Hacking USB LOADER COVER IMAGES

[nindim]

Hum... i'm sure that you meant AppleBelly's Coverflow... Cdreams designed the artwork, AB made a lot of code (based on Oggzee's work) and then dropped the project.
i'm the one coding it now...

I know it's not his loader, I have been keeping up with both threads and I have seen some of the drama unfold

What I said was "cdreams "coverflow" threads", by that I meant this thread.

QUOTE(BIG MOE @ Apr 18 2009, 08:56 PM)well I guess this should be done when more standard sizes are finalized by authors cause every version so far from the tons of loaders their making might have a new size for images !!! so let's wait for final agreements on sizes wink.gif

No need for this to wait, all that would happen is when the URL is constructed inside the loader to download the cover, it would specify the correct image height and width in the URL. I would imagine the PHP scripts could interperet these two numbers as paramaters to use in the resize process and return a correctly sized image.

@djtaz
With regards to demand for this, I know Dimok of the GUI USB LOADER is talking about using a 3 or four title ID system for their covers and resizing them themselves so as not to have to have multiple covers, which seems a bit rubbish when we have this resource. Obviously the reason for this is they require the width to be 224, not 225 as on the site.

It wouldnt break any existing loaders, it would just give the option for the others that are utilising a multiple of four system.

 

[Screemer]

feature suggestion

djtaz could create a script which requires four parameter to show a picture. gameID, cover or lable, x-size, y-size. and a url like this to get the picture:

http://www.theotherzone.com/wii/download.php?gameid=R33E69&type=cover&x=224&y=116

that would solve all the problems. autoresize doesn't have to be done by the loader and dvd-covers could be easily uploaded/downloaded as well. the only thing is that the script could cause a good amount of load on the server.

extension of nindims idea.

 

[Golup]

The site is really great!

and I suggest you adding the Dics images, beacuse the GUI USB Loader now can show the boxart as well as the disc image.

 

[Don Killah]

damn yeah.
i fully support the idea of using params (gameid/type/x/y) in the link to get the image resized.
this way we can get rid of freeimage that almost doubles the dol's size and makes conflicts while installing new games onto the usb drive.

djtaz, mate you have to include this! i'm looking forward to a postive answer.
have a nice day.

 

[djtaz]

OK , i took a look at this today and re-structured the widescreen script a little bit.

Now we can have a link like this :

http://www.theotherzone.com/wii/resize/nts.../600/RJ2E52.png
it goes by :
http://www.theotherzone.com/wii/resize/ {region} / {width} / {height} / { GAMEID} .png

so now any height/weight is available and should help people making auto loaders (hopefully)

 

[Don Killah]

thanks a lot mate, it would sure help us!

 

[oggzee]

Hey, how about supporting 4 letter gameid covers?
There really is no reason to use 6 letter ids, is there?
I internally download the covers using 6 letters but then save them to a 4 letter id.png.
So, if you could support downloading directly 4 letter id pngs we could slowly transition to use that.

 

[djtaz]

That would have to be done on the loader side im afraid - and there is a need for 6 letters as the last two letters determine the regional differences and updated versions for certain pal games and some people are very specific about the covers they want.

 

[Knocks]

If it's just a bugfix (which happens about once every 100 years), then the game wouldn't get a new cover. Sometimes but very rarely it would get a small "v.1.1" in the bottom corner or something.

 

[davedeluxe]

GH3 (Downloaded content edition), GH3 (Rock Band Edition), GH3 (W/ GH2 songs), GH3 (w/ GH1 songs), and GH3 (w/ 80's songs)


...

Keep up the Good work everybody!!!

OMG! Just what I'm looking for!
I changed the gameID for the ones that I have in my customs and that's it.
Thanks.

thats exactly what i want, but how can i change the gameid of the iso?

 

[oggzee]

That would have to be done on the loader side im afraid - and there is a need for 6 letters as the last two letters determine the regional differences and updated versions for certain pal games and some people are very specific about the covers they want.

Yes, of course, well, see, I'm the maintainer so to speak of the configurable loader, and I'd be happy to change the cover loading to a 4 letter id, if you could, pretty please, provide the images, I would make a new release with this change.

And about 6 letters, can I ask you, do you have any game with different covers because of last 2 letters?

And, even if there is a game with 2 different last letter id, it would be useful to be able to find a matching cover to a 4 letter id.

