camo anyone?

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originalcracker
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Custom Camo anyone?

Post by originalcracker »

OK, so I've been having this idea for a while and I've decided to see what others were thinking. This starts with the Japanese only Camo's and Face Paints. Lets say that they can't be read off of the memory card by the American release of MGS3. Well, we have 2 of them anyway, Grenade and the other (I forgot). This is the thought:

We can take the Japanese file and the American file for the Grenade camo's and compare them, see where they are different, and edit them to work with the specific version of MGS3. Now, the parts of the file that are different should be the same for each camo, so that data could be aplied to any of them, thus making the Japan only camo's available anywhere.

This could also lead to Custom Camo. This would mean that anybody could come up with a texture map of their own and import it into the game. This would mainly be for the fun of having your own texture in the game, but some others are thinking that it could also be used to create camo that give certain properties. I guess that could happen too.

Keep in mind that this is just hypothetical. I was going to try to start this yestureday, but I ended up spending all of my money on other things (I was going to buy the Japanese version of MGS3 and a Japanese Ethernet adapter for my Japanese PS2). Too bad the store was closed, or I'd already be started on it.

I don't know if it is possible, but it's just a thought. Any thoughts of your own?
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Post by Painaxl »

The problem is that the way the textures interact with the environment is a lot more complicated. Take the camo index, for example. By changing the texture map of a downloadable camo that is for the desert and making it a bright blue texture, it would still provide a high index in the desert and have no relation to the actual colors Snake's wearing, which would kinda suck.

You would really have to go a LOT deeper into it than just changing the texture map.

I'm also not sure that this would work for changing the JPN-Only camos. Camoflauges in MGS3 are much more than just the texture maps, they are directly related to gameplay. You would have to figure out how the game envinronment determines the effect of the camo, which would probably be really hard.
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Post by originalcracker »

Yep, I'm sure it would be hard. The custom camo idea would need to be very complex in order for it to work right. I would need to find out the area of the file in which the game recognises that it is a camo file from a specific region, the displayed title of that camo, the specific image data of the camo, and the properties it pertains. And I'm sure it is probably pretty well coded to stop us from doing this sort of thing.

The reason I started thinking of this was purely for getting the Japanese camo. That part of the job is probably the easiest after all. That part shouldn't be too difficult. Simply compare two like camo files of different region, then find the difference and change accorrdingly. Again, this is all just hypothetical. And I'm not saying that this can even neccissarily be done, and probably not by me. But it is worth a shot.

After the region code is cleared up, I guess a program would need to be made to figure out the image data of the camo. Once we get that, then it could be changed.

Now, like you were saying about the blue camo in the desert. Yep, that's right, that would make it weird. It would require more hacking of the file, and Iprobably am not the person to do it. The idea of customizing the properties of the camo came from someone else. I was only thinking of changing the appearance of the camo (and the all region thing). I don't really care too much about camo index or other properties at the memont, but that could escalate later on if any of this becomes a reality.
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Painaxl
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Post by Painaxl »

originalcracker wrote: The reason I started thinking of this was purely for getting the Japanese camo. That part of the job is probably the easiest after all. That part shouldn't be too difficult. Simply compare two like camo files of different region, then find the difference and change accorrdingly. Again, this is all just hypothetical. And I'm not saying that this can even neccissarily be done, and probably not by me. But it is worth a shot.

After the region code is cleared up, I guess a program would need to be made to figure out the image data of the camo. Once we get that, then it could be changed.
This leads me to another possible hangup... Has anyone downloaded any of the camos available for the US release and used them? If so, does SIGINT have anything to say about them? It seems to me that SIGINT has a pattern of checking different things to talk about (face paint, weapon, camo, enemies, misc. etc.). If you were to call him and he would have an unrecognized camo, that might freeze the game or something.

Man, the more I think about this game in a technical sense, the more respect I have for the full breadth of the programming it had to entail.
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Post by originalcracker »

yep, just looking through the Document of MGS2 made me have a new respect for the game. So much programming went into it. So much planning and thought. A lot of the stuff we just take for granted or we never even notice or see it. This is one of the reasons I enjoy Kojima's games, he and his team put so much into the games.

And another good point about the game recognizing the camo. It's true, it would suck if that happened with a custom texture. But there could be ways around it. It would depend on if the save file could be decoded and edited. If it could be decoded, then any of the info (like what someone says about it, what it looks like, what version of the game can read it, and what its properties are) could be altered accordingly. It would take some testing though, I'm sure. I bet Konami encripted it well.

Don't count on me to get the ball rolling though, I have no money to buy the Japanese version right now, let alone a device to transfer my save file. I'm just putting this stuff here for anybody else who is interested, and might want to look into it further.

until later.
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Post by Artemio »

Of course it is possible, just how much time it will consume is another whole thing.

