BrawlBuilder - The Ultimate SSBB ISO Builder

[person66]

Hi all, this started as a little project to make a GUI version of all those Brawl ISO mod builder scripts floating around, but when I found out Project M 3.6 and beyond don't really work right, I started to look into why that is, and attempted to fix it. There is definitely still work to do on this, but I'm releasing it because I've been working on it for quite a while and it now mostly works

Anyway, without further ado, I announce,

BrawlBuilder - The Ultimate SSBB ISO Builder

Screenshot:

So, this is BrawlBuilder, a GUI to build modded Brawl ISO images. It is compatible with many Brawl mods, though definitely not all. It for sure works with all version of Project M (yes, even 3.6), and even some custom builds, such as Psycho Ghost's 3.6 build. (Legacy M 1.21, however, is not currently working).

The main selling point of this, imo, is that it works with alternate stages, as well as the replacement soundbank engine. That means that any .sawnd files you have in your sfx folder will work properly, as well as any alternate stages you have! Amazing!

Also, there are a few extras features included, free of charge! You can remove the Subspace Emissary from the output image, reducing the size by a few GB. You can also change the game ID and title, as well as specify a custom banner file.

Unfortunately it's not all good news, there are currently some problems. Any mods that make use of BrawlEx don't seem to run (I don't know for sure that it is BrawlEx causing the problems, just a guess). That means recent versions of Brawl- don't currently work, although I am working on it. Also, like I said, not all Project M builds work. Legacy M, for example, does not. Hopefully this can be fixed in the future.

Anyway, I guess I should give you all a download link. Oh also, I suppose I should mention that this is all open source. Yay!

Downloads:
Releases: https://github.com/mogzol/BrawlBuilder/releases
Source code, credits, and additional info: https://github.com/mogzol/BrawlBuilder

Spoiler: Changelog

1.2.2:
- Fix custom working directories not working (again)

1.2.1:
- Remove the BrawlBuilder.exe.config file
- Fix 'Custom banner' browse button appearance for certain Windows versions/themes

1.2:
- Fix some stages glitching/crashing due to improper .rel files

1.1.2:
- Fix BrawlBuilder not working with custom working directories

1.1.1:
- Fix 'wit exited with error code -1' happening with almost every build for some people
- Add 'Finalizing...' status at end of build so it doesn't seem like build is frozen at 99%

1.1:
- Improve error messages, most of them should now actually be somewhat helpful
- Fix "Build Completed" sometimes appearing even if the build did not complete properly
- Add the --show-wit-debug option to show wit windows and keep them open after wit closes
- Modify the help text for the Brawl ISO to clarify how the ssbb.d folder works
- Fix crash if building with no GCT selected
- Other code cleanup and misc. fixes

1.0:
- Initial release

IMPORTANT INFO: Some people are having issues with this right now. The most common culprit seems to be unclean Brawl rips that wit doesn't like. You can verify your ISO by using something like this to calculate the sha1 and md5 hashes, which should match one of the sets of hashes on the bottom of this page. If they don't then you should try re-ripping, or re-obtaining your Brawl ISO. Additionally, as of version 1.1, you can launch BrawlBuilder with the --show-wit-debug option to view the actual wit windows, and keep them open after wit exits. This can be very helpful if something is going wrong and you can't figure out why.


And that is pretty much it. This is my first time releasing anything on these forums, so any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

 

[alex9918]

This looks amazing! Props to you OP!
I will definitely use this for a couple different *small*
EDIT: Couple things you could change about your post, Try to use the (spoiler) (\spoiler) tag some. Makes the post look cleaner and trims down on amount of text in your post. Also, What does Brawl Builder mean when it says "Mod Folder" Does it mean where all the Stuff is?

 

[Hamman88]

A W E S O M E!!!!

How do I ensure my custom music stays in the build? I've just been using the strm folder for dropping all my brstm's, how do I put them in using this builder?

 

[E2xD]

Interesting.

