The Journey of Generation 4
Added 2023-10-25 04:31:50 +0000 UTCAt the start of the year I genuinely didn't think it would be possible to get a working generation 4 overlay in 12 months. The encryption is more comprehensive, the disassemblies are not complete, and we couldn't even access the DS games RAM in real-time.
Cracking the encryption was possible, but it was going to require far more work than Gen3 did. (That was not an insignificant amount of time, and it is one of the reasons that my generation 3 series stalled until later in the year in 2022).
Without a completed disassembly project and shotty at best online documentation of how the RAM stores data finding various properties would have been much more difficult. Especially trying to locate them when the values are encrypted.
But the real thing holding progress back was the fact that RetroArch would have needed an upstream commit to allow the DS cores to send RAM to other pieces of software.
Enter BizHawk a few months ago, Flame Sage (The GameHook developer) quickly made an extension or it to get us the RAM. I literally read through the RAM of the game and started to locate properties manually until a few key pieces of information were obtained that allowed the whole puzzle to come together. I wrote the decryption algorithm to property access, sort, and decode the Pokemon data. Waiel who is basically a programming genius provided some key Javascript insights and with that we had a working prototype.
I'm at a demo stage now in development with the overlay. It has feature parity with gen1-3 and a few new features that people have requested in the comments before. I'm excited to start learning a new region, especially one that I have almost no experience with.
Comments
My programming skills leave a lot to be desired. I've just been learning as I go and so much of the code is really sloppy - but it works. Not sure I'd be happy with a fully produced video on the topic, but maybe something more casual!
Scotts Thoughts
2023-10-27 13:08:21 +0000 UTCThat's awesome. I need to find a way to create deadlines I can hold myself to. I've had a hard time sticking with things I try to start. Actually, I think I tend to do my best work immediately after a deadline passes for some reason. Almost like I fail and then prove to myself that I could do it if I really put the effort in. I don't understand my own mind being like this. Maybe having my wife set deadlines for me that she'll hold me to will help. Thanks for sharing
Chronoflation
2023-10-26 18:58:31 +0000 UTCI sort of just told myself every year on December 25th I'll start playing a new game in the series. For whatever reason that artificial deadline has really motivated me to make these things happen on time. Regardless of how insurmountable it initially feels.
Scotts Thoughts
2023-10-26 03:19:53 +0000 UTCI really like this. Getting a weather/screens/other on field effects tracked on screen is basically the only bit of info you're missing. But it's amazing you have even found what you have, much less gotten it all into an overlay that looks so clean. It might be really cool to see you stream yourself decompiling the code and showing the process, even if you don't respond to chat. But whatever the case, the work you've done is astounding. I'm really impressed with this. What's your mindset like facing monstrous tasks like this? How do you stay motivated and engaged? I can't imagine reading through literally all of the game's RAM is immediately rewarding or even remotely easy to understand. Had to take a long time to figure it all out. Amazing work
Chronoflation
2023-10-25 21:42:22 +0000 UTCActually same. I did programming about 8 years ago and haven't touched it much since, but this sounds really cool. Maybe wouldn't do too well on YouTube, but it'd be cool on Patreon if nothing else
Chronoflation
2023-10-25 21:36:03 +0000 UTCLet's go!
Headless Koala
2023-10-25 13:52:09 +0000 UTCId watch a videio about this. As a programing student, it sounds interesting.
Smileyrat
2023-10-25 08:41:41 +0000 UTCI have been soooo excited for Platinum runs ever since I found out it was the goal for this year. You and your cohort are legends for getting this together and I cannot wait to see how you optimize the runs.
Thandraug
2023-10-25 06:50:07 +0000 UTCSo excited to start seeing Gen 4 content. Amazing job to you and everyone involved!
Wolffe
2023-10-25 04:49:48 +0000 UTCWell done all of u
Gemma Barnes
2023-10-25 04:36:03 +0000 UTC
