EZ-Flash USA Forum

cory1492 · **Posted:** Wed May 24, 2006 2:24 pm

Basically, unzip this somewhere, read the readme, add the update file, change some pics and run the batch file. It will produce a new update file with your images in the skin instead. Update your EZ4 with it and enjoy your new skins.

TEXT UPDATED 11-01-2006 (for Oct 10/2006 loader)
text-1010.zip
APP UPDATED 09-07-2006
EZ4skin-R7-09-07.zip (source is actually included this time :oops:

)
local download:
currently not up to date
Feel free to mirror this elsewhere, it supercedes my other tool (although its still marginally useful).
R7 - Updated texts, updated text skinner to allow double digit occurances.

The GBA skin that is included is FAST6191's NinjaScroll one (Thanks again!), any of the EZ3 PDA skins should work if you only replace the relevant bitmaps in the template.

The EZ3 dolphin theme bmp files can be found here:
dolphins-skin.zip

If your interested in "skinning" the fonts appearance have a look at this thread here.

Those of you with windows skills, feel free to get rid of my lousy DOS way of doing things, its very simple and if you can sift through my bad source Im sure you will see it too.

readme below

Quote:

EZ4skin - revision 6(July 10 2006)
--------------------------------------
Tested with 07-10 EZ4 updater files (ezfla_up.bin)

\gba\RomBuildPro.rom should no longer matter, it is a 0byte file now.

To change skins on your GBA and NDS EZ4 menus, first add the latests update
and call it "ezfla_up.bin" (without the quotes), then simply go into the
folders and alter the images, then double click on Skin_it.bat.

It will report any errors or inconsistancies if there are any.

NDS skin - in the folder \nds
GBA skin - in the folder \gba\.shell\bmp

** IMPORTANT **
Do NOT change the image size or depth, this will result in problems.

If you are using existing EZ3 PDA skins, make sure to only replace the images
that are included in this release.

One thing I have noticed, and most people do this - thumbs.db is a hidden file
and sometimes can get quite large. If it skips the NDS skin, try going into
your folder options, show hidden files and delete it first.

If you run into issues and can't use your EZ4,
simply put an official update back on and boot
your GBA/DS holding the R button
** END NOTE **

----------------------Text Skinning----------------------------------------
call EZ4skin in the directory with a file after.. ie: EZ4skin.exe text.txt
or simply run the Skin&txt.bat

My edited version of the texts I have extracted is in text.txt
a generically set up one is in ori_txt.txt

here is how it works:
make a text file, and on each line have this:
origional text;new text;#
orgional text and new text must be the same size. You can put spaces to remove
characters, but they must be the same size. The # is the occurance of the text
in the updater file, if its the first one then use 1, if its the second you want
to replace, use 2.

The text skinning is not "smart" - it will only replace the text on the left,
with the text on the right. Because EZ rebuilds the file and the text
moves, I could think of no better way to do it.

The top of the file is GBA texts
after the [SD]NDSLoader is NDS texts (or what I found after looking briefly)
Where I was able to find the chinese text, it is on the line above the english version
of the same thing.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks to the creators of the EZPDA skinner that the GBA skin is based on
Thanks to PinEight and the other contributors for GBFS (for DS)
Thanks to FAST6191 for the Ninja Scroll skin!
Thanks to the Sosuke forum users for pointing out my mistakes!

And last but not least, thanks to EZ for the excellent miniSD adapter and
for furthering the open standards by not crypting/mirroring and otherwise
making this more complicated than it actually needs to be.

When a new update is released, I will likely analyze and test it to be sure this
tool will still work. Check sosuke for updates if it breaks, I will try to keep it working
but I will make no promises.

Questions? Comments? Concerns?
Come join us at Sosuke's EZ flash board - http://sosuke.com/ezflash/
I'm sure someone can help.

