How To: Advanced

**jeff** · #1 (**permalink**) December 27th, 2004, 04:21 PM

Advanced ideas and techniques for Themeing/Skinning.

bignose · #2 (**permalink**) December 30th, 2004, 05:51 AM

i want to know how you add the skin

alienshards · #3 (**permalink**) January 11th, 2005, 02:48 PM

am i the only one who doesn't get how to use advanced mode?

more specifically; how do you MOVE through the firmware, SCROLL the firmware, etc. that people use when talking about advance mode.

the help file i didn't understand...

**mixin** · #4 (**permalink**) January 11th, 2005, 04:21 PM

The basics are when in Advanced mode:

Press Up/Down to "scroll" through the firmware.
Press Ctrl+Up/Down/Left/Right to change width/height
Press Alt+Up/Down to move to next/previous bookmark
Press Ctrl+A to modify advanced info on a Bookmark

Advanced mode is essentially making all the data from the firmware into an image. This can then be used to look for patterns which could be an image. If you hold down up or down you can scroll quickly up or down through the data looking for anything that might be an image. Pressing left/right is kind of a fine tune if something is in the wrong place. And obviously if the image is 10pixels wide, you'd need the window to be 10px wide. Adjusted using Ctrl+left/right.

Seeing as i haven't looked for many images (I've mainly fine-tuned what Lord Julius already had) i can't give you a specific method which is best for finding stuff. I'm sure the big man himself will tell you of a great technique seeing as he's succesfully located 180+ images

Lord Julius · #5 (**permalink**) January 12th, 2005, 09:57 AM

Hi, the advanced mode is not called advanced for nothing

It requires some
work and experimenting to get used to. If you open the quick reference, from
the help menu, it will at least show you the keys (most, it's not completly up
to date). I admit the help file is very terse, but there's only so many hours in
a day, and it's not my highest priority. I'll try to add a tutorial in the next release,
but can't promise anything.

[Edit] The great technique, btw, is patience patience patience. I can't count
how many hours I spent searching through the firmware over and over again,
hunting for unknown images. No magic trick, just a lot of practice.

alienshards · #6 (**permalink**) January 13th, 2005, 02:45 PM

i guess i should have asked a bit more basic...

how do you get to advanced mode?

i mean, i turn on advanced mode to do some expirementing to see if i can figure it out

and then i'm lost.

because then i click on the Add.. . menu icon that got enabled.

and then... do i just randomly put numbers in, and then see if anything shows up?

**mixin** · #7 (**permalink**) January 13th, 2005, 02:57 PM

If you switch advanced mode on, and then go about pressing the keys i've written about above, you'll see the image window bit going all mental and moving about changing colours and what not. That's how you try and find images

You don't need to goto add unless you think you find something relevent.

alienshards · #8 (**permalink**) January 13th, 2005, 07:20 PM

ahh... that's what i didn't understand. i thought there was another window to go to for advanced mode.

thanks.

edit/

now i'm getting somepractice locating images and all. i found the boot screen! well, why do the colors change when you scroll?

Lord Julius · #9 (**permalink**) January 14th, 2005, 12:31 AM

Hi, the colours are in a list in front of the image, usually. That's called
prefixed mode and is the default setting. The distance to the image is
fixed, for example to 512 bytes. So if you scroll down the image, you
also scroll down the list (caled a palette). That means a different area
of the file is read for colours, and the colours change.
The best way around this is to switch to grayscale mode and search.
Only when you found an image, switch to prefixed and try to find the
palette offset. Good luck searching, Julius

PlayWithFire · #10 (**permalink**) February 17th, 2005, 10:28 AM

i am using v1.4 right now, and i've not found the places to change the icons in the menu, such as General, Display and the other ones. I guess they have just not been discovered yet? Has anyone tried? Since i am using a gradient background on the skin i am creating, the default icons look pretty crappy.

Lord Julius · #11 (**permalink**) February 17th, 2005, 12:09 PM

Good news: the palette for these pictures has been found! A new member
on misticriver, PaulJam, has detected them. He also keeps sending me the
most incredible bookmarks, for example he found the dot between the numbers
in the radio. He even found a 2x6 pixel colon in the middle of 2MB of binary
noise! Ladies and Gentlemen, a big handful of applause for PaulJam!
Although all these wonderful news delay the next release a bit

PlayWithFire · #12 (**permalink**) February 17th, 2005, 12:13 PM

oh, sweet!
the obvious question comes to mind about the release date, but i won't bug you with it

i'll just sit and wait patiently, or maybe try to find them myself. I experimented with the advanced mode for the first time and have managed to come accross the Hold Lock, and Connected Icon and a few others that i've already seen in 1.4
Looking forward to the next release

salival · #13 (**permalink**) February 17th, 2005, 01:28 PM

found the config. icons (width 48, Offset 2187990), now searching for the colors ^_^

(edit: I didn't read the post about that they were already found. two posts before this one -_-; Now i've got RSI for nothing ^_^ )

PlayWithFire · #14 (**permalink**) February 17th, 2005, 01:32 PM

AWESOME!
keep us posted!