For example, there is RHAP01, what if for some reason there appears an "updated" game version with ID RHAP02, then downloading of the cover would fail, while, if you would provide 4 letter game id covers, I can still be able to look up RHAP and find the one belonging to RHAP01.

The best searching mechanisem would be i guess to first check for 6 letter id and if it fails do a lookup on a 4 letter id, if even that fails, try switching region... but we still ned the 4 letter id covers.

How does that sound?

 

[Screemer]

i love that you redid the script for image resize but there is an little problem what causes some loaders to crash.

if you enter a gameID for which no image is availiable your script delivers a error massage. that will cause a crash in some loaders because they don't get an image. could you rework it to deliver a 404 or a "dummy no picture available"-picture instead of the script error?

e.g. http://www.theotherzone.com/wii/resize/nts.../600/RJ2x52.png

 

[djtaz]

i love that you redid the script for image resize but there is an little problem what causes some loaders to crash.

if you enter a gameID for which no image is availiable your script delivers a error massage. that will cause a crash in some loaders because they don't get an image. could you rework it to deliver a 404 or a "dummy no picture available"-picture instead of the script error?

e.g. http://www.theotherzone.com/wii/resize/nts.../600/RJ2x52.png

Fixed for you now - no image comes up it the image didnt exist.

http://www.theotherzone.com/wii/resize/nts.../600/RJ2x52.png

 

[djtaz]

Yes, of course, well, see, I'm the maintainer so to speak of the configurable loader, and I'd be happy to change the cover loading to a 4 letter id, if you could, pretty please, provide the images, I would make a new release with this change.
Thats just one loader - there are loads and i would need them all to change in order to change the format on the site.Im not going to break every other loader so one can work.

And about 6 letters, can I ask you, do you have any game with different covers because of last 2 letters?
Yes , some have different covers with the last 2 letters being the deciding factor like Cooking Mama.
RCCPGT http://www.theotherzone.com/wii/pal/RCCPGT.png
RCCP5G http://www.theotherzone.com/wii/pal/RCCP5G.png

And, even if there is a game with 2 different last letter id, it would be useful to be able to find a matching cover to a 4 letter id.
Again the 4 letter code cant be searched for with the way things are on the site at the moment , it would take a whole site re-structure thogh it is possible , but covers like the above wouldnt be possible with the 4 digit code


QUOTE(oggzee @ Apr 19 2009, 10:31 PM) For example, there is RHAP01, what if for some reason there appears an "updated" game version with ID RHAP02, then downloading of the cover would fail, while, if you would provide 4 letter game id covers, I can still be able to look up RHAP and find the one belonging to RHAP01.

but it will also pick the incorrect cover for those games with more than one cover and some people are fussy about covers as i have seen on the site itself


QUOTE(oggzee @ Apr 19 2009, 10:31 PM)

The best searching mechanisem would be i guess to first check for 6 letter id and if it fails do a lookup on a 4 letter id, if even that fails, try switching region... but we still ned the 4 letter id covers.

How does that sound?

Why do you need the 4 letter covers ? It causes confusion when theres more than one cover and games come with a 6 letter code from nintendo for a reason so we may as well stick to the official version.

 

[nindim]

Yes , some have different covers with the last 2 letters being the deciding factor like Cooking Mama.
RCCPGT http://www.theotherzone.com/wii/pal/RCCPGT.png
RCCP5G http://www.theotherzone.com/wii/pal/RCCP5G.png

Whoever uploaded them is wrong. You can see that the rating on "Cooking Mama Cook Off" is "E for Everyone", it is the NTSC version of the same game. "Cooking Mama Cook Off" doesn't exist in PAL territories, it's just "Cooking Mama" The last two digits as far as I know are production run IDs and nothing more, they can be safely disregarded.