Bug reports? Praise? Donations? KEEP YOUR MONEY! I DONT WANT DONATIONS!

cory1492@gmail.com

Source code provided for entertainment only. C'mon coders, you should be able to
get a decent laugh out of my slop! (even though it works)
---------------------------------
History
-------
R7 - Updated texts, updated text skinner to allow double digit occurances.
R6 - updated text files for new strings added with the saver forced/auto settings
R5f - fixed call to wrong batch file name
R5 - added batch file to clean extra files from EZ3 skins out automatically
R4 - fixed a few things (output file is now exactly the size it needs to be)
- added text skinner and fixed up the lousy findstring functions I used before
R3 - major fix - the NDS skin wasnt being replaced, also, no longer limited to file sizes smaller or equal to the origional NDS skin.
R2f - fix in the batch file for PC's without posix in the background
R2 - adjust for a new method of skinning GBA that wont require updating the rombuilder rom file
R1 - initial release

Decker4000 · **Posted:** Wed May 24, 2006 2:40 pm

nice one Cory

as soon as i have time i will make my own skin

Slade · **Posted:** Wed May 24, 2006 3:27 pm

I've really got to resist the urge to call in sick today, just to check this out !

Neato.

Would people like to see a skin thread for the EZ4 here ? We have the technology

You forgot one poll option:

Candy

Grey · **Joined:** Mon May 22, 2006 12:40 pm **Posts:** 8

Awesome, thanks!

Ettan · **Posted:** Wed May 24, 2006 3:51 pm

Great job, will check it out!

cory1492 · **Posted:** Thu May 25, 2006 2:49 am

I was having fun (if you all cant tell by prog name and the 3rd poll option - Have EZ4, will not travel) and I hope you all like skinning your EZ4s

(thats about as close to your welcome as you'll all get, I had my own fun making it)

Im sure someone will top this tool easily but c'mon, I learned alot that is EZ4 in a few hours to make it and it gets rid of those dratted GBA star wars skins.

I also notice that EZ took out some of the files I figured were just taking up more space since I mentioned it the other day :lol:

Slade wrote:

I've really got to resist the urge to call in sick today, just to check this out !

Neato.

Would people like to see a skin thread for the EZ4 here ? We have the technology

You forgot one poll option:

Candy

Sorry, you do not have access to this forum.
Go back
:lol:

No need to feign sickness slade, the program isnt going anywhere once you download it

Slade · **Posted:** Thu May 25, 2006 4:23 am

Darn. Oh well, it's a long running joke on Whirlpool (an Aus broadband forum) that each poll contain the Candy option. It gives people the option of a nonsensical vote without offending anyone. That and people find it funny.

Anyway, back on topic

cory1492 · **Posted:** Thu May 25, 2006 6:10 am

Humph, 24 hours and they made it obsolete... ah well, I redid it a bit so that it no longer cares about the rombuildpro.rom file (I 0byted it). R2 is up above in a sec (along with a zip of the bmp files needed to skin GBA mode to the dolphin theme :wink:

)

If anyone has problems with R2 let me know, I had a couple things that should have worked differently but didnt for some odd reason (searching for certain data with a hex editor required 3 searches, searching in the buffer required 1...)

The third option is the nonsense one, I voted for it myself...

Alak · **Posted:** Thu May 25, 2006 1:31 pm

- I tried all this evening but nothing ...
- when use .bat in cmd line appear an "error, possible buffer overflow" "skiping NDS skin"
- What it mean? and what i can do ?

cory1492 · **Posted:** Thu May 25, 2006 6:10 pm

Possible buffer overflow: It means you have changed the size of the files so they are too big to fit now, and chances are that they would not work with the way EZ loads the files anyway. Changing an image's size or bitdepth will cause this, or using a "noncompliant" program to save them to bmp can cause this.

At a guess, (this is a common problem) you are using photoshop to save the images, no? Photoshop for one adds a couple bytes and saves them to BMP8 format instead of BMP6. Also, if you view the dir that those images are in in thumbnail view under windows, windows will create a file called "thumbs.db" - see the readme to get rid of it.

What you need to do, is look in the GBA skin directory for iview (irfanview), open the images with that and resave them with it. Make sure you havent changed the images size or bitdepth from the origional ones provided.

Alak · **Posted:** Thu May 25, 2006 6:51 pm

- Well i do anyways ... but the same error appear with edited and not edited .jpg files
- i redownloaded the zip, copy the ezfla_up.bin in folder and run .bat, only editing GBA images with dolphin one... and well,... the same error appear NDS skins skiped...

cory1492 · **Posted:** Fri May 26, 2006 4:58 am

Thank you for your patience Alak, we can sort this out if you give me some help.

