MIB2 High / Discover Pro toolbox!

[Cuzoe]

Awesome, I think I only have a couple questions left , and I've commented my way through your post. Let me know if it looks like I'm on the right track.

Good questions
There's no toolbox function for this yet, as it has the potential to screw up the entire MIB when performed wrongly.

1: It works like this:
- dump the graphics of skin0
- extract the graphics with the mcf tool, using the function that parses the imageidmap.res. It will generate a full folder structure with all graphics sorted per car type

I've done this, and edited a few of the graphics files to match my car.

- remove the images.mcf and imageidmap.res from skin0 by logging in via Dlink (here's where I don't trust a common toolbox user to do the right thing, and people will delete their files without having the means to replace them.
- put an Images folder in the skin0 folder

Okay, so this is where I log in with the D-link... I've found the instructions elsewhere to do that.

mount -uw /net/mmx/mnt/app
mkdir /eso/hmi/lsd/Resources/skin0/images

- First command here to make the file system read/write (instead of read only, I assume)
- Next would be navigate to skin0... using the normal file/directory commands, then rm images.mcf and imageidmap.res
- Next I'm creating the "images" folder in skin0

- copy the files from the extracted images folder to this new folder.

Then copying the full file structure from my extracted "images" folder to the "images" folder I've now created in the mib.
- Does the command in the toolbox do this? (or does it only look for images.mcf/imageidmap.res?)

- Or do I do this manually using the command line?

- enjoy

- That is the plan!

2: with the Dlink, make sure you take the gca from the right folder... it can be quite confusing which one to use, looking at the sorted images folders might help here!

It took some looking at the sorted images but I was able to identify the 0.gca file that corresponds with what I see in my car. Even did some of the coordinate matching like you posted on drive2, just to get a better understanding of what I was looking at.
- This file would just be replaced (in the proper directory) using file/directory commands whenever I want to make changes.
- I only plan to add ambient overhead, and the "sun" using the gca file.
- Do I also need to create a feature_x graphic, will it work without that graphic?
--- I know the graphic will make it look proper, but if the light adjusts I'm okay with not seeing it on the display.

3: yes

 

[Cuzoe]

So I'm sort of replying to myself here, but if anyone other than @Chillout is following my nonsense... my last line of questions came about because I am installing ambient overhead lighting in my car, see links here and here.

Now if you look at the second link there is discussion of how the Golf does not show the graphic for the roof light, or the "sun" that would be used to adjust its brightness. That gets into ambient light zones, defined by GCA files, as discussed in a series of posts...
Researching GCA (Generic Car Adjuster) Files
Additional Ambient Lighting zones (and controls)
Investigating VW Ambient Zones...

Anyway, the author of the Drive2 post (second link in first paragraph) chose to use the GCA file from the Passat (which "knows" how to show the roof light) in place of the Golf GCA file. I had intended to do the same, so began digging into manual file manipulation, as opposed to using some of the really nice functions of the toolbox.

If you look at the last image of the "Investigating VW Ambient Zones" link you'll see Visible Features for config 0200000000. This is a generic config that has mostly placeholder graphics. This differs from something like config 0203070201, which is a Golf that doesn't "know" how to show the roof light.

Well... it seems the car will use that generic 0200000000 config as a fall back! So if you have your MIB coded to show the Golf (as mine is) but you enable a feature the Golf doesn't "know" how to show, it will instead show that feature from the generic config! Can you tell I'm excited?! Some of the generic config features are just text, like "rear footwells" or "sunroof strip"... but some actually have a graphic. It happens that roof light has a graphic! In hindsight I might have guessed this, because I had coded door pocket lighting which the Golf also doesn't "know" how how to show.

So even though the Golf doesn't "know" how to show the roof light, I enabled it in the adaptations. And this gave me graphic for roof light, along with the sun needed to adjust it. Which means, I am not forced to play around with GCA files, or manual file manipulation of the MIB.

That is, until @Chillout gives me some info on this "final" question, haha...
Is it possible to change the location of the adjustment suns? (see my bad drawing below)
- The roof sun is to the left of the roof light graphic, but that's fine as nothing is up there
- But the "front background" sun is placed on my steering wheel, although it does adjust the proper light

 

[Chillout]

Awesome, I think I only have a couple questions left , and I've commented my way through your post. Let me know if it looks like I'm on the right track.

