Hacking Question about alt .dol installations

Kira99

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First off, I've successfully gotten Wii Sports Resort to play with no problems in usb loader gx. I did not have to burn the game to a disc to do it.

1. But why do we need to install alternative .dol files? I've updated to 4.1 through Nintendo. What is the .dol installing that the update didn't have??

2. We just need to load the alt .dol once, correct? It installs to the Wii?

3. Through my WBFS manager, I noticed that just the game partition is just 0.75GB, but with the update partition it goes to .80GB. Is the .dol located within the update partition and would I ever need to install it again in the future?

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udo4ever

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Hi Kira99, i don't think you understand what alt-dols do. The reason you need to use an alt-dol for Wii sports resort is because the game changes the IOS it uses after the wii motion plus tutorial finishes. In other words it changes IOS midway through the game. This is why you need to first instruct the usb loader you use to use the alt dol when you run WSR for the first time to allow the video to play through and then you must turn off alt-dol in your loader to actually play the game. using the alt-dol does not install anything to your Wii at all, it just gives your wii the info it needs to play the tutorial that's it!

2. You should not have to use the alt-dol again since Wii sports resort will not play the wii motion plus tutorial again. The movie should only play once unless you ask it to play again. This is especially true for system menu 4.1 since it fixes a glitch in 4.0 where the tutorial would play again by mistake.

3. the alt-dol has nothing to do with the partition update at all. it is found in partition 2. As I said in #1 the alt-dol does not install anything to your wii. If a game comes out that has a similar issue than you will need to find an alt-dol that is specific to that game and do the same thing. If there ever is a true permanent fix, it will have to be done through a custom ios (CIOS) or through the USB Loader.
 

Kira99

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Thanks udo4ever for answering.

But what do you mean by the alt .dol is located in partition 2? Is this within the Game Partition?

The reason I ask this is because I'm wondering for the next game that requires this fix, can I add to my external HDD just the Game Partition through my WBFS manager, and still be able to use the alt dol method fix.
 

dsfanatic5

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Kira99 said:
Thanks udo4ever for answering.

But what do you mean by the alt .dol is located in partition 2? Is this within the Game Partition?

The reason I ask this is because I'm wondering for the next game that requires this fix, can I add to my external HDD just the Game Partition through my WBFS manager, and still be able to use the alt dol method fix.
Every game that currently needs an alt.dol to boot, must have that alt.dol extracted from it's game partition. Look at a game like Metal Slug Anthology. There are a total of 6 games on that ISO, but Metal Slug 6 is isolated as a separate game, with it's own .dol required for booting. When a game is booted from a USB Loader, it only loads the "main.dol" from the game partition, and is unable to load any other .dols after the main.dol has loaded. So if you extract the MS6.dol (don't remember if that's the correct name) and rename it to the 6-digit game ID for Metal Slug Anthology, using the alt .dol method with launch directly into Metal Slug 6 menu.

In Wii Sports Resort, the other .dol is simply the tutorial video that you must watch first, before the game will load properly. So for WSR, you need only use the alt .dol one time to watch the video, and then turn alt .dol OFF to launch the main.dol (the actual game). Another example is House of the Dead 2 & 3 Returns. HoTD 2 won't load from a USB loader, unless you use the alt .dol method, and then it will only launch HoTD 2. Turn off the alt .dol, and you will see both 2 & 3 in the main menu, but only 3 will load from this point.

While most games that require alt .dol loading only have 1 other .dol in the game partition, there are exceptions such as Call of Duty 3, which have multiple .dol files in the game partition. This is why nobody can get CoD3 to load properly from USB Loaders, unless there's a fix I'm unaware of. You can get around this for CoD3 by using ISO patcher to patch the game to use ios249, burn to dvd-r, and launch using NeoGamma. I hope that made sense.
 

Kira99

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^ yes that made alot of sense thank you.

My only question left is whether the alt dol files are located within the Game partition. I'm wondering if in my WBFS manager, whether I should should to transfer (for problem games) only the game partition (to save the most space), or to choose to have the update partition included in the transfer.