GumBy · #15 (**permalink**) February 21st, 2005, 04:14 PM

The Radio Button!!!!!

Bless him and all the fruit of his loins.

The settings icons...

Damn him for creating more work.

Congrats, can't wait to see it in the next release.

celluloid.dreams · #16 (**permalink**) February 24th, 2005, 01:24 AM

julius? can we not have a the boomarks?

Lord Julius · #17 (**permalink**) February 24th, 2005, 04:22 AM

Sure. They're only for 1.27 K, of course, but you can search the exact
positions for other versions. There are some more, but they partly use yet
another type of palette, so I have to implement that. Things are a bit
crazy here at the moment, so I have to apologise for the ongoing delay.
It will go on for a bit longer

<H3Mod-Bookmarks>
<Firmware Version="H300 VER 1.27 K" />
<Bookmarks XmlVersion="1.2">
<Group Name="Radio">
<Bookmark Name="Point" Offset="1034348" Width="8" Height="6" PaletteType="Prefixe d" PaletteOffset="10343 00"
PaletteDelta="48" Colours="256" ColourDepth="8" SkinName="Point.gif" />
</Group>
<Group Name="Settings">
<Bookmark Name="New Settings Icon System" Offset="2195710" Width="48" Height="43" PaletteType="Prefixe d" PaletteOffset="10630 02"
PaletteDelta="113270 8" Colours="256" ColourDepth="8" SkinName="New Settings Icon System.gif" />
<Bookmark Name="New Settings Icon Screen" Offset="2197774" Width="48" Height="43" PaletteType="Prefixe d" PaletteOffset="10635 14"
PaletteDelta="113426 0" Colours="256" ColourDepth="8" SkinName="New Settings Icon Screen.gif" />
<Bookmark Name="New Settings Icon Clock" Offset="2199838" Width="48" Height="43" PaletteType="Prefixe d" PaletteOffset="10640 26"
PaletteDelta="113581 2" Colours="256" ColourDepth="8" SkinName="New Settings Icon Clock.gif" />
<Bookmark Name="New Settings Icon Control" Offset="2201902" Width="48" Height="43" PaletteType="Prefixe d" PaletteOffset="10645 38"
PaletteDelta="113736 4" Colours="256" ColourDepth="8" SkinName="New Settings Icon Control.gif" />
<Bookmark Name="New Settings Rep" Offset="2203966" Width="48" Height="43" PaletteType="Prefixe d" PaletteOffset="10650 50"
PaletteDelta="113891 6" Colours="256" ColourDepth="8" SkinName="New Settings Rep.gif" />
<Bookmark Name="New Settings Icon Sound" Offset="2206030" Width="48" Height="43" PaletteType="Prefixe d" PaletteOffset="10655 62"
PaletteDelta="114046 8" Colours="256" ColourDepth="8" SkinName="New Settings Icon Sound.gif" />
<Bookmark Name="New Settings Icon Rec" Offset="2208094" Width="48" Height="43" PaletteType="Prefixe d" PaletteOffset="10660 74"
PaletteDelta="114202 0" Colours="256" ColourDepth="8" SkinName="New Settings Icon Rec.gif" />
</Group>
</Bookmarks>
</H3Mod-Bookmarks>

**mixin** · #18 (**permalink**) February 24th, 2005, 04:45 AM

Isn't the palette data for those settings images like half the firmware away?

How the hell was that found?

Thanks again Lord Julius, and of course PaulJam

celluloid.dreams · #19 (**permalink**) February 25th, 2005, 02:02 AM

how do i put those bookmarks in to h3mod? cant you give us a bookmark file?

PaulJam · #20 (**permalink**) February 25th, 2005, 04:28 AM

Hi,

you need to copy the text into a texteditor and then save it as a text file with the extension ".h3x" . You can load the file in advanced Mode.

I think the colour depth of the Point.gif should be 24 colours (because the palettelength is only 48 bytes). I didn't change these values when i sent the bookmarks to Lord Julius.

PaulJam

celluloid.dreams · #21 (**permalink**) February 25th, 2005, 10:58 PM

thanks pauljam you are awesome for finding these.. keep up the good/hard work :P

plaidlightbulb · #22 (**permalink**) March 31st, 2005, 05:07 PM

where is the pallette set? i mean, there's a limited pallette and where does the firmware get the information of what colors are available?

**Sanitarium** · #23 (**permalink**) April 15th, 2005, 03:12 PM

I found IRM and also discoverd that the Music file types were conecter with th AVI file type.
Why did you split them?