[Korama]

If you're reading the Sonic Generations Hacking topic, then you've probably already heard of CPKREDIR.
If not, then it's about time.

After having written a pretty lengthy documentation for the thing (included in the download), I'm going to be brief here.
CPKREDIR intercepts CPK file read operations by Sonic Generations and redirects them to external files. This makes it possible to have the game load modified data files without the need for unpacking and repacking those large CPK archives every time. Internally, CPKREDIR actually creates virtual CPKs on the fly, or rather their most important data structures (header and table of contents). Those virtual CPKs are presented to the game and when it tries to read from them, the requested data is fetched from the original CPKs or from external user files.

Download the latest version 0.41 here.
It comes with some files that let you play Dario FF's "Classic Sonic Adventures", after downloading his fixed files. Dario, I hope you don't mind.

Some screenshots of the console logging window with CPKREDIR running a combination of Melpontro's Wave Ocean and Megamaniscrazy's Shadow mod:


Feel free to ask any questions about it here, or let me know of bugs you encounter.

This post has been edited by Korama: 13 July 2012 - 06:21 AM

[Dario FF]

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It comes with some files that let you play Dario FF's "Classic Sonic Adventures", after downloading his fixed files. Dario, I hope you don't mind.

I don't. When you posted this I was like "lolwat" since the files need swapping. Then I check inside and it supports swapping? Niiiice. I've got no time right now, but I'll surely give this a try later today.

Here's a mirror if you want of the file you uploaded, for the sake that the file uploading service doesn't delete it. If you don't like it being hosted there I will delete it.

EDIT: Out of curiosity, I see your logger detects the Sound CPKs. Does that mean there's a way to override the files inside of them?

This post has been edited by Dario FF: 09 May 2012 - 10:29 AM

[Korama]

Dario FF, on 09 May 2012 - 10:27 AM, said:

I don't. When you posted this I was like "lolwat" since the files need swapping. Then I check inside and it supports swapping? Niiiice. I've got no time right now, but I'll surely give this a try later today.

Here's a mirror if you want of the file you uploaded, for the sake that the file uploading service doesn't delete it. If you don't like it being hosted there I will delete it.

Thanks, for the mirror, too.
Yes, I took some inspiration from your Sonic GMI. You can now add external files to (virtual) CPKs, delete them, copy/move them and swap them.

Quote

EDIT: Out of curiosity, I see your logger detects the Sound CPKs. Does that mean there's a way to override the files inside of them?

Sure, CPKREDIR can handle all of the game's CPKs, not just the big three (bb, bb2, bb3).

This post has been edited by Korama: 09 May 2012 - 10:32 AM

[Turbohog]

This is so great and incredibly helpful. CPKREDIR makes it so much easier to mod generations and it takes so much hassle away. I love the improvements you've made and look forward to any further improvements you might make. Kudos on this Korama!

[Yarharhar]

I have a tiny suggestion. Why not use a more friendly app name?

Most of the heavily modded games out there have apps that are "<Game Name> Mod Manager" or "<Game Name> script Extender".

CPKREDIR might not fall into either of those categories, but it's already apparent to me that it is going to be a defacto requirement for people wanting to use Sonic Generation Mods. Choose a name that reflects that!

[Dario FF]

Yarharhar, on 09 May 2012 - 01:46 PM, said:

I have a tiny suggestion. Why not use a more friendly app name?

Most of the heavily modded games out there have apps that are "<Game Name> Mod Manager" or "<Game Name> script Extender".

CPKREDIR might not fall into either of those categories, but it's already apparent to me that it is going to be a defacto requirement for people wanting to use Sonic Generation Mods. Choose a name that reflects that!

I was planning on rehauling SonicGMI(Sonic Generations Mod Installer) to use this instead. It would have a GUI for selecting mod order, enabling/disabling, etc. Unless you have a better idea for a name, but it would essentially be a GUI over CPKREDIR to edit the INI and easy to use for end-users.

This post has been edited by Dario FF: 09 May 2012 - 03:04 PM

[Korama]

Turbohog, on 09 May 2012 - 01:43 PM, said:

This is so great and incredibly helpful.

Thank you.

Yarharhar, on 09 May 2012 - 01:46 PM, said:

I have a tiny suggestion. Why not use a more friendly app name?

Most of the heavily modded games out there have apps that are "<Game Name> Mod Manager" or "<Game Name> script Extender".