Paste your log to me, or better yet send me the file called "nds.bin" after a failed attempt to the email in the readme... here is what I get when I do exactly what you just said
1 - download both files from first post (skin and skinner)
2 - unzip the GBA dolphin skin bmp images into "EZ4skin-R2-0525\gba\.shell\bmp" directory
3 - leave the NDS directory alone
4 - add "ezfla_up.bin" from the 05-25 update

click on the link below to see my log, compare to yours to see if any extra files crept into the wrong spots. There are a couple things I can do, but I want to be certain its not just files that dont belong.

Code:

creating NDS skinned GBFS...

      1536 asc.dat
      1301 disk.jpg
    182736 hzk.dat
     15784 mainBG.jpg
      1180 nor.jpg
       534 select.jpg
      1230 setting.jpg
      2824 subBG.jpg
      3323 window.jpg

creating GBA skinned ROM...
Generate Base Rom ... OK
 Type   Path And FileName                                      FileSize
----- : ---------------------------------------------------- - ------------
[DIR] : \.shell\bmp
      : \.shell\bmp\TXTLoadSaver.bmp                         - 18728
      : \.shell\bmp\TextScrollBack.BMP                       - 24
      : \.shell\bmp\TextScrollButtonSign.BMP                 - 24
      : \.shell\bmp\TextScrollDown.BMP                       - 136
      : \.shell\bmp\TextScrollUp.BMP                         - 136
      : \.shell\bmp\Time_col.bmp                             - 8840
      : \.shell\bmp\Time_title.bmp                           - 11016
      : \.shell\bmp\arrowL.bmp                               - 296
      : \.shell\bmp\arrowR.bmp                               - 296
      : \.shell\bmp\deskicon.bmp                             - 11528
      : \.shell\bmp\desktop.bmp                              - 76808
      : \.shell\bmp\ezoption.bmp                             - 76808
      : \.shell\bmp\ezpdalogo.bmp                            - 76808
      : \.shell\bmp\filemng.bmp                              - 65288
      : \.shell\bmp\filemnghead.bmp                          - 11528
      : \.shell\bmp\icons.bmp                                - 8968
      : \.shell\bmp\itemdisc.bmp                             - 20488
      : \.shell\bmp\mineBG.bmp                               - 76808
      : \.shell\bmp\ok.bmp                                   - 680
      : \.shell\bmp\txtSaveSaver.bmp                         - 18728
      : \.shell\bmp\txtbg.bmp                                - 76808
      : \.shell\bmp\underFlag.bmp                            - 264
      : \.shell\bmp\x.bmp                                    - 296
      : \.shell\asc.dat                                      - 1536
      : \.shell\help.txt                                     - 547
      : \.shell\hzk.dat                                      - 182736
----- : ---------------------------------------------------- - ------------
TotalDir: 1,  totalFile: 26
RomFile Size: 928 KB

Error(s): 0  warning(s): 0

attempting to skin ezfla_up.bin ...

EZ4skin - NDS and GBA skin replacer
-----------------------------------
EZ Update file : ezfla_up.bin
backup Update  : ezfla_up.bak
GBA skin-ROM   : gba.bin
NDS skin-GBFS  : nds.bin

reading ezfla_up.bin into memory
writing ezfla_up.bak
Finding GBA skin offset
GBA skin found at pos: 262144
reading gba.bin, overwriting converted files
Finding NDS skin offset
GBFS found at pos: 1595648
reading nds.bin, overwriting GBFS
Writing ezfla_up.bin back to disk


EZ4skin.exe Finished.

DONE! Skins updated.

Now use the file ezfla_up.bin as a normal update.

if it fails on reboot, place an official update
back onto your miniSD and boot holding the R button

Press any key to continue . . .

Alak · **Posted:** Fri May 26, 2006 6:20 am

Code:

creating NDS skinned GBFS...