I've done this, and edited a few of the graphics files to match my car.

Okay, so this is where I log in with the D-link... I've found the instructions elsewhere to do that.

- First command here to make the file system read/write (instead of read only, I assume)

Good assumption

- Next would be navigate to skin0... using the normal file/directory commands, then rm images.mcf and imageidmap.res
- Next I'm creating the "images" folder in skin0

Then copying the full file structure from my extracted "images" folder to the "images" folder I've now created in the mib.
- Does the command in the toolbox do this? (or does it only look for images.mcf/imageidmap.res?)
View attachment 259611

No, best is to do it manually via de dlink.
something like

cp -R /net/mmx/fs/sda0/Images/ /eso/hmi/lsd/Resources/skin0/

the -R is to recursively copy files and folders.
sda0 is the mountpoint of the SD-card.

- Do I also need to create a feature_x graphic, will it work without that graphic?
--- I know the graphic will make it look proper, but if the light adjusts I'm okay with not seeing it on the display.

It will probably work without the graphic, although I haven't yet tested this. Easiest is just to make a simple placeholder image to be sure it's showing.

Is it possible to change the location of the adjustment suns? (see my bad drawing below)
- The roof sun is to the left of the roof light graphic, but that's fine as nothing is up there
- But the "front background" sun is placed on my steering wheel, although it does adjust the proper light

Yes, that's possible. There's a 010 editor template in the toolbox that can help with gca files. It allows you to shift the "suns" around, as well as move the graphics of the zones themselves to a different location. Great work so far, I love that you found out about the default behavior of the 020000000 folder! I never looked into this, and I think it's lovely. It will make modifying the suns much much much more user friendly, because you don't have to find your specific folder and such.

 

[Cuzoe]

@Chillout Glad I could be of some use, haha. I had the same thought you did... if someone wants to play around with adding suns/zones their car does not have, just do it in the 020000000 folder. I plan to try something neat with "gear shift" area, involving a light to show off my (yet to be installed) shifter.

And I definitely missed the 010 template in the toolbox. Trying to use it, not quite working for me but I'm probably screwing something up .

I did install ImageMagick, although it seems my problem is occurring before it gets to that point.
I'm running the script on an the un-edited 0.gca file from the 020000000 folder, looks normal in 010

But it does seem like the template is looking for the number of zones in the wrong short...

Is this because I have something set incorrectly in 010 editor?

In any case, as I'm re-wrapping my head around zones/features I'm also confusing myself...
- For example the Roof Light I'm using (Feature 6) is part of Zone 9
- I'm not using Rear Roof (Feature 21) or Sunroof Strip (Feature 22) although they are also part of Zone 9

Where is there information that says where a feature should be located?
- My understanding is the GCA file identifies zone locations
But are feature locations also identified in the GCA file?
- Part of the large group of "unorganized" values at the bottom perhaps?

 

[Cuzoe]

So replying to myself again... not sure if this is good or sad .

But I "figured out" what you already knew, which is that the top left coordinates for each feature are in the GCA file. So you have four coordinates for each zone/sun. And then one coordinate to locate the graphic that goes with each feature. So logically, the single coordinates (for features) within a GCA file correspond only with the zones/suns in that GCA file.

That leads me to that 020000000 folder. I'm not sure if it will work quite the way I/we might want. As I mentioned before, I have enabled two zones/suns (and the corresponding features) that are not part of the Golf graphic.
Zone/Sun 1 and Feature 1 - Front Background Light (dash strip on my Golf)
Zone/Sun 9 and Feature 6 - Roof Light

The features show up in the right place, as they should based on the locating coordinate in the GCA file.
- The single coordinates are the same in both 0.gca and 1.gca (of the 020000000 folder).
What I've found is that when my car is forced to use the 020000000 folder for a fallback it does not seem to know whether to use 0.gca or 1.gca .
- As @Chillout determined, 0.gca is for LHD cars, while 1.gca is for RHD
So weirdly enough my car is showing the Zone/Sun 1 from 1.gca and Zone/Sun 9 from 0.gca
- I confirmed this by mapping out the coordinates
- I should go through my 5F and 09 adaptations to make sure I don't have something set weirdly, but that still doesn't explain why the car is using both the 0.gca and 1.gca file.

