GHWT Boost 1.0 *UPDATED 9/23/12*

**HunterXyron1134** · Joined: 06 Dec 2008 Posts: 326 Location: Hiding in a taco.

Edit September 23rd, of the year 2012:
Basically just cleaned up this post, and cleaned up the app to make this seem a little bit more professional. I was a bit embarrassed by my younger self's work, xD
Also, im editing this post to make public some things I have discovered about how the WT Engine does certain things. Figured it would be better to make what i know public and people tell me im retarded, then for me to keep it to myself. :P

YOU MUST DISABLE CROWD AND PHYSICS IN YOUR GRAPHICS SETTINGS FOR THIS TO WORK, OTHERWISE IT WILL CRASH ON LOAD.

If you didnt heed my warnings, and didnt back up the files i told you to, I am sorry but i cannot provide the files due to legal reasons. You will have to reinstall the game. Sorry.

Table of Contents.

1. Intro.

2. Installation Instructions.

3. New Features

4. The different Boost's available.

5. Download Section

6. Bugs

7. Version History
________________________________

This boost was a simple program i wrote for personal use to make GHWT be just a little less laggy. Now, I've decided to release this for public use.

NOTE:
This only puts up the black background, and disables the intro videos. NOT ANIMATIONS.

The Tool boost should theoretically make it so the Tool Venue is always shown. May or may not work however. (Sep23 Edit: I now know that this will not work, will probably never work, and was doomed from the beginning. and I will explain why later.)
___________________________________________________________

Now, before I get started, I want to go ahead and say what I have discovered about the WT engine.

It seems that Neversoft, or hell, it could have been Aspyr after seeing what we did to the first game, implemented a good deal of security.
Mostly related to the music, but it also seems that every file has some kind of encryption or protection on it.
I say this, because, whenever you rename the game's files, it doesnt load them like GH3 does.

To test a theory I had, I pulled the test background file from GH3 and threw it in WT's files. Now, instead of loading the completely black BG like in GH3, it curiously loaded the *exact* same one that WT uses.

This piqued my interest enough to do more experiments.

After replacing venues with everything from blank text documents, to video files, to my iso of Windows 7, every time it tried to load the venue, it would load the black one. Even if i pulled data files from the Wii version and threw it on here, same thing.

So, here leads to my hypothesis on WT's encryption security:
It's not just the songs that all have unique keys assigned to them, every file in the game does. And, if the file it is told to load doesnt match up with the encryption key the game is looking for, the load will fail and it will fallback to a default, in the case of venue's, this is the black background, hence why the Tool boost never worked.
This also means all we can do is replace, and not add. Which will make customizing it a living hell.
We wont be able to inject our own files in the game, unless somebody can figure out the encryption, and inject out own keys into the game so we dont have to replace files.

But anywho. Just my observations and such.

Continue on with the actual post now. :P

___________________________________________

Still no GUI, mostly cause im lazy. I *can* make them with java, I just don't like to, so henceforth, this is just a clean up release.

Extract the GHWT Boost Beta file to your desktop with WinRAR, or an equivalent that can unpack .RAR's.

If your copy of GHWT is installed at:

C:/Program Files/Aspyr/Guitar Hero World Tour

Then browse to that folder, and open up the DATA subfolder.

Copy the three folders MOVIES, PAK, and ZONES to your DATA folder.

If you want the No Intro fix, go to MOVES/BIK then run "No Intro Fix."
If you ever need to restore the intro's, run the "restore Intros" file.

For the Black BG Boost, go to ZONES.

First and foremost, run the "Backup" file first.

There's only one boost now. I still cant remember my logic for choosing two different ones, but eh.

If you need to get rid of the boost, run "Restore".

To apply the StarPower Patch, open up PAK, then scroll to "StarPower Fix"

_________________________________________________________

New Features!

Version 1.0

-Integrated backups into the main boost application. Less clutter now, more streamlined.

-Optimized the way the boosts handle backups. Squashed a few backup-related bugs.

Version 0.9

-Patch for crashing Starpower.

-Edited credits so they only apply to the program being run, for example the boost has "coded By HunterXyron1134" but the StarPower Patch has "credit to Maggot666"....etc.

Version 0.8

-A kind of credits in the beginning.

