Post by Mr.Curious on Jul 7, 2017 9:05:03 GMT 10
The Teleporter Room V.3
by Mr.Curious
Introduction
Teleport Room V.3
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by Mr.Curious
Introduction
Greetings Friends. It has been a long time in the making but today I am proud to bring you the very first Stage mod with custom models for Resident Evil 4 UHD... Ladies & Gentlemen, I present to you 'The Teleporter Room'!!!
Teleport Room V.3
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Teleport Room Information
File Size
Using the Teleporter Room is easy, but there are a few things to note. The first thing you might notice about the room is that it takes a few more seconds to load than most rooms. This is because of the large pack file that is included in the distribution. I tried to keep this as small as possible, but with all the door & ITM textures there were simply many files that had to be included. At some point I may create another version of the TR that will reference a different pack file, but for the time being we are using r22c pack file. How to access the Teleport Room
There are several ways to get to the TR but the easiest is to use the r100 UDAS file included in the download. This r100 file is exactly like the default one except that there are two new AEV trigger zones. One is a SAVE right at the start of the game, and the other is a direct teleport to the TR (room r22c) located a few steps to the right of where we spawn (near the cop car).
Another method to get to the Teleport Room is to simply navigate to any of the Shooting Gallery rooms in the game and teleport up to the TR from there. There is a small AEV trigger with the caption "?" in the left side of the Shooting Gallery room on the main floor that will take you upstairs to the TR. There are also numerous ways to get back down to the Shooting Gallery when you wish.
Extras Games
Another thing of special note is how we are now able to start the Extras Games without accessing the Main Menu. What this means is now we can simply teleport from the TR to any Mercenaries stage! This is a really cool feature because we can get any weapons we want before going into the Mercs stages and bring them with us. One glitch though is that the Mercs game will not keep score while we play (will show when we die) if we use the TR to get to Mercs but this drawback is minimal. With this being said, we are also able to teleport directly from the Teleport Room into the Assignment Ada & Separate Ways games. This means that we can actually use Leon, Krauser, Hunk, and other characters in these games right from the start.. As you may already know, there are AEV events (like Ada's hook shot) in Separate Ways that we can not do with Leon, but I have created another mod that enables us to navigate the game without restrictions. We can now successfully play character swaps in Main Game & Separate Ways with my Character Swap Stage Fixes RE4UHD mod.
Unlocking content
There are also two other interesting features: There is a location in the TR to teleport directly to a new game without changing menus. There is also another location to teleport directly to the very end of the game so that if your game is not unlocked with Extras all you have to do is teleport using the "?" skull to the end of the game and your game will be unlocked after you save the game.
Key Items
Also featured in the Teleport Room are key items that are used throughout the game (like keys & other items that unlock doors). This will enable us to jump all over the place in the game, skipping areas we wish to avoid, or helping us get around problems faced with character swapping games (example: getting Leon the Insignia Key before he teleports into Separate Ways because he cant use the hook shot to get onto roof to get the key), or giving Krauser the JetSki key to finish the game. Unlimited Ammo, Cash Drops & Weapons
Another handy feature of the Teleport Room is that there is unlimited ammo provided! Also available for players to collect are ALL the weapons, as well as two huge cash drops that should give you enough money to buy anything your heart desires throughout the game. Please Note - To be able to obtain all weapons you need to download & install the Inventory Fix created by 3getu841.
Shooting Gallery
Since the TR was created in the same room as the shooting gallery we can actually access the target practice game directly, either through regular means by speaking to the Merchant or by using a shortcut that I created which puts us right in the shooting gallery without talking to the Merchant. What this shortcut does is allows us to play the target practice game with any of the weapons we bring into the room!
Bugs
From time to time there is a game crash that will occur after we use the TR to teleport somewhere and then go through a door in the new room that is behind us. I am not sure what causes this but it only happens in some rooms and it does not happen all of the time. Also if you want to load a save after going through the TR, always go back to the main menu first before loading a save.
FIXES - download the 4GB patch here to fix any crashing issues with the Teleport Room.
Version Update:
the Teleport Room V.2 now features:
- new misc weapon items including scopes, stocks, and silencer for handgun.
- a Merchant in the store room (he can only sell us a XL attache case but this is still useful)
- new spawn position in the the store room from when we start new game.
History, Creation, & Motivation
Which room to use?As mentioned above this all started when I got into AEV modding. I was playing around with making a new typewriter save and then tried changing it to a doorway to another room. When it worked I thought later on who cool it would be to be able to go anywhere in the game at any time, and the idea of the Teleport Room was born.
When I first made the TR, I was using r100 as the base room, but after speaking with Albert from the RE4 HD project I decided to move it to r101, then to r312, and then eventually over to r22c. There are several reasons for choosing r22c as the room. For one, this small room is only really used for the shooting gallery that is located throughout the game. Making the TR in this room made sense because I did not have to interfere with a room that was part of the main story. Also, I tried using other rooms (like r312 which is essentially a closet) but there were issues with enemies not spawning after teleporting form the TR, so I decided to stay with r22c. Also this room has limited effect groups & EAR entries so it was a basic room to use with not too many variables to deal with.
What are the possibilities that arise?
It occurred to me that I could perhaps create a teleport from Mercs to the TR so players could chose any character they wish then be able to teleport into the main game, making it possible to avoid having to use trainers for character swapping. The idea was that players could simply start a Mercs game normally then teleport out of the room into the main game. The idea worked in theory (I was able to use any character out of the room), but there is that same issue whereby no enemies spawn if we teleport from Mercs to any other area of the game and this caused crashes in some rooms.
