ROM Hack How To Upload Custom Pattern Designs on ACNH WITHOUT Nintendo Online!

coppertj · Mar 24, 2020

THIS CURRENTLY DOES NOT WORK ON 1.1.1 HORIZONCRYPT IS NOT UPDATED TO RE-ENCRYPT THOSE SAVE FILES!!!
https://github.com/Cuyler36/HorizonCrypt

Please be aware that a save editor is in the works that will specifically have functionality todo this in a GUI! I am just putting this info out here for people who are impatient (like me).

I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE IF YOU BREAK YOUR SAVE FILE! MAKE BACKUPS...

Step 1) Backup your save files using JKSV

WARNING: MAKE SURE YOU BACK UP YOUR SAVE FILES BECAUSE IF THE HEX EDITING IS DONE WRONG (chances are very likely will the first time) YOU ARE GOING TO HAVE TO RESTORE TO THE ORIGINAL, SO MAKE SURE TO BACK IT UP SOMEWHERE SAFE!!!

Step 2) You are going to need to decrypt your save files using HorizonCrypt. I recommend putting all your saves in one folder then decompiling the entire folder. Make sure to use command line to decrypt the saves

Code:

 HorizonCrypt.exe -b -d <Folder with Save>

Step 3) Now that the files are decrypted we can begin swapping the images! This is also going to be the harder part of this tutorial.
We are going to need to go into the decrypted folder and open main.dat in a hex editor (any hex editor will do i'm using HxD). Once the main.dat is open in the hex editor we have to goto line 001D7200 for that is where the designs are stored.

Step 4) Download your favorite .ACNL pattern design from a storage website like acpatterns.com

Step 5) open your main.dat and your desired pattern in your hex editor. This involves trial and error, you are basically trying to replace the hex of a existing pattern with the hex of the custom pattern. It's very tricky and most times it's not going to work unless you start getting a good feel of it. In this example i'm going to be replacing a blank pallet.

https://imgur.com/gallery/v6NkgY1

Step 6) Re-encrypt your entire save folder by typing:

Code:

 HorizonCrypt.exe -b -c "<original folder name> Decrypted"

Step 7) This is the helpful part of HorizonCrypt, if you made a mistake in your hex editing it will tell you... by not telling you! Here is the picture example of a successful encryption:

https://imgur.com/gallery/nk65NP0

This is what a unsuccessful encryption looks like:

https://imgur.com/gallery/4jaSoxH

Step 8) Now, place the files inside the new encrypted folder into your sdroot/JKSV/Animal Crossing New Horizons directory of your switch (using a FTP client is helpful) then go back to the JKSV app and restore the newly edited save file!

Step 9: Profit) Now you should be able to successfully boot up your game aswell as see your new pattern design!

https://imgur.com/gallery/DpQ7BIS

Now you just have to edit the colors and you won, you beat nintendo's ban/avoided paying for online services. Congrats, Nintendo's bashing their head against a wall right now!

BoxIsMyName__ · Mar 25, 2020

i managed to get it working but the colors on the first one I did are fucked. and none of the palettes look like they fix it.

heres my example. It came out lookin super weird. and none of the palettes make it look right.

EDIT: I just added all of my patterns and they all have the same issue.

coppertj · Mar 25, 2020

BoxIsMyName__ said:
i managed to get it working but the colors on the first one I did are fucked. and none of the palettes look like they fix it.

heres my example. It came out lookin super weird. and none of the palettes make it look right.

EDIT: I just added all of my patterns and they all have the same issue.

go inside tom nook's tent, goto the atm/computer there, redeem your nook miles and buy designer pro, you now have a new tool to adjust the color pallet one by one

Upload the original pattern file into acpatterns.com/editor to reference the original pallet, this process usually takes 10 minutes.

VanishingTacos · Mar 25, 2020

I think I am going to wait for a more streamline way of doing this comes out.

Good job nonetheless though!

HinaNaru Cutie · Mar 25, 2020

Interesting, I wanna try this, but at the same time I rather wait for the same dev who made the acnl pattern website thingy. However I am interested in doing it...but wanna wait until more people do it..hmm.

BoxIsMyName__ · Mar 25, 2020

Bless!!! That worked perfectly. Thanks a million.

