IPS Header Changer

Game : N/A

Platform : Not Applicable

Author : millanzarreta

Release date : 26 Apr 2019

Category : Patching

OS : OS Independant

Skill Level : Beginner

Version : 0.1

Downloads : 825

Utility description

IPS Header Changer allows you to easily add/remove a header from an unheared/heared IPS patch. The program is open source with a GPLv3 license and has highly portable source code.

The program receives as last two parameters the input file (the IPS patch to modify) and the output file (where to save the new IPS patch generated). To add the header to an unheared IPS file execute the program with the parameter -m 0 (this is also the default behaviour if this parameter is not specified) and to remove the header of an heared IPS file run the program with the parameter - m 1. You can configure the header size with the -h parameter (default is 512, which is the usual).

IPS Header Changer is specially prepared to detect certain special cases that can be dangerous (for example, when sliding an address of some IPS record the addresses can overflow the accepted values). The program will show Information, Warning or Error messages if something not expected happens. Information messages are displayed when the user needs to be informed of something important or when a special action has been taken that does not affect the integrity of the generated IPS patch. Warning messages show information about minor errors or some needed changes that do not stop the conversion and may affect the result of the final IPS patch. If you see any Warning message you should manually check the output file and compare it with the input file to verify that conversion was correct. Error messages are shown when a fatal error has occurred and the process could not be completed (the final file is not generated).

The program is written in C and uses the basic libraries that any OS has. An already compiled executable for Windows in included, but you must compile the code for the rest of OS.

Reviews

Unwieldy, but useful	Red Soul	2023-05-17	Version 0.1
Sometimes you want to combine several patches onto the same target game to have features and fixes all combined for the best experience, but to avoid crashes, both the ROM and the patches it will receive must be all headered or headerless (the latter being the preferred standard these days). Some patches were created off of ROMs with headers, while some may not have been, and this creates all manner of issues, as you either have to use a patcher that allows the insertion of temporary headers (the only one I know of is JS Patcher) or simply forgo the patches that wouldn't be compatible in combination due to header presence/absence. What this program does is resolve that problem by modifying not the ROM, but the patch itself, in such a way that headers can be manipulated to make it compatible with a target ROM regardless of the header state. As useful as this is, a basic GUI would go a long way for an eventual next version, as having to invoke a command prompt and deal with command line for operations like this is a bit of a pain.

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