Riivolution replace main.dol

[Venomalia]

I know that Riivolution is designed for Wii games, but is it possible to replace the main.dol?
I have tried this a few times but without success.

[AdmiralCurtiss]

Yes, it is. Write it like this:

Code:

<wiidisc version="1">
    <patch id="mod_id" root="/mod_root">
        <file disc="main.dol" external="main.dol" />
    </patch>
</wiidisc>

In this example the replacement file is at [SD Root]/mod_root/main.dol.

[Venomalia]

(06-06-2022, 03:20 AM)AdmiralCurtiss Wrote: Yes, it is. Write it like this:

Code:

<wiidisc version="1">
<patch id="mod_id" root="/mod_root">
<file disc="main.dol" external="main.dol" />
</patch>
</wiidisc>

In this example the replacement file is at [SD Root]/mod_root/main.dol.

ok, found the problem and found a new one....

If the main.dol uses a different region than the game I get only a black screen.
but if i change the bi2.bin before it works without problems, of course i can't start the game without the patch anymore.
any ideas?

[AdmiralCurtiss]

Uh, no idea. Does that work on hardware? Can you be more specific in what you're trying to do?

[Venomalia]

(06-06-2022, 09:10 AM)AdmiralCurtiss Wrote: Uh, no idea. Does that work on hardware?

Is it possible to test gamecube games in this way on the wii at all? have never tried it.

(06-06-2022, 09:10 AM)AdmiralCurtiss Wrote: Can you be more specific in what you're trying to do?

I'm working on a little hack myself, but regardless of that, I've been having problems with every mod that exchanges main.dol for a long time.

I only have pal roms and most hacks use a modified US main.dol.
I have almost only pal roms and most hacks use a modified US main.dol and I always end up with a black screen...
when i try to patch the same hack on other way there is no problem so it can't be incompatibility.

Here is an example of Pikmin 2 https://mega.nz/file/jGwXnAAY#Lin5vgIWkjO2xxHVgt2GYjOMOjN5U1mcPnaOeYdDvMg
When i test this with my pal version of pikmin 2 i only get a black screen.
If I unpack my pal version of pikmin 2 as a folder and delete the sys/bi2.bin or replace it with a us region code it will work.

[AdmiralCurtiss]

Ah, Gamecube, yeah Riivolution doesn't even work for that on hardware so that point is moot.

I've debugged this and traced it to this initialization which depends on the region code read from the bi2.bin. I don't think you can affect this with Riivolution as-is, but I'll discuss this with other devs if we can add some way to do so.

[Venomalia]

This would be great, let me know when this changes.

[AdmiralCurtiss]

You can now as of https://dolphin-emu.org/download/dev/3bf1ddc54957d597f9e0d6e8a0f5cafa3c65f82f/ do this with the "dolphin_sys_file" and "dolphin_sys_folder" commands. They behave just like the standard "file" and "folder" commands, but instead replace/modify files in a separate 'filesystem' that contains the system files "boot.bin", "bi2.bin", and "apploader.img". (More files may be added there in the future if it turns out to be required for something.)

eg. This will correctly run your Pikmin 2 mod with a European copy of the game:

Code:

<wiidisc version="1" >
    <id game="GPV">
        <region type="P"/>
        <region type="E"/>
        <region type="J"/>
    </id>
    <options>
        <section name="Pikmin2">
            <option name="Mode">
                <choice name="Normal">
                    <patch id="normal"/>
                </choice>
            </option>
        </section>
    </options>
    <patch id="normal" root="/Pikmin2Deluxe" >
        <file external="main.dol" disc="main.dol"/>
        <folder external="player" disc="/player" create="true"/>
        <folder external="eng" disc="/new_screen/eng" />
        <file external="opening.bnr" disc="/opening.bnr" />
        <file external="pikis.szs" disc="/user/Kando/piki/pikis.szs" />
        <dolphin_sys_file external="bi2.bin" disc="/bi2.bin" />
    </patch>
</wiidisc>

[Venomalia]

Thank you very much, this makes many things easier.