Getting Started
When you first launch BrawlInstaller, you'll be greeted with the main form, but you won't be able to access any of the program's actual features. To get started, you'll need to configure some settings.
This guide assumes you have some basic understanding of how to load Brawl mods. If you don't, you should know that your build is stored on your SD card. If you're using Dolphin, you'll be working with a virtual SD card. If you don't know how to do that, you should look at one of the following guides:
Optionally, it is recommended that you set up your build with source control, such as git.
- You can download git here. There are also GUI clients for git located here.
- Once you have git installed, you can use the command line, navigate to your build folder, and execute the command
git init(or equivalent in your GUI). Then, add all files from your build to the repo withgit add -Aand commit them to the repo withgit commit -m. - With your build set up as a git repo, you can revert any changes if you run into problems. This can be done by running
git reset --hard. - You may want to do the same with your HD texture folders as well if you allow BrawlInstaller to modify them.
- If you use VSDSync, you should download the modified VSDSync script from Meta's guide, as this will prevent the
.git(which will be large) from syncing to your sd.raw. - If you don't want to keep your build as a git repo, simply delete the
.gitfolder.
Once you understand how your build is structured, you can get started with BrawlInstaller. Begin by downloading the portable .zip from the latest release if you have not already done so. Unzip the folder and launch BrawlInstaller.exe.
When you first launch the application, you'll be presented with the main form, but won't yet have access to all of the features BrawlInstaller has to offer.
To get started, you'll first need to set your build path. This is what tells BrawlInstaller where your build is so you can begin making changes. Click the ... button next to the Build Path field to select your build's root directory.
Your build's root directory should be a directory on your SD card that contains a folder named pf within it. It is not the pf folder itself. For popular builds, your root folder is likely named one of the following:
- Project+ - Project+
- P+Ex - P+Ex
- PMEX REMIX - ex_remix
If you're using Dolphin and you want to have BrawlInstaller manager your HD textures for you, you can also click the ... button next to the HD Texture Path field to select your Dolphin HD texture directory for Brawl. In most cases, this would be User/Load/Textures/RSBE01 in your Dolphin installation. Then, check the Modify HD Textures option to allow BrawlInstaller to manager them.
Once you've set your paths as desired, click the Apply button. If you get an error, you likely configured one of your paths incorrectly. Otherwise, the Settings tab should now become available to you. To access the other tabs, you'll need to make some changes here.
Once you're in the settings tab, you'll need to configure settings for your build. To do so, you should start by selecting a preset from the Presets dropdown at the bottom of the screen. Select the preset that most closely resembles your build and click Apply.
If you're running an unmodified version of one of the builds that there's a preset for, you're already finished. Simply click the Save button to save your settings to your build, and the other tabs will become available to you. You can get started now.
If your build is modified, you'll need to make some changes. If your build contains fighters that aren't present in the original build the preset is based on, you should go to the Fighters tab within the settings form and click Find Missing Fighters. BrawlInstaller will attempt to populate the missing fighters into the fighter list. If you have other modifications to your build, you should look at the Build Settings documentation for detailed information on what the various fields mean so you can adjust them accordingly.
Once you've made all necessary changes, you can hit Save to save your changes, and the other tabs should become available.