03-17-2012, 06:28 AM
*Note that this guide is made for Project M versions 2.X. It works just fine for version 3.0, but you should read this post first. I'll update this guide soon!
Since people frequently ask for instructions on getting Brawl mods working, I decided to explain how I got them to work.
First things first, get WinImage , GeckoOS and NUS Downloader. If you already have GeckoOS, then there's no need to download again, but keep a folder in your computer. You'll need it to run the mod.
-Making the virtual SD card-
If you already have an SD card with all the necessary data, (The mod, Gecko OS, etc.) just insert that card in your computer, open WinImage and follow the steps below. If not, keep scrolling down to the text in bold.
1. On WinImage, click on "Disk" and select "Use Removable disk *the letter your SD card was assigned*". Then, still in this menu, click on "Read Disk" near the bottom.
If WinImage gets picky about not wanting to read the card, it's because you opened a folder of the card. So close WinImage, re-insert the card and try again without opening any folder such as my computer.
2. After doing the above step, a save window will pop up. Change the save type to "All files (*.*)" and save the file as "sd.raw". After WinImage is done saving, it will conveniently open the file for you.
You have now successfully backed-up your sd card and may close WinImage.
3. Now that the SD card is ready, place it in Dolphin's "Wii" folder.
If you don't have an SD card, follow the steps below. If you did the above steps, you can skip the 3 steps below.
1. Use this: https://sites.google.com/site/anon4453/t...card-maker and use WinImage to inject the data to the sd.raw.
2. To inject the data to the .raw, I recommend putting all the necessary files, which should be included with the mod, in a new folder (just create a new folder and put everything in it as if it were the root of an SD card.) and then using the "inject folder" option. The reason for putting everything inside of a new folder is because the "inject folder" option doesn't inject the folder of your choosing, it injects all the files and folders inside of it.
3. Your SD card is ready, place it in Dolphin's "Wii" folder.
*Brawl doesn't support cards larger than 2 GB unless you use Riivolution instead of Gecko OS, however I have no idea if Riivolution even works in dolphin. Also note that you can make working .raws of a usb drive too, as long as it's 2GB or less.
-Getting IOS 36-
First, open NUS Downloader.
*If you're using a Nand backup of a Wii in which you use GeckoOS, you probably don't need to do this step.
GeckoOS will ask for IOS 36 if you need to do it.
1. Click on database>IOS>0000000 100000024 - IOS 36>latest version.
2. Make sure "Pack WAD" is check marked and click "Start NUS Download!" You can click the floppy disk to choose a save destination.
3. You're done with NUS Downloader. Close it and move on.
-Dolphin settings-
Now let's open Dolphin. Once again, follow these simple steps:
1. Right click Brawl's banner and set it as default iso.
2. Click "config". In this menu, click on "Wii" and make sure "Insert SD Card" is check marked.
3. Go to the "Tools" drop-down menu and select "Install Wad." Find the IOS 36.wad you just created with NUS Downloader and install it.
All you need to do now is click on Open, find that GeckoOS folder I told you to keep around and open its boot.elf or boot.dol file. After this, you'll get a warning message from Dolphin. You can ignore this with no problem or disable it altogether by unchecking "Use Panic Handlers" under the interface tab in the Config menu.
When GeckoOS loads up, just select "Launch Game" and your mod should load up. There's an issue in which GeckoOS fails to use the File Patch Code correctly. If it happens to you often, This is easily fixed by going to GeckoOS' "Config Options" and changing the "Gecko Hook Type" to "AXNextFrame."
You can try out other hooktypes, but this one seems to work without issues. It may have some slight graphic issues at times, but it's nothing major.
-A few things to keep in mind-
*As far as I could tell, there is no difference between using GeckoOS' .dol or .elf files to run the mod. I personally use the boot.elf, but use whichever you like.
* It doesn't matter where you keep the GeckoOS folder in the desktop, just make sure you have the gameconfig.txt, Codes folder and, just in case, the GeckoOS folder in their respective places in the sd.raw.
* You may get a white screen after skipping GeckoOS' warning message (or after running GeckoOS if you disabled panic handlers). When this happens, GeckoOS is actually running fine, you just can't see anything. You can still press the A button and the game will launch. If it bothers you, or if you want to change GeckoOS' settings, you can close Dolphin and try again and it should work fine, since this doesn't happen often.
