MKW-SP

MKW-SP
Author:	stebler
Type:	Homebrew Application
Version:	v0.1.9
Date of latest version:	2022-08-13
Download:	GitHub
Website:	mkw-sp.com
Source code:	GitHub
Discord server:	MKW-SP

Overview

MKW-SP (short for Mario Kart Wii - Service Pack) is an open-source mod created by stebler. It features up to six different licenses, viewing up to 11 ghosts at a time, a custom speedometer, SD ghost saving, and more.

A quote from the author

Credits

CLF78, for his help with the initial release.
Lami, Riidefi, Seeky, and Star, for contributing on GitHub.
Syara, for translation images.
The Translation Project, for all translations.
All developers in the table below for creating code used in the mod.

Media

v0.1.9 Performance Overlay Showcase

Time Trials Showcase

Features

Time Trials

Time Trial Features
Feature	Author	Information
11-Way Multi-Ghost	stebler	It is possible to race against or watch up to 11 ghosts at once. One can switch between ghosts during a replay (similar to a live view). The ghost selection UI has been accordingly remade from scratch.
Additional Ghost Metadata	stebler, Chadderz, MrBean35000vr, CLF78	The track's SHA1, whether 200cc was enabled, more precise finish times and detected glitches are saved at the end of a new ghost file. The first two properties are used to only show ghosts for the correct track and engine class. The equivalent fields can be read from CTGP Revolution's ghosts for the same purpose. The SHA1 computation does not take "_Dif" files into account, allowing for e.g. custom textures.
Ghost Settings	stebler, Riidefi	Tag count, tag content, ghost opacity, ghost sound, and ghost sorting can be configured.
Position Tracker	stebler	The position tracker can be enabled in Time Trials.
Rear View In Replay	stebler	In Ghost Replay mode, cinematic view is replaced by rear view.
Vanilla Mode	stebler	Disables most features to accompany competitive Time Trials better.

Races

Race Features
Feature	Author	Information
200cc	MrBean35000vr	A speed class with a 1.5× speed modifier, brake drifting and fast falling.
4:3 FOV in 16:9	Brandondorf9999	The wider 4:3 field-of-view is used in 16:9 mode.
Pause Menu Improvements	stebler, Riidefi	Additional buttons have been added to the pause menus, notably one to change the settings and another to go back directly to the ghost selection.
Tag Limit Increase	stebler	The amount of maximum tags displayed on screen has been increased from three to 12.

HUD

HUD Features
Feature	Author	Information
Hidden HUD Labels	stebler	The "TIME", "LAP" and "SPEED" labels can be hidden.
Input Display	Riidefi, stebler, Lydeum	The controller inputs are shown in the HUD. Split-screen and 200cc are supported. Currently, the only controller display used is a GameCube Controller.
Mii Heads On Minimap	stebler	Replaces character icons on the minimap with Mii heads.
Speedometer	stebler, Syara	The player's speed is shown in the HUD, including moving road and moving water. Split-screen is supported. The "SPEED" label is supported by different languages.

Sound

Sound Features
Feature	Author	Information
Final Lap Settings	stebler, Melg, CLF78	The final lap jingle and final lap music can be configured.
Item Music Setting	stebler	The Star, Mega Mushroom, shocked, and squished music effects can be disabled.

My Stuff

My Stuff Features
Feature	Author	Information
BRSTM Fixup	stebler	BRSTMs that are too long or have the wrong number of channels will not cut off. The revo_kart.brsar is also automatically patched.
Layered Archives	stebler	For track and UI files, it is possible to replace only certain subfiles by adding the "_Dif" suffix to the archive name (e.g. koopa_course_Dif.szs or MenuSingle_E_Dif.szs).
LZMA Compression	stebler	The standalone LZMA format can be used in place of YAZ0, allowing for smaller file sizes.
Random BRSTMs	stebler	Multiple BRSTMs can be placed in a folder with the name of the replaced files and will be picked at random.
Sound Archive Subfile Replacement	stebler	Individual sounds from revo_kart.brsar can be replaced by BRSTMs. It works per sound ID. This is not compatible with the Random BRSTMs feature.

