[ShrineFox]

I'm trying to replace Link's model in Wind Waker with Tetra. I've been very careful to give the files their proper names, repack the .ARC that contains them and Yaz0 encode the .ARC afterwards.

I have like 5 different programs that rebuild gamecube ISOs or replace files in them, yet with each I always seem to run into a problem.
The game hangs indefinitely before loading the title screen, though the Nintendo logo does show up. The game runs fine with clean ISOs.

It has nothing to do with the methods I use for Yaz0 encoding or RARC packing, since I've tried that without replacing any models and all rebuilding programs produced a working ISO. But I can't figure out why replacing the models makes the game hang at the title screen since the models in question shouldn't even load there.

Does it have to do with something checking the change in file size? And in that case is there something I can do about that?

[henke37]

A hang can be caused by anything. And I am quite certain that Link's model is in fact used on the title screen.

[Dashman]

I've seen a similar error happening before. Surely the size of the files for Link and Tetra's model are not the same. Most probably something points at the starting offset of each ARC file, so after the replacement the offset for the file after Link's points either to the middle of Link's or the middle of the next one. The program tries to read it, gets an error and hangs.

If they're all packed together in a single file, there's a chance you have a pointer table somewhere in the same file, usually before the ARC files. You'll have to update that table accordingly. If not, maybe there's a file that specifies file sizes for each file.

[RetroHelix]

Is there one big archive for all models?
Turn on the filemonitor in the dolphin emulator to see which files are accessed before the crash. Maybe this gives a hint.

You wrote that you repacked the ARC and Yaz0 encoded it afterwards. This sounds strange. It makes not much sense to me to pack an archive with compressed files in it.

[MeganGrass]

You wrote that you repacked the ARC and Yaz0 encoded it afterwards. This sounds strange. It makes not much sense to me to pack an archive with compressed files in it.

Nintendo.

They do a bunch of hideous crap with their files. I've seen RARC archive files packed inside other RARC archive files all inside a Yaz0 compressed files. Needless to say, the files contained within the RARC archive files were Yaz0 compressed, as well.

... not sure what's going on, here, but I'll have to agree with both Dashman and henke37.

[ShrineFox]

Yeah, I have to encode it after packing it or else it doesn't work. If I unpack, repack and encode I end up with roughly the same file size and it still works in-game so I think it's the proper method. Nintendo's weird like that.

But okay, I'll look for a table or something of that sort. If it would help you guys at all, I can provide the contents of the .ARCs.

What's weird is I've successfully modelswapped things this way in Pikmin 2 without any issues. But all the models for that game are in the same .ARC so it would still equate to about the same filesize. Perhaps it's because these are in two different archives?

[petrolpatrol]

Sorry in advance for the bump. ShrineFox, did you find a solution?