Hacking VCFE Wip...

[lolsjoel]

Mediafire...

+1

Free accounts, unlimited (essentially) bandwidth, no wait times, no ads, excellent site.

 

[HowardC]

I just wanted to give an update. The tools are pretty much done but I'm not releasing them yet as I'm too lazy.

With rapidshare all I had to do was upload and go, but now it looks like I'll have to setup an account, ect... so I don't feel like doing this atm. I'll probably release them this weekend though.

I've started on a new app, one that is greatly needed. All of the applications I've seen thus far seem to do a pretty poor job at changing the title id in the tickets for wads. For one thing it is often coupled with the rom injection process and the two have nothing to do with each other. Also the options seem to be to manually change the title, randomly change it, or not change it at all. My ticket editor is a little different. For one thing it'll have a "smart mode" where it checks to see if any other wads you've made have the id you've assigned before changing and recording the title id of any wad, official or otherwise you read with it. In other words, it tries to prevent itself from assigning title id's that already exist. Also you'll have the option to set the region code (last letter of the string) to "X", which official wads don't use and thus it will NEVER interfere with an official vc wad. I'm also considering using alternate letters for the console code (first letter in the string) so that we can expand the number of vc games we can make. I believe there are enough letters free to do this, but I'm unsure if this has any effect on the games themselves.

What it will NOT do is randomly change all 4 letters. We want to keep at least the console code in tact (even if we have an alternate letter as well) so we know what kind of wad we are dealing with. This info is helpful so it should be kept in tact.

There is a random mode though and it changes positions 2 and 3. These are the only ones that are meaningless and thus they can be anything.

Also corsario has sent me his notes on neogeo injection and they are quite good, so I should be able to add this to my rom tool quite easily. It should be noted that he has discovered how to change the bios in the files, which is the key to adding arcade mode into the games! He's already gotten the unibios running and apparently mame bioses as well!

Mario I'll add your stuff when I do the next update, but don't put the snes pal's in pc engine alternate, we'll find a different solution.

 

[lolsjoel]

OK, I have a little bit of title ID information for you then:

1. The first letter of a title ID can be anything. It does not have to match up with the system codes (F, J, N, etc), and indeed, it shouldn't ever use one of those as Nintendo officially claims those.

2. Changing the region code only does not stop a title from overwriting another. As far as how it is accepted by the Wii, JCBE = JCBP = JCBJ = JCBX = JCB3. If the first three match, the WAD will overwrite the preexisting channel.

3. As far as numbers go, anything goes. A title ID can be 1234 if that's what you want.

And my suggestion for your program is PLEASE don't limit our ability to choose any title ID! I have a thoroughly extensive list of title IDs for each inject I've made to be sure that I do not ever overwrite one of my own games, or most definitely not any official VC/WW game. In fact, I make a point of never using any official system codes (J, F, N, etc) to ensure that I'll never hit an official VC game. All that being said, I'm not sure what structure WW titles use, so maybe someone should look into figuring out if there's a set structure for those - such as starting with W, possibly.

But excellent news on a new title ID changer/manager! Right now, like I referred to before, I have a complete Excel spread sheet with my title IDs and patterns. It'd be nice to have that all contained and remembered by your program. Right now I just edit my WADPacker.bat to change title IDs ( add -i XXXX to the end of the command line, where XXXX is my title ID ).

 

[marioxb]

I just wanted to give an update. The tools are pretty much done but I'm not releasing them yet as I'm too lazy.

With rapidshare all I had to do was upload and go, but now it looks like I'll have to setup an account, ect... so I don't feel like doing this atm. I'll probably release them this weekend though.

First of all, what changed about Rapidshare? I never read the disclaimers or anything anyway. Mediafire is what I've been using lately. You don't have to set up an account (I hate doing that too). All you have to do is click upload without creating account. Even without an account, it still remembers all of the files you uploaded, in case you lost the DL link or something, which I've had happen before.

QUOTE(loesjoel @ Nov 8 2008, 01:48 AM) 2. Changing the region code only does not stop a title from overwriting another. As far as how it is accepted by the Wii, JCBE = JCBP = JCBJ = JCBX = JCB3. If the first three match, the WAD will overwrite the preexisting channel.

That's not true. Back in the days when I could freely switch between Japanese and American Wii Shop channels, I downloaded some Japanese games. I wanted them region free, and I also wanted them to still show on the shop channel that I purchased them and could re-download them if I needed to. When I made the wads on my PC, I just changed the last letter from J to E. Then I tested this by installing the new region free wad. The official VC channel of the same game, with the only difference being one ended in J and one ended in E, were sitting peacefully right next to each other.