Miscellaneous

Other Features
Feature	Author	Information
Custom Discord Status	Riidefi, IPG	On Dolphin 5.0-17155 and later, the game can configure a custom Discord status.
Custom Save System	stebler, Riidefi	The rksys.dat format is replaced with a custom system that can support more than four licenses (for now, the UI can handle up to six) and additional settings. Ghosts are moved to separate files and everything is always unlocked. All files are stored on the SD card or a USB device.
Improved Logging and Crash Reports	stebler, Riidefi, Star	A log is stored to a file on the SD/USB and crash reports contain more details. Some bugs in custom tracks have specific checks with associated explanation messages.
In-Game Updater	stebler, Star, Palapeli, Zachruff	The distribution can be updated in-game.
Instant Menu Transitions	Riidefi	Removes the menu transitions the game uses.
No NTSC-K Region Lock	stebler, Palapeli	The NTSC-K version of the game can be played on global consoles.
Performance Overlay	stebler	The CPU, GPU and RAM usage can be displayed as bars on the screen.
Security Mitigations	Star	Several security mitigations such as DEP, stack canaries or ASLR are implemented to make the game harder to exploit by malicious custom files or in case of a vulnerability in the networking code.
Storage Benchmark	stebler	The speed of the SD/USB devices can be tested in various workloads.
Translations	stebler, Translation Project	All languages (plus Dutch) are supported in all versions of the game. Some of the MKW-SP-specific strings are also translated.
Wii Menu Channel	stebler, Palapeli, Zachruff	The distribution has its own channel in the Wii Menu.

