User talk:Mvgulik archive 1

General Talk

very nice, specially those maps regarding TFTD. I've always wanted a map to show the areas for TFTD's countries :) Hobbes 12:22, 11 July 2009 (EDT)

Thanks. mvgulik

Yes, excellent work, thank you. Spike 20:12, 13 July 2009 (EDT)

I just noticed something interesting on your maps: the Hawaiian Islands are not a part of the US according to the Country map. Is that correct? Hobbes 12:41, 4 October 2009 (EDT)

Yes, thats correct. The Hawaiian Islands are not a part of the USA zone, or any other country zone, and are only covered as part of the Pacific regional zone. --Mvgulik 08:07, 5 October 2009 (EDT)

Hi Mvgulik. :) I have a question about the black area underneath Australasia in the UFO regional zones map. Is that area truly "unmapped" - meaning it doesn't have a region it belongs to, or does it revert to North America because that area is first on the list? --Zombie 22:52, 23 November 2009 (EST)

Correct, black regional area's are truly unmapped ... and (not or ;) ) for these area's the game revert, or defaults to using the first known regional area on the map. North America in the case of UFO because, Yes its the first in the name list.. Side note*2: Assuming same behavior for TFTD, or not fully tested on TFTD. --Mvgulik 04:28, 24 November 2009 (EST)

Mmm, removed confusing note*1.

Just to make sure what I tested, as it might turn out that other parts of the game might react differently. I setup a landed UFO case near(or on) a black unmapped area and observed/tracked the UFO after taking off again. Seeing it being registered as UFO activity in North America while it never got close to it. --Mvgulik 04:55, 24 November 2009 (EST)

Cool, so technically unmapped (or black) areas are considered to be North America in UFO because it's first on the list. So in that case, the black area on your map should be recolored yellow. ;) This black area has to be a mapping bug, right? I'd assume the programmers meant it to be Australasia and not unmapped/North America. :) --Zombie 14:40, 24 November 2009 (EST)

Bug: I think so. This one in UFO is easy to fix, but TFTD is something else in this matter. --Mvgulik 22:52, 25 November 2009 (EST)

I hear you there. TFTD's maps are a total mess. It's actually quite amazing the game plays, LOL. Another question: on your page you mention that the lower ID takes precedence in case of zone overlap. Are the IDs the numbers on your pictures? By the way, you don't have all the blocks numbered in the Regional map for TFTD. The named North Atlantic, North America, Caribbean, North Sea, Sea of Japan, Mediterranean and Antarctic blocks all are unnumbered. Could you upload a revised pic with the numbers included? --Zombie 00:32, 26 November 2009 (EST)

ID's: Yes.. Code wize the picture country and regional zone ID's are directly based on the position order in witch they are stored in the zone binary data parts.

Update: Oops, Done. Thanks for reminding me.. Increased contrast on those numers a little to. --Mvgulik 12:27, 26 November 2009 (EST)

What program did you use to create the map files? I was wanting to tweak with some of the zones and it would be nice to be able to preview the results. --BladeFireLight 22:59, 3 January 2010 (EST)

Updated main user page with relevant section.

Note to tweaking zones: Because I found it a tedious process, I looked into creating something that would do the opposite of XCOM_GMI. Read a similar zone map image and spit out the relevant zone coordinate. But its still in its infant testing stage, and I'm not yet sure if I can make it truly work. --Mvgulik 04:43, 4 January 2010 (EST)

Thanks for posting that, Support for the Dos versions should be easy. I already found the relevant sections just to see if they were the same. Since they are it's only a matter of needing the offsets. Unfortunately I didn't write them down but should be easy to find again. --BladeFireLight 13:38, 4 January 2010 (EST)

Dos: Mmm, I don't know about hard-coring support for DOS version's. There are plenty of different version's and files out there if I'm correct. I would probably need to know more than just some offset's. I'm more inclined to add a additional tab or section to allow for user specified offset input. ... Any additional X-COM Dos-file info and offset's can still be collected and stores on UFOpaedia somewhere. or here if needed. --MvGulik 17:10, 4 January 2010 (EST)

True there are quite a lot of builds on the dos side. UFO has 9 and TFTD has 3. Oddly enough there was no padding in the exe's, like there is in so many other data segments of it, so the number of entries are set it stone. --BladeFireLight 17:50, 4 January 2010 (EST)

In that case I don't mind looking into it. Feel free to drop in whatever dos info and offsets you find. --MvGulik 05:37, 5 January 2010 (EST)

