ROM Hack I have an idea for a romhack, but I have a few questions

[StackMasher]

I thought a modding hook for "Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins" would be cool since it's the most GTA like game we have on the 3DS and I want to make it but I have 2 questions:

• How hard do you think such a project would be?
• What's some useful documentation I could use? (I've never made romhacks before, I've done some amd64 assembly and modifying hex but not much)

 

[Sonansune]

1. unpack the game file. (https://github.com/Asia81/HackingToolkit3DS)
2. crack those extracted files. (if any specific game research forum exist should helps, like ppporg for pokemon)
3. edit it.
4. repack.
5. done.

 

[StackMasher]

1. unpack the game file. (https://github.com/Asia81/HackingToolkit3DS)
2. crack those extracted files. (if any specific game research forum exist should helps, like ppporg for pokemon)
3. edit it.
4. repack.
5. done.

once I unpack my game cia, what files are executable, and where is the documentation for them?

 

[Sonansune]

once I unpack my game cia, what files are executable, and where is the documentation for them?

there is no excutable file in 3ds game's archive...
most companies are using different compression method for their archives.
not all types of files are documented. (based on player base...)


if the game doesnt have a large amount player base (which means will have less ppl doing research), you have to do the analyze/crack part by yourself.

 

[StackMasher]

there is no excutable file in 3ds game's archive...
most companies are using different compression method for their archives.
not all types of files are documented. (based on player base...)


if the game doesnt have a large amount player base (which means less ppl doing research), you have to do the analyze/crack part by yourself.

What do you mean there's no executable files? execfs/code.bin looks like what I'm looking for, does that contain the game code?

 

[Sonansune]

What do you mean there's no executable files? execfs/code.bin looks like what I'm looking for, does that contain the game code?

yes. but the file is not excutable in any sense.....

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

What do you mean there's no executable files? execfs/code.bin looks like what I'm looking for, does that contain the game code?

based on your post, I'm guessing you want to have things like modeling edit?
if you do. code.bin is not what you want

 

[StackMasher]

yes. but the file is not excutable in any sense.....

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------


based on your post, I'm guessing you want to have things like modeling edit?
if you do. code.bin is not what you want

I want to add some code that dynamically loads executables off the SD card, and calls them at certain points (e.g. when a button is pressed or every frame)

 

[Sonansune]

I want to add some code that dynamically loads executables off the SD card, and calls them at certain points (e.g. when a button is pressed or every frame)

Oh… code.bin is what you need.

 

[StackMasher]

One last question, where are the code.bin sections declared? According to this post I have to look in the exefs header but 3dbrew doesn't mention anything