BiT Research Topic

Ok, here's how BiT skyloft works. (feel free to correct me testrunner)

When you continue and reset to initiate BiT you actually spawn on the title screen's map. If you look at the title screen normally, you'll see that there's actually an entire skyloft map on it. If you look hard, you'll see that the title screen is very bright, the same reason BiT skyloft is very bright. You actually spawn on that title screen map. That means that obviously, things like the knight don't have to be in the map, however, for some reason I don't know, triggers still work perfectly fine for the most part. You are not in faron trial, or anywhere else, you are actually on the title screen's version of skyloft.

Airikita wrote

New breakthrough/theory: is Skyloft BiT the REAL Skyloft, or the psuedo-Skyloft you see in the skies when flying your Loftwing???

Video: http://youtu.be/B9t8YjJkNRQ

With my new discovery - loading a map in BiT psuedo-Skyloft, it's clear that this isn't really Skyloft you're on, but the Sky itself!

Surely you can't go to the Lumpy Pumpkin or the color island, but technically I should be able to fly my Loftwing below the clouds! However, loading a map from my complete file has actually loaded the sky when it should have loaded Skyloft-only!

Technically, think of it - no people, and the mirror is down. Possibly the ONLY reason you see the full Skyloft at night is because, when you leave a house, you're ACTUALLY ENTERING SKYLOFT!


The only reason Lumpy Pumpkin is notloaded is that it "thinks" you're actually in Skyloft, so it loads the statues, but the people actors are still missing, including the knights. Also, note that the birds flying above Skyloft only appear when you're in the sky.

So, you're not really in Skyloft.

Also, when you save at a save point, and start a file and it's all bright, remember this: the intro that you play on a new file? The cutscene where Zelda hands the letter to her bird looks EXACTLY like the Skyloft you see when you save at a save point in BiT and start your file!

^ your on two maps TLoZSR my theory was that your on three all at the same time which would explain atleast tom me any way why we cant go inside and back out a building 

You are in the title screen.
I promise you that you are not on 2 or 3 maps.
BiT has nothing to do with the Faron Trial, that is complete and absolute bullshit.
BiT in every other game just puts you on the title screen, or in The Wind Waker's case, on the map you were returning to.
The colors of the actual title screen is the same as the BiT map.
The Knight doesn't spawn for the cutscene because his actor is not on that map. Because of this, the camera is not able to follow him and it is glitched.

I can tell you this: loading 3 maps on top of each other would look horrible and most likely crash because of lack of RAM.

The Faron silent realm is a map. Each map has it's own lighting. There is no reason, and most likely no possibility, that a map could load from another map's data. If you were in the Faron silent realm, you would be in Faron, in the silent realm. Not on Skyloft.

You can load elements from another map with TP BiTE though IIRC.

mzxrules wrote

You can load elements from another map with TP BiTE though IIRC.

So you can be on one map with what elements from another map?

The only thing that really stands out is that you pull the area music from the other save. I also want to say that the lighting is different as well

kenshen wrote

^ your on two maps TLoZSR my theory was that your on three all at the same time which would explain atleast tom me any way why we cant go inside and back out a building  

You're wrong about why you can't go inside and back out a building, and I'll tell you why. It's pretty simple really, when you cause a BiT certain flags aren't set because when F000_stg_l0.arc.LZ is loaded up, it's using one of two available zev.dat files for skyloft, one being for the normal skyloft and one for the title screen. So when you try enter a house you're not setting those flags (or setting them to incorrect values) which causes the game to invoke a kind of "Failsafe" mode, which is better than the DSI you get when trying to load an invalid file.

EDIT:
iirc the alternate zev.dat file isn't stored with skyloft, it may be imbedded within the main.dol (haven't checked)

Can someone figure out where BiT reads from memory? This has been kinda annoying for a while. Tricks like "opening the gates in BiT" and "Early Thunderhead" and all the various random cutscenes that play... it's all very mysterious. Like I understand the general idea behind it, I was just hoping someone could find the specifics. I'm fairly sure there's got to be some stuff we are missing if we just had some detailed testing in a memory viewer.

TestRunner wrote

Can someone figure out where BiT reads from memory? This has been kinda annoying for a while. Tricks like "opening the gates in BiT" and "Early Thunderhead" and all the various random cutscenes that play... it's all very mysterious. Like I understand the general idea behind it, I was just hoping someone could find the specifics. I'm fairly sure there's got to be some stuff we are missing if we just had some detailed testing in a memory viewer.

I'm not sure exactly how it works, but it seems to me that BiT is simply a failsafe, a kind of error handler. The affects of the BiT, while unintended, were considered better than the alternative. Overall it's just bad programming on Nintendo's part. As for the exact details of HOW it works, again I'm not certain.

