Furby

Python tools for handing Furby Connect DLC files

Disclaimer: This script is pretty alpha; use at your own risk. Bad DLCs can make your Furby Connect very unhappy.

The original blog post can be found here

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DLC Class

To use this class, copy furby.py into your script's directory, then add the line from furby import dlc to the top of your script:

#!/usr/bin/env python
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

from furby import dlc

def main():
    ...
    <your python here>
    ...

To open up a new DLC for modification, just create a new object of class dlc, passing in the path to the DLC you'd like to open:

D = dlc("./dlc/dlc1/tu012700.dlc")

You can then access each of the various sections contained in the DLC via a nice python dictionary:

cels_section = D.dlc_sections["XLS"]

Each of the sections has a "main storage" object, which is either a list or a dictionary as appropriate to the section. Here are a few you might like to poke at:

xls_tree             = D.dlc_sections["XLS"].action_tree
colour_palettes      = D.dlc_sections["PAL"].palettes
eye_sprites          = D.dlc_sections["CEL"].cels
animation_scheduling = D.dlc_sections["SPR"].anim_tree
audio_samples        = D.dlc_sections["AMF"].tracks
audio_playlists      = D.dlc_sections["APL"].playlists
lip_movements        = D.dlc_sections["LPS"].phrases
response_scheduling  = D.dlc_sections["SEQ"].sequences
servo_movements      = D.dlc_sections["MTR"].animations

For more information on what each section does and how they relate to one another, check out our writeup, which covers it in a fair amount of detail.

Once you're ready, you can build a new DLC by calling the build() function, passing in the path to wherever you'd like to put your new DLC:

D.build("/tmp/new_dlc.dlc")

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Helper Functions

Some sections have helper functions that might also be interesting for to you to play with:

D.dlc_sections["PAL"].extract_palette() will, if passed a .gif with a (single) 64-colour palette, extract that palette and convert it into the same format used as internal storage by the dlc class. This means you can do things like this:

# extract the palette from a gif
new_palette = D.dlc_sections["PAL"].extract_palette("./my_gif.gif")

# replace the nth palette in the DLC with this new palette
n = 5
D.dlc_sections["PAL"].palettes[n] = new_palette

D.dlc_sections["CEL"].quarterize() will, if passed a 128x128 pixel .gif, convert that gif into a sequence of quarter-frames, in the same form as that used by the dlc class' internal storage. This means that you can do things like this:

# quarterize a gif
new_cels = D.dlc_sections["CEL"].quarterize("./my_gif.gif")

# replace the nth cel in the DLC with the mth of our new cels
n = 5
m = 3
D.dlc_sections["CEL"].cels[n] = new_cels[m]

# To view the quarters as they get made, just pass in a palette to render them with.
new_palette = D.dlc_sections["PAL"].extract_palette("./my_gif.gif")
new_cels = D.dlc_sections["CEL"].quarterize("./my_gif.gif", new_palette)

D.dlc_sections["AMF"].remove_track() will delete one of the audio tracks within the DLC. Similarly, D.dlc_sections["AMF"].add_track() can be used to insert tracks. You can use them together to replace audio tracks, like this:

# Remove the nth audio track.
n = 9
D.dlc_sections["AMF"].remove_track(n)

# Insert our own audio track at position n.
D.dlc_sections["AMF"].add_track("mytrack.a18", n)

D.dlc_sections["AMF"].minify_audio() will shrink all the audio files in a DLC to a given length. This is pretty helpful if you're going to be testing multiple DLC files, as it will drastically shrink the size of your DLCs, meaning faster uploads. You can use it like so:

# Shrink a DLC
D = dlc("./dlc/dlc1/tu012700.dlc")
D.dlc_sections["AMF"].minify_audio()
D.build("/tmp/minified_dlc.dlc")

This should be exerything you'll need to get started modifying your Furby Connect DLC files!

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Contributing

We really hope you enjoy playing with the scripts. If you'd like to contribute, here are a few things that might be useful:

• Cataloguing the motions in the MTR section
• Improving the __compile__() function of both the XLS and SPR sections to be more robust
• Implementing an analogue of the GeneralPlus a18 codec in Python, for converting .wav file

Enjoy - we're looking forward to seeing what you make with it!