Editing .arc Files

These .arc files are archive files containing multiple icons, images, backgrounds, layouts and animations. They consist of multiple folders where the timg folder contains .bclim files holding an image each. Since the same .bclim image is used in multiple .arc files I recommend creating a directory for editing .bclim files and then automatically replace them and archive them to create edited .arc files. Note that this is not true for all .arc files. The blyt folder contains .bclyt files storing the layout which defines how the individual images are shown on screen. The anim folder contains .bclan files which hold the animations.

Prerequisites

You need:

• Karameru and Kukkii from Kuriimu
• Switch Toolbox (Download) if you want to edit Layouts or Animations
• Translation Toolkit

Extract Archives

The first step is to make sure all .arc files are located in every's language folder. For that we copy the original files and apply all patches (again).

• Repeat this for all <LANG> you want to edit (e.g. EN)
  • Go to DQM2-Translation/Layout_JA and copy all files
  • Go to DQM2-Translation/Layout_<LANG> and paste
  • Go to DQM2-Translation/NaviMap_JA and copy all files
  • Go to DQM2-Translation/NaviMap_<LANG> and paste
• Run TranslationToolkit.exe
  • Enter AP to apply all patches
  • Enter y to start the script
  • Wait until the process is finished

Now you can extract all .arc archives using Karameru.

• Run Karameru.exe from the previously downloaded Kuriimu
• Select Batch Extract from the toolbar (not menubar)
  • Navigate to the folder DQM2-Translation/Layout_<LANG> and click OK
    • when asked to search subdirectories answer Yes
• Select Batch Extract from the toolbar
  • Navigate to the folder DQM2-Translation/NaviMap_<LANG> and click OK
    • when asked to search subdirectories answer No (this speeds up the process)
• Repeat this for all <LANG> you want to edit

Edit .bclim Images

As said before I recommend editing the .bclim files in a different folder.

• Create a folder _bclim_<LANG> for every <LANG> you want to edit (e.g. _bclim_EN)

Now is the time to select the images you want to edit.

• Copy the images you want from DQM2-Translation/Layout_JA/**/**/timg/ to DQM2-Translation/_bclim_<LANG>
• Copy the images you want from DQM2-Translation/NaviMap_JA/**/timg/ to DQM2-Translation/_bclim_<LANG>

Extract the PNG images from the .bclim files can be done as follows.

• Run Kukkii.exe from the previously downloaded Kuriimu
• Select Batch Export PNG from the toolbar
• Navigate to the folder DQM2-Translation/_bclim_<LANG> and click OK

You can now edit the PNG images with an image editor of your choice. It has to support transparency.
I recommend checking out GIMP.

When you're done editing you now have to pack all PNG images inside their corresponding .bclim files.

• Run Kukkii.exe
• Select Batch Import PNG from the toolbar
• Navigate to the folder DQM2-Translation/_bclim_<LANG> and click OK

Edit .bclyt Layouts

More about this file format can be found at: CLYT format

To view and edit a .bclyt Layout file do the following.

• Run Switch Toolbox
• Click File > Open and select the .bclyt Layout file
  • Alternatively you can select an .arc file and select the .bclyt file inside that archive. This has the advantage of being able to view some of the Images and Animations.
• In the middle you can see all border boxes from images and texts, on the left is the file Hierarchy and the Properties window
• To change the position or size of any element
  • Select the element in the Hierarchy on the left
    • Text elements with their corresponding window pane for maps are located in RootPane > Null_Map > Nl_plc_name > ** > Win_plc_**
  • In the Properties window select the tab Pane and change the values in PaneTransform
• To change the text of a text box
  • Select the text element located in Quick Access > Text Boxes
  • In the Properties window select the tab Text Pane and enter the Text
• After editing the file select File > Save As to save the Layout file

Note 1: If you changed the text you need to update the 2-byte value at offset 0x4E and set it to the value of the 2-byte value at offset 0x4C counted from the index of the beginning of a text pane with the header txt1. This can be automated by the following Python code:

from os import walk
from os.path import join, splitext
for bclyt_file in [join(dp, f) for dp, _, fn in walk('.') for f in [n for n in fn if splitext(n)[1] == '.bclyt']]:
    with open(bclyt_file, 'rb') as file: data = file.read()
    txt1_starts = [i for i in range(len(data)) if data[i:i+4] == b'txt1']
    if not txt1_starts: continue
    txt1_texts = [data[s+0x74:(data.find(b'\x00'*2, s+0x74)+1)//2*2].decode('UTF-16') for s in txt1_starts]
    print(bclyt_file)
    for s, text in zip(txt1_starts, txt1_texts):
        size = data[s+0x4C:s+0x4E]
        data = data[:s+0x4E] + size + data[s+0x50:]
        print(s, int.from_bytes(size, 'little'), text)
    with open(bclyt_file, 'wb') as file: file.write(data)
    print('Saved.')
    print()
input('Press enter to exit...')

Note 2: If you added images or want to change the order of appearance in case of an animation you may need to use a hex editor and change some bytes. In the hex editor you will see the names of the individual images. The value at offset 0x34 counted from the beginning of the image name holds information about the image index. You may need to mix those values up.

Edit .bclan Animations

To view and edit a .bclan Animation file do the following.

• Run Switch Toolbox
• Click File > Open and select the .bclan Animation file
  • Alternatively you can select an .arc file and select the .bclan file inside that archive. This has the advantage of being able to view some of the Images and see Animations in action.
• In the Animation Hierarchy on the left select the animation file
• In the newly opened window you can see the hierarchy on the left and the individual attributes of each node on the right
• **.bclan > Tag Info stores the amount of frames
• **.bclan > Animation Info > ** store the individual animation actions
• By right clicking on a node you can add new nodes by clicking Add Animation Group/Target/Keyframe
• After editing the file right click the Animation file in the Animation Hierarchy and choose Export to save the Animation file

Archive Files

Now you have to replace all files from the .arc files with the edited files.

• Run TranslationToolkit.exe
• Enter RF to replace files
  • Enter _bclim_<LANG> as the source folder
  • Enter Layout_<LANG> as the destination folder
  • Enter y to start the script
• Enter RF to replace files
  • Enter _bclim_<LANG> as the source folder
  • Enter NaviMap_<LANG> as the destination folder
  • Enter y to start the script
• Repeat this for every <LANG> you edited

Once all files are replaced it is time to update the .arc archives.

• Run Karameru.exe
• Select Batch Archive from the toolbar
  • Navigate to the folder DQM2-Translation/Layout_<LANG> and click OK
    • when asked to search subdirectoreis answer Yes
• Select Batch Archive from the toolbar
  • Navigate to the folder DQM2-Translation/NaviMap_<LANG> and click OK
    • when asked to search subdirectoreis answer No (this speeds up the process)
• Repeat this for all <LANG> you want to edit

You can now use Translation Toolkit to send the edited files to your 3DS or create patches for contributing to this project. More information on that can be found in Developing Translations.