Ah, so I'd need to find out where VRAM is stored within the uncompressed savestate, and carve it out of the savestate then. I'll see if I can do that. But anyway, thanks for pointing out vSNES! It was truly a lifesaver in this case.

I mean a file of 1024 * 2 * 512 bytes, containing the VRAM (1024 x 512 pixels in 15bpp).
There's an example file included with Agemo's VRAM Viewer.

The savestates can be decompressed via WinRAR and similar programs; dunno if the file is zipped or RARed.

I could probably add RAR support with an external library, and take a closer look at ePSXe savestates. The question is, would that be useful to anyone?

To get a VRAM dump sb iq, one can do the following:

1.) Make a savestate in epsxe (F1 key if I remember correctly)
2.) You should end up with a file named something like SLUS_aaa.bb.ccc
3.) Replace the last three digits ("ccc" in this example) with the .rar extension. Provided you have WinRar installed on your PC, this should change the compressed savestate into a .rar archive.
4.) Unzip the .rar archive's contents into the same directory as Agemo's VRAM viewer. Then rename that newly-uncompressed file to VRAM.bin
5.) Double-click Agemo's executable, and the uncompressed savestate should load. Luckily, Agemo's viewer knows exactly where the VRAM is in the uncompressed savestate, and that's all it shows -- no extraneous data.

However, that's just where the fun begins. Agemo's viewer is difficult to work with at first; here's the tutorial I learned from: http://www.dragon-tear.net/forum/showpost.php?p=188751&postcount=23

That should get you started, whenever you get around to exploring this program. If you have any questions about using Agemo's viewer, I can field them here or via PM.

You'll need an actual ZSNES savestate handy if you want to try the method I reported above; if you don't have one, I can just link to one here I suppose.

Also sb iq, what exactly are you trying to do with the Tomb Raider textures? It's quite possible you can get Agemo's viewer to color them for you, and you can just take a screencap of the result -- the only reason I'm going through this bizarre process with Ogre Battle is that I'm trying to rip copious amounts of sprites with various different palettes applied to each. Luckily, when you're working with 3D models, all you have to worry about is a single texture for each model you're investigating. But then again, I'm totally unfamiliar with the Tomb Raider franchise, so there may be extenuating circumstances in your case.

Probably extracted from a savestate. You could also use pSX: show VRAM (F11), save a snapshot (F12, BMP format). The image data of that BMP file (begins at offset 72) is the VRAM.



Any of these locations:
 - application directory
 - current directory
 - System directory
 - Windows direcory
 - directories from PATH environment variable



As already mentioned, you can use vSNES to load/edit/save a 256-color palette (for example in 15 bpp, 512 byte-format) and save that to a ZST savestate to be loaded by TileMolester.


EDIT: I'll continue working on the program, but not now... still drugged from dentist visit. -_-

PVV v0.2

I guess PVV could now considered as an alternative to Agemo's VRAM viewer. The only thing it can't do is decoding "24-bit" and "24-bit MDEC" (video) graphics, but I doubt you'll need that. Usage should be a bit easier (mouse control, no need to manually decompress savestates).

No problem. Let me know if you have suggestions (like an option to let the program maximize at program start, or having the two scrollboxes aligned vertically instead of horizontally).

In theory it should be possible to find out the palette locations and to which data they're applied to - the info has to be stored somewhere. This might be in one of RHDN's PSX docs, but I haven't looked yet. If the info is in VRAM then it might be easy to implement.

Pardon my ignorance, as I am way too busy to review my hacking notes and test stuff out right now (moving to a new city, and salvaging files from a broken computer).

Could I convert a PSX palette/CLUT into a ZSNES savestate, and then use vSNES to convert that ZSNES savestate into a JASC Paint Shop Pro palette (a .pal file)?

So if I wanted to extract the CLUT from an epsxe savestate, under the "image" box would I select "select palette", select what I believe to be the CLUT in a green box, and then under the "palette" box hit "save..." and save it as a .zst, .pal, etc.?

Here is a snapshot of the VRAM when running Tomb Raider 1.



Am I correct in assuming that what I have surrounded with green spray paint in the picture below is the CLUT?



I actually extracted that area as raw data via a hex editor. How exactly do I make vSNES convert raw data into a .ZST savestate or a JASC .pal file? What makes this complicated is that it is 32,768 bytes.