LAZYSHELL Files

LAZY SHELL - Super Mario RPG Editor
Version: 3.19.0
Date: January 22, 2014
Home Page: http://home.comcast.net/~giangurgolo/smrpg/
Written by giangurgolo and Omega

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INTRODUCTION
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Lazy Shell is a third party .NET application written in the C#
programming language which is capable of editing a wide range of
elements within the Super Mario RPG (US) ROM image file. These elements
include allies, battle animations, attacks, spells, sound effects,
music, battlefields, dialogues, fonts, effects, events, formations,
items, shops, level/location maps, the main title, menus, the mine-cart
maps, monsters, sprites, world maps, and more. In addition, it also
includes a help database and a project manager to help organize a full
hack project.

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PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS
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Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 or higher must be installed on the system
for the application to run at all.
Minimal system requirements:
512MB of RAM (1GB recommended)
10MB HD space (more if ROM back-ups used)

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MAIN FEATURES
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The editor is comprised of 17 individual editors. 
Various status editors include modification capabilities for the
statuses of monsters, formations, formation packs, items, spells,
attacks, shops, new game properties, level-ups, and timing properties.
The monsters editor contains a battle script editor for each monster. 
The Levels portion allows the user to modify the maps of areas (aka
locations) using a paint-like interface, the NPCs (ie the sprites in
the maps), the exit fields (aka entrances), event fields, overlaps, and
the basic layering properties. A template creator/editor lets the user
to store a separate portion of the map composed of all 3 layers and the
physical layer into a single file. 
The two scripts editors in Lazy Shell enable the user to modify the
event scripts, action scripts, and animations scripts. Commands within
event scripts and action scripts may be added, modified, deleted,
moved, or copied and pasted. Commands within animation scripts may be
modified, moved, or replaced with new commands of the same or smaller
length, but adding/deleting entirely new commands within animations is
not supported and never will be due to the fickle and erratic nature of
the animation script engine. 
The Sprites editor is able to modify a sprite's graphics, palette, and
animations. The effects editor allows the user to edit spell effects
and their respective graphics, palettes, and animations. 
In the Dialogue editor, the user may view and edit the dialogues (aka
the game script) as well as the dialogues which appear in battles and
the graphics of the dialogue background tiles. Fonts, font colors, and
a new font generator will let the user create an entirely new font
table based upon manual editing or a supportive font installed on the
OS.
In the World Maps editor World maps, world map palettes, and the
locations that appear on world maps can be modified. The logo banner
graphics and palettes can be modified as well.
The Audio editor can export, import, clear, and playback the audio
samples used by the SPC engine. The .wav files can be edited in a third
party program such as Audacity. SPC data can be edited in a variety of
ways, allowing the user to create entirely new pieces of music.
Instruments can be changed as well as well as the raw SPC track data,
which can even import custom scripts from a text document.
The mini-games editor so far can modify the minecart mini game maps for
all four stages and the objects in the same manner as levels. The menus
editor allows the user to modify the menu palettes and import an
external image into the menu backgrounds, as well as import an image
into the frame image.

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EXTRA FEATURES
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The portions of the editor have tooltips for almost every single
control. Just press F1 (or click the ? buttons found in most editors)
and move the mouse over a control to see what that property is for.
There is also a conversion tooltip for showing the hexadecimal or
decimal value for the value in the control when moving the mouse cursor
over it. Press F2 to enable this feature, or click the base conversion
button found in most editors. 
Users are also able to import and export many elements from previously
exported .dat, .bin, or .pal files in all portions of the editor as a
means of backing up or inter-changing elements. Clearing/erasing data
is managed as well so as to free up space for new scripts or dialogues.
The notes database manager was written for the editor to aid the user
aiming to create a full or partial hack. Indexes for elements such as
monsters, levels, etc. can be added and a user-defined description
provided as well. Adding new indexes is simplified with an option for
adding a specific index within a portion of the editor by right-
clicking the name list or index number. The user can also load a
selected index in the notes database manager into its respective
portion of the editor where it can be modified there.
The patch feature reads a list of patches from the currently defined
patch server http:// or ftp:// location and can apply those patches to
the currently loaded ROM image.
A previewer for levels, event scripts and battle scripts lets the user
load a temporary ROM created from the current modifications in the
currently loaded ROM image into an emulator of choice (the only options
so far are ZSNES and SNES9X). Lazy Shell will create a save state
which, when loaded, will immediately enter the current level or
initiate the current event or battle script.
There are many more smaller features which are too numerous to list
here, and are scattered throughout the editor with the purpose of
easing the use of Lazy Shell and reducing the amount of work required
to complete a task.
That's what all of these extra features are here for. Not as bells and
whistles, but for making the hacking process less headache-inducing.

