Wiimms SZS Tools

Wiimms SZS Tools

Author:	Wiimm
Operating Systems:	Linux (i386/x86_64), Windows (Cygwin), Mac (x86_64).
Software Type:	File manager, decoding and encoding toolset.
Compression Formats:	Yaz0, Yaz1, XYZ, BZ, BZIP2, LZ, LZMA, WBZ, WLZ, YBZ, YLZ.
Archive Formats:	SZS, U8, WU8, LTA, LFL, PACK, RARC, BRRES, BREFF, BREFT.
File Formats:	BMG, BTI, KCL, KMG, KMP, MDL0, PAT0, TPL, TEX0, PNG, OBJ, StaticR.rel, main.dol, CT-CODE, LE-CODE, LEX, LPAR, ObjFlow, GeoHit, ItemSlot, minigame.
Image formats:	I4, I8, IA4, IA8, RGB565, RGB5A3, RGBA32, C4, C8, C14X2, CMPR.
Current Version:	v2.42a, 2024-03-26
Website:	szs.wiimm.de

Wiimms SZS Tools has a punctuation error, but you should see it as a brand name.

Introduction

Wiimms SZS Tools is a set of different tools to manipulate SZS, U8, WU8, LTA, LFL, RARC, BRRES, BREFF and BREFT archives and BMG, BTI, KCL, KMP, MDL0, TPL, TEX0, DOL and StaticR.rel files. All tools are command line tools and run without any interaction. The tools are available for Linux, Mac and Windows. The main goal is to run them in batch files and scripts to automate recurring jobs. At the moment there are 9 tools:

wszst : Wiimms SZS Tool (handles SZS, U8, RARC, BRRES, BREFF and BREFT archives)
wbmgt : Wiimms BMG Tool (convert and patch BMG files in binary and text format).
wimgt : Wiimms Image Tool (convert and patch image files of Mario Kart Wii).
wkclt : Wiimms KCL Tool (convert raw KCL files from/into obj format).
wkmpt : Wiimms KMP Tool (handles raw and text KMP files, read text files like a compiler).
wpatt : Wiimms PAT Tool (handles raw and text PAT0 files, read text files like a compiler).
wstrt : Wiimms StaticR Tool (handles StaticR.rel and main.dol files of Mario Kart Wii).
wctct : Wiimms CT-CODE Tool (handles CT-CODE and LE-CODE files).
wlect : Wiimms LE-CODE Tool (handles LE-CODE, LPAR and LEX files)

One main goal is the fully automated track name replacement. The tools together can do this. Another goal is to extract all sub files recursively and transforming they into user friendly file formats (like text of png files) and support recreation of the original source files.

There is also a little how to.

Main Features

The tools are command line tools. This means, that there is no GUI support. The main advantage is, that you can place commands into scripts (batch files) for fully automated execution → More about command line.
wszst is the main SZS tool. It has a fast Yaz0 compressor with the best compression rates.
The wszst command CHECK can help you to find bugs in your track.
The new wszst command SLOTS makes a track proposal for working and non working slots.
The KCL tool wkclt can create KCL files from scratch (they become as small as possible) by reading an OBJ file. It can also export an existing KCL to an OBJ file with colors to make a KCL visible.
The KMP tool wkmpt can decode and compile (yes, it's a real compiler with loops and other control structures) KMP files.
- While compiling, it can overide some parameters for debugging or optimization.
- The KMP compiler can use the KCL to find optimal vertical positions of objects and route points. This is good for visual debugging.
The wkmpt command DRAW creates an OBJ file with KCL and add route positions and other objects of the KMP.
The wszst command PATCH can transform whole tracks inkl. KCL, KMP, MODEL, MINIMAP and VRCORN. Transforming means any combinations of scaling, rotating and shifting with different factors for each axis.
The wszst command MINIMAP can center the minimap automatically. You can use this command with SZS, U8, BRRES and MDL0 files.
The image tool wimgt can convert images of all formats:
- It can convert the file formats TPL, TEX0, BTI, BREFT and PNG to any other.
- It can convert the Image Formats I4, I8, IA4, IA8, RGB565, RGB5A3, RGBA32, C4, C8, C14X2 and CMPR to any other.
- It supports the palette formats IA8, RGB565 and RGB5A3.
- It can automatically create mipmaps, or it can use user defined mipmaps and create only missed mipmaps automatically.
- It can patch images with other images.

Last Features

Cygwin

As of v2.21a, 2 Cygwin version are supported: One for 32-bit Windows and one for 64-bit Windows.

Porting and other address calculations

As of v2.25a, tool wstrt supports address porting from one to all other regions. Therefore the new commands PORT and WHERE were implemented.

As of v2.26a, both commands are improved in many ways. Entered addresses can be real addresses, or file offsets, or cheat codes. By options the user can define the output format (with or without 0x prefix, with or without file offsets, with or without table headers).

Please read wstrt PORT and wstrt WHERE for details.

History and Download

Wiimm started the development of his SZS Tools in March 2011. The first goal was to automate the insertions of the track names for Wiimms Mario Kart Fun distributions. Therefore 2 tools have been needed: A SZS extractor and creator and a BMG manipulator. The 2 tools wszst and wbmgt were ready in April 2011. After this, Wiimm implemented an Image-Tool (wimgt), an StaticR.rel tool (wstrt), a KMP tool (wkmpt) and a KCL tool (wkclt). Other tools were added later. The last added tool is wlect to manage LE-CODE and LEX files. All tools are command line tools to support scripts and fully automated operations.