 

[person66]

This looks amazing! Props to you OP!
I will definitely use this for a couple different *small*
EDIT: Couple things you could change about your post, Try to use the (spoiler) (\spoiler) tag some. Makes the post look cleaner and trims down on amount of text in your post. Also, What does Brawl Builder mean when it says "Mod Folder" Does it mean where all the Stuff is?

If you click the 'Mod folder' text it will give you a popup describing what it wants. It's looking for the 'pf' folder, which has all the brawl replacement files. This can be found inside the 'projectm' folder. It will double check that you chose the right thing before you build too, and warn you if the folder doesn't look right.

 

[Zarkdion]

Say, do you know exactly why it doesn't work for Legacy M? Like, what breaks?

 

[person66]

A W E S O M E!!!!

How do I ensure my custom music stays in the build? I've just been using the strm folder for dropping all my brstm's, how do I put them in using this builder?

If you are putting brstms in the /pf/sound/strm/ folder then it should just work, no special stuff required.

Say, do you know exactly why it doesn't work for Legacy M? Like, what breaks?

No, I haven't found out yet, but getting Legacy M on an ISO was one of the reasons I made this, so that will be the next thing i'm going to work on fixing.

 

[VenomCB]

I have a question. So this message box that pops up. What does it mean by having all the brawl files? I have a copy of the entire brawl partition with all the /pac, .pcs, and other files that are in brawl. Are these the files being mention in the message box? I'm just wondering if I'm going to have to get an ISO file.

Spoiler: Message image and Brawl Data Partition

 

[person66]

I have a question. So this message box that pops up. What does it mean by having all the brawl files? I have a copy of the entire brawl partition with all the /pac, .pcs, and other files that are in brawl. Are these the files being mention in the message box? I'm just wondering if I'm going to have to get an ISO file.

Spoiler: Message image and Brawl Data Partition

I think (depends on how WIT handles it) that if you copy all of those files/folders into a folder named 'ssbb.d' (no quotes) in the same folder as BrawlBuilder, then try to build without specifying an ISO, it should (hopefully) work. Also note that brawlbuilder will delete the ssbb.d folder when it's done, so make sure you don't delete the original files.

I just realised your files are set up differently than how wit extracts them, so that won't work (wit puts all the files in a /files/ folder within ssbb.d, and also includes a cert and ticket file and some other stuff in the base directory, which I'm pretty sure need to be there to rebuild). I think you will need to get an ISO, sorry.

 

[VenomCB]

I think (depends on how WIT handles it) that if you copy all of those files/folders into a folder named 'ssbb.d' (no quotes) in the same folder as BrawlBuilder, then try to build without specifying an ISO, it should (hopefully) work. Also note that brawlbuilder will delete the ssbb.d folder when it's done, so make sure you don't delete the original files.

I just realised your files are set up differently than how wit extracts them, so that won't work. I think you will need to get an ISO (you should be able to rebuild it from those files though pretty easily though).

I'll try it with the files that I have, and if that doesn't work then I'll find an ISO.

for the ssbb.d folder, would that be in the resources folder, or would it be at the same level as the application itself?

 

[person66]

I'll try it with the files that I have, and if that doesn't work then I'll find an ISO.

for the ssbb.d folder, would that be in the resources folder, or would it be at the same level as the application itself?

same level as the application itself. And put all your stuff inside a /files/ folder within ssbb.d (so /ssbb.d/files/[ALL YOUR STUFF]). BrawlBuilder will complain about validity, but you can ignore it. I'm pretty much positive it will fail when trying to build though.

You can see here all the files that BrawlBuilder checks, should give you an idea of how the ssbb.d folder should be structured.

 

[YoungScuds]

Im not getting an iso when it says the build is finished

 

[VenomCB]

Oh alright. Also the original files I have are from the KC-MM ISO rip backup files that you can find here: http://forums.kc-mm.com/Gallery/Resources.php
So it's not a rip from wit but straight from the iso

 

[person66]

Im not getting an iso when it says the build is finished

Did it give you any errors before saying it finished? Are you sure you are looking at the right place, it asks where to save the ISO before starting the build, it won't just be in the same directory as BrawlBuilder, it will be wherever you chose to save it (might be a stupid question, but just making sure ).

