AdamCatalyst Posted December 27, 2023 Report Share Posted December 27, 2023 (edited) How-to: Bench & Crowd Animation + More (NHL ’94) Various background elements such as the Benches & and the Crowd are appear animated. These animated “frames” are actually tiles specified as overlays over the static background. The animation effects is achieved by cycling through these “frames”. You can edit this in two key ways: Edit the tiles used in these animations. Edit the animation instructions that reference these tiles. 1. Editing the Animation Tiles Editing the Animation Tiles follows the same basic logic as other tile based elements in the ROM. There are two additional considerations when editing tiles to be used in animation. Animated tiles are placed in 1 pixel increments, not the 1-tile (8-pixel) increments of the backgrounds. This allows for more flexibility in how they are designed, as one animation tile can overlap multiple background tiles. Animated tiles can (and typically do) more readily make use of the transparent pixel colour, since they already have a static background. 2. Editing the Animation “Frames” The Animations appears to cycle through a sequence of frames, which in turn reference which tile(s) to use, etc. Each frame is specified as an 8-byte entry. Byte 1–2 = X-Position, in pixels. (Depending on how you measure this, you may need to add +4) Byte 3–4 = Y-Position, in pixels. Byte 5-6 = Tile Row & Column. Byte 7 = Palette & Horizontal Flip Byte 8 = Tile Allocation (as per @kingraph) ## Tiles (width x height) 00 1x1 01 1x2 02 1x3 03 1x4 04 2x1 05 2x2 06 2x3 07 2x4 08 3x1 09 3x2 0A 3x3 0B 3x4 0C 4x1 0D 4x2 0E 4x3 0F 4x4 So, for instance, take the following entry @ 0xA5CC6: 0028 0018 0065 2000 This breaks down to 40 pixels down, 24 pixels across, use the Tile in Row 6, Column 5, with colour Palette #2, and only use a 1x1 block. If you aren’t already familiar with the syntax used for specifying tiles, check out this thread here. References Here are some of the key areas of animation tiles that you might want to edit. I have included PNGs of the original tiles used in NHL '94, as well as downloaded Photoshop files that you can put your custom tiles into. Audience Animations #1: Multiple These are the tiles used for most Audience Animations. This also includes flashes from the audience, as well all tiles that are used for players in the penalty box, in both Rink & Sideboards views. Audience - Animation 1 - Index 10x.psd Audience Animation #1 Tiles 0xA4B5E to 0xA5A1E Unknown 0xA5A1E to 0xA5B1E Audience Animation #1 Frames 0xA5B1E to 0xA78AE Audience Animations #2: Vocalizing These are the tiles used for when Audience members are vocalizing. Audience - Animation 2 (Vocalizing) - Index 10x.psd Audience Animation #2 Tiles 0x0EB820 to 0x0EBE60 Unknown 0x0EBE60 to 0x0EBEF4 Audience Animation #2 Frames 0x0EBEF4 to 0x0EC284 Audience Animation #3: Walking These tiles are used in the animation that plays in the north-end audience, where audience members walk and sit down. Audience - Animation 3 (Walking) 16 - Index 10x.psd Audience Animation #2 Tiles 0x0EC284 to 0x0EC7EE Unknown 0x0EC7EE to 0x0EC8A0 Audience Animation #2 Frames 0x0EC8A0 to 0x0ED180 Bench Animation These are the tiles used on the Bench Area. Rink - Bench - Animation 16 - Index 10x.psd Bench Animation Tiles 0x0ED1BA to 0x0ED7FA Unknown 0x0ED7FA to 0x0EDE8A Bench Animation Frames 0x00ED1BA to 0x0ED1B0 Credits Huge shoutout to @Jkline3, @von Ozbourne, and @kingraph who all helped with these findings! Thank-you guys, I couldn't have figured this stuff out without you. Edited December 27, 2023 by AdamCatalyst standardizing naming and formatting. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdamCatalyst Posted December 27, 2023 Author Report Share Posted December 27, 2023 (edited) Merry Christmas to all the NHL '94 modders out there! Here are my incomplete notes on modifying the animation. I haven’t had a chance to test all this, so please let me know if you spot any errors. And if you have anything you can add or share, please do, and I will try to update the main post with a link-back to you. Looking forward to what you all have cooking for the coming New Year. cheers, -Adam Edited December 27, 2023 by AdamCatalyst 1 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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