Temp Data Dump

Just dumping current collected info. Added all known (to me) Geo-Globe related sections. --MvGulik 06:17, 6 January 2010 (EST)

Version: DOS(UFO|TFTD) (1.0-1.4)(any language) (file:"<App-Root>\UFOEXE\GEOSCAPE.EXE")
- Main.
:Regional-Zones: 0x****** (assuming:size:340)
:Country-Zones: 0x****** (assuming:size:370)
- Additional's.
:Country-Borders/Rivers: 0x****** (assuming:size:804)
:Regional-Name label loc.: 0x****** (size:??)
:Country-Name label loc.: 0x****** (assuming:size:96)
:WORLD.DAT Terrain conversion list: 0x****** (assuming:size:26)

Version: UFO CE. (file:main.exe,"UFO Defense.exe")
- Main.
:Regional-Zones: 0x074F38 (size:340)
:Country-Zones: 0x075090 (size:370)
- Additional's.
:Country-Borders/Rivers: 0x074AD4 (size:804)
:Regional-Name label loc.: 0x****** (size:??)
:Country-Name label loc.: 0x074DF8 (size:96)
:WORLD.DAT Terrain conversion list: 0x****** (assuming:size:26)

 Version: TFDT CE. (file:main.exe,"Terror From the Deep.exe")
- Main.
:Regional-Zones: 0x08B1D0 (size:340)
:Country-Zones: 0x08B350 (size:370)
- Additional's.
:Country-Borders/Rivers: 0x08AE00 (size:804)
:Regional-Name label loc.: 0x****** (size:??)
:Country-Name label loc.: 0x08B010 (size:96)
:WORLD.DAT Terrain conversion list: 0x****** (assuming:size:26)

Trigger collection.
- Main executable filename. "UFO Defense.exe" (UFO:CE)
- Main executable filename. "Terror From the Deep.exe" (TFTD:CE)
- Data file general size. ".\UFOEXE\GEOSCAPE.EXE" Size:~******. (UFO:DOS)
- Data file general size. ".\UFOEXE\GEOSCAPE.EXE" Size:~******. (TFTD:DOS)
- Data file general size. ".\GEODATA\WORLD.DAT" Size:~13.320. (UFO:both)
- Data file general size. ".\GEODATA\WORLD.DAT" Size:~14.660. (TFTD:both)
- Data folder presents. ".\UFOEXE". (DOS:else assume CE)
WORLD.DAT: Assuming same file size for different(Ufo/Tftd) versions, or at leased close to it.

- default start(16) - end bytes. assuming same for all different (unedited) versions. (CE Based)
:UFO
Regional-Zones: 0x18068709D0FD47FE00003007870948FE - 0x***
Country-Zones: 0x5807F80778FE00FF0000F807AC0878FE - 0x***
Country-Borders/Rivers: 0xFFFF210243FF38023DFF2C0228FF3302 - 0x***
Regional-Name label loc.: 0x*** - 0x***
Country-Name label loc.: 0x800240FF6302300B53FE5C022C0BABFE - 0x***
WORLD.DAT Terrain conversion list: 0x*** - 0x***
:TFTD
Regional-Zones: 0x50082009D0FD70FE00002009E80AF0FD - 0x***
Country-Zones: 0x5008980204FE38FE000048093C0138FE - 0x***
Country-Borders/Rivers: 0xFFFFE0000DFFE80028FFE80040FFF800 - 0x***
Regional-Name label loc.: 0x*** - 0x***
Country-Name label loc.: 0xA00020FE6302180B98FE5C021009F000 - 0x***
WORLD.DAT Terrain conversion list: 0x*** - 0x***

Other stuff

map patching?
some old residue data from experimenting with the ufo maps.
don't know if there is any intrest in this. also not sure how to best post patch data.
anyway, this is a minor patch suggestion for UFO maps. offsets are for UFO-CE.

