Latest topics of: Xiggah

In this thread, we will train ourselves to parse Brawl's files, so Brawlbox will be able to edit more files and be capable of more hacks. In layman's terms, parsing a file means sorting out different parts of the file, similar to separating stacked lego blocks. We can do this through hexing Brawl's files and finding patterns in its code. There will be more tutorials, but until then feel free to use this thread to ask questions about file parsing and hexing.

Here's a short list of file types that need parsed:
Files needing parsed:
- BLOC File container, like ARC or BRRES, used commonly in Subspace Emissary files.
- REFF Normally seen in files with AI data, such as CPU controlled characters and items.
- SCL0 No idea?...
- SHP0 (SHaPe) Vertex morph, an animation file used to change a character's facial expression.
- PAT0 (PATtern) Texture pattern, an animation file that switches textures to simulate an animated texture.
- Havok Physics Physics engine files, used for many things including hair and cape physics.

Tutorials

Intro to Hexing

For those completely new to hexing, let's do a quick little exercise. Open Brawlbox, select File --> New --> BRRES. Right-Click the BRRES and select New --> Character Animation. Finally, Right-Click the animation and create a new bone animation. You should end up with this:

Now you should have a basic animation file, 1 frame without any animation data. Right-Click and export the NEWCHR animation (CHR0) so it can be hexed. Open up the animation CHR0 in your hex editor, any hex editor will work, I'll be using Notepad++ but the results will be the same. Assuming you didn't rename the CHR0, it should look more or less like this, depending on your view settings:

So you might be thinking "i could never read what these random numbers mean!" but let's get into that right now. Since there aren't any animations in this file, it's pretty much empty. Open the animation in Brawlbox and change the Translation X keyframe value to 1, export the CHR0 and open it in hex again.

You can see some changes here and there, but how do we find out what they mean? Thanks to Brawlbox, we know that this animation file has a single keyframe with a value of 1. That number (keyframe value, not amount of keyframes) was translated into a 8-digit value called a Float value, which can be translated with this webpage. Tools like these are a hexer's best friend.

Using that webpage, you can see that 1.0 in hexidecimal is 3F 80 00 00. You should be able to find that number in your hex editor: if not, then It's highlighted in the previous image. Any single number, even 99999 or 3.14, will be displayed as an 8-digit float value. If you change the keyframe value in Brawlbox, then the only difference will be that float value: everything else remains the same.

Now let's do something cool with your hex editor: Click on the beginning of the float value and type 44 a7 20 00, save and open in Brawlbox. You just hexed the keyframe value from 1 to 1337. Pretty neat, right?

This is what Brawl hackers do to change simple number values that aren't editable in Brawlbox, as well as hacking computer files in general. Try using your new knowledge of float values and hexing to change numbers in other Brawl files, or add more keyframes with numbers and see where each number ends up.

In the meantime, I'll set up the next tutorial about identifying file structures.

Download links:
HXD, a commonly-used hex editor.
Notepad++, a handy program based off of Notepad with a Hex Plugin.
Hexidecimal Number Converter (website, not a download)

File structures:

BLOC

DAT (Event Data)

SHP0

Havok Physics

PAT0