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, WBZ.
Archive Formats:	SZS, U8, WU8, 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:	v2.34a, 2023-05-28
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, RARC, BRRES, BREFF and BREFT archives and BMG, BTI, KCL, KMP, MDL0, TPL, TEX0 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.

Mac OS

As of v2.24a, the ARM version for Mac is supported.

Porting and other address calculations

As of v2.25a, tool wstrt supports address porting from one to all other regions. Therefor 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 v2.34a r8786 - 2023-05-28

 - Windows only: Updated 64 bit version of Cygwin to DLL 3.4.3 / 2022-12-16.

 - GNU Compiler (GNUC) upto version 13 supported.

 - wstrt PORT: Updated porting database.

 - Updated prefix database:
    - Added LBPK, M&SOWG, MP5, MP6, MSS, S1, S2, S3 and WFUS.
    - Renamed RV to Re-Volt

 - wszst PATCH --ignore: Keep silent if a wildcard pattern matches no file.

 - New command: wszst WILDCARDS: Each parameter is treated as a file name and
   wildcards are expanded. Finally, one line is printed for each matched name.

 - Tool wszst: New otpion --log-cache=file: Log some cache activities to FILE.

 - Improved detection of invalid references in KCL octree (avoid crash).


szs v2.33a r8773 - 2023-01-14

 - Fixed a bug that probably exists since v2.29a: Using option --auto-add with
   SZS files with unusal or empty sub-files could cause a crash in certain
   circumstances.

 - Updated prefix database (added MP7).

 - Optimized spacing of fonts for cup icons.

 - wszst LIST including all short cuts like 'wszst LLL':
    - Wildcards are accepted as source. See https://szs.wiimm.de/doc/wildcards
      for details. After evaluating the wildcards, all input files are sorted
      according to their path and duplicates are deleted.
    - Option --in-order: Display the input files in order of the command line
      and don't delete duplicates.
    - Tuned table output.

 - wszst PATCH:
    - Wildcards are accepted as source. See https://szs.wiimm.de/doc/wildcards
      for details.
    - New option --no-copy: Don't copy a file if it was not modified.
    - New option --le-menu: Patch SZS files from directory .../Scene/UI/ to
      change the menu as required by LE-CODE to be able to select tracks from
      more than 8 cups.
    - New option --title-screen=dir: Specify a directory from which to search
      and replace title screens. Title screens only appear in the file
      'Title.szs' and there in the sub-directory './title/timg/'.
    - New option --cup-icons=file: Load given image, convert it to TPL.CMPR
      and add the result as sub-files 'button/timg/ct_icons.tpl' and as
      'control/timg/ct_icons.tpl' to files 'Channel.szs', 'MenuMulti.szs' and
      'MenuSingle.szs'.

 - wlect DISTRIB:
    - If a filename beginns with a plus sign, the plus sign is removed and the
      output file is opened in append mode.
    - If an output file is opened for the second time, then it is
      automatically opened in append mode.
    - Instruction report=: Added methods of analysis: CLASSES, XCLASSES.

 - New command: wszst UI-CHECK: Classify SZS files from directory ./Scene/UI/.
   For the analysis, the filename is ignored and only the content is examined.
   Wildcards and option --in-order are supported.

 - New option: wszst --parallel: Tell the tool that it will be called multiple
   times in parallel. Currently it only has an effect if --cache is enabled.

 - New LPAR parameter: STATICR-POINTS.

 - All tools: Command V is a well defined short cut for command VERSION.


szs v2.32a r8742 - 2022-12-25

 - wszst SPLIT: New output record: distrib_flags="number flags".

 - wlect DISTRIB:
    - Instructions cup-icons= and cup-info=:
       - By default, 5 characters are used for the name part. The source can
         now be specified as an optional storage indicator.
       - Fixed some issues.
    - Instruction distrib=: Improved track list.
    - New instruction report=: Analyse the distribution and print a report.

 - Tool wimgt: Improved generic images.

 - Fixed some pager and color issues.

Links

• Complete History
• Downloads
• Source code
• Command Line Interface (CLI)
• GitHub: Wiimm/wii-ct-code

v2.28.beta2

Wiimm released a beta version:

• Change Log
• Download

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

wstrt (Wiimms StaticR Tool)

wstrt is a command driven tool to manipulate StaticR files of Mario Kart Wii.
→ Tool wstrt: Features, commands and options

Links

• How To
  • General How To
  • KMP How To
  • Creating a KCL with Wiimms Tools
  • wkmpt DRAW

• Wiimms SZS Tools
  • Features, commands and options: wszst, wbmgt, wkmpt, wimgt, wstrt, wctct
  • Downloads

• Graphical user interfaces (GUI)
  • Wiimm's Tool Manager
  • Speed & Lap Modifier Tool

• KMP & KCL Parser
  • General parser syntax and semantics
  • KMP text syntax and semantics
  • KMP parser functions
  • KCL export and import guide
  • Automatic setup of respawn points

• Forums
  • Discussion at GBAtemp.net
  • Discussion at Wii-Homebrew.com (german forum)

• Misc.
  • Automated height correction

By the same author: Wiimm

Custom Track Distributions:
Years 2010 – 2021
Wiimms Mario Kart Fun 2022-05 — Wiimms Mario Kart Fun 2022-11 — Wiimms Mario Kart Textures 2022-12
Download and Install

Custom Tracks:
Alpine Mountain — N64 Frappe Snowland — N64 Kalimari Desert — N64 Koopa Troopa Beach — N64 Wario Stadium
Custom Track Updates

Custom Arena:
Bash 'n' Dash 'n' Battle

Software:
Wiimms SZS Tools — Wiimms ISO Tools — Wiimms ISO Patcher — WBZ Converter — mkw-ana — LE-CODE

Cheat Codes:
License Unlock — Clear Profile ID — Item Cheat

Websites:
szs.wiimm.de — wit.wiimm.de — ct.wiimm.de — wiimm.de — wiimmfi.de