How do I change those Custom Stage Builder Backgrounds? [Solved]

[Temeku]

Hello,

I have been searching for how to do this tirelessly, yet I have not found any tutorials or instructions on how to do this anywhere on the internet at all. It seems like such a simple thing, and there seems to be a guide for how to do everything except for this.

You know those three dull default backgrounds that the Stage Builder provides you? I'd like to change those, if possible. I have a 2GB SD Card, Homebrew Channel, Gecko OS, and the latest File Patcher Code (successfully used it to modify/replace music files). I don't believe BrawlBox is needed, or at least it is not mentioned in this post from smashboards. I have asked for help on this subject there, however either nobody else knows how or nobody is interested in helping. In any case, the aforementioned post contains this as well: "Question: Is it possible to modify the background image?
Answer: Yes, but not with the BSS (Brawl Stage Studio), you need Gecko OS (A homebrew app for the Wii) and the File Patch Code, you can learn more on this here."

^ I have all of those. The "here" link directs me to a textures thread with 92 pages, and it does not appear to ever even mention how to change custom stage backgrounds. I should also mention that I am not interested in changing the textures, only those three dull backgrounds.

This seems like it should be as simple as converting a desired image to the necessary format (?) for Brawl to read it, place it into some unspecified folder on the SD card (SD Card>private>wii>app>RSBE>pf>???), but I don't know which sub-folder or if that is even the correct method. Perhaps a tutorial can be created on how to do this? I'm astonished that there are no instructions on how to do this anywhere, at least that I could find. I'd like to think you forum-goers are much more helpful than those on smashboards have been with help topics.

Help would be very much appreciated.

[windhunter7]

You need BrawlBox, or another program that can open up Brawl .pac files, but BrawlBox is the easiest to use by far. Here's what to do after getting BrawlBox and installing it.

1) The files to edit are in these folders(of the .iso; you can get the NTSC files in the Resources section of kc-mm): "stage"->"melee" and then the files to edit are "STGEDIT_0", "STGEDIT_1", and "STGEDIT_2"
2) Open the files up with BrawlBox(You can either double-click them and choose to open them with BrawlBox, or you can open BrawlBox and under "File" you "Open" them)
3) In each of the 3 files(Hint: Do this for each one), there will be a number 2 with "ARC" written next to it. Click the plus on it, Scroll down to the very bottom of BrawlBox and you should see "TextureData[0]"
4) Click the plus next to it, and then the plus next to "Textures(NW4R)"
5) The background pictures are the first 2 in each of these 3 files; right-click one of them, "Replace" with the desired one(Make sure it's a power of 2[e.g. below]) and do the same with the other one; I would recommend keeping the dimensions identical to the original, because you can't go above filesize with Gecko, and you want as hi-res as possible

Examples of powers of 2: 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, etc...

[Temeku]

You need BrawlBox, or another program that can open up Brawl .pac files, but BrawlBox is the easiest to use by far. Here's what to do after getting BrawlBox and installing it.

1) The files to edit are in these folders(of the .iso; you can get the NTSC files in the Resources section of kc-mm): "stage"->"melee" and then the files to edit are "STGEDIT_0", "STGEDIT_1", and "STGEDIT_2"
2) Open the files up with BrawlBox(You can either double-click them and choose to open them with BrawlBox, or you can open BrawlBox and under "File" you "Open" them)
3) In each of the 3 files(Hint: Do this for each one), there will be a number 2 with "ARC" written next to it. Click the plus on it, Scroll down to the very bottom of BrawlBox and you should see "TextureData[0]"
4) Click the plus next to it, and then the plus next to "Textures(NW4R)"
5) The background pictures are the first 2 in each of these 3 files; right-click one of them, "Replace" with the desired one(Make sure it's a power of 2[e.g. below]) and do the same with the other one; I would recommend keeping the dimensions identical to the original, because you can't go above filesize with Gecko, and you want as hi-res as possible

Examples of powers of 2: 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, etc...

Thank you for the fast response. I have downloaded and installed BrawlBox, downloaded the necessary NTSC files from the Resources section and resized copies of the images I'd like to replace the default in-game ones - you meant rename the images to powers of 2, correct?

Also, I'm using my SSBB disc, not an ISO. I can download one, but I'd have trouble storing it on any device (ISO's are fairly large files). Which brings me to ask - now that I have replaced the image files with BrawlBox, what do I do with the three STGEDIT_ files? Place them in the necessary directory on my SD card (which I found out in the Resources section - SD Card>private>wii>app>RSBE>pf>stage>melee) and then insert it into the Wii?

[windhunter7]

First of all, I didn't mean renaming the images to powers of 2, I meant resizing the images to powers of 2. As in, go into MS Paint, click "Attributes" and make sure that the height and width are in that list of numbers.

As for how to use these after modifying the files with BrawlBox, you said earlier...

I have a 2GB SD Card, Homebrew Channel, Gecko OS, and the latest File Patcher Code (successfully used it to modify/replace music files)...

...This seems like it should be as simple as converting a desired image to the necessary format (?) for Brawl to read it, place it into some unspecified folder on the SD card (SD Card>private>wii>app>RSBE>pf>???), but I don't know which sub-folder or if that is even the correct method.

So yes, you were correct in your very own instructions: Try it!

Place them in the necessary directory on my SD card (which I found out in the Resources section - SD Card>private>wii>app>RSBE>pf>stage>melee) and then insert it into the Wii?

Post Merge: June 16, 2015, 08:22:58 PMBtw, almost forgot to say: If you have trouble getting Gecko to work, you can download Project M Hackless version and then instead of a "pf" folder, Project M's is called "projectm"; but if you have Gecko troubles, I should be able to help you anyways.

[Temeku]

First of all, I didn't mean renaming the images to powers of 2, I meant resizing the images to powers of 2. As in, go into MS Paint, click "Attributes" and make sure that the height and width are in that list of numbers.

As for how to use these after modifying the files with BrawlBox, you said earlier...

So yes, you were correct in your very own instructions: Try it!
Post Merge: June 16, 2015, 08:22:58 PMBtw, almost forgot to say: If you have trouble getting Gecko to work, you can download Project M Hackless version and then instead of a "pf" folder, Project M's is called "projectm"; but if you have Gecko troubles, I should be able to help you anyways.

Yes, just earlier I was playing one of my custom stages in Brawl to test something else - needless to say I was pleasantly surprised to see my imported background in the stage. I had resized all of the backgrounds to the exact dimensions of the default ones that I was replacing (1024x1024 and 424x240) and it worked fine.

Thank you very much for your help and precise instructions - you helped tremendously, I couldn't have done it without you.

I'm going to mark this as solved - thanks again! ^_^

[windhunter7]

No problem!

Everyone starts out confused like that! I, for example, took like half a year to a year figuring out how to install Gecko, run it, and file placement. I started out looking at a YouTube video of how to use CupAsh and like 7 other programs just to texture hack; then I realized, way afterwards, that the tutorial was outdated and I could just use BrawlBox. Man, those were confusing times.

[Don Jon Bravo]

is it possible to change these stages overall?

[windhunter7]

Not sure; I think so, though, as I think I remember an import over them in the Vault.