Effect Files
Follow this link to view the graphics used by the actual effect files. They can be also be found within the Effect directory in an extracted iso or in Shishi Sprite Editor's more recent versions, in the Other images tab.
A thorough reading of this topic will provide information on editing these: http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=116&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=260
By converting the hexadecimal value assigned to the effect in the FFTPatcher's ability tab you can pinpoint which effect file is which within the directory.
A video compilation of all effects can be found here: http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=4830.0
There is a bunch of translated information about effect files in this thread: http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=6979.0
Example of effect data: https://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=12226.msg226345
Contents
Effect File Format
Based on Glain's forum post and Choto's Effect Editor [1] [2]
ASM Subroutine Section (Optional)
Header Section
This section contains a list of 10 offsets (4 bytes each). Offsets are from the start of this section, not the start of the file.
0x801b48d0 in RAM is a table of data that defines where the effect file header is stored (in RAM) for each effect ID.
For ID 0x155, the table location is: 0x155 * 4 + 0x801b48d0 = 0x801b4e24
The value at 0x801b4e24 is 0x801c3cfc, the RAM location where the header data starts.
Effect files are loaded into RAM at 0x801c2500, so this results in a file offset of 0x801c3cfc - 0x801c2500 = 0x17FC.
0x00 Frames Section? (Always 0x28)
0x04 Animations Section?
0x08 Effect Script Section
0x0C Emitter Control Section
0x10 Effect Timing/Control Section?
0x14 ? (Optional)
0x18 ?
0x1C Camera Section
0x20 ?
0x24 Palette offset
Frames Section
Section 1: List of Frame Sets? Unknown about first 6 bytes, then each halfword (uint16) + 4 is related to offset to each frame
Section 2: Frame Data, repeated for each frame
0x00 VRAM 1
0x04 VRAM 2
0x08 Load Location Top Left X (unsigned)
0x09 Load Location Top Left Y (unsigned)
0x0A Width (pixels) (signed)
0x0B Height (pixels) (signed)
0x0C Display Top Left X (signed)
0x0E Display Top Left Y (signed)
0x10 Display Top Right X (signed)
0x12 Display Top Right Y (signed)
0x14 Display Bottom Left X (signed)
0x16 Display Bottom Left Y (signed)
0x18 Display Bottom Right X (signed)
0x1A Display Bottom Right Y (signed)
Rotation?
Effect Script Section
A series of instructions that tell the effect how to animate. Has 3 types of sections: Starting Section, Loop Section, and Ending Section. There may be a second Loop Section and Ending Section if effect is multi-target.
Script instructions are defined by 1 ID byte + additional bytes for data/parameters
ID Bytes Desc
0x00 4 Jump (unconditional)
0x04 2 End Effect
0x05 2 Begin Effect
0x06 4 Setup Custom Routine Pointer
0x16 6 Decision branch?
0x1d 4 Conditional branch (Timing, duration?)
0x1e 4 Conditional branch (multi-target?)
0x1f 4 Conditional branch (based on hit counter)?
0x25 2 Effect processing (advance frame)?
0x27 2 Store motion data?
0x28 2 Graphics (timing?)
0x29 4 Graphics (multi-target?), can branch
0x2a 2 Clear temp data?
Emitter Control Section
Emitter Control Section Header (20 bytes)
0x02: Number of emitters
Emitter Section: 196 (0xC4) bytes long
0x03: Flag for animation target: 0x02 - targeted panel, 0x04 - on/over source unit, 0x06 - each target unit?
Camera Section
bitwise-and with 0x01e0 with each value (2 bytes) at the following offsets
0x0806 - 1 value
0x168a - 2 values (after the first 2 bytes that are zero)
0x185a - 2 values (after the first 2 bytes that are zero)
Command based on result:
0x01c0 Rotate (or center) toward target panel?
0x0140 Rotate (or center) toward source unit?
0x0100 Rotate (or center) back to original point?
Palette Section
512 colors, 2 bytes per color. Either 16 or 256 colors per palette depending of image data format (4bpp or 8bpp)
Image data
Starts 1024 + 4 bytes after the start of the palette data. May be 8bpp format (each full byte is index to palette), or 4bpp Multi-CLUT.
