>I was looking over your webpage and was wondering if you would publish the
>information you have found out about the data format for the Chao on the VMU.
>
>This would greatly help others who are trying to develop tools to edit Chao.

I dobut you'll get anything out of him.
I asked and he didn't want to release any info in risk of it getting
'stolen' or something like that.

Anyway, here's something that may help you. It's a guide I released on a
chao hacking mailing list awhile back, and since then a few people have
provided more info for me to add as I became lasy and stopped looking for
info. I probably have information sitting on my HD that I didn't add, but
this alone should be enough to allow you to make the kind of chao you
want without an editor.


---------------------------------------------------------
******** *** *** ****** **********
********** *** *** ******** ************
**** *** *** *** ******** ************* *********
*** ** *********** ** ** ***** ***** *************
*** *********** *** *** **** **** *************
*** *********** ********** *** **** *** ****
**** *** *** *** ********** **** ***** *** ****
*********** *** *** *** *** ************* ****
********** *** *** *** *** *********** ****
******** *** *** *** *** ********* ****
****
** **** ** * **** * ******* * **** ***** ****
**** * * * * ** ** * ** * * * * ** ************
* * * * * * *** ***** ** * * *** **** ************
**** * * **** ** ** ** ** **** ** * ** ************
* * **** ** **** ** * ** ** ** ****
* ***
# # ### ### # # # # # ### ### # # # ## ####
#### # # # # # # # ## # # # # # # # ## #
#### ##### # ## # # ## # ### # ### # # # # ## ##
# # # # #### # # # # # ### ### ### # ### ####
/-----------------------------------------------------\
/ Created by sonicblur - sblur@... \
\-------------------------------------------------------/

This is the Chao Adventure 2 Hacking guide. It contains information
on how to edit your Chao Adventure 2 VMS file from the Sonic Adventure
2 game to change information about your chao, such as it's stats, name,
and appearence. The only things you need to use this guide are
knowledge of how to use a hex editor, a VMU, and some way to get your
chao adventure 2 VMS file to and from your Dreamcast. Make sure the
line below this fits on your screen for proper viewing of this
document. Also make sure you are using a monospaced font. In this
document, hex locations will be refered to in 0x000000 form, and hex
values will be in 00h form.
-=====================================================================-
The chao data in chao adventure 2 begins directly after the icon. The
first data you will see is the owner information. The table below
explains the owner information.

/=========================== The owner ========================\
/----------------------------------------------------------------\
| Location | Length | Description |
| ======== | ====== | =========== |
| 0x000883 | 1 | The owners age. Stored as normal hex. |
| | | |
| 0x000884 | 1 | The owners gender. 81h = Male |
| | | 82h = Female |
| | | Any other value is listed as ? |
| | | |
| 0x000885 | 1 | The owners blood type. 80h = A |
| | | 81h = B 82h = AB 83h = O |
| | | Any other value is listed as A |
| | | |
| 0x000886 | 2 | Owners birthday. Stored as normal hex. |
| | | First byte is month, second is day. |
| | | |
| 0x000888 | 8 | The owners name. The first letter of the |
| | | name has 20h subtracted from it. |
| | | |
| 0x0008A0 | 15 | The owners Favored person place or thing. |
| | | Every character is stored with 20h |
| | | subtracted from it. |
| | | |
| 0x0008B0 | 15 | The owners secret. Every character is |
| | | stored with 20h subtracted from it. |
\----------------------------------------------------------------/

/=================== Chao Name ==================\
/--------------------------------------------------\
| Location | Length | Description |
| ======== | ====== | =========== |
| 0x000A08 | 8 | The chao's name. The first |
| | | character of the name has |
| | | 20h subtracted from it. |
\--------------------------------------------------/

Below is the Chao Type data. This allows you to change the type
of chao you have to any other type of Chao. The chao type is one
byte long.

/=================== Chao Type ===================\
/---------------------------------------------------\
| Location | Known Values |
| ======== | ============ |
| 0x000A00 | 02 = Baby 03 = Normal Adult |
| | 06 = Normal Hero 0A = Normal Dark |
| | 0C = Flying Hero 10 = Running Dark |
| | 13 = Power Dark 14 = Normal Light |
| | 15 = Hero Light 16 = Dark Light |
\---------------------------------------------------/

The Chao Appearence Information is next. You can change a bunch
of things in order to alter the look of your chao.