-User input is now required. Just smack the keyboard whenever prompted, it still does the same thing, I just think this helps it flow better.
_____________________________________________________________

The batch files contained in the release each do separate functions. Here is what the Latest version's batch files do.

PUBLIC BETA 1.0

GHWT Boost

-Replaces all the venues you will get if you select a song in quickplay or Career. The Training room, music studio, etc are all intact. Or rather, should be, if not, let me know.

-Does NOT disable the animations, this only replaces the background with a test BG that is almost completely black, but you can see some hair at random times.

No Intro Fix

-Removes intro videos.

-All videos are now removed. Huzzah!

Restore Backups

-Restores backups created when running the boost.

-This does NOT delete the backups. Not yet. They're still there for safekeeping.

______________________________________________

Download Section

Version 1.0
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?f0vrvypvbozvsfe

Version 0.9
http://www.mediafire.com/?quqymmjrtni

Version 0.8
http://www.mediafire.com/?mzqn4dm2tg3

Version 0.7
http://rapidshare.com/files/264126966/GHWT_Boost_Beta_0.7.rar

Version 0.6
http://rapidshare.com/files/263864299/GHWT_Boost_Beta_0.6.rar

Version 0.5b
http://rapidshare.com/files/262706021/GHWT_Boost_Beta_0.5.rar

Version 0.1

http://rapidshare.com/files/257802548/GHWT_Boost_Beta_0.1.rar
________________________________________

Known bugs:

Version 1.0
-None as of 9/23/2012

Version 0.9
-None reported, but, i've discovered a few in regards to the backup/restor feature.

Version 0.8
-A grammatical error in the Backup Files results in the 4th venue not being backed up.
-A syntax error with the Quickplay boost can occur if used in a language other than English (note, only confirmed with x64 Win7, Swedish)

Version 0.7
-No intro Fix still leaves one video.
-Star Power crash still present.
-Tool Venue untested, try at own risk.
-Full Boost got replaced accidentally with Tool Boost. Applying Full Boost applies Tool Boost.

Version 0.6:
-No intro Fix still leaves 1 video, but that video cannot be located as of right now.

-Star Power crash still present.

Version 0.5b:

-Star Power activation crash still present. Only known bug.

Version 0.1:

-Star power activation crashes the game instantly.

-The White BG Boost crashes on load, DO NOT USE!!!!

-The Full Boost also removed the main menu, which confirms my suspicions that Activision made the main menu in a similar way to Halo Combat Evolved; They used an actual level for the menu.

-Restore Originals does nothing ATM.

-Choosing a venue in Career mode with any boost enabled crashes the game.
__________________________________________________________

Version History:

Beta 0.9- Patch to fix the crashing Starpower! Yay!

Internal Beta 0.9- Added a new boost, mainly from me just screwing around with GHWT. I copied over the original boost files from GH3 and tried to get ghwt to load them.......lets just say WT was very nasty to the file......

Beta 0.8 Offer Edition- Contains various code fixes and general cleanups. Only released to a friend on Skype, just because his PC is retarded and wouldnt run the regular program.

Beta 0.8 -General code cleanups, fixed Full Boost installing Tool Boost error. Included details on Starpower fix.

Beta 0.7- Added GHWT Tool Boost.

Beta 0.6- Autobackups and Restores are working now. Also added No Intro Fix.

Beta 0.5b- Removed GHWT White BG Boost due to crashing game on load. General code cleanups.

Internal Beta 0.5- Added AutoBackupCreator, BackupRestorer.

Internal Beta 0.4- All bugs except starpower crash fixed.

Internal Beta 0.2- Career Crash fixed.

Beta 0.1- First release. Not fully tested.
_________________________________________

**xCuPPeRx** · Joined: 12 Dec 2008 Posts: 13

I tested the average boost, it has given me much better frame rates. No big jumps as there was before. I also tested the full boost, it deletes all the menu's so I couldn't see anything, I managed to get into music studio menu but it was extremely laggy. So yeah, some of those files are menu files...

(Don't know if this is related, I played Satch Boogie with average boost on, and it crashed when I used starpower, It's the first time I played that song on PC, so it could've just been a random glitch.)