* Save states work just fine as long as you load/create them after GeckoOS applies the codes.
*If you launch Brawl, and then launch the mod via GeckoOS, the game ID will stay as RSBE01 (if not, it'll change to a bunch of zeroes). What's so great about this? Well, this makes using custom textures (custom textures via Dolphin) easy and most importantly, you can make a save state while playing the mod and load it while playing normal Brawl without the need of GeckoOS. It works just fine, codes and all, so what I said about save states above doesn't apply when doing this. It's basically an instant mod launch. remember that saves restore the game to a previous time so be careful you don't end up having to unlock things again.
-Known issues and how to fix them-
*When GeckoOS runs the game, Wii controllers get disconnected. You can just reconnect them when the game is running, or just connect the Wii controllers after the game launches, since GeckoOS works with GCN controllers too.*
*Snake and Olimar often crash the game after a vs fight. This problem is caused by checkmarking "Insert SD Card", which is obviously needed to run mods. It's not an issue with mods, it's an emulation issue, so even normal Brawl's Snake and Olimar cause crashes when this is active.
The only way I know to get around this and have the mod working at "100%" (to be determined) is to replace the files of the .iso itself and uncheck "Insert SD Card" after GeckoOS applies the codes. If you don't know how to edit your .iso, check out Hippox77's tutorial for this.
*From Dolphin revision 3.0-460 onward, the game will not use, as well as refuse to make a save. This happens because the location the emulator searches for the save changes from /user/wii/title/00010000/52534245/data/ to just /user/Wii/.
To fix this, copy the contents of the "data" folder to /User/Wii/. To find the save data, open Dolphin and right click Brawl's banner, then click on "Open Wii save folder." If for some reason you can't find it, then search your computer for "collect.vff" (the Start Menu search found it easily for me) and you should be able to find it. Once the file is found, right-click and select "open file location."
*This save issue may also be fixed later as new revisions come out.*
Enjoy Brawl mods on Dolphin and as always, if anybody knows a fix for these issues or a better way to load Brawl mods, then please tell.
Since people frequently ask for instructions on getting Brawl mods working, I decided to explain how I got them to work.
First things first, get WinImage , GeckoOS and NUS Downloader. If you already have GeckoOS, then there's no need to download again, but keep a folder in your computer. You'll need it to run the mod.
-Making the virtual SD card-
If you already have an SD card with all the necessary data, (The mod, Gecko OS, etc.) just insert that card in your computer, open WinImage and follow the steps below. If not, keep scrolling down to the text in bold.
1. On WinImage, click on "Disk" and select "Use Removable disk *the letter your SD card was assigned*". Then, still in this menu, click on "Read Disk" near the bottom.
If WinImage gets picky about not wanting to read the card, it's because you opened a folder of the card. So close WinImage, re-insert the card and try again without opening any folder such as my computer.
2. After doing the above step, a save window will pop up. Change the save type to "All files (*.*)" and save the file as "sd.raw". After WinImage is done saving, it will conveniently open the file for you.
You have now successfully backed-up your sd card and may close WinImage.
3. Now that the SD card is ready, place it in Dolphin's "Wii" folder.
If you don't have an SD card, follow the steps below. If you did the above steps, you can skip the 3 steps below.
1. Use this: https://sites.google.com/site/anon4453/t...card-maker and use WinImage to inject the data to the sd.raw.
2. To inject the data to the .raw, I recommend putting all the necessary files, which should be included with the mod, in a new folder (just create a new folder and put everything in it as if it were the root of an SD card.) and then using the "inject folder" option. The reason for putting everything inside of a new folder is because the "inject folder" option doesn't inject the folder of your choosing, it injects all the files and folders inside of it.
3. Your SD card is ready, place it in Dolphin's "Wii" folder.
*Brawl doesn't support cards larger than 2 GB unless you use Riivolution instead of Gecko OS, however I have no idea if Riivolution even works in dolphin. Also note that you can make working .raws of a usb drive too, as long as it's 2GB or less.
-Getting IOS 36-
First, open NUS Downloader.