In that picture above, that sun that's over the steering wheel is for a RHD drive car, from 1.gca. But my car shows the roof light sun to the left of the roof light graphic, from 0.gca. I'm thinking that I might try just deleting 1.gca from the 020000000 folder and seeing what happens. Maybe that will force my car to "choose" 0.gca. If not I guess editing of a GCA file while be in my future.

 

[jamstonmartames]

Good questions
There's no toolbox function for this yet, as it has the potential to screw up the entire MIB when performed wrongly.

1: It works like this:
- dump the graphics of skin0
- extract the graphics with the mcf tool, using the function that parses the imageidmap.res. It will generate a full folder structure with all graphics sorted per car type
- remove the images.mcf and imageidmap.res from skin0 by logging in via Dlink (here's where I don't trust a common toolbox user to do the right thing, and people will delete their files without having the means to replace them.
- put an Images folder in the skin0 folder

mount -uw /net/mmx/mnt/app
mkdir /eso/hmi/lsd/Resources/skin0/images

- copy the files from the extracted images folder to this new folder.
- enjoy

2: with the Dlink, make sure you take the gca from the right folder... it can be quite confusing which one to use, looking at the sorted images folders might help here!
3: yes

Hey @Chillout @Cuzoe

So just a thought, in addition to pulling existing configurations/files from the Car's MIB itself, is there actually an option to repackage an MST file used for updating software versions and update natively with the repackaged file?

Eg. I recently updated my MIB 2.5 from MST2_EU_VW_P0876D to - > MST2_EU_VW_P0879D and in there are the files that your scripts are seeking but perhaps in slightly different prefixed locations yet the same suffixed locations.

 

[Chillout]

@Chillout Glad I could be of some use, haha. I had the same thought you did... if someone wants to play around with adding suns/zones their car does not have, just do it in the 020000000 folder. I plan to try something neat with "gear shift" area, involving a light to show off my (yet to be installed) shifter.

And I definitely missed the 010 template in the toolbox. Trying to use it, not quite working for me but I'm probably screwing something up .
View attachment 259935
I did install ImageMagick, although it seems my problem is occurring before it gets to that point.
I'm running the script on an the un-edited 0.gca file from the 020000000 folder, looks normal in 010

Hmm, weird. I see I changed "long filetype" to "short filetype" in the code 2 years ago for some reason. If you change it, it will work. I pushed a new version to github.

Where is there information that says where a feature should be located?
- My understanding is the GCA file identifies zone locations

There are 2 sections in the gca file: 1 that determines the placement of the graphic and 1 that determines the placement of the icon.

But are feature locations also identified in the GCA file?

- Part of the large group of "unorganized" values at the bottom perhaps?

Ooh, I totally forgot about that data... maybe there's something interesting in there!

I love the effort you put in this, and also love it that finally someone is putting this to good use!! Thanks!

Hey @Chillout @Cuzoe

So just a thought, in addition to pulling existing configurations/files from the Car's MIB itself, is there actually an option to repackage an MST file used for updating software versions and update natively with the repackaged file?

MST is out of my scope.

 

[Cuzoe]

Hmm, weird. I see I changed "long filetype" to "short filetype" in the code 2 years ago for some reason. If you change it, it will work. I pushed a new version to github.

Gotcha, I'll change it and give it a shot tonight, if the baby sleeps, haha.

There are 2 sections in the gca file: 1 that determines the placement of the graphic and 1 that determines the placement of the icon.
...
Ooh, I totally forgot about that data... maybe there's something interesting in there!

I looked at it some more and it's all there and lines up... I just needed to open my eyes wider

I love the effort you put in this, and also love it that finally someone is putting this to good use!! Thanks!

I've wanted to dig into this for so long, and never had the time! I don't really have time now but it's addicting.

As an aside, I did find that single file you mentioned here that changes the parking aid track color, changed it to red for myself! I would like the like the little lines instead of just the large "blocks" in front of the car. I think I see the graphic in the OPS folder of my MIB dump. Is it safe to assume for your car that same graphic had the lines instead.

Now where are the graphics for the driving modes? I like what you did here.

