Hacking CUSTOM - Singstar (Any Version) & Disney Sing It (Any Version)

[Slimmmmmm]

Thanks fergambo for translating and finding the needed apps etc

 

[fergambo]

I'm really enjoying the customs on my Wii and I'd want to share it!!
In the other hand I've found a lot of interesting information in this web...

To use HD in USB0 and 2 micros it's needed a USB hub to connect micros on USB1

First time the guide looks difficult, but really when the first custom is done, the next ones you'll see are very easy.

Reading EOL it seems that the next creacontent version will be translated (at least to German, so I think to English too)
Untill then if I can help, tell.

 

[quepaso]

Please keep us all updated. Once this process gets a little easier, i would love to get the customs done, especially with Singstar Michael Jackson which is going to come out soon, it is PS3 exclusive, and i like using my Wii for these party games.

 

[fergambo]

There's another tool made by Dabore: DSIC (Dabore Sing It Customizer) http://www.megaupload.com/?d=AN99IJHI
(I didn't mention in the guide due to I only use it for the final custom check, cause is very useful to see errors in paths)

It's another content.xml, editor, and it's in English
It has a good images conversor (.tex bmp, png, jpg, tif and more),
And there's the possibility to extract (.TEX to .JPG...) the Skins of the game, and after Replace... Really interesting

Basic (translated from EOL) Guide:
* Unpack and put dll's into to the program folder
* "File -> Open": browse to the folder where was extracted and modified the partition1 of the Game with Wiiscrubber
* Tables will be filled (at the moment game options can't be modified)
* Tables include all the content.xml. information, and Snapshots (.TEX) in Audio/video sheet .
* Images can be saved and modified (right click in the image). Be carefull with 'Replace', operation is done directly (no previous warning)
* More option "Utils->Add song" in four steps, to choose Artist, songs (one/more XML), vídeo, snapshot (image) and other. El "Album" es la primera carpeta dentro de "songs" (como HSM, por ejemplo) y "Folder" es la carpeta propia de la canción (como HSM_BF, por ejemplo)
* To end go to "File->Save" to generate the new content.xml

Source. EOL (http://www.elotrolado.net/hilo_estudio-proyecto-custom-sing-it_1146643_s90?hilit=partition+builder)

 

[AdamBrunt]

so fergambo, have you got this working completely and managed to convert a SingStar DVD to a Singit DVD ?

 

[fergambo]

Yesss, I've got to do 3 Sing It from the Singstar ABBA (Eur. Edition), Party (spanish ed.), Latino (spanish ed.)

And I've re-made others (90's, Rocks! and and R&B spanish editions) made by others (Espalwii, Wiisos) to check some errors
EDITED: Reading Wikipedia there's no 'spanish' edition of 90's, Rock and R&B: songs are the same! (same as 80's and Legends)

Now I'm preparing (80 hours of bink conversion..) a new Sing It from Singstar 'Edad de Oro del Pop Español' (= Spanish Pop Golden Age)

 

[AdamBrunt]

Sounds good.

So I just have to follow the instructions you posted in post #13 on the previous page ?

My daughter would love the Abba one (and I would have to do the Queen one).

One thing I didn't understand from your instructions ... do I need an ISO image of the Singstar game ? As your instructions make it sound like you can't use ISO images of the PS game.

Also, do the Sing It DVD and Singstar DVD have to be the same format (ie both PAL or both NTSC) or can the process convert that as well ?

 

[fergambo]

Extract_Singstar reads:
1) the Singstar DVD directly from the Unit
2) the folder where previously was extracted the ISO (I use UltraISO for extracting .ISO to a folder)

Singstar PAL videos are 640x336 25fps and Sing It are 640x448 25fps, I don't know the equivalent NTSC formats.

I don't recommend to mix formats cause you''ll have to change fps as well as size... I don't know if it works

So if you decide to work in NTSC format, Singstar video size is not important cause you'll convert, only check the fps of the .avi creted by Extract_Singstar with VirtualDub or similar soft.

And to know Sing It required size, after (NTSC) Sing It partition1 is extracted, use RadTools to open one video of the folder 'songs', click 'File Info button' and you'll see the size and fps

I've not tested the conversion NTSC, so if you try -as I did- first do a 'pilot' experiment: a Sing It with only one/two songs, and if works complete the job!

Other option is using PAL system and finally to convert final ISO to NTSC (tools RegionFrii and Video Mode Changer)

 

[AdamBrunt]

Thanks for the info. Do I need to worry that Singstar videos are a different resolution to SingIt ones ? Or is that all taken care off in the convert process ?

I've only got PAL SingIt's so I will look out for PS2/PS3 PAL Singstar discs.

Good tip about testing with one or two songs

 

[fergambo]

The resolution conversion is included in the guide in video conversion with RADVideoTools

(see 640 and 448 in the image included) http://www.elotrolado.net/hilo_tutorial-cu...eto_1218230_s40

 

[AdamBrunt]

sorry to be a pain fergambo but I am trying to do an Abba test and have the following ...

I have extracted the Singstar content, converted the song (I was a bit concerned when I play the .bink file in VLC and it was out of sync but all was fine in bink player). I have made all the ID and TITLE changes to the bin files. I have opened CreaContent and deleted all the 'non-academy' songs but now I am stuck.

The version of Creacontent I am using (which you linked to in post #19) doesn't match up with the guide. Could you explain in more detail how I go about adding song(s) via Creacontent ?