/====================== Chao Appearence ====================\
/-------------------------------------------------------------\
| Location | Description | Known Values |
| ======== | =========== | ============ |
| 0x000A9D | Chao Eyes | 00 = Plain Eyes |
| | | 04 = Happy Animie Eyes ^^ |
| | | 09 = Tired Eyes |
| | | 0A = Angry Eyes |
| | | |
| 0x000A9E | Chao Mouth | 00 = No Mouth |
| | | 01 = Toothy Grin |
| | | 02 = Open Mouth o |
| | | 03 = Smiling Mouth |
| | | 04 = Little Frown |
| | | |
| 0x0008A4 | Chao Head | 00 = Nothing 01 = Pumpkin |
| | | 02 = Skull 03 = Egg Shell |
| | | |
| 0x000AAA | Costume | 00 = Normal Chao |
| | | 01 = Egg |
| | | 02 = Omochao |
| | | 03 = Animal (See Chart) |
| | | |
| 0x000AAB | Kind of Animal | If costume is 03, use the |
| | | chart below for Animals |
| | | |
| 0x000AA6 | Chao Jewlery | *Values Unknown* |
| | | |
| 0x000AA7 | Normal Color Mod | *Values Unknown* |
| | | |
| 0x000AA8 | Chao Jewel Color | 00 = Normal 01 = Gold |
| | | 02 = Silver 03 = Ruby |
| | | 04 = Green 05 = Blue |
| | | 06 = Pink 07 = Orange |
| | | 08 = Amethyst 09 = Emerald |
| | | 1A = Rust 1B = Fuisha |
| | | 1C = Black w/ Green Flames |
| | | 1D = * Brown Stripes |
| | | 1E = * Bright Green Flames |
| | | 1F = * Coffee Stripes |
| | | |
\-------------------------------------------------------------/

/========== Animal MODs ==========\
/-----------------------------------\
| Location | Chao Part Modified |
| ======== | ================== |
| 0x000AB4 | Arms |
| 0x000AB5 | Ears |
| 0x000AB6 | Front of Head |
| 0x000AB7 | Back of Head |
| 0x000AB8 | Feet |
| 0x000AB9 | Tail |
| 0x000ABA | Wings |
| 0x000ABB | Face |
\-----------------------------------/

The Animal Values work for Animal Mods and the Kind of Animal if the
Chao Costume is Animal.


/============== Animals =============\
/--------------------------------------\
| 00 = Penguin 01 = Fish |
| 02 = Otter 03 = Rabbit |
| 04 = Cheetah 05 = Boar |
| 06 = Bear 07 = Tiger |
| 08 = Gorrilla 09 = Peacock |
| 0A = Parrot 0B = Vulture |
| 0C = Skunk 0D = Sheep |
| 0E = Racoon 10 = Ghost |
| 11 = Bone Dog 12 = Dragon |
| 13 = Unicorn 14 = Phoenix |
\--------------------------------------/

Next is the chao stats. Every stat is 2 bytes long, and stored
backwards. The stats are also multiplied by 10. As an example,
a stat which has a value of 1E23h, is actually 231E, and has
a value of 8990. However, it's real value is 899, as the last
place is ignored.

/============= Chao stats ============\
/---------------------------------------\
| Location | Length | Description |
| ======== | ====== | =========== |
| 0x000A18 | 2 | Swim: SWM |
| 0x000A1A | 2 | Fly: FLY |
| 0x000A1C | 2 | Run: RUN |
| 0x000A1E | 2 | Power: PWR |
| 0x000A20 | 2 | Luck: LCK |
| 0x000A22 | 2 | Intellegence: INT |
| 0x000A24 | 2 | Stamina: STA |
\---------------------------------------/


_-==============================================-_
WRITTEN BY:
-=========-
SONICBLUR

INFO PROVIDED BY:
-===============-
SONICBLUR (-----------) ALL OWNER INFORMATION
sblur@... CHAO STATS
CHAO NAME

WARPDIGIVOLVE (-------) CHAO TYPE
warpdigivolve@... FACE DATA

BRANDEN PINNEY (------) CHAO COSTUME & ANIMALS
bapinney@... CHAO HEADS
CHAO COLORS
CHAO JEWLRY

~K'TANI (-------------) EYE VALUES
snowfox16@... MOUTH VALUES
ANIMAL MODS
ANIMAL VALUES
CHAO TYPE VALUES




SPECIAL THANKS T0:
-================-
YARHARHAR (-----------) FOR THE SILVER CHAO
IN A VMS FILE
ELLIOTRO (-----------) FOR SENDING ME HIS
CHAO ADVENTUE FILE
SAYIAN SONIC (--------) FOR BEING THE FIRST
TO GET ALL 180
EMBLEMS AND POST A
SAVE ON THE NET
=-____________________________________________-=







Version 0.7 (Augest 19th 2001) -
Eye Values Added - Values Missing
Mouth Values Added - Values Missing
Animal Mods
Animal Values
Chao Type Values - Values Missing

Version 0.6 (July 26th 2001) -
Chao Type Added - Values Missing
Face Data - Values Missing
Chao Costume
Animals - Values Missing
Heads
Colors - Values Missing
Jewlry - Values Missing

Version 0.5 (July 8th 2001) -
Owner information
Chao Stats
Chao Name

------------------------------------------------------------------------


Hmmm...
Hope I didn't miss anything....
For some reason, I cant find this version of the guide in my outgoing
mail.
Special thanks goes to the few that contributed.

BTW, this guide was written about a week after I found some of the inital
info used.
I'm sure someone probably found some of this before me, but I was the
first to put it in a guide.
:-P