Hello 'Tempers.
Well, I've started a little side project for myself. Basically, I'm learning to hack Wii and GameCube games, starting with Wind Waker (the superior GameCube version, obviously
). My ultimate goal is to replace Toon Link's model with either Zelda's or Tetra's.
As someone else was able to replace entire maps, I'm certain this would be, to some extent, possible:
However, I've run into a pretty huge problem. Basically, the game won't let me do anything to it. The game loads fine, but then when I get to the area in the game where the object I replaced exists, it just goes "nope" and crashes.
Allow me to explain what I've done so far:
First, I extracted the contents of the ISO using GCRebuilder (newer versions of Dolphin/Ishiiruka can actually do this too, but not in a format that GCRebuilder can rebuild). Then I went through the folder created, and found an Objects folder full of .ARC files. I knew this was what I was looking for. I put a tool called yaz0dec.exe into this folder, and used the Command Prompt to get it to open every file in the folder. This decoded the .ARC files into .RARC files. Next, I put another tool called rarcdump.exe into the same folder, and got it to open every file again. However, there were a bunch of "Lkanm" folders causing problems, as rarcdump.exe would just create an empty folder from one and then stop what it was doing completely. So I removed these, and ran the program again. This got me a load of RARC_DIR folders, which contained everything I needed.
Upon, opening these, I found that they contained numerous different files that I had never heard of before. Apparently, .BDL is for models, .BCK is for bone animations, .BTK and .BRK are for texture animations and .BTI is for 2D images (but it's not used much as the textures seem to be stuck to the models for the most part). So, after much rooting around (I used Bmdview2 to open bdl files), I found pz.bdl, Toon Zelda's model and zl.bdl, Tetra's model. Link's was a bit trickier, found in Link.rarc_dir (duh!) but under the name cl.bdl.
So, I switched them, ran rarcpacker and then yaz0enc to turn them back into a standard ARC file. Next, I rebulit the ISO with GCRebuilder and ran the game in Dolphin. The Nintendo logo loaded just fine, but then instead of the title screen where Link would appear on Outset Island, the game crashed. Bah.
First, just to make sure there was nothing wrong with the tools I was using, I opened the wooden sign's file, kanban.arc and replaced the bdl file with an identical one, and then repacked it, and rebuilt the ISO, using the exact same method listed above. The game ran perfectly. So then I figured the reason the game crashed was because Link's animations are not compatible with Zelda's model (cl.bdl has 42 bones, pz.bdl only has 27).
So I decided to replace a model with no bones and no animations, with another model with no bones and no animations. I switched kanban.bdl with hf**k1.bdl (yes, that is the actual file name, perhaps the Japanese find English curse words hilarious ), the model used for the hookshot targets in the Wind Temple. There's a .DZB file (collision mesh) in hf***1 too, but I didn't think that mattered because of the above video. So I rebuilt, and then ran the ISO. The game loaded perfectly, so I went to the Wind Temple, and got to the door to the main room where the targets are located. But as soon, as I press A to open the door, the sound plays and then the game freezes. Again.
So does anybody with experience in hacking GameCube or Wii games have any idea what's going on here? Anything would be helpful. I just want to finish this, as Wind Waker would be a lot of fun to mod, and I want to move onto other GC/Wii games later on if this goes well. And of course I'll also release the files to the public for those who want to use it or make their own mods. Thank you all in advance!
Well, I've started a little side project for myself. Basically, I'm learning to hack Wii and GameCube games, starting with Wind Waker (the superior GameCube version, obviously
). My ultimate goal is to replace Toon Link's model with either Zelda's or Tetra's.As someone else was able to replace entire maps, I'm certain this would be, to some extent, possible:
However, I've run into a pretty huge problem. Basically, the game won't let me do anything to it. The game loads fine, but then when I get to the area in the game where the object I replaced exists, it just goes "nope" and crashes.
Allow me to explain what I've done so far:
First, I extracted the contents of the ISO using GCRebuilder (newer versions of Dolphin/Ishiiruka can actually do this too, but not in a format that GCRebuilder can rebuild). Then I went through the folder created, and found an Objects folder full of .ARC files. I knew this was what I was looking for. I put a tool called yaz0dec.exe into this folder, and used the Command Prompt to get it to open every file in the folder. This decoded the .ARC files into .RARC files. Next, I put another tool called rarcdump.exe into the same folder, and got it to open every file again. However, there were a bunch of "Lkanm" folders causing problems, as rarcdump.exe would just create an empty folder from one and then stop what it was doing completely. So I removed these, and ran the program again. This got me a load of RARC_DIR folders, which contained everything I needed.
Upon, opening these, I found that they contained numerous different files that I had never heard of before. Apparently, .BDL is for models, .BCK is for bone animations, .BTK and .BRK are for texture animations and .BTI is for 2D images (but it's not used much as the textures seem to be stuck to the models for the most part). So, after much rooting around (I used Bmdview2 to open bdl files), I found pz.bdl, Toon Zelda's model and zl.bdl, Tetra's model. Link's was a bit trickier, found in Link.rarc_dir (duh!) but under the name cl.bdl.
So, I switched them, ran rarcpacker and then yaz0enc to turn them back into a standard ARC file. Next, I rebulit the ISO with GCRebuilder and ran the game in Dolphin. The Nintendo logo loaded just fine, but then instead of the title screen where Link would appear on Outset Island, the game crashed. Bah.
First, just to make sure there was nothing wrong with the tools I was using, I opened the wooden sign's file, kanban.arc and replaced the bdl file with an identical one, and then repacked it, and rebuilt the ISO, using the exact same method listed above. The game ran perfectly. So then I figured the reason the game crashed was because Link's animations are not compatible with Zelda's model (cl.bdl has 42 bones, pz.bdl only has 27).
So I decided to replace a model with no bones and no animations, with another model with no bones and no animations. I switched kanban.bdl with hf**k1.bdl (yes, that is the actual file name, perhaps the Japanese find English curse words hilarious ), the model used for the hookshot targets in the Wind Temple. There's a .DZB file (collision mesh) in hf***1 too, but I didn't think that mattered because of the above video. So I rebuilt, and then ran the ISO. The game loaded perfectly, so I went to the Wind Temple, and got to the door to the main room where the targets are located. But as soon, as I press A to open the door, the sound plays and then the game freezes. Again.
So does anybody with experience in hacking GameCube or Wii games have any idea what's going on here? Anything would be helpful. I just want to finish this, as Wind Waker would be a lot of fun to mod, and I want to move onto other GC/Wii games later on if this goes well. And of course I'll also release the files to the public for those who want to use it or make their own mods. Thank you all in advance!
Last edited by FlappyFalco,
like a 250 dollar kit back when DDR4 was Intel only
