Guess I didn't mention this a few days ago when I released it, but there's a new version of FFVI_Explore (v0.4) available now: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/38150185/FFVI/FFVI_Explore_v0.4.zip


Version 0.4
Added limited audio (.AKB) file wrap/unwrap support.
* AKB files with Ogg Vorbis content are unwrapped normally as an .ogg file.
* AKB files with ADPCM content are unwrapped as a .vox file, with an accompanying .txt file containing necessary extra info.
* OGG files are wrapped normally into an .akb file.
* VOX files are currently unsupported for wrapping.
Added intelligent internal path detection for creating patches from a "Modding Mode" installation.
Added ability to select an internal path from a list.
Improved file detection for cases where a file with the same extension, but wrong content, is provided.
Fixed bug causing self-applying patch progress bars to appear behind other windows.
Fixed bug causing incorrect entry count reporting for Patches in some cases.

Originally posted by GuyInDogSuit:

I wonder if we can get to the point where mods like a playable General Leo would be possible as they were with the SNES version.

That _specific_ mod, I'm not 100% sure about, as it will depend on exactly what data was modded in the SNES version. However, with the help of Madsiur, we've determined that a _very large_ amount of data is being used from the embedded GBA rom, so there's definitely room for at least _some_ of those sorts of mods to be done on the PC version in the future.

Honestly, no clue. I've heard that Android games often use archives with the extension ".obb", which definitely _looks_ the same, but I don't know if the actual bytes of the android archive is byte-for-byte the same as those of the PC version's.

I've not really looked into android game modding, but assuming that tools exist to repackage everything into whatever package format android expects, then my answer is a resounding "maybe".

It should work fine in Win7, I see no reason why. I'm assuming that's the OS you're using?

Hum, that's weird... Do you have .NET framework 4 installed?

Do you see the FFVI_Explore window at all? What do you mean by infinite loading? Is there a progress bar? Is your mouse cursor changed to the hourglass/spinning circle?

Make sure you've extracted all of the files from the .zip file before running the program. Running it directly from inside the zip file will not work.

So, minor update to FFVI_Explore. Just bug fixes for the most part, while I work on the bigger features for the next major release.

Version 0.3a
Improved Archive/Patch tabs so that it doesn't matter whether you drop a gz file or a non-gz file -- it will "just work" based on the Archive Name used
Added proper detection to whether the active Patch is dirty or not, so the user isn't asked to save an unchanged patch
Fixed bug causing an error in Archive use after a file has been dropped on the Mod Helper

Download here: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/38150185/FFVI/FFVI_Explore_v0.3a.zip

Originally posted by Kisai:

BTW. the AKB files are nearly straight ogg vorbis files (Most of them will play without question with MPC-HC, more will load in Audacity, but I suppose it's just how willing these programs are to overlook errors.)

The PVR files are likely PowerVR texture atlases, but I haven't a way to confirm that since tools usually only convert TO textures and never back.

The FLB files look like UI stuff to me (eg the combat menus) and I speculate that someone would need to make an editor for it.

Also, the text strings are in the FF6.EXE file.

Yeah, the AKB files are just a container format (composed of a variable sized header) around an already existing audio file format. The game supports 3 files types, altho only 2 file types are actually used. As you noted, there are a lot of OGG files, 79 to be exact. And there are 290 VOX files, which is the remainder of the audio files. The 3rd format, I suspect, would be PCM, but since it's not used by the game, I haven't looked too much into it. I'm thinking I should have support for these files in FFVI_Explore soon.

My knowledge on the PVR files is about the same as yours -- I have a few tabs open with some resources, but I literally haven't even opened one up in a hex editor to look at them yet. There's so few of them, they're low on my priority list.

The FLB files _do_ contain UI stuff, but by far there are more FLB files for visual effects, such as magic, weapon slashes, esper summons, etc.. Each FLB can contain more than one image, which is usually different frames of an animation. I can read the graphical data out of the FLB files just fine, but I haven't figured out all of the other data in the file yet -- it's crazy complex, and strikes me as complete overkill, considering what the files are actually in control of. I have a bad feeling that it's going to take a long time to fully understand the format. Your suspicion would be correct, that a custom editor of some sort would be required, just as the AKB files would require.

Sounds great! I'm glad to see our suspicions getting confirmed-- your contributions are quite helpful madsiur! :)

Once there's a decent rom map in place, a custom editor can be put together for modding the steam version of the game specifically -- I'm excited to see what can be put together ^-^

Not to say that existing editors for the GBA version won't suffice, but they'll have features for editing things that won't show up in the steam version of the game~

It's on my todo list to look at later, but I have other things to take care of for now ^-^
There's a chance we might be able to figure something out tho~