RawkSD 3.0 Usage Guide
From RawkSD
Installation
PC Installation
RawkSD is distributed in a WinZip archive. The contents must be extracted from the .zip archive to any location on your computer. The program can be started by simply running RawkSD.exe. RawkSD requires the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 (or higher) to be installed on your computer. If you are unable to run RawkSD.exe, you must install the .NET framework.
RawkSD can also be run on other platforms, such as Mac OS X and Linux. If using either of these, you must install the Mono runtime, which can be downloaded from here. Alternatively, it can often be installed from your distribution's package manager.
Wii Installation
The RawkSD.zip archive also includes an "apps" folder. This must be copied to the root of an SD card in order to be launched from the Wii's Homebrew Channel. If you haven't installed the Homebrew Channel yet, take the time to do that now.
As IOS37 no longer needs to be patched for RawkSD 3, this is the only Wii app required. If your IOS37 is patched, RawkSD will automatically update you to the latest usable IOS.
Usage (PC)
RawkSD will start windowed - feel free to resize. Along the top, you have access to a few menu items as well as toolbar buttons.
First things first: use the "Load SD card" button (or select it from the File menu) and select the root of your Wii's SD card or hard drive. If this is your first time using RawkSD 3, it will likely be empty. Exciting!
Next up, you need a song to import! There are a myriad of places you can grab songs from:
- Import songs from one of the many discs that RawkSD supports
- ScoreHero's Custom Songs subforum
- ScoreHero's Custom Database (you must be logged in to use this)
Your best bet for full-band customs, however, are:
- The Rock Band side of ScoreHero, which is much more focused on full-band songs than the Guitar Hero side of the forums
- RawkSD's Customs Index
In most cases, the audio will be copyrighted content and you'll need to come up with it on your own.
If you get a Guitar Hero custom and find it in the .chart format, RawkSD 3.0 will support the format (note: as of RawkSD 3.0 beta 2, this feature it not yet functional). And remember that Guitar Hero customs may only be one or two instruments, so download and play accordingly!
Preferences Menu
Options
- Most options are recommended to leave at default; there is little reason to change them (with maybe the exception of Concurrent Tasks).
- Customs Path
The folder that will store your customs. - Temporary Path
The folder that will store files that are needed while doing stuff. - Concurrent Tasks
How many things RawkSD will try to do at once. Recommended to set it to the number of cores your computer has. - Task Priority
Whether or not RawkSD is a high priority on your list. Changing to a higher setting can cause the computer to become very sluggish when running any other programs. -
Performance(removed in beta3.5)
Optimize performance or memory. - Default Action
Install to the local cache or the SD Card.
Imports
- Local Storage
Transcode to RB2 format during import, or store as the original format and transcode while transferring to SD/USB. - Import Name Tags
Whether or not a game is fixed with a Prefix (i.e. "(LRB) Tick Tick Boom"), Postfix ("Tick Tick Boom (LRB)"), or nothing at all ("Tick Tick Boom"). The difference is purely cosmetic (won't mess with leaderboards or anything). - Import Guitar Hero Expert+ Drums
Import Expert+ drum charts from GH:M, GH:SH, GH5, and GH:VH.
Creating Customs
Now that you've got a custom chart and audio to add and have configured RawkSD to your liking, let's get to the good stuff. Select the New Custom toolbar button, or use Create from the Songs menu. You will be shown a window with multiple tabs where you can select those files. (You are able to revisit this window at any time on a custom with the Edit button.)