Thanks
 

Dialexio

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Yes. For example, with Wii Sports Resort, the necessary alternate DOL is player.dol. That DOL can be found in the "DATA" partition. (That's where all the game stuff is.)
 

udo4ever

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Hi Kira99, I'm not 100% sure but I am fairly certain that you can completely ignore the update partition and install the game partition on your usb drive. the alt-dol is found in the game partition.

If a game does come out with a similar problem, in theory you should only have to install the game partition and forget about the update partition as well. You would then have to find the alt-dol in the game partition of that game and do the same things as you did for wii sports resort. Just to be clear, every game that comes out with this problem will need its own unique alt-dol found in the game partition to successfully play it.

I hope this clarifies everything...
 

Kira99

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Thanks to everyone for clearing up all my questions
smile.gif
 

iceache

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dsfanatic5 said:
Kira99 said:
Thanks udo4ever for answering.

But what do you mean by the alt .dol is located in partition 2? Is this within the Game Partition?

The reason I ask this is because I'm wondering for the next game that requires this fix, can I add to my external HDD just the Game Partition through my WBFS manager, and still be able to use the alt dol method fix.
Every game that currently needs an alt.dol to boot, must have that alt.dol extracted from it's game partition. Look at a game like Metal Slug Anthology. There are a total of 6 games on that ISO, but Metal Slug 6 is isolated as a separate game, with it's own .dol required for booting. When a game is booted from a USB Loader, it only loads the "main.dol" from the game partition, and is unable to load any other .dols after the main.dol has loaded. So if you extract the MS6.dol (don't remember if that's the correct name) and rename it to the 6-digit game ID for Metal Slug Anthology, using the alt .dol method with launch directly into Metal Slug 6 menu.

In Wii Sports Resort, the other .dol is simply the tutorial video that you must watch first, before the game will load properly. So for WSR, you need only use the alt .dol one time to watch the video, and then turn alt .dol OFF to launch the main.dol (the actual game). Another example is House of the Dead 2 & 3 Returns. HoTD 2 won't load from a USB loader, unless you use the alt .dol method, and then it will only launch HoTD 2. Turn off the alt .dol, and you will see both 2 & 3 in the main menu, but only 3 will load from this point.

While most games that require alt .dol loading only have 1 other .dol in the game partition, there are exceptions such as Call of Duty 3, which have multiple .dol files in the game partition. This is why nobody can get CoD3 to load properly from USB Loaders, unless there's a fix I'm unaware of. You can get around this for CoD3 by using ISO patcher to patch the game to use ios249, burn to dvd-r, and launch using NeoGamma. I hope that made sense.

Actually, with the newest USB Loader GX, you can load the Alt Dol from disc and pick the correct alt dol.
 

takopus

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udo4ever said:
Hi Kira99, i don't think you understand what alt-dols do. The reason you need to use an alt-dol for Wii sports resort is because the game changes the IOS it uses after the wii motion plus tutorial finishes. In other words it changes IOS midway through the game. This is why you need to first instruct the usb loader you use to use the alt dol when you run WSR for the first time to allow the video to play through and then you must turn off alt-dol in your loader to actually play the game. using the alt-dol does not install anything to your Wii at all, it just gives your wii the info it needs to play the tutorial that's it!

2. You should not have to use the alt-dol again since Wii sports resort will not play the wii motion plus tutorial again. The movie should only play once unless you ask it to play again. This is especially true for system menu 4.1 since it fixes a glitch in 4.0 where the tutorial would play again by mistake.