A workaround I created was to teleport to the very end of the of the game from Mercs so it would simply close with the credits and create a save, but the game crashes when teleporting from Mercs to the end of the game. There is something the game does when jumping from Mercs to other areas that erases enemy data so in some instances when the game calls on those enemies, the game crashes or we are left with nothing to do.
When plaings Mercs, the game calls on the omake.esl files for enemy data, but when we teleport out of the game the game doesnt load the emleon.esl files as this file is only loaded when we start a new game or it uses data saved in the savegame.sav file. This seemed like great idea but with the limitations of the game for now this is not a stable alternative to using trainers for character swaps.
What did I learn?
What started as a simple experiment in AEV modding turned into a full blown obsession to create a fully functional custom stage that would allow players to teleport to any room in the game with ease. I was heavily researching AEV & ITA files when I presented Son of Persia with my findings. He was kind enough to bless me with some pre-releases of some new tools he was developing, some of which that were fined tuned from data that I shared with him. Little by little he would share new tools with me, much of the time with me asking millions of questions (Mr.Curious he calls me), and over time he would give me a new tool to explore. When he first gave me the SMD tool I knew I had to make a custom room, and what better way to test out my new found knowledge of the AEV files that to make a room with teleportation.
Over months & months of time I did a lot of experiments and asked a lot of questions. I spent countless hours (sometimes up to 12 hours a day, 5 days a week) learning 3Ds Max and HEX editing the game files, documenting every move that I made. Many weeks went by and I started to learn the new tools from Son of Persia. I messaged him every single day, sometimes up to 3 times a day because I was so thirsty for knowledge! (I don't know how he put up with my endless questions! I guess the answer is that he saw someone who was determined so he took the time to help, and for this I am grateful). Remember friends.. strong communities do better when we share information and learn form one another, and this is why I have taken the time to write many of the tutorials that will be released with these new tools.
In the past 4 months I mostly studied how the AEV & ITA files worked. Later I learned about the Stage Model tool (with many success & failures), then went on to learn the other tools.. the ETM tools, then the ETS.... and slowly over time I would chose another new part of the game to learn about. Over the last several months I have learned almost all there is to know about AEV, ITA, ITM, ETM, ETS, SMX, LIT, EAT, SAT and SMD modding. Thay being said there is still so much more to learn.. the journey is endless.
The most exciting part was when Son of Persia finished the collision tool. I remember staying up late at nights searching over the old site reading old conversations between Codeman & Infernal when they were trying to figure out the collision data, but it never came to be. I even had dreams about the day we would have collision data. When that day finally came and I saw the gift from Son of Persia in my inbox I almost died from excitement!
The most difficult of all this learning quest were the EFF & LIT files. The effects & lighting in this game are the most complicated things I have ever come across (to the point where I was ready to give up), and to be honest all credit is due to Albert on teaching me what I know now (which is still quite limited). I think I e-mailed Albert every night (still am) with questions on the Effects & Lighting. I am grateful to have all the teachers in my life.
So what did I learn? I learned that this game is a royal pain in the ass to mod! (I know... I was warned haha). There are serious limitations to this old engine but I think that it is these limitations that keep the process interesting enough to keep trying. If everything & anything was possible form the start it simply would not be a challenge and therefore not much fun to do. Sometimes it really is all about the journey, not the destination.
What does this mean for future mods?
The new tools that Son of Persia is developing are amazing and will totally change how this game is modded. Soon you will all have the ability to make your own rooms, complete with collision data, dynamic lighting, custom models, effects and much more. This Teleporter Room is not just a room to play with, it is a tool for those of you who will continue onto the next level of modding RE4UHD; Stage Modding. By creating the TR, modders will now have instant access to all the rooms of the game, making it easier to access for model & texture references. Instead of having to remember what save you had for what room, you can simply go to the Teleporter Room and go anywhere you like. Modders who decide to get into stage modding will find this Teleporter Room a very handy resource for getting around the game for sourcing models & textures.
Credit is due
Albert & is a true MASTER of modding RE4. His knowledge is so mind blowing that I lay awake at night wondering how the hell he knows what he knows. Sometimes I suspect he actually worked on developing the game, or that he is friends a dev because the things he knows seem impossible to know by experiments alone, but the truth is he is simply a devoted explorer with an incredibly sharp mind. It's seriously amazing how deeply he understands the mechanisms of this game with all its endless technicalities. The work he is doing is truly mind blowing.
My other teacher & friend is Son of Persia. He is an incredible coder and dedicated modder. We are all so lucky to have a person who spends countless hours developing the tools we need to do this. None of this is possible without his contributions to this community. We would all be stuck HEX editing without his toolsets and unable to even touch models. To top all of this off, he has a huge heart (like most Persians I know), and is ready to serve his community. When I was ready to give up and throw in the towel Son of Persia & Albert kept me going, so I want acknowledge their kindness, support, and patience with me for the last 4 months. THANK YOU MY BROTHERS!!!!
I would also like to acknowledge the master modder 3getu841 from the Girls of Biohazard site. Over the months of learning he was a great friend & teacher to me as well. His skills & knowledge about player models & animations is like no other. He is also another true master modder of this game. Thank you my friend for all the emails we sent for every single night for weeks on end!
Also of notable mention is the now retired master modder Crzosk. Wherever you are dude, you were one of the best, and I hope to ask you a million questions if you ever emerge from the shadows.
Thank you all for taking the time to read this,
Mr.Curious
2017
, can't wait to try this 
, Good Work Mr.Curious
