Hacking Nintendont

FIX94

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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.
as I wrote if something would crash or whatever it would say so still and launching a game does not take more than 10 seconds for me anyways. if you really want to be sure everything is going well I would suggest you to just not use another loader for it anyways and just use nintendont itself simply because it displays more and you can be sure no IOS conflict occurs.
 
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self_slaughter

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as I wrote if something would crash or whatever it would say so still and launching a game does not take more than 10 seconds for me anyways. if you really want to be sure everything is going well I would suggest you to just not use another loader for it anyways and just use nintendont itself simply because it displays more and you can be sure no IOS conflict occurs.
ah sweet, didn't see the original post, just the quote.

Loading is generally quick here too, just creating memory cards on the first boot occasionally takes its time or freezes leaving a 0 byte file.

Just don't wanna reset the system if it's actually doing something still behind the blank screen. :)

Edit: what about a basic animated Nintendont logo or something? Gotta be better than staring at a blank screen for 10 seconds to 2 minutes? Or was this done to speed things up?

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
 
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FIX94

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well in all the time I never once had it crashing while loading a game so the chances of that are very low I would say. also I doubt you switch out your entire game collection every day for new games so it needs to constantly create new memory card files.
 

self_slaughter

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Yeah Fair enough.

Once they've been successfully run once and created the card they are guaranteed good to go.

Only just got back into the Wii. Love being able to run the GameCube games of the HDD and using a wireless controller.

So cheers for letting me be lazy as hell and not getting up to switch games any more :)

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GreyWolf

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Aren't the memory files just empty when created? It should be simple to have a calling loader create one itself before booting the game.
 

sonictopfan

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You could help test it by converting images to CISO and testing the v4.422-CISO-test2 build I posted above. :)
I'd like to but I'm afraid this is a bad timing for me, I'm sure by the time I get around doing so testing would be done and over already ^^;

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

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

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

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. :D

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
You know, this may be stating the obvious but you CAN keep multiple versions of Ninetndont, just keep an older version to test in case you got black screen to check.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

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.
Plus, ya know, it's totally optional?

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

ah sweet, didn't see the original post, just the quote.

Loading is generally quick here too, just creating memory cards on the first boot occasionally takes its time or freezes leaving a 0 byte file.

Just don't wanna reset the system if it's actually doing something still behind the blank screen. :)

Edit: what about a basic animated Nintendont logo or something? Gotta be better than staring at a blank screen for 10 seconds to 2 minutes? Or was this done to speed things up?

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
People requesting for black screen at the loading screen since 2013, now we finally get that and they complain they don't want it, lol.

That being said, would it be more practical having it as an option in the loader itself?
 

self_slaughter

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I'd like to but I'm afraid this is a bad timing for me, I'm sure by the time I get around doing so testing would be done and over already ^^;

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------


Guilty

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------


You know, this may be stating the obvious but you CAN keep multiple versions of Ninetndont, just keep an older version to test in case you got black screen to check.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------


Plus, ya know, it's totally optional?

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------


People requesting for black screen at the loading screen since 2013, now we finally get that and they complain they don't want it, lol.

That being said, would it be more practical having it as an option in the loader itself?
Haha, hence why I said I wouldn't upgrade just yet. Might go hunting for my gecko later n try find out why it fails creating cards occasionally.

Mind you if I knew where that was I'd probably find my GameCube memory cards with it and this wouldn't even be an issue. :)

Edit: I might just change mine to only hide the startup log if the memory card already exists and isn't 0 bytes, so you at least get a log on the first run, when it's most likely to freeze the system without detecting an error.

Edit 2: wow, Nice code. Easy to read and plenty of comments... Impressive.

Edit 3: No memory cards yet, but I did find this in the bottom of one of my old suitcases. :)

Nintendont seems to pause when it's plugged in, but Ill see how it goes later once it's actually connected to something.

45e516b875acf3246e6ca5228a35b31f.jpg

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Last edited by self_slaughter,

niuus

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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.
This is actually pretty useful, i still use dollz 3.0 all the time. Any advantages with your tool over softdev's version? and out of curiosity, why 1 executable per-system instead of one?

I did a quick test with my Wii DOLs... dude, amazing. They all compressed incredibly well, even some that stopped working when compressed (e.g.: Nintendont / GenesisPlus GX / WiiSXR)

Great job, FIX94.

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

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.