Thulinma · Mar 26, 2020

Hi. One of the devs from acpatterns.com here. Heads-up: I'm planning to add this functionality to the tool, with automatic palette correction and everything. Could anyone send me their decrypted main.dat files for me to take a look at? My jig is broken so I can't access my own until I manage to make a new one. -_-
Bonus points if the default patterns are still untouched on the first/main account! (Will give me an easy reference for the colors).
Either PM me or hit me up through the pattern tool discord server. Ty!

supermariorick · Mar 26, 2020

here's my own tips on doing this
https://gbatemp.net/threads/animal-...s-bugs-etc-thread.560199/page-42#post-8987686

Thulinma said:
Hi. One of the devs from acpatterns.com here. Heads-up: I'm planning to add this functionality to the tool, with automatic palette correction and everything. Could anyone send me their decrypted main.dat files for me to take a look at? My jig is broken so I can't access my own until I manage to make a new one. -_-
Bonus points if the default patterns are still untouched on the first/main account! (Will give me an easy reference for the colors).
Either PM me or hit me up through the pattern tool discord server. Ty!

that'd be perfect. I tested .acnl pattern data from a design on your site and while it worked the actual design was off and I had to adjust it in game to fix it. Maybe that's a clue for you. The data is pretty much the same except the designs get shifted and the color palette doesn't match and you have to fix the color palette manually. Not exactly sure where the color palettes for patterns/ designs are stored but it must be different than ACNL along with the name and town instead being a name and island and offsets and probably some other data with it being different. Thank you for considering this. This will be of much help for people in the future that aren't willing to shill out 20 bucks for a subscription plan just to get some patterns that are supposed to be free.

Thulinma · Mar 26, 2020

Update: Thanks to two helpful individuals, I now have access to some decrypted saves, and I've already succesfully reversed most of the storage format.
The ability to inject/extract patterns to/from ACNH savegames through the tool is coming soon!
Will only support decrypted format at first, encrypted format will follow later.

Some interesting findings to ponder:
- There seems to be NO way to turn ACNH style patterns in QR codes. The storage formats are incompatible.
- It's perfectly possible to convert between the two formats. ACNL -> ACNH is lossless, but ACNH -> ACNL will lose some color information.
- ACNH's interface only has less-than-16-bit color precision (HSL, with 30, 15 and 15 possible settings each respectively)... but internally stores the colors as full 24-bit RGB! This means using conversion tools will give you _much_ finer color control than the in-game editor will.
- The user/city/island IDs are now 4 bytes instead of the 2 bytes used in ACNL, so it'll probably never be possible to edit QR-imported patterns in-game. Converted patterns through the tool can be made editable, though!

BoxIsMyName__ · Mar 26, 2020

Thulinma said:
Update: Thanks to two helpful individuals, I now have access to some decrypted saves, and I've already succesfully reversed most of the storage format.
The ability to inject/extract patterns to/from ACNH savegames through the tool is coming soon!
Will only support decrypted format at first, encrypted format will follow later.

Some interesting findings to ponder:
- There seems to be NO way to turn ACNH style patterns in QR codes. The storage formats are incompatible.
- It's perfectly possible to convert between the two formats. ACNL -> ACNH is lossless, but ACNH -> ACNL will lose some color information.
- ACNH's interface only has less-than-16-bit color precision (HSL, with 30, 15 and 15 possible settings each respectively)... but internally stores the colors as full 24-bit RGB! This means using conversion tools will give you _much_ finer color control than the in-game editor will.
- The user/city/island IDs are now 4 bytes instead of the 2 bytes used in ACNL, so it'll probably never be possible to edit QR-imported patterns in-game. Converted patterns through the tool can be made editable, though!

Bless your soul man, so excited.

meowzers1234 · Mar 26, 2020

I may be an idiot, but how do you easily match the color palette? I am not very color coordinated and trying to match the palette by eye is a pain.

coppertj · Mar 26, 2020

meowzers1234 said:
I may be an idiot, but how do you easily match the color palette? I am not very color coordinated and trying to match the palette by eye is a pain.

thats the only way right now until the converter comes out as mentioned above by @Thulinma

HinaNaru Cutie · Mar 29, 2020

coppertj said:
THIS CURRENTLY DOES NOT WORK ON 1.1.1 HORIZONCRYPT IS NOT UPDATED TO RE-ENCRYPT THOSE SAVE FILES!!!
https://github.com/Cuyler36/HorizonCrypt

Please be aware that a save editor is in the works that will specifically have functionality todo this in a GUI! I am just putting this info out here for people who are impatient (like me).

I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE IF YOU BREAK YOUR SAVE FILE! MAKE BACKUPS...

Step 1) Backup your save files using JKSV

WARNING: MAKE SURE YOU BACK UP YOUR SAVE FILES BECAUSE IF THE HEX EDITING IS DONE WRONG (chances are very likely will the first time) YOU ARE GOING TO HAVE TO RESTORE TO THE ORIGINAL, SO MAKE SURE TO BACK IT UP SOMEWHERE SAFE!!!