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UNSUPPORTED FEATURES
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Lazy Shell can NOT edit the new game intro sequence and graphics, the
end credits graphics, or end credits fonts. It cannot make any changes
to 65c816 assembly code in the ROM image (with some small exceptions).
Additionally, ROM expansion is also not supported by the application
due to the complications of the SA-1 chip in the game's engine.

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FILES IN ARCHIVE
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*** Make sure all files stay within the same directory as each other,
or there will be problems running Lazy Shell ***


"LAZYSHELL.exe"

The application.


"Lunar Compress.dll"

Generates automatically when needed.
This file is essential to Lazy Shell's functionality. It decompresses
and compresses the data that Lazy Shell modifies. It is needed to run
the Stats, Levels, and Sprites editors and must be in the exact same
directory as LAZYSHELL.exe. Without it, the program is almost
completely functionless.


"RomPreviewBaseSave.000, RomPreviewBaseSave.zst"

These generate automatically when needed.
Base savestates for SNES9X and ZSNES, respectively. These are needed
for previewing levels, event scripts, and battle scripts using either
ZSNES or SNES9X. To avoid complications, make sure the emulators are in
the same directory as everything else and that their save directories
are configured likewise.


"changes.txt"

All of the fixes, modifications, and additions since the earliest
versions are chronicled here.


"readme.txt"

This file.


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BUGS, ERRORS, EXCEPTIONS AND COMPLICATIONS IN FUNCTIONALITY.
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The editor may occasionally crash or not function properly due to
certain errors in the code (although with each new bugfix I am aiming
to completely remove the possibility of this ever happening). Please
remember that this is almost certainly the programmer's fault and NOT
yours, the user's. As often is the case, when an error surfaces or the
program behaves in a buggy fashion, the user tends to immediately feel
that they are to blame or the programmer is blaming them for the error.
This is not correct: almost all of the time, it's the programmer's
fault. Incidences when it might be the fault of the user may be due to
a corrupt ROM being loaded (a corrupt ROM basically means any SMRPG rom
which has been modified in any way, shape or form). This includes a ROM
edited by Lazy Shell, but errors may occur if a ROM has been modified
outside of Lazy Shell (ie. a hex editor), or often times in much older
versions of Lazy Shell (v2.5 seems to be popular among users who find
problems with v3.x).
If the editor crashes, make sure it is the latest version of Lazy Shell
by clicking the "(i)" button in the main window and comparing the
version there to the version posted on the home page
(http://home.comcast.net/~giangurgolo/smrpg/).
If you are using the latest version, make a new post in one of these
threads:
http://acmlm.kafuka.org/board/thread.php?id=7005
http://www.smwcentral.net/?p=viewthread&t=45572
Explain exactly what you did to produce this error or cause this
disfunctionality to occur, what editor it was in, what order you did
your actions to produce this error or disfunctionality, etc. Also, when
the editor bugs out, an exception prompt appears. If you can manage to
copy the error message after this:
************** Exception Text **************
and include it in your post, it will definitely help. But most
importantly, you must explain in your post what you did. Only posting
the exception text alone will not be adequate enough.
The suggestions above are only suggestions. Sometimes only five words
might be enough for me to quickly locate the bug and fix it. Remember,
an error or bug is most likely NOT YOUR FAULT. Don't be afraid to
report an error should it occur. I do notice and try to fix every bug
that is reported, so your post won't be in vain (unless you're making a
request for an addition to the editor, which I am now ignoring due to
how time-consuming it can be).

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SPECIAL THANKS
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Yakibomb - discovered many bugs with later versions
ElementalPowerStar - feedback, discovered several bugs
Bregalad - source code for BRR encoding and decoding
FuSoYa - for permission to use Lunar Compress.dll
KP9000 - beta testing, discovered many bugs with pre-release version
MathOnNapkins - helped with some coding
Alex Farber - MRU list manager
spel werdz rite - resolution for running program under a 64-bit OS
romhacking community - various feedback