FYI: some BiT stuff, choco and I are trying to find some more stuff with BiT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XR5_Z5KrSbs

Reposted here in case youtube eats it:

The area you're working in is known as "Level scratchpad", basically it's where volatile metadata gets stored, if you wish to know more about the format please refer to my documentation project:
https://code.google.com/p/skyward-sword-save-editor/source/browse/trunk/save%20editor/Skyward%20Sword%20Save%20Format.txt

I've also written a save editor for it available on my github: https://github.com/Antidote

BiT stuff from Bob_LobLaw

http://pastebin.com/zJBAmBri

He's correct on every point except one, he used binary blob correctly XD

Some things that bug me about the pastebin.

Object State is a terrible name since object is such a broad term, and the flags don't capture the state of a singular entity. They seem to be equivalent to Ocarina of Time's scene flags, but maybe i'm mistaken?

I don't like the term blob because blobs have an indefinite shape, whereas if i'm reading it right each "blob" is a static 16 bytes. I'd call it a block.

"It's important to note that the arrangement and schema of one blob, have nothing to do with any other. What would be a perfectly reasonable blob in Faron might be complete nonsense if inserted into the spot of the Skyloft blob, for example."

That to me seems unnecessarily confusing. Should be something like "The data in one block will be interpreted differently if loaded in a different area".

"Note: if you monkey with the state index byte, you still won't be able to get your file to load your area into a bizarre state. I'm guessing that the game performs some sort of sanity check to make sure that this index belongs with the map you're saved in. This begs the question of why it stores this byte at all since it calculates it on load"

Not sure what that means exactly.

I fucking love how BiT has turned into a trick that involves manipulating bits.

Warchamp7 wrote

For those who were curious, glitching the GS this way and then grabbing the practice sword does nothing. You maintain the GS :P

As for dying in Skyloft, you can jump from the Goddess Statue area down to the area below where you normally follow Fi to get up. I'm not sure if there's a more effective way or not.

You can jump off the top of the Light Tower to take damage, but it's a pain in the ass to climb up, jump off, climb up, jump off, etc.

I'm aware that it's known (posted in the BiTloading pastebin), but adding a bit of detail:

Working on making my own Hero Mode file for both Any% and 100%, with exactly what's necessary and nothing more, so I'm currently on Adventure Mode (Normal Mode), doing the BiTWarp to skip Scrapper Escort (saved just outside Fire Sanctuary, at Inside the Volcano if I remember the statue name correctly), and I had Light Tower CS play during BiT after accidently selecting the file and backing out of the save statue to reposition myself. This is known to be possible, nothing new here. No clue yet if it will screw me or not, haven't continued the game since. Don't think it will as I didn't try and load any files while the CS was playing.
EDIT: I'd attempted the BiTWarp before, hugging the statue on the right side, and found myself a bit far away from the vines and had to reset to redo the warp after getting stuck when I fell, jumpslashed in midair, landed, and hit the Fi trigger below. The CS occurred during the second attempt at the BiTWarp.


After the cutscene played, I still retained control of Link and was able to move him around and position myself correctly for the BiTWarp. From what I've read here, viewing a CS during BiT is supposed to remove control of Link from you, and you don't retain control when it ends. Can try and upload the file set as it is now, perhaps it can be combed over to view the differences.
Of note is I am playing on a Wii U in WiiMode (using the Home Menu for resets); not sure if this is relevant or not. While I was attempting to position myself for the BiTWarp, I was continuously Z-targeting the statue; perhaps this let me retain control?

EDIT: Save attached (125kb): Save file 1 is the file I'm setting up, File 2 is corrupt file, File 3 is for BiTMagic. File 1 is currently saved in BiT Skyloft at UA statue with respawn location at Eldin Volcano statue.



Couple observations, most probably already known, unrelated to above.
Viewing the Lanayru Gorge entrance CS early, via BiTWarping OOB and accessing Lanayru Caves early, places the world map in a semi-glitched state; the game assumes that Lanayru Gorge is the last location you visit and thus fills everything else in, even if you haven't been there yet (Sorted by region. Lanayru: Sand Sea, Desert, Temple of Time. Eldin: Volcano. Faron: Lake Floria). Also, whenever you view another area's entrance CS, the Lanayru Gorge region is always filled in, but the map properly zooms in on the correct area. So far I haven't encountered an issue, nor do I believe I will as I'd viewed the Eldin Volcano entrance CS (the last area before Lanayru Gorge) and no issues occurred.

If you fail to BiT off the corrupt file (select Continue, but not reset), you crash with a black screen. Likely because no respawn location is set, if I had to guess, though there's probably more reasons (trying to heal 0 health, for example)

Deathwarping is so hard when stuff does half of Hero Mode damage to twelve hearts. Anyone deciding to make their own hero mode 100% files, get ready to love your Corrupt File!