PS2 TPS Camera Hack for Star Ocean: Till the End of Time

[qw90700]

I always wished the game had a TPS camera, this wish grew stronger and stronger and after decades, today, I just sat there and used PCSX2's debugger to find that damn byte among the ocean of bytes that makes camera change and here is the result lol:

Camera change changes tons of bytes but only 1 byte among a dynamic memory actually reverts the camera to TPS camera. In my case simply the byte "C4" had to stay "C3" so I wrote this pnatch the ensure C3 stays C3. However the pnatch I wrote cannot be valid for everyone due to the way where byte will be change every time you restart the game, however if you had used my save state and then activate the cheat the TPS hack will work, unless due to the emulator update how it uses memory changes.

The pnatch file:

gametitle = Star Ocean III - Till The End OF Time [SLUS 204.88] [U] [23A97857]

//TPS
patch=1,EE,00562627,byte,C3
patch=1,EE,00562627,extended,00000000

1st line machine guns "C3" value change into "C4" value to make camera go into TPS mode. However due to the way the byte is in a dynamic address it reverts back to C4 therefore it make camera trying to switch back between TPS and isometric camera so fast things gets shaky lol. To fix this issue that's where 2nd line comes in. It basically make that specific memory stop reacting anymore after C3 change is applied therefore it doesn't care when game trying to make C4 value active at that point.

Test it on Star Ocean: Till the End of Time (USA+UNDUB)'s Disc 1 if you want. Here are the necessary files: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OziCYv6TsdssALN6U3LMd2sGvXSNThIO/view?usp=sharing

Download the game from here: https://retrogametalk.com/repository/ps2-iso/star-ocean-till-the-end-of-time-usa/

Well it was a good way to spend my Sunday not gonna lie lol.

 

[Coon]

Good work buddy that looks good.

 

[Cloudstrife7894]

Does this work on original hardware?

If only the undub accounted for FMVs...

 

[qw90700]

Does this work on original hardware?

If only the undub accounted for FMVs...

Simple answer: It would work if I had found the value in a static memory address so thus I could make a cheat code you can use via OPL's cheat system. But for me that's too much work. I personally wouldn't try this on real hardware because IDK it can make your PS2 explode? lol

Then without using a broken PS2 only way that would left is hacking the rom itself by changing its camera logic code but then things would get so hard to do. It would be easier to redevelop game on Unity engine lol.

So the method I use relies on that particular version of the game (to be safe just in case), this emulator, a particular save state file and the pnatch file. Without any of these pnatch file wouldn't work because you need the save state file because it had a specific memory game using at that state so pnatch is created specifically for that state. And then IDK how undub edit changed the game so how it would effect how memory would behave, so IDK if even the save state would work or if it could if its memory would change.