Back For moar hacking "mp9 hack"

[Mareep]

Nice! Looking forward to it.

[MnSG]

All right, here are the screenshots, and the download link for my latest texture hack...

Note: Click on the thumbnails to see the images at full size.







http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?730rp3d4fq03ytp

[Mareep]

I love it! Once again, great work!

[MnSG]

Okay, now I should talk about the texture parts that have multiple portraits and/or icons for the playables...

Throughout my icon replacement work, I've noticed at least "5" different texture parts, where there are multiple portraits in "1" texture part. They're...

chara.tpl
mg9410_chara_icon01.tpl
pc_80_front.tpl
pc_icon_80r_rslt.tpl
chara.tex0

For each of my downloads, only one of the icons are modified for each of those texture parts. In order to merge the edits, you need to have an image editor in your arsenal.

I'll use the edits that I made to pc_icon_80r_rslt.tpl as an example...



The one on the left is the Red Yoshi version, while the one on the right is the Red Magikoopa version. The reason for this is so that the two texture hacks don't have to rely on each other. If you merge the edits together, you should at least end up with...



The key to doing this, however, can be rather tricky if you don't have hex editing experience. Simply put, you need to first import those texture parts with a hex editor. Next, you must extract those textures as PNG images.

For the next step, you should have The GIMP and Adobe Photoshop CS3/CS4. With The GIMP, save the PNG images as TGA images. Next, open the TGA revisions with Photoshop CS3/CS4, and save them as PNG images. This will remove the alpha layers, making icon merging easier.

Now, with The GIMP, you merely have to select the custom icon on one of the texture revisions, and copy it onto the other. Save your work, and then reopen the file in Photoshop CS3/CS4. Copy the alpha layer from any of the TGA images onto the PNG image, and then save the PNG image as a TGA image. Make sure that you have the alpha layer enabled before saving.

Last up is BrawlBox. You need to upload the TGA image onto that program so that you can make the texture data. Now, pc_icon_80r_rslt.tpl is a CI8 texture, and its palette's format is RGB5A3, and uses 256 colors. After uploading the texture with those settings, export the texture data as a TEX0 file, and the palette data as a PLT0 file.

To finish up, you need to open the TEX0 and PLT0 files, along with pc_icon_80r_rslt.tpl, with a hex editor.

For the TEX0 and PLT0 files, their data begins at offset 0x40. For the TPL file, because it's a CI8 texture, its palette data starts at offset 0x20. And since the palette data has 256 colors, the texture data begins at offset 0x260.

All that's left to do is copy the palette data from the PLT0 file onto the palette data for the TPL file, followed by copying the texture data from the TEX0 file onto the texture data portion of the TPL file. Save the TPL file, and you've completely modified it.

Finish up by importing that TPL file onto the proper ARC container files, and view the changes with the SZS Modifier. If you did all the steps correctly, congratulations.

However, if you still don't fully understand this tutorial, I won't blame you. After all, this work can be a very complex to pull off, and is more designed for the advanced texture hackers.

[Skyground95]

MnSG, the guy who likes red textures :P
Also, I don't think you get much attention/recognition for your hacks on this forum.
Maybe you should post them in your thread at kc-mm like you did with your mkw textures?

[MnSG]

MnSG, the guy who likes red textures
Also, I don't think you get much attention/recognition for your hacks on this forum.
Maybe you should post them in your thread at kc-mm like you did with your mkw textures?

I'm well aware of that. I pretty much cover ALL of my texture work at the Kitty Corp. forums, so it's to be expected that I'd input my texture work for Mario Party 9 there too.

[Mareep]

Yeah, I uh, stopped reading halfway through that out of pure confusion. xD There is only really 1 edit I want to make to my mods, and that's the Wii Remote Curser of your Character's hand. Out of all the files you need to edit to change the icons, which is it? I honestly can't find it and it's so time consuming. D:

I agree with SkyGround, you have a real big love for flying/ red texture hacks. But hey, I can't blame you, the're YOUR texture hacks, you can do what you want when making them! ^_^

[MnSG]

@Mareep: Judging by your post, you never really took the time to pay attention to the ISO directories, let alone read the container files that are in them. But obviously, your region is different from mine, so it's to be expected that you'd have difficulties with the icon replacements.

To modify the cursors, you need to look for pc_cursor.arc.lz, which should be inside "locale_us" for the NTSC-U users, or "locale_eu" for the PAL users.

Anyway, I know that I'm at a more advanced level than you when it comes to texture hacking, but it never hurts to study all the different files that are inside the ISO.

[Mareep]

Urk, thanks, it's just, there are so many! It's kinda' overwhelming. :/ I did browse round the ISO to see what was in it, I just never even found any of the icons because of the file names. I managed to find Vehicles, Characters, ect. fine. Your guide did make sense, it's just it was hard to understand, oh well, thanks for the location of the cursor!

[MnSG]

Yeah the main problem is that there are a lot of container files that are named as...

layout.arc.lz
picture.brres.lz
pictures.brres.lz
map.brres.lz

It can be a pain, but I would think that by setting up the folders in the same way as the ISO folder format, and placing each text document into each specific directory, it would make finding the container files less tedious. Apparently I was wrong.

Basically, I'll use the following example as a pointer...

[Red Yoshi.zip]\common\bd04\tpl.txt

The text document in that directory only covers the container files that are in the ISO directory...

ISO:\common\bd04\

If that doesn't help you, I'm afraid that this is the best that I can do. Anyway, just remember that you don't have to use the icons, as they're mostly aesthetics; similar to the portraits that you can make for Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

[Mareep]

I know! I knew as soon as I saw the amount of files in your Red Yoshi folder that I wasn't going to edit all the icons, only the hand cursors. I had found Icons before a few months ago but found no way to replace them, only normal Character/ Vehicle/ NPC/ ect. textures. I'm gunna make Hand Icons for all my Hacks I made ages ago though! Maybe a few more different icons too, but, i'm really not too bothered about it.

[MnSG]

The SZS Modifier can't replace textures that have palettes, so hex editing is the only way to modify them. If you're going to modify the cursor icons, please keep this in mind, because ALL of them are CI8 textures.

[MnSG]

Sorry for the double post, but here's a screenshot, displaying my third texture hack...



For the download...

http://www.mediafire.com/?f5zu8yuqu75q9fq

Note: There are a lot less modified icons and portraits for this hack.

[Mareep]

Red Koopa? Love it! I still am gunna keep using my Blue one though. ^_^
I love how you are spending so much time and effort into these! I love em'! You're Red Yoshi is the only one I really use, since I prefer my own personal colourations of Kamek/ Koopa. I see it as a major advancement to my Red yoshi. Still you did a fantastic job on them! Eagarly anticipating what you have in store next!

[Mareep]

I've been messing around with custom brstm's for the Game to create custom Music for the Game. However, they do not loop. I know that the bsrar file needs patching, just like NSMBW, MSM and MKW, however I wondered if it worked like Brawl, where you could load custom Songs straight up. This is not the case. If anyone knows anything about how to patch a custom bsrar file, it would be greatly appriciated. Thanks!