game-patches

Xenia Canary Game Patches

This repository contains game patches for Xenia Canary.
Plugin documentation can be found here.

Non-patch questions belong on the Xenia Discord server.

These are NOT actual games or Title Updates!
Read Xenia’s Quickstart to get games.

Installing/Updating

0. Prerequisites
   • Latest Xenia Canary experimental.
     • Patches aren’t supported on master or outdated versions of Xenia Canary.
1. Download this 7z.
2. Go to where xenia_canary.exe is.
3. Delete patches folder if present (backup if needed).
4. Open game-patches.7z and extract patches in the same directory as xenia_canary.exe. The folder structure should look like this:
   

   └─── Xenia Canary
       |  ...
       │  xenia_canary.exe
       |  ...
       └─── patches
               ...
               584111F7 - Minecraft (XBLA, TU0).patch.toml
               ...
   

5. Continue to the section below.

How to use

0. Prerequisites
   • Latest Xenia Canary experimental
     • Patches aren’t supported on master or outdated versions of Xenia Canary.
   • The right version of the game e.g. Title Update (TU).
     • DON’T change the hash unless you know what you’re doing. Expect crashes or the patch to not work if you do this.
   • apply_patches set to true (default) in the Xenia Canary config.
1. Open the .patch.toml file that corresponds to your game in a text editor (Notepad, VSCode, VSCodium, Notepad++, etc.)
2. Change is_enabled from false to true. For example, to enable a 60 FPS patch:

   [[patch]]
       name = "60 FPS"
       desc = "Description"
       author = "Author"
       is_enabled = false
   
       [[patch.be8]]
           address = 0x########
           value = 0x##
   

   becomes

   [[patch]]
       name = "60 FPS"
       desc = "Description"
       author = "Author"
       is_enabled = true
   
       [[patch.be8]]
           address = 0x########
           value = 0x##
   

If you see [Patches Applied] in the title bar then the patch(es) applied successfully.

Don’t change the hash of existing patches. If your version of the game is different then the patch(es) need to be ported to that version.

Notes about aspect ratio patches

• present_letterbox must be changed from true to false!
• Aspect ratio patches do not increase resolution!
• While most aspect ratio patches are 21:9 (3440/1440), they can be changed to other aspect ratios as well unless not specified or specified otherwise;
  1. Divide your monitor’s resolution width by height (i.e. 3440/1440)
  2. Convert the result to hex.
  3. Change the value to 0x######## replacing ######## with the hex value.

Note about framerate patches

Framerates above 60 FPS require vsync to be changed from true to false in the Xenia Canary config.

---

Setting up Cheat Engine

• Memory Breakpoints can be set in Cheat Engine or MSVC with emit_source_annotations = true. This will give annotations in disassembly.
• Cheat Engine 7.2+ includes Big Endian types, but they must be enabled;
  • Click Edit > Options > Extra Custom Types and check all of them.
• Go to Scan Settings and enable MEM_MAPPED.
• Change ‘Memory Scan Options’ to:

  	All
  Start	100000000
  Stop	200000000

  • This may change depending on the programs you have running.
• Once you find a value you can attach Cheat Engine’s debugger to see what reads/writes to that address.
  This will show an xex address when a breakpoint is hit, although there is currently no way to set a breakpoint on execution within the Xenia Debugger.

Creating a patch

Prerequisites

• Cheat Engine
  • See setting up Cheat Engine
• Ghidra
  • XEX Loader
• IDA Pro
  • IDA 7 XEX Loader
  • IDA 6 XEX Loader
• Text editors:
  • Visual Studio Code
  • VSCodium
  • Notepad++
• Recommended but optional:
  • ESLint TOML plugin
    • See Editor Integrations
  • Visual Studio Code/VSCodium extensions:
    • Even Better TOML
  • To make things easier, put Xenia Canary in the directory that contains /patches.

Guidelines

• Patch must be named Title ID - Game Title.patch.toml and be in /patches.
  For example, a patch file for Blue Dragon must be called 4D5307DF - Blue Dragon.patch.toml.
• If you are making a patch for a game that already has a file, then add to it*
  • Only exception being if you’re patching a different module.
• Submitting patches:
  • No whitespace.
  • Uppercase hex for title ID/hash/media ID, lowercase for address/value hex.
  • Pull requests and patches must be in English except where appropriate like the game’s name or referencing something within the code.

How to get the module hash and filename:

0. Don’t change the hash of existing patches. If your version of the game is different then the patch(es) need to be ported to that version.
1. Set log_level to at least 2 (default) in the Xenia Canary config; See How to use for location.
2. Run the game at least once.
3. Close Xenia Canary.
4. Obtain module hash/title ID/title name;
   • Search Ctrl+F for Module hash: in xenia.log
     You should see something like:

     i> ######## Module \Device\Cdrom0\default.xex:
     Module Hash: ################
     

   • Patches can have multiple executables/hashes. Only leave the hash(es) you’re using uncommented: https://github.com/xenia-canary/game-patches/blob/95f51801048dc6e95675581e3fcf8fcdfc3e5544/patches/454108D8 - Army of Two The 40th Day.patch.toml#L3-L6

Patch types

[[patch.*]]	Info	Value (example)
be8	Hex, 1 byte	0x00
be16	Hex, 2 bytes	0x0000
be32	Hex, 4 bytes	0x00000000
be64	Hex, 8 bytes	0x0000000000000000
array	Hex, any size	"0x##*"
f32	Float, single	1.0
f64	Float, double	1.0
string	String, UTF-8	"string"
u16string	String, UTF-16	"string"

Example patch

title_name = "Game Title"
title_id = "1234ABCD" # AB-1234
hash = "################" # Module the hash applies to (i.e. default.xex)
          # Can be an array if applicable:
hash = [
  "################"     # See above
]
#media_id = "1234ABCD" # Optionally you can add a redump link; Disc (Region): https://redump.info/disc/1234
#                        Can also be an array if applicable:
#media_id = [
#  "1234ABCD"          # See above
#]
# Title ID, hash, and media ID must be uppercase.

[[patch]]
  name = "Patch name"
  author = "Me"
  desc = "Patch description" # Description is optional
  is_enabled = false         # Must be false for PRs

# [[patch.*]]
#  For example, be8:
  [[patch.be8]]
    address = 0x82000000 # Tends to start with 0x8, always 4 bytes
    value = 0x00
#  Address and value hex must be lowercase.
#   string:
  [[patch.string]]
    address = 0x82000000 # Tends to start with 0x8, always 4 bytes
    value = "string"
# End of file newline