Hacking Nintendont

[GerbilSoft]

Ready for testing: Nintendont v4.422-CISO-test1

Major new feature is support for CISO-format disc images. Use wiimm's ISO tools to convert from 1:1 rips to CISO.
Also, the background image is now adjusted for proper aspect ratio if the system is set to widescreen.

Some stuff that needs testing:

• Disc images can now be placed directly in the /games/ directory instead of requiring subdirectories.
• Four file extensions are now supported: *.iso, *.gcm, *.cso, *.ciso
• 2-disc and extracted FST games still need subdirectories. For 2-disc games, the files are still game.iso and disc2.iso, but any of the above extensions should also work. This needs testing.
• The game list now uses colors to indicate the disc format: black = 1:1, brown = shrunken, green = extracted FST, blue = CISO. The colors may need some tweaking, and depending on feedback, it might be disabled before merging into master.

NOTE: The shrunken image detection currently marks all Triforce games as shrunken, since I don't have an easy way to identify Triforce games other than actually loading the entire .dol file from the disc image.

EDIT: Accidentally tagged it as CIOS, not CISO. Oops. :V

 

[GreyWolf]

heh... brown

 

[DeezTits]

What are the odds of Nintendon-t getting a "port" (for lack of a better word) to the NX?

 

[owek1]

What are the odds of Nintendon-t getting a "port" (for lack of a better word) to the NX?

it might take 10-15 years before we see that on NX.. Look, we don't even have the actual NX in stores let alone a permanent hack on Wii U..

 

[GreyWolf]

What are the odds of Nintendon-t getting a "port" (for lack of a better word) to the NX?

Probably zero? It doesn't even exist yet let alone have an exploit to run homebrew. Nobody even knows what it is yet.

 

[DeezTits]

...Look, we don't even have the actual NX in stores let alone a permanent hack on Wii U..

My question is moot then. I completely overlooked the part where Nintendon-t runs in vWii not WiiU. Sh*t.

I was just reading how the NX mayyyyyy be the same x86 architecture as WiiU & Wii. Hence my question. Disregard!

 

[GreyWolf]

My question is moot then. I completely overlooked the part where Nintendon-t runs in vWii not WiiU. Sh*t.

I was just reading how the NX mayyyyyy be the same x86 architecture as WiiU & Wii. Hence my question. Disregard!

The Wii/Wii-U are PowerPC, not x86, but one of the rumors I saw said the NX was going to be x86-based. I don't think it will be, though.

 

[VashTS]

Ready for testing: Nintendont v4.422-CISO-test1

Major new feature is support for CISO-format disc images. Use wiimm's ISO tools to convert from 1:1 rips to CISO.
Also, the background image is now adjusted for proper aspect ratio if the system is set to widescreen.

Some stuff that needs testing:

• Disc images can now be placed directly in the /games/ directory instead of requiring subdirectories.
• Four file extensions are now supported: *.iso, *.gcm, *.cso, *.ciso
• 2-disc and extracted FST games still need subdirectories. For 2-disc games, the files are still game.iso and disc2.iso, but any of the above extensions should also work. This needs testing.
• The game list now uses colors to indicate the disc format: black = 1:1, brown = shrunken, green = extracted FST, blue = CISO. The colors may need some tweaking, and depending on feedback, it might be disabled before merging into master.

NOTE: The shrunken image detection currently marks all Triforce games as shrunken, since I don't have an easy way to identify Triforce games other than actually loading the entire .dol file from the disc image.

EDIT: Accidentally tagged it as CIOS, not CISO. Oops. :V

Is there any advantage to CISO over shrunken?

 

[ccfman2004]

Is there any advantage to CISO over shrunken?

The compatibility of CISO should be better than shrunken even though they both make the ISO smaller.

 

[GerbilSoft]

The compatibility of CISO should be better than shrunken even though they both make the ISO smaller.

CISO is slightly bigger, but the extra compatibility is worth it.

The only two functions that know there's a difference between CISO and a 1:1 image are ISOInit() and ISOReadDirect(). Everything else sees what looks like a 1:1 image, since all the file offsets are the same.

Here's the next test build: Nintendont v4.422-CISO-test2

It's mostly menu changes, but some of them are nifty:

• Triforce games are no longer listed as "shrunken".
• Cleaned up the Game List and Settings menus (code-wise). These are now split into separate functions.
• Added Left and Right key repeat delays to the Game List.
• Added key repeat delays to the Settings menu.
• Grayed out settings that aren't applicable to the current system, e.g. "Native Control" on Wii U.
• Added built-in help for some of the settings.

That last one needs some work. I haven't implemented help for all of the settings yet, and some of them might be offscreen on older TVs.

 

[comokepa]

Star Fox Assault PAL displays no video with forced NTSC video and progressive mode in order to try getting 480p. According to GBATemp's Nintendont Compatibility List it supports 480p, suggesting, I guess, it once did?. The game seems to be running, though, since the Wavebird's receiver still lights up when I press buttons, as well as the HDD's activity LED.

try putting video on auto and just use force progressive only, dont force the videomode to ntsc maybe that is why.

PAL games do need to have Video set to Forced NTSC to display in true progressive (PAL60 might do too, but since both are same resolution and frame rate, I always go with NTSC since some games have built-in progressive support when they detect that mode, so I assume that is less work for Nintendont). Otherwise, even if your TV tells you the input is 480p, the actual image is still considerably blurrier than when forcing NTSC.