PS. I have a frame limiter on, so that + this helps the frame rate dramatically. The frame limiter I use is called FPS_Limiter_0.2 if anyone is interested in that.

EDIT: The star power crashes are related to this fix. I tested 3 songs and every time star power is activated it crashes, and I reverted back to original files and star power works fine. So, things to find out:

-The menu files
-Why star power = crash

Also, it would be nice if you could somehow make a program that when it's open, make the game read a 'modded ZONES' and not the original ZONES, so you don't have to keep changing the files if you want the background.

**TheMagician** · Joined: 05 Mar 2007 Posts: 1164

By modifying "C:\Documents and Settings\User\Local Settings\Application Data\Aspyr\Guitar Hero World Tour\AspyrConfig.xml" file you can turn the graphics even lower than you can from the game options. When you change everything to 0 it looks like a game from 90s or something.
_________________

[b]My acc. thread

**xCuPPeRx** · Joined: 12 Dec 2008 Posts: 13

For me, 0 on video quality = high definition, and 1 = low. All the others are low when set to 0 though...I need to be able to replace like everything to make GHWT run smooth on my system

**HunterXyron1134** · Joined: 06 Dec 2008 Posts: 326 Location: Hiding in a taco.

Alright, thank you for the input. Im working on the starpower crash right now, i fixed the career "select a venue" crash.

And as for making the game use a different ZONES folder, from what i can tell that is hard coded in the exe, and i aint touching that for a while. I may eventually...i just need to do some research first.

Version 0.2 coming soon..probably in the next hour or so.

EDIT: Some tweaking revealed that he starpower may be tied into the levels themselves. I was playing B.Y.O.B on the Tool level, activated SP just fine.

I then went to play Hot4 Teach, which was a blacked out arena. It crashed the second i used SP.

Maybe if i was to use a different bg? im looking into this right now.
_________________

My Youtube | iPhone RockBand Customs Research | My Twitter, with my GH/RB updates!

SThorpe wrote:

so did anyone get to touch Matt's Banstick? O_o

EviLize wrote:

Yeah, while he was playing pop'n I was playing around with it for a little bit.

**iamsensay** · Joined: 20 May 2008 Posts: 6

Hi, i was doing this all myself several days ago and i couldnt determine that the sp was linked to the stages in ANY way, it seems like a deliberate trigger.

Can i ask how you are planning on fixing it?

Cheers!

**4512jth** · Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2009 7:29 pm Post subject:

**HunterXyron1134** · Joined: 06 Dec 2008 Posts: 326 Location: Hiding in a taco.

**Koppis** · Joined: 22 Dec 2007 Posts: 292

Just pointing out, have you noticed that there is a pak_sizes.txt.xen in the DATA directory?
Among other things it has this:

EDIT: I looked at the sizes and it seems that you indeed modified this file. Nevermind this post.

**HunterXyron1134** · Joined: 06 Dec 2008 Posts: 326 Location: Hiding in a taco.

**labrat** · Joined: 20 Jul 2009 Posts: 34

Hey. I don't want to start a new topic so I'll try asking here. I have radeon HD4870, CPU overclocked to 3.2GHz, 4GB's of RAM and still the game seems to lag and run on low FPS. I've tried lowering resolution and turned off all the options in game settings. Nothing helps. Do you have any sugesstions? Are you expiriencing same FPS drops/problems?

**MaXKilleR** · Joined: 07 Jul 2007 Posts: 771

The pak files are containers. Just because you rename a pak file, does not mean the files inside it get renamed (they do not). If the paks for the stages are generic in content and are based on the file name (like in GH3) then renaming will do the trick. But if the game is expecting a specific subfile for that stage, then you cannot just rename. From what I have seen in WT PS2 and 360, there is little you can do without a proper editing tool. To me it looks like GH3 on drugs. Where in GH3 they had one qb file for something, now they have a whole folder of qb files for it.

**HunterXyron1134** · Joined: 06 Dec 2008 Posts: 326 Location: Hiding in a taco.

**labrat** · Joined: 20 Jul 2009 Posts: 34

Thnaks mate... I'm going to try 9.4. Good luck with your file editing

.

**lordjrs** · Joined: 05 Aug 2008 Posts: 24

Thank you very much, man.