Tested the options in blue, liked the color difference between formats. Could not test CISO with a freshly ripped Super Mario Sunshine, the command line help was a bit confusing and i got tired quickly, maybe later. Apart from that, it works without issues.
 

billybiscuits

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I can't get GBA connectivity to work on any game. It's supposed to work, right? I've tried Multi-Game Demo Disc 14 (has the Ruby/Sapphire Berry Glitch fix), Nintendo Puzzle Collection, and the Japanese version of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures (specifically for Navi Trackers), and none of them acknowledge my GBA. It's weird, because the Demo Disc, when opened in Dolphin, clearly shows the option for the Berry Glitch fix, but on my Wii, the option isn't shown at all.

It's not my GBA or cable, either, because I tried them on an actual GameCube afterwards and it worked.


 
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pedro702

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I can't get GBA connectivity to work on any game. It's supposed to work, right? I've tried Multi-Game Demo Disc 14 (has the Ruby/Sapphire Berry Glitch fix), Nintendo Puzzle Collection, and the Japanese version of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures (specifically for Navi Trackers), and none of them acknowledge my GBA. It's weird, because the Demo Disc, when opened in Dolphin, clearly shows the option for the Berry Glitch fix, but on my Wii, the option isn't shown at all.

It's not my GBA or cable, either, because I tried them on an actual GameCube afterwards and it worked.

gba connection only works with native set to on, and on originals wiis with gc ports. Is native set to on?
 

AbdallahTerro

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I have a fake WUPC that I can test and investigate.
Currently it only syncs and connects to SM but not to homebrew applications that already use libwupc (Wiiflow, Nintendont...)
I'll be glad to go through everything needed to get it working in wii homebrew via libwupc

how can i test and what tools do I need?
 

comokepa

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In Time Splitters 2 PAL, audio in cutscenes desyncs from the video when forcing progressive (tried with Video: Auto and Video: Force NTSC). Sound comes out progressively later than the video as the cutscene plays; in barely 10 seconds it becomes obvious that video and audio do not match.

There's a cut scene right when starting the game, so it's easy to test.
 
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pedro702

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In Time Splitters 2 PAL, audio in cutscenes desyncs from the video when forcing progressive (tried with Video: Auto and Video: Force NTSC). Sound comes out progressively later than the video as the cutscene plays; in barely 10 seconds it becomes obvious that video and audio do not match.

There's a cut scene right when starting the game, so it's easy to test.
well then dont force it? not all games are compatible with forced settings, since those are general hacks and obviously wont work for every single game, since each game has its own manner of handling hacks.
 

Dekirai

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why does my DS3 Controller always disconnects?
I'm playing a bit and then it just disconnects and wont connect anymore (via USB)
I'm using vWii
 

FIX94

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This is actually pretty useful, i still use dollz 3.0 all the time. Any advantages with your tool over softdev's version? and out of curiosity, why 1 executable per-system instead of one?
So the first very obvious advantage is that it compresses much better because it uses LZMA2 instead of zlib, also the extract loader I wrote does not include any linked standard libraries so it is very tiny and efficient (16kb for gc, 15kb for wii), also it properly supports command line arguments so you can call these .dol files through some other loader for example and let that autoboot whatever you selected in the other loader, dollz3 did not have any command line argument support at all. The entry point of all dolxz files are also as low as possible (0x80003100 on gamecube, 0x80003400 on wii) so you can fit as much data in as possible, dollz3 did not always support big files. And now we come to why there are two versions for both gamecube and wii. First you can see the entry point on wii has to be higher because more low memory is used by the system which we cant touch on wii without breaking something. Also because the wii has some extra devices its initialization code is slightly longer to properly set those up. After a dol file is loaded up I move it into another memory region so I can safely set up MEM1 from there. That memory region is different, on gamecube its ARAM and on wii its MEM2, so since I was unable to find a way to properly auto-detect if your input file is a wii or gamecube one I decided to just split them up to ensure it does not try to include the wrong loader.
 

pedro702

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I would have thought that reporting when a feature does not work is a positive thing to do. How are developers to know when an issue is widespread or just exceptional?
every single forced hack doesnt have 100% compat and never will, its like every one reported forced widescreen doesnt work on manny games so they need individual hacks for each game, wich finding anyone to do is probably impossible since no one wants to loose hours and hours on each game making a widescreen hacks or forced progressive or whatnot, if you are a codder and find a solution or know a codder willing to go trough them you can go right ahead, reporting foced setting x doesnt work with Y game doesnt help anyone much you can fill in the wiki but that is about it.

Its most likely since timesplitters 2 has no pal60 something is not being unlocked to 60hz when using progressive and stuff desyncs and probably needs a custom hacks to get everything in 60hz.
 
Last edited by pedro702,

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