Continuing with my coverage with Mario Sports Mix, I went in-depth with the texture dumps that I got while using the Dolphin Emulator.
Now, when you get texture dumps, you do get images that end with various variables, such as _1, _4, _9, and _14. Those represent the different texture formats that many games use. For further help…
_0 = I4
_1 = I8
_2 = IA4
_3 = IA8
_4 = RGB565
_5 = RGB5A3
_6 = RGBA8
_8 = CI4
_9 = CI8
_10 = CI14x2
_14 = CMPR
I4, I8, IA4, and IA8 are grayscale texture formats, which utilize black and white colors. However, for this game, shades of red are used instead of shades of white (more about that later).
CI4 and CI8 use palettes, which use either the IA8, RGB565, or RGB5A3 formats. CI4 textures are limited to 16 colors, which CI8 textures can have up to 256 colors.
Now, I did get one texture dump, which ended with _10. That is probably the CI14x2 texture format that I noticed with BrawlBox. However, BrawlBox does not work well with that texture format.
Texture Dump Examples
Below are a few texture dumps that I dug up…
Texture Format: I8
Palette: No
The game has many I8 textures in its disposal. However, for some strange reason, shades of red are used instead of shades of white. Normally, black is transparency (normally), while white is visibility, but it seems that for this case, it’s shades of red that represent visibility.
Texture Format: RGB565
Palette: No
This pops up on the main menu. RGB565 textures utilize RGB colors, but lack transparency support. Also, the format only supports certain colors, meaning that some colors can be lost with this format.
Texture Format: RGB5A3
Palette: No
This is Yoshi’s icon during game play. Of course, the icon is for green Yoshi. Like with RGB565, RGB5A3 also uses certain RGB colors, but it does support multiple transparent colors.
Texture Format: CI8
Palette: Yes; RGB5A3
This is Yoshi’s character select icon. Being a CI8 texture, it does use a palette. Since the texture has transparency, the palette has to be RGB5A3, since RGB565 has no transparency support. Apparently, a lot of CI8 textures have transparency in this game.
Texture Format: CI14x2
Palette: ???
Above is a texture which uses a texture format that’s very rare to come by. Since BrawlBox gets errors with this texture format, it is not possible to fully figure it out.
Texture Format: CMPR
Palette: No
This is a texture of Yoshi’s entire body. CMPR uses lossy compression on textures, which makes them use less memory than most other texture formats. However, these textures are restricted to only “1″ transparent color.
On a side note, there are eye lid textures for Yoshi too. They too are in CMPR format. In fact, pretty much every character texture part uses the CMPR format, which makes them easier to deal with.
Conclusions
Now, while I have been able to get the texture dumps, knowing where to find them in the ISO is going to be a big challenge, due to how the files are named.
I’m probably guessing that most of the textures that I’ve stated can be found in the multiple .mdl and/or .mot files inside the chr folder.
However, because those files have not been fully cracked yet, this is just a guesstimate. Hopefully some progress can be made with deciphering the files; knowing if the game uses TEX0 and PLT0 files would be a good start.
Huh. Random Talking Bush has already figured out a way to extract the models from this game. So…
http://www.models-resource.com/wii_gamecube/mariosportsmix/
I think RandomTBush only covered what you had to do to import non-Brawl MDL0 files onto Super Smash Bros. Brawl. He never mentioned anything about how to hack Mario Sports Mix itself.
I was hoping you would have noticed that he's already uploaded converted models with textures from Mario Sports Mix. Check the link below my first post.
I already checked out the model imports some time after you made your first comment.
I don't want to import the models onto Super Smash Bros. Brawl. What I want is a way to read those compressed files, and modify their contents. That's pretty much the first step to hacking that game.
Okay, I was just noting that he somehow managed to uncompress them -_-' .
RandomTBush and I talked to each other the other day, and here's what he said.
"I'll send you a link to the Mario Sports Mix models I've corrected so far. I'll mention in this topic when the rest are all fixed up, since I'll have to send those out to the others that wanted 'em, too. But as for modifying them, good luck. I have no idea how they're compressed."
Oh, k. My bad.
Hi, I don't mean to necro comment an old blog post, but I want to hack Tales of Symphonia models. I was told they are TPL files in CI4 and CI8 format. Is TPLMii the tool I would use to convert to and from TPL?
Unfortunately, you can't use TPLMii, nor CTools to modify the CI4 and CI8 TPLs. Those two programs only support the normal texture formats; I4, I8, IA4, IA8, RGB565, RGB5A3, RGBA8, CMPR.
The only way to modify CI4 TPLs and CI8 TPLs is by using a hex editor.
Also, you can't replace CI4 and CI8 textures with the SZS Modifier, so you have to use a hex editor to do that as well.
The CI4 TPLs are pretty simple, since they're restricted to 16 color palettes. The CI8 TPLs are a bit more complex, since they can have variable palette sizes, but their palettes never use more than 256 colors.
I do plan on releasing a guide regarding this. Sadly, this guide won't be released until I can finally do in-game hacks for Mario Sports Mix; I have to test the stuff in-game to make sure that it works.