Hacking How To Make your own CSM

[Djarid]

Check my Wii Cannabis theme

. (I've given a personal touch to the Matrix Reloaded Theme

)


Health screen:
http://www.plaatjesupload.nl/bekijk/2009/0...7644111-690.jpg

System menu:
http://www.plaatjesupload.nl/bekijk/2009/0...7644111-690.jpg

Disc channel:
http://www.plaatjesupload.nl/bekijk/2009/0...37647590-30.jpg

http://www.plaatjesupload.nl/bekijk/2009/0...7644153-680.jpg

 

[Jizmo09]

here's my dirty little secret for working with themes/skins on the Wii.

Of all the tools out there to help you create/exchange or whatever themes for the Wii, they are pretty much all useless to me.

I do everything pretty much manually using total commander. The simple typical process of say injecting new background into the message board goes like this.

1. The hardest part... put the time in with photoshop or your graphic tool of choice to make your my_backpic_a.bmp

2. Convert my_backpic_a.bmp to my_backpic_a.tpl with TPL Converter 0.4 by Gally
3. Unpack 4x.app file with U8Tool 10.1+ (leave U8Tool open)
4. Unpack board.ash from the 4x_app_OUT\layout\common\ folder with U8Tool
5. Copy the new my_backpic_a.tpl over the one found in the board_ash_OUT\arc\timg folder
6. Press Inject button on U8Tool
7. Delete the board_ash_OUT folder
8. Pack the 4x.app_OUT folder with U8Tool

There you have it.... Depending on what object your dealing with, buttons are more complicated than backgrounds obviously, step 1 will take anywhere from 1 to 15 minutes to get professional looking results.

Steps 2 thru 8 take about one minute total.

I have on my quick launch bar side by side at the end, Total Commander, Photoshop, TPL Converter and U8Tool shortcuts to have quick access to them.
Once you're injected a couple hundred buttons or so it becomes second nature and takes no time at all.

Also understand that there are exceptions to the procedure above. For instance, if you've edited a brlyt file and it's now a different size, you can't Inject it with U8Tool. You have to Pack the folder back into an .ash file again instead of inject.

This is just my preferred method to do things since through the whole process I'm able to watch file sizes and directory structures. Doing it this way also helps you build a better picture of things in your memory so that you strart to remember all the locations of key brlyt and tpl files in their actual directory structure. It's nice to be able to think of an object you want to change and know off the top of your head the filename and which ash file and subdirectory it's located in

Kinda like having a schematic/pdf of the struct

 

[jan777]

thanks!

 

[SONYEDDIE]

I'm having a few problems. Once I finish using U8tool, I use ASH.exe on some of the ash files, and not all are able to be converted to name.ash.arc. For instance, cursor and health, along with some others, don't convert. In addition, when I use u8packer, and I select an ash file that I converted with ASH.exe, it gives me a Runtime error 75: Path/File access error. So I'm basically at a standstill. Can anyone offer some help?

 

[Red_Squirrel]

Does this guide work with 4.0 too?

 

[Etheopia]

Heyz.... quick question for now.... (more to come in the future...) On say the disk channel screen, how do I change the text color? I can't read it very well. It's too dark. Can I make it white? Thankz!

 

[VGMStudios]

I am having an issue.
I followed the guide to the letter. I only changed the cursor.arc files and made the 00000042.app file. I then installed the .app file on the Wii with MyMenuify. Now all I have is Black Screen.
I installed the Black Wii theme (it was a csm file) before with no problems.
What did I do wrong?

Edit: N/M I figured it out. I was using a bad 00000042.app file.

VGM out...

 

[VGMStudios]

Is it possible to add more frames to my_TV_c in the TV sheet under Chansel.ash? Currently there is 4, but most themes use more then 4! how do you do this?

VGM out...

 

[mason742]

How's this? The empty circle is where i clicked, the circled box show current transparent color, the circled option is required to use transparent color.

Always exit the program after each tpl is made. It seems to glitch from time to time doing multiple images otherwise
Sin Color alpha disables alpha color makes everything show.

This is kinda a stupid question but can i just use windows paint instead of cs3 photoshop?
Thanks for your help!!