This is obvious in Wind Waker PAL. See the attached image: both modes captured at same time instant (the very start of the game intro). Both times with Forced Progressive; one time Video was left to Auto, the other was Forced NTSC. Both times my TV (Samsung UE40ES6100W, equivalent to UN40ES6100W in the US) reported 480p. Still, the latter looks far crispier. The crappy cell phone picture cannot even actually show you the true difference: Wind Waker sometimes has a scanline-ish appearance in some areas (darker alternating horizontal lines). That artifact also appears in the very opening of the game when I took those pictures. It is very apparent with Forced NTSC but with Video left to Auto horizontal lines are vertically blended and the pseudo-scanline effect disappears completely.

(I'd actually call this a bug in Nintendont: Forced Progressive on PAL games should auto-lock Forced NTSC since otherwise Forced Progressive seemingly cannot accomplish its purpose—again, I did not try Forced PAL60, but since I doubt there is any PAL TV that supports PAL60 and not NTSC, what is the point)

Disregarding all of the above, nevertheless, no, Star Fox Assault PAL with Forced Progressive still outputs no video even with Video left to Auto.

 

[sonictopfan]

The Wii/Wii-U are PowerPC, not x86, but one of the rumors I saw said the NX was going to be x86-based. I don't think it will be, though.

If it was x86 it'd be the best thing ever, just think of all the cool homebrew we got on the Xbox, 32X emulation, perfect MAME emulation, Streets of Rage Remake unofficial port, the possibilities are endless, who needs Nintendont when we can port Dolphin?

CISO is slightly bigger, but the extra compatibility is worth it.

The only two functions that know there's a difference between CISO and a 1:1 image are ISOInit() and ISOReadDirect(). Everything else sees what looks like a 1:1 image, since all the file offsets are the same.

Here's the next test build: Nintendont v4.422-CISO-test2

It's mostly menu changes, but some of them are nifty:

• Triforce games are no longer listed as "shrunken".
• Cleaned up the Game List and Settings menus (code-wise). These are now split into separate functions.
• Added Left and Right key repeat delays to the Game List.
• Added key repeat delays to the Settings menu.
• Grayed out settings that aren't applicable to the current system, e.g. "Native Control" on Wii U.
• Added built-in help for some of the settings.

That last one needs some work. I haven't implemented help for all of the settings yet, and some of them might be offscreen on older TVs.

I'm curious now to what the benefits of CISO are, is it worth the trouble of having to go back and shrink my isos again?

It's a good thing Nintendont will be able to see games stored within the "Games" folder now, though probably loaders will have to update because of this, also I'm liking the fact the menu is being looked at, I always felt it's a little too fast on scrolling but I didn't want it to be slow either, a hold option would be better.

 

[GerbilSoft]

I'm curious now to what the benefits of CISO are, is it worth the trouble of having to go back and shrink my isos again?

The main benefit compared to shrunken images is that file offsets are identical to the original 1:1 image, since CISO is a sparse format. It's similar to WBFS in that it has a block map that tells Nintendont which blocks exist and which don't.

This means disc read limiting works correctly, since the limiter sees the actual file position from the 1:1 image.

Note that converting a shrunken image to CISO doesn't help here; you need to convert an original 1:1 image.

 

[FIX94]

that ciso format sure sounds interesting, did not hear of it before. anyways I wanted to this now for quite some time now and just never did it for whatever reason.
-when launching games through another loader nintendont will now boot silently so it will just stay on a black screen until the game comes up or an error occurs
also I created some other project to compress down dols which I would use for nintendont if we did not need the detection code for other loaders, I did test what the overall dol size would be if I ran it through that and we would get down to 761kb which is pretty impressive.

 

[sonictopfan]

-when launching games through another loader nintendont will now boot silently so it will just stay on a black screen until the game comes up or an error occurs.

Awesome, official support for black screen on loading finally, I've had this idea since back in the early days of Nintendont, finally a real reason for me to update... well, two reasons, the CISO format seems interesting, looking forward it being implemented once enough testing is done.

 

[GerbilSoft]

well, two reasons, the CISO format seems interesting, looking forward it being implemented once enough testing is done.

You could help test it by converting images to CISO and testing the v4.422-CISO-test2 build I posted above.

 

[self_slaughter]

Awesome, official support for black screen on loading finally, I've had this idea since back in the early days of Nintendont, finally a real reason for me to update... well, two reasons, the CISO format seems interesting, looking forward it being implemented once enough testing is done.

Good reason not to update for me. Wii seems too temperamental to trust a black screen. Especially when Nintendont can occasionally take minutes to create memory cards.

I'd think it's frozen again and end up shutting it down and corrupting something else. lol

Still got 800gb free on my Wii HDD, so ciso is of 0 interest also. Seriously, who is that tight on space to mess with such tiny ISO images anyway?

Use the money you obviously didn't spend on the games and just buy a bigger HDD.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

[GerbilSoft]

Use the money you obviously didn't spend on the games and just buy a bigger HDD.

Some of us actually *did* buy games to support the developers.

 

[self_slaughter]

Yeah, people complaining that 500 ISOs from a different system are taking up too much space and could do with stripping a hundred megs here and there really sound legit and get my sympathy. lol

I can see it being legitimately useful for sd card users though.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

[SlappyTheDummy]

Why should I buy another, more capient hard disk, when I can convert the games I own to take less space ? Really, I don't want to spend money in a useless way, especially if there is another free way to save space.