Tutorial Updated

How to properly build an ISO of Project M [Inc. Wi-Fi Instructions]

Snes9x unacceptable input latency

RetrogamingAddict · 2024-04-07T02:05:24+00:00

I got myself a wii some days ago, today i got to mess with it. Hearing all the praise and glorification of how good the Wii can play retro games, i was so excited, especially since i have it on a crt tv and knowing i would play a 240p authentic...

Introduction

Evening, everyone. I'm back here with another tutorial and this time it's to show you guys how to build an ISO or WBFS file of Project M 3.6, for use with any USB Loader or Dolphin. Many people use Wads and SD Card Images with Dolphin to play Project M, and this is fine, don't get me wrong, but I prefer to have everything as a Standalone ISO or WBFS file.

For this reason, I'm going to be explaining how you can build both Full Set and Wi-Fi Set ISOs of Project M 3.6. For those unaware, this is sadly the final version of Project M, as it was discontinued back in December 2015, much to the dismay of the internet.

In addition, back in May 2014, nintendo discontinued their Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection service unfortunately, making Brawl's online functionality defunct. (and by extension, Project M's as well.) This guide covers this as well, as the final codeset for Project M 3.6, was setup to redirect online to Wiimmfi, a custom server made to replace the Nintendo Wi-Fi servers post shutdown.

So, as a testament to how incredible this mod was, I've decided to create this comprehensive, yet simple tutorial for you all.
To aid in making the best possible build of the game possible, I've also created very professional looking Wii Banners (pictured above) for Project M, and even reported an error to the creator of the BrawlBuilder, @person66 that has since been fixed, thanks to his technical know how.

Without further delay, on to the tutorial.

Download the things!

To follow this tutorial you will require several things, one of which is common sense and basic computer skills.

The first, and most difficult to attain is a good dump of the NTSC-U version of Super Smash Bros. Brawl in any Wii Game format. If it is a WBFS, it cannot be a split one, and if yours is, you should join them by transferring them with Wii Backup Manager.
I cannot tell you where you can attain this beyond saying to dump your own physical copy.
If you plan to attain it in a "less-than-legal" way, you are on your own.

Here, I have provided MD5 Hashes of known perfect ISO dumps of Brawl, however, it's worth noting that using Wii Backup Manager to transfer a WBFS copy of the game into an ISO will not match these MD5s, and that is absolutely fine, as long as the dump wasn't a bad one, it will work fine. You shouldn't worry about this unless you build the game and it has major issues when playing it.

Code:

Hash format: MD5
d18726e6dfdc8bdbdad540b561051087 - Super Smash Bros. Brawl Revision 1
52ce7160ced2505ad5e397477d0ea4fe - Super Smash Bros. Brawl Revision 2

After you have your Brawl ISO, you will need to download the following things.

Download and extract each of those zip files each to their own folder with your favorite archive manager, I recommend 7-Zip.
After doing so, you may delete the original archives.

Your folder should look like this.

Setting up the Wi-Fi Safe Set (Optional)

Note: This entire section is entirely optional. It is recommended you do not follow this section if you intend to play Project M locally only, as this makes changes to how Project M works to increase stability while using Online mode, at the expense of some functionality in Project M.

Project M included WiFi-Safe sets for a long time when it was around to allow people to play online, this section will show you how you can manually apply these changes to your copy of Project M before you build it, allowing online play with friends through Wiimmfi.

First, open your extracted homebrew3.6 folder and navigate to projectm, launcher, and then addons.
In here you will see a 7z archive called wifi. Open it with your favorite archive manager.

From here, navigate back up to projectm and open the pf folder, followed by the menu2 folder.
In here, select and drag the 3 .pac files from the archive pictured above into the menu2 folder, and when asked, choose to replace them.

Next, navigate back up to the homebrew3.6 folder, and open codes. In here, drag RSBE01.gct from the archive pictured above into this codes folder and, like before, choose to replace it, when asked.

And, that's it. You may now close the wifi archive and proceed with the next section.

Options & Building your ISO!

And now, the most important step, building the ISO.

First, feed BrawlBuilder your Super Smash Bros. Brawl ISO, by clicking the browse button next to that option, and navigating and selecting your Super Smash Bros. Brawl NTSC/USA ISO file.

Next, feed BrawlBuilder your Project M Mod's pf folder, by clicking the browse button next to that option and navigating to homebrew3.6, projectm, and then pf and clicking Select Folder while it is open.

Finally, feed BrawlBuilder your Project M GCT file, by clicking browse next to that option, and navigating to the codes folder. You may find this by opening homebrew3.6, and codes.

Now, you have some options.

First off, you may choose to remove The Subspace Emissary data from the game entirely, shrinking the output size of the ISO by about half. Doing so, will of course result in a non functional Subspace Emissary option, which will crash the game should you select it.

Should you choose to keep it, it's worth noting that Project M does support the Subspace Emissary, however, it's recommended you play a standard fight before you play the Subspace Emissary in Project M, to activate various codes that the game will behave strangely without.

Next, you can choose to provide a custom GameID, which I highly recommend you do, specifically, I recommend setting it to RSBEPM for the Full Project M set, and RSBEPW for the Wi-Fi Set, as that will make the game line up with the agreed upon IDs on the GameTDB, which many USB Loaders source their metadata about the games from.

Next, you can choose to change the game title, I recommend of course setting this to Super Smash Bros. Project M for rather obvious reasons, and if you chose to build the Wi-Fi version, you can also set it to Super Smash Bros. Project M Wi-Fi.

Lastly, you should check "Custom Banner" and feed it the appropriate banner I've provided from your gHNYO folder. As mentioned above, RSBEPM.bnr is for the Full Project M game, and RSBEPW.bnr is for the WiFi-Safe Set.

It is worth mentioning before you hit the build button that you will need at about 16 GB of free space on your hard drive for BrawlBuilder to successfully be able to create your ISO. Now is a good time to free up space if you are low.

Once you're satisfied, press the big "Build ISO" button, set the name and output format you prefer and wait for the magic to happen. Eventually you'll see it say "Build Finished!" and your ISO will be built. From there, transfer it to the USB device you use with your Wii or play it in Dolphin like you would any other game.

Troubleshooting and Closing

It's worth noting that if you are on a real Wii or Wii U, you may need to set hooktype to none and turn ocarina off in your USB Loader to get the game to work properly, that's normal, because the ISO has the code handler and hook embedded in it, and a USB Loader having that option on may cause it to overtake the game's embedded ones.

If for some reason when you play the Wi-Fi set, and you are unable to connect to WFC, try setting your USB Loader's Private Server option to Wiimmfi.de and trying again. The Wi-Fi set is easy to identify by how the character select screen has a large connectivity symbol in the background, if you are missing this, you shouldn't try to play online, as it will more or less immediately desync.

I hope this has opened up Project M to more people. Thanks for reading, and I'd like to thank @person66 for BrawlBuilder and keeping it functional, @Wiimm for WIT which is part of BrawlBuilder, as well as the entire Project M development team. Project M is still sorely missed today, and I hope perhaps one day, we'll see a new community Smash project of this scale on the 3DS or Wii U.