The tabs are comprised of the following options:
- Song Information
Here, you can specify your custom's identifier (not displayed in-game so keep it simple and unique, DO NOT USE SPACES), name (how it displays in-game), artist, album, track number, release year, genre, the gender of the vocalist that will appear, and whether or not the song is a master recording (unchecked marks it as a cover). Only the Identifier, Name, and Artist fields are mandatory. The Identifier field is important - this must be unique to each chart. In order to play online together, players must have the same Identifier for a song. - Engine Data
Here you can select the HOPO threshold (default 170), as well as if the song is from a supported game or not. The Charted By field will not affect anything in-game, and is available only for distribution and credit (just think of it as a Rawk signature). Setting a Pack name will come up as a new category in Rock Band 2's song select when sorting by location. You can also change the version number of the song (default 1), and set the preview times to hear when you scroll over the audio. - Rock Band 2 Data
This controls certain aspects of the game that are handled outside of the MIDI. Changing the animation tempo will change how fast the characters move (think speeds such as Aqualung for slow, TTFAF for Fast, and Medium for anything in-between). Vocals scrolling speed controls how fast the vocal notes come towards the strike line; you can also control what sounds the round notes vocalists can hit make (Tambourine, Cowbell, Triangle, or Handclap). You can also change tiers for instruments; the difficulty displayer to the right shows you how hard your songs will be in-game (a tier of 0 will count as NO PART, and will not show up in the song list when playing that instrument). See a list of RB2's tiering info for each instrument here. - Chart
Allows you to import the .chart/.mid for the game. If your note chart is in the Guitar Hero format (or converted with chart2mid2chart), select "Guitar Hero" from the dropdown menu (else Overdrive will show up as solo sections instead). Use this option to make Rock Band 2 compatible with Guitar Hero star power. Select "Rock Band" if it is a Rock Band-style MIDI. If your MIDI does not have precreated animations, select Fix for Quickplay; this will create animations for the game to actually load the MIDI. Likewise, if you have double-bass pedals charted, we suggest you select Expert+ on the checkbox. You can also select a milo file (lipsyncs), weights file (how hard the game grades your vocals), and a pan file, but these are not necessary. - Audio
Here, you can select the audio for your song. RawkSD 3 supports OGG, MP3, WAV, AC3, FLAC, and AIFF file formats. After selecting your file, you will be given options as to how you wish to map your instruments to the tracks. For songs with master stems, you will need to import a multi-track audio file. Assign each channel to an instrument by selecting it in the channel list then selecting an instrument from the bubbles down below. Most songs (single audio file customs) will only have 2 available channels (1 is left, 2 is right) - these should be set to Background. You can also set settings for volume (0 means no change from original), channel pan (Balance - left should be set to -1.0 and right to 1.0), and offset (Silence) in seconds here.
Once you've entered all this information, hit the OK button - your new custom should now show in the list on the main menu. The list can be re-sorted by clicking or dragging the tabs. Under the Availability tab, you can see a folder icon alongside your new custom - this indicates the custom info is stored locally on your computer and can be edited or installed.
To install your custom, simply highlight all the songs in your songlist you wish to install, then select Songs > Install > SD Card (if you're using an external hard drive, you still use this). Alternatively, simply hit the Install To SD toolbar button (you may also right-click and select Install > SD Card). RawkSD will now convert your songs to install them - you can see its progress on the bottom-right corner of the main menu. The more powerful your computer, the more songs RawkSD can install at once.
Once it's done, your custom song is now ready to play! If you'd like to play now, move right on to the next section. If you'd like to first import some songs from other music/rhythm games into Rock Band 2, check out the Importing From Other Music Games section.
Usage (Wii)
If you haven't already done so, make sure you've played the "apps" folder that came in the RawkSD archive into the root of your SD card. RawkSD will be installed alongside all your other homebrew.
Remove your SD Card or hard drive from your PC (use the Safely Remove option to help avoid any problems) and plug it back into your Wii. Open up the Homebrew Channel and run RawkSD 3. The RawkSD screen will load up momentarily:
- Play
Select this to load up Rock Band 2 with all your customs and RawkSD support. - Rip From Disc
See Importing From Discs (Wii) - Settings
- Devices
Select which device to load your customs from (see note below), choose from SDHC, USB or WiFi streaming.- RiiFS Streaming: Want to play all of your customs, but don't have enough storage space on your SD card or USB drive? You can stream your customs collection from your PC to your Wii with RiiFS Server! NOTE: Your Wii must be connected to the internet to use this feature. To use, simply keep the PC application open and run the Wii app. Under Devices, choose WiFi.
- Leaderboards
RawkSD will not upload to Harmonix's official leaderboards for obvious reasons (mostly involving cheating). Instead, it will upload to RawkSD's own leaderboards, which you can view here. If you'd like to opt out of the score uploads, turn this option off.
- Devices
- Manage Saves
Backup and load save games. - Exit
Returns to the Homebrew Channel.
Once you've configured RawkSD for the first time, hit Play and have fun!
Using RiiFS
To load your customs via RiiFS wifi, your Wii must be online enabled. Plug in your SD card or HDD to your PC and load it in the PC app. Ensure the RiiFS server is enabled by checking the very bottom of the window. Keep the PC application open and run the Wii app (make sure you choose choose WiFi under Devices before booting the game).
Note that only songs installed on your SD/HDD will show up in game! Locally installed songs will not appear.