QUOTE(djtaz @ Apr 20 2009, 12:50 AM) but it will also pick the incorrect cover for those games with more than one cover and some people are fussy about covers as i have seen on the site itself

Regarding the different covers for the same game, can you show me such a gamer? I didn't think that happened.... I might be wrong though, wouldn't be the first time

 

[djtaz]

Yes , some have different covers with the last 2 letters being the deciding factor like Cooking Mama.
RCCPGT http://www.theotherzone.com/wii/pal/RCCPGT.png
RCCP5G http://www.theotherzone.com/wii/pal/RCCP5G.png

Whoever uploaded them is wrong. You can see that the rating on "Cooking Mama Cook Off" is "E for Everyone", it is the NTSC version of the same game. "Cooking Mama Cook Off" doesn't exist in PAL territories, it's just "Cooking Mama" The last two digits as far as I know are production run IDs and nothing more, they can be safely disregarded.

but it will also pick the incorrect cover for those games with more than one cover and some people are fussy about covers as i have seen on the site itself

Nevertheless , there are 2 different codes on this which means 2 different versions and there are a few more out there as well - thats just one i know of, but i know there are more and the covers do and can change from code to code - its not just a regional thing.
Also E doesnt stand for everyone. Here is a list of the regions :

ASCII Hex Region
A 41 All regions. System channels like the Mii channel use it.
D 44 German-speaking regions. Only if separate versions exist, e.g. Zelda: A Link to the Past
E 45 USA and other NTSC regions except Japan
F 46 French-speaking regions. Only if separate versions exist, e.g. Zelda: A Link to the Past.
J 4A Japan
K 4B Korea
L 4C PAL/World?
P 50 Europe, Australia and other PAL regions
Q 51 Korea with Japanese language.
T 54 Korea with English language.
X 58 Not a real region code. Homebrew Channel uses it, though.
(Thanks WiiMonkey)



QUOTE(nindim @ Apr 20 2009, 12:59 AM) Regarding the different covers for the same game, can you show me such a gamer? I didn't think that happened.... I might be wrong though, wouldn't be the first time

I wont say any names, but two pages back we got :
QUOTE(MrFaust @ Apr 16 2009, 06:27 PM)

PLEASE stop posting NTSC-U covers in the PAL section. Even if they are to replace an image with a better quality image. I'm in the process of replacing all the wrong region covers and keep fighting with something that wants to put NTSC-U covers in the PAL section, when there are perfectly good PAL covers to be found and worked. I know I may seem a bit anal about this, but if you going to do a job, do it right.

 

[nindim]

When I metioned the "E for Everyone", I was referring to the games age rating in the bottom left corner of the box, we have PEGI and they have the ESRB, so there are different rating systems, dead giveaway as to the region of the cover art.

Regrading MrFaust's post, he was just referring to people putting NTSC covers in the PAL section, he wasn't saying anything about multiple covers for a game within a single region.

I could be way off the mark here... but I don't think I am. Anyone else care to chime in and maybe clear things up?

 

[ether2802]

Well your page is gettin' famous and very used this days Mr. DJTaz, now even the GUI's are making use of it to download the covers, thanks to all the contributors and to this great community GBATemp FTW (only when the server is not failing

)

 

[djtaz]

Ill try to get the disc images on there next since the loaders seem to be going that way - might help a few more of the autoloaders.

If theres enough demand for a 4 digit PNG file ill see if we can work that out as well.

 

[nindim]

Ill try to get the disc images on there next since the loaders seem to be going that way - might help a few more of the autoloaders.

If theres enough demand for a 4 digit PNG file ill see if we can work that out as well.

I'm currently working on a disc pack, it has a four digit naming convention and image sizes will be 600x600. Currently have 240 images resized (fom teambadattitudes website) and with transparency (centre and beyond disc edge). I will only be including original images, no customs. Next I should be moving on to raiding console covers once Supercool330 gets me the goods

Would you like the images to be in separate folders for NTSC-U/J and PAL or is the ID enough?

I have deliberately made the images quite large (600 x 600 is actually the smallest image I had, so I went with that!) so we have good source material going forward. Obviously they can be batch resized if you're worried about bandwidth, but having them up at a larger size than currently required would give people more flexibility when choosing the resolution to download at (with your on the fly resize feature) with minimal loss of quality.

Will you be including custom images on the site, or only originals? I know some people are working through custom disc images at the moment and I say all power to them (fine for personal collections or whatever). Personally though, I would like only originals hosted on the site, as this would entice people to upload the correct image when the Loader cannot find it and they are "stuck" with a stock image of a no name disc. Plus, as you know, there are some rather "particular" people out there that like things to be right

Edit: With regards to the four digit PNG system, I think that really makes sense, if we can get all the Loader devs on board, then I'd say go for it. Don't blame me though if it all blows up and it turns out the last two digits are meaningful (I don't think that will happen, but who knows?)