 

[fergambo]

Recommended step is Convert previously all the songs to Sing It format
To do this in Creacontent, go to 'Utilidades' , 'Conversor Ultrastar', and one by one covert all the .txt songs to .xml
(You'll see in some ABBA songs in with there're two .txt. songs. Convert the two

After this, go to 'Añadir canción' (add song), 'Copiar fichero ya convertido' (copy file already converted)
Click the icon at the right of 'Grupo', browse and select the converted .xml file

If there's only one song, click 'Usar el mismo fichero en los 3' (use the same file in the three) to copy the path
If there're two song, browse for the paths of the two files (and for the third choose one, first or two)
You can choose the name that will appear in the game buttons (default spanish is 'Grupo', 'Parte 1' 'Parte 2')
What I do, if only one file, 'All' in Solo and blank in part1/part2.
Note: blank doesn't avoid in game to click the button in blank, it's only aesthetic...
If there're two files in ABBA, for ex. 'Girls' in Solo, 'Boys' in part1, and blank for part2
Click 'Siguiente' (next)

Directorio de destino del fichero xml (destinity folder for the xml file)
click 'Copiar uno en automatico' (copy to an automatic one)
Auto path is: /songs/XXXX/(song number)
This step will create (number song) folder and copy and rename the songs to singstar name-format (4 charact.)
Click 'Siguiente' (next)

Elegir Artista (choose artist)
Create the artist in this time, clicking 'Crear nuevo' (create new)
Write artist/group name, choose male/female (it's only for database, it has no utility. Normally ABBA is female singing)
creacontent will add the artist to database
Click 'Siguiente' (next)

Select Source video/image folder (.vid / .tex)
Click icon and choose video (.bink) and image (.jpg) (by default the same songs folder, so appear automaticaly)
creacontent will convert .jpg to .tex
Click 'Siguiente' (next)

'Elegir Video' (choose video) to Select destinity video/image Sing It folder
click 'Copiar uno en automatico' (copy to an automatic one)
Auto path is the same than previous step: /songs/XXXX/(song number)
This step will copy and rename .bink to vid video and .tex
Click 'Siguiente' (next) and wait.
Click Finalizar' and song is created

Sorry, I've also edited guide and now matches creacontent

 

[jamsplodge]

Does anybody who has done this know if there is a limit to the number of songs Sing it can take?

The limit is 30 on a PS2 Singstar game. It would be good to have a huge ISO with all the songs from several of my PS2 games in one.

 

[AdamBrunt]

thanks fergambo, makes a lot more sense

 

[AdamBrunt]

.

 

[AdamBrunt]

Damn - didn't work.

All appeared to have been done correctly. The content.xml file looked right.

When I went into partition builder there was a warning that the "partition will be approximately 777728kb - do you want to continue?". I clicked yes and it created a 750Mb file (which is about right I thought considering I only had 1 song).

No problem replacing the partition or renaming the ISO. It installed on the HDD fine but when I load it via CFG (or LoaderGX) it goes straight to a black screen.

Any ideas where to start looking for the problem ?

UPDATE: Looking at the ISO in WiiScrubber, it's now saying that PARTITION1 is BAD. Tried resizing it (even though I wasn't told to the first time) but it still thinks it's bad. And the logging section is saying "invalid header for partition 0x2".

 

[fergambo]

That warning in partitionbuilder is normal (as a black screen the first time is too!)

You only have to resize partition1 when the warning is about partition size.
If wiiscrubber say BAD after load partition1 the problem is the partition1 is not correct, and wiiscrubber detects.

Previously to rebuilt partition1 CHECK partition1 folder ('Source File Directory' in partitionbuilder) contains ONLY:
- folders: academy, fonts, fronted, game, songs, sound, strings, test)
- files: archive, archive.log, config.lua, content.xml, content.xml.bak, opening.bnr

Files apploader.img, bi2.bin, boot.bin, main.dol and partition.bin must be OUT of this folder

EOL people say the limit are 50 songs, but I've not checked.

 

[AdamBrunt]

that looks like the contents of my partition1 folder and I only have 1 non-academy song so it can't be that.

I can only think it was something I did when choosing a new ID and TITLE. Does the 4 character ID have to start with an R and end with a P ? Also, if my new title is shorter than "Disney Sing It" what do I put at the end of my title ? Spaces or something else ?

I am assuming you have never had "partition 1 (Data) (BAD)" error in the final WiiScrubber step ?

Another thought, and I don't know if this is possible, but if you still had it would you be able to send me your content.xml for ABBA ? I could possibly then do the video conversion here and rename the files if necessary ?

 

[fergambo]

It's not neccesary start by R (I've seen S's) and P (which is PAL, only used to identify region)
I renamed my custom ABBA as R15P, and title to 'Sing It ABBA'. I filled the final charact. with 'nothing' (hex 00's), no with spaces (hex 20's)

I had partition1 (Data) (BAD) cause I had saved partition.bin using partitionbinchangerwith down RIGHT save button , instead of LEFT save button. But in this case Wiiscrubber crashed at the end of partition1 loading, so is not your case.

I had a black screen because I've been working whith the 6 files (archive, archive.log, config.lua, content.xml, content.xml.bak, opening.bnr) INSIDE partition1 folder, so partitionrebuilt included these files inside partition1 iso, and they were duplicated in the ISO.

I'm sure the black screen is not due to a bad content.xml, cause this file is not loaded untill game starts, and game freezes when reads the erroneus file. Be sure.

This afternoon I'll detail the content of my folders, and upload my content.xml

 

[AdamBrunt]

Thanks that would be great.

I was using spaces to fill the final characters in my title - maybe that's it ? The instructions also say content.xml only mentions "Disney Sing It" once but mine mentions it twice (I only changed the one at the very end).