Spoiler tag

Tuesday, June 28, 2016

JSRF Graffiti Tool

Hey there!

I don't know why I didn't look into making custom graffiti for JSRF earlier, but since some people have recently asked about importing custom graffitis I gave it a try and figured out how to do it and made a tool to ease the process.

As usual, you'll need a modded xbox with JSRF installed on the HDD and the JSRF files somewhere on your PC.

The tool uses the JSRF stock graffiti folder as the mod folder, it lists the graffiti in the tool, you can select one and click edit to open it up in an image editor, make the changes, save and import back into the tool.
The tools handles all the image format conversion and file management, it also lets you automatically upload the selected graffiti to the xbox (through FTP) and automatically clears the cache for the graffitis.




Here's what the tool looks like with XL size graffitis loaded:



If you are going to use this, first head to the settings tab and lets configure things :) here's an example with my settings so you get the general idea.




JSRF Files (PC)
-JSRF TEX Folder: select the TEX folder in the JSRF files on your PC.
-JSRF TEX original files: This is just optional if you want to restore files, make a second copy of the JSRF files (only the TEX folder if you prefer) and select the TEX folder of that copy, this will be used to restore the graffitis to its original.


JSRF Files (Xbox) 
-Set the FTP IP address of your xbox, login and password
-JSRF games folder: set the path to the Media folder where you have installed JSRF on your xbox.

Preferred texture editor
-Select any image editor (that can edit .tga images).


And you should be set! :D


Now to edit graffiti, go back to the Graffitis tab, click on a button for a graffiti size.
1-Select a graffiti: it will be marked with a light orange stroke like so:



2-Click Edit Selected

The graffiti should open in the image editor, in my case I am using photoshop.


3-Make your edits and don't forget to use the Alpha channel for transparency (black = completely transparent, white = completely opaque)


My alpha channel:




If using Photoshop, flatten the image once you are done.



4-Save the image: very important save with the same file name and location it was opened in, this is so the  JSRF Graffiti tool knows what file to import.

If you are using Gimp, make sure to export with the following settings:

 


5-Go back to the tool, make sure the graffiti is selected.



6-Click Import selected, the tool should import the graffiti and refresh the thumbnail.



-To install the graffiti mod on the xbox, have your xbox running on the dashboard, make sure your FTP works.

8-With the graffiti selected click "Send to xbox", the tool UI will freeze for a second or two, once its done it should make a confirmation sound.

That's it! :D

Now lets see the results ingame :)

Go check it in the graffiti selection menu to make sure you have it selected, you'll need to have the graffiti slot unlocked of course.



Well its totally out of place hehe but its just for demonstration purposes :D


Let me know if you run into any issues with the tool and if you mod, feel free to post your screenshots of your modded graffiti in the comments :)

Thursday, May 19, 2016

JSRF Tool 2.0b : model viewer + texture modding made easy!

Hey! Long time no see!

I am not doing much JSRF stuff anymore but since someone asked about modifying textures I am releasing a new tool that I worked on and off here and there.

It has the model viewer I have shown before (still buggy on some models) and more importantly a texture viewer that also allows you to easily edit textures, save changes and upload the modded files to the Xbox in a few clicks.

Also keep in mind this tool does not extract models just preview them, for texture it extracts and converts them to BMP but only in a temporary folder to be automatically opened in the image editor, if you want to extract models or textures in mass use the older tool, top right of the blog for the download link to the old tool.



JSRF Tool 2.0b features:
-Folder/File browser
-Model Viewer (unfinished: some models dont display the proper texture) 
-Texture viewer
-Texture automatic conversion and transfer to image editor
-Texture import from image editor
-One click file upload to the Xbox and automatically clears cache for uploaded file so changes refresh.


If you are just going to use the tool to view models, you'll need to have the JSRF game files somewhere on your PC, you can extract the files from an xbox ISO, won't got into details you can google on how to get the files ;)


Using the tool

When you start the tool, first thing you'll want to do is go to the Settings tab:


JSRF Media Folder (modding): click Select folder and select the "Media" folder of the JSRF files, once you do that the contents of the media folder should appear in the tool:



This is going to be the files the tool will load and if you modify the textures the files in that folder will be saved/modded.


Browsing & previewing models/textures 

Now that the JSRF Media folder is setup, browse in the JSRF tool to Media\Players\ and double click on Beat.dat for instance:


A series of nodes appear on the right when a file is opened, red(pink?) contain models, orange nodes contain textures, beige are materials, uncolored nodes are empty or unknown data.

Double click on the red node it should open up with a few items, select the first one, a wild headless beat has appeared!


 You can rotate the camera around the model with the mouse, hold right click to rotate, hold middle mouse button to move, scroll wheel to zoom in-out.

Try loading other models, player models in JSRF are in most cases split in several models, for different head expressions or animated cloth etc



 Now try the texture nodes


Generally .dat files contain models and textures, .bin are usually for animation data, gameplay or other data.


That's pretty much it to browse stuff :)


Modding texture files

If you want to mod the game textures, you'll need a modded xbox with the game installed in the xbox hard drive and a modded dashboard that has FTP, so you can connect your xbox to your pc to send the modded files to the xbox.


Assuming you have all that setup and working lets go back to the JSRF tool settings tab and configure a few more things.





JSRF Media Folder original files:  is used in case you want to restore the original files, if you want to be able to do this in case you modify files, first make a copy of the JSRF Media folder and name it something different like Media_original and select that folder for "JSRF Media Folder original files".

This is just optional, in case you want to easily restore a file to its original state.


JSRF Files (Xbox)
The tool uses this to connect to the xbox and send the modded files through FTP.
Set the xbox IP address the login and password, lastly the path where the JSRF game files are installed in the xbox HDD.

Prefered Texture Editor
Select the path to your image editor tool of your choice.




  Once you have a file opened and a texture loaded click "Edit texture", this will extract and convert the texture to a temporary folder (in JSRF_Tool_2.0b\resources\tmp\), it will then open up the file in the image editor of your choice.

Edit the image there and once you are done save the file, go back into the JSRF tool and click "Save Changes".
This will re-import the image that was opened in the image editor, convert it back to DDS and re-write the JSRF file, in this case 'beat.dat'.





FTP file to Xbox: this will upload the file that's currently open in the JSRF tool, to the xbox.

Your xbox should be running on the dashboard with FTP and connected to your PC through ethernet and of course with the proper IP network settings so the PC and xbox can communicate but I am assuming hopefully you already know about this if you have a modded xbox.

It should take one second at most to upload, the tool also automatically clears the cache so its reloaded when you load the game.
 

Unfortunately I didn't yet code a way to inform if the FTP connection fails or the upload progress, so even if it fails or succeeds it wont show anything, the app locks up for a second while it uploads though so you'll know when its done.

Start the game after uploading the modded file(s) and if the FTP worked you should see the changes, if not make sure your FTP and IP settings are correct, try to ping the xbox, try using an FTP client to make sure your xbox FTP setup works.



Revert to original file:
this button will copy the file from the original JSRF folder to the JSRF modding files folder, for the filename that's currently open.

For instance lets say I have my modded beat.dat opened in the tool, if I click revert to original file, it will copy the file

E:\JSRF\files_original\Media\Player\Beat.dat  
to 
E:\JSRF\files\Media\Player\Beat.dat 


Anyways, I think that covers pretty much everything you need to know about the tool, if you have any questions feel free to ask in the comments.

Cheers!