Beginner's Wave Creating and Editing

[{Lon3} Assassin]

Although TGAWave now allows you to create colours within your waves by importing images, this program still allows modification of wave shapes, as i will explain within. Be original guys, dont just stick a picture in and call it unique, go the full mile!

This tutorial gives you the software and information to create any wave of your choosing, as simple or as advanced as you like. There are no downsides, your PSP will remain completely save provided you have a recovery menu and backup your original "system_plugin_bg.rco" which is the file we will be hereon working..on.


TGA Wave (add your own textures to waves)
This tutorial also applies with TGAWave, so you can shape the wave using hex and colour it using TGA. To do this, follow the following simple steps:

Whereever you extracted TGAWave - bin edit the "system_plugin_bg_deflate_part1.bin" (back it up before editing!!!) then use the bat file as usual. The hex editing is exactly the same as desribed for XMBWave BELOW!, only TGAWave's bin files, handily enough, only provides the part you should edit and leaves the rest in a seperate file.

I'd also like to quickly jot down some handy file sizes for your TGA's that are compatable
Not you have to horisontally flip your image for this to work, and probebly squeeze it into a certain corner of the image for it to fit onscreen.

Width x Height:
128x128 - Default size. Images are skewed, so point your image diagonally towards the top right.
256x64 - Longer sized image. Image is more straightened
355x46 - Even longer image, Even more straight - dare i say it? - completely vertical.

These were painstackingly difficult to work out, a lot of trial and error with one pixel either way.

These are really useful if you want your name written in wave or an image presented perfectly, as-is, but then modifying wave shape is not recomended unless you manage to make a better shape - if you do LET US KNOW!


Your TGA file should be sized at exactly 16.7kb, as far as i have tested there's no leeway to this. The generated system_plugin_bg file will vary depending on content and does not matter too much.




Here's another tutorial explaining it differently
http://vbmaster.portablesofdoom.org/...tut/index.html

====That was TGAWave for colouring waves, here's the rest of the tutorial for shaping waves====

So the other tutorials have been reported by everyone as pritty difficult to understand, and i found this too, so here's my own findings in a tutorial... This doesnt have specific effects, just how to do the basics. Its pritty fully blown with all the detail..(also my first post on these forums!)

Help me add to this by sharing your knowledge!

This works on ALL the latest firmware. This will probebly brick a 1.5 psp.

