Modnation Racers PS3 to Vita Content Conversion

Modnation Racers PS3 to Vita Content Conversion
General
Author	FineThenIWill
Type	Hack Utilities
Version	2024
License	Mixed
Last Updated	2024/02/06
Links
Download
Website

Remember Modnation Racers: Road Trip? The infamous game plagued by bugs, struggling to maintain a stable frame rate, with AI opponents resorting to cheating tactics?

One interesting feature of the game was its capacity for players to create and enjoy custom tracks collectively, and the ability to play most tracks from the PS3 version.

However, with the online servers shutting down over half a decade ago, accessing the countless tracks, karts, and characters created by the community has become challenging.

One option is utilizing the savedata with this tool to convert PS3 tracks, characters, and vehicles for use on the Vita.

Installation

Things to know

Load times:

• The Vita's I/O (Input/Output) performance is not optimal. Importing a large number of small files, especially over 6000, significantly impacts the game's load times.
• It is recommended to bring in around 200 tracks per save to manage load times. Each item (track/character/vehicle) consists of 4 files, so aiming for around 800 files for tracks is suggested.
• Examples of Load Times:
  • For 380 tracks (1,520 files) with some characters and vehicles, the load time before the menu is approximately 2-4 minutes, which is not ideal.
  • For 270 tracks, 50 characters, and 50 vehicles (1,480 files), the load time before the menu is around 30 seconds. Adding more files generally worsens load times.

File transfer:

• Do not attempt to access the folder containing your content directly within Vitashell, as it can considerably hang the application, causing freezing.
• Instead, use FTP or USB to access the folder.
• If you encounter a "file is corrupt" message, when the game asks to retry, it is advised to say no. This prevents the deletion of potentially problematic files.
• Even if files are converted properly, a few tracks may not work correctly, indicating "out of bounds" errors. Recopying the tracks may resolve this issue.

Vita3K Performance:

• Vita3K, an emulator for PlayStation Vita, loads content faster than the actual Vita hardware.
• The emulator was stress tested with 3.7K tracks, 500 characters, and 500 vehicles, loading in approximately 1 minute. However, actual gameplay on the emulator is not ideal yet.

On PC

You'll need:

• Converter (Windows, requires .NET 6.0 runtime)
• PS3 user generated content: LittleBigArchive on archive.org is your best bet:
  • Tracks
  • Costumes
  • Karts

Organize Your folders:

• Separate the zip archives of the content into folders (TRACK, CHARACTER, VEHICLE).
• Each content item consists of a .cmd, .trk or .sav, and 2 .png's.
• Copy the recommended amount (as mentioned in Things to know) into the respective folder on your computer.
• Label the folders as "TRACK," "CHARACTER," or "VEHICLE" (without quotes) based on the type of content you are converting.
• Do not mix and match items in these folders.
• Ensure that each copied item has the required 4 files. If you copied 1 cmd and not it's equivalently named .png's and the like, delete it.

Run mnrConvert via Command Line:

• Open the command line on Windows inside the folder where mnrConvert is located.
• Run the following command for each of the three folders (TRACK, CHARACTER, VEHICLE):
  • mnrConvert.exe <directory where your content is>
  • Note: This command will overwrite all .cmd files in the specified folder, so make sure to back them up before running the command.
• Do not input random folders into the program. It won't delete anything, but they will be moved to DATA/DOWNLOAD-PS3.

On Vita

To make replacing user generated content far easier, install the resavedata plugin on your Vita.

Open VitaShell and navigate to the ux0 folder, and create a folder named "resavedata" (without quotes).

Inside the "resavedata" folder, create a folder named after the ID of your game:

• "PCSA00001" for the US version.
• "PCSF00002" for the EU version.
• "PCSD00004" for the Asia version.

(Optional) If you have previous savedata:

• Install Vita Save Manager on your Vita.
• Open the application and click on the game's icon.
• Click on "Backup" and choose the first empty slot.
• In Vitashell, go to ux0:data/savegames/<id of your game>/SLOT0 (assuming the first slot is used).
• Then copy and paste all of that into ux0:resavedata/<id of your game>.

Connect your PS Vita to your PC.

Drag the "DATA" folder generated by mnrConvert to ux0:resavedata/<id of game>.

Start the game on your PS Vita.

Replacing content

This is assuming you've done the two parts above at least once:

• Delete any piece of content from your game you don't want.
• Delete the DATA folder from the mnrConvert folder if it still exists.
• Follow the On PC steps to convert new content.
• Then copy the DATA folder generated by mnrConvert to ux0:resavedata/<id of game>.

External links

• GBAtemp - https://gbatemp.net/threads/modnation-racers-ps3-to-vita-content-conversion.647975/
• Reddit - https://www.reddit.com/r/vitahacks/comments/1ajg2ct/release_modnation_racers_ps3_to_vita_content/