"gbfs" no se reconoce como un comando interno o externo,
programa o archivo por lotes ejecutable.

creating GBA skinned ROM...
Generate Base Rom ... OK
 Type   Path And FileName                                      FileSize
----- : ---------------------------------------------------- - ------------
[DIR] : \.shell\bmp
      : \.shell\bmp\TXTLoadSaver.bmp                         - 18728
      : \.shell\bmp\TextScrollBack.BMP                       - 24
      : \.shell\bmp\TextScrollButtonSign.BMP                 - 24
      : \.shell\bmp\TextScrollDown.BMP                       - 136
      : \.shell\bmp\TextScrollUp.BMP                         - 136
      : \.shell\bmp\Time_col.bmp                             - 8840
      : \.shell\bmp\Time_title.bmp                           - 11016
      : \.shell\bmp\arrowL.bmp                               - 296
      : \.shell\bmp\arrowR.bmp                               - 296
      : \.shell\bmp\deskicon.bmp                             - 11528
      : \.shell\bmp\desktop.bmp                              - 76808
      : \.shell\bmp\ezoption.bmp                             - 76808
      : \.shell\bmp\ezpdalogo.bmp                            - 76808
      : \.shell\bmp\filemng.bmp                              - 65288
      : \.shell\bmp\filemnghead.bmp                          - 11528
      : \.shell\bmp\icons.bmp                                - 8968
      : \.shell\bmp\itemdisc.bmp                             - 20488
      : \.shell\bmp\mineBG.bmp                               - 76808
      : \.shell\bmp\ok.bmp                                   - 680
      : \.shell\bmp\txtSaveSaver.bmp                         - 18728
      : \.shell\bmp\txtbg.bmp                                - 76808
      : \.shell\bmp\underFlag.bmp                            - 264
      : \.shell\bmp\x.bmp                                    - 296
      : \.shell\asc.dat                                      - 1536
      : \.shell\help.txt                                     - 547
      : \.shell\hzk.dat                                      - 182736
----- : ---------------------------------------------------- - ------------
TotalDir: 1,  totalFile: 26
RomFile Size: 928 KB

Error(s): 0  warning(s): 0

attempting to skin ezfla_up.bin ...

EZ4skin - NDS and GBA skin replacer
-----------------------------------
EZ Update file : ezfla_up.bin
backup Update  : ezfla_up.bak
GBA skin-ROM   : gba.bin
NDS skin-GBFS  : nds.bin

reading ezfla_up.bin into memory
writing ezfla_up.bak
Finding GBA skin offset
GBA skin found at pos: 262144
reading gba.bin, overwriting converted files
Finding NDS skin offset
GBFS found at pos: 1595648
error, possible buffer overflow
 skipping NDS skin
Writing ezfla_up.bin back to disk


EZ4skin.exe Finished.

DONE! Skins updated.

Now use the file ezfla_up.bin as a normal update.

if it fails on reboot, place an official update
back onto your miniSD and boot holding the R button

Presione una tecla para continuar . . .

Only see an Error running GBFS ( see at top, and soz i use spanish OS :S), anyways i will send u a nds.bin

Thx 4 help

cory1492 · **Posted:** Fri May 26, 2006 5:06 pm

That helps tonnes Alak, I know exactly what the problem is then :wink:

Try this one: EZ4skin-R2f-0525.zip
or edit the batch file to say

Code:

gbfs nds.bin nds\*

instead of

Code:

gbfs nds.bin ./nds/*

Here I was all worried that I broke it somehow, and I'm just getting too used to having msys posix emulation available from DOS too... thanks for the feedback Alak, I'm glad this was fixed up before too many people had problems

nori2nori · **Joined:** Tue May 09, 2006 8:43 am **Posts:** 15

Hi cory,

I have tried to use all versions of EZ4skin. It's a very powerful tool to customize the skin for the GBA background screen, however, I found out it can't change the skin for NDS mode.

For example, I can't change the background of NDS screen, even though I changed the original mainBG.jpg file to a customized one.

Am I right in thinking that EZ4skin is the exclusive use of GBA mode, and it can't change the skin of NDS screen?

Thanks as always.

EZ-Flash USA Forum

EZ4skin - skin GBA/NDS gfx and text (R7 09-07;TXT 11-01)

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