 

[VenomCB]

Yeah no. Those files didn't work. Going to have to get an ISO

 

[YoungScuds]

Did it give you any errors before saying it finished? Are you sure you are looking at the right place, it asks where to save the ISO before starting the build, it won't just be in the same directory as BrawlBuilder, it will be wherever you chose to save it (might be a stupid question, but just making sure ).

I did, i tried saving it multiple places, with different names too. I also am not getting any errors

 

[YoungScuds]

also, how long should it take. It feels kind of quick in comparison to the old netplay iso builders

 

[YoungScuds]

i just tried, and got some sort of wit error, but this is the first time i did
http://prntscr.com/actrri

 

[person66]

i just tried, and got some sort of wit error, but this is the first time i did

Yeah, wit seems to be causing a few people problems, I'll have to improve the error handling and stuff to clarify errors. Can't really do much right now though, ill look at it later today. You could try running brawlbuilder as an admin (right click it and run as administrator) and see if that helps at all. You could also check to make sure wit even runs on your computer, go into Resources/wit/ and open a command prompt there (hold shift, right click blank space in the folder, choose open command window here) and then type 'wit.exe' (no quotes) and hit enter. You should see WIT in big letters with some info under it. If that works, and you still can't get BrawlBuilder to work when running as admin, then I'm not sure. Like I said, I'll try to do something to improve wit error handling when I get home later today.

Also make sure that there is no ssbb.d folder in the same directory as BrawlBuilder. It should get deleted automatically, but sometimes it doesn't.

 

[YoungScuds]

So ive been noodling around. What i think is happening is that it never goes past the extracting phase. i tested it out by using a different format, and ciso did the copy and build steps. Does that help at all?

 

[GamingMaster]

hows does the remove subspace emmesary wor? does it remove the icon on menu or is it inaccessible through other means?

 

[person66]

hows does the remove subspace emmesary wor? does it remove the icon on menu or is it inaccessible through other means?

It just removes the files, the menu item is still there. If you try to go into it I assume the game would just crash, I don't know, haven't tried. The point of that feature is just to save size in the output ISO for people that never use subspace.

So ive been noodling around. What i think is happening is that it never goes past the extracting phase. i tested it out by using a different format, and ciso did the copy and build steps. Does that help at all?

Yeah, from talking to someone else who was experiencing issues I found out that wit doesn't like some Brawl images, and I haven't really accounted for that. BrawlBuilder should always catch when wit fails, but for some reason it doesn't always do that. Anyway, if you have a valid original Brawl image it should work. You can verify that by using a hash tool to check the md5 and sha1 hashes of your ISO, and compare them to the hashes on the bottom of this page. If they don't match either of those sets of hashes (one is for v1, the other for v1.02), then your ISO isn't a clean rip, and you should try to re-rip, or re-obtain it through some other means.

 

[GamingMaster]

prob a bad place to ask but do u no where or how to patch the disc so that u "trick" the system into thinking its a pressed disk rather than a burned one?

 

[person66]

prob a bad place to ask but do u no where or how to patch the disc so that u "trick" the system into thinking its a pressed disk rather than a burned one?

The wii needs to be softmodded, and then you can use something like neogamma. But really I'd go with USB loading over disc loading, its superior in every way.

 

[Midnight_B1u3]

When I built the ISO it said "Build Complete" (or something of the sort) right away, and THEN started building the iso, with the button switching between extracting/ 0%. When I clicked the 0% It asked me where I wanted to save the Iso (again) and then when I chose my dolphin folder it just said "Extracting". Something seems off, as a main.dol appeared in my Dolphin folder after this and nothing else...

 

[person66]

Just released an update which fixes some bugs, and improves many of the error messages, check the op for details.

 

[GamingMaster]

I mean yea us loader is ideal however I wanna make a pm box with the cd so it looks professional/offical

 

[Beninator]

So, if I build an ISO with Alternate Stages built in, can I load that ISO and apply the Custom Sound Engine code to have both extra songs and alternate stages?