3. the alt-dol has nothing to do with the partition update at all. it is found in partition 2. As I said in #1 the alt-dol does not install anything to your wii. If a game comes out that has a similar issue than you will need to find an alt-dol that is specific to that game and do the same thing. If there ever is a true permanent fix, it will have to be done through a custom ios (CIOS) or through the USB Loader.

udo4ever, is there any hint about which IOS actually changed after running alt-dol of Sports Resort?
I'm facing craziest situation ever here. It is kind of a fairy-tale, so prepare to listen. =)

I helped my boss (who lives in other country) to install USB Loader GX (600, for what it worth) and Sports Resort. It worked fine. But then later for some unknown reason both Waninkoko USB Loader 1.5 and USB Loader GX decided not to see USB-drive. Loader 1.5 said there is no WBFS partition, and GX refused to see the drive at all. By the way, WBFS Manager on PC still seen the drive and it's content with no problems.
Anyway, disc was re-formatted and images reinstalled into it. Both loaders once again began to see it ok.
USB Loader GX worked fine with any game. With but one exception: if you make ANY changes into exact Sports Resort settings - there will be black screen on launching ANY game. Killing configs heals the problem. I presume even killing config of Sports Resort will heal it, but i can't check it - the man i helped is now very far away, so i'm trying to help him through gtalk and such.
In the we have a situation where any game but SR works, and any changes to SR settings will crash ALL games.

That's the story. So i'm trying to figure out, which IOS was updated by SR alt-dol, and probably any way to revert it back to previous state, to play the whole thing again.

Just in case, that was on cIOS38 rev 13. Later it was updated to rev 14, and Loader GX was updated to 688. With no changes at all - same story, black screen on any changes of SR settings to all games.

I know this sounds crazy. But that's the way things are.

Any recommendations or advices will be really appreciated! I'm digging through all this mess for like two days! T_T
 

d popcorn

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takopus said:
udo4ever said:
Hi Kira99, i don't think you understand what alt-dols do. The reason you need to use an alt-dol for Wii sports resort is because the game changes the IOS it uses after the wii motion plus tutorial finishes. In other words it changes IOS midway through the game. This is why you need to first instruct the usb loader you use to use the alt dol when you run WSR for the first time to allow the video to play through and then you must turn off alt-dol in your loader to actually play the game. using the alt-dol does not install anything to your Wii at all, it just gives your wii the info it needs to play the tutorial that's it!

2. You should not have to use the alt-dol again since Wii sports resort will not play the wii motion plus tutorial again. The movie should only play once unless you ask it to play again. This is especially true for system menu 4.1 since it fixes a glitch in 4.0 where the tutorial would play again by mistake.

3. the alt-dol has nothing to do with the partition update at all. it is found in partition 2. As I said in #1 the alt-dol does not install anything to your wii. If a game comes out that has a similar issue than you will need to find an alt-dol that is specific to that game and do the same thing. If there ever is a true permanent fix, it will have to be done through a custom ios (CIOS) or through the USB Loader.

udo4ever, is there any hint about which IOS actually changed after running alt-dol of Sports Resort?
I'm facing craziest situation ever here. It is kind of a fairy-tale, so prepare to listen. =)

I helped my boss (who lives in other country) to install USB Loader GX (600, for what it worth) and Sports Resort. It worked fine. But then later for some unknown reason both Waninkoko USB Loader 1.5 and USB Loader GX decided not to see USB-drive. Loader 1.5 said there is no WBFS partition, and GX refused to see the drive at all. By the way, WBFS Manager on PC still seen the drive and it's content with no problems.
Anyway, disc was re-formatted and images reinstalled into it. Both loaders once again began to see it ok.
USB Loader GX worked fine with any game. With but one exception: if you make ANY changes into exact Sports Resort settings - there will be black screen on launching ANY game. Killing configs heals the problem. I presume even killing config of Sports Resort will heal it, but i can't check it - the man i helped is now very far away, so i'm trying to help him through gtalk and such.
In the we have a situation where any game but SR works, and any changes to SR settings will crash ALL games.

That's the story. So i'm trying to figure out, which IOS was updated by SR alt-dol, and probably any way to revert it back to previous state, to play the whole thing again.

Just in case, that was on cIOS38 rev 13. Later it was updated to rev 14, and Loader GX was updated to 688. With no changes at all - same story, black screen on any changes of SR settings to all games.

I know this sounds crazy. But that's the way things are.

Any recommendations or advices will be really appreciated! I'm digging through all this mess for like two days! T_T
the alt dol did not update any iso all it done was run the m+ video
Problem is system version 4.1 will fix this http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?js...history_state0=
 

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