customizemii-wiidb/CustomizeMii/Instructions.txt

These are some basic instructions for CustomizeMii.

At the very beginning, let me say this again: Don't install any WADs without a proper brick protection!

Ok, so you want to create your own custom channels?
First it is important to understand how the creation of a custom channel with CustomizeMii works.
Skip this if you already know.

Basically, you can't create a channel from scratch. Well, you could, but not with this application.
You need a base WAD which you can modify. You can either download one within this application or use
any WAD (must be a channel of course) from anywhere.
You can then edit the WAD file.
The editing of animations is for advanced users, so if you're not familiar with brlyt's and brlan's
(I guess you're not unless you created your own animations), get a static base WAD or one with the
animation you want.

So, let's start to create a channel. Download a base WAD through the application or load one from your HDD.
You can preview the downloadable WADs through the preview button.
All options below are optional!



MIXING BANNER, ICON AND SOUND

The options below the downloadable base WADs are the "replace" options.
Let's say you have loaded WAD A as a base, but you want the icon of WAD B and you have a 00000000.app that
contains a sound that you want to use.
No problem! Just use the dropdownbox which yet says "Banner" and choose "Icon". Click on the browse button
next to it and choose WAD B. The icon of WAD B will replace the icon of WAD A.
After that, choose "Sound" from the dropdownbox and browse for the 00000000.app, the sound.bin will be
extracted and used instead of the one within WAD A.

Note: These features are non-destructive, i.e. you can always use the clear button to get back to the
banner/icon/sound of WAD A!



CHANNEL INFORMATION

You may want to change the channel information, i.e. the title and ID.
Let's change the channel title first. It's the text that will be displayed when you hold your cursor
over the channel. Goto the "Title" tab and enter a title for all languages. If you want to change the
title for a specific language, just use the language's textbox. If you want a different title for every
language, you don't need to fill in a title for all languages.
You may also use the translate "Channel" button. Enter the english name in the all languages textbox
(e.g. "MPlayer Channel"). Click translate and it will be automatically translated to each language.
Now, the title ID. Open the "Options" tab and you'll see a textbox for the ID. The ID is 4 characters long
and only contains letters and numerics. Lower case letters will automatically converted to upper case.
Change it to a unique(!) ID, because channels will overwrite existing channles with the same ID!

I recommend not to use any title ID beginning with the following characters, because official channels
use these and thus your channel may overwrite them:
C, E, F, H, J, L, M, N, P, Q, W



INSERTING A NEW DOL

Let's bring some life into the channel. In the "Options" tab, use the browse button for a new DOL.
Either load a forwarder, the DOL of any application or a WAD to use it's DOL. Note that some applications
require more than just a DOL and thus may not work in a channel (e.g. MPlayer CE).
Choose a NAND loader or just stick with the one selected (both will do fine).

You can also use the built-in forwarder creation by using the forwarder button right below the browse button
for DOLs.
You need the ForwardMii.dll in order to use the forwarder creation.



INSERTING A NEW SOUND

For the sound, you can either use a wave or mp3 (needs lame.exe) file or the sound replace function to use
the sound of an existing sound.bin/00000000.app/WAD.
If you want looped sound, open your wave file with wavosaur and add loop points before.

To save space, you can convert your wav or mp3 files to BNS. You can take the loop from a prelooped wave file
or enter the loop start point manually. Wave files must be 16bit PCM.
It is possible to directly convert stereo Wave files to mono BNS files, note that only the left channel of
the Wave will be taken.



EDITING THE BANNER/ICON (If you're an advanced user and want to edit the brlyt/brlan, do that first!)

So, let's begin with the real customization. I will only talk about the banner here, the instructions
are the same for the icon.
Goto the "Banner" tab. You shouldn't touch the add and remove buttons, they're for advanced users that
change the animation. (However, they can't really harm your channel, as CustomizeMii will check for missing
and unneeded TPLs while creating a WAD).
You will see a list with all TPLs inside the banner.bin. When you select a TPL,
it's current format will be shown in the "Format" dropdownbox. Note that CustomizeMii can read 8 different
TPL formats, but only write 3 (RGBA8, RGB565 and RGB5A3), that should be enough for your needs.
You can use the preview button to preview a TPL (obvious, right?), but you get one more important info,
the image size. It will be shown in the title of the preview window. If your images aren't the same size,
they will be resized! So be sure to have at least the correct aspect ratio, so your images wont be
squeezed or whatever.
Before replacing the image, choose a format from the dropdownbox.
(RGBA8 = High Quality, Big Size --- RGB565 = Moderate Quality, Small Size --- RGB5A3 = Bad Quality, Small Size)
Now you can use the replace button to insert your image. Preview the TPL after replacing to check the
image. Maybe you want to use another format though? No problem, just replace the TPL again.

Note: You can use the "Make Transparent" checkbox to make a TPL transparent, e.g. if you don't like
one piece of an animation (It's non-destructive, i.e. you can always uncheck the box).



EDITING THE ANIMATION (Advanced users only!)

Skip this part, if you don't really know what brlyt and brlan files are and how they're structured.
Goto the "Layout" tab. You will see the banner.brlyt and icon.brlyt there.
Above the buttons is a text that will indicate whether you're doing actions on the "Banner" or
the "Icon" (When you select the banner.brlyt, you're editing the "Banner" and vice versa).
Now, just replace the banner.brlyt and icon.brlyt files as you want. You can use the list TPLs button
afterwards to see all TPLs that are required by the banner.brlyt/icon.brlyt (Don't worry, CustomizeMii
won't let you create a WAD, if you forgot a required TPL).
Now, goto the "Animation" tab. It's similar to the "Layout" tab. You shouldn't touch the add or delete button
unless your base WAD only has a banner.brlan and you want to use a banner_Start.brlan and banner_Loop.brlan.
In this case, first add the two files and then delete the old banner.brlan.
Else just replace the files with yours. Be absolutely sure the your brlan files only refer to panes that are
indicated in your brlyt files!
That's it, here's nothing left to do.



CREATING THE WAD (OR SENDING IT TO THE WII)

Well, your channel should be ready to be created.
Just click on the create WAD button.
CustomizeMii will do some failure checks and if all went fine, a save dialog will pop up.
If you get an error or warning, read the message carefully. It should give you enough information to fix
the problem yourself.
You can also send the Channel directly to the Wii. For it to work, the Channel must be less than 4 MB of space.
Make sure the Homebrew Channel is running and connected. Click the send WAD button. Choose a protocol
and enter your Wii's IP and the IOS to use for installation. Click on transmit to start the creation and
transmission process. After the channel was sent, you will be asked if you want to save the Channel.

So, if you got down to here, you're done by now. Please, if you find any bugs or have suggestions, take some
seconds to report them at the issue tracker: http://code.google.com/p/customizemii/issues/list