Step 2) You are going to need to decrypt your save files using HorizonCrypt. I recommend putting all your saves in one folder then decompiling the entire folder. Make sure to use command line to decrypt the saves

Code:

HorizonCrypt.exe -b -d <Folder with Save>

Step 3) Now that the files are decrypted we can begin swapping the images! This is also going to be the harder part of this tutorial.
We are going to need to go into the decrypted folder and open main.dat in a hex editor (any hex editor will do i'm using HxD). Once the main.dat is open in the hex editor we have to goto line 001D7200 for that is where the designs are stored.

Step 4) Download your favorite .ACNL pattern design from a storage website like acpatterns.com

Step 5) open your main.dat and your desired pattern in your hex editor. This involves trial and error, you are basically trying to replace the hex of a existing pattern with the hex of the custom pattern. It's very tricky and most times it's not going to work unless you start getting a good feel of it. In this example i'm going to be replacing a blank pallet.

https://imgur.com/gallery/v6NkgY1

Step 6) Re-encrypt your entire save folder by typing:

Code:

HorizonCrypt.exe -b -c "<original folder name> Decrypted"

Step 7) This is the helpful part of HorizonCrypt, if you made a mistake in your hex editing it will tell you... by not telling you! Here is the picture example of a successful encryption:

https://imgur.com/gallery/nk65NP0

This is what a unsuccessful encryption looks like:

https://imgur.com/gallery/4jaSoxH

Step 8) Now, place the files inside the new encrypted folder into your sdroot/JKSV/Animal Crossing New Horizons directory of your switch (using a FTP client is helpful) then go back to the JKSV app and restore the newly edited save file!

Step 9: Profit) Now you should be able to successfully boot up your game aswell as see your new pattern design!

https://imgur.com/gallery/DpQ7BIS

Now you just have to edit the colors and you won, you beat nintendo's ban/avoided paying for online services. Congrats, Nintendo's bashing their head against a wall right now!

Damn it T_T i updated my darn game because the game stopped working on me...sad to see this not work..but it's okay tis fate for me to wait <'3

supermariorick · Apr 1, 2020

HorizonCrypt is no longer being updated; however NHSE has an option to decrypt and encrypt saves and we can do this again until @Thulinma adds full support for ACNH designs and pro designs and @FabolousPotatoePet adds support for pro designs and until Kaphotics updates NHSE to include importing pro designs.
NHSE is here https://dev.azure.com/project-pokemon/NHSE/_build?view=runs
To get decrypted 1.1.1 saves, open NHSE, open the folder that has your dumped save files, then once it loads your save up, go to Tools -> dump decrypted and select a folder where you want to dump the decrypted save files. Then do the same method in the original post of this thread with opening the decrypted main.dat in a hex editor and importing designs this way (same with pro designs) and save main.dat. Then go back to NHSE and select Tools -> load decrypted and open the folder you put the decrypted save files in and it will load the data from the decrypted saves then you can save and it will save to the folder that has the encrypted save files.

HinaNaru Cutie · Apr 1, 2020

supermariorick said:
HorizonCrypt is no longer being updated; however NHSE has an option to decrypt and encrypt saves and we can do this again until @Thulinma adds full support for ACNH designs and pro designs and @FabolousPotatoePet adds support for pro designs and until Kaphotics updates NHSE to include importing pro designs.
NHSE is here https://dev.azure.com/project-pokemon/NHSE/_build?view=runs
To get decrypted 1.1.1 saves, open NHSE, open the folder that has your dumped save files, then once it loads your save up, go to Tools -> dump decrypted and select a folder where you want to dump the decrypted save files. Then do the same method in the original post of this thread with opening the decrypted main.dat in a hex editor and importing designs this way (same with pro designs) and save main.dat. Then go back to NHSE and select Tools -> load decrypted and open the folder you put the decrypted save files in and it will load the data from the decrypted saves then you can save and it will save to the folder that has the encrypted save files.