 

[lolsjoel]

2. Changing the region code only does not stop a title from overwriting another. As far as how it is accepted by the Wii, JCBE = JCBP = JCBJ = JCBX = JCB3. If the first three match, the WAD will overwrite the preexisting channel.

That's not true. Back in the days when I could freely switch between Japanese and American Wii Shop channels, I downloaded some Japanese games. I wanted them region free, and I also wanted them to still show on the shop channel that I purchased them and could re-download them if I needed to. When I made the wads on my PC, I just changed the last letter from J to E. Then I tested this by installing the new region free wad. The official VC channel of the same game, with the only difference being one ended in J and one ended in E, were sitting peacefully right next to each other.

I've had a very different experience with a game with NXXC = NXXE where XX was some code I don't remember anymore, and the NXXC overwrote the NXXE. It's happened twice to me.

EDIT: I've just tested this again and found that XXXX does not get overwritten by XXXY, so there goes my theory. But still, I wonder what caused a channel to get overwritten by title ID that wasn't the same before...

EDIT2: I can also confirm that the two WiiWare games I've bought (LostWinds and World of Goo) have ticket IDs that start with W (WLWE and WGOE).

 

[HowardC]

Some official nintendo channels only allow one on your wii at a time IF they are installed via shop channel. Afaik this only happens on the "major" channels like shop channel and ect and thus I don't think it's gonna be an issue.


On an unrelated note, I've implemented the functions corsario sent to me and as of 10 seconds ago I appear to have successfully converted my first mame rom set into a neogeo vc file! That is the hardest one to do, with c64 and tg16 cd following in second and third. There are a few odd bytes that don't match up (less than 100) but I think that might just be subtle diferences between the mame romset and the one the vc title uses. I'll install it later this weekend and find out.

In the mean-time I'll work on getting things packed up.

With all of the tools now workign properly and with the toughest rom type working in my injector we aren't far off from completion of this project!


Mario: rapidshare apparently now deletes a file after it's downloaded more than 10 times.... unless you setup an account of course.
I'll try mediafire next if that is working for you.

 

[sr_corsario]

I have a rapidshare, filefactory and megaupload premium account... in case you need it i could upload it.

 

[lolsjoel]

In case you were curious... your tools all work perfectly on Windows 7 M3. Though CCF Tool 2.0 is missing comdlg32.ocx in the pack.

 

[HowardC]

Windows 7 M3 ??

Anyway, I've updated the save icon injector to 4.0... it's the first of the tools to use the new forms 2.0 so if you do NOT have office installed on your computer please click on the shortcut included with the archive.

The rest of the tools will be rolled out over the course of the night. There are some last minute tweaks I wish to do to the rest so it'll take a while.

 

[sr_corsario]

What about neogeo conversion files?

 

[marioxb]

Windows 7 M3 ??

Anyway, I've updated the save icon injector to 4.0... it's the first of the tools to use the new forms 2.0 so if you do NOT have office installed on your computer please click on the shortcut included with the archive.

The rest of the tools will be rolled out over the course of the night. There are some last minute tweaks I wish to do to the rest so it'll take a while.

Thanks, but I can't get it working. I downloaded the forms 2.0 zip and put the dlls in the icon injector folder. When I run the program, I get this error, "Run-time error '2147417848 (80010108) Automation error, The object invoked has disconnected from its clients."

 

[HowardC]

That type of error typically means you already had the dlls installed on your sytem.

This is why I was very reluctant to add forms 2.0 to the applications. When they work they work, but when they don't they simply don't. It is indeed an issue withyour system though... sorry I can't help any further.

*edit*

I noticed a error in the readme and myabe that put you off. You should run the exe you download and that'll install the dlls to the proper system folders. A manual copy of any generated dlls is not necessary.

 

[HowardC]

brlyt editor is up.... more on the way.

I'll probably wait until tomorrow before I update the icon generator because no real code has been changed, merely different icons.

*edit*

u8tool is also up.

This means all the apps converted to forms 2.0 are up.


corasrio:
The rom injector isn't ready yet... it won't be for a few days.

 

[marioxb]

That type of error typically means you already had the dlls installed on your sytem.

