Documentation for envelope.bin

[mchlmmc]

What type of file format is envelope.bin, and how was it created?
Instructions on how to create a custom envelope.bin would be very useful. This is the only part of the project that is not documented.

[giantpune]

I'm trying to remember, so forgive me if I'm wrong on some of the details.

The messageboard entries can have a U8 archive included inside them. The image formats inside the archive are the TPL format. I don't think it matter which of the variants/encodings you use. For whatever reason, Nintendo used a nested U8 archive for the messageboard. So in my bin, its a single image inside a U8 archive inside another U8 archive.

The archive that's attached to the message can have any number of different things inside it. The wii system menu pulls the files out and uses them if they have the correct name. Some examples of what can be inside are images for the corners, edges, and centers that would make up the paper that appears under a message. Another thing that may be included is an image for the envelope, which is what is used in this project.

Specifically, I used my own tools written using wiiqt to create the envelope.bin. There are plenty of open source tools floating around. You'll need something to create a tpl image, and then something to pack the u8 archives.

[mchlmmc]

What kind of archive is the second embedded one?

I was able to open envelope.bin and extract another file called thumbnail_LZ.bin using an open source tool, but no tools recognize thumbnail_LZ.bin as any kind of wii file. What is odd is that thumbnail_LZ.bin contains the magic number for a u8 file, yet no u8/szs tools recognize it.

Inside of thumbnail_LZ.bin is what appears to be a file b.tpl when viewed through a hex editor, but the contents appear to be hashed. Could thumbnail_LZ.bin be a different kind of archive than u8?