Version History

Version	Date of release	Information
v0.1	2022-01-30	First release
v0.1.1	2022-02-14	File Management: Removed 12 character limit for ghost files. On console, CTGP ghosts will now be listed automatically. Supported differential patching (_Dif files) for every SZS archive. The game no longer crashes when using _Dif files on top of certain archives. Translations: Added translations for MKW-SP-specific strings. Added Dutch for both the base game and MKW-SP-specific strings. All languages are now supported on all versions of the game. For now, only NTSC-K uses the Korean font. Added four language translations for the speedometer label graphic. Multi-Ghost: The character animations are now correctly applied (and unlike in live view, also for the non-spectated ghost). The camera no longer wrongly follows the player when falling out of bounds or in cannons. Fixed a bug where the UI overlay was shown when a non-spectated ghost was falling out of bounds. Added an option to remove leading zeros from ghost tags when using the finish time. Fixed several crashes and freezes when going back to the menu. The first four ghosts no longer desync due to the pylon01 on Daisy Circuit. A fix is in the works to extend that limit. Lakitu now follows the spectated ghost. Sound is now configured in multi-ghost mode, with a new rule to choose between enabling sound for all ghosts, spectated only or none. Menus: Added a license setting for instant menu transitions. Added a button to change the license settings in the middle of a race or a replay. Added a button to change the ghost selection. It is now possible to restart in more game modes, and also during the countdown. Added various improvements to the pause menus. It is now possible to access Time Trials, even if savegame initialization failed. Corrected VS engine class to handle 200cc. Fixed a bug where the “About” button on the license selection UI was not selectable. HUD: Implemented an input display, which supports split-screen and 200cc. The speedometer now shows the correct speed in cannons and applies the hard speed limit of 120/180 otherwise. Disabled Mii Heads on Minimap option in split-screen (was previously showing random Miis). Miscellaneous: Configured GitHub Actions, which means that a build is generated on every proposed change, making life easier for both developers and testers. Tracks can now load faster on Dolphin if the host CPU and storage are fast enough. Added colored minimaps support for race tracks. Added USB keyboard support to perform certain actions via commands. For now, this only works on Dolphin on Windows. Improved Gecko code check to work on console and clarified warning. Note that support will only get worse when memory protection is implemented. The Mushroom strategy is now saved in the MKW-SP ghost header.
v0.1.2	2022-02-27	Robustness and Security: Fixed a critical corruption bug in YAZ1 compression used when saving ghost files. For a ghost to be affected by it, the size of the compressed inputs has to be at least 4,096 bytes. Implemented protection of most main.dol and StaticR.rel read-only parts. This uses the MI interface, which can prevent writes not only from the CPU but also from some external devices. This only works on console and will break Gecko codes even more. Temporarily removed copy filter patch to increase image sharpness on console due to its incompatibility with memory protection. Revamped exception handler. It will now be displayed on the screen on console and show MKW-SP-specific information. Added custom screen that will show up on some common crashes in custom tracks and display suggested fixes. Fixed crash occurring during the demo sequence on the title screen. Miscellaneous: Updated Japanese, Korean and Dutch translations for MKW-SP strings. Menu transitions will fade to black again.
v0.1.3	2022-03-01	The game no longer crashes when there is no internet connectivity on console.
v0.1.4	2022-03-01	CTGP 200cc ghosts set with Baby Peach, Toad, Dry Bones, Mario, Peach, Diddy Kong, Waluigi, or Donkey Kong no longer desync when accelerating from a low speed.
v0.1.5	2022-07-06	New applications: Added Homebrew Channel support. Added USB 2.0 support. Added NTSC-K console support. Rewrote settings system. Added MKW-SP channel. Added in-game updater. Added MKW-SP menu. Time Trials: Fixed wheelie particle effect with multi-ghost. Fixed wrong race end animation with multi-ghost. Fixed dynamic ghost transparency for all vehicle parts. Muted invisible Lakitus. Performance: Improved YAZ0 compression speed. Moved ghost listing to background. Reduced memory usage of font archives. Allowed concurrently readable and decompressable archives. Added LZMA compression support. Allowed tracks to be loaded in the Time Trials menu. Prioritized Dolphin clock overrides which caused sound glitches. Increased ghost count limit to 4096. Graphics: Readded copy patch filter. Added BRRES Anti-flicker. Allowed loading screen to be a customizable color. HUD: Improved input display layout. Added optional position tracker in Time Trials. Made HUD labels setting dynamic. Security: Added memory write-protection. ASLR is now applied to thread stacks. Disabled code execution in MEM2 and top of MEM1. Added stack canaries. Miscellaneous: Added in-game command console. Added details to crash reports. In-progress features: Added a way to replace files from a server on the local network. Added the possibility to replace BRSAR subfiles independantly. Added support for multiple My Stuff folders.
v0.1.6	2022-07-07	Fixed NAND issue on Dolphin. Delayed payload write-protection.
v0.1.7	2022-07-07	Fixed coding typo. Fixed log file implementation. Fixed log messages. Fixed Wii U detection.
v0.1.8	2022-07-21	Sound: Multiple BRSTMs can now replace a single one by creating a folder with its original name. BRSTMs with the wrong amount of channels now still play. Added settings for the final lap speedup. Added settings to enable/disable music effects from items. Added option to play the final lap jingle in replays. Other features: Added vanilla mode. Added SD/USB/network storage benchmark. Added NTSC-K disc support for non-Korean consoles. Bug fixes: Fixed channel not loading on console. Fixed log file writing blocking the main thread. Fixed VS speed class rule in split-screen. Fixed 200cc speed class not showing in award ceremonies. Fixed setting instruction text not correctly resetting. Crash screens now use consistent background color schemes based on region lines. Removed update checks. Fixed crash when going to battle mode from Change Ghost Data option. Fixed GCN keyboard controller crash. Ghost file names now use the Mii name and not the creator's name. Other: Updated Dutch translations. Added start for Mission Mode support.
v0.1.9	2022-08-13	Features: Added Performance Overlay. Added Custom Discord Status. Readded GCN rumble setting. Added Tag Count setting. Improvements: Remade Sound Archive Subfile Replacement. Reduced loading times. Added Storage Device Locater. Translated "SPEED" HUD label into German. Updated Dutch translations. Added line breaks in setting names. Bug fixes: Correctly positioned "Race" and "Watch" buttons in 16:9 mode. Fixed the results screen music being sped up with the Dynamic Speedup setting enabled. Fixed exception handler error.

Known Bugs

Ghost solidity is off by one frame when switching. See issue 44.
VS and Battle settings are not saved. See issue 50.
Most Gecko codes will not work because of the different memory map. A warning is shown on the title screen if they are enabled. When memory protection is implemented, support will be dropped altogether.