Super Smash Bros. Melee

Debug menu (SSBM)/DEVELOP mode

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This article is about the usage of DEVELOP mode in Melee. For a collection of images of each stage under the effects of DEVELOP mode, see Debug menu (SSBM)/Stage data.

Melee when run in DEVELOP mode.

DEVELOP mode is a debug mode found in Super Smash Bros. Melee accessed through its debug menu. The mode is activated by changing the DBLEVEL setting to DEVELOP. This will give the player extra control over matches, including free camera, visual hitbox, and frame advance.

Below is a table detailing the controls for the DEVELOP mode extra controls. Through these controls, one can obtain free control over the camera, see character and stage hitboxes, frame advance the match, see the parts of the stage, and drop items (similar to Training Mode). Using the "reset" button combination in Classic Mode, Adventure Mode, or All-Star Mode results in a "stage clear".

Controls Effect
Start-Pause Pauses the game, but without the usual pause interface.
Hard Pause + Z Frame advances the match.
A + D-Pad Speeds up gameplay.
A + Y + D-Pad Shrinks the player.
B + D-Pad Displays a list of statistics for each player:
  • Unknown
  • CPU Level
  • AI Type
  • Handicap
  • Unknown
  • Offense Ratio
  • Defense Ratio
B + D-Pad Shows the current score and any bonuses won.
X + D-Pad Pauses the game normally during a match. The button combination to quit a match is L+R+A instead of L+R+A+Start-Pause.

"Hard pause" when in places where Start-Pause would perform an action other than pausing, such as menus, cutscenes, Adventure Mode loading screens, result screens, Continue screens, etc. Allows for frame advance with Z.

X + D-Pad Rotates through multiple visual effects.
  1. Normal
  2. No HUD
  3. Stage + Background goes white. Background effects can still be seen
  4. Stage + Background goes black. Background effects can still be seen
X + D-Pad Toggles sound effects and music. Displays additional information after going through the first four settings.
  1. Normal
  2. Music off
  3. Music + SFX off
  4. SFX off
X + D-Pad Displays a set of stress bars detailing the GameCube's work load.
Y + D-Pad Displays each characters' animation information.
Y + D-Pad Grows the player.
Y + D-Pad Sets the player back to normal size.
R + D-Pad Toggles collision bubbles for all characters and stage elements (See #Collision bubble key).
  1. Normal
  2. Collision Bubbles Only
  3. Collision Overlay
R + D-Pad Toggles various stage related visuals, such as spawn points, stage structures, and grab-able ledges (See #Stage visual key).
  1. Normal
  2. Removes shadows
  3. Displays camera boxes, spawn points, and changes certain floor surfaces to black.
  4. Same as above, but without the black floor change.
  5. Same as above, but also displays colored Stage Structures, ledge grab boxes, environment collision boxes, and character position markers (See #Character visual key).
  6. Same as above, but displays Terrains instead of colored Stage Structures.
  7. Same as above, but also displays indication of drop-through platforms and grab-able ledges.
R + D-Pad Toggles various character related visuals
  1. Normal
  2. Displays white polylines used for character costume physics like Link's and Young Link's hats, Marth's cape, and some of Jigglypuffs headwear.
  3. Displays a red gradient at the characters position marker as wide as the characters ECB indicating vertical motion since the last frame.
  4. Visualizes CPU logic. Places a sphere at the computer player's point of interest, green indicates the CPU will approach, red indicates the CPU will attack it, white indicates the CPU will recover towards it. Red squares around the CPU indicate the range of the attack chosen.
  5. Places white item grab boxes around the characters. These boxes turn blue when in the air. Also displays pink item catch boxes around items. When the white/or blue box intersects a pink box, the item can be grabbed. When white an item will continue to travel after pressing "A" to grab it, for 1 frame. When they are blue and Z is pressed to grab the item, the item will be instantly picked up (And instantly throwable). Also shows a smaller gray item lift box (grounded only), used for larger items like barrels, party balls, and crates.
  6. Displays a white sphere attached to the characters pelvis that experiences frame interpolation similar to hitboxes.
  7. Displays each player's coin detection spheres and displays a hitbox sphere on each coin. Player coin detection hitbox flicker because only half the players' coin collisions are processed each frame in order to save on resources.
R + D-Pad Toggles collision bubbles for the player (See #Collision bubble key).
  1. Normal
  2. Collision Bubbles Only
  3. Collision Overlay
D-Pad Drops item selected on the Item Menu
L + D-Pad Display Item Menu and cycle forward through the list (See Debug menu (SSBM)#Items & Pokémon).
L + D-Pad Display Item Menu and cycle backward through the list (See Debug menu (SSBM)#Items & Pokémon).
L + D-Pad Display Item Menu and cycle forward through Pokémon on the list (See Debug menu (SSBM)#Items & Pokémon).
L + D-Pad Display Item Menu and cycle backward through Pokémon on the list (See Debug menu (SSBM)#Items & Pokémon).
D-Pad Changes the camera view.
  1. Normal
  2. Locks the camera. It can only be controlled by debug controls. If stage visuals are set to modes 4 or 5, pressing B toggles displaying info on the camera's position, rotation, zoom, and field of view.
  3. Zooms in on player 1

