Difference between revisions of "Custom Track Distribution"

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Revision as of 09:42, 12 March 2012

A custom track distribution is a collection of Custom Tracks which have been created by a user, to allow other users to download and play all of the tracks in the distribution. It is important that all users playing on Custom Tracks together use the same distribution, otherwise different users may race on different tracks which makes the race unfair. Custom track distributions may also change other things about the game, such as menu coloring and text.



Distribution List

Used IDs

Some track collections are distributed as ISO Patcher. This will enable the users to have standalone ISOs and will support USB Loaders. USB Loaders select games by the ID6. Therefore it is wise for all ISO distributions use a different ID6. To play online, the ID4 (first 4 characters of the ID6) must be RMCP (PAL), RMCE (USA), RMCJ (Japan) or RMCK (Korea). The other 2 characters can be used to distinguish between the ISOs. Usually digits (0-9) and capitals (A-Z) are used. So there are 36*36=1296 possible IDs, more than enough.

The following table shows all used IDs to avoid conflicts.

Distribution Type Release Last
Update
Status Author
CTGP 2.8 Riivolution 2010-10 outdated MrBean35000vr
Wiimms Mario Kart Fun 2010-12 ISO Patcher 2010-12-13 2011-06-12 released Wiimm
CtocKartWii 2.8.5 Riivolution 2010-12-13 released Tock
CtocKartWii 2.9 Riivolution 2011-01 released Tock
Mario Kart Wii 2 Riivolution cancelled Vulcanus2
Funky's Riivolution Riivolution 2011-02 released SuperFunkyKong
Wiimms Mario Kart Retro 2011-02 ISO Patcher 2011-02-25 2011-06-12 released Wiimm
CTGP 4.4 Riivolution 2011-03 outdated MrBean35000vr
Wiimms Mario Kart Fun 2011-03 ISO Patcher 2011-03-25 2011-06-12 released Wiimm
CtocKartWii 3.0 Riivolution 2011-04-08 released Tock
ReedyCustomPack Ultimate Riivolution 2011-05-17 released Reedy94
Wiimms Mario Kart Fun 2011-06 ISO Patcher 2011-06-11 released Wiimm
Pati's and Joshi's MKW ISO Patcher &
Riivolution
cancelled 4TLPati and nfojoshi
Wiimms Mario Kart Fun 2011-07 ISO Patcher &
Riivolution Generator
2011-07-15 2011-07-22 released Wiimm
Wiimms Mario Kart Fun 2011-08 ISO Patcher &
Riivolution Generator
2011-08-27 2011-10-16 released Wiimm
CTGP Revolution Riivolution 2011-10-02 2011-12-27 released MrBean35000vr
Wiimms Mario Kart Fun 2011-11 ISO Patcher &
Riivolution Generator
2011-11-27 released Wiimm
Wiimms Mario Kart Fun 2012-01 ISO Patcher &
Riivolution Generator
2012-01-21 released Wiimm
Mario Kart Wii: Double Dash 64 Riivolution &
ISO Patcher
2012-02-08 released Mircojanisch
Wiimms Mario Kart Revival 2012-02 ISO Patcher &
Riivolution Generator
2012-02-11 2012-03-07 released Wiimm
Wiimms Mario Kart Boost 2012-03 ISO Patcher &
Riivolution Generator
2012-03-?? first test version ready Wiimm
Mario Kart Wii Ultra Wii Channel 2012-06 in progress Soniccity08
Mario Kart Revolution Riivolution planned Vulcanus2
Mario Kart 3DSW Riivolution &
ISO Patcher
planned LBFlbf1
Mario Kart: Double Dash Wii Unknown planned Leseratte
Mario Kart: Double DS Riivolution in progress TravixMan
Mario Kart: Super 64 Riivolution &
ISO Patcher
hiatus TravixMan
Mario Kart 8 Riivolution in progress TravixMan
Mario Kart 7 Wii Riivolution planned link33380
Soopa Mario Kart Wii Unknown in progress SoopaKoopa
Used ID by CT Distributions
ID Date Distribution Comment
RMCx01 2008-04-11 Nintendo's Mario Kart Wii Official release of Nintendo.
Wiimms Mario Kart Fun distributions
RMCx02 2010-02-14 Wiimms Mario Kart Fun 2010-02 First private distribution of Jillian and Wiimm.
RMCx03 2010-10-21 Wiimms Mario Kart Fun 2010-10 Second private distribution of Wiimm
RMCx04
RMCx05
2010-12-01 Wiimms Mario Kart Fun 2010-12/private Third private distribution of Wiimm with 64 tracks and 2 discs.
RMCx06 2010-12-13 Wiimms Mario Kart Fun 2010-12 First public Distribution of Wiimm
RMCx07 2011-02-35 Wiimms Mario Kart Retro 2011-02 Public Distribution of Wiimm
RMCx08 2011-03-25 Wiimms Mario Kart Fun 2011-03 Public Distribution of Wiimm
RMCx09 2011-06-11 Wiimms Mario Kart Fun 2011-06 Public Distribution of Wiimm
RMCx10 2011-07-15 Wiimms Mario Kart Fun 2011-07 Public Distribution of Wiimm
RMCx11 2011-08-27 Wiimms Mario Kart Fun 2011-08 Public Distribution of Wiimm
RMCx12 2011-11-27 Wiimms Mario Kart Fun 2011-11 Public Distribution of Wiimm
RMCx13 2012-01-21 Wiimms Mario Kart Fun 2012-01 Public Distribution of Wiimm
RMCx14 2012-02-11 Wiimms Mario Kart Revival 2012-02 Public Distribution of Wiimm
RMCx15 2012-xx Wiimms Mario Kart Boost 2012-03 Planned distribution of Wiimm with 32 boost tracks.
CTGP Revolution IDs
CTGx01 2011-11 CTGP Revolution Initial CTGP Revolution release.
Test IDs
RMCxT* reserved (T=Test) This 36 IDs (T0–T9 + TA–TZ) are reserved for short live and test distributions. Everyone can use it and they will never conflict with other real distributions.