 

[Midnight_B1u3]

I have a mac and can't use the hash changer thing (.net required), can anyone link me to a brawl ISO that worked right off the bat?

 

[person66]

I have a mac and can't use the hash changer thing (.net required), can anyone link me to a brawl ISO that worked right off the bat?

If you have a mac then you won't be able to run brawlbuilder either, it also uses .net. (though it should probably work with mono, I haven't tested).

But for the hash thing, mac has support for that built in. You can also check md5 hashes.

 

[Deleted member]

"Can build modded Brawl ISOs":
"Except for BrawlEX":

 

[Midnight_B1u3]

If you have a mac then you won't be able to run brawlbuilder either, it also uses .net. (though it should probably work with mono, I haven't tested).

But for the hash thing, mac has support for that built in. You can also check md5 hashes.

I'm magic, I already got BrawlBuilder to run on my Mac, along with BrawlBox, cBliss tool, and a BRSTM converter. I just needed the hash, thanks a bunch.

 

[Midnight_B1u3]

I just realized though: I have brawlbuilder working, but it still needs wit.exe to run. CUSRE YOU OSX AND YOUR WELL MADE GUI BUT LOWER INDEX OF BRAWL HACKING TOOLS THAT REQUIRE EXTERNAL SOFTWARE TO EVEN OPEN! I'll take it to a big 'ol brick that has Windows on it I suppose. If you ever do get around to making an OSX Port (although that may be impossible) Lemme know.

 

[HypestTeam]

got it to work by reversing the process. basically i'd get the -1 error each time i'd convert the .iso to another.

so we tried a bunch of stuff and this is what worked:

• convert brawl iso to wbfs via wii backup fusion
• use wbfs file in the above program
• add the pm files
• convert the wbfs file to an iso
• go back to wii backup fusion
• make it a wbfs again

hope this helps. we'll promote this program in an upcoming guide along with the creator of it. Good stuff!

 

[person66]

Hey all, just put out an update that might fix the 'wit exited with error code -1' error that some people were getting. I don't know for sure if it will fix it, since I haven't been able to get that error myself, but give it a try and let me know how it goes.

 

[HypestTeam]

Well now it prompts me a message upon verification that there are some files missing from the ISO (Same ISO i used in your older build); I pressed "continue anyway", carried on as normal, and created WBFS files. now the game doesn't boot at all on the wii. I'm not sure what causes that.

The older build worked fine when i converted from WBFS to ISO but not the from ISO to ISO or ISO to WBFS.

EDIT: Error is : "One or more files are either missing or the wrong size in the extracted Brawl image. Do you still wish to continue" ?

I used the exact same ISO than earlier (which worked on version 1.1)

Edit of Edit: It apparently will prompt this message but absolutely nothing is wrong. The files were fine. Redid the process and this time it didn't even prompt. That's weird. Exact same files.

Edit of edit of edits: The game works. Just those minor confusing issues!

 

[HypestTeam]

http://hypestteam.com/blog/2016/03/12/how-to-project-m-3-6-with-an-sd-card-only-wii/

Here is our guide!

 

[person66]

http://hypestteam.com/blog/2016/03/12/how-to-project-m-3-6-with-an-sd-card-only-wii/

Here is our guide!

Nice guide, glad brawlbuilder worked for you!

And yeah, that's weird with the verification thing. Since it worked fine the second time I assume some random glitch just happened during extraction and it didn't extract one of the files or something. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[HypestTeam]

Your builder sure is generating the hype now A lot of people know about it by now!

 

[thowersome]

I've been looking for something like this for a while now and here it is. Comes in handy because I enjoy various SSBB mods but I don't enjoy SD swapping, can be too pricey, and I have a sizable 32Gb thumb drive to compensate. I have tested this with Psycho Ghost's 3.6 build and it works flawlessly. Also tried P: M XP but it didn't work, I imagine due to the same issue as P: M Legacy but that's fine, can't wait for future updates.

Thanks

Update: SSB Melee Remastered 2.5 works