Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

Okay, do you know what I should search for? I really have no idea what WiiBrew has documented about this, I guess it will be some kind of homebrew program that can be used to change stuff.

Yet I found this: http://wiibrew.org/wiki/SaveGame_Manager_GX
Actually the only link I could find that says something about banner.bin file, I don't think I will ask for information on the WiiBrew forum cause it is the most inactive forum I have ever seen There are a lot of people who need help yet they post and never get answered.

Is this what you mean? If I can edit contents of banner.bin on my Wii using this program, that's fine by me.


EDIT: Now that I have just randomly typed "editing banner.bin" in Google, I get some more links that might be useful.
http://gbatemp.net/threads/wii-banner-creation-editing-guide.291151/
http://wiifree.wordpress.com/2009/03/31/virtual-console-iconbannertitle-editing/

This is, of course, meant to change Wii Channel stuff, but perhaps this will also allow me to change stuff Dolphin shows. I'm gonna read those and see where it will get me. Of course any additional help is very apprieciated!

Now I remembered this all is not about changing banner.bin but letting the iso create a banner.bin file of it's own. Not very much progress on that yet.

410172

I've figured out how to change the game ID and thus the save file ID, how to change the game title and how to change the image used by the save file. The missing parts of the puzzle is to find where to change the save file's game title and notes, but I can't figure out where they're located... Hum.

The latter is needed because while you have no save file Dolphin reads the title and note directly from the game disc (I've managed to change these succesfully), but when you have a save file they're read from that instead.

Please don't tell me I have to edit main.dol because that seems like a pain in the ass, having to decompile it and all. ;_;

Okay, well changing game title and banner was all I wanted. Or is that missing part of the puzzle necessary in order to change titles and banners? Than you could try decompiling a save file. Save files are located in the same folder as the banner.bin file (for some of my games). Yet .sav has to be the save file extension.

Please share your knowledge Thethiala, you're doing great. I can learn from you..

(05-21-2014, 01:28 AM)Thethiala Wrote: [ -> ]I've figured out how to change the game ID and thus the save file ID, how to change the game title and how to change the image used by the save file. The missing parts of the puzzle is to find where to change the save file's game title and notes, but I can't figure out where they're located... Hum.

The latter is needed because while you have no save file Dolphin reads the title and note directly from the game disc (I've managed to change these succesfully), but when you have a save file they're read from that instead.

Please don't tell me I have to edit main.dol because that seems like a pain in the ass, having to decompile it and all. ;_;

I think what you are looking for is in the banner.bin file see http://wiibrew.org/wiki/Savegame_Files#Banner

Really there has better be a way to edit the game title for testing without having to use a separate save file. Changing the save file location is extra trouble to copy over the save folder, and what's unlocked in one file is not changed in the others. Beating everything is not an option period.
Devs need to implement a better way than save file copying or symlinks.

@LPFaint99: It seems that all the Mario Kart games use the same banner.bin file, even though I have chosen seperate save games for the distributions. Changing titles and banners in the banner.bin file would make it change for all of them. Then I still would not be able to see which one is my orginial and which is my distribution. Things were said about changing the game ID of Mario Kart Fun, so that it creates its own banner.bin file, which can then be changed to give the game the correct title and banner.

@Thethiala: You say that Dolphin reads the game information from the savegame it creates. Explains why my banner and game title from recently added games changes after running them once and restarting Dolphin. Yet if we can tell Dolphin to read the information from the disc instead of the savegame, as it did first, we can change the banners and titles with no problem. Perhaps an idea for future Dolphin builds: let the user choose where to read information from. If the savegame information is not right, user can select read from disc and use that information or change it like you did.

Now that we have been talking about this for weeks, I start to think that for now, no one knows how to change those titles and banners? Only what could be necessary in the process, or what should be done without knowing how. Isn't there anyone that has done stuff like this before, succesfully?

410172

(05-22-2014, 01:59 PM)LPFaint99 Wrote: [ -> ]I think what you are looking for is in the banner.bin file see http://wiibrew.org/wiki/Savegame_Files#Banner

That seems correct, though I can't actually find the banner.bin file on all the ISOs. A lot of Wii games keeps the banner in a .tpl image file which is easy to swap out, and those games seemingly lack the banner.bin file. Mario Kart Wii is an example of this: On the ISO there's a folder called Boot where savebanner.tpl is located, which lets you easily swap out the image the save file uses. I can however not find the banner.bin to change the save file title and notes.

And even for the games that uses banner.bin instead of having the banner image stored separately (Smash Bros. Brawl is one example, banner0.bin is stored in its System folder) I'm not capable of extracting the relevant information and replacing it anyway.

