Hacking Homebrew Making Forwarders for Wii

[Pulseforge]

I have never made a forwarder for Wii and I can't find the right software to do so. I know customizemii is a thing but that creates WADs with boot.dol files in them. Another problem I have is what are Brlan and brlyt files and how do I make them. If anyone could help me with what software to use, and how to create brlan and brlyt files it would help me a lot.

 

[fatherjack]

Hi Pulseforge,

firstly - BRICK PROTECTION - make sure you know what this is and you have some.
once you start messing about with wads its gonna be on the horizon.
so, forwarders......

its a steeeeep learning curve from zero to brlan/brlyt from scratch!
they dictate the animation and layout attributes of your wad, and reference other resources within the package, so tread carefully!
to give you an idea of the above see information here:
https://wadder.forumotion.com/t21-brylt-brlan-documentaion-how-to-edit

I would start by using existing wad animations you like and swapping out images using customizemii for the banners/icons, coupled with making a custom forwarder dol with modmii (https://modmii.github.io)

You could try out your custom forwarders on dolphin first before putting the precious wii console at risk

good luck - dont wanna see your 'I bricked my wii' post anytime soon.

 

[Pulseforge]

Hi, after looking at the page you sent, I don't think i'm gonna learn how to make brlan files. Just because it looks much more difficult than I expected. So I might just have to edit forwarders, which I don't wanna do as I want to make it but, oh well. Thanks anyways

 

[fatherjack]

hey no worries -it is a LOT to take in from scratch.
you should definitely try out the image replacement to existing animations though, you'd be suprised what rewarding results you can achieve and learn quite a bit along the way.

 

[Pulseforge]

hey no worries -it is a LOT to take in from scratch.
you should definitely try out the image replacement to existing animations though, you'd be suprised what rewarding results you can achieve and learn quite a bit along the way.

Alright, Ill try that, I just wanna know is the forwarder still mine if I didn't make the brlan files? I wanna make them then release them so I just want to know unless they aren't.

edit:
Also how do I open brlan files? Notepad++ or vs code or something?

 

[fatherjack]

sorry this took so loooong

'still yours' - not sure how anyone would define ownership of the set of instructions to display and render / animate a series of named images, it was always a bone of contention around copywrite of the IMAGES you choose to display.
Customizemii can download base images specifically to help animate custom channels as a starting point, but once you're comfortable with that you're gonna want to copy more complex animations for your custom forwarders, and 'borrowing' inspiration from an existing brlan / brlyt is not a problem.

opening files, you're gonna need 'Benzin':
https://mega.nz/file/MbYnxC5J#pPICLlBsjGrWUnbikbDceEUPdqNVMclizArpaHF9DMo
this converts the brlyt to 'xmlyt' and brlan to 'xmlan'
your Notepad++ will be fine for reading / editing the xml's before repacking.

Post automatically merged: Aug 16, 2024

just remembered, as you stated you intend to 'distribute' these please ensure there is code to allow for rendering your channel for both 4:3 and 16:9, and consider PAL and NTSC use.

 

[Pulseforge]

Alright, thank you so much!

 

[Pulseforge]

Sorry for a late reply, I'm having problems with benzin. It just doesn't open on my pc for some reason.

 

[Gabubu]

Sorry for a late reply, I'm having problems with benzin. It just doesn't open on my pc for some reason.

That's because benzin is a command line based program so you have to use CMD in order to use it.