Homebrew Wii U vs. vWii Emulation?

Professor_Paragon · Mar 23, 2017

Okay I got my Wii U all set up, got CBHC running the Haxchi version of Mocha, and got Wii U "backups" working.
Main reason I bought my Wii U is emulation, since it is the only console that can properly play Wii U, Wii, GameCube, and N64 games.
But I've come to a fork in the road, what should I use to run my emulators on? Is it better to run them all on vWii, or would it be better to run most of them from the Wii U homebrew menu? Are there any real differences performance wise, can the Wii U emulators play on the Wii U Gamepad? (Specifically can I use the gamepads touchscreen for DS titles?)
Also I am using a 1TB hard drive, and have another 2TB hard drive on the way from Amazon. I understand that vWii needs a dedicated hard drive. If I intend to download all of the A+ popular titles for Wii U, Wii, and GameCube would it make more sense to use the bigger hard drive for the Wii U or vWii?
Last question if I do use Wii U over vWii for emulation, is there a way to create channel loaders for Homebrew Apps on the Wii U menu?
Thank you for any advice you might have.

JasonH · Mar 24, 2017

vWii is better to me at this point because of all the different loaders like wiiflow masterpiece. and UsbloaderGx1234mod.
I see the WiiU side good for only playing WiiU backups at this time. The WiiU side definetly has potential if someone decides to take on creating better emulators like Dreamcast NDS Jaguar Saturn etc. which would probably play closer to accurate speed from the WiiU side than they have from the Wii/vWii. Can only cross your fingers and wait.

mightymuffy · Mar 24, 2017

Disagree with JasonH here, on the contrary, whatever runs well on WiiU is for the most part preferable to on vWii...
Performance wise yes you'll get better emulation on the more demanding SNES & GBA games on WiiU, Mame and FBA (arcade) definitely better (CPS3, big Neo Geo games). DS is via Virtual Console but yes the gamepad touchscreen is used (various screen settings too), and of course yes you can use the Gamepad.

vWii has an advantage when you're wanting the fluff... screenshots, covers via the forwarders etc... Then of course there's the stuff that doesn't have [decent] emulators on Wii U - big one being PS1. Also N64 (you're probably only gonna get that via VC on Wii U), ScummVM and a few others... Then there's Gamecube!

Regarding hdd support, you're gonna need one for Wii U backups which can't be used for emulation, and here's where it gets a bit fiddly as really you'll need to switch to another to use your emulators, and will have to take the Wii U formatted one out if you want to use another hdd for emulation on your Wii U.. if you're a lazy bastard like I am I've found the best way is to grab a nice big SD card (I've got a 128GB, might invest in a 200GB) and put both my Wii U and vWii emulation stuff on that (means I usually use Wiiflow in vWii over usbloader, but I've no problem with that - and stuff like my SNES rom folder is accessible from both) Means I'm a bit picky with the larger games but stops me from doing that whole hoarding nonsense, and Wii 'VC' on Wii U helps massively with saving space as they're on my Wii U hdd...

In short

- you're gonna need both!

Professor_Paragon · Mar 24, 2017

@mightymuffy
I have a powered USB3 hub for easily switching between hard drives so that's not really an issue at all. How do I format for use with vWii / Emulators? Haven't gotten that far yet.

So you say virtual console over emulators,
SNES, GBA, MAME, FBA, and NEOGEO, on Wii U emulators
PS1, N64, GameCube, NES, Genesis, and older consoles on vWii,

Can I access my ROMs through both Wii U and vWii if they are on the same hard drive?

Also is there any support for Dreamcast, non virtual console DS, and PSP? PPSSPP works decently on a Raspberry Pi for 2D, and fighting games, would have to run better on a Wii U.

Durelle · Mar 24, 2017

I would suggest putting roms on the SD card, which is accessible to both, but the HDD for WiiU is only for things installed via WiiU (vc, wiiugames) if you have another HDD for Wii and GCN then yeah you could put your roms on that since it would be in a fat32 format. I for one am just using 1 HDD for WiiU and a SD card for Roms and GCN, waiting a bit to get another HDD for vWii

Gourmet · Mar 24, 2017

You need a hard drive formatted by the Wii U for running Wii U backups, and Wii U home menu VC.

For emulators, either on Wii U or vWii, you need a FAT32 drive, either USB or SD.

mightymuffy · Mar 24, 2017

Professor_Paragon said:
@mightymuffy
I have a powered USB3 hub for easily switching between hard drives so that's not really an issue at all. How do I format for use with vWii / Emulators? Haven't gotten that far yet.

So you say virtual console over emulators,
SNES, GBA, MAME, FBA, and NEOGEO, on Wii U emulators
PS1, N64, GameCube, NES, Genesis, and older consoles on vWii,

Can I access my ROMs through both Wii U and vWii if they are on the same hard drive?

Also is there any support for Dreamcast, non virtual console DS, and PSP? PPSSPP works decently on a Raspberry Pi for 2D, and fighting games, would have to run better on a Wii U.

What Durelle/Gourmet said...

A powered hub will do the job.

Regarding Wii U side no, emulation over VC - It's just there's no DS or N64 emulator so it's VC only there, the rest like SNES etc, I go emulation.
Genesis and NES work great on Wii U too, I meant the more demanding titles on SNES/GBA (like Yoshi's Island, etc) can struggle a bit in vWii yet run much better on Wii U. PS1 and N64 on vWii yes (though VC on Wii U for N64 is pretty decent) Older consoles, well Atari 2600 & 7800 do have emulators on Wii U, but other, lesser known ones don't - basically have a sift through the Wii U port of Retroarch and if there's an old console you want that's not got a core, then you'll have to go the vWii route. Everything else, well I go the Wii U route, aside from the PS1 core, which is not fast enough on Wii U, so grab WiiSXR on vWii instead.

Finally yes, no problems from same hard drive!

pedro702 · Mar 25, 2017

basicaly imo

every console generation until the snes and genesis/ gba and older just use wiiu retroarch.

for ps1 vwii wiisx
for n64 not64 on vwii or n64 VC injection on wiiu if the title is compatible.
DS definitely ds vc injection on wiiu is preety compatible.

Then only if the emulator doesnt exist on retroarch wiiu you can use vwii since retroarch wiiu still misses alot of emus that are on vwii like old computers and such.

Homebrew Wii U vs. vWii Emulation?

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