EDIT: Wait, is banner.bin actually part of opening.bnr? That would explain why I couldn't find it. http://wiibrew.org/wiki/Opening.bnr#banner.bin_and_icon.bin

Yet I get the idea of doing a little research. I got a iso patcher for Newer Super Mario Bros. Wii, which I used. In the list, Newer Super Mario Bros. Wii has his own name and banner, because of the seperate banner.bin file I guess; so if someone knows which part of the iso is responsible for creating this banner.bin file, we can go search for differences in iso/files for Newer Super Mario Bros. Wii and the orginial New Super Mario Bros. Wii. My actual goal was to change names and banners from Wiimm's Mario Kart Fun distributions, but perhaps those differences can tell us why Newer Super Mario Bros. Wii has its own name and banner and let us apply the knowledge to the Mario Kart iso's.

Wait.... Theithiala did you say you found the solution for changing the banner image by changing the savebanner.tpl file from the Mario Kart iso?? Tell me more!
That title and notes information must be hidden somewhere...

(05-23-2014, 12:41 AM)410172 Wrote: [ -> ]Wait.... Theithiala did you say you found the solution for changing the banner image by changing the savebanner.tpl file from the Mario Kart iso?? Tell me more!
That title and notes information must be hidden somewhere...

If all you want to do is changing the banner image, that's fairly easy (albeit rather cumbersome) to do.

First you need a couple of programs: Wiimms ISO Tool (http://wit.wiimm.de/download.html) and Wiimms SZS Tools (http://szs.wiimm.de/download.html). In each of those you'll find a file called windows-install.exe you have to run first to be able to use them. Neither of them have a graphical user interface, so you're gonna have to work in command prompt.

Next you're gonna use WIT in order to extract the ISO (this can also be done in Dolphin, but since you're gonna use WIT to put the ISO back together again you might as well learn how to use it ). In Wiimms ISO Tool navigate to the "bin" folder and find start wit-console.bat. Then drag the file wit.exe into this newly created command prompt and press enter. Type in "wit extract", drag your Mario Kart ISO and then the destination folder where you want the extracted files to end up into the command prompt. It should look something like this: "wit extract "D:\Wii Games\Mario Kart Wii.iso" "D:\Mario Kart Wii Extracted"". Press enter, and the program will extract the ISO for you.

After this you're gonna swap out the image. Navigate to the folder with the extracted Mario Kart ISO, and find the "boot" folder. There should be a file called savebanner.tpl. To convert this we're gonna use WIMGT, a part of Wiims SZS Tools. Launching this is done the same way as launching WIT: Find the "bin" folder within WSZST, run szs-console.bat, then drag wimgt.exe into it and press enter. Type "wimgt decode", and then drag the savebanner.tpl into it and press enter. It should look something like this: "wimgt decode "D:\Mario Kart Wii Extracted\boot\savebanner.tpl"". Two .png files should then appear in the same folder as savebanner.tpl, which you can freely edit. Delete the original savebanner.tpl, or rename/move it if you want it as a backup. When you're done modifying the new images, find your wimgt command prompt again and type in wimgt encode, then drag the two new image files into it. It should look something like this: "wimgt encode D:\Mario Kart Wii Extracted\boot\savebanner.tpl.png D:\Mario Kart Wii Extracted\boot\ savebanner.tpl.mm1.png". A new savebanner.tpl will then be created.

The next step is creating a new ISO from the extracted files. Open WIT again, the same way as before. Type in wit copy, then drag the folder with your extracted files into the command prompt, followed by the folder you want the ISO be saved to. Add the name of the new ISO at the end. It should look something like this: "wit encode ""D:\Mario Kart Wii Extracted" "D:\New Mario Kart ISO\Modified Mario Kart.iso"". Press enter and wait for the ISO to be built.

The last step is changing the ID of the ISO. This is also done in WIT, so you can just keep the last window open. Type in "wit edit --id=###### (Insert your new ID here, consisting of four capitalized letters and two numbers. The letters must be different from the ID of Mario Kart Wii and Mario Kart Fun, which are RMCE and KMCE)", drag your new ISO into the window and press enter. It should look something like this: "wit edit --id=THET37 "D:\New Mario Kart ISO\Modified Mario Kart.iso"". Your modified ISO is now complete, having changed both the save banner file and the game ID. To check that the ID has been correctly changed you can type in "wit dump" and drag your ISO into the command prompt. Various information about the ISO will appear, with the line "Disc & Part IDs" being the relevant one.

I'm not particularly good at explaining stuff though, and it's a fairly long process the first time you do it. If you're having trouble at any of the steps I might explain them further, or maybe include some screenshots to make it simpler.

Thethiala: you're ossem. Thanks for the tutorial. Yet I use Wii Backup Fusion for extracting and creating a new ISO. Way easier, as I'm not the biggest fan with command prompts.

I just saw that some of the Mario Kart mods I have already have replaced banners and different game ID's. Yet I can use your information for Mario Kart Dragon Road, and New Super Mario Bros. Wii 2 - The Next Levels.

So the remaining part is changing the names. I saw that Mario Kart Fun 2014-04 has a different game ID, but no different name. Yet how did they change the name for Newer Super Mario Bros. Wii and Super Mario Bros. 3+?