$discr = 'Regional zone patch, Extends face 19(Australasia) downwards to connecting with Antarctica zone, Removing blank regional zone'
$Offset = 0x00074FEC
$Patch = '4803.9F05.D8FF.DF01.0A00'
$Org__ = '4803.9F05.D8FF.8F01.0A00'

$discr = 'Regional zone patch, Extend face 16(South East Asia) to include some more of Indonesia. (not new Guinea part)'
$Offset = 0x00074FCE
$Patch = 'D002.F103.70FE.4F00.0800'
$Org__ = 'D002.4703.70FE.4F00.0800'
;; '* adjust face 17, removing unneeded face overlapping.'
$Offset = 0x00074FD8
$Patch = 'F203.AF04.70FE.D7FF.0800'
$Org__ = '4803.AF04.70FE.D7FF.0800'
FileEdit_Binary($hF_Read, $hF_Write, $Offset, $Patch)

$discr = 'Country zone patch, Swap face 19(CHINA) with face 25(INDIA), Triger INDIA instead of CHINA in zone overlap.'
$Offset = 0x00075144
$Patch = '5002.7802.E8FE.10FF.0900'
$Org__ = '5802.1003.70FE.10FF.0700'

$Offset = 0x00075180
$Patch = '5802.1003.70FE.10FF.0700'
$Org__ = '5002.7802.E8FE.10FF.0900'
FileEdit_Binary($hF_Read, $hF_Write, $Offset, $Patch)

$discr = 'Country zone patch, Swap face 10(RUSSIA) with 21(CHINA), Triger CHINA instead of RUSSIA in zone overlap.'
$Offset = 0x000750EA
$Patch = 'D003.2804.50FE.C0FE.0700'
$Org__ = '5802.2805.80FD.70FE.0100'

$Offset = 0x00075158
$Patch = '5802.2805.80FD.70FE.0100'
$Org__ = 'D003.2804.50FE.C0FE.0700'

--Mvgulik 11:37, 4 October 2009 (EDT)

I looked up the offsets in all the copies of UFO that I have. I was amazed at how many are the same given how many of other offsets are different.

                   UFO-CE                    UFO 1.0               UFO 1.1               UFO 1.2               UFO 1.3               X-Com 1.0            X-Com 1.4 (UFO 1.4)
Border/River     | 0x074AD4 - 074DF7 (804) | 0x06130C - 0x06162F | 0x06199C - 0x061CBF | 0x06199C - 0x061CBF | 0x06199C - 0x061CBF | 0x06099C - 0x060CBF | 0x05C348 - 0x05C66B
CountryName loc. | 0x074DF8 - 074E57 (96)  | 0x061630 - 0x06168F | 0x061CC0 - 0x061D1F | 0x061CC0 - 0x061D1F | 0x061CC0 - 0x061D1F | 0x061CC0 - 0x061D1F | 0x05C66C - 0x05C6CB 
RegionalZones    | 0x074F38 - 07508B (340) | 0x061720 - 0x061873 | 0x061DB0 - 0x061F04 | 0x061DB0 - 0x061F04 | 0x061DB0 - 0x061F04 | 0x061DB0 - 0x061F04 | 0x05C75C - 0x05C8AF
CountryZones     | 0x075090 - 075201 (370) | 0x061874 - 0x0619E5 | 0x061f04 - 0x062075 | 0x061f04 - 0x062075 | 0x061f04 - 0x062075 | 0x061f04 - 0x062075 | 0x05C8B0 - 0x05CA21

--BladeFireLight 12:43, 6 January 2010 (EST)

This is what I found have for TFTD

                   TFTD-CE                   TFTD 1.0              TFTD 2.0              TFTD 2.1(aka. beta)        TFTD Italian
Border/River     | 0x08AE00 - 08B00F (528) | 0x0766A8 - 0x0768B7 | 0x077AD8 - 0x077CE7 | 0x077AD8 - 0x077CE7 | 0x07A7C8 - 0x07A9D7
CountryName loc. | 0x08B010 - 08B06F (96)  | 0x0768B6 - 0x076915 | 0x077CE6 - 0x077D45 | 0x077CE6 - 0x077D45 | 0x07A9D6 - 0x07AA35
RegionalZones    | 0x08B1D0 - 08B34B (380) | 0x076A28 - 0x076BA3 | 0x077E58 - 0x077FD3 | 0x077E58 - 0x077FD3 | 0x07AB48 - 0x07ACC3
CountryZones     | 0x08B350 - 08B4CB (380) | 0x076BA4 - 0x076D1F | 0x077FD4 - 0x07814F | 0x077FD4 - 0x07814F | 0x07ACC4 - 0x07AA3F

Great. Thank You. ... That should get me started. --MvGulik 14:29, 6 January 2010 (EST)

Question for BladeFireLight.

Ps: Forgot to ask. Could you lookup and add the GEOSCAPE.EXE file size on those versions for me. Might make thing a little easyer on detection the version in relation to the offsets to be used. --MvGulik 14:35, 6 January 2010 (EST)