CPKREDIR might not fall into either of those categories, but it's already apparent to me that it is going to be a defacto requirement for people wanting to use Sonic Generation Mods. Choose a name that reflects that!

Good point. I'm not that happy with the name myself, I simply chose it because it has 8 letters like "imagehlp" (the DLL it replaces in Sonic Generations' import list) and still describes what it basically does.
Anyway, Dario was offering from the start to make a GUI, so I leave it to him or any other GUI programmer to come up with a more catchy name.

[Azu]

Well, for GTA4, you have OpenIV, and SparksIV for modding and replacing GTA4 files. So, maybe something like the following:

SonicTools
GenerationsTools
SonicModInstaller (SMI)
Sonic Generations Mod Installer (SonicGMI/SGMI)

[Caniad Bach]

I think SonicGMI sounds like a good choice.

[iGamr]

This is AMAZING! Great job, man!

[Dark Sonic]

Oh god this is a thing? That's fantastic now I can start throwing in mods all over the place. Metal Sonic in (eventual) unleashed levels? Yes. Very yes.

[Lobotomy]

<3333333333333333333333

[Josh]

With tools like this becoming available and the game getting cracked open more and more, we really should set up a database for Generations mods that are compatible with this. I'd love to try some of the character swaps and whatnot, and having 'em all in one place would be really nice.

[DinnerSonic]

First of all, well done on CPKREDIR, I've already managed to toy around and test tiny experimental things that would be quite a pain if I had to actually repack the files each time. I'm far from a pro or anything(I mostly tried to fool with Sonic's XML file to see if I could get any crazy wall running trickery by changing slope detection, but I couldn't get it to work. I also got Classic Sonic into the Wave Ocean mod, which didn't really let him go far) but it's much more encouraging to try to toy around now.

Might I suggest though that you try to have the game redirect to an alternate save file when using it? This would likely tend to be one with everything unlocked for easier access and help keep players from overwriting things like their best scores and times with ones done on modified stages with modified character stats, but it could also help if you load an eventual full game mod that replaces Red Ring locations and the like, so you could recollect those in the mod even if you have a 100% save file.

I guess this could be done simply by renaming save files or such in Windows directly, though.

[Korama]

Dark Sonic, on 09 May 2012 - 06:43 PM, said:

Oh god this is a thing? That's fantastic now I can start throwing in mods all over the place. Metal Sonic in (eventual) unleashed levels? Yes. Very yes.

Yes, that should be easily possible. Great signature pic, by the way.

Josh, on 09 May 2012 - 11:17 PM, said:

With tools like this becoming available and the game getting cracked open more and more, we really should set up a database for Generations mods that are compatible with this. I'd love to try some of the character swaps and whatnot, and having 'em all in one place would be really nice.

Indeed, somebody with some time on their hands could make a website or at least a new thread with links to mods. There are a couple of download links on youtube and on a few forums here and there, but that's much too unorganized.

DinnerSonic, on 11 May 2012 - 03:48 AM, said:

First of all, well done on CPKREDIR, I've already managed to toy around and test tiny experimental things that would be quite a pain if I had to actually repack the files each time. I'm far from a pro or anything(I mostly tried to fool with Sonic's XML file to see if I could get any crazy wall running trickery by changing slope detection, but I couldn't get it to work. I also got Classic Sonic into the Wave Ocean mod, which didn't really let him go far) but it's much more encouraging to try to toy around now.

That's nice to hear, as it was one of my main reasons for starting CPKREDIR. I like to try mods or even toy around with some files myself, but the need for backing up gigabytes of original CPKs and rebuilding new ones all the time really turned me off.

Quote

Might I suggest though that you try to have the game redirect to an alternate save file when using it? This would likely tend to be one with everything unlocked for easier access and help keep players from overwriting things like their best scores and times with ones done on modified stages with modified character stats, but it could also help if you load an eventual full game mod that replaces Red Ring locations and the like, so you could recollect those in the mod even if you have a 100% save file.

That's actually a good idea. When I was recently playing around with modern Sonic in classic Sonic levels, I noticed the issue when "ruining" some of my fastest classic Sonic times.
As far as I know, Sonic Generations doesn't do the save file access itself, but uses the Steam API for that. I'm not sure if I should mess around with that. It should be possible, though.

This post has been edited by Korama: 11 May 2012 - 08:56 AM