Importing From Other Music Games
RawkSD also allows you to import songs from a large number of music-rhythm games. At the moment, it supports:
- Wii
- Rock Band 1
- Rock Band: Track Pack Volume 1
- Rock Band: Track Pack Volume 2
- Rock Band: AC/DC Live Track Pack
- Rock Band: Classic Rock Track Pack
- Rock Band: Country Track Pack
- Rock Band: Metal Track Pack
- Rock Band 2 (Engine)
- Green Day: Rock Band
- LEGO Rock Band
- Guitar Hero 3
- Guitar Hero: Aerosmith
- Guitar Hero World Tour
- Guitar Hero: Metallica
- Guitar Hero: Smash Hits
- Guitar Hero: Van Halen
- Guitar Hero 5
- Guitar Hero 6
- Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock
- Band Hero
- Rock Band 1
- Playstation 2
- Guitar Hero 1
- Guitar Hero 2
- Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s
Importing From Image Files (PC)
To import using the PC app, you must have the disc files on your computer. Simply select Open File and browse to the image file; RawkSD will take a moment to load the disc into your song list. You may now install the files locally or straight to your SD or USB device. Note that any disc imports that are not based on the Rock Band 1 engine (all Guitar Hero games) will take a considerable amount of time to convert.
For the Playstation 2 games, you can import them straight from your computer's DVD drive.
Importing From Discs (Wii)
The RawkSD 3 Wii application includes an option that will rip the songs from the discs specifically for use in RawkSD importing to multiple SD cards or USB drives (it even supports PS2 discs). If you have a disc, this is the most efficient way to rip it for RawkSD. Alternatively, you can also rip a disc using one of the many Wii homebrew tools available, such as SuperDump, or use FTPii to rip the disc over a wireless connection.
The RawkSD installer will rip a disc to the /rawk folder on your SD card or USB drive. If the rip didn't fit on one device, make sure you merge all the separate parts by copying them to the same place on your computer. Then you use the Import -> Songs From RawkSD Disc Rip menu to select the folder for the game you wish to import. Choose which songs you'd like to import and let it go. Note that any disc imports that are not based on the Rock Band 1 engine (all Guitar Hero games) will take a considerable amount of time to convert.
Note: It is highly recommended by both the developers and beta testers that you re-rip your discs for importing with RawkSD 3. It is most likely the final encoding revision, so further revisions will not require re-ripping.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I run this with Mono on Mac OS X / Linux?
RawkSD can be run on Mac OS X and Linux if you're willing to take the time to get all the components together. You will need to get the following:
- Mono - Mono is needed to run RawkSD. Once installed, RawkSD can be started from the commandline with the "mono RawkSD.exe" command.
- FFmpeg - FFmpeg is required to convert your audio for RawkSD customs (not required for imports).
Note that RawkSD also relies on some native libraries included with it that will only run on Windows, Intel Mac OS X, and Linux.
My customs don't show up in-game!
Did you properly set the tier difficulties when editing/creating the custom on the PC? If a tier is set to 0 for an instrument, it will show as NO PART and you will not see the song in your list when playing as that instrument.
If the song shows up in the Local Band Quickplay mode (but not solo quickplay), this is your problem.
Why are there so many short solo sections in my custom?
The custom you're playing was made for Guitar Hero, or was converted with chart2mid2chart. Go back into the Replace Files window, and make sure you check that the Guitar Hero option is selected when you import the chart.
How do I get my Rock Band / Guitar Hero discs on my PC so that I can import it?
You can use the built-in disc ripping function of the RawkSD Wii installer to copy the files onto an SD card or USB drive. See the Importing From Discs (Wii) section.
My USB Drive doesn't work!
Your drive may simply be incompatible, or there could be entirely separate hardware issues. Check the list of confirmed working devices (and know it is clearly not a list of ALL usable devices), or pop into RawkSD's IRC channel if you're really stuck.
My SDHC Card won't work! It works fine in the Wii Menu!
Certain cIOSes (from DARKCORP and the like) mangle SD support. Clean your IOSes.
My Wii freezes up when connecting to the network/uploading a score!
It would most likely be something to do with the way your network is configured on the Wii. Check your firewall and run a connection test on your Wii.
I can't use RawkSD 3.0 RWKs in RawkSD 2.0!
The program is intentionally designed this way; however .rwk files are forward-compatible from RawkSD 2 to 3.
My question isn't on here
If you need more help, you can join the developers and fellow Rawkers at #RawkSD on EFNet. Make sure to use common sense before you speak to avoid being banned, and read the Rules before joining.
Beta-Specific Issues and Questions
Importing a .chart does not work (Unhandled Exception)
This function is a prototype and is not complete yet.
No Kick Drum on certain Guitar Hero game imports
This is a known issue (happens for GH:M, GH:VH, and GH:SH) and will be fixed in a later release.
Tutorial WIP: This Info Needs To Go Somewhere
- album art = broke as hell, yo
- PAL?
- Could someone get the Import compatibility list to collapse? I can't get it to work --inim