Latest Change Log

szs v2.42a r8989 - 2024-03-26

 - Updated prefix database: Added CTGPS, EX, EXTR, GK2, GK3, GK7, HGSS, HWTA,
   SBSPLCP, SKK, TGO. Removed LCP.

 - Bug fix for option --lex-purge: The tools occasionally crashed when
   attempting to delete an existing but unneeded LEX file.

 - Added support for compression methods YBZ and YLZ (Yaz0 header, but
   alternative compressions bzip2 or LZMA). Use one of the new options --cybz,
   --ybz, --cylz or --ylz to select the new methods. LE-CODE supports YLZ.

 - New option --zero (-z): This option affects the exit status of the
   programs. Instead of an exit status, the value 0 is returned for OK. This
   happens for notices (-v, status<15), warnings (-vv, status<29), errors
   (-vvv, status<115) and fatal errors (-vvvv). The exit status for INTERRUPT
   (112) is never replaced.

 - Information only: wszst now knows 243 different options.


szs v2.41b r8971 - 2024-02-23

 - Cygwin only: Fixed a silent stack overflow if reordering the tracks.

 - New image format TPLx: Technically, TPLx is a TPL file with 2 extensions.
   The main feature is the conversion of width and height so that images with
   a height >65535 lines can be used. Cup icons are an example of this.

 - New virtual image type CUPICON: Alias for TPLx.CMPR.


szs v2.41a r8953 - 2024-02-17

 - Update to LE-CODE build 40.

 - Updated prefix database: Added LEGO_Racers, Muppet_RM, POD, PP2WB, SR,
   Spyro_1, Wii_U, Zelda_OoT, Zelda_TP, Zelda_WW.

 - wszst ANALYSE prints attribute "license" if file "license.txt" is detected.

 - File format LTA supports now an optional list with file extensions. The
   idea is that tools show the correct file extensions without having to load
   the entire LTA file for analysis.

 - Command wlect DISTRIB:
    - WU8, WBZ and WLZ files are accepted now.
    - Support of new file type USE-LTA (redirection file for LE-CODE).
      Instruction lta= of command wlect DISTRIB creates such a file with
      filename lta.szs if option REDIR is set.
    - The new processing options +PR0, +PR1 to +PR60 control the output of
      progress messages.
    - New options for instruction lta=: EXT, REDIR, PR0, PR1 .. PR60.

 - Command wszst WILDCARDS supports options --sh and --bash to quote results.

 - Command wstrt PATCH and option --add-section:
    - GCT text files are now accepted now and converted to binary data if the
      very first 4 characters are "#GCT".
    - The memory map output with options -vv has been completely revised.

 - Bug fix for commands wszst NORMALIZE and wszst PATCH: If the content has
   not been changed, then the compression has not been checked. Therefore the
   file was not always normalized.

 - Bug fix for wszst PATCH: A copy to the non existing cache was created even
   if --cache was not set.

 - Implemented support for LE-CODE with 8192 tracks and 2048 cups. For this
   purpose, the BMG messages for mkw-ana had to be moved to other areas.

 - wlect dump: Warnings are issued if the tool can manage fewer LPAR settings
   or fewer track slots than the LE-CODE image offers.

 - New global option --le-04x: Use format %04x instead of %03x for LE-CODE
   slots to enable uniform slot numbers if slots >4095 are used.

 - New LPAR setting: SLOT-04X.

Links

Tools Overview

wszst (Wiimms SZS Tool)

wszst is a command driven tool to manipulate archives:

Supported archive formats: SZS, U8, RARC, BRRES, BREFF and BREFT.
It can extract all subfiles of any archive.
While extracting some file formats can be decoded (converted to text or PNG files).
It can create all (but not RARC archives) while readind and scanning a directory structure. Decoded files are encoded automatically.

→ Tool wszst: Features, commands and options

wbmgt (Wiimms BMG Tool)

wbmgt is a command driven tool to manipulate BMG (message) files.
→ Tool wbmgt: Features, commands and options

wkclt (Wiimms KCL Tool)

wkclt is a command driven tool to convert KCL files into/from binary KCL from/into Wavefront OBJ files.
→ Tool wkclt: Features, commands and options
→ General parser syntax and semantics
→ KCL export and import guide

wkmpt (Wiimms KMP Tool)

wkmpt is a command driven tool to convert KMP files into/from binary from/into text files. A special compiler is used to allow variables, expressions, if..then..else, loops, macros and user defined functions while reading a KMP text file.
→ Tool wkmpt: Features, commands and options
→ General parser syntax and semantics
→ KMP text syntax and semantics
→ KMP parser functions
→ How to edit KMP files

wimgt (Wiimms Image Tool)

wimgt is a command driven tool to convert and aptch graphic images:

wimgt supports the file formats BREFT, BTI, TEX0, TPL and PNG as export and import type.
wimgt supports the internal image formats I4, I8, IA4, IA8, RGB565, RGB5A3, RGBA32, C4, C8, C14X2 and CMPR (and also different PNG formats).

→ Tool wimgt: Features, commands and options