Pikmin 2 instructions

Helpful instructions for editing and handling Pikmin 2's files. This guide assumes you have some basic knowledge on navigating folders, opening files, using the command line, etc. See obtaining a game's files if you are unsure on how to do so.

Editing

You can view and edit a lot of the game's files. You can read them without any worry, but if you want to change them and have those changes apply in-game, see saving changes in general instructions.

To do: Sound files.

Text files

To read and edit a plain text file (.txt), you can use any text editor, like Notepad, although Notepad++ is highly recommended. If the type of file you're editing has any comment (text written in English or Japanese that comes after a #), then it's safe to say that any text that comes after a # will be ignored.

SZS files

SZS files (.szs) are a bit like zip files. If you want to read a SZS file's contents, you need to unpack it, and if you want to make changes to the contents, you need to repack it after you're done.

Windows

To unpack an SZS file on Windows, use Lunaboy's RARC Tools. Unpacking is done through ArcExtract.exe by drag and dropping your szs file onto it. A folder containing the SZS files' contents will then be created in the directory that the SZS was in, and now you can modify it!

To repack an SZS file, you will need to continue using Lunaboy's RARC Tools in addition to yaz0fast. First, once you've modified the SZS' contents, drag the folder that ArcExtract.exe gave you onto ArcPack.exe and it will create an .arc file. Technically, you can rename the file extension to SZS right now and it will work, but following the next step instead will save space. Drag the newly created ARC file onto yaz0fast.exe and it will create an SZS file. Now rename it to the filename that the original SZS had (you need to do this if you chose to rename the file extension instead as well) and yous should be good to go!

Mac

Unfortunately, Lunaboy's RARC Tools and yaz0fast cannot be used on Mac computers. Instead, you must use a different tool called Wiimms SZS Toolset. First, install it using the instructions on the website. Unpacking and repacking is done through the command line. These tools can be used with Windows as well, but it is not practical. Under Windows, there are scripts you can create to make Wiimm's process of packing and repacking easier.

Anyway, the command to unpack a file is wszst extract <SZS file path>. This will create a folder with the same name as the SZS file, but ending in ".d". Inside this folder will be the contents of the SZS file, plus an additional data file, which is used by Wiimms SZS Toolset, so that it knows how to repack. To repack, use wszst update <SZS file path>.

Scripts

If you for some reason want to use Wiimms SZS Toolset on Windows, you can create scripts to automatically unpack and repack a SZS file, so that you don't have to write commands all the time. Open a text editor, and type

wszst extract %1

Save it as SZS extract.bat on some folder you can remember. Create a new file with

wszst update %1

And save it as SZS update.bat.

After this, you can simply grab the SZS file you want and drag it onto the BAT file you need.

BMD files

BMD files (.bmd) are 3D model files. If you simply want to view them, you can do so with BMDView2. Editing them is a different matter.

If you want to make your own BMD, you will need three things: a) 3ds Max 2015 (preferably the student version, as it's free), b) MaxBMD, a bmd importer for 3ds Max, and c) BMDCubed, a custom BMD converter that can convert .DAE files made by 3ds Max into .bmds. Once you have 3ds Max set up, you're going to want to install MaxBMD. It should come with an executable named bmdview.exe, which you should drop in C:\Autodesk\Autodesk_3ds_Max_2015_EFGJKS_Win_64bit_R2_wi_en-US. Once you've done that, all you have to do is open 3ds Max and drag MaxBMD's script onto its tool bar. Congratulations! You can now use MaxBMD. There are multiple types of BMDs you can create now. For custom levels, check out Custom Models. For static objects such as treasures, follow the instructions on the Custom Models page but ignore any steps related to custom collision. Finally, for making custom models that have bones, watch this video tutorial. All three of these model types will require you to use BMDCubed later, so keep it in a safe place!

If you just want to change the textures, you will need j3dview. Open the bmd in j3dview and you can change the textures by replacing the vanilla ones with custom bti files (more on that later). To note is that a) Some textures will get a corrupted UV Map when replaced and b) j3dview is not compatible with custom BMDs or BMDs from Pikmin 2 that contain bones or the like. That is, j3dview can edit the models for the first three areas and possibly the test levels & most treasures.

BMG files

BMG files (.bmg) contain the game's text strings. Yoshi2's custom Pikmin 2 BMG Tool is highly recommended for this, as it allows you to change any text without worrying about the character count. To use it, simply drag the BMG onto packBMG.bat, edit the outputted text file in Notepad++, make sure it's encoded in UTF-8, save, and drag the saved text file onto packBMG.bat. That's all you need to do! (Keep in mind that any version of Python 3 (newer = better) is needed for this tool to work.)

Any text editor can also edit these, but once again, Notepad++ is highly recommended. You can find the strings after you scroll past the initial control data. If you want to edit the strings using a text editor, remember to keep their length the same. i.e. You can replace "Floor" with "Level", but not with "Step" or "Sublevel".

BTI files

BTI files (.bti) are image files. You'll need Wiimms SZS Toolset to view these. As with SZS files, you convert a BTI to PNG with the command line, though you can make a script to skip the command line part. The command to convert a BTI file is wimgt DECODE <BTI file path>. To save the converted PNG files back into a BTI format use the command wimgt ENCODE <PNG file path>.

Scripts

As with SZS files, you can write a script so that you don't have to write commands all the time. Open up a text editor, write

wimgt DECODE %1

And save it somewhere you can remember, with the name BTI converter.bat. Then, when you want to convert a BTI file into PNG, simply drag the BTI file onto the BAT file you created.

Now open a new file in the text editor and write

wimgt ENCODE %1

And save it with the name BTI updater.bat Now when you want to convert one of your PNG files back into BTI format, just drag the png onto this new BAT.

Running your modified game

See General instructions#Running a modified game.