Can you please show a step by step by screenshot please ;_;...because i have 0 knowledge on this and i am super confused. Am i supposed to download the NSE as a program??? cause i don't know how to download it @_@

Kupie · Apr 1, 2020

It's much easier to just use this tool

https://gbatemp.net/threads/animal-crossing-new-horizons-design-pattern-editor.561261/

HinaNaru Cutie · Apr 1, 2020

Kupie said:
It's much easier to just use this tool

https://gbatemp.net/threads/animal-crossing-new-horizons-design-pattern-editor.561261/

i know about that =O it's just that it won't work on custom pro patterns yet ;-;". but i did see that the maker of this program responded back and stated that you can use simple images o.o like the ones that you make through able sisters on new horizon. so...i'm trying to see if it can scan the code from the outfits people make at able sisters -e,e.....

supermariorick · Apr 6, 2020

Kupie said:
It's much easier to just use this tool

https://gbatemp.net/threads/animal-crossing-new-horizons-design-pattern-editor.561261/

right. However, until such time that it supports pro designs, importing clothes designs from .acnl into the pro designs slots has to be done with hex editing. Hence why I made that post that explains how to do the same method but using NHSE for getting a decrypted save file instead of HorizonCrypt which hasnt been updated since Kaphotics has been constantly updating NHSE and releasing builds on Azure. I am not planning on making an image based tutorial as that requires even more effort than I should give on this. I recommend any of those who are able to figure out how to do it using the method I posted to make an image based tutorial for those that can't seem to get how to do it quite yet. I feel I have simplified it enough and if anyone else wants to make it simpler then that's up to them.

HinaNaru Cutie · Apr 6, 2020

supermariorick said:
right. However, until such time that it supports pro designs, importing clothes designs from .acnl into the pro designs slots has to be done with hex editing. Hence why I made that post that explains how to do the same method but using NHSE for getting a decrypted save file instead of HorizonCrypt which hasnt been updated since Kaphotics has been constantly updating NHSE and releasing builds on Azure. I am not planning on making an image based tutorial as that requires even more effort than I should give on this. I recommend any of those who are able to figure out how to do it using the method I posted to make an image based tutorial for those that can't seem to get how to do it quite yet. I feel I have simplified it enough and if anyone else wants to make it simpler then that's up to them.

orrrr you could've tried making a tutorial through video..could've caused you less the trouble =O if not maybe someone else can do it?

edit -i do want to ask though...when you copy the code numbers for the animal crossing new leaf pattern clothing -do you copy the entire thing?? or do you just copy until you see '...' area?? because i am trying to put the junko outfit from new leaf pattern and i do not know if i should copy the entire code..or stop at a certain point to paste insert it onto the pro design pattern blank spot??

supermariorick · Apr 6, 2020

HinaNaru Cutie said:
orrrr you could've tried making a tutorial through video..could've caused you less the trouble =O if not maybe someone else can do it?

edit -i do want to ask though...when you copy the code numbers for the animal crossing new leaf pattern clothing -do you copy the entire thing?? or do you just copy until you see '...' area?? because i am trying to put the junko outfit from new leaf pattern and i do not know if i should copy the entire code..or stop at a certain point to paste insert it onto the pro design pattern blank spot??

You have to copy everything for one design except the name, town, and creator data since that data is different in New Horizons compared to New Leaf. Then I simply overwrote the design data of one of the default pro designs with the data from the .acnl file making sure to only write data where the design is and not the name, island, and creator data. Then I simply go to where the utf-16 text is in the hex editor for the name, island, and creator and change the name of it to the name of the design being imported but keeping it the same island name and changing it from "someone" to my own name that way the design can still be edited in game. It is important to make the design editable in game because of the way you're importing from a New Leaf clothes design into a New Horizons pro design so you can correct the way the design is laid out over the clothes and fix the color palette by switching to a color palette that is as close as possible to the color palette of the original design and then you have to make corrections to the color palette by hand and comparing with your own eyes. This is definitely the pain in the ass method. I have had success so far for a few pro designs but it takes a while and a lot of patience. It's either this method that takes a long time - due to all the hex editing and frankensteining data so it's recognizable by the game as a design in the save data and all the in game corrections that have to be made - or waiting for all these devs to finish adding pro design support after all the other features they are pushing out first. This is obviously not as easy as using some tool and requires some understanding of hex editing save data and figuring out how the game will recognize it so it doesn't import a design wrong. Keep in mind also this is exclusively New Leaf to New Horizons importing as anything made in New Horizons and shared online is going through Nintendo's Online system and isn't as easy to transfer to a console that doesn't have Nintendo Switch Online. We'd have to get a daring person with a Nintendo Switch Online subscription who has received all sorts of cool patterns to willingly put their Online subscription at risk by modding their console potentially sending out telemetry just to dump their save with all the pro designs from people online for those that don't have the Online subscription or have a banned console. I heard a rumor that getting cloud saves from a non modded console to a modded console might be possible but that still requires more research.

ROM Hack How To Upload Custom Pattern Designs on ACNH WITHOUT Nintendo Online!

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