Also, i'd like to know how the deflated bin file was extracted if anyone wants to shed any light on it.. anyway




~~~~~~~~Hex Editing Guide~~~~~~~~~~




Backup!

Backups: (to your computer, make a folder called wave backup or something)
Firstly, after downloading XMBWave, backup your "system_plugin_bg_deflate.bin" included with the application.

Next, from your psp (however you extracted the file from flash) backup your "system_plugin_bg.rco" in Flash 0\vsh\resource


1) Backup "system_plugin_bg_deflate.bin" from pc
2) Backup "system_plugin_bg.rco" from psp


A quick explination of how XMBWave works... There's 4 *.bin files, these are basically the wave coding. dont delete them, or you have to reinstall the program.
The program also contains a "start.bat" This is like running the program. It opens up the bin files and creates a file called "system_plugin_bg.rco" This is the file your psp uses to create the background wave pattern. If you run the program without any editing, you will recive this file which is bigger than your psp's image but this is because it has been decompressed. The psp RCO file on my emulated 3.03 is 8.15KB while the program generates the same file at 40.8KB. This is normal, they create the same wave. If it isnt 40.8kb when it generates, you've fucked up.


generated file = 40.8kb - good!


Now your asking "ok, but how do i change my waves"

Hex editors!


Download a free hex editor from somewhere. I reccomend for apsolute begginners
xvi32: Basic, for n00bz like you :P
http://www.chmaas.handshake.de/delph...2.htm#download
its very simple and easy



If you want more from your hex editor, you can grab the following, more advanced hex editors:
HHD Free Hex Editor: Pritty nice layout, easy and advanced
http://www.hhdsoftware.com/Download/free-hex-editor.exe
^^Thats what all the "cool" people are using right now :P



Or if your interested in the way this converts to hex images (really interesting program, just configure it right)
Hexplorer: Very fucking awesome
https://sourceforge.net/project/show...group_id=88309
To configure this to look less matrix-y and more hex editor....y... do this:
View - options - font - fixed roman large
view - options - colour - black on white
These of cource can be modified for personal preferance.
Have a fiddle with this program, it does actually show wave shapes if you do certain things, but nothing's for certain here so play around yourself.



You backed it up, right?

The file you edit to change the waves is the "system_plugin_bg_deflate.bin" that you backed up at the beginning. Dont edit your backup! use the one in the folder XMBWave. Right click "system_plugin_bg_deflate.bin" and press "open with - chose program" then find your hex editor EXE, or alternatively open it from your editor.

Now you should have your "system_plugin_bg_deflate.bin" open in your hex editor. If it isnt, there's no hope for you. Therefore give up or break something.

AGH! LOADS OF STUFF!! WHAT?!?

Dont worry, its not as confusing as it looks. just think of it as changing a few things. this program is a bit crap at scrolling, but it more than makes up for it with ease of use. The left side of the screen is Hexdecimal code. the right side is the human version, basically.

A hex code is two letters or numbers (limited by the way they can go together) to form a letter, symbol, number etc. I dont expect you to learn hexdecimal, but for example, A is 41 in hex, and a is 61.

using the right hand side of the screen scroll down to something that counts up, such as letters, numbers or even symbols. if you look on the left side, the translation will show in HEX that each is seperated by 00, or a blank space. dont edit the spaces, edit the letters or numbers or symbols.

If you feel creative, you could try editing the hex side of the screen.

When you've messed about enough, save and exit. File - save or quit and say you wanna save it.
**note** dont mess about TOO much, or no wave will load. Dont forget you have your backups.
Your psp shouldnt semi-brick from this provided there is a wave to display, worst thing thats happened to me is the wave dissapears.

return to your XMBWave folder, and click the "start.bat" file. a "system_plugin_bg.rco" will be generated.
put this in Flash 0\vsh\resource using whatever you use to flash things to your psp. The new USB mode in recovery makes this a sinch, but you could also use something like PSPFiler, if you know how to use it well enough. If you have backed it up, its safe to replace the file.

Fully turn off your psp.
Turn it back on.
Get ready.
Like it? keep it


1) hex edit "system_plugin_bg_deflate.bin" & save
2) run "start.bat"
3) copy "system_plugin_bg.rco" to psp
4) reboot


dont like it? or want to make more?

remember your backup folder?
open it, copy your "system_plugin_bg_deflate.bin" back into the XMBWave folder, edit it again, and repeat the process.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hexy details ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As for the values and what they do, as opposed to just entering random crap or patterns? Well if you like doing that, bear in mind the two extremitys, 01 in hex, being the minimum enterable amount (besides 00 which sometimes breaks things), and FF in hex, being the maximum enterable amount.


To edit the right stuff, check this out.
Try using your hex editors "goto" function if it has one. This SHOULD be "CTRL+G"
Hex or decimal?

According to Sepreath, these are the values (in decimal)

Edited Individually, but as a pattern to create a wave -

528 - 946 = Wave shape (I've confirmed this)
Using patterns here makes interesting effects, try hexplorer for nice tools.

Edited in groups of 3 (Think RGB(red green blue) backwards, it works as BGR(blue green red) -

7653 - 7841 = Colour (I've confirmed this) Goes from hex codes "01 - 3F, with 2 possible FFs in the group of three (eg 3F 3F 3F = white, FF FF FF = doesnt work, FF 27 FF = pink" (unconfirmed)
Increases in groups of 3, for colour and contrast. Apparently, the triplets go through shades of grey, 01 being the darkest and 3F being the lightest (seemingly white). This seems to work by overlapping 25 waves, so if you edit one triplet, 1/25th of the wave will be edited, or you'll get a thin line of colour, if you edit them all simarly you'll get a wave coloured to whatever you change it to. It seems to also have a white glow behind it, im not sure about that.

7653 - 7766 = Contrast (unconfirmed). Goes from hex codes: "01 - FF" (I've confirmed this)
Grouped to triplets, personally i havnt experimented with this, so if you know more just let me know.
25

Some known effects (point any out and I'll mention em here)

6816 - 6817 = Prism effect
Change the two numbers (human side) to get a prism effect

6937 = Black wave effect
Change 80(hex) to 7F(hex) for a black wave, change it to 91 for a white wave.


Something to think about:

The last 3 letters of the alphabet, XYZ are also common 3d co-ordinates, and the X has been confirmed to change the vertical pull of the wave.

Check out the 688 - 706 values, and the 00's(hex) in between letters, post your results from experimenting here and i'll look further into it.



WAVE SHAPE:

FOLDER IMAGE:
http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/6095/33673522gt7.jpg
HEX IMAGE:
http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/6095/33673522gt7.jpg

DOWNLOADS:
XMBWave 0.1


A few cool things:

In your hex editor settings (tools - settings or something similar) you can choose how many elements/columns in each row. Try changing this from 16 to about 64. (or fiddle if its a text entry box such as included on Hexplorer) Then change the view to just symbols (the non-hex area).

It'll just appear like you've widened the text area and hid the hex... Now...
Scroll down to the gibberish bit everyone ignores... BEHOLD! The gibberish actually forms wave shapes. Go a bit further down and you get diagonal lines. Perhaps if this was changed, rather than randomising the wave we could artistically shape it. Just a thought for ya.

In XVI32, this is more difficult to do, the "appearence" tab of options asks for font size, rows and columns (change columns, and click the "hide address of rows" and the hex cannot be hidden, but like i said it's a more basic one. Here's some hawt screenshots.

HHD example:
http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/3585/hhdry7.jpg
Hawt huh?

Hexplorer example:
http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/7...xplorersl0.jpg
Even hawter.



Hope this helps guys.

Carry on with the psp hacking. I LOVE this site.
0.o My first post! Wow, first post, first sticky!

This is all very disorganised right now and looks complicated and confusing but it really isnt if you read it step by step, which is hard when there's so much text, but I'll tidy it up when i have time i promice.


Special thanks go to Sepreath, i couldnt have got half of this done without him. Check his thread out here.
Thanks to Mitch_The_PSP_N00b who revealed some useful values here's his research (also in this tutorial)
Thanks to ZiNgABuRgA who stickyed this thread then had the glory taken from him (My bad, I'm sorry). Your a great guy and you've seriously pushed PSP hacking forwards, we all really appreciate the work and I'm honoured you liked this.
Thanks to p0wer for the title update and just generally being a great guy who's there when i need him