Creating a custom texture for Gum in Jet Set Radio HD

Advertisemen

Firstly, disclaimers...
Windows only; I hold no responsibility if you corrupt your game data, Gum is the only character supported - others may work - not tested yet though; this tutorial is long and boring but can't be much quicker without me investing a lot of time into it
-----

Required Software:
Jet Set Reverse v0.1.131229
AFS Explorer 3.7
PuyoTools
PVRConv.exe (included in the Dreamcast SDK)

Optional Software:
PVR Viewer

 Need help? Contact me on Twitter, @AlexDiru
------

Step 1: Extracting GUMTXR.BIN from the game.

GUMTXR.BIN is a binary file which contains multiple textures (in PVR files) for Gum. Note that when editing the texture that I will encourage you to edit, it will only show up in-game NOT in the Garage. I'm not sure why - presumably there is another texture elsewhere.

Open AFS Explorer, go to File->Import AFS File. Navigate to your Jet Set Radio AFS files, for me they are located in "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Jet Set Radio\DATA\JETRADIO". Within this directory we need to open "PLAYER.AFS". The following files should be shown in AFS Explorer:

Right click the file "GUMTXR.BIN" and click Export. Export to a simple folder such as the Desktop. Navigate to your desktop and "GUMTXR.BIN" will be there.

Step 2: Extracting the PVR files from GUMTXR.BIN

PVR files are an obscure image format (hence this gave me a lot of trouble), they are commonly used in video games and require some annoying software to convert. Jet Set Reverse has been created by me in a few hours and so is quite difficult to use and probably full of bugs. But if you follow this tutorial perfectly, you will be fine.

Create a folder on your Desktop called "out". Open Jet Set Reverse, and fill in the information:

GUMTXR.BIN is located on the Desktop and we want to output the PVR files to. Then click "Convert to PVR file(s)", and your out folder should contain the PVR files:

If you installed PVR Viewer, you can view the PVR files:

Step 3: Converting the PVR to an editable format.

Open PuyoTools, click Texture->Decode->Select Files and navigate to the out folder and select RIPPED_1.pvr and use the default settings:

Now in out/PVR Converted there will be a png file:

separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">

Edit this with the image editor of your choice. And save as a bitmap - try to keep the file size small otherwise you will run into problems which will be explained in a minute.

Below is my edited bitmap file (has a .BMP extension) next to the png file:

Step 4: Converting the BMP to a PVR

Locate where PVRConv.exe is downloaded, for me: "C:\Users\Alex\Downloads\Sega Dreamcast\SEGA Dreamcast Katana SDK r10\Utl\Gfx\Conv\PVRConv"

Shift and right click on the Windows Explorer, and click "Open Command Window Here"

Then type: pvrconv -565 -v3 -gi 5 "C:/Users/Alex/Desktop/out/PVR Converted/RIPPED_1.bmp"
The global index (-gi 5) is different for every image (I think), to find it. Use PuyoTools, Texture->Encode->Select Files (Select any PNG file - the one created will do). Choose import settings from another PVR, then choose the intial PVR you chose to convert - in our case RIPPED_1.pvr. Then the global index will be shown and you can change the -gi 5 to -gi 3 or whatever the global index is.

Anyway... Back to the command line, you should have typed

pvrconv -565 -v3 -gi 5 "C:/Users/Alex/Desktop/out/PVR Converted/RIPPED_1.bmp"
(or equivalent to your directory), then press Enter.

If you get a bitmap depth error, just resave your bitmap with a bit depth of 24. Now the new PVR is generated - you can check with PVR Viewer if installed.

Step 5: Merging the PVR Files into the BIN

Replace the original RIPPED_1.pvr with the new RIPPED_1.pvr (should be located in the same directory as your new bitmap).

Go back to Jet Set Reverse, and click on the second tab, "PVR to BIN". Set up your parameters similar to:

Then click the big convert button. Now you should have a new GUMTXR.BIN file.

Step 6: Importing the BIN back into the AFS file

Easy step provided this annoying error doesn't occur. Open AFS Explorer, right click GUMTXR.BIN then Import. Locate your newly created GUMTXR.BIN. And Import it. Then File->Update, overwrite the PLAYER.AFS file - PLEASE KEEP BACKUPS JUST IN CASE.

Open Jet Set Radio, select Gum to use - she will have her regular texture in the Garage, but when you come to the game:

Also the error that I seemed to keep failing to mention is when the BIN created by merging the PVR files back exceeds the maximum length shown in AFS Explorer, as it can't fit it into the AFS file. The file is write protected so there's no way around it... Unless someone has some clever ideas ;)

Advertisemen