By Yoshi2
New releases can be found here: https://github.com/RenolY2/mkdd-track-patcher/releases
Report bugs or suggest improvements here: https://github.com/RenolY2/mkdd-track-patcher/issues
Interested in MKDD modding? Check out Double Crew, a MKDD modding community: http://discord.gg/fUU36aH
The MKDD Patcher is a tool which allows users to easily import custom MKDD tracks and other file-based mods (e.g custom drivers, custom karts) into Mario Kart Double Dash. Patch files are specifically created zip files containing trackinfo.ini or modinfo.ini and all the files relating to the mod that need to be patched into the game. Unlike difference-based patching tools like xdelta, this allows one zip file to generally work with all three main regions of MKDD (PAL, NTSC-U, NTSC-J) and multiple mods can be patched in at once as long as the mods don't modify the same files.
When using the patcher, open a (preferably unmodified) ISO of MKDD as the MKDD ISO. Choose one or more MKDD Race track/mod zips that need to be patched in. If the New ISO field was empty, on choosing a MKDD iso the New ISO field is filled in by appending _new.iso to the input ISO name. You can change where the new ISO is written to by clicking on the Save button. Press on Patch to create a new ISO with the race track and mod zips patched in.
By changing "Folder_mode" from False to True in config.ini you will be able to use patches that aren't zipped and just stored in a folder. This can allow for more rapid patch development. When choosing patches you will then choose the folder that contains the folders of patches. Make sure the folder you choose doesn't contain any patches you don't want.
If you are a modder who creates custom tracks for MKDD and you want to package up your track into a zip so that it is compatible with the MKDD Patcher, here is what you need to do:
The structure of the zip should be like this:
.
├── course_images
│ └── <Language>
│ ├── track_big_logo.bti
│ ├── track_image.bti
│ ├── track_name.bti
│ └── track_small_logo.bti
├── minimap.json
├── track.arc
├── track_mp.arc
├── track_50cc.arc
├── staffghost.ght
├── lap_music_normal.ast
├── lap_music_fast.ast
└── trackinfo.ini
<Language> ----------- Language this is for (Described below)
track_big_logo.bti --- Track logo when starting a race
track_image.bti ------ Track background image in the cup selection screen
track_name.bti ------- Track name in the cup selection screen
track_small_logo.bti - Small track, not necessary for Battle tracks
minimap.json --------- This file can be exported from the MKDD Track Editor and contains position/orientation data related to the minimap
track.arc ------------ Single player track arc
track_mp.arc --------- Multi player track arc
track_50cc.arc ------- Optional, 50cc variant for Luigi Circuit
track_mp_50cc.arc ---- Optional, 50cc mp variant for Luigi Circuit
staffghost.ght ------- Optional, without it no functioning staff ghost
lap_music_normal.ast - Regular tempo music, race tracks only, not for battle tracks
lap_music_fast.ast --- Fast tempo music, race tracks only, not for battle tracks
The trackinfo file needs to contain the following data
[Config]
author = Author Name
trackname = Custom TrackName
replaces = Replaced TrackName
replaces_music = Replaced Track Music Name
main_language = Language
code_patches = Comma-separated List
with author and trackname being the name of the author and the name of the custom track respectively.
replaces is the name of the track being replaced and can be one of the following:
Baby Park
Peach Beach
Daisy Cruiser
Luigi Circuit
Mario Circuit
Yoshi Circuit
Mushroom Bridge
Mushroom City
Waluigi Stadium
Wario Colosseum
Dino Dino Jungle
DK Mountain
Bowser Castle
Rainbow Road
Dry Dry Desert
Sherbet Land
Luigi's Mansion
Nintendo Gamecube
Block City
Tilt-a-Kart
Cookie Land
Pipe Plaza
replaces_music is the name of the music slot being replaced and should generally be the same as the
name of the track being replaced. Battle tracks are an exception, music replacement is not supported
for them at the moment so for battle tracks you can leave replaces_music as None.
main_language is the main language that should be used for lanuages that you didn't make bti textures for.
Example: You set main_language as English and you have bti textures for English.
When somebody patches your track over the PAL game then the English textures will be used for German, French,
Italian, etc.
The following languages are supported:
English, Japanese, German, Italian, French, Spanish
code_patches is an optional comma-separated list of code patches that are required by the custom
track (e.g. type-specific-item-boxes, sectioned-courses, or cpu-only-dead-zones). This list is
informative, and will tell the Patcher that certain code patches are required.
This guide is for when you want to make custom drivers, custom karts or modifications to any of the files of MKDD, including files located inside the archive files (.arc). Instead of replacing .arc files as a whole, only specific files inside each .arc can be replaced which allows for multiple mods to work at the same time as long as they don't replace the same files.
The file structure of a mod zip should be like this:
modinfo.ini
files/
The modinfo file should contain the following data:
[Config]
author = Author Name
modname = Mod Name
description = Mod Description
The files folder mirrors the root file folder of MKDD. Any file you want to replace needs to be put in the files folder
at a path mirroring the file you are replacing in the game.
Example: You would like to replace the play1.thp cutscene which is located at Movie/play1.thp. That means in the zip
the file needs to be located at files/Movie/play1.thp (and you need to create the Movie folder in the files folder)
Replacing files inside .arc files works in a similar way. You create a folder named after the arc at the correct location, inside
that folder you create a folder named after the arc's root folder name and place the file you are replacing in that
folder at a path relative to the arc's root folder.
Example: You want to replace the model of Mario which is called driver.bmd and located inside the MRAM.arc,
at location mram/driver/mario/driver.bmd, with mram being the root folder name of MRAM.arc. That means you create
the chain of folders in the files folder: files/MRAM.arc/mram/driver/mario/ and put your driver.bmd
at files/MRAM.arc/mram/driver/mario/driver.bmd.
race2d is an exception: Because it is an .arc inside an .arc it is handled in a special way:
You need to create the race2d.arc inside the files/ folder, but otherwise you can proceed like mentioned above.
(i.e. files to be replaced in race2d.arc would go into files/race2d.arc/mram_race2d/...)
Sometimes you might have two custom tracks that go over the same track slot. In that case without manual intervention it's not possible to play both at once. In that case check the trackinfo.ini inside one of the zip files: replaces and replaces_music will need to be modified to a different track slot. Note that some track slots in the game have hardcoded behaviour, e.g. crowd chants in Waluigi Stadium.
The MKDD Patcher does cool stuff to improve the custom track playing experience:
- The transformation of driver positions into a position on the minimap is normally hardcoded but
the patcher can patch that for every track slot and region of MKDD assuming the
minimap.jsonis correct. (Should there be a case where the patching is wrong, let me know) - If a custom track is moved to a different slot than it was intended for, the hardcoded minimap scaling and offset is modified so that the minimap won't clip outside of the screen boundary or leak onto the timer or speedometer.
- For custom race tracks, the
GCKart.baafile is patched so that every race track in the game has a unique music track instead of sharing the same music. (Battle tracks are excluded from this, their music id is hardcoded to play the same music unless you assign a music id from a race track to them in the MKDD Track Editor)
Get the source code of the patcher from https://github.com/RenolY2/mkdd-track-patcher
Install Python 3 version 3.8 or newer and run patcher-gui.py with it. Alternatively, execute run.bat if running on Windows