*If you're using a Nand backup of a Wii in which you use GeckoOS, you probably don't need to do this step.
GeckoOS will ask for IOS 36 if you need to do it.
1. Click on database>IOS>0000000 100000024 - IOS 36>latest version.
2. Make sure "Pack WAD" is check marked and click "Start NUS Download!" You can click the floppy disk to choose a save destination.
3. You're done with NUS Downloader. Close it and move on.
-Dolphin settings-
Now let's open Dolphin. Once again, follow these simple steps:
1. Right click Brawl's banner and set it as default iso.
2. Click "config". In this menu, click on "Wii" and make sure "Insert SD Card" is check marked.
3. Go to the "Tools" drop-down menu and select "Install Wad." Find the IOS 36.wad you just created with NUS Downloader and install it.
All you need to do now is click on Open, find that GeckoOS folder I told you to keep around and open its boot.elf or boot.dol file. After this, you'll get a warning message from Dolphin. You can ignore this with no problem or disable it altogether by unchecking "Use Panic Handlers" under the interface tab in the Config menu.
When GeckoOS loads up, just select "Launch Game" and your mod should load up. There's an issue in which GeckoOS fails to use the File Patch Code correctly. If it happens to you often, This is easily fixed by going to GeckoOS' "Config Options" and changing the "Gecko Hook Type" to "AXNextFrame."
You can try out other hooktypes, but this one seems to work without issues. It may have some slight graphic issues at times, but it's nothing major.
-A few things to keep in mind-
*As far as I could tell, there is no difference between using GeckoOS' .dol or .elf files to run the mod. I personally use the boot.elf, but use whichever you like.
* It doesn't matter where you keep the GeckoOS folder in the desktop, just make sure you have the gameconfig.txt, Codes folder and, just in case, the GeckoOS folder in their respective places in the sd.raw.
* You may get a white screen after skipping GeckoOS' warning message (or after running GeckoOS if you disabled panic handlers). When this happens, GeckoOS is actually running fine, you just can't see anything. You can still press the A button and the game will launch. If it bothers you, or if you want to change GeckoOS' settings, you can close Dolphin and try again and it should work fine, since this doesn't happen often.
* Save states work just fine as long as you load/create them after GeckoOS applies the codes.
*If you launch Brawl, and then launch the mod via GeckoOS, the game ID will stay as RSBE01 (if not, it'll change to a bunch of zeroes). What's so great about this? Well, this makes using custom textures (custom textures via Dolphin) easy and most importantly, you can make a save state while playing the mod and load it while playing normal Brawl without the need of GeckoOS. It works just fine, codes and all, so what I said about save states above doesn't apply when doing this. It's basically an instant mod launch. remember that saves restore the game to a previous time so be careful you don't end up having to unlock things again.
-Known issues and how to fix them-
*When GeckoOS runs the game, Wii controllers get disconnected. You can just reconnect them when the game is running, or just connect the Wii controllers after the game launches, since GeckoOS works with GCN controllers too.*
*Snake and Olimar often crash the game after a vs fight. This problem is caused by checkmarking "Insert SD Card", which is obviously needed to run mods. It's not an issue with mods, it's an emulation issue, so even normal Brawl's Snake and Olimar cause crashes when this is active.
The only way I know to get around this and have the mod working at "100%" (to be determined) is to replace the files of the .iso itself and uncheck "Insert SD Card" after GeckoOS applies the codes. If you don't know how to edit your .iso, check out Hippox77's tutorial for this.
*From Dolphin revision 3.0-460 onward, the game will not use, as well as refuse to make a save. This happens because the location the emulator searches for the save changes from /user/wii/title/00010000/52534245/data/ to just /user/Wii/.
To fix this, copy the contents of the "data" folder to /User/Wii/. To find the save data, open Dolphin and right click Brawl's banner, then click on "Open Wii save folder." If for some reason you can't find it, then search your computer for "collect.vff" (the Start Menu search found it easily for me) and you should be able to find it. Once the file is found, right-click and select "open file location."
*This save issue may also be fixed later as new revisions come out.*
Enjoy Brawl mods on Dolphin and as always, if anybody knows a fix for these issues or a better way to load Brawl mods, then please tell.