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The Sonic Colors Hacking Topic

Discussion in 'Engineering & Reverse Engineering' started by Pexs, Feb 24, 2012.

  1. Pexs

    Pexs

    Otherwise known as Spex Member
    So, uh. Hey. I'm Pexs. I'm new here, as you can see from my Trial Member status over there, and I'm here to kick off a hacking topic.

    Now, you're probably thinking "Hey, what the crap is this noob doing posting a thread?" or "He's probably just going to say it's possible and wait for us to do it."

    Or something else along those lines. Well, I do have some proof of concept to show in this crappy video here.

    (Honestly, my computer can't handle it, so it lags, but I need to show this.)




    This is Sonic Colors model Sonic in his raw MDL0 and BRRES form, along with all of his textures, bones and animations, ripped straight from Colors Wii by yours truly.

    For those of you who didn't know, Nintendo's Wii BRRES format has been nearly 100% cracked. As of right now, almost everything about them and their inner workings is editable. And when I say everything, I mean everything. Textures can be replaced. Animations can be custom made from scratch. Heck, even the MODELS THEMSELVES can be replaced.

    I can take an MDL0, export it to DAE, delete everything but the bones, take a COMPLETELY NEW MODEL off the internet somewhere, rig it using 3DS Max, import it back in the BRRES, and have it work fine.

    I hail from Kitty Corps-Meow Mix where the main point is hacking whatever we want into Super Smash Brothers Brawl. (Long story behind the name. Don't worry. we're not furries. Majority of us, anyway.)

    If I can do THIS by myself:

    [​IMG]

    And I can attest that the same has been done to Zelda: Skyward Sword AND Mario Kart Wii (Both of which use BRRES),

    then I can only infer that it can be done to Sonic Colors as well.


    Pretty much all the BRRES files for the game (which are editable with BrawlBox) are held within separate Ninentdo U8 .ARC files which can be opened and modified with the MKWii CTools. And all of those .ARC files are held within "sonic2010_0.cpk." Stages. Enemies. Music. Everything.

    What I'd like to know is, do you think that the Generations CPK repacker found on this site would be able to repack this unpacked CPK mess I have here so I can test it on my personally ripped ISO? If it doesn't, do you know of any other CPK repackers I could try?

    I could google it, but I'm no programmer and odds are I'll get the wrong one.
     
  2. SF94

    SF94

    Tech Member
    The Colors formats aren't anything new, to be honest. Although the one thing I haven't seen anyone do is actually modify something and throw it back in the game. I don't know if that particular CPK utility will work, but if you can figure out the specifications of the Colors CPK and change the settings accordingly, you may have something here.
     
  3. Pexs

    Pexs

    Otherwise known as Spex Member
    Hmm. Has it really been two weeks since I posted? Huh.

    Anyways, progress report:

    So, problem #1) Brawlbox can't save Colors Brres. I WAS going to see the coder of BrawlBox to see if he could help, but KC-MM where we both hang out got DDOS'd. It's down right now, so I'm still working on that. Small chance he'll help, but whatever.

    Problem #2) I'm still working on the CPK Repacker. I've been testing the options on the Packed File Maker, and I finally got the repacked size within 100,000 bytes of the original. I'm still tweaking the options to get it perfect, but it's better than my first attempt which was a straight gig over the target size.

    Also, does anybody know how to get QuickBMS to repack things? I want to try to use that too, but it doesn't like me....

    Any other ideas how to repack CPKs? They're greatly appreciated.
     
  4. SF94

    SF94

    Tech Member
    QuickBMS can re-pack things by simply running it with a certain command-line parameter. Just make sure you have the latest version (there's some info in the readme). It works with the Sonic 4 AMB script, not sure about CPK. As for the Colors brres, I haven't tried modifying it myself, so I'm not sure about re-importing content, but "brresviewer" works for at least extracting the models and animations.
     
  5. Pexs

    Pexs

    Otherwise known as Spex Member
    So, hello again everyone. It's been a while, eh?

    Just dropping in to lay down some updates in progress.

    So, first of all:

    BrawlBox .66 came out a few days ago.

    One of the big things holding me back was the fact that BrawlBox couldn't save edits made to the .Brres. I talked with the current coder of BrawlBox, BlackJax96, and (amazingly enough) he helped out and made it so edits could be saved.

    So, that's good thing number one.

    The other good thing is that I've nearly got the exact options for how to repack the CPK correct. The main problem is that the original CPK from the game uses an older version of the CRI Packed File Maker to make a newer version of the CPK. (A version 7 CPK, I believe? I'll get the exact specs posted up later.)

    Once the exact repacking process is discovered, getting mods into Sonic Colors should be simple and easy, since edits can be made to the .Brres.
     
  6. Polygon Jim

    Polygon Jim

    Eternal Tech Member
    0
    3
    0
    across town from Hinchy
    All the bitches.
    You don't need any "exact" packing method. I did random shit with Colors the week it came out. Just pack a CPK with the default settings and no compression, it will load just fine. I stopped caring about modding the game though, because the layout format(and other random shit) uses a weird ass compressed archive of some sort. Sega used it in Sonic 06/Secret Rings/Black Knight, and Colors. The format used just confuses the fuck out of me, but hey, maybe someone smarter than me will figure it out, after all I am worst Tech Member.
     
  7. Pexs

    Pexs

    Otherwise known as Spex Member
    Oh sweet. That's good to know. I guess I can just get this stuff going directly on my Wii using Riivolution then.

    Yeah, I'm not quite so sure about the layout format either. I'm probably the furthest thing away from tech member possible, so me looking at it would be useless. I suppose I know a few people who could, but I doubt they'd care enough to try.


    Oh well, cross the bridges when they come. Thanks, man.