I am only lacking a Japanese PS2 with ethernet... since mine is the first model, and the USB adaptor doesn't work with MGS3 (checked it already).

This would only work with the downloadable ones, since the ones on the key discs are already coded in the game, and only one can be used at a time (one key disc).
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originalcracker
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Post by originalcracker »

OK, I just looked through the camo files (available at GameFAQs, look for Metal Gear Solid 3's save files). If you want to see them too, I'd suggest the Shark Port saves over the Max Drive. The Max Drive saves are crap to look through, but the SP saves are fairly organized. Right away, in the MD saves, you can see a difference...

Oh, by the way I'm comparing the Mummy and Grenade camo's...

OK, so there are similarities and diffeences. Let's stick to the SP saves for now (don't want to look at MD saves ever again). So, the SP saves start with the SP header followed by the save file name and the camo's unique code. I say it is the camo's unique code because I was able to find the same code in the same camo type in both MD and SP files right at the beginning. The code is also used later on in the files (I think, forgot). This code is refered to as the BASLUS. I don't know what that means, but it is there as an identifier.

What follows next is a long piece of code that is the same for both camo's (sticking with the SP files). After a little ways down it soudenly changes without notice (there is no bog sign that points out the change, it just changes in the middle of the code). Then it goes on for what seems to be forever. The interesting part is that the mummy's file has a longer section here than the Grenade file's unique section.

After this part a new segment starts labeled "mgs3.ico" and the BASLUS is again pointed out. The mgs3.ico section is the same for both Grenade and Mummy. I could only assume that this is the save file's save icon, which looks the same in the memory card manager of the PS2.

After the mgs3.ico section, the "icon.sys" section starts. The header is different here in both files in whicg I can assume that the file is reffering to it self as it has some code I saw earlier in the file (at the very top). Shortly after that, the codes of the two save files match again. It goes for a little ways and then again, changes out of nowhere. This change cayyies out to the end of the file (I think, I just spot checked the whole thing).

Well, that is it for now. If I could get a hold of either the Japanese Grenade or Mummy files in Shark Port format, then I could investigate further...but until then.
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Post by originalcracker »

Well, it looks like Japan got another Camo: New Year. It looks like the Rising Sun. Anyway, since my store is closed until Tuesday, I wont be able to even see if they got the Japanese version of MGS3 in yet, let alone get the Ethernet adapter. I'm still patiently waiting.

So, lets go over how I'm going to try things out. First, I'm going to try the easiest way possible. Simply Download the Japanese Camo's and see if the load up in the American game. If that works (I'm doubtful, but hey, maybe) problem solved. If not, then I'll need to buy a Shark Port. I'll need to first look through a Japanese camo file, to see what it looks like. I'm assuming that it looks like the American file. I'll need to try each section of code individually to see what happens. I think I'll also get a new Memory Card, for the sake of keeping things controlled, just incase I get corrupted files. I'm guessing that the files should load up if I change the boot sector (the part the file that the game sees is part of it's region and the begining of the file). I think that it is at the top of the file too. I might need to change a few other things as well, such as file name and such, depending on if they show up in Japanese or not. It is possible that the game would see the Japanese (if it is there) and not have the right character set and try to display the words in some scrambled Roman letters. But, these are all things that need to be tested.

Hopefully, just a few more days to go. Given that I have money to buy all of this stuff with.
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Post by ReasonWhyNot »

originalcracker wrote:So, lets go over how I'm going to try things out. First, I'm going to try the easiest way possible. Simply Download the Japanese Camo's and see if the load up in the American game. If that works (I'm doubtful, but hey, maybe) problem solved. If not, then I'll need to buy a Shark Port. I'll need to first look through a Japanese camo file, to see what it looks like. I'm assuming that it looks like the American file. I'll need to try each section of code individually to see what happens. I think I'll also get a new Memory Card, for the sake of keeping things controlled, just incase I get corrupted files. I'm guessing that the files should load up if I change the boot sector (the part the file that the game sees is part of it's region and the begining of the file). I think that it is at the top of the file too. I might need to change a few other things as well, such as file name and such, depending on if they show up in Japanese or not. It is possible that the game would see the Japanese (if it is there) and not have the right character set and try to display the words in some scrambled Roman letters. But, these are all things that need to be tested.
Why do all that for a few camos?
Last edited by ReasonWhyNot on Sat Jun 25, 2005 12:52 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Jonathan Ingram »

You may have already thought of this, or even mentioned it, but there are camos that are only available in the game if you have either the "MGS3 First Bite Disc", "MGS3 Maxi Single" or "MGS3 OST", perhaps the camos can be extracted from those discs to be placed on a memory card, as they are only available one at a time, if they were on a card perhaps you could have all of them? But then the discs could only be unlocking camos already in the game, in which case that's a different kettle of fish...
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Post by Ninja Kurosai »

Well it would kinda be like trying to trade pokemon between the Japanese version of Gold and the US version of Gold. (I tried it.....it was pretty messy :x )
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Post by originalcracker »

True that it could get messy going from Japanese to American. That is why I need to control it with another memory card and go through a bunch of trial and errors.