 

[Chillout]

I added the "unststructured data" to the template:

There are indeed the coordinates for the graphics
for some reason the imagemagick stuff isn't working anymore, I need to tweak with the commands, because it was very useful to be able to generate a map with the suns on there.
edit: found the reason... latest imagemagick doesn't support "convert" anymore.
edit2: fixed it installing the legacy tools with Imagemagick helps
You now see the upper left corner for the graphics. By the way, I messed up my own screen by having a feature graphic that didn't fit within the screen. Whoops!

These Lines for park assist, I'll share the graphics for those

 

[Cuzoe]

I added the "unststructured data" to the template:

There are indeed the coordinates for the graphics
for some reason the imagemagick stuff isn't working anymore, I need to tweak with the commands, because it was very useful to be able to generate a map with the suns on there.
edit: found the reason... latest imagemagick doesn't support "convert" anymore.
edit2: fixed it installing the legacy tools with Imagemagick helps
You now see the upper left corner for the graphics. By the way, I messed up my own screen by having a feature graphic that didn't fit within the screen. Whoops!

These Lines for park assist, I'll share the graphics for those

Awesome! Glad I can create more work for you . There's so much cool stuff to do, I don't finish one "project" before looking at the next thing.

Thanks in advance for the parking lines. I don't know why they look so much better to me . Still searching for those driving profile graphics, can't give up, haha.

Extracted images.cff from Mapstyles this morning and started looking around. Would love to change all those POI icons (or get the POI icons from an Audi/Skoda/Seat/Bentley/Porsche dump to compare).

 

[Chillout]

Awesome! Glad I can create more work for you . There's so much cool stuff to do, I don't finish one "project" before looking at the next thing.

Teach me how to do that, currently working on so much at the same time... Currently working on decoding the traffic to the RGB lights:

Thanks in advance for the parking lines. I don't know why they look so much better to me . Still searching for those driving profile graphics, can't give up, haha.

I'll make a pack that has Seat, Skoda and VW graphics for these.

Extracted images.cff from Mapstyles this morning and started looking around. Would love to change all those POI icons (or get the POI icons from an Audi/Skoda/Seat/Bentley/Porsche dump to compare).

Oh yeah, especially Porsche/Bentley has a nice style, with minimalistic white icons. I put these on my Seat style and added the Audi starry sky! Audi has stars in the sky at night, which is pretty nice.

 

[Cuzoe]

Teach me how to do that, currently working on so much at the same time... Currently working on decoding the traffic to the RGB lights:

View attachment 260266

This is interesting to me. I've started a spreadsheet (not in yet organized enough to share, but will be shared) to determine which RGB LED part numbers work with each of the 15 lichtfunktion_gruppe's. Based on some of the coding "guides" and drive2 posts about RGB LED's I've been able to deduce some of the groups, which I then confirmed myself. But I've got a set of RGB LED's from the Audi A4, lots of lights that I don't know the coding.

Then there are strange things. For example I have footwell LED (8W0947415 D) that illuminates with lichtfunktion_gruppe_12 set to "door," but does not illuminate with that same group set to "footwell." I'm not sure why that's happening. The coding I see (edit: and now confirmed in my car) always talk about gruppe_13/14 settings to get RGB footwell control. I haven't tried the "undefined" settings yet.

So to get brightness and color control for footwell LED's 8W0947415(A-D) I had to set the following:
ambient_lighting_lin_slaves_groups-pa_verbauinfo_gruppe_13 - single color
ambient_lighting_lin_slaves_groups-pa_lichtfunktion_gruppe_13 - Footwell
ambient_lighting_lin_slaves_groups-pa_verbauinfo_gruppe_14 - not_defined
ambient_lighting_lin_slaves_groups-pa_lichtfunktion_gruppe_14 - Footwell

I want to be clear, I did not figure this out for myself, it is documented in several places. But it also means the LED's aren't entirely "hard coded" to only be part of one group. That was my initial assumption but there are clearly some strange dependencies, unless the footwell lights are the only weird ones . This of course, makes my spreadsheet much more difficult, if not impossible. I'm going to have to give it some deep thought.

I'll make a pack that has Seat, Skoda and VW graphics for these.

Yessss!!!

Oh yeah, especially Porsche/Bentley has a nice style, with minimalistic white icons. I put these on my Seat style and added the Audi starry sky! Audi has stars in the sky at night, which is pretty nice.