This is why I was very reluctant to add forms 2.0 to the applications. When they work they work, but when they don't they simply don't. It is indeed an issue withyour system though... sorry I can't help any further.

*edit*

I noticed a error in the readme and myabe that put you off. You should run the exe you download and that'll install the dlls to the proper system folders. A manual copy of any generated dlls is not necessary.

Well, when I first clicked on your program, it told me that form20.dll was missing. I then ran the exe and tried your program again. I got the above error. I read the readme, put the dlls in your folder, and still got the error.

 

[HowardC]

Well then it might be that the forms 2.0 installer I linked to is an old one or something. You might want to look for it on the microsoft site and see if that helps.

 

[lolsjoel]

Windows 7 M3 ??

Windows 7... the newest beta version of the Windows platform that's the successor to Vista.

EDIT: Very much looking forward to the first release of the VCFE!

 

[marioxb]

I got the u8tool and brlyt editor working by installing ActiveX Control Pad as mentioned here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/224305/en-us

However, I still get the first error I posted above with the icon injector. Maybe there is something missing from the folder?

Sorry to say that I tested a Japanese Famicom Mach Rider banner and still found these problems:

1. Region force does not work. It should, for example, change all the JPNs to ENGs, right? I think it changes only one of the 10 JPNs to ENGs. I changed the rest in a hex editor (in banner.brlyt only) and tested, text not showing up in English mode. It seems the brlan files must be changed as well for the text to show.

2. Icon swap still not working.

3. Still getting corrupt images. Am I supposed to change anything in the "padding" box?

 

[lolsjoel]

From what I've picked up from these guys, if the the banner.brlyt is padded more (to a size of at least 12 kB, I think), it won't corrupt. So, maybe try increasing the padding.

 

[RadioShadow]

The Unicode displays fine on the U8 tools. Printed this for the Japanese title:

????????

On the brlyt editor, it displays the last Roman III as a Square. But when you paste it into a text document, it displays fine.

And the font looks a bit crud (looks like you have made the text bold) in the brlyt editor. Can't you use the same font type as the U8 Tool?

3. Still getting corrupt images. Am I supposed to change anything in the "padding" box?

How big is the file after it was edited?

 

[HowardC]

For the very reason that certain numerals don't display properly, all the apps (except the u8 tool, where it isn't as important) have been modified to use the wii font. If you have the wii font (found in any 4.app) installed on your system it should look fine, but the font will be blurry and look bold (even though it's not). Because different windows fonts display unicode so differently this seemed to be the best solution as it's the actual font your wii will use. I would include the font or add a link to it, but it's property of nintendo. I know I'm being a real pain in the butt about stuff like that, but I'm trying to keep my tools legal and except for the logos I included with the brlyt editor (which we should be able to legally use as they are promotional logos) we aren't using any nintendo code or nintendo files and thus nintendo could NEVER force me to remove them.

I'm not really concerned about logo swap, I haven't even looked at it since you reported it before. I'll look into it one we get the more pressing matters sorted out. Literally all it does is copy a tpl from the included folder overtop of the tpl in your wad so until we have vcfe intergration, it isn't a big deal if it doesn't work.

The automation error you keep getting involves an incompatability on your system. There isn't a missing file, it's simply you have the wrong file somewhere. What the error basically means is that the object is on the form, but it can't communicate properly with it. Just to troubleshoot.... make sure you have removed the dlls you put in the icon injectors folder from before (vb apps look in the folder for the dll first, THEN the system folders) and make sure if you are running xp that you have service pack 3 installed, as it fixed a minor bug with forms 2.0. That isn't to say we can't fix it by including a file or an update, but let's not get confused as to what is causing the errors. There aren't any objects on the icon injector different from the other tools, so my guess would be that is it.

Everyone please try out the icon injector so we can make sure this is a localized event.

Thanks for the link though, that was the one I wanted to link to in the apps, but I couldn't find the link in m$'s maze of a website.

No, not all of the JPN entries are supposed to be changed, just certain ones. As it says in the readme, that feature is experimental and I honestly didn't expect it to work right off the bat.

As it explains in the readme, because we don't yet know the minimum amount of padding necessary to prevent corruption, the default padding is set at a modest 64 bytes..... you can try increasing this value and according to radio shadow, 12kb (12288) fixes it. Right now though we are trying to determine the minimum amount we can get away with though.

I think that covers all the questions.....

UGH, this is why I normally only release one at a time.

We'll try to squash these bugs before I start work on the injector and ticket editor again.