Hacking main.dol Mods for Wii Games

[gudenau]

I have dumped a game, used wit to extract evrything, and want to edit the main.dol to add content, I know I will start with coppying the gecko handler or simmiler easy mod. I very much want to do this, please help! (Google is just installing homebrew...)

 

[JoostinOnline]

I get the feeling you have no idea what you are talking about. You can't just modify main.dol to add "content".

 

[Heran Bago]

What

What are you even trying to


WHAT

 

[gudenau]

I do have an idea, I konw it is not easy, I just want to learn how to mod the main.dol, so I could change how the game works, the adding content was an example. Like ctgp, it mods the main.dol to add content change stuff, like with a cheat code, but whith a main.dol edit. I am starting at square one here, any info will greatly help. I want to mod games without simple content changes and cheat codes, so this is the only way to go from what I understand.

 

[Heran Bago]

If you want to edit something in the game you have to edit the other files inside the wad/iso. The .dol is just the executable file and the resources are elsewhere. Actually editing the .dol is some heavy stuff.

 

[gudenau]

I do know that dol is the hardest, I have a huge list of simple and complex mods that I want to do, some of woch do need esiting the main.dol, if you know of a tutorial I would want to have a lonk.

 

[megazig]

6xx_pem.pdf is a great start. read through that for info on PowerPC. (not the chip in the wii but it's easy enough to read)
google is your friend for that

 

[gudenau]

Ok, thanks for the info!

 

[Taleweaver]

google is your friend for that

But...google apparently just installs homebrew for him.


(and is it me, or is google getting more user friendly by the day? ).


@OP: please don't take offense, but...you really don't sound like you've got what it takes. Do you even know how to code? Do you have an USB-gecko? Have you properly checked out what's on wiibrew.org? Or what riivolution exactly does? Those are basic things: learning how to use hacks and mods from others. I'd say: get familiar with them. If you find a project in beta, help out on that end. And meanwhile: not just test and fix bugs, but learn how those bugs came around.
Depending on how easy you'll find that, you can start working on your own "hello world" projects.
I'd keep full game editing for after THAT. But as it stands, you sound like you want to run a marathon when in no condition to even properly jog.

Still: good luck out there.

 

[gudenau]

I know riivo substitutes and add files on the disk, I do have some homebrew under my belt, on the wii and ds, I use plenty of other mods and hacks. I have messed with hex edditors and I hav many mods in development in Minecraft, not the same, but it coints for somthing. I would have a usb gecko if I could get my hands on one, as I looked at the pit of a wave, then started looking again at a the decline of the ses... Oh my luck. On wiibrew, I visit evry day. I have looked for the info I want there, just not able to find it. My terms and frasing my not be spot on, as I am not the best with english; even with it being my first language ( I feel like I am more fluent in Java sometimes...), I do understand a lot of this stuff, I am even building a pc in Minecraft. I don't take any offence from your comment, I get much worse almost evry day at school, I am kinda tough in that regard.

Edit: Oh and thanks for the good luck, I missclicked report, good think I could cancel it.

 

[The Minecrafter]

I know that there may be some not English speakers on this site, but could you please fix the title of the article? It just screams "N00b" and "I don't know what I'm talking about" if you ave a spelling error in the title. It should be main.dol, not mail.dol.
Otherwise, people will probably not take you seriously. Just saying.

 

[gudenau]

Oops, typo. Could a mod please fix it, I don't see an option for editing the title.
English is my native language, or my first. I do want to learn German though.

 

[person66]

What exactly is it you want to do? If you really want to edit the main.dol, then as far as I know (I am just guessing here, it may be easier than this) the only way to do it would be to decompile it, then try to make sense of the decompiled code (which is not an easy task, it would be obfuscated, and the code the decompiler outputs won't be all nice and clean), then add your edits without breaking everything. After that you would have to recompile it, put it back in the game, and hope that it works. Of course it is more complicated then that, but that would be the basic idea.

I guess you could also try to edit it through a hex editor, but that would be just as difficult, if not more.

 

[Cyan]

title fixed.

Good luck on editing the main.dol itself.

You want to add features (like new menus) and not just replace resources or values?
I suppose you will have to run a decompiler and understand ASM to hex edit it, as without the source code you can't recompile it.

Make me remember good old SNES hacks

 

[gudenau]

Thanks.
I want to add more content, mostly. Like adding more levels to nsmbw, as an example.

 

[Disorarara]

Like others have said already, you're not going to want to modify the .dol file anyways, it's the actual game content itself you want to, you would normally modify a game executable if you wanted to change game behavior, but since we have Ocarina for that there's really no need to.

 

[JoostinOnline]

I do have an idea, I konw it is not easy, I just want to learn how to mod the main.dol, so I could change how the game works, the adding content was an example. Like ctgp, it mods the main.dol to add content change stuff, like with a cheat code, but whith a main.dol edit. I am starting at square one here, any info will greatly help. I want to mod games without simple content changes and cheat codes, so this is the only way to go from what I understand.

Why do you say it modifies main.dol? I don't see any evidence of that.

 

[megazig]

it modifies the main.dol

 

[JoostinOnline]

it modifies the main.dol

I see an alternative main.dol (three actually) in the download, but that would just replace the file, not modify it.

 

[megazig]

they are distributing illegal main.dol files that have been edited