Alternate Savegames

To support alternate savegames the ID4 of TICKET, TMD and BOOT.BIN (but not the ID of the disc header) must be changed. Wiimms distributions (and therefor its ISO Patcher change the first letter R to the non used letter K (like Klone).


Used Online Regions

It is possible to give a distribution a region ID. If playing continental/regional only players with the same region id are matched.

The following table shows all used IDs to avoid conflicts. Regions are a concept by Nintendo, to allow regional or continental races in Mario Kart Wii. Nintendo defined the regions from 0 to 6. Regions ≥7 can be used for custom track distributions to isolate the users of a distribution from all other players.

How Region Numbers Are Used Internally

Mario Kart Wii uses an unknown algorithm to assign itself a region number. The DVD type (PAL, NTSC, etc.) and the region of the Wii have them influence to determine the region. The region is then stored to an internal numeric variable.

If connecting to a region, this region number is used to create an alpha numeric region name. For versus races, the C format string "vs_%d" is used, and for battles, the string "bt_%d". The "%d" is replaced by the signed decimal presentation of the region number. This combined prefix and region number is used by the game to search player in the online matchmaking database.

Example: If region 12 is active, the versus race region name becomes "vs_12" and the battle race region name becomes "bt_12".

For worldwide races, the names "vs" and "bt" without a number extension are used. This means that worldwide races don't use regions (region 0 is Japan).

Patching for Wiimmfi

If you plan to patch a distribution for Wiimmfi and for a specific region (1234 in this example), then use the following command:

wstrt patch --wiimmfi --region 1234 StaticR.rel main.dol

It is important to have original versions of StaticR.rel and main.dol and to patch both files.

How the Region Patch Works

The well known region patch replaces a 32-bit instruction of the code. The original instruction is: »load the content of variable region_number into the register«. This instruction is replaced by »load a constant value into the register«. Because the limit of 32 bit for the instruction, the value is a sign extended 16 bit value. So only values between 0x8000 – 0x7fff (-32768 – +32767) are possible.

If using a negative number, the region name becomes for example "vs_-12345". Tests confirmed, that this regions with 9 characters work at Nintendo's servers like all others. And Wiimmfi supports it too, but has limited the accepted range from 0 to 7999 plus some other regions.

With this practice, 65536 (0x10000) versus regions are possible. However, changing the prefix of the string from "vs_" to something else makes it possible to use billions of different regions. Prefix modifications except »vx« and »bx« are not allowed by Wiimmfi.

Issues

The old region patch has forgotten to patch the region in some parts:

  • If player A plays in region 123 and the friend B meets A using the friends list, B is registered as player of its native region, e.g. 1 for USA. So as soon as player B gets host of the race (because the original host quits), other people from region 1 can join via the "Continental VS Race" button.
  • The region patch does not work for battle.

Wiimms SZS Tools fixed it and will patch 8 different places in StaticR.rel. The tools can also patch main.dol to define a login region. This login region can be used to identify the distribution of a private room.

New Patch Version by Leseratte

Leseratte has created a new version of the patch, fixing the battle and friend list bug.

With a special cheat code, it is possible to use regions from -2,147,483,647 to +4,294,967,296 allowing 6,442,450,943 regions in total. But this patch currently cannot be put into an ISO, so it's unreleased for now. Wiimmfi does not support this extended range of regions.

Applying Regions

Since August 2017, there is a new system for applying and managing custom regions for Wiimmfi. Other servers (for example based on AltWFC) may have their own system.

For Wiimmfi, visit the page »List of free custom regions«, search a free region and then use the form at »Apply regions« to apply one or more regions. For the second page, you have to be logged-on. Read the explanations of both pages.