That sounds... beautiful .

 

[Cuzoe]

I'm banging head against an issue that I guess is Windows only, but could just be me

Used the extract-mcf.py script, with imageidmap.res in the same folder as images.mcf so that files were sorted.
- This creates a sorted "images" folder and the "unsorted" folder, where every .png is numbered

I modify the files I want to modify, mostly just making the car images for various screens match my actual car.

I go to to use compress_mcf.py, try with the "Images" folder where I've modified things, get an error for missing img_0.png.
- Okay... so the compress_mcf.py script only works on the "Unsorted" folder

Now I understand why the extract-mcf.py script has the option to "print image number on each image"
- I presume these numbers will be on the sorted .pngs in the Images folder.
- These numbers are a guide to which of the numbered img_xx.png files you want to modify.
- No problem, so modified files need to be in the "unsorted" folder, with their proper number

Well... selecting yes to have extract-mcf.py print the numbers on the images throws an error...

Of course I'm researching, trying to solve this error. Eventually this leads to me these commented lines in the PIL ImageFont.py script...

Could this be the the reason I'm not able to have the extract-mcf.py script write numbers on the images?
Has anyone else running Windows 10 run into this error? And if yes, how did you solve it?

 

[Cuzoe]

Finding out which sorted file corresponds to each unsorted isn't all that hard, can be done with a couple windows open comparing file sizes (of the unmodified files of course). But it is tedious. Anyway... couple pictures of today's work. Ignore my poor GIMP skills, I beg you!

Original... Modified

...

...
...

And that gets you before...


And after...


Also the red park pilot path combined with the red car might be too much... I'll probably pick another color that gives some contrast.

 

[Cuzoe]

On to the next thing... One of the features of the toolbox is the ability to change mapstyles.
- Looking at @Chillout's post here there is mention that your navDb may already have multiple map styles in it
- For my NAR car the navDB has Audi, VW, Porsche and Bentley
- ROW cars could also include Seat, Skoda

Anyway, tried putting the Porsche mapstyle in the \Custom\Mapstyled folder of my MIBToolBox SD card, then ran the script... no joy.


I'm not that smart a man, but I am stubborn... so looking at the errors I started some digging
This lead me to look at those scripts on the GitHub, specifically import_mapstyles.sh and patch_mapstylestoSD_PO.sh
Looking at the patch script I see it references the EU databases... we have a winner I think
- So the Porsche script (and others) is looking in the EU mapstyles folder, and looking for EU mapsytle files

The takeaway... For our NAR vehicles the Toolbox scripts to patch mapstyles will not work (or at least does not for me).

No biggie, we should still be able to load different (and eventually custom) mapstyles straight from SD Card, as mentioned before.
- You'll have to read a bit in that link to know what I'm on about
- In the post it says you should have a folder named "navigation" on the SD Card... this did not work for me
- I played around and what worked was everything in the root of the SD card...
- That is the following, all on the root
--- Audi map styles iso (navigation_styles_AU_NAR.iso), extracted
--- navigation_styles_AU_NAR.txt (found in the same folder as the compressed iso)
--- LoadStylesFromSDCard (this is an empty file you create, with no extension)


With this SD card inserted, long reset of the MIB (power button for ~10 seconds) I get Audi map style, infotainment and AID

And the VW style, for comparison...



Now what I have found is that I can only get the Audi mapstyle to work from the SD card, although I have Porsche and Bentley styles as well.
There is a closed issue on the GitHub, here that talks about version numbers...
- The Audi mapstyle I have is a later version (10.0.2767) than my VW mapstyle (10.0.22xx)
- Porsche is version 10.0.917 and Bentley is something like 10.0.9xx
--- Neither of these work when loaded onto the SD card the same way as the Audi version
- My understanding from reading the issue is that the MIB will use the latest version available from 1 of 4 locations (2 internal or either SD slot)
--- But my understanding was this was only for like styles... ie. use the latest Audi version, or the latest VW version, etc.
--- But maybe that's not correct, as I can only get the Audi mapstyles (which is a higher version than the VW) to load from SD Card

Blah blah blah... I'll have to play around and figure that out. In the end a combination of map styles is probably where I'll end up, with time .