I already have a Japanese PS2, and an American PS2 (actually, this is my second Jap PS2 as the first one {original version PS2 with PC card slot} had a bad remoding accident). I also have the American MGS3.

For the Ethernet adapter, I haven't decided if I should go with just the adapter, of with the BB unit version that comes with the adapter and hard drive. Now, here is the dilema. I don't really need the hard drive, but from as far as I can tell, the Japanese Ethernet adapter doesn't come with a start-up disc. The BB Unit (adapter + HD) does come with the BB network browser disc. I don't know if I need that or not. Money isn't too much of a problem (although, I'm broke now for another week). The Japanese Ethernet adapter costs $40 (like the American version). The BB Unit costs $130. Now, my current Japanese PS2 is one of the newest types, the Pearl White version, unmodded.

Uhh...descisions, descisions. I'll ask at the store if they think I can connect without a start-up disc, but I doubt they will know.
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Post by originalcracker »

Small update:

OK, I'm a small step closer. I bought the Japanese Ethernet adapter and got my conection set up. I was lucky. I had three Japanese games that could go online. Oh, and the adapter didn't come with any kind of start-up disc. But that is OK, as the online games can set up a network file on your memory card and connection for you.

I had a little problem at the beginning. Of the games that could go online, one of them could only use a USB modem, one of them required the BB Unit, but the last and latest game was able to use the Ethernet Adapter. So, after a few minutes of fooling around with that and inputting some info, I got a connection to work and the DNAS to go through.

Now all I need is the game and probably a Sharkport. I'm going out tomorrow to see if another store has MGS3. While getting the adapter I was very tempted to get Gran Tourismo 4. Especially scince I learned of the return of the 95 Eclipse. But, I decided to wait.

More later...
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Post by Majic »

I was wondering if anything more has happened with this?

Did it work?

Did you find the diffrence?
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Post by originalcracker »

Well, I kinda slowed down a bit. Mainly because I haven't gotten the Japanese version of MGS3 yet.

My store just got MGS3 (Japanese version) last week because it is part of a bundle that comes with MGS2 substance for a bargain price of around $70. I might get that, but not this weekend, I'm getting Wild Arms 4 instead.

This bundle pack comes with the better looking cover of Snake and ?The Boss?, not the ugly American cover.

I don't remember if I put this earlier, but I did get a Japanese Network Adapter and got that all set up and it is eagerly awaiting its chance to download the Japanese camos. The only other things I need to do is to get a device to transfer my save data, get another memory card (as all of mine are filled up at the moment), and contact somebody at the gamefaqs boards about converting from one file format to a more compatable one. It seems like a lot to do for something that might not even work. But, that is what I do, when I have the time.

I haven't dropped this yet, it is still in the back of my head.
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Re: Custom Camo anyone?

Post by Snake700 »

originalcracker wrote:OK, so I've been having this idea for a while and I've decided to see what others were thinking. This starts with the Japanese only Camo's and Face Paints. Lets say that they can't be read off of the memory card by the American release of MGS3. Well, we have 2 of them anyway, Grenade and the other (I forgot). This is the thought:

We can take the Japanese file and the American file for the Grenade camo's and compare them, see where they are different, and edit them to work with the specific version of MGS3. Now, the parts of the file that are different should be the same for each camo, so that data could be aplied to any of them, thus making the Japan only camo's available anywhere.

This could also lead to Custom Camo. This would mean that anybody could come up with a texture map of their own and import it into the game. This would mainly be for the fun of having your own texture in the game, but some others are thinking that it could also be used to create camo that give certain properties. I guess that could happen too.

Keep in mind that this is just hypothetical. I was going to try to start this yestureday, but I ended up spending all of my money on other things (I was going to buy the Japanese version of MGS3 and a Japanese Ethernet adapter for my Japanese PS2). Too bad the store was closed, or I'd already be started on it.

I don't know if it is possible, but it's just a thought. Any thoughts of your own?
I consume you mean creating your own Camo i don´t think it´s a good idea because you have to think of the places the game is set in that would take too long to create your own Camo
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