Opening logo layout analysis?

[NERV Agent]

I ripped this with Tim2View from the PSX version from the file "OPENING_21.data" contained within "MOVIE/OPENING.BIN".

As you can see, the image is chopped up and rearranged differently when compared to the way it is seen in game.

I am trying to do an analysis on how this is arranged exactly, down to the very pixel.

My plans for this analysis is to do the following:

1.) Draw “border lines” on the separate the chopped up pieces into marked sections.
2.) Reinsert this into the ISO.
3.) Make a 320 x 240 screenshot of this running, to see where the sections really do wind up.

I intend on making a sort of "input"/"output" template to see where exactly everything matches up (right down to pixel accuracy) so anyone wishing to change the logo with something else will know how to chop up and rearrange their custom image.

Today, after a couple hours of comparing the ripped image from "OPENING_21.data" and a screenshot from the PSX game, and keeping in mind that computers like multiples of 8, these are the borders that I think separate the different chunks.

As you can see, I'm not done. I'm still not sure where one section ends and another begins.

Also, what's up with "© 1997 SQUARE" being duplicated in the ".PNG" I ripped from "OPENING_21.data"?

And is the middle "SQUARESOFT" the same logo that appears after "Sony Computer Entertainment America Presents"?

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Cthulhu]

One thing I am noticing is that the image as you posted it is exactly 256 pixels wide, which is the highest number that can be represented with an 8-bit number. What width do other images in the game have?

edit: that doesn't explain the somewhat arbitrary looking vertical slicing though. How high is the taller part of the main logo?

 

[Flintlock]

I don't see why a 32-bit console would be limited to 2^8 pixels in width.

 

[Ghost X]

They're probably just being economical with storage space.

 

[NERV Agent]

One thing I am noticing is that the image as you posted it is exactly 256 pixels wide, which is the highest number that can be represented with an 8-bit number. What width do other images in the game have?

edit: that doesn't explain the somewhat arbitrary looking vertical slicing though. How high is the taller part of the main logo?

I gotta look into that, as I was messing around with the title screen a few weeks ago.

As for the "arbitrary looking vertical slicing though", I assume you mean the neon green line? Yeah, in retrospect it seems arbitrary.

In JASC Paint Shop Pro 9, I used a setting that makes an 8x8 pixel grid visible. However, not all the graphics fit "snugly" into these boxes, but I got a good idea of where possible borders could be.

When I cut off the neon green (top) and yellow (bottom) sections by drawing the "border" lines as close as possible to the logo graphics, I noticed a black space between the two.

I tried lowering the neon green "border" pixel by pixel in that black space, checking the height to see if it would be a multiple of 8. Nada.

So I raised the yellow "border" pixel by pixel in that black space, checking the height to see if it would be a multiple of 8. I reached a height of 40, which is a multiple of 8.

So then I just lowered the neon green "border" to be on top of that.

I'll check the exact dimensions, but I'm on a different computer right now.

Thank you all for the response.

 

[Fangu]

I don't see why a 32-bit console would be limited to 2^8 pixels in width.

On top of my head - because you always need to save some additional space for other things. Like, I dunno, meta data. It's like with negative numbers - you need to save space for the minus that describes that this is indeed a negative number. And so theoretically a negative number will take up more space than a positive.*
Kind of unrelated I guess, but you get what I'm saying.

* Not really, as you'll save that first space for positive numbers as well, but, theoretically you could describe a higher (given it's positive) number when it's positive.

 

[Flintlock]

I do get what you're saying - signed vs. unsigned integers, for example. But I doubt that's the case here. I don't know enough about the PS1's hardware, game discs or the software Nerv used to extract the image, so I can't say for sure, but if each pixel is 32 bits and the image is 256x240 pixels, that's still only about 2^21 bits in total. Even with possible metadata (or similar), there'd be so much room to spare that I don't understand why it would be designed in such a way.

 

[Cthulhu]

Maybe there's specialized instructions or optimizations in the CPU or GPU for 8-bit numbers / images-of-that-size?

 

[Fangu]

Yeah. I don't know a thing about C (or, well, I know its main differences from its followers), or frameworks written in C, or games written in C, but my next guess would be that it's related to how it's all glued together, for optimization and shit.

 

[NERV Agent]

'K, I'm back on my other computer.

I looked at a 320 x 240 pSX 1.13 screenshot of the logo in game.

The “comet” logo is 283 x 133 pixels. Computers like multiples of 8, so I keep increasing width and height until I get something divisible by 8. The “comet” logo might actually be 288 x 136 pixels.

The "© 1997 SQUARE" logo is 122 x 11 pixels. Round this off to multiples of 8, and that logo might be 128 x 16 pixels.

 

[NERV Agent]

DLPB of Qhimm showed me the ending logo files (the scene with Red XII running with cubs) from the PC version, and I got a few ideas on how this is separated, but I am unsure of a few things.

Here are the results of my work yesterday evening:

If I put the top "comet tail" and "VII chunk" in its proper space, I get this:

I am pretty confident about the areas with the orange and magenta. However, I don't know where the "neon green" box containing the bottom of sphere of the "comet" ends.

And I just realized that the true size of the “yellow” box might be bigger than this, since this 256 x 240 “.TIM” file is smaller than the actual screen size of 320 x 240.

That, and I gotta account for all the blank space. Should I just assume the game just fills that space automagically without referring to any portion of this ".TIM" file?

Any input on piecing together this puzzle would be appreciated.

 

[Cthulhu]

Maybe you should find a game making community or something that knows their shit about older games, how assets were stored and displayed, etc. It's probably something common.