Importing Brawl Vault Data from SD Card: Why it Doesn't Work

Crashdance22 · (This post was last modified: 03-03-2011, 10:38 AM by Crashdance22.)

I recently started experimenting with importing SD card binary Vault files from Super Smash Bros. Brawl. First I verified that Brawl could write to and read from the SD card image SD.raw succesfully in Dolphin. It can.

Now I went on to import my vault data from my actual Wii. I installed WinImage as instructed and mounted a blank SD.raw. I then dropped the private directory on the root of the SD image. The directory structure is now the following:

\
[color=#efefef]--[/color]-[private]
[color=#efefef]----[/color]-[wii]
[color=#efefef]------[/color]-[app]
[color=#efefef]--------[/color]-[RSBE]
[color=#efefef]---------[/color][al]
[color=#efefef]---------[/color][rp]
[color=#efefef]---------[/color][st]

The directories al, rp, and st are the album, replay, and stage folders. The Vault data filenames are the type followed by the date and time. Example: rp_110302_1646.bin. This is all fine and dandy, but there's a flaw that makes importing your own SD card data impossible. Once you import the files, Brawl will not recognize them until you select them and tick the "Archive" attribute in WinImage. They now appear in the Vault, but oh no, now the game says the files are corrupted!

The problem occurs when you view the attributes of a file in WinImage. Even if you don't change anything and save SD.raw, the game still sees them as corrupt. There's a hidden file attribute that gets reset when WinImage views the attributes. It's something WinImage doesn't recognize. So basically when you go to enable the Archive attribute, WinImage ends up corrupting the file, making it unreadable in Brawl.

Unless someone fully takes a look at the .bin data attributes Brawl uses and develops a file manager that's compatible with them, it won't be possible to add your own vault data from the SD card.

But don't worry, you can still get your Vault data working in Dolphin. Simply copy anything you want to transfer to your Wii System Memory (or leave it if it's already there) then use a homebrew Wii save extractor and move the title folder to Dolphin that way.

**skid** · 03-03-2011, 11:55 AM #2

(03-03-2011, 10:23 AM)Crashdance22 Wrote: Unless someone fully takes a look at the .bin data attributes Brawl uses and develops a file manager that's compatible with them, it won't be possible to add your own vault data from the SD card.

But don't worry, you can still get your Vault data working in Dolphin. Simply copy anything you want to transfer to your Wii System Memory (or leave it if it's already there) then use a homebrew Wii save extractor and move the title folder to Dolphin that way.

Would you please create two sd.raw files for us to compare? The first one created by transferring the vault data using the homebrew method and the second one by using WinImage?

sevensupreme · 03-03-2011, 03:44 PM #3

Hey i also spend hours with adding stuff the SD Card. But when you open it with WinImage, its empty, so i guess this says it all. Dolphin doesn't use the card right.

***shuffle2*** · 03-03-2011, 05:16 PM #4

try gizmo http://arainia.com/software/gizmo/overview.php?nID=4 instead.
it works fine for homebrew, haven't really tried games with sd card for a while, so let us know how it works for ssbb Smile

Crashdance22 · 03-03-2011, 11:32 PM #5

Ok, SD1.raw is the working image created with Dolphin and SD2.raw is the broken one created with WinImage. They both contain 4 stages, 4 replays, and 1 snapshot.

sevensupreme, I don't see your problem. Dolphin and Brawl write to and read from the SD card image without problems. And I'll give gizmo a try. Thanks!

03-06-2011, 06:57 PM #6

I need this too, tomorrow I will be fooling around with it and see if I can get anything to work...

Crashdance22 · 03-07-2011, 05:56 AM #7

Tried Gizmo, doesn't support the RAW format. :\

***shuffle2*** · 03-07-2011, 07:26 AM #8

Just navigate to the folder which sd.raw is in, and enter "sd.raw" manually. It will open the file fine.

03-24-2011, 05:19 AM #9

But don't worry, you can still get your Vault data working in Dolphin. Simply copy anything you want to transfer to your Wii System Memory (or leave it if it's already there) then use a homebrew Wii save extractor and move the title folder to Dolphin that way.

So is it possible to transfer the brawl replays to the SD.raw?
I really don't get it. And struggled also with the Sd.raw and corrupt SD files...

bibbis · 08-24-2011, 05:06 PM **#10**

I feel so completely lost.
All I want is to just create some SSBB levels in a program like Brawl StageStudio, which let's me ignore the lame "Boundary Restrictions", and then play the levels in SSBB on Dolphin.

As I can see here, levels can't be imported using an SD Card (I even tried everything myself using WinImage and got the exact results as you described).

So now I want to import them into the Wii System Memory using homebrews, like you said is possible, but I don't understand HOW.

I downloaded both the "SaveGame Extractor" and "SaveGame Installer" homebrews, but none of them works when I try to run them through Dolphin by clicking File > Open and then selecting one of the .dol or .elf files.
Dolphin just turns black and then stops.

Even if they DID work, I wouldn't have any idea of what it would look like and how to use it.

I have one more question:
I downloaded the SD cards that you attached to this thread, replaced my own SD.raw with your SD1.raw and when I started Brawl, I could see and play the 4 levels you had there.

I get that you managed to import them using some homebrew, but didn't you say that it DON'T work to use SD cards to import stuff?

I don't understand much of this at all and would really really appreciate some help.