This also removes Peach's and Zelda's dress, presumably used to test for glitched leg movement under the dress.

C-Stick Used to rotate the camera (free form).
D-Pad + C-Stick Zooms in and out.
D-Pad + C-Stick Pans around the screen.

Stage visual key[edit]

For a collection of stages in their various debug states, see Debug menu (SSBM)/Stage data.

Camera boxes[edit]

Item Description
Teal Box Camera Limit
Light Yellow Box Blast Line
Blue Box Camera Focal Box
Small Red Box Indicates the range from which a character can grab a ledge when facing left. When facing right, the box indicates the range from which a character cannot grab a ledge. Certain attacks such as Spin Attack will not alter the boxes in any way, but will allow the opposite facing direction to ledge grab.
Small Blue Box Indicates the range from which a character can grab a ledge when facing right. When facing left, the box indicates the range from which a character cannot grab a ledge. Certain attacks such as Spin Attack will not alter the boxes in any way, but will allow the opposite facing direction to ledge grab.

Spawn points[edit]

Item Description
Blue Plus Character starting point
Green Plus Character respawn point
Yellow Plus Item spawn point
Red Plus Enemy spawn point
Magenta Plus Trophy spawn point
White Plus Exit point

Structures[edit]

Item Description
Gray Structure Stage floor
Red Structure Stage ceiling
Blue Structure Stage left wall
Green Structure Stage right wall
Gray Platform Solid no-grab platform
Blue Platform Drop-through platform
Red Platform Grab platform

Structures that appear darker than other structures are dynamic, meaning they convert between floor, wall, and ceiling in real-time as they animate. One example is the entirety of Brinstar Depths.

Terrains[edit]

Item Description
Gray Platform Basic terrain
Brown Platform Rock terrain
Light Green Platform Grass terrain
Dark Red Platform Dirt terrain
Light Brown Platform Wood terrain
Blue Platform Water terrain
Light Blue Platform Ice terrain
White Platform Snow terrain
Dark Gray Platform Light Metal terrain
Dark Brown Platform Heavy Metal terrain
Yellow Platform Alien Goop terrain
Light Gray Platform Game & Watch terrain
Light Yellow Platform Checkered terrain

Other[edit]

Item Description
Orange Box Item pickup boxes (when a character's hitbox overlaps the item's box, the character can pick it up.)

Collision bubble key[edit]

Luigi demonstrating visual hitboxes.

This is a list of all hitbox colors and what they are for. For more detail, see Hitbox#Hitbox types.

Item Description
Yellow Damageable
Red Attacking
Blue Intangible
Purple Grabbing
Green Invincible
Aqua Reflecting
Cyan Shielding
Cyan-Blue Absorbing
White Special

Character visual key[edit]

Environment collision boxes (ECB)[edit]

Item Description
White Diamond Outline Target ECB position.
Orange Diamond Post-collisions ECB, the target ECB altered to avoid intersecting with stage structures.
Dark Orange Diamond Pre-collision ECB at most recent collision segment.
Blue Diamond Pre-collisions ECB.

Character position markers[edit]

Item Description
White Cross Target Character Position.
Brown Cross Post-collisions character position.
Reddish Brown Cross Pre-collision character position at most recent collision segment.
Dark Blue